Cristiano Ronaldo - v1

[GoobiePls]

He can still finish his carreer with more Ballon d'Ors than Messi. That's quite impressive catching up of him.

 

[Maria]

He can still finish his carreer with more Ballon d'Ors than Messi. That's quite impressive catching up of him.

I would be ok with that as long as he doesn't win the CL with RM.

 

[Gohan]

The scary thing is Ronaldo still doesn't look on his decline.

 

[footyfan]

Are we having this debate everytime CR scores now? These past few games, CR has been better. In the games before that, Messi was. Nothing to see here.

Not really. Ronaldo has been on par (if Messi's injuries are accounted) or better (injuries not accounted) than Messi all season.

My opinion of course.

 

[CatalinR10]

He finished 4% behind CR in a year he won La Liga with Barcelona. If we end up with nothing this season and Real goes on to win the domestic double (which can very well happen), things are not looking good for Messi, especially if he doesn't go far with Argentina in the World Cup.

Ronaldo won't win it again if Messi is fit.

He got it last time thanks to his performance vs Sweden and Blatter making voting available again.

 

[suckabov]

He finished 4% behind CR in a year he won La Liga with Barcelona. If we end up with nothing this season and Real goes on to win the domestic double (which can very well happen), things are not looking good for Messi, especially if he doesn't go far with Argentina in the World Cup.

CR finished 20% behind Messi in 2012 despite winning la liga. Those things don't count into it too much, it's mostly based on reputation. Last year's result was down to CR's good November form and his scoring a hat trick against Sweden which coincided with the deadline being extended.

Not really. Ronaldo has been on par (if Messi's injuries are accounted) or better (injuries not accounted) than Messi all season.

My opinion of course.

I agree, but I was talking about the period of time since Leo returned, i.e. 2014. CR was mostly invisible between end of January and February, where he didn't score from open play in almost a month, whereas Leo was criticised for being lazy (rightfully or not, open for debate) but scored and assisted consistently. Now it's vice versa. Don't see why people read so much into it.

 

[Luftstalag14]

I agree, but I was talking about the period of time since Leo returned, i.e. 2014. CR was mostly invisible between end of January and February, where he didn't score from open play in almost a month, whereas Leo was criticised for being lazy (rightfully or not, open for debate) but scored and assisted consistently. Now it's vice versa. Don't see why people read so much into it.

Exactly, I felt in this period (pretty much before Ronaldo got the 3-match ban) Messi was much better than Ronaldo.

 

[Luftstalag14]

Like I commented on the La Liga thread, it is unfair that Messi and Ronaldo are being judged by different sets of standards. Messi is the all-arounder, the more complete player than Ronaldo and he became the victim of his own success and elevated expectations, people judge his performance on many things (passing, dribbling, creating, finishing/scoring, making those moves that awe people etc.) and he has to perform well on all fronts to get the thumbs up as scoring alone doesn't count; whereas Ronaldo just has to keep on scoring to win praises, nobody bothers to look at the other things.

 

[Gascav]

Ronaldo won't win it again if Messi is fit.

He got it last time thanks to his performance vs Sweden and Blatter making voting available again.

With messi playing like this wven suarez ibra and ribery will finish ahead of him, besides cr7
How long does he need to be back at his fittest self? He has played 15 matches or so and it is still the same argument, he's not 100%. oh may be he will be so at world cup at the expense of an empty trophy cabinet for us

 

[footyfan]

Like I commented on the La Liga thread, it is unfair that Messi and Ronaldo are being judged by different sets of standards. Messi is the all-arounder, the more complete player than Ronaldo and he became the victim of his own success and elevated expectations, people judge his performance on many things (passing, dribbling, creating, finishing/scoring, making those moves that awe people etc.) and he has to perform well on all fronts to get the thumbs up as scoring alone doesn't count; whereas Ronaldo just has to keep on scoring to win praises, nobody bothers to look at the other things.

It's not that unfair. Messi starts with a very big advantage in terms of the number of touches he gets because he plays on a team that can monopolize possession in the attacking third. He plays in the center and Barca's attacking is concentrated in the center. He plays on a team where everybody else are his water boys and look to pass to him on all occasions. It's not a giant wonder that he is more involved or make more passes and assists. In any case, Messi's assists this year are not that special besides that one game vs Levante, not too different from Ronaldo's. The fact that he makes more dribbles statistically doesn't make a lot of difference for the simple reason that players have their own style. To be entirely fair, you should also be counting the number of off-the-ball runs Ronaldo is making because that is his equivalent of a dribble.

Also, the teams results makes a huge difference. Messi will get more slack now because his team is losing and he's not doing a lot to change that. People criticize Ronaldo too when Madrid lose, even if he scores. And nobody cares about dribbles or assists when Messi or Ronaldo score 2 or 3 goals, it's equally fair that way.

