[shamans]

Can't believe I'm going to do this. Actually criticize Ronaldo on a day everyone is praising him (as the opposite is what I've done so much over the years)

He was good today overall, but as a lifetime Ronaldo fan I am still concerned at some of the chances he misses. I've watched a lot of Ronaldo. Since he left United I've been following almost every game of his. One of the reasons I think he's the best I've ever seen is how half chances for others become good chances for him.

The sort of game he had today, back in his Madrid days this would be a hattrick. Even in his Juve days, this would have been a hattrick or a brace. He missed two headers that I thought should really have gone in given how good he is at them.

The goal itself, well that's he can do in his sleep -- brilliant stuff.

Maybe I'm looking too much into it and this idea that he's finished is making me judge him harshly. One thing for sure, he can still play a key role till the end of the season at the very least. Go on Ronnie, prove the doubters and myself wrong once again! Tear Athleti a new one please

 

[Red_toad]

Back heel in first half and goal worth the entry fee

 

[Alvaro Maestre]

Did you guys see Shaw or Maguire celebrating with him? I didn't.

 

[Kramer]

Can't believe I'm going to do this. Actually criticize Ronaldo on a day everyone is praising him (as the opposite is what I've done so much over the years)

He was good today overall, but as a lifetime Ronaldo fan I am still concerned at some of the chances he misses. I've watched a lot of Ronaldo. Since he left United I've been following almost every game of his. One of the reasons I think he's the best I've ever seen is how half chances for others become good chances for him.

The sort of game he had today, back in his Madrid days this would be a hattrick. Even in his Juve days, this would have been a hattrick or a brace. He missed two headers that I thought should really have gone in given how good he is at them.

The goal itself, well that's he can do in his sleep -- brilliant stuff.

Maybe I'm looking too much into it and this idea that he's finished is making me judge him harshly. One thing for sure, he can still play a key role till the end of the season at the very least. Go on Ronnie, prove the doubters and myself wrong once again! Tear Athleti a new one please

Yep - he would have put those headers away for sure if he was in form. You could see how irate he was with himself. Hopefully, he puts those kind of chances away towards the business end of the season.

But another thing you have to notice and appreciate is how selfless he’s been off late. Put it on a platter for Sancho in the first half and Bruno in the second half. Could have easily had 2 assists. The Ronaldo of old would have taken a shot in both positions.

Still a very dangerous player. Hopefully he can hit top form soon.

 

[RedRonaldo]

Can't believe I'm going to do this. Actually criticize Ronaldo on a day everyone is praising him (as the opposite is what I've done so much over the years)

He was good today overall, but as a lifetime Ronaldo fan I am still concerned at some of the chances he misses. I've watched a lot of Ronaldo. Since he left United I've been following almost every game of his. One of the reasons I think he's the best I've ever seen is how half chances for others become good chances for him.

The sort of game he had today, back in his Madrid days this would be a hattrick. Even in his Juve days, this would have been a hattrick or a brace. He missed two headers that I thought should really have gone in given how good he is at them.

The goal itself, well that's he can do in his sleep -- brilliant stuff.

Maybe I'm looking too much into it and this idea that he's finished is making me judge him harshly. One thing for sure, he can still play a key role till the end of the season at the very least. Go on Ronnie, prove the doubters and myself wrong once again! Tear Athleti a new one please

I think you have been bit overly harsh on him. he did well on one header, which is saved by the keeper. the other one he did miss it just abit wide, that's about it.
He did create 2 goalscoring chances on the plate for Sancho and Bruno though. Not his fault the two can't covert those into goal. And he scored 1 brilliant goal too. Remember the fact that even City, Chelsea and Liverpool can't beat Brighton at home this season.

 

[Member 117152]

This arguement has been done to death. He does this in every team. He is the focus of the attack. Took free kicks and penalties from Bruno. Crosses are aimed toward him. Bruno is magnetically drawn to trying to find him. The stat is a self fulfilling prophecy that only proves we are less potent with him in the team compared to previous seasons.

