Even Virgil van Dijk is a better free kick taker than CR. Stop with the freekick nonsense already. He's fecking shite at it. He was actually the 2nd worst free kick taker in all of europe last season.
Ronaldo vs Ronaldo
- Thread starter altodevil
- Start date
Yes, free kicks are actually one he is worse at, although it must be lauded on how he came up with a very effective style back in his United days. Perhaps the best ever since the ball got significantly lighter but lost its effectiveness in recent years.
Justif you think Cristiano has better technique, skill or tricks than the Brazilian Ronaldo. Strength is even more ridiculous. Pace wise I think Cristiano has better sprint speed, but R9 was fecking crazy fast with the ball on his feet.
Cristiano had the far better career but prime Ronaldo 9 was the better footballer.
Technique in football sense isn’t just about dribbling and ball control. Stepover isn’t the only technique.
For example:
Shooting technique
- placed shot
- power shooting
- swerve ball
- screamer
- lob shot
- first touch finish
- toe poke
- volley
- bicycle
- backheel shot
Dribbling skills/technique/tricks
- step over / reverse step over
- ball roll / quick ball role / ball role flick
- heel flick
- faint
- spin/double touch spin
- Ronaldo chop / ball roll chop
- elastico
- Hocus pocus
- rebona / fake rebona
- somberero
- around the world
- chest flick
Passing technique
- short pass
- long pass
- through ball
- one touch pass
- swerve pass
- rebona cross
- no look pass
- jump pass
- shin pass
- backheel pass
Heading technique
- jumping header
- diving header
- attacking header
- flick-on header
- power heading
Free kick technique
- curve ball
- banana shot
- knuckleball
- dip shot
- driven freekick
Sure there is lot more than that. Not every skills/technique/tricks are practical. You may argue L.Ronaldo have mastered a few simple one and delivered those more effectively. Fact is Cristiano has mastered much wider variety of it.
It shouldn't be too difficult to grasp that football technique is the action performed between body and ball. First touch, dribbling, heading, shooting, crossing and yes set piece taking is included since it's related to shooting or crossing even if it's from a dead ball situation.
I understand it could be a revelation for CR haters that he has in fact excellent technique.
It's a difference in defintion I think. Quite a few people see technique as first touch, close control and general ball control. You can argue that technique encompasses everything you listed. But why do you list technique seperate from shooting and heading if it's all considered technique.
Again, why list heading and shooting seperately, if it's all considered technique. As for the bolded, Ronaldo is not good at free kicks. He's good at standing in a weird wide legged way and making a big fuss about it, but free kicks are about conversion and his conversion is rubbish.
Also, CR has very good technique regardless of the definition, but technique in the classical sense of the world? The Brazilian edges him easily.
If that makes me a Ronaldo hater in your mind, by all mean, I'll wear it proudly.
Heading and shooting? Most players are significantally worse on one of them and it's an action performed by different body parts so I don't get your point @KirkDuyt
Ronaldo is very good/great at both which is not common at all.
Ronaldo is very good/great at both which is not common at all.
Now that's a stretch
I think we're arguing different points
My point was about the definition of the term technique. In my view, technique is seen as ball control, first touch etc. In the normal definition of the word, shooting technique, heading technique, running technique and jumping technique could all technically (harhar) be put under the word technique. I just don't think the term technique encompasses all of these things in football.Hence my question. If you rate players on all these different forms of technique seperately, why would you also include technique as a seperate criterium?
Also I agree, Ronaldo is very good.
but Ronaldo edges it for me.
I only ever saw Van Dyke take 1 in his career and it went in so.. I dunno.
As i said, technique in football is (or should be) all actions done with the ball.I think we're arguing different points
Hence my question. If you rate players on all these different forms of technique seperately, why would you also include technique as a seperate criterium?
Also I agree, Ronaldo is very good.
but Ronaldo edges it for me.
I only ever saw Van Dyke take 1 in his career and it went in so.. I dunno.
Running technique is running technique just like Jumping technique is a Jumping technique.
Bergkamp had beautiful technique. Van Persie, Van Basten, etc. None of these excelled in dribbling or heading (except Van Basten) which didn't mean they weren't very technical players.
Some people mix flair and tricks with technique. Usually you need it to perform unpredictable actions but flair is more of a mental thing. In that regard i consider the fat Ronaldo to be clearly superior to CR7 and even Messi.
There are also many players with ungodly technique but lack the flair, confidence and even decisions to perform something brilliant.
And that's enough of saying the word technique for today!
