Just like every single player from those stories.
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) look forward to a new life under Ruben Amorim. What system will we be playing? What players will impress? and how will it all go? We also say goodbye to Ruud Van Nistelrooy and review United's 3-0 win at home against Leicester City.
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Well, this is the Ronaldo thread and not everyone refuses to be benched and feign injuries and leave the country after doing so.
If we are to believe those stories. That was the point. And yes, there is someone like Cavani too.
It’s a receipt for another disaster of the season if he doesn’t leave in the summer. It’s ETH call but he will pay dearly I think, we really need a clean slate.
I think it's a bigger problem players feigning injuries in order not to be called to play. Anyway Ronaldo can be high maintance and needs a strong character to manage him, but so does a lot of the top players. So regardless of Ronaldo, or not, a new manager needs to be able to handle all this egos. Then like I said he's just super competitive and demanding but it isn't the worst trait if he and the team can channel that into better performances.
Ronaldo is one of the few players in the history of football you could say was actually bigger than the club (at least if you count social media followers) and with that brings a circus and other outside factors, when you add in his incredible ego, it’s not conducive to a cohesive team atmosphere. Ronaldo has scored but the team has got much, much worse since he joined and stories of the team spirit being toxic have come out on a weekly basis since he arrived.
United were not able to win a single game in the 2021/22 season without Ronaldo
United haven't won a single game without Cristiano Ronaldo in 2021-22
https://tribuna.com/en/news/manutd-...ronaldo-continues-with-crystal-palace-defeat/
United haven't won a single game without Cristiano Ronaldo in 2021-22
https://tribuna.com/en/news/manutd-...ronaldo-continues-with-crystal-palace-defeat/
Yeah and how can you 100% say the team got worse because of him? Nonsense. “The team got worse because they signed a guy who they literally couldn’t win without” Jesus man listen to yourself.
Regardless this silly debate is over, ETH has already said he is 100% part of his plans so all you guys who said he would def ditch him were, predictably, wrong and can come back when he goes two games without scoring next season.
Don’t know why the media keeps leaving out the 2 games we won before he arrived.
That makes no sense
That makes no sense
‘United haven’t won a Premier League game without Ronaldo in 21/22’, beat Leeds and Wolves in 21/22 without Ronaldo.
He wasn't a United player though
The two games obviously aren't taken into consideration on purpose mate.
He wasn't a United player though
The two games obviously aren't taken into consideration on purpose mate.
But that's the point, the headline is factually wrong. It should be 'United haven't won a Premier League game without Ronaldo since he arrived'. 'Since he arrived' is too important for context to leave out of the headline.
Stop being pedantic
Stop being pedantic
No it's a perfectly valid point.
When was the last time any United player give performances like he did vs spurs, Norwich, Atalanta etc
This all debate is so funny.
Let's see what the pressing machine Liverpool does against Real Madrid and their "Lazy" Benzema who doesn't press.
Bruno literally did in the first game of this season
Let's see what the pressing machine Liverpool does against Real Madrid and their "Lazy" Benzema who doesn't press.
Bruno literally did in the first game of this season
Since he arrived,
United with Ronaldo against Villa, Leicester, Palace, Liverpool & City: 1 win - 4 losses
scored:3 conceded:12 -- Ronaldo number of goals: 0
United without Ronaldo against the same teams: 2 draws - 3 losses
scored:4 conceded:12
more or less the same..
United with Ronaldo against Villa, Leicester, Palace, Liverpool & City: 1 win - 4 losses
scored:3 conceded:12 -- Ronaldo number of goals: 0
United without Ronaldo against the same teams: 2 draws - 3 losses
scored:4 conceded:12
more or less the same..
I can only see 2 possible but unlikely scenario of him leaving this summer:
1. Bayern to buy him to replace Lewandoski. But I just don’t see it, it’s too non-Bayern way of doing things. Plus they probably couldn’t afford his wage.
2. Real to buy him after missing out on Mbappe. I doubt Ronaldo would want to move back, while Real may not like to have 2 old forwards in their starting line up. But stranger things have happened.
