Ronaldo's biggest strength is his will and determination. However, in pure footballing terms, he falls behind quite a few not just messi and that is why for me he doesnt deserve to be in the GOAT debate.
Last edited by a moderator:
Messi v Ronaldo | Contains double your daily salt allowance
- Thread starter Rado_N
- Start date
- Status
I think Ronaldo is better because he’s more of a complete player. Messi scores pretty much all of his goals in the box. Ronaldo on the other hand, is dangerous anywhere inside 40 yards of the goal. He also can head the ball and is just a stronger player. He also gets fouled more viciously by opposition (imo).
Well, Ronaldo will always be the greatest; he has done whatever Messi does/is doing, but messM hasn't done in like manner, plus, hesh the most complete player I've ever seen...esp especially in his prime, he could dribble players at a go, run the length of the pitch, scpre from any angle of the field within 40 yards off the goalpost, he could score with literally any part of his body, he also gave so many awesome assists which people don't remember because of the 'striker' narrative.
What makes him even better is that he's different; among the top 4 (Pele, Maradona, Ronaldo and Messi), heshthe only one who's different in playstyle, yet just, if not more as effective. I i've watched some of Maradona and Pele's match videos, and they're just like an older version of Messi...like Messi is an upgrade on them, whereas Ronaldo is a different breed, he doesn't seem natural as them, but he gets the job done with every asset a player could use, I personally refer to the other 3 as artists while I refer to Ronaldo as the engineer.
He's great at everything possible while Messi is the king at the one he does; Ronaldo will always be better, but it doesn't take anything away from Messi
Doesn't matter if he's better at things that are not as important as the things in which Messi completely dwarfs him. Heading, shots from 40 metres and whatever are nice to have but Messi has a considerably greater impact by doing the things he does best than Ronaldo through doing his.
It is effectively like saying saying Gareth Bale is better than Neymar because he can head and shoot with both feed. Yeah, whatever, I still take Neymar any day of the week, because he brings more to the team.
Mental to call CRonaldo a more complete player than Messi. Dribbling is no contest. Passing is even «worse». Messi does passes almost every game that CR have never had in his locker. But he can head a ball so I guess that makes him more complete. Give Messi the ball at the half way line and he will create a chance more often than not. CR will pass the ball backwards immediately and run into the box waiting for a cross.
The only thing that C.Ronaldo does better than Messi is strenght. Messi falls flat way too often while C.Ronaldo usually endures and escapes.
Yawn. Keep comparing apples with oranges.
The debate is getting boring. Both are completely different players and both are best in their respective departments.
Similarly to saying that you believe Mata is a better player than Drogba because he's better on the ball really, judging players using only one single metric will lead to plenty of crap counterexamples.
Ronaldo has been more influencial for his teams' results than Messi throughout the years, Messi has 10/10 performances vs Eibar and Espanyol all the time when Barcelona would win those games anyway if he had 7/10 performances instead. Then you'll read on the stats sheet on how he had 7 key passes,2 assists, 2 goals, etc... you'll watch the highlights videos on top of it and be amazed when if he had 1 goal and none of the rest they'd have easily won that game too. Take Messi out of Barcelona and how many less trophies would they have won? 1 CL and 3 or 4 less league titles? Take Messi out of Argentina and how many less trophies would they have won?
Messi amazes people, but when it comes to winning.. things are different in football. Messi is the LeBron James to Ronaldo's Michael Jordan. Scores as much, assists more, blah blah blah, Ronaldo has the mentality, the adaptability and plenty of other small things that aren't as worthy of an highlight reel as dribbling and through balls.
Messi will create with the ball, Ronaldo will retain the ball, pass it sideways and create all sorts of problems without the ball. The difference is that Ronaldo still creates plenty with the ball too while the other is static without it most of the time. Messi gets a pass for not heading the ball because he's tiny but you want Ronaldo to do what Messi does while being 1,87 meters tall.
They're completely different players that have dominated the sport for over a decade playing completely different ways, the problem is that there's a big portion of Cruyffists in football with a close minded vision of what the sport should be and refuse to acknowledge other ways to play the sport besides the one that makes them cream their pants regardless of how effective it is. Cristiano Ronaldo existing is a big feck you to the romantics.
whats height got to do with dribbling zidane and brazillian ronaldo werent exactly small yet were fantastic dribblers. Fact is every attribute of ronaldo is geared to one thing. Finishing. Messi is on par as a finisher but is also the best playmaker of his generation. Whats mentality got to do with eder scoring and higuain missing. Those two instances have no bearing on making either player better or worse. Barca would have won a lot less without messi.
It sure is fascinating that this is even a debate. We have never seen a more complete footballer. Not even close.
