Yeah, its ONE GUY’S fault that the whole team fails at pressing. This is the dumbest argument ever raised.
The media-pedalled notion that we should drop Ronaldo
- Thread starter MalaysianRed7
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On a serious note, the reason there's this narrative is that some players have shorter leashes than others. And controversial top players have the shortest leash of all.
This is the story of Ronaldo's whole career, he's used to it. In fact according to the media, he's supposed to have been finished 8 years ago.
Of course with age he'll eventually wind down and become a net negative for the team, but funny enough he's playing better at the start of this season than he has in some of his previous 'finished' seasons, where he won trophies and Ballon d'Ors.
This is the story of Ronaldo's whole career, he's used to it. In fact according to the media, he's supposed to have been finished 8 years ago.
Of course with age he'll eventually wind down and become a net negative for the team, but funny enough he's playing better at the start of this season than he has in some of his previous 'finished' seasons, where he won trophies and Ballon d'Ors.
If pressing is a team's game then one player cannot be the sole reason for its deficiency.
I think I recall seeing Ronaldo tracking back and defending very well for Portugal in a Euros game, he can do it.
Stop trying to cram players upfront.
Sancho on the right and if greenwood has to sit out. Sit him out. Plenty of games to go around
Ole is nothing other than stick them upfront, the more the merrier, maybe one of them will save him this match.
Pogba and bruno cant play together? Bench one of them. Problem solved.
Without Ronaldo we’re currently out of the champions league sat on one point after 3 games. He’s the least of our concerns.
For me, the issue is disconnect between midfield and forwards and unfortunately I put a lot of that down to Bruno playing too high. He’s essentially playing up top with Ronaldo rather than being that number 10 who connects midfield and attack leaving the midfield massively exposed and teams are quickly able to play between the lines, central midfielders needing to compensate and press on the holding midfielders leaving a midfielder able to play between the lines of defence and midfield.
Our options to compensate for Bruno, who I’m not saying needs to be dropped, are:
- play a back 3 with wing backs providing the width. Essentially playing with 6 defenders if you include our 2 midfielders- give Shaw the licence to get forward
- play a 4-1-2-1-2 / 4-3-1-2- make the midfield more compact and play Bruno as a false 9
- play Bruno as an 8 rather than a 10.
For me, the issue is disconnect between midfield and forwards and unfortunately I put a lot of that down to Bruno playing too high. He’s essentially playing up top with Ronaldo rather than being that number 10 who connects midfield and attack leaving the midfield massively exposed and teams are quickly able to play between the lines, central midfielders needing to compensate and press on the holding midfielders leaving a midfielder able to play between the lines of defence and midfield.
Our options to compensate for Bruno, who I’m not saying needs to be dropped, are:
- play a back 3 with wing backs providing the width. Essentially playing with 6 defenders if you include our 2 midfielders- give Shaw the licence to get forward
- play a 4-1-2-1-2 / 4-3-1-2- make the midfield more compact and play Bruno as a false 9
- play Bruno as an 8 rather than a 10.
Its lazy to point to Ronaldo and try and make him the problem.
He's a genuine, world class forward and he shows that week in, week out. He may not always press and run the legs off the opposition, but there are loads of top strikers in world football who don't do that. In fact, I can't think of many that do. That's not his job.
If a manager cannot accommodate a player of his quality then the problem sits with the manager. Would he be a "problem" for Chelsea, Liverpool and City? I suspect not.
There is no system and no cohesion. That's the problem.
He's a genuine, world class forward and he shows that week in, week out. He may not always press and run the legs off the opposition, but there are loads of top strikers in world football who don't do that. In fact, I can't think of many that do. That's not his job.
If a manager cannot accommodate a player of his quality then the problem sits with the manager. Would he be a "problem" for Chelsea, Liverpool and City? I suspect not.
There is no system and no cohesion. That's the problem.
It’s because their English/British - I remember all these pundits used to give David Luiz so much stick and say things like hes un-coachable etc despite him being a proven winner at Chelsea and PSG, but when it comes to Maguire and Shaw who have won nothing nobody says a word!
I like Cavani but he scored 1 in 3 last season. Ronaldo has 6 in 10 and we aren’t playing as well.
This is exactly the problem. The 4-2-3-1 is actually, essentially a 4-2-4 which leaves us overran in midfield. We could have the two best holding midfield players in the world in there, but a decent three man opposition midfield will simply pass it around you. It was obvious against Atalanta (as Paul Scholes pointed out) and Liverpool, with a far from first choice midfield of Milner, Keita and Henderson who had so much space and time it was always going to a be a disaster.
He already dropped him versus Everton. The fall out was ridiculous after that game. Fergie saying you always play your best players when he became infamous for never playing the same XI in a row.
On the very slim chance you’re being serious, you should check out a website called redcafe. There are threads dedicated to each of those players. Some of them surprisingly unflattering!
Yes, but the trouble is as mentioned elsewhere in a thread on the Jonathan Liew Guardian article: “Manchester United must finally dump Fergusonism and make a clean break”. It isn’t the media who make Ronaldo undroppable, its SAF. Leiw states this: “This month a video emerged of Ferguson criticising Solskjær’s decision to drop Cristiano Ronaldo for the game against Everton. ‘You should always start your best player,’ Ferguson tells the former cage fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov.” It also confirms this bizarre rumour: that OGS doesn’t park in the managers parking space - he leaves that free for Sir Alex. If he dare not park in his ex-managers old space (almost ten years old by-the-way) will he dare to start Cavani over Ronaldo now he knows what Sir Alex thinks about it! Of course not. What a mess.
