Cristiano Ronaldo - Much Ado About Al Nassr

Midrich said:
Its weird that Ronaldo gets hate but Kroos, Modric, Lewandowski, Gundogan, Muller did crap all whilst being younger aswell.

Love You Ronaldo! :drool: 2nd GOAT in the world and continue to be proud of it! Absolute legend but its time to retire from International Football.
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Yes it is. But if anything's weird here, it's comparing Ronaldo's performance to any of the above. He was on an entirely different level of crapness than any of them.
 
I hope Martinez stays on as manager and the MegaRon carries on until the world cup. It will be funny as feck watching him do it all again 2 years down the line.
 
giorno said:
Their options off the bench were Jota and Ramos. They 100% should have benched this part-timer but they weren't winning shite with either of those other 2 either
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Not sure about that. Portugal has a very strong squad. With Jota or Ramos they would be playing with 11 men instead of 10. And all the set pieces wouldn't be centered around one 39 year player who's been playing in Saudi Arabia for the last 2 seasons.
 
giorno said:
Their options off the bench were Jota and Ramos. They 100% should have benched this part-timer but they weren't winning shite with either of those other 2 either
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The other contenders don’t have great numbers 9s either. It’s just Kane and he’s been poor as well. Having a player contributing more than Ronaldo may have been the difference in tight games such as last nights and you only need to win 2 more such knockout ties to win the whole thing.
 
Ronaldo and Pepe need to move on and let younger players gain int'l tournament experience. Portugal is quality with Vitinha, Ruben Dias, Bruno, Leao, Bernardo Silva, they stand a chance at winning Euro and WC I can't believe how nobody is willing to tell Ronaldo that he's holding back the NT? How does he lack the self awareness to see it, the Slovenia and France games could have been put to bed w/o pens if he took his chances and scored.
 
He's bigger than the team and his marketing power is still such that he'll always get picked regardless of ability.
 
Mb194dc said:
He's bigger than the team and his marketing power is still such that he'll always get picked regardless of ability.
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After this WC and the last euro it would be mental call him up for a major tournament again.
 
Jota won a (dubious) PK in the last tie with his direct running, which Ronaldo missed. Sure his movement alone would've given Portugal something extra.
Same goes for Ramos who, isn't exactly the most clinical granted, still offers high work rate and team play.
Sure, Portugal could've still gone out had they been introduced but we'll never know.
Still, those two options alone would've given Portugal something different compared to that fecking statue.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
The other contenders don’t have great numbers 9s either. It’s just Kane and he’s been poor as well. Having a player contributing more than Ronaldo may have been the difference in tight games such as last nights and you only need to win 2 more such knockout ties to win the whole thing.
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it's really been a poor tournament for strikers overall. Try to imagine who you'd select at CB or GK for team of the tournament, and you're awash with great options. Trying to fill the striker position? I honestly can't think of a single deserving name. Kane might actually be in that conversation, which speaks volumes given how little impact he's had.
 
Deco10Legend said:
Spain has Morata and are doing well.
I think with Jota as a false 9 we would do much better. Someone that actually runs and presses.
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Morata is better than Ramos by quite a bit. What was Jota's fitness like?
Gehrman said:
Not sure about that. Portugal has a very strong squad. With Jota or Ramos they would be playing with 11 men instead of 10. And all the set pieces wouldn't be centered around one 39 year player who's been playing in Saudi Arabia for the last 2 seasons.
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They started Ramos against Morocco and lost anyways
FrankDrebin said:
Jota won a (dubious) PK in the last tie with his direct running, which Ronaldo missed. Sure his movement alone would've given Portugal something extra.
Same goes for Ramos who, isn't exactly the most clinical granted, still offers high work rate and team play.
Sure, Portugal could've still gone out had they been introduced but we'll never know.
Still, those two options alone would've given Portugal something different compared to that fecking statue.
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This is it. They would have been better with Jota/Ramos playing instead of Cristiano. By no means would that have won them the euros. Maybe they would have, most likely they wouldn't
 
It won't surprise me to see him playing in the next World Cup. Only he will decide when he finishes international football. No one else, not even the manager!
 
Midrich said:
Its weird that Ronaldo gets hate but Kroos, Modric, Lewandowski, Gundogan, Muller did crap all whilst being younger aswell.

