Do you believe Ronaldo is finished as a top level player?
- Thread starter Fortitude
- Start date
Just like 99.9% of 38 year olds, yes he is finished at the top level.
Ronaldo is in the 0.1% imo
Agreed. Ronnie, despite his advanced age, is playing at a higher level through these first 10 or whatever matches than Martial and Rashford did over the course of two seasons.
Ronnie famously did not score in Cyprus but he did the little things that contributed to two goals. Martial and Rashford weren’t able to even do the little things over those two seasons.
The legitimate complaint against Ronnie is that we’re paying too much for what we’re getting in return. There’s no question about that, but if we can focus on Martial for a moment, I think this is his seventh season with us and for the average of 250/week we’ve been paying him over those 7 years how many of those 360 or so weeks can we honestly he’s been a good value? At most 15-20.
Ten Haag is a disgrace. How dare he drop the GOAT! He just needs to play him to get him match fit. Then play him until he scores. Then build the team around him for the next 5 years. Then wait until he beats Rooney’s record and offer him a player coaching role at 50. Hopefully by then we can partner him with his son. When his son retires, Ronaldo can move upstairs and just be used for EL games!
This is so untrue it's not even funny. 2021 seasons yes but not the one before that. The fact that his last performance was probably his best of the season says it all. When current Ronaldo plays badly he's a massive detriment because we keep feeding him. We lost our first game of the Europa campaign doing this. When Martial and Rashford had poor seasons they provided their usual limited utility beyond scoring. Martial still brought link up and Rashford brought elite counterattacking threat, they won important penalties.
Rashford's breakaways alone make his poor games preferable because it can somewhat bring compensation. It's how we achieved higher positions that year despite the 2 attackers having bad seasons. By contrast Ronaldo in poor form actively caps us. Our elite counterattack, the one thing this crappy team is good at gets neutralised so easily when Ronaldo leads the line. He wants to carry the ball 40 yards and get the goal, or tries to shoot when he should pass or drags teammates wide when he does.
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okSeems you do as I'm being sarcastic too
Let me start with where I think there can be no disagreement. If we could have offloaded Ronaldo this summer and brought in a promising young striker like Sesko or Gakpo that would have been ideal. Stating uncontested truths, Ronnie is past his best and he’s costing us more in wages than he’s worth on the pitch.
But I don’t think it’s true that better chances on goal were passed up when Ronnie took his chances on goal. Dalot made the right decision to make the pass that led to Ronnie taking the shot that hit the post. There was no other realistic option for Dalot. Ronnie should have scored but instead, seeing a defender on the goal line, attempted to thread the needle — he still should have scored — but he hit the post. I submit that this has happened before even to strikers in their prime as well as players past their prime.
I may have my chronology wrong, but I also submit that most of the time Martial has been with us that he’s been a serial underperformer and at times a disaster. He recently came out with statements to the effect that he was forced to play while he was injured and under Ole that’s believable. Ole forced Rashford and Maguire to play while injured and both — who are in their prime playing years — have gone into a tailspin as a result, although we have seen Rashford return to form this season, albeit very sporadically. Maguire, well, not quite yet.
We all get that Ronnie missed chances the other night he should have converted on, two by my count, and that is a legitimate worry, but it cannot be denied that he put in maximum effort (in very stark contrast to Martial, a notoriously low effort footballer) and contributed to the first Rashford goal by his movemrntbiff the ball and the second Rashford goal by the assist. That actually matters.
He used to sneeze and the ball ends up in the net.
Now he puts in actual efforts and fecks it up everytime. People say its age, I say its karma. Bitching about wanting to play CL, nobody wants him, didnt have pre season and now youre gonna blame it on age?
His head was never here to begin with. Even when Ten Hag had to play him against Amonia Ten Hag told the other players to pass to him so he can score. The manager has been very supportive. Ronaldo's fault. Not his age nor the manager nor the system. Its the human. Where is the good character?
Now he puts in actual efforts and fecks it up everytime. People say its age, I say its karma. Bitching about wanting to play CL, nobody wants him, didnt have pre season and now youre gonna blame it on age?
His head was never here to begin with. Even when Ten Hag had to play him against Amonia Ten Hag told the other players to pass to him so he can score. The manager has been very supportive. Ronaldo's fault. Not his age nor the manager nor the system. Its the human. Where is the good character?
Hear hear
Just seen that Danny Murphy is saying we need to sell Ronaldo... now I know for sure he should stay
Try not to live your life in spite of others. Even jokingly
Previous seasons have nothing to do with anything. Ronaldo scored a lot of goals last season, this season he is useless.
This season Rashford and Martial are full of goals. Players are assessed by their current form. What are you even talking about. We all know Christiano was one of the best ever, better than Martial or Rashford can ever be even if they live 3 lifetimes, but so what. He is finished now. He should have been sold in the summer.
He doesn't understand the difference between selling and letting go for free. Who'd spend to buy this Ronaldo?
