Right... So the advances in sport science have only benefitted the attackers... Somehow the defenders have gotten worse.
Ridiculous. The rules of the game have continuously been tweaked for the last 15-20 years to favour attacking play. Even the fact every "potentially" dangerous tackle is now carded. Pre-2000 you'd rarely see a card issued for slide tackles that defenders got ball and took out the player as well, in fact you'd rarely see a card at all. Now, you can win the ball, but if you take out the player, it's almost an automatic card and free kick/penalty. It doesn't matter if you made a play on the ball. Sliding tackles are basically being eliminated from the game slowly. Hence the disappearance of the ball-winning Central-Defensive Mid. They're becoming a rare bird these days. Hence the reason defenders slide into tackles so much less frequently. They've almost eliminated one of the most valuable skills in a defender's arsenal.
It's ridiculous that you think advances in sport science would favour only Messi and Ronaldo, and allow them to run riot over defences. Everyone has the benefit. Rule changes are what allows them to destroy defences.
And as an aside. Messi has scored 11 of his 40 La Liga goals with a 3+ goal lead. 9 of those have come at 75' or later in matches, against mostly the worst teams in La Liga. 11 of 40. That's over 25% completely meaningless goals.
You guys talk about entertainment value. But entertainment value is having some kind of competitive parity. Or at least the semblance of it. That's why North American sports are so entertaining. Because teams can go from top to bottom in a year, and back again, without being destroyed by the financial repercussions of missing CL. A soft salary cap+transfer cap would certainly do football good. 8-0 against a team that has maybe a 1-2 mil transfer kitty. Yeah. Very entertaining.