"I wonder if he'll play into his 40s. At United between 06/08, I still maintain that's his best two years as a player, in terms of contribution through the game. At Madrid he's contributed enormously but he's living off moments rather than contribution through a whole 90".
"I wonder if he's building up for a long career as a centre forward, where his running doesn't have to be 11km, 12km per match, it can be 7km, 8km, 9km, where he can still score two goals and live off moments. He's living off moments more than his all-round performance now.
"He'll be thinking Pele. Those numbers. Those scandalous numbers you think you can never achieve, the appearances, the goals, and that to me is where it's going.
I think he'll play for longer than Lionel Messi, I think he'll score more goals in the end and will go on to do incredible things.
"I think he'll go on for a long, long time. And in this game, he's becoming a goal-scorer, he's getting in the box more, he's coming across the near post, his heading is incredible anyway.
"I think we've seen the transformation of a player. We've seen Ryan Giggs go from a flying winger to someone who played more centrally as a midfielder. We're seeing Cristiano now as a centre-forward.
"He knows he can't go up and down all the time now. He knows he can't go past players all the time. He'll become a goalscorer, a poacher and a good one."
http://www.skysports.com/football/n...become-great-centre-forward-says-gary-neville