Lionel Messi spoke about going to the Olympics and Pep Guardiola telling how that he will play as a false nine.

Messi gave an interview to JP Varsky on Clank Media where he commented on his style of playing and why he walks on the pitch during a match. In the same interview, Messi spoke about going to the Olympics with Argentina. Here is what he had to say:

“We had to get into the Champions League. I had a bit of a long face… I wanted to go and play in the Olympic Games. Guardiola realized it right away. He is a very intelligent person.

“He grabbed me, we had a talk and he told me: ‘Stay calm, we are going to enter the Champions League. You go, I’m going to leave you there, win the Olympic Games and then come back because we’re going to have a long year.”

He also commented on tactics and Pep Guardiola telling him he will play as a false number nine against Real Madrid:

“The Guardiola era was very confusing. There are boys of 6-7 years old who are taught to play with two touches and at that age what happened to me has to happen, to maintain the spontaneity of the South American player.

“I didn’t pay much attention to tactics. With Guardiola I learned a lot and I began to understand much more about the game, about spaces, about ball possession, about managing games with the ball.

“Football has evolved a lot too. It is too tactical. Today any team with a 4-4 line or with five at the back, well organized and well worked, makes it difficult for you. Before, you could find much more spaces. Today it is more tactical and more physical.

“I found out about the false 9 the day before the game against Real Madrid, Pep sent for me, showed me a couple of videos and told me:

‘We’re going to play with a false 9, that the center-backs don’t have the reference and I want to be one more in the middle of the pitch to have the ball.

“To go to Madrid to win Madrid we have to have the ball and be protagonists. If we want to win we have to be far superior to them, and I want to have the ball.

“I want you to come to the midfield, to join up with Busi, Xavi and Andres. If the central defenders come out, we have Samuel and Tití who are the ones who are going to play in space.”

Lionel Messi spoke about his style of playing and why he walks on the pitch.

Messi is presently with the Argentina national team in New Jersey but he an interview was released where he spoke about a number of things. Speaking in an interview with JP Varsky on Clank Media, here is what he had to say:

“When did I realize I had a gift? I don’t know, from what they say, since I was very young I was different and people came to see me. So they say. Heh. Even though I did a lot of things, I didn’t do anything to become the player I was when I was a kid.

“Today, after having achieved all my goals, I am enjoying myself like the three year old I was when I started. Because I know that there is less and less time left, there are less and less years left for me.

“I try to enjoy everything that is football on the pitch and the moments I experience on a daily basis, too.

“When I was at Newell’s, there were two or three times a week we were sent to run around the grounds. I used to hide behind a tree. Running without a ball was never my thing. Heh.

“I have always been very self-critical. I am the first to know what I do right and what I do wrong.”

In regards to why he walks on the pitch:

“When I walk I analyze the opponent’s positioning, how we stand when we don’t have the ball, get away from the marker and be able to initiate a counterattack.

“I don’t pay much attention to GPS, statistics or data.” I never cared how much I ran in a match.”

He also spoke about his mother:

“We in Argentina generally say the father’s surname. When I arrived in Spain both are used.

“Many times my mother told me: ‘I am your mother, I am the one who had you and ‘Messi’ always appears and I (Cuccittini) don’t appear’. But yes, obviously there are genes from both sides.”