Didn’t hear as much crying about Rashford and Martial that’s the point.
Not bad for someone that’s finished
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The problem with both of them are they are flakey. Martial unfortunately is one for the "injury prone" folder too.
Ronaldo is still the man you'd want a big chance to fall to, irrespective of being the older version of him without the dynamism.
Ronaldo is still a good squad player
He is not the future and everything is not about him
I’m so tired of Ronaldo Fc
This is Man Utd and let’s just try and support this new Manager and Team
He is not the future and everything is not about him
I’m so tired of Ronaldo Fc
This is Man Utd and let’s just try and support this new Manager and Team
To be fair to him, is it really Ronaldo FC or is it in the media's interest to be constantly pumping out stories on him, panning to him every second he's on the bench and all that? Chances are the players and staff don't think it's Ronaldo FC.
For me he has been doing his job. Have his performances been great? Not at all. But I don't see a guy downing tools, he looks part of the side, at least to the extent that Ronaldo has always looked part of a side - he's always going to have a streak of individualism and hand waving. The manager doesn't seem too concerned with his current situation or making his own decisions which suggests to me that we should be relatively comfortable with things.
I think the whole thing got blown out of proportion because such a big deal was made of him leaving in the summer. Theres not actually a lot to see.
This season seems to star better coming off the bench, even works harder. Chuffed to bits. That's the backup striker sorted at least till January. Turned out to be a win-win for everyone.
Of course he is finished. What I wonder is what he will do after United. He could accept it and go to Portugal or the MLS. Or he could lower his salary and try to scam another top team.
Whatever level he is now I wish his fanboys in the team (Bruno, Antony, Dalot) would stop trying to force feed him passes all the time. Bruno is by far the worst for it, he plays like he's with his big brother and trying to impress him.
We played well yesterday and it was an entertaining game but this aspect was incredibly frustrating.
We played well yesterday and it was an entertaining game but this aspect was incredibly frustrating.
I'm quite sure that instruction comes from Erik Ten Hag, not specific to Ronaldo, but to the striker.
Fernandes is ruining his career for club and country with this crap unfortunately.
That's pretty naive. Especially considering Ronaldo's career is on the tail end. He's milking this for all it's worth.
Very well said! I am so glad my 13 year old son got to see Ronaldo in Red and the goals of last year this. I am so happy he played for United again..
Are you kidding me ?!! If we talking about his overall game then Yes & he is finished since 2016 but was relying on stats since media & fans nowadays will forget your 89 minutes stink performance if you score a goal even if it was a tap in or penalty …..
not a top 5 since 2015& no way he is a top 10 all time … just a great striker
not a top 5 since 2015& no way he is a top 10 all time … just a great striker
This isn't about Castles being an honest/reliable journo (he obviously isn't).
It's about his relationship with Mendes.
It's very unlikely that Castles would invent a story that goes against what Mendes wants.
Ronaldo should not be a starter anymore. He should come on fresh as a substitute and just finish off teams after they have been run ragged by Hag ball.
Well he obviously wouldn't be a starter if it weren't for the fact we only have one other central striker and he's permanently injured.
And Ronaldo isn't finished - he'll still score goals. But he is finished as an elite striker and that's pretty obvious now.
He's pretty much finished as a football player on this level. "Elite" he hasn't been for a while.
Sad but true, te te, ti ni ni ni te te
More likely to put an end to our attacking football than finish off the opposition. Even fresh off the bench.
If the club dont back the manager with at least one very good striker in Jan then we run the real risk of finishing 6th or lower again. Even if Ron stopped until the end of the season, he isnt going to improve enough to make a difference to us finishing top 4 imo. I cant see him getting anywhere near his 18 total of last year.
Who would have thought we would be clinging onto hope Martial can get fit for a large period of the season?
Who would have thought we would be clinging onto hope Martial can get fit for a large period of the season?
Sounds about right. That way he knows how many minutes he has to use his full energy on too with pressing, etc. Plus he usually works best when pressure is on.
Is his head still shaking?
Looking forward to Castles new tweet! Any minute now..
Looking forward to Castles new tweet! Any minute now..
He should be frozen out. His effect on the team dynamics whether he's a starter or a sub is too damaging. That's without even taking into account his level as a footballer right now.
But.. you want to pass to your striker quite often..no?
should Rashford not been passed to by casemiro then?
Ridiculous to see him shake his head though
Pass to your striker if he's in a good position, or is capable of doing something with the ball.
Too often these days that isn't the case with Ronaldo, hence why we barely ever score with him on the pitch.
He continues to look so far off the pace its sadly very clear now that he is finished at the highest level.
He seems to be offside more than ever!
I agree that he shouldn't be starting Premier League games under any circumstances now. Impact sub is all that's left for him here.
He seems to be offside more than ever!
I agree that he shouldn't be starting Premier League games under any circumstances now. Impact sub is all that's left for him here.