All views are not equal. All opinions are not equal. This thread might as well be titled "maybe Ronaldo won't be very good" or "Ronaldo will either be good, bad, or average." It's just a waste of time this thread.
Unpopular opinion: Ronaldo will be a huge miss
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What a strange post. He is presenting an opinion and that's a fact. Not sure what you're disputing. So the view of the majority that it'll be a successful transfer (I'm part of that), is an opinion and not "mere blind optimism". Doenst make any sense really.
But do you notice how the OP has already put in an excuse for the manager? Opinions are necessarily subjective, but to assert that if United fail to click this season it must be because of Ronaldo streaks of bias against the player.
That depends on the outcome which we will find out later. All opinions are entitled to exist which is the entire point you're missing.
You're a pedant. My entire point is that we will not know how Ronaldo does until Ronaldo does something, hence this entire thread is a waste of time.
Right, so nobody can make a prediction or hold a view on what the future with hold now because it doesn't align with your view. This forum is full of that which is the entire point.
My god, you're a tedious person.
Honestly this wouldn't even be that terrible of a thread if it wasn't a kneejerk reaction to portugal going down in half time with ronaldo missing a penalty.
Of course, ronaldo scored twice late in the same game which made it all the more sweeter and made OP look silly.
Of course, ronaldo scored twice late in the same game which made it all the more sweeter and made OP look silly.
Moral of the story, never rule him out until the final whistle blows because he'll fight till the end.
Even if neutral you'd have to say he's one of the greatest ever. Teams will have to accommodate that threat and I suspect he will be Cantonesque on influencing the younger players.
Just pray he keeps away from the cloggers.
Let's hammer Q$G! Think they might have more trouble integrating.
Just pray he keeps away from the cloggers.
Let's hammer Q$G! Think they might have more trouble integrating.
Which players score lot of goals and also play consistently well for 90 mins? I see this trend has started on caf, would love to see the list. Messi is one without doubt.
He is 36 and he is still the best forward around. Sure he is no longer anywhere near his peak at 26, but he is still one of the best option around (similar to Lewandowski, Haaland or Mbappe)
He's definitely more matured and more experienced. Can't wait to see what happens. Hopefully he scores a few goals and this thread gets locked.
I foresee some epic flamewars over the next 2 years.
You just have to hope "Ronaldo vs Messi" brigade won't enter ManUtd and player performance forum.
Weak response.
On the OP
1. His wages will stretch the frontier which agents will be able to explore when dealing with us over contract extensions in the future (we have seen this in the past already with Sanchez, Pogba, DDG). See Barca.
I think everybody knows that the likes of Messi and Ronaldo are anomalies in the sport and hence if you're well run financially and not utterly incompetent then you won't let this destroy your structure.
2. Non-existent defensive contributions will impact our shape and will put an immense pressure on our midfielders. Everyone could see the difference between Cavani and Martial last season and how it impacts our ability to press effectively from the front.
This is a more valid point but the payoff in attack is much bigger. Again when you have great players it's important that everyone else chips in to allow them to do what they're best at. Whether we are able to do it, will obviously hugely impact how successful this transfer is. But I feel a quality manager should be able to find a balance. Let's see.
3. He can’t play with his back at all and do the hold-up as he only operates well in spaces since he’s not your classic #9.
True. But does every team need a 'propah' classic CF? Aguero is one of the best CFs in PL history and City won lots with him up top. Barcelona dominated with Messi as a false 9. PSG are a pretty good team without a proper CF starting for them.
4. In case he’ll be performing poorly Ole will shy away to change him due to his status and ego in order not to upset him, which will hinder our team.
True for any big player. Bruno could perform badly. If your manager is weak then change the manager. You can't stop signing great players.
I personally feel he’ll end up being a costly mistake for us (taking away the balance that Cavani brings) and Ole (will ultimately lose the job as a result) when you don’t look through the euphoria lenses. I may be underestimating Ronaldo greatly here but this is my feeling with respect to this transfer, having watched him play these last few seasons where he struggled to influence the games when he’s not scoring penalties or poaching goals are not on.
Fair enough but I don't think Ole is that great anyway. If he'll lose his job it'll most likely be because he's not good enough to take us to the top.
Can we do a poll on this?
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1. His wages will stretch the frontier which agents will be able to explore when dealing with us over contract extensions in the future (we have seen this in the past already with Sanchez, Pogba, DDG). See Barca.
I think everybody knows that the likes of Messi and Ronaldo are anomalies in the sport and hence if you're well run financially and not utterly incompetent then you won't let this destroy your structure.
2. Non-existent defensive contributions will impact our shape and will put an immense pressure on our midfielders. Everyone could see the difference between Cavani and Martial last season and how it impacts our ability to press effectively from the front.
This is a more valid point but the payoff in attack is much bigger. Again when you have great players it's important that everyone else chips in to allow them to do what they're best at. Whether we are able to do it, will obviously hugely impact how successful this transfer is. But I feel a quality manager should be able to find a balance. Let's see.
3. He can’t play with his back at all and do the hold-up as he only operates well in spaces since he’s not your classic #9.