It could be Sancho or Varane too, or losing James, or whatever fit your agenda.
Bottom line is, he has been our best player this season. So, blame him all you want if you see anything fit.
Scored against Spurs and Arsenal, plus got us through the champions league group stage
I understand Ronaldo is still a very good player in the right set-up but for a fanbase that has continually complained about the toxic atmosphere in our dressing room, it should raise huge alarm bells that one of the most credible journalists reporting on United has claimed that a player brought in in part to set an example to the young players has gotten so stroppy after not being selected for the team that the manager has to worry about the reprisals of leaving him out for even one game.
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Yet to see a report where Sancho or Varane caused any problems to the dressing room, whereas there are multiple reports this week of Ronaldo causing issues.
Never heard from any trustworthy sources saying Ronaldo is causing issues in dressing room which makes whole team playing worst. It’s purely speculative/imaginative. Besides, our dressing room has been reported toxic several times long before Ronaldo arrived, across several managers.
He has been our best player this season, and he has won more trophies than everyone added together in our dressing room. Only a fool will see him being our problem.
Ronaldo ultimately plays ST differently to Cavani & Martial.
Its obvious who the better striker is (Ronaldo) - but anyone who has followed Cavani or Martial know that they are support strikers that are able to bring others in to play through hold up play and passing rather than being traditional tap in strikers.
Last season our main attacking threat was for our wider players Rashford and Greewood to score with cavani/martial linking up play or scoring aswell. The main passes came from Bruno to support a whole wide attacking 3.
This season our main attacking threat turned centrally to Ronaldo. Everyone created for Ronaldo including our wider players. Sancho is an example. Rashford turned to RW that had to cross and create for Ronaldo. Greenwood messed up. Even recently Bruno is being played out wide to create for a central striker.
This season we switched how we play from having a wide attack that tried to get in behind off Bruno's creativity to Bruno,Sancho, Rashford and others trying to create for our main central striker in Ronaldo.
He is not a problem due to his productivity, but what he did was change how the team play through the course of a season.
People will probably say - but look how we played without Ronaldo, when cavani and bruno were playing as our ST and False 9. It just doesnt work for me, you dont spend a whole season practicsing team tactics towards getting the best out of a centralised striker like Ronaldo, only for you to drop him and expect False 9's in an unbalanced uncohesive team to play like Messi.
This is why he turned in to a problem for me, albeit a productive one. He changed the way we as a team played from Last Season to this season ultimately because our main attacking tactic changed with his arrival.
Its obvious who the better striker is (Ronaldo) - but anyone who has followed Cavani or Martial know that they are support strikers that are able to bring others in to play through hold up play and passing rather than being traditional tap in strikers.
Last season our main attacking threat was for our wider players Rashford and Greewood to score with cavani/martial linking up play or scoring aswell. The main passes came from Bruno to support a whole wide attacking 3.
This season our main attacking threat turned centrally to Ronaldo. Everyone created for Ronaldo including our wider players. Sancho is an example. Rashford turned to RW that had to cross and create for Ronaldo. Greenwood messed up. Even recently Bruno is being played out wide to create for a central striker.
This season we switched how we play from having a wide attack that tried to get in behind off Bruno's creativity to Bruno,Sancho, Rashford and others trying to create for our main central striker in Ronaldo.
He is not a problem due to his productivity, but what he did was change how the team play through the course of a season.
People will probably say - but look how we played without Ronaldo, when cavani and bruno were playing as our ST and False 9. It just doesnt work for me, you dont spend a whole season practicsing team tactics towards getting the best out of a centralised striker like Ronaldo, only for you to drop him and expect False 9's in an unbalanced uncohesive team to play like Messi.
This is why he turned in to a problem for me, albeit a productive one. He changed the way we as a team played from Last Season to this season ultimately because our main attacking tactic changed with his arrival.