Love You Ronaldo! :drool: 2nd GOAT in the world and continue to be proud of it! Absolute legend but its time to retire from International Football.
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None of them demanded roles that actively hindered their team. Gundogan didn't have a bad tournament but also just is a normal player who can run and contribute in all areas, and isn't immune to subs and doesn't take every free kick despite actually being horrible at them.

Ronaldo has the most minutes of any outfield player at the tournament. He literally demanded he play every minute just so he can score, their system was designed to have just him in the box poaching and have 0 other responsibilities, and he still couldn't score. It's sad that one of the best ever has resorted to a "make a wish" charity level of performance and still thinks he should be the center of attention. Just fecking retire, the game has left you.
 
justsomebloke said:
it's really been a poor tournament for strikers overall. Try to imagine who you'd select at CB or GK for team of the tournament, and you're awash with great options. Trying to fill the striker position? I honestly can't think of a single deserving name. Kane might actually be in that conversation, which speaks volumes given how little impact he's had.
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Yeah I think you’d probably have to shoehorn someone as a false 9 like Guler, Gakpo, Musiala, Wirtz etc to go with the Spain wingers
 
As someone who watched him for United aged 12 to 18 (1st run), I always had a soft spot for him.

When he came back, I always wanted him to leave football before it left him. Obviously as one of the genuine greats, he has the absolute right to do as he pleases, but he’s regressed so much and retained his truly horrific main character syndrome.

He’s going out in a pretty horrific manner and it’s pretty sad to see. Those around him, his agents and his managers in football should be urging him to end it as soon as possible.

His presence quite literally cost Portugal in this tournament. They could’ve taken France clean out yesterday had they played with an 11th player.
 
It's so tiresome at this point.
But don't think Portugal lost because of him. Of course playing with 10 men doesn't help but they have more issues and having shit manager is a big one

Josh 76 said:
It won't surprise me to see him playing in the next World Cup. Only he will decide when he finishes international football. No one else, not even the manager!
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Next Worldcup is in the US.
I think his criminal record hasn't been cleared
 
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A lot of unjustified hate here. No idea why. He was poor but its not like he was missing chance after chance. Portugal were poor - And Bruno had a shocker of a tournament as well but hey we have to blame it on one man.

I really don’t understand the hate. No one is performing well this Euros - its a horrible tournament.
 
statpadder said:
A lot of unjustified hate here. No idea why. He was poor but its not like he was missing chance after chance. Portugal were poor - And Bruno had a shocker of a tournament as well but hey we have to blame it on one man.

I really don’t understand the hate. No one is performing well this Euros - its a horrible tournament.
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Every FK becomes his chance for glory despite having a 2% conversation at international tournaments. He missed his pen in the previous match which led to penalty shootouts. His touch is bad. He doesnt occupy defenders and he missed his sitter last night. He gets caught offside easily. What does he offer?
 
Théo Hernandez scores the winning penalty, and immediately the Portuguese players instinctively flood towards the heartbroken João Félix, the only man to miss his penalty, and gather him in their arms. Mendes runs to him. João Palhinha runs to him. Nelson Semedo runs to him. Pepe sets aside his own sadness – this may well have been his last game – and runs to him. There is still a team here, and the only sadness is that we never got to see it.

One man does not run to Félix. Instead he walks in the other direction, off on his own, pursued only by the prurient gaze of the camera. It’s Cristiano Ronaldo.
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Closing paragraphs from excellent piece by Jonathan Liew. Says it all really.
 
statpadder said:
A lot of unjustified hate here. No idea why. He was poor but its not like he was missing chance after chance. Portugal were poor - And Bruno had a shocker of a tournament as well but hey we have to blame it on one man.

I really don’t understand the hate. No one is performing well this Euros - its a horrible tournament.
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"Hate"?

Come on. If you just look at that performance with a reasonably open mindset, which you obviously aren't, the simple truth staring you in the face is that he was awful. By any standard, not just his own.

What Bruno has delivered at this tournament - while perhaps not all that great by his standards - is so far beyond that it beggars belief that someone would bring it up for comparison.
 
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giorno said:
Morata is better than Ramos by quite a bit. What was Jota's fitness like?

They started Ramos against Morocco and lost anyways

This is it. They would have been better with Jota/Ramos playing instead of Cristiano. By no means would that have won them the euros. Maybe they would have, most likely they wouldn't
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I assume Jota was fit to play, he played the game before, no one said anything about him being unfit, don’t understand why a guy that scores regularly in the premier league not even plays in a decisive match.