See: https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...nally-dump-fergusonism-and-make-a-clean-break
The issue here is that he entirely unbalances the side, causes tactical disarray and ultimately renders the side less effective as a tactical whole despite the bundles of goals he guarantees. This is nothing new and was very evident to observe whilst he was at juve, hence allegri’s first decision being to get rid of him.
So you have a situation where he neither presses nor falls back to maintain a compact shape, leaving the side endlessly with a yawning chasm between the front line and midfield which even competently coached sides with journeyman players like Atalanta will gleefully exploit again and again. The players around him (rashford, sancho, greenwood, Bruno) all take their cue from him due to his godlike status inside and outside the dressing room coupled with the fact that there is little direction from the coach.
It means proper sides will repeatedly walk the ball through the middle of the park to leave your defence exposed. Even a pairing of Kante and makalele in there would struggle to stem that particular tide because there is so much space to exploit and so little work from the front 3/4 to either pull the entire side up high in a klopp type compact high press, or fall back to revert to a compact low block to play an effective counterattacking style.
So you have a situation where he neither presses nor falls back to maintain a compact shape, leaving the side endlessly with a yawning chasm between the front line and midfield which even competently coached sides with journeyman players like Atalanta will gleefully exploit again and again. The players around him (rashford, sancho, greenwood, Bruno) all take their cue from him due to his godlike status inside and outside the dressing room coupled with the fact that there is little direction from the coach.
It means proper sides will repeatedly walk the ball through the middle of the park to leave your defence exposed. Even a pairing of Kante and makalele in there would struggle to stem that particular tide because there is so much space to exploit and so little work from the front 3/4 to either pull the entire side up high in a klopp type compact high press, or fall back to revert to a compact low block to play an effective counterattacking style.
Been saying for ages we should be starting Cavani alongside ronaldo, either in a two or on the right.
The notion is pedalled because it’s always something else’s fault under OgS.
Give the man a world class number 9, he doesn’t press enough. DdG back in form, he doesn’t sweep enough. Let him spend £130mil on defenders that aren’t actually good at defending, he needs a world class DM to pull it all together. Things would have been different had we signed Sancho last year, does nothing with him this year. Need a midfielder, signs VdB & does nothing with him.
The assertion he unbalances the side is nonsense as we’ve been crap for vast periods throughout the last few years. This squad is better than what it has shown this season, we should still be winning more games. Prime Cavani in place of Ronaldo doesn’t stop this form, we don’t have any organisation.
Give the man a world class number 9, he doesn’t press enough. DdG back in form, he doesn’t sweep enough. Let him spend £130mil on defenders that aren’t actually good at defending, he needs a world class DM to pull it all together. Things would have been different had we signed Sancho last year, does nothing with him this year. Need a midfielder, signs VdB & does nothing with him.
The assertion he unbalances the side is nonsense as we’ve been crap for vast periods throughout the last few years. This squad is better than what it has shown this season, we should still be winning more games. Prime Cavani in place of Ronaldo doesn’t stop this form, we don’t have any organisation.
Whether Ole drops Ronaldo or not, and whether Ronaldo should be dropped or not, would not matter at all if we are not playing well,
We have fundamental tactical issues here, coupled with the players not working hard and the whole team is also not playing well, Ronaldo's presence isn't the reason for that.
We have fundamental tactical issues here, coupled with the players not working hard and the whole team is also not playing well, Ronaldo's presence isn't the reason for that.
Good post.
Clearly the problem.
I’ve never known anything like it. Him getting a decent chance to score every so often is inevitable. It doesn’t even have to be a good chance either apparently. He has to play for me.
You can't bench Ronaldo.
Cavani is a good player but Ronaldo is on another level
Imagine this guy with an actual service. Can win us the title like RVP did. No doubt 'bout that, as Sir Alex would say.
Neville is the main culprit.
Only Man Utd fans would ever fall for the noose telling them that their better players are the problem
The media can feck off this season. Its been worse than ever.
Obviously he's completely shit.
Can't press to save his life.
Shouldn’t have taken today’s game for people to call this boll*cos out. A world class number 9 is not a problem.
Couldn’t even last 70 minutes of the game.
No matter what happens in the rest of this match, this was very timely given what we have seen in the first 70 minutes before Ronaldo was taken off.
Called the Cavani pairing as well
In fairness though, it’s not rocket science that when you manage a football team, you don’t drop one of the best players to ever kick a ball, if not the best.The media will peddle shit, it's their business. So called United fans falling for it are unforgivable though
Doesn't press. Joke of a player.
Mr UCL. His CL form is the best ever
Not just the media, a bunch of utter muppets on here too, @RUCK4444 guilty I think? Amongst about 100 others.
Guilty of what? I’m literally his biggest fan and want him to play every game bud.
Never said any different. Ronnie doesn’t press but he never has, he never pressed when he was 18 so I don’t know why anybody expected that he would at 36.