He wasn't carried by Messi if you actually watch the games, but I guess that is an easy narrative to throw out there to try and slag a guy for no reason.
As for showing up for Spurs, for large parts of the Covid season he was by far our best player.
I have zero issue replacing him with a better player or even one who can stay healthy but we are lacking so much in terms of passing and creativity in the MF to give up our best or 2nd best (depending on what you think of Ndombele) player when it comes to these things is very risky.
We need more players of Gio's skill and until we get them in I don't see the point in getting rid of him.
The comment on Messi was in reply to the post extolling Lo Celso as a player alongside Messi.
Lo Celso last night looked generally unmotivated and performed at far less than the skillfull and energetic player that he can/could be.
That also needs to be looked at in the context that over 2 seasons he has had about a dozen matches (just after Mourhino joined in 19/20) where he looked quite good and effective, but failed to show in the closing 6 matches of that season to add to an almost complete no show in the first half of the season due to injury.
However for the whole of last season, and a good part of the his first season (other than the dozen or so matches referred to) he has seemed to be injured/recovering the majority of the time, rarely playing 90 minutes but playing off sub benches and has shown very little on average (obvuiously better in some but poor in others).
I have no idea how or why you can claim'
As for showing up for Spurs, for large parts of the Covid season he was by far our best player.' as last season (20/21), 'the covid season', he did not complete ANY PL matches - he started in 11 but was subbed off before the end in all, and was subbed on in a further 7 minutes scoring one goal and gaining one assist. He played about 950 minutes in the 28 matches (equivalent to ten and a half matches) out of 38 matches.
He's not on my immediate hit list but he does need to show up this season and show both effort and skill, unlike last night, otherwise he'll go down as a very poor purchase given his £40m price tag, and rightly be on most people's 'get rid off list' for making no significant impact in 3 seasons..