True. But does every team need a 'propah' classic CF? Aguero is one of the best CFs in PL history and City won lots with him up top. Barcelona dominated with Messi as a false 9. PSG are a pretty good team without a proper CF starting for them.
4. In case he’ll be performing poorly Ole will shy away to change him due to his status and ego in order not to upset him, which will hinder our team.
True for any big player. Bruno could perform badly. If your manager is weak then change the manager. You can't stop signing great players.
I personally feel he’ll end up being a costly mistake for us (taking away the balance that Cavani brings) and Ole (will ultimately lose the job as a result) when you don’t look through the euphoria lenses. I may be underestimating Ronaldo greatly here but this is my feeling with respect to this transfer, having watched him play these last few seasons where he struggled to influence the games when he’s not scoring penalties or poaching goals are not on.
Fair enough but I don't think Ole is that great anyway. If he'll lose his job it'll most likely be because he's not good enough to take us to the top.
Can we do a poll on this?
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I'm saying there's qualities of opinions, just like there are qualities of posts and qualities of threads. And I'm saying the opinion that "Ronaldo will be a huge miss" is not just an opinion but also a prediction. As an opinion its fairly low resolution and the thread is itself pretty knee-jerk.
Just poaching goals and scoring pens, seems like OP haven't watched Ronaldo in action a lot.
Ole will be sacked by January and Ronaldo will be the manager.
It probably will be an unpopular opinion, but it's a legitimate one. Personally, I'm optimistic, I have the sense that he's coming back with a mission and there will be an attempt to adapt to what he brings, in the way SAF often adapted our playing style to his strongest player. He could do for us what RVP did in his first season, and we knew that was a bit of a fix.
If someone had said to me a couple of months ago, should we go after Ronaldo, I'd have said "no, that's going back to the past for nostalgic reasons", but the way this has played out makes me think the sheer fact of him being here will lift the team and the supporters. Commercially, it should pay off as well.
The bigger concern is whether it represents a failure of rebuilding with a new, younger generation of players by falling back on older, proven players, and some people may interpret Dan James' departure as a sign of that, but if CR helps us over the line with titles or trophies while the youngsters come through, it will have been worthwhile.
If someone had said to me a couple of months ago, should we go after Ronaldo, I'd have said "no, that's going back to the past for nostalgic reasons", but the way this has played out makes me think the sheer fact of him being here will lift the team and the supporters. Commercially, it should pay off as well.
The bigger concern is whether it represents a failure of rebuilding with a new, younger generation of players by falling back on older, proven players, and some people may interpret Dan James' departure as a sign of that, but if CR helps us over the line with titles or trophies while the youngsters come through, it will have been worthwhile.
Do you expect that if Cavani played the same minutes….he would have scored more goals than Ronaldo? I mean Cavani had a hot streak at the end of last season which seriously impacted his goals per minutes but prior to that had scored all his goals in about 6 appearances….he didn’t score in about 18 up to that point.
He also missed some absolute sitters that would’ve won us some big games. Until the end of the season his impact was limited. Some people are just obsessed with running about but if you look at what he actually did from September to around March, Southampton aside, he didn’t do much other than run around and we lost and drew games that a better forward could’ve won for us.
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There’s absolutely no way that this is what has happened here. There was an opportunity to bring back Ronaldo and we took it. It’s a unique case. There was an opportunity to take £30mill for an extremely limited player….you have to take that.
I wouldn't say absolutely no way, I think it's a similar situation to RVP when SAF seized the opportunity because he became available, I just doubt it was part of a longer term plan, so it's legitimate for people to think out loud about its effects and we shouldn't shoot them down for that.
Nor am I saying it's wrong to let Dan James go, it's the right outcome for him and Utd, I'm not sure it would have happened in this window if Ronaldo hadn't arrived, so there is a consequential effect.
It is, as you say, a unique case, though, for all the obvious reasons, and, as I say, I'm optimistic it'll work.
Close this shite thread down, only the red cafe could produce this muck before he's even played for us. Viva Ronaldo.
For me the biggest surprise this year will be that Ronaldo won't be used every game as a starter and will be found on the bench quite often.
People said that he wouldn't like it but I think post Juventus that both he and United will have to remain realistic with expectations.
That's without looking at the rest of the quality players we have. Even Cavani found himself on the bench plenty of times whilst he is a younger player than Ronaldo and we had less quality to play with across the first team.
People said that he wouldn't like it but I think post Juventus that both he and United will have to remain realistic with expectations.
That's without looking at the rest of the quality players we have. Even Cavani found himself on the bench plenty of times whilst he is a younger player than Ronaldo and we had less quality to play with across the first team.
Anyone else triggered by the thread title? To me “a huge miss” means someone that you miss a lot when they’re gone. Surely “a huge flop” makes more sense?
That's what I thought when I initially saw the thread title.
Then I read it and saw it's essentially him flopping hard.
It definitely wasn't. In fact, I get the impression that if we had known Ronaldo was available at the start of the window then we would have prioritised signing a DM over Sancho. If we start a front 3 of Rashford, Ronaldo and Sancho the sheer absence of work rