I thought it was your only post in the thread. I'm honored that you come back.
On your choice of Messi, it is understandable. I also think that Messi is a better football player,without using statistics (although I decided to vote for Cris).
You choose several mediapuntas / enganches / jugones.
Actually you could put on that list any top number 10 in the last 30 years and you´d say that plays better football than Cristiano.
In fact that's what a playmaker does, play and make play to the others.
Domain of space, ball and combinations.
I also like those examples, I'm not a purist but I like the concepts of tikitaka, Menotti or Cruyff, but that has nothing to do with underestimating the goal. Although Cristiano does more than just penalties and easy goals. If we search deeply perhaps we will find some assist,or the abstract concept of football intelligence on the pitch.
I don't know very well the point of that anecdote of penalties against Chelsea?. Maybe you do not like him and are being slightly subjective?.
Of course I remember Rivaldo, at Barça and his season in Coruña where I used to go to the stadium.Did you see him live? (and by the way, Cristiano?)
Firstly you complain about the statistics and then you bring an article full of them
I also remember endless debates in radio about his position on the left where many times disappeared,his lack of leadership.
I liked his dribbling,his stride and the amazing free kicks but in my opinion was so slow.Leadership and intelligence ... were not his greatest virtues,
and personally I think that affected his departure from Barcelona. Tostao said it, "he scores goals but can not think because he does not know.".
Comparing him with Cristiano is incredibly excessive .
I always like reasoned debate, and understand where you are coming from to an extent (it's a game where goals are the ultimate arbiter, after all).
But before one can score a goal, many other things have to be in place, but I made no comment about penalties and Chelsea so you may be confusing me with another poster.
Yes, I saw Rivaldo live in both Manchester and Barcelona (a few times), and also very much remember the dreadful way Van Gaal used both him and another of my favourites Riquelme, but that's another story. Think of how relatively bad that Barca side was and how Rivaldo essentially carried it for 2 seasons (they had a party when they finished 4th!). I don't see CR ever playing as selflessly as Rivaldo did for Barca at that time.
Well, there was a slight ironic lead-up to my posting the article with Rivaldo's stats, but I understand that humour doesn't translate well on the page sometimes - the utter ridiculousness of thinking that statistics can lead to truly objective assessments about human beings' endeavours (see various Labour Party 'target-driven' policies in the UK over the late 90s and 2000s) is the point I'm driving at and this is the very thing that many CR fans seem to cling to rather too vehemently.
I completely understand not being an aesthete in competitive sports, but how a team wins games is more complex than scoring goals. There's a reason that Kroos and Modric complained about the way the team seemed to be set-up for Ronaldo to score goals but it was effective. It's here where I feel many Ronaldo fans begin to lose the concept of a player in a team game and that's why Ronaldo will be considered more like Gerd Muller than Johan Cruyff in years to come. That still doesn't stop him being an amazing player, and that's what you should enjoy - it's nothing but a entertaining meaningless diversion, after all...
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