Yeh Morata is more proven than Ramos, but he is not that great either.
Nico and Yamal make all the difference with their speed in creativity imo.
 
Deco10Legend said:
I assume Jota was fit to play, he played the game before, no one said anything about him being unfit, don’t understand why a guy that scores regularly in the premier league not even plays in a decisive match.

Yeh Morata is more proven than Ramos, but he is not that great either.
Nico and Yamal make all the difference with their speed in creativity imo.
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Olmo honestly looks like more of a goal threat than Morata does.
 
Considering that the narrative is that Ronaldo is so clutch and adaptive that he performs the same regardless of his team mates and manager and is iconic mainly for his goalscoring it all breaks down when he has 3 goals + 2 assists in 21 knockout matches for Portugal. Since he made his game all about goals when he was 23, he doesn't handle hold a candle to the other greats in international tournaments.
 
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Gehrman said:
Every FK becomes his chance for glory despite having a 2% conversation at international tournaments. He missed his pen in the previous match which led to penalty shootouts. His touch is bad. He doesnt occupy defenders and he missed his sitter last night. He gets caught offside easily. What does he offer?
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He didn’t take the first freekick in this match. And I’m sure everyone has horrible conversion rates from freekicks anyway including Bruno.

He missed the penalty because shock horror, anyone can. It’s funny you didn’t bring up his penalty stats because ofcourse “agenda” didn’t allow it. Also, it takes balls of steel to take another penalty after you’ve missed one before in a knockout match.

His touch isn’t bad and he does occupy defenders. He created a few chances for others in this tournament. And overall Portugal were remarkably poor. Bernado Silva, Rafael Leao, Bruno - everyone bar Pepe and Costa was poor/average.

I’m far from a Cristiano fan and I despise him for his 2nd stint here but my God this is an awfully biased place.
 
Red Star One said:
Wait they won the coin flip and Ronaldo chose to go second? Ffs what’s with this Portuguese self sabotage, first Bruno for United, now this shit
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I'd love to hear their reasoning for this as well. Going first has always been seen as an advantage which is also backed up by stats as teams that shoot first win more often.
 
statpadder said:
He didn’t take the first freekick in this match. And I’m sure everyone has horrible conversion rates from freekicks anyway including Bruno.

He missed the penalty because shock horror, anyone can. It’s funny you didn’t bring up his penalty stats because ofcourse “agenda” didn’t allow it. Also, it takes balls of steel to take another penalty after you’ve missed one before in a knockout match.

His touch isn’t bad and he does occupy defenders. He created a few chances for others in this tournament. And overall Portugal were remarkably poor. Bernado Silva, Rafael Leao, Bruno - everyone bar Pepe and Costa was poor/average.

I’m far from a Cristiano fan and I despise him for his 2nd stint here but my God this is an awfully biased place.
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Don't you think he let Bruno take one because of the media pile during and after the match where he'd wasted a ton of freekicks and broke down crying? Dont you think Ronaldo broke down crying and looked like that statue because he was aware of how wank he'd played?
 
giorno said:
They started Ramos against Morocco and lost anyways
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And they started him against Switzerland and won 6-1. Ronaldo also played more than 45 minutes against Morocco and was terrible anyway. 1 or 2 games is barely a sample to prove anything

Portugal played reasonably well on two-thirds of the pitch yesterday. They would've had a much better chance to score if they didn't have that black hole in the final third. A better striker would've also taken advantage of the havoc Leao and Mendes were creating on the left wing. I actually don't believe Ronaldo ever learned how to play as a lone striker.
 
NotoriousISSY said:
He’s going out in a pretty horrific manner and it’s pretty sad to see. Those around him, his agents and his managers in football should be urging him to end it as soon as possible.
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His previous agent Mendes told him the truth - that he's not going to be playing for another top club in Europe. So he replaced him.

He's not going to listen to people who don't tell him what he wants, and people around him wouldn't want to lose that status so they'll keep quiet.
 
Gehrman said:
Considering that the narrative is that Ronaldo is so clutch and adaptive that he performs the same regardless of his team...
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That narrative has always been a pure fantasy. The only people who believe in it (or who want to believe in it, I suppose) are his fanboys.