Yeah, I had that talk with a friend of mine who prefers Ronaldo over Messi, simply on the following reasons, he is more powerful and scores the more outlandish goals. He conceded that Messi has a better eye for teammates, is the better passer, has the better shooting technique, is the better dribbler and so on but he said this all doesn't matter to him, he prefers Ronaldo because he prefers his playing style over Messi's and I think that's finally when it clicked for me why. It's a matter of style and personal preference. It's the same that I can admit that Mourinho has done very well in his career when it comes to winning trophies but because of his managerial style and football, I will never consider him a great manager because in my view, apart from his trophies and arrogance, he has simply nothing that sets him apart your average run of the mill manager.
Mata didn't score as much or even more than Drogba. Mata neither created on the level Drogba converted.
You created your own reality in which off the ball movement and conversion of crosses makes up for the shortcomings Ronaldo's game has in comparison to Messi's.
You created your own reality in which dribbling and through balls makes up for the shortcomings Messi's game has in comparison to Ronaldo's.
If only Messi could overcome his shortcomings
I think a lot of people created their own realities where passing, dribbling, agility, shooting, free kick accuracy and general technique and vision make up for the shortcomings Messi’s game has.
Barcelona fans wouldn't have had to live through the nightmare that has been the past 3 years.
Yes, all that was clearly Messi's fault. I'm still amazed by the display of incomparable class Ronaldo showed in the last five games during last year's CL campaign
I am pretty sure you are completely biased given that you support sporting.There are several problems with your arguments:
1. By your logic gerd muller > or = cruyff.The former was as great a goal scorer as they come and scored more important goals including in world cup finals than almost any player ever.
2.messi is not just motm vs getafe and espanyol. He probably has more motm performances vs the likes of real madrid and atletico than anyone else.Cristiano on the other hand has a songle good performance vs barcelona in his 9 seasons there, in 2011 CDR and even in that match messi was far better.
3.Messi has only been static without the ball in the previous 3 seasons but his off the ball movement is as good as anyone when needed; you cant core so many without having good off the ball movement.Ronaldo on the ball has never been great; he is an average kick and rush dribbler even in his prime, has no vision to see a pass or the technique to execute a creative pass.He scores many because he plays only to score hence the highest shots per game.As an example in last seasons match vs psg he had more shots than passes completed in the first half.
4.Ronaldo score goals on big games bit you will never remember his performances and with the odd exception his goals either.Many of messi's perfonances vs big teams are memorable.As an example cristiano played 4 times vs man utd and scored 3 times but not one of his matches is memorable whilst messi scored 2 times in the same number of matches ; was the best on the pitch in 3 of those 4 games and one of the best in the remaining one.
Yes, all that was clearly Messi's fault. I'm still amazed by the display of incomparable class Ronaldo showed in the last five games during last year's CL campaign
Last five games? You mean last 3 games, surely? 5th to last game was the performance of the year, second leg vs Juve he was Madrid's best player by a mile. Don't even remember the last time Messi had a performance in the CL quarter finals half as good as the second leg Ronaldo played vs Juve, nevermind the first leg
That's the thing with not being nulified as the one dimentional ball carrier and creator of the team who becomes completely static and inefficient when he doesn't get the ball while not even attempting to help out defensively. You get to not score or assist and be an asset to the team rather than stinking up the whole place. Turns out being versatile means you can help the team plenty of different ways and by being good in the air you can draw defenders away too, not just score goals.
But no... Ronaldo was hurting Madrid and was terrible in the semis and final. Modric was the engine of the team instead, or has the propaganda fell apart already? Look how well Madrid are doing, 'the best squad in the world' as you call it.
I guarantee you that once Messi leaves Barcelona or retires from Argentina, they'll immediately become better teams. Not as talented, but better as teams.
You truly live in your own bubble
Last five games? You mean last 3 games, surely? 5th to last game was the performance of the year, second leg vs Juve he was Madrid's best player by a mile. Don't even remember the last time Messi had a performance in the CL quarter finals half as good as the second leg Ronaldo played vs Juve, nevermind the first leg
That's the thing with not being nulified as the one dimentional ball carrier and creator of the team who becomes completely static and inefficient when he doesn't get the ball while not even attempting to help out defensively. You get to not score or assist and be an asset to the team rather than stinking up the whole place. Turns out being versatile means you can help the team plenty of different ways and by being good in the air you can draw defenders away too, not just score goals.
But no... Ronaldo was hurting Madrid and was terrible in the semis and final. Modric was the engine of the team instead, or has the propaganda fell apart already? Look how well Madrid are doing, 'the best squad in the world' as you call it.