CRonaldo has countless goals in which he receives the ball while running fast and keeps it under control. First time shots are also part of first touch ability. A poor first touch would send the ball into row z or do a Valencia shin strike. It's quite rare to see CR7 have a poor first touch. A season or two with no sloppy touches is impressive but doing it over 10 seasons is just another level.
So you're saying Cristiano Ronaldo didn't make Real Madrid the most dangerous team in the world on the counter? He did for Utd.
The fact they've spent their peaks in different positions makes this discussion 10x more difficult.
Original Fat Ron was without a shadow of a doubt the most gifted player in the game the last 40-50 years for me.
Absolutely frightening ability at his peak which sadly for us football lovers was all to short a time.
If not for his 2 knee injuries both Messi & CR7 would be playing catch up to his numbers.
Absolutely frightening ability at his peak which sadly for us football lovers was all to short a time.
If not for his 2 knee injuries both Messi & CR7 would be playing catch up to his numbers.
NOPE!
And its not even close!
Fat Ron without any shadow of a doubt is the most naturally talented player in a half century easily.
And he played in an era where you got away with assault before any cards were pulled
Yeah, i guess that makes Bierhoff the GOAT
Do not disrespect CR7 and Messi man, just dont. Its cool if you think R9 was better than CR7, its completely fine just dont come here with those ridiculous claims. Nobody has ever come close to what these two have done for the last 10 years, and they dont seem to be stopping anytime soon. Its absolutely ridiculous what theyve done.
They are just untouchable, nobody comes close. Peak and logetivity, they end up on top against every single player.
Take Ronaldinho for example, mentioned often as one of the players with the best peak ever. Take Ronaldinho's best 3 years and even if he had kept that 3 year form for an entire decade, he wouldnt come close to Messi and CR7's numbers.
They destroy every single player on that criteria, longetivity and peak.
Only one that comes close is maybe R9, that one ridiculous year of him vs CR7's best year and yeah i can see it being a close fight. Do not for a second try to compare R9's best year vs Messi's best year because R9 wont be able to compete or come close.
He played in an era when football was also vastly superior!
The standard of football today is the drizzling s*its in comparison to late 90s-early 2000s.
Sure he did. Still wasn't as unstoppable on the counter as Ronaldo
You can't compare output of different generation in the pure form of numbers cause the conditions. You can compare them as players in terms of attributes and so on. Ronaldo got injured and his terror ended. No one is arguing longevity or anything of the sort. You can only compare pre injury Ronaldo to Cristiano.
History can do what it wants. I've lived through the two era's so obviously im going to hold a different opinion especially given what we see on the international scene. Or what we see from Cristiano outside of Madrid. Football has changed so much in the past decade if you arent aware of that you'd find it crazy that someone would compare the two players.
Why in the blue hell are you mentioning Bierhoff?
The only opposing player I recall ever getting a standing ovation from Old Trafford? Fat Ron!
Far from ridiculous. If not for 2 career ending injuries his numbers would be completely mind boggling.
There was a video doing the rounds a few months back of forwards and goals at respective ages and Fat Ron's stats up to his injuries were legit mind boggling.
Like I say, injuries.
Could easily of been CR7 or Messi instead with the injuries and it'd be role reversal.
Based on pure, Natural talent... Fat Ron is untouchable. I'd argue only George Best or Maradona are in a similar bracket.
Today's standard of football is feckin awful in comparison.
One year?
Aged 17, he scored 20 goals in 21 apps
Aged 18, he scored 24 goals in 26
19 - 35 goals in 36 apps
20, 19 goals in 21 games
21, 47 goals in 49 games.
22, 34 goals in 47 games
At 21 & 22, he wins the World Player of the year back to back.
Around this point the injuries start to seriously kick in and numbers drop off. Still he finishes runner up in the World Cup in 98. Goes to Real and scores 104 goals in 177 apps, whilst dealing with recurring injuries still AND... wins the world cup in 2002.
Hardly "one ridiculous year".
Why in the blue hell are you mentioning Bierhoff?
The only opposing player I recall ever getting a standing ovation from Old Trafford? Fat Ron!
Far from ridiculous. If not for 2 career ending injuries his numbers would be completely mind boggling.
There was a video doing the rounds a few months back of forwards and goals at respective ages and Fat Ron's stats up to his injuries were legit mind boggling.
Like I say, injuries.
Could easily of been CR7 or Messi instead with the injuries and it'd be role reversal.
Based on pure, Natural talent... Fat Ron is untouchable. I'd argue only George Best or Maradona are in a similar bracket.
Today's standard of football is feckin awful in comparison.
One year?
