Do you believe Ronaldo is finished as a top level player?

Well...

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He's finished because he can't adapt to loss of physical advantage he used to have. Cavani was slow as well but he used his experience and awareness to be useful. Ronaldo seems like a guy who refuses to believe he's not what he used to be 5 years ago.

Sad view really.

Put him in the box and throw crosses at him is the best we can do. Heading the ball is still working. Do not let him do anything else, his involvement in other places on the pitch is net negative.
 
Andy_Cole said:
I didn’t think so last season he was naive to miss preseason. I think the queen dying may be a blessing for him. Hopefully can get back to form for City away.
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To play him against City will purely be suicidal.
 
His base level is so high he is still great, but he has age against him, his form is off also. The GOAT is never finished, but he is also not world class consistently any more.
 
I just personally feel that Ten Hag is not tactically trying to get the best out of Ronaldo and is instead making Ronaldo play to his possession tactics.

This makes Ronaldo look worse than he is because it isn’t playing to his strengths.
 
Of course, but that isn’t the way to look at this. We’re seeing the ageing and moving into retirement of one of the best players of all time. Though they couldn’t be more different as people, it’s the same way that time has finally caught up with Roger Federer, though he defied it so long you almost thought he’d go on forever.
 
Might be finished at league level but not at
NATION
NATION LEVEL
NATIONAL LEVEL
NATIONAL LEVEL
 
It's almost as if the tempo of the game slows down every time the ball passes to Ronaldo. Every other part of the team looks so improved over last season that Ronaldo looks like the one holding everyone back.
 
Most expensive (wage) back up striker ever.
 
We're not even competing at the top level and he's still way off the pace, so yeah he's finished. It's no coincidence that there were no interested CL clubs after him
 
Borys said:
He's finished because he can't adapt to loss of physical advantage he used to have. Cavani was slow as well but he used his experience and awareness to be useful. Ronaldo seems like a guy who refuses to believe he's not what he used to be 5 years ago.

Sad view really.

Put him in the box and throw crosses at him is the best we can do. Heading the ball is still working. Do not let him do anything else, his involvement in other places on the pitch is net negative.
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Cavani was finished at 34.
 
Just needs to stay in the box and get amongst the goals, obviously he’s 37 which is a big age, I don’t think his touch is gone or shooting but engine at that age has to be going or gone..
 
I hate seeing the guys name on the team sheet as it means we are not going to be playing ETHs preferred style. We are noticibly much less dynamic with the ball and are not even arsed pressing in the final third. This sporadic press does nothing to unsettle the opposition and even a Maldovan side handled our attacking threat pretty comfortably.

He is a 70 minute sub at best…while we have no other Option right now…as I do think it’s too early for garnacho or McNeil to be thrown in from the start of these games and we can’t play with a false 9 at all, we really shouldn’t see this guy start matches if either Rashford or Martial are fit. I think ETH knows it too but needs to keep him onside cause an unhappy Ronaldo is an unhappy dressing room.
 
At the moment he is massively off the pace, I think anyone can admit that much.

The primary issue I have is that I would now consider him to be our third choice striker. It makes little sense to be giving Ronaldo regular game time to get him up to speed when Rashford is more suited to playing up front in Ten Hag's side anyway, not to mention Martial.

Essentially we're going to have to hope that this blip is because of his self-imposed lack of a pre-season and not just that age has caught up with him, otherwise he's going to be of extremely limited use to us this season.
 
absolutely he can finish his wonderful career with highest level
 
Really sad when great players get older.

Ronaldo shone so bright that’s the problem with pace, power and athleticism. He still has the aura of the GOAT so it’s extra sad.
It’s a bit like Muhammad Ali towards the end of his career.

Everyone knew he was still the man but maybe he didn’t belong in a ring anymore.
 
Sadly yes. It’s been painful watching him the last few games. God knows how it feels for him, having torn the arse out the world for so long, now being too slow to keep pace with Europa minnows
 
Borys said:
Wasn't Cavani rather good for us? That's what I remember at last. Injuries kept him unavailable for most of the time, but I always thought we looked better with him on the pitch.
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He wasn’t as good as a 36 year old Ronaldo though, Cavani used pressing and tenacity so he didn’t really adapt at all to his age.
 
Nah. If. you look at Scholes, Xavi, Giggs, Laudrup, Ronaldinho, etc, all the big players still got the technical abilities at the end of their careers too. It was the pace, fitness or in rare cases (Ronaldinho) motivation that made them retire.