I guarantee you that once Messi leaves Barcelona or retires from Argentina, they'll immediately become better teams. Not as talented, but better as teams.
Messi's Games vs Arsenal where he scored four and his games against City and first leg against Bayern. Where the best ive seen anyone play in the champions league.
You are clearly nuts. No sane rational football supporter would say that. Inlcuding Madrid fans
Saying that Barcelona will be better without Messi is probably the craziest thing I’ve ever read on here. I mean wow.Last five games? You mean last 3 games, surely? 5th to last game was the performance of the year, second leg vs Juve he was Madrid's best player by a mile. Don't even remember the last time Messi had a performance in the CL quarter finals half as good as the second leg Ronaldo played vs Juve, nevermind the first leg
That's the thing with not being nulified as the one dimentional ball carrier and creator of the team who becomes completely static and inefficient when he doesn't get the ball while not even attempting to help out defensively. You get to not score or assist and be an asset to the team rather than stinking up the whole place. Turns out being versatile means you can help the team plenty of different ways and by being good in the air you can draw defenders away too, not just score goals.
But no... Ronaldo was hurting Madrid and was terrible in the semis and final. Modric was the engine of the team instead, or has the propaganda fell apart already? Look how well Madrid are doing, 'the best squad in the world' as you call it.
I guarantee you that once Messi leaves Barcelona or retires from Argentina, they'll immediately become better teams. Not as talented, but better as teams.
1. No that's not my logic in the slightest, Cruyff is a completely different player to Messi and Muller is a completely different player to Ronaldo. The lack of understanding needed to make those comparisons immediately show who has absolutely no clue about the sport and sees it in a black or white (creation and goals) rather than all the complexities and differences involved in their games.
2. He isn't just motm vs getafe and espanyol, he mostly is though. Saying that Ronaldo has 1 good performances vs Barcelona in his 9 years there is hilarious. The 2011 Copa Del Rey isn't one of his best matches vs Barca either ffs.
3.
Yeah that would have been great if it just wasn't completely not true in the slightest.
Saying that Ronaldo isn't good on the ball is beyond stupid. You can not be serious. He's just one of the most technically gifted players in history, he isn't as good as Messi on the ball but saying he's not good on the ball is just pure delusion.
He plays only to score and at 34 he's the most creative player for his team, imagine if he didn't. He doesn't have the vision to make through balls? Horseshit. Again, he isn't as good as Messi at it but he's still very good at it. Plenty of examples of him playing through balls that would make Messi proud, he doesn't do it as often and has a different role but claiming he's bad at it and that he doesn't have an eye for a creative pass is once again just pure delusion.
He's 34 in a month, 8 assists for Juve this season, second highest assister has 4. But he can't play a through ball... Maybe it's because out of the 50 goals Juve have scored this season a grand total of 0 have come from through balls and that's just how they play. Who cares about assists and goals from crosses? They don't look as good.
4.
Oh what a load of bollocks. Do you remember anyone romanticizing about Ronaldo's performance vs the Netherlands in 2012, the Czech Republic in 2008, vs Atletico in 2015 or vs Napoli in 2017? All on the big stages. You don't remember certain performances because they don't have the romantics' propaganda behind it. Not because he doesn't have tons of overall fantastic performances on the big stages even without scoring.
They'll be better as a team, not necessarily better. But the impact Ronaldo had in Madrid was a lot bigger than the impact Messi had in Barcelona. You just wait and see. As long as they keep the same level of talent they'll thrive even after he leaves.
The day Messi leaves is the day they stop playing one dimensional football and players like André Gomes, Lucas Digne and Paco Alcácer are given a role that can get the best out of them rather than having their talents be wasted.
Right... just wait and see how nuts I am. I guarantee you that will be the case.
No, I just understand the sport. As soon as barcelona and Argentina lose Messi they'll start playing to win games instead of playing for Messi to win them games.
You'll see. As long as the level of talent remains the same, Barcelona won't any problems in the slightest when Messi retires.
I couldn't have said this better, thanks
What the feck are you on about ??? Its not even laughable its plain idiotic.
Just this last year messi has been involved in 47.6% of barcas goals for 2018 thats a staggering number for just one player.
By the way when it comes to consistency and the bread and butter in the league where was ronaldos amazing influence and mental strength then ? after almost a decade in spain with the most expensive squad of all time he left with only 2 league titles a joke for a player you say is the goat and you want to talk nonsense about influence and barca without messi.
@Peyroteo You are so incredibly biased that I don't even know where to start when it comes to debating with you.
The cherry on top for me is to have the audacity to say that Messi "has the 10/10 performances against Getafe etc".
Have you seen what teams Messi has scored the most goals against in La Liga? The last I checked the top 3 teams are Real Madrid, Athletico Madrid and Sevilla.