100% agree with this. His stats are pretty redundant when we are relying on one player to score goals.

Another fact is we probably have zero other choice this season as let’s be real with Rashford out of form nobody is a regular goal scorer in our squad since our next prodigy decided to send himself to the shadow realm for being a degenerate.

Next season we MUST get a younger regular goal scorer in. Even losing Martial which was a blessing any other season has come back to bite us majorly.

It’s an extra £100 million investment possibly on top of the midfield £150 million and a CB.

Looking at the Super Bowl stadium this week & it’s facilities - then a rusty Old Trafford under the Glazers. We know we ain’t going anywhere though.

 

[Kopral Jono]

Ronaldo was a lot better last night, and I never thought I'll be saying this, but he really needs to be putting away good goalscoring chances.

 

[tenpoless]

100% agree with this. His stats are pretty redundant when we are relying on one player to score goals.

Another fact is we probably have zero other choice this season as let’s be real with Rashford out of form nobody is a regular goal scorer in our squad since our next prodigy decided to send himself to the shadow realm for being a degenerate.

Next season we MUST get a younger regular goal scorer in. Even losing Martial which was a blessing any other season has come back to bite us majorly.

It’s an extra £100 million investment possibly on top of the midfield £150 million and a CB.

Looking at the Super Bowl stadium this week & it’s facilities - then a rusty Old Trafford under the Glazers. We know we ain’t going anywhere though.

We have Varane and some 80m Cap'n. That's why this is so annoying. That budget could be spent on a midfielder/top striker instead of another CB....

 

[Bobcat]

Too many excuses for Ronaldo here. Good game today but really offers next to nothing off the ball and is one of the reasons we get dominated as other teams have 10 outfield players fighting all game.

Is this a joke? He scored a goal, could have had two more and really should have had two assits as well. What more do you want from a striker?

 

[MrEleson]

Revisionism of extreme proportions...he was shite for the last 2 months. Was good today and scored a great goal. Let’s leave it there.

I’ve always held this notion. Nothing to do with last night.

 

[MrEleson]

Look at his stats from previous games.
Literally if he’s scoring, he’s affecting the team by not pressing. If he’s pressing but not getting goals, he’s finished. He simply can’t win.

 

[captaincantona]

Look at his stats from previous games.
Literally if he’s scoring, he’s affecting the team by not pressing. If he’s pressing but not getting goals, he’s finished. He simply can’t win.

Not sure anyone is banging the drum for Cavani either mate. The fact we are relying entirely on two very limited and aged centre forwards is quite frankly a joke.

 

[Cnaiür urs Skiötha]

Credit where it's due, fantastic goal and overall good performance.

 

[AndySmith1990]

We're just going to go around in circles like we did with Solskjaer.

There are people who can see he's not good enough anymore for a club with aspirations of winners trophies.

TThen there are those who can't look beyond their feelings for the individual, and are happy for the team to suffer as a result.

At City, Real, Bayern, he'd be out on his arse. Even Juventus were happy to get rid. But United? The club that never learns? As soon as he scores a goal after 10 games we'll see people flocking to cheer their hero as if he's our saviour and will single handedly rescue our season.

You know he'll be our main striker next season too. Is it any wonder after 9 years we're as far away from the top as we've ever been post Ferguson.

 

[IhabX7]

We're just going to go around in circles like we did with Solskjaer.

There are people who can see he's not good enough anymore for a club with aspirations of winners trophies.

TThen there are those who can't look beyond their feelings for the individual, and are happy for the team to suffer as a result.

At City, Real, Bayern, he'd be out on his arse. Even Juventus were happy to get rid. But United? The club that never learns? As soon as he scores a goal after 10 games we'll see people flocking to cheer their hero as if he's our saviour and will single handedly rescue our season.

