That’s what I was gonna say.
How has Messi been influential to the game when nobody can replicate the way he plays? Influential players are ones who start doing something new that everybody starts copying.
If most forwards strolled around the pitch like Messi for 80 of the 90 minutes they’d contribute absolutely nothing to the game. Messi hasn’t influenced anyone to change the way they play because it wouldn’t work if they did.
That’s an absolute fucking howler