But the same can be said the other way, yes defenders can't hit you as hard as they used to any more but they're also much, much more organised and if anything the way defenders used to just chase strikers like psychos probably helped the attacker because they were being pulled way out of position (assuming they had one in the first place) The attackers of old played in a front 5 against a back 2, nowadays a striker generally plays on his own against an entire back 4 and in Messi's case, the midfield mark him too. Scoring a goal is much more of an achievement than it used to be and the same goes for World Cups and other tournaments. In the old days if you were good you played in a major tournament. Now there is so much competition for places, so many niggling injuries that spoil a players' performance or rule them out altogether and many of the top players don't make it to a tournament or they find themselves in a crap team or get marked out of every game by 3 or 4 defenders. You can't expect every good player to play well in specific games at your request before he is good. If he regularly has good games he's a good player!