You know he'll be our main striker next season too. Is it any wonder after 9 years we're as far away from the top as we've ever been post Ferguson.

You’re assuming he won’t be better in other teams. You have zero proof of that. Diferrent setups, different team-mates, how can you be so sure?

 

[Berbasbullet]

Am I allowed to say he played well today? Or are we still just laying into him?

 

[Gehrman]

Missed the game but looks like he did well. Lovely goal as well.

 

[troylocker]

Good match from him yesterday. Good workrate, fantastic goal and a couple of great layups.
More of this, please!

...and that on a day where our overall performance was very underwhelming.

 

[A Civilized Reader]

At City, Real, Bayern, he'd be out on his arse. Even Juventus were happy to get rid.

My I ask that you base that statement on what? Because he has never played for City or Bayern, while he was possibly the best player that ever play for Real Madrid.

At only three years at Juventus he won:
- Two consecutive Serie A
- One Coppa Italia
- One Supercoppa Italiana
- One Capocannoniere (Italian Golden Boot)
He is the fastest player in Juventus history to reach 100 goals. He holds the league record of scoring in 11th consecutive league game. If he was the failure at Juventus because he didn't win Champion League with them, then all of the players of Manchester City have been failure.

 

[ManchesterManchester]

Would still be scoring 40+ goals a season if he was still at Madrid (imo) so was never in doubt he’d get back his scoring boots eventually. We’ve just struggled massively as a team recently. Hopefully, he keeps it up for the CL.

Yeah and if we brought back Rooney and Tevez out of retirement then I think they could win the league, 100+ goals between them, it would be like they never got old!

 

[arnie_ni]

Stop quoting stats that just show how far you’re stretching.

he has been SHITE. No touch, no strength, no ball retention, no link up, no finishing. Nothing. He has embarrassed himself on many occasions...falling over and losing the ball needlessly. Just as bad as anyone else. So let’s just call and egg an egg. Same way a goal against Atalanta didn’t cover up an ordinary performance, goals are goals, performances are performances. Ronaldo has been Shite. I was first in here to credit his goal and performance tonight. But let’s not rewrite history. He has been awful.

That's just not true though. He was carrying us at the start of the season. He's been poor basically since the arsenal game Carrick was in charge, not all season.

 

[Gehrman]

My I ask that you base that statement on what? Because he has never played for City or Bayern, while he was possibly the best player that ever play for Real Madrid.

At only three years at Juventus he won:
- Two consecutive Serie A
- One Coppa Italia
- One Supercoppa Italiana
- One Capocannoniere (Italian Golden Boot)
He is the fastest player in Juventus history to reach 100 goals. He holds the league record of scoring in 11th consecutive league game. If he was the failure at Juventus because he didn't win Champion League with them, then all of the players of Manchester City have been failure.

He certainly wasn't a flop at all, but winning domestic honours with Juventus in this era isn't really that impressive in itself. Even though Seria A has become a retirement league for great players, his games to goals record is great especially considering his age. Individually he was a succes. I think his game against Porto clouds people jugdement of his entire tenure there.

 

[DWelbz19]

Look at his stats from previous games.
Literally if he’s scoring, he’s affecting the team by not pressing. If he’s pressing but not getting goals, he’s finished. He simply can’t win.

Cavani’s been phoning it in all year. The guy picks and chooses when he plays, there’s no point reliably considering him this season. Ronaldo has had some absolute rotters this season though let’s be real. Hopefully he’s now hit form just in time for Atletico.

 

[NoPace]

He's basically a Ruud van Nistelrooy type of striker now, lethal, pinpoint accuracy, not a lot beyond that in his general play. Give him the ball a few times each game and he'll stick one in.

Yeah. He's probably our 3rd best player in the front 6 after Bruno and Sancho, though that says more about the RW, #6 and #8 positions than anything else.

