Stat Attack: How The La Liga Table Would Look Without Messi And Ronaldo’s 96 Goals

By Chris Wright

Apropos of nothing in particular other than it being fairly interesting, here’s what the 2011/12 La Liga table would look like minus the 96 goals scored by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo between them…

Messi’s fairly important then. Who knew?

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Posted in Barcelona, La Liga, Real Madrid

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20 Comments

  1. Kris says:

    You Should probs cancel out any penalties from this ‘study’ as you would have to assume any one of barça/real’s others players would have scored a few of them.

  2. macd says:

    I think Benzema and Higuain each scored 20 plus league goals to help out Ronaldo. Messi pretty much did the whole thing himself for Barca.

  3. Gf says:

    This is pointless we should cancel out all the teams top scorers to really see messi’s value real droped 25 points in this so it shows how much ronaldo has done for them

  4. Nick says:

    @macd ‘Messi pretty much did the whole thing himself for Barca.’

    You are shitting me, right?

  5. Blake says:

    You should post another of these, but get rid of Messi’s assists. Maybe for other competitions, also; Messi either scored or assisted every goal in the Spanish supercup and the UEFA supercup, and thus would have won neither without his assists/goals. I’d love to see what it’d be like without his assists, especially over all competitions.

  6. Bella says:

    I like the comment about Messi’s assists, a stat as often referred to in casual conversations because, well who needs to.
    However, Messi doesn’t play for Spain and, with a predominantly Barcelona side, they’ve done alright. Since we’re iffing, if you change Villa’s colours over the last four years to his current Barcelona shirt, the picture looks pretty good.
    Barcelona’s attack (from defense forward mind since its Barcelona) is built around getting the ball to Messi. We know the rest of the team can pass and a number can score, so who knows?
    Similarly, but to a lesser extent with Madrid without Ronaldo, they have even more potential high scorers. Higuain has been fantastically underrated and underused the past few years and still hits the net when given a chance.

  7. Jay says:

    Barcelona are a one man team. But we already knew that. For those saying Spain have won something without Messi- stop comparing club competitions and international competitions. World cup happens once in 4 years, and Spain scored 8 goals in the whole competition with 8 Barca players in the squad, they rode their luck and struggled to score goals against disjointed international sides. Spain are the lowest scoring world cup winning team in the history of world cup. If they struggled to get past international teams, how are they going to win against best club sides in the world week after week? Is there even one rational Barca fans out there who thinks that this Barcelona squad can win trophies without Messi? Xavi and Iniesta can pass the ball for 90 minutes, but without Messi where will the goals/assists come from? And dont get me started on the star signing Guardiola made – 40 million on a 29 year old David Villa, when they should’ve gotten someone young like Aguero.

    Want to know why Madrid won titles? Take a look at the top goal scorer and assists charts of la liga. Madrid have 3 players in the top 5 scorers and have 3 players in the top 5 assists chart. Barca have one – Messi. Xavi and Iniesta are not even in the top 10 assist makers in la liga.

  8. Anonymous says:

    Jay : messi is second with assists…

  9. Anonymous says:

    Jay is right.
    Villa sucks (eto’o was never truly replaced) and Messi needs more help upfront.
    Alexis is not a true striker (winger), Cesc disappeared for half the season and came back to miss horribly against Chelsea, Pedro was injured half the time, and Cuenca and Tello had good games, but not a good season. They are still pretty young, but Tello had many chances he should have put away. When you look back, it is crazy that Barca had a chance for the league until so late in the season.
    Without Messi, Barca would be a good team, not a great team.
    Aguero or Falcao are players that fit the Barca model a bit better. They run, they create space, they make you look silly on a one on one situation. All the things that Villa does not do for the team. And just like Inzaghi, he was born offside.

  10. Miguel - NYC says:

    Jay is right.
    Villa sucks (eto’o was never truly replaced) and Messi needs more help upfront.
    Alexis is not a true striker (winger), Cesc disappeared for half the season and came back to miss horribly against Chelsea, Pedro was injured half the time, and Cuenca and Tello had good games, but not a good season. They are still pretty young, but Tello had many chances he should have put away. When you look back, it is crazy that Barca had a chance for the league until so late in the season.
    Without Messi, Barca would be a good team, not a great team.
    Aguero or Falcao are players that fit the Barca model a bit better. They run, they create space, they make you look silly on a one on one situation. All the things that Villa does not do for the team. And just like Inzaghi, he was born offside.

  11. qq says:

    arsenal without RVP goals anyone..?

  12. aaron says:

    @jay: spot the fuck on

  13. Zo says:

    What does this say about the Pep vs Mou case?..0.o… anyone??

  14. zak says:

    @kris: i dont think youre taking into account that messi won most of those penalties himself

  15. JuanosDios says:

    This is a waste of time. If Messi or Ronaldo were removed from their XI’s or not on their teams at all, they would be replaced by a player or more likely players of equal value. For example if Messi didn’t exist, they would probably have someone like Llorente or Falcao who could score 30-40 with the service they’d get. They’d cost a lot less that Messi and the rest of that money could go to strengthening the midfield, not to mention they’d play a different style. Arguing about taking a player out of a team and not replacing them is a fruitless exercise.

  16. p says:

    “Barca’s £101,600 average weekly wage is still the highest paid to its players by any sports team on the surface of Planet Earth”

    thats £11,000 on average in wages more than Real Madrid

    You guys are great at constantly parroting the same bullshit about barca being some great team with the best player in the world, despite all the evidence that its basically built 100% around getting Messi goals above all else, even above WINNING.

    lol

    footie fans are a special brand of ignorant.

  17. macd says:

    @ nick:

    No i’m not shitting you. In all competitions Ronaldo scored 65 goals, Benzema 37 , Higuain 26 and Callejon 16

    Messi scored 71, Sanchez 14, Fabregas 14 and Xavi 12

    Looks to me like Messi is the one shouldering a bit more of the goalscoring burden

  18. Papi says:

    Jay is absolutely right.

  19. Gabs says:

    @ macd

    Ronaldo score d60 in all competition….65 if you count the friendlies.
    Messi scored 73 in all competition…75 if you count the friendlies.

  20. OLALONPE says:

    MESSI IS BETTER THAN CR7 AND I LOVE THIAGO MESSI

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