Aged 17, he scored 20 goals in 21 apps
Aged 18, he scored 24 goals in 26
19 - 35 goals in 36 apps
20, 19 goals in 21 games
21, 47 goals in 49 games.
22, 34 goals in 47 games
At 21 & 22, he wins the World Player of the year back to back.
Around this point the injuries start to seriously kick in and numbers drop off. Still he finishes runner up in the World Cup in 98. Goes to Real and scores 104 goals in 177 apps, whilst dealing with recurring injuries still AND... wins the world cup in 2002.
Hardly "one ridiculous year".
You are way too biased for me to even engage in a friendly argument with you, so whatever man. Keep focusing on this paralell universe where R9 never got injured, kept his top form for 10+ years and broke every record while Messi and CR7 felt to drugs and injuries and retired at the age of 20.
Peak Ronaldo is great, maybe top 5 ever peaks, but not better than CR7's peak and certainly not better than Messi's and thats for gotdamn sure. And im talking about Barcelona's R9 btw, PSV stats are kind of irrelevant when talking about the GOATs. R9 can do better than that.
Pick any year of Messi btw starting from 2008, and individually he beats R9's Barcelona's season. On his worst year, he may be equal to best R9's year. Thats about it. Dont even compare them man they are two different kind of monsters. R9 is still earthly but CR7 and Messi are beyond that.
Why in the blue hell are you mentioning Bierhoff?
The only opposing player I recall ever getting a standing ovation from Old Trafford? Fat Ron!
Far from ridiculous. If not for 2 career ending injuries his numbers would be completely mind boggling.
There was a video doing the rounds a few months back of forwards and goals at respective ages and Fat Ron's stats up to his injuries were legit mind boggling.
Like I say, injuries.
Could easily of been CR7 or Messi instead with the injuries and it'd be role reversal.
Based on pure, Natural talent... Fat Ron is untouchable. I'd argue only George Best or Maradona are in a similar bracket.
Today's standard of football is feckin awful in comparison.
One year?
Aged 17, he scored 20 goals in 21 apps
Aged 18, he scored 24 goals in 26
19 - 35 goals in 36 apps
20, 19 goals in 21 games
21, 47 goals in 49 games.
22, 34 goals in 47 games
At 21 & 22, he wins the World Player of the year back to back.
Around this point the injuries start to seriously kick in and numbers drop off. Still he finishes runner up in the World Cup in 98. Goes to Real and scores 104 goals in 177 apps, whilst dealing with recurring injuries still AND... wins the world cup in 2002.
Hardly "one ridiculous year".
Many average players score the similar number of goals (or more) in the poor Brazil and Dutch league over the years, and during same period too. If you call that ridiculous years, fine then.
I think we're arguing different points
Hence my question. If you rate players on all these different forms of technique seperately, why would you also include technique as a seperate criterium?
Also I agree, Ronaldo is very good.
but Ronaldo edges it for me.
I only ever saw Van Dyke take 1 in his career and it went in so.. I dunno.
That’s where the problem is, why technique is only limited to ball control and first touch? We already have the term for ball control and first touch. Why need another term to describe the same thing? It doesn’t make any sense at all.
By definition, technique in football terms means a way to carry out a task, or execute it. It can means anything to do with a ball to perform a task, include shooting, heading, dribbling, passing, freekicks etc
For example, if you perform a bicycle kick to shoot the ball into the net, it’s definitely a type of technique in shooting. A knuckleball in freekick, it’s another type of technique in freekick. A rebona cross, another type of technique in passing. These have nothing to do with ball control or first touch at all.
I think Ronaldo was the best.
Well, no. Messi's had maybe three seasons individually better than Ronaldo's. 11/12 for sure, other than that it's arguable. Unless you want to talk stats, in which case your point is still incorrect
I've read loads of different managers all saying basically the same thing, Ronaldo is the most naturally talented player they've ever seen. He just didn't have the knee's to sustain it.
Not at 17 & 18 years old they don't.
Examples of that happening are few and far between.
As another said, all you care about is numbers.
I highlighted R9's and they were incredible up to his injuries.
He easily would of been setting the records CR7 and Messi are now long before they came on the scene.
R9 was not only at his peak for a singular year as suggested, he performed for close to a decade at a top level whilst battling career ending injuries throughout.
Dude. Have you ever watched Ronaldo play?
Top speed CR7? Come on. 10-15 kg overweight R9 was still among the fastest players in the game. He clocked I believe 36 km/h when he was back in Brazil, essentially finished. Cristiano was reported to have run 40 km/h at the EC 2018 but it was later corrected to 34 km/h. Just for comparison, as far as I know Leroy Sane still holds the record in the EPL with 35.4 km/h or something along those lines. R9 trumped almost any player in history in terms of explosiveness and top speed. He was a freak and you regularlyburst out in laughterwhen ypu watch sprinting conpilations of his. That's how ridiculouslyfast he used to be.