I'd say Ronaldo also gets cut some slack because he scores all different kinds of goals, left foot, right foot and headers. Nowadays, he's also a very clutch scorer and that's getting him some brownie points.

The major reason Messi has to do more to get credit is that he plays on a record breaking team that is one of the best ever.

That's how a neutral would think.

 

[Gascav]

It's not that unfair. Messi starts with a very big advantage in terms of the number of touches he gets because he plays on a team that can monopolize possession in the attacking third. He plays in the center and Barca's attacking is concentrated in the center. He plays on a team where everybody else are his water boys and look to pass to him on all occasions. It's not a giant wonder that he is more involved or make more passes and assists. In any case, Messi's assists this year are not that special besides that one game vs Levante, not too different from Ronaldo's. The fact that he makes more dribbles statistically doesn't make a lot of difference for the simple reason that players have their own style. To be entirely fair, you should also be counting the number of off-the-ball runs Ronaldo is making because that is his equivalent of a dribble.

Also, the teams results makes a huge difference. Messi will get more slack now because his team is losing and he's not doing a lot to change that. People criticize Ronaldo too when Madrid lose, even if he scores. And nobody cares about dribbles or assists when Messi or Ronaldo score 2 or 3 goals, it's equally fair that way.

I'd say Ronaldo also gets cut some slack because he scores all different kinds of goals, left foot, right foot and headers. Nowadays, he's also a very clutch scorer and that's getting him some brownie points.

The major reason Messi has to do more to get credit is that he plays on a record breaking team that is one of the best ever.

That's how a neutral would think.

 

[Luftstalag14]

It's not that unfair. Messi starts with a very big advantage in terms of the number of touches he gets because he plays on a team that can monopolize possession in the attacking third. He plays in the center and Barca's attacking is concentrated in the center. He plays on a team where everybody else are his water boys and look to pass to him on all occasions. It's not a giant wonder that he is more involved or make more passes and assists. In any case, Messi's assists this year are not that special besides that one game vs Levante, not too different from Ronaldo's. The fact that he makes more dribbles statistically doesn't make a lot of difference for the simple reason that players have their own style. To be entirely fair, you should also be counting the number of off-the-ball runs Ronaldo is making because that is his equivalent of a dribble.

Also, the teams results makes a huge difference. Messi will get more slack now because his team is losing and he's not doing a lot to change that. People criticize Ronaldo too when Madrid lose, even if he scores. And nobody cares about dribbles or assists when Messi or Ronaldo score 2 or 3 goals, it's equally fair that way.

I'd say Ronaldo also gets cut some slack because he scores all different kinds of goals, left foot, right foot and headers. Nowadays, he's also a very clutch scorer and that's getting him some brownie points.

The major reason Messi has to do more to get credit is that he plays on a record breaking team that is one of the best ever.

That's how a neutral would think.

And Ronaldo is not being served by his water boys? Perhaps to a lesser degree, I don't think Messi has that big of an avantage here. In both teams they look for them and pass the ball to them.

I wasn't talking about the sheer number of passes (which doesn't mean anything in my opinion) or assists, but how they were done, basically the quality. Plus, the numbers don't tell everything. You can certainly argue that most of Messi's assists are the same as Ronaldo's, but the fact of the matter is, Messi creates a lot of chances for others (for example the Romania game) while Ronaldo does very little in that regard.

So again it all comes down to scoring goals at the end of day for them, right? Perhaps Messi should just forget about the other things (for example playing deep some times and acting like a CAM), just stay inside the box and focus on scoring goals. Only by scoring goals and leading the team to victory will people be satisfied.

 

[CatalinR10]

With messi playing like this wven suarez ibra and ribery will finish ahead of him, besides cr7
How long does he need to be back at his fittest self? He has played 15 matches or so and it is still the same argument, he's not 100%. oh may be he will be so at world cup at the expense of an empty trophy cabinet for us

He scored 13 and assisted 8 . That's impressive.

 

[Gascav]

He scored 13 and assisted 8 . That's impressive.

Ofcourse it is! But when he doesnt perform people complain he is not yet 100% may be he will be 100% in world cup if not, may be he will 100% in 2018 world cup or may be when he retires

 

[RandomGuy80]

Ofcourse it is! But when he doesnt perform people complain he is not yet 100% may be he will be 100% in world cup if not, may be he will 100% in 2018 world cup or may be when he retires

Good one..that argument he is not yet 100% because of injury started last year and always came up when he had a quiet game which happened a lot. We are in march 2014 now so i think this argument shouldnt be abused any longer