Watching Messi today, who can't beat players anymore and so is best as a 90s style #10 hitting through balls and not doing much else, I thought it was interesting that at the end of their top level careers, the two greats of the era who scored a million goals from out wide (which still allowed for a central player or wide forwards when Messi was a false 9 to have good numbers too, which made their teams great) have been reduced to very good versions of orthodox central attackers, just in different positions. Cristiano is in the right situation, despite all the criticism, as his fallen former team's best hope of getting 4th. Messi should probably be playing for Atalanta or another 3rd-5th side in Serie A and doing the same. Be less depressing.

 

[captaincantona]

That's just not true though. He was carrying us at the start of the season. He's been poor basically since the arsenal game Carrick was in charge, not all season.

Carrying us? In what sense? @troylocker etc. Have covered this to death. He has not increased the potency of our team in anyway, or improved us either performance, stats, any metric. We have had to accommodate him and as such he became our main goal scoring threat. He responded by scoring a reasonable amount of goals, all but one or two, you would expect a top striker to score. Even then, performance wise he was poor despite the goals. He had carried us no where and if you think that football is so simplistic as to say that take Ronaldo’s goals away means we automatically lose those matches then you are delusional. If he doesn’t play we don’t play with ten men and it is reasonable to at least accept that other players that have seen their own goal contributions dwindle since his arrival may have chipped in and that at the very least we would find ourselves in this same modest and embarrassing situation with or without him. He has had no positive impact whatsoever. No tangible gain since he signed....other than nostalgia.

Again, was the first in here to praise his improved performance and goal. But just not up for revising his time back at the club.He has been average at best and if we are serious about getting back on terms with top teams and we are calling out every underperformed in the squad, this guy doesn’t get a pass.

 

[arnie_ni]

Carrying us? In what sense? @troylocker etc. Have covered this to death. He has not increased the potency of our team in anyway, or improved us either performance, stats, any metric. We have had to accommodate him and as such he became our main goal scoring threat. He responded by scoring a reasonable amount of goals, all but one or two, you would expect a top striker to score. Even then, performance wise he was poor despite the goals. He had carried us no where and if you think that football is so simplistic as to say that take Ronaldo’s goals away means we automatically lose those matches then you are delusional. If he doesn’t play we don’t play with ten men and it is reasonable to at least accept that other players that have seen their own goal contributions dwindle since his arrival may have chipped in and that at the very least we would find ourselves in this same modest and embarrassing situation with or without him. He has had no positive impact whatsoever. No tangible gain since he signed....other than nostalgia.

So the games he hasn't played we've been so much better without him then?

 

[Gehrman]

So the games he hasn't played we've been so much better without him then?

This season we don't have a big enough sample. We can use last year as a reference. With greenwood out and martial out this season though I doubt he'll miss many games at all.

 

[Nou_Camp99]

Scored a good goal but his total lack of work ethic is one of the big reasons we struggle. Opposition CB's have an hour on the ball every time they get it. That's why we can't progress as a team with him.

The GOAT he may well be but those days are over. If we play him against Liverpool and City it's going to be a tough watch.

 

[Adam-Utd]

Better last night. Should have had at least 2 goals and an assist from Bruno.

What's happened to his finishing though? seems to miss a lot of the bread and butter chances these days.

 

[arnie_ni]

This season we don't have a big enough sample. We can use last year as a reference. With greenwood out and martial out this season though I doubt he'll miss many games at all.

But you aren't looking at it correctly. Cavani would be our man if Ronaldo wasn't here.

Greenwood would still have been suspended, martial didn't want to be here and rashford has just shite the bed entirely and no one knows why, he doesn't even try.

We have no other options and in the games cavani has played he's been worse, and then got injured.

To blame everything on Ronaldo is wrong and quite frankly lazy.

 

[goptun]

Would still be scoring 40+ goals a season if he was still at Madrid (imo) so was never in doubt he’d get back his scoring boots eventually. We’ve just struggled massively as a team recently. Hopefully, he keeps it up for the CL.