Only if the motivation and head is not there, Ronaldo is done. Right now his head is not in the right place, but that can be fixed - He's probably been the player with the most focus in decades, so he'll turn it around somehow with time imo. The mess United has been in, can get to the very best, it's that simple. Maybe a change of scenes will do him better.
 
Mercurial said:
His base level is so high he is still great, but he has age against him, his form is off also. The GOAT is never finished, but he is also not world class consistently any more.
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Nonsense, right now his base level is not high at all, it's painfully low and proving detrimental to the team. He slows everything down, his touch is bad, his passing is bad, his finishing is bad.
 
bringbackbebe said:
It's almost as if the tempo of the game slows down every time the ball passes to Ronaldo. Every other part of the team looks so improved over last season that Ronaldo looks like the one holding everyone back.
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That was the problem last season as well. Same with Juventus. Dybala and Bruno are the two players that suffered the most from Ronaldo's arrival. Bringing him back is one of the worst decisions we've made in years.
 
He's just too old to play in a Ten Hag system. He can't pick and choose when to use his energy anymore.
 
Spoony said:
He's just too old to play in a Ten Hag system. He can't pick and choose when to use his energy anymore.
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I think that’ll kill him even when he’s match fit - using energy for the team rather than for his own considered actions is utterly foreign to him and not something he can or will adjust to, I think.
 
RedCurry said:
I think lack of a pre-season plus him trying to save himself for the World Cup are playing a part here. Either way, doesn’t help our cause.
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That's been my thinking watching him play this season. He looks like he's not taking any risks trying to avoid injury.
 
Bebestation said:
I just personally feel that Ten Hag is not tactically trying to get the best out of Ronaldo and is instead making Ronaldo play to his possession tactics.

This makes Ronaldo look worse than he is because it isn’t playing to his strengths.
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As he should.

This isn't Ronaldo FC, if he can't follow tactics or play how we want he shouldn't be starting and eventually should probably leave.
 
Belisarius said:
Not finished. Just in decline.
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That is my view as well.
Remember he doesn't really want to be at OT and so is probably just going through the motions.
When fully motivated he can still be pretty good. But obviously not top class anymore.
 
"Finished" is too strong in the sense that, like last season, he might still score enough goals by the end of the season to make some people forget how bad his bad performances were. And he had his fair share of bad performances last season, so it's not like these problems have suddenly emerged over the summer.

But he certainly shouldn't be a starter for a team looking to finish within the top four. And if we have to use him as anything more than a sub off the bench in most PL games than we're in trouble. So at that level he's done. But I don't think it's suddenly beyond him to find enough form to do better against EL cannon fodder like Sherrif.
 
If you could create a system where he was allowed to play very high as a penalty box poacher I guess he’d still be capable of scoring goals. But the way we’re trying to play, through balls, players creating space by making loads of runs off each other, he’s not capable of doing it. He can barely run now, based on the evidence of this season.
 
It doesn’t what matter what I think. Every other top level club has already decided he is.
 
b82REZ said:
As he should.

This isn't Ronaldo FC, if he can't follow tactics or play how we want he shouldn't be starting and eventually should probably leave.
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Well this is where I disagree.

Ronaldo is our plan B. He is not our plan A like he was under Ole last year.

For me, United’s plan A without Ronaldo and United’s plan B of trying to utelise Ronaldo is too similar.

He is now pretty much a substitute of our squad - and I believe we should try to get the best out of him whenever we do use him because it just Otherwise leaves to a 10 man team.

I believe we can still use Ronaldo to his strengths especially against lower capable teams - but only if we play towards getting the best out of Ronaldo; rather than Ronaldo trying to play like a 40 year old in a faster version of Barcelona’s possession based team.

Also I’m not a Ronaldo fan boy- I couldn’t stand him when he was our Plan A last year; but I’m okay with him being our Plan B if it actually utelised - well, a plan.
 
I think his days of playing at the very top are coming to a close yes. Saying that, it would be daft to write him off from having one last good season here. Sloppy play of last night aside, he is still our best striker.
 
I think he was somewhat finished last season, he was 'good' in a small number of games and pretty crap in the vast majority.

Peak Ronaldo as such a physical beast that when father time caught up with him, there was always going to be a fairly dramaitic drop.

I still think he has a role as a impact player from the bench, where he can give his all for 20 minutes or so and give us a goal threat as and when we need it.

But over 90 minutes regularly he cant offer enough anymore to be worth his poor link up/defensive work rate/ hold up play/selfish goal hogging.
 
Vidyoyo said:
No chance. He's rated 90 on FIFA 23, the 6th highest in the game
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Haha I saw that yesterday.

Can't believe that was a 90 rated player last night letting the ball bounce off him and passing to no one.
 
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