He's some kind of cartoon (or should I say anime) character to them. Reality (as normal people experience it) doesn't matter/has no place in their worship of him.
 
Chesterlestreet said:
That narrative has always been a pure fantasy. The only people who believe in it (or who want to believe in it, I suppose) are his fanboys.

He's some kind of cartoon (or should I say anime) character to them. Reality (as normal people experience it) doesn't matter/has no place in their worship of him.
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He's like Ichigo from Bleach. Its all about his resolve.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Closing paragraphs from excellent piece by Jonathan Liew. Says it all really.
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Ronaldo has never and will never give a solitary shite about a team. His team is Cristiano Ronaldo and has been since he was 18.

TBF I think a lot of players secretly think like that. He is just hero worshipped to such a degree that he realised he doesn't need to try that hard to hide it.
 
Gehrman said:
He's like Ichigo from Bleach. Its all about his resolve.
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I immediately thought Bankai after reading the post you quoted. Also read "domain expansion" a few days back about him, now just waiting for the power of friendship to power him on to wc2026
 
Josh 76 said:
It won't surprise me to see him playing in the next World Cup. Only he will decide when he finishes international football. No one else, not even the manager!
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Totally depends, I think if they hire Jose he would feel he has the stature especially within Portugal to drop him.
 
OverratedOpinion said:
Ronaldo has never and will never give a solitary shite about a team. His team is Cristiano Ronaldo and has been since he was 18.

TBF I think a lot of players secretly think like that. He is just hero worshipped to such a degree that he realised he doesn't need to try that hard to hide it.
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Tbf there is no doubt that Ronaldo is a narcissist, but the star player carries all the media pressure. Think Neymar, Ronaldo Nazario, Maradona, Messi etc. All the media attention and pressure is on them. Ronaldo just has no business being in this position again at his age after the last WC.
 
Swoobs said:
I immediately thought Bankai after reading the post you quoted. Also read "domain expansion" a few days back about him, now just waiting for the power of friendship to power him on to wc2026
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Whenever Ronaldo preps for his freekick I think "Bankai!". Only for him to shoot it straight into the wall.
 
Anyway, he was absolutely shit in this tournament - as expected.

Martinez is a disgrace. Or the Portuguese FA are a disgrace. Anyone with half a brain should've realized you can't cater to that lunatic in that manner.

What the feck did he/they expect? That Ronaldo would win the tournament for them? By finally scoring on one of them 2.5% free kicks? He offers nothing of note for an otherwise pretty good team...it's...incredible, really.

France were pretty shit (that's another story), there for the taking. Portugal would've progressed if they had done the obvious thing.

Siiiuuu for the shootout goal, I guess (I'm sure his insane followers will manage to milk the most out of that).
 
Idxomer said:
And they started him against Switzerland and won 6-1. Ronaldo also played more than 45 minutes against Morocco and was terrible anyway. 1 or 2 games is barely a sample to prove anything

Portugal played reasonably well on two-thirds of the pitch yesterday. They would've had a much better chance to score if they didn't have that black hole in the final third. A better striker would've also taken advantage of the havoc Leao and Mendes were creating on the left wing. I actually don't believe Ronaldo ever learned how to play as a lone striker.
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I agree with all of that. My point isn't that insisting with him wasn't a mistake - I believe it was. It negatively affected Portugal's chances of winning the game. We're still talking about a game in which Portugal outplayed France and Vitinha and Bruno missed clear cut chances, and they went on to lose on penalties

Which brings me to this...
Chesterlestreet said:
France were pretty shit (that's another story), there for the taking. Portugal would've progressed if they had done the obvious thing.
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....is a delusional take

Btw, I don't think he let Bruno take that FK. Again, anybody with the pics? His face was hilarious
 
If the manager insists on playing Ronaldo as a striker, then he needs to put another striker next to him or put Bruno close behind him and feed him the ball.

The current Ronaldo can't play up front alone, crossing the ball into the box hoping he will lose his marker and score a header is not something you can expect from Ronaldo.

He's also remarkably weak for such a big lad and so easy to take the ball off him.
 
@Chesterlestreet

A bit OT.

What do you think Ronaldo's bankai looks like? I imagine it as him turning into a hybrid of his 2 statues. The one with the hideous face and the other one with his boner. In this Bankai every touch in the box is a penalty and every penalty is converted
 
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