He wouldn't even start for Madrid, let alone be scoring 40+ goals.

Great goal yesterday, after a torrid first half. Really should have put the game away with that header but we desperately need him back amongst the goals. His walking across the frontline, while the opposition defence is in possession, is borderline criminal, though. I was watching him throughout that first half and I don't think he broke out into a sprint and made a pressure once. We won't get away with that against the top teams.

 

[Ludens the Red]

But you aren't looking at it correctly. Cavani would be our man if Ronaldo wasn't here.

Greenwood would still have been suspended, martial didn't want to be here and rashford has just shite the bed entirely and no one knows why, he doesn't even try.

We have no other options and in the games cavani has played he's been worse, and then got injured.

To blame everything on Ronaldo is wrong and quite frankly lazy.

This.. might need to be stickied. I’ve had to go through this multiple times with mates/family members. We have nobody else basically. They keep saying Cavani but he’s been so bad when he’s played. A slight increase in workrate (but not as much as you’d think) but he doesn’t offer any threat. I don’t remember him getting on the end of chances.

 

[Gehrman]

But you aren't looking at it correctly. Cavani would be our man if Ronaldo wasn't here.

Greenwood would still have been suspended, martial didn't want to be here and rashford has just shite the bed entirely and no one knows why, he doesn't even try.

We have no other options and in the games cavani has played he's been worse, and then got injured.

To blame everything on Ronaldo is wrong and quite frankly lazy.

Not blaming everything on Ronaldo at all.

 

[Womp]

Thought he was poor again, not sure how much of it is down to him though, the guy is approaching 40 and playing more often than not, still at the highest level, he's still human at the end of the day.

 

[Mac1997]

Some absolute jokers in this thread.

He was superb last night even forgetting about the goal. Layed one on a plate for both Sancho and Bruno, fought for every ball. Defended from the front and many times had to come back and defend the edge of our 18 yard box, he was also constantly trying to rally the others to press and his own pressing was good.

The goal itself was superb and the team badly needed it.

This was a very good centre forward performance, he seems to be one of the very few players that we have willing to sacrifice for the team, which is shocking to say about Ronaldo. If all of our other players showed the same level of commitment we wouldn't be in the position we are now. Inspiring performance from him, a real leader on the pitch.

 

[mavradal]

He's basically a Ruud van Nistelrooy type of striker now, lethal, pinpoint accuracy, not a lot beyond that in his general play. Give him the ball a few times each game and he'll stick one in.

Except he's not that lethal anymore, needing 3-4 clear chances to score one goal.

What I really didn't like seeing was him looking uninterested when Bruno scored the second goal, that still shows team success is still just a second thought in his mind.

So he had a decent game but still not convinced he's a team player. Hopefully he continues to be less selfish as displayed against Brighton.

 

[Tom Van Persie]

Am I allowed to say he played well today? Or are we still just laying into him?

Check the post two above yours.

 

[arnie_ni]

Not blaming everything on Ronaldo at all.

You weren't, people are

 

[arnie_ni]

This.. might need to be stickied. I’ve had to go through this multiple times with mates/family members. We have nobody else basically. They keep saying Cavani but he’s been so bad when he’s played. A slight increase in workrate (but not as much as you’d think) but he doesn’t offer any threat. I don’t remember him getting on the end of chances.

Would cavani even have been available to selection for 10 games this season? Actually not joking but he always seems to be out

 

[MrEleson]

He wouldn't even start for Madrid, let alone be scoring 40+ goals.

Great goal yesterday, after a torrid first half. Really should have put the game away with that header but we desperately need him back amongst the goals. His walking across the frontline, while the opposition defence is in possession, is borderline criminal, though. I was watching him throughout that first half and I don't think he broke out into a sprint and made a pressure once. We won't get away with that against the top teams.

That’s your opinion Ofcourse.