Technique and tricks CR7? R9 was like a lite version of Ronaldinho played in fast forward. CR7 in his prime dribbled through sheer pace and rarely did tricks at all because he came to learn that his skills were inefficient. R9 on the other hand pulled of some of the most memorable skill moves at top speed on top of having a much more consistent technique in general.
Strength? Have you ever seen how R9 just tanked some of the stro gest defenders in the world at that time? For all his athleticism, CR7 never did that.
Professionalism, determination, whatever? True, but that's stuff that mai tained his longevity. We are talking about peak.
Finishing? R9 wasa completely lethal finisher, being the best at rounding the keeper in history.
What makes Cristiano stand out is his understanding of the game. His positioning, runs, timing, decision making, etc. But when speaking about raw ability, R9 is heads and shoulders above him and almost anybody else.
He is best teenager in football we all get that. Point being nothing amazing about his record in Brazil and Dutch league. A lot of average players has scored similar amount of goals there.
Dude have you watched C.Ronaldo play during his physical peak at 11-13?
You are basically comparing 33 years old C.Ronaldo to a YouTube best complication L.Ronaldo in your fantasy mind.
I have watched L.Ronaldo throughout his whole career, from 18 to 33. Overall speaking, majority of his football career, he isn’t even half the player you describe here.
His best ever season only match C.Ronaldo 7th best season. With such great finishing as you described above, his goal record in Madrid is a joke if compared to C.Ronaldo.
For larger part of his career, he was overshadowed by the likes of Henry, Ruud, and he wasn’t even top 3 striker in the world for larger part of his career.
And don’t get me start to talk about his 30’s. It’s a complete joke and shambles. He wasn’t even good enough to get some game time in Europe.
See, you break it down to goals, read my previous post for an amswer on that. I was talking about ability in their prime and Cristiano simply didn't possess the skills Ronaldo possessed to the same extent, neither in his thirties nor at any other point during his career. And that's no criticism since there are hardly any players in history that can stand their ground in that comparison, probably not even Messi and Maradona.
Cristiano is just an okay passer. Adept is the word I suppose. But he's not particularly great at it at all.
His prime is great but short, but you overrated his prime with romanticism. I rate C.Ronaldo prime better, not only because of his goals, but basically every aspects of his game is top class. L.Ronaldo has great ball control, dribbling, balance, acceleration/explosiveness. But he doesn’t have everything else to match with C.Ronaldo in his prime (including pace, skills, technique, shooting, finishing, heading, strength, passing/crossing, movement, freekicks, long shot, tricks, agility, athleticism, stamina, determination, leadership, mental strength etc)
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Not at 17 and 18 they don't which is the point and its not really that common as you suggest either.
List me 17/18 year old's that have similar numbers in Brazil / Holland?
He is the best 17/18 year old, if compared to other 17/18, he is best player out of the same age group. We all get that.
But as footballer, compared to other professional footballers, there's nothing amazing about his record in Brazil and Dutch league, did you get that one?
We were talking about technique in which passing ability belongs to. It's obvious he is not the type of player to dictate games with passing because his vision is not as good as other great playmakers nor he has the flair of a Maradona or Zidane or Messi but, nevertheless he is most often very precise in his forward and diagonal passes.
He's not faster than Ronaldo, that's not even an opinion but a fact. Post injury Ronaldo most likely still had better top speed than any iteration of CR7, that's how ridiculously fast he was. Suggesting the opposite issimply wrong, plain and simply. Technique is a soft criterion so that depends on your individual assessment but honestly, saying that Cristiano is a better technician than Ronaldo for me is like suggesting CR7 has got a better technique than Zidane. Even Zidane himself said Ronaldo is the best player he encountered during his career because he could do things with a football nobody else could. I mean, if there's one equal to Ronaldinho in terms of skill moves/tricks, it's Ronaldo. I'm utterly stunned that someone could've watched him in the flesh and still come to the conclusion that Cristiano is a better technician. That's completely absurd to me.
Kind of an irrelevant point then really?
At his age and his returns but also how he played to get those numbers he was untouchable.
For me, as a natural talent he was simply untouchable in recent times of the game.
It's not just vision. He's just not got the same range, ability or indeed technique in his passing. Like I said, he'd adept. He doesn't kill moves and can make a good pass when he has to in the final third. But some in this thread are making it out to be as though he is magnificent at everything. Not the case.