You think a team like Man Utd only practice how to play one way in training? Not accounting for the fact that they usually have games where there are two teams and Ronaldo can only be on the one side? And you’re really saying that the whole team who have been playing different combinations for years unlearned everything they know in less than a year so when Ronaldo doesn’t play, he’s still responsible for them being utterly clueless on the pitch?
No ofcourse not. But do you think after spending a year trying to get the best out of a central striker like Ronaldo that a team can change it up and play in a way and tempo that is able to get the best out of a false 9 just in one match? you dont play with Plan A for so long and instsntly kill Plan B in the first match
What about all the things we hear about confidence? Is a team of inverted forwards who have spent the whole year trying to set up the central striker going to start scoring for fun after the first and only match that the striker was dropped?
The fact is that the truth is somewhere in the middle.
But the question is, is the style of football we played this season the same as last season.
For me, No.
For people who dont see the productive Ronaldo as a problem ultimately dont see their being a change in our style of play from last season to this.
The bolded part is the biggest insanity about the whole thing, Ronaldo isn't even at his best as a central striker. Certainly not as a lone striker anyway. He's played at the top level for 20 years and this was the first season of his career he'd played as a lone striker for any length of time. Rangnick even said a couple of weeks ago that Ronaldo isn't a striker or doesn't see himself as one. So if you're trying to say we changed the way we were playing to suit Ronaldo, it's just not true because we didn't directly change for that reason, we expected him to seamlessly fit into how we were previously trying to play and then obviously adapted somewhat. The ironic thing is that some of Ronaldo's best football came when he did drop deep into the false 9 (or back out towards the left, which still to this day is his best position) area and looked to work the ball into the box, rather than just goal-hang essentially which seemed to be the instruction he was getting at times.
If you're looking for the change in style, Sancho is as much of a reason for that as Ronaldo really. He's a completely different type of player to Rashford and wants players close to him, rather than open space to run into.
Rashford was played on the right plenty last season too, so that's not something that it is fair to say is the fault of Ronaldo (I agree it's a ridiculous thing though, he's useless from the right and all his best football comes from the left).
Ultimately, it was not possible to legislate for Cavani deciding he couldn't be arsed all season, Greenwood doing what he did and the club still allowing Martial to leave. With those three players out of the picture, coupled with the astonishing drop off in Rashford's form over the past 18 months, our style and play became very predictable, particularly with a manager who didn't appear to want to take risks in attacking areas. Therefore Ronaldo pretty much had to play as the #9 as there weren't other options, had Cavani actually wanted to play for us I think we'd have seen a lot of differences but it's impossible to speculate on at this point.
The reports are that Cavani and Martial sulking is directly to do with Ronaldo’s signing actually. The club basically forced the 7 jersey off Cavani, which reports say pissed him off and he wasn’t getting enough game time so he couldn’t be bothered. The ham fisted way they rushed through the jersey change for marketing reasons and then to turn United into a merchandise shop for the week with Cavani forgotten about, that could have been legislated for and handled much better.
If United were going to keep Cavani, they should never have got Ronaldo. If they were planning to get Ronaldo, don’t keep Cavani. It’s piss poor squad management. At the start of the season it was 9-10 players for only 4 spots in the team. By the end of the season it was only 4-5 players most of the time, but the damage was done at the start of the season on those players who had checked out.
Sancho was ultimately the direct replacement and improvement for Daniel James. A right footed player that could play on both channels.
On the other hand Ronaldo the central striker is not like a striker we had in the previous season.
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Firstly, I saw you sneak Martial in there like I wouldn't notice. Let's not lump him and his supposed sulking into any argument because his attitude and general on-pitch work ethic has been a joke for years. He's also wanted to leave for years. So that's on him being a baby, not Ronaldo.
And "reports" say Cavani wasn't getting enough game time so he was pissed off? Is that what they say? He was on holiday at the start of the season. We signed Ronaldo, he was injured for two games, he then came on in a game and started the next one. He missed the next game due to international fixtures and again, came on in the next game and started the one after that. He was then injured for two months. After which he game on at half time, then started the following four games. He missed the next game injured, came on in the game after that, started the following game and was then injured for another two months. After which he came on in a further couple of games before, guess what, being injured for another six weeks. He then came on in two games and started the final one. So perhaps if he wanted to play more football, he should have made himself available for more football?