Don't act as if Messi is a mere world class flat-track bully. Jesus.
The cherry on top for me is to have the audacity to say that Messi "has the 10/10 performances against Getafe etc".
Have you seen what teams Messi has scored the most goals against in La Liga? The last I checked the top 3 teams are Real Madrid, Athletico Madrid and Sevilla.
Don't act as if Messi is a mere world class flat-track bully. Jesus.
Madrid exist for the Champions League, 4 in 9 years with another 4 semifinals, the 2 league titles are a bonus.
Can you imagine if it was Ronaldo playing ahead of the midfield that won Spain 2 Euros and 1 World Cup in 4 years? If he was the one to have that incredible privilige I'd expect the greatest player of all time to have an unparalleled amount of success, are those expectations too big?
Ronaldo was 9 years at Madrid, he was facing off against the 'best player of all time' with the best midfield in football history behind him for most of it... the best squad in world football for the whole of those 9 years and he left with Madrid having had a more successful 9 years than Barcelona.
2 leagues in 9 years, so what? Ronaldo's influence was there, with the amount of difference between the teams around them two, Barcelona not winning 9 in a row was great.
I'm not doubting the influence he has on the current version of Barcelona. It's incredible.
If Messi wasn't there they would be a completely different team.
Forget that hes holding back the all time greats digne alcacer and andre fecking gomes
Yeah, you dropped Bayern, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Manchester United and some others but whatever.
Laughable to say Leo is worse at "winning", he has more titles, he's showed at every level Ronaldo has showed too, and remind me, who was in the team that stood in Ronaldo's way to repeat the UCL title for the first time ever and stole the treble away from Manchester and brought it to Barcelona? some Argentinian dude that scored in the 08' final, right?.
I never did. He has plenty of great performances vs great teams, obviously. I love how saying he has plenty of 10/10 performances vs Eibar and Getafe was interpreted as if he didn't have any of those vs great teams.
The point is that the moments and matches in which the goals, assists, key passes or whatever other statistic gets popular next week come are more important than how often they come.
@Ishdalar I guess this answers what you were saying too. You're misinterpreting what I wrote.
Forget that hes holding back the all time greats digne alcacer and andre fecking gomes
1 year ago Asensio, Lucas Vasquez and Kovacic were a lot of the incredible squad depth Madrid had vs Barcelona's crap bench of Digne, Gomes and Paco Alcacer.
I guess in the end it didn't matter at all. Just like it didn't matter when Arbeloa, Khedira, Ozil and Di Maria were up against Alves, Xavi, Iniesta and Pedro.
There isnt a single person on this planet who would pick the latter 3 above the former not even gomes/alcaer/dignes mum.
Just because you don't watch them play doesn't mean nobody else but their mums does.
This year there shouldn't even be a comparison..
Last edited:
We are on about how they played for real and barca, the latter three were beyond out of their depth at the highest level, andre gomes barely resembled a footballer for barcelona. Performances in lesser teams count for nothing right now, have you forgot the of times asensio and vasquez set up ronaldo in crucial points over the past few seasons.
Messi is my favourite ever player. Its just the way he plays football. Its beautiful to watch. Sometimes so effortless the way he plays yet so beautiful.
That's exactly my point though, ones were used to their best and had clear roles in the squad due to the versatility of their team's game. The others didn't.
Asensio and Lucas Vasquez wouldn't have been as good for Barcelona as they were for Madrid.
During Ronaldo's 9 years at Madrid, the only year where you can argue that he had a better squad around him than Messi was 2016/17 and in the end Madrid was still more successful during those 9 years.
See, you just keep posting and posting until even the most ridiculous things make sense. That's probably the secret of how you convinced yourself of these almost absurd opinions, too. I don't even want so say that the things you argue don't make sense at all but you completely exaggerate every argument you find in favour of Cristiano to a point that it can only be defined as ridiculous while simultaneously and more often than not indirectly downplaying everything that speaks for Messi at every possible occasion (and usually disguised as if you were giving a neutral opinion) that I can't take you serious any longer. At least when it comes to this discussion. As I said, you really are creating your own reality man.
See, you just keep posting and posting until even the most ridiculous things make sense. That's probably the secret of how you convinced yourself of these almost absurd opinions, too. I don't even want so say that the things you argue don't make sense at all but you completely exaggerate every argument you find in favour of Messi to a point that it can only be defined as ridiculous while simultaneously and more often than not indirectly downplaying everything that speaks for Ronaldo at every possible occasion (and usually disguised as if you were giving a neutral opinion) that I can't take you serious any longer. At least when it comes to this discussion. As I said, you really are creating your own reality man.
- Status