As for the "sulking", again, you can't exactly legislate for a professional football in his mid 30's acting like a fecking child and "sulking". That's on nobody but him.
But a completely different player to Daniel James. If you can see how Ronaldo is different to Cavani or Martial surely you can see how Sancho is different to Dan James.
I've covered the Ronaldo central striker stuff and how it suited absolutely nobody.
Maybe Ronaldo noticed that the team doesn't win when he doesn't play, and thinks it's a bad idea to set up to purposefully lose the game. Is that 'stroppy' or common sense?
Why doesn't the team win when he doesn't play, btw?
Hmmm, sounds like 'sulking' is preferred over 'stroppy' in this thread.
Seems like all the players whose noses were out of joint due to Ronaldo's arrival could have, you know, worked hard and outplayed him. If they could. You know, tried hard and played for the team.
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Why when Cristiano is involved is it always polemic?
Everyone thought that Sancho came here for RW.
As a RW he doesn’t play all that different to James with the crossing rather than the shooting abilities in comparison to a player like Greenwood.
Ronaldo came - James got sold, Rashford was injured so Sancho played in his more creative position at LW after Martial got put on loan. Cavani got dropped a level below. Both strikers that had any sort of hold up play or link play played less this season. Greenwood got banned. Rashford then got put kn the RW to purposely try to create for Ronaldo than in previous seasons where the chances were created more for him.
anyway, so many departures and changes that happened that changed our attacking play. Sancho is just one of two changes that effected our play so I don’t know how exactly that rules Ronaldo off either.
I agree, and I'd still be playing Sancho at right wing but I don't see how you can't see the differences between him and James, they are completely different players. Sancho is all about small spaces and needs players close to him whereas Dan James needed open space and covered a lot of ground quickly. Rashford got put on the right wing because Sancho was starting to play himself into form from the left wing and RR didn't want to move him for some reason - you will note that under Ole Rashford was playing mostly from the left earlier in the season.
That is 2/3 of our 3 person attack having changed, but you're putting it all on Ronaldo which is completely wrong. And as I keep saying, it's not like the set up suited Ronaldo or based on RRs comments, was even what Ronaldo wanted, so putting the blame on him rather than the coaches is a bit odd.
So it's Ronaldo's fault that Cavani, a grown man and professional in his mid 30s sulks like a child for something as frivolous and trivial as a shirt number despite the club still paying him millions for his services.
I guarantee that if this scenario was the opposite way round and it was Ronaldo the one sulking, your opinion of it would be the inverse aswell.
Please tell me what reports are those on Cavani being pissed on not keeping the number 7.
World's most famous footballer, one of the greatest of all time, sporting icon, most highly paid player at the club and wears the famous number 7. It's Cristiano Ronaldo. At the same time, he's nearing 40, is unable to press, jetted off to Portugal rather than sat on the bench against Man City when told he wouldn't start (as per The Athletic report), is tactically inflexible and is representative of the sort of recruitment we want to move away from in the future (ageing superstar on massive wages). It'd be a shock if any conversation surrounding Ronaldo wasn't polemic!
From my point of view, I do think we'd be better off moving on from Ronaldo this summer. We aren't going for the title and we aren't in the CL. With 4 or 5 recruitments and bringing the likes of Garner and Hannibal into the squad, we would have a team capable of competing for 4th and going the distance in the EL. Getting the team playing in Ten Hag's image sooner rather than later is what I want to see, and I see that happening faster without Ronaldo rather than with him. The idea of him being unhappy at not being picked by Ten Hag sounds like a potential disaster waiting to happen. If he's happy to be a rotation option and sit on the bench and not fly off to Portugal, then happy days. If not, he should leave and go elsewhere that'll cave in to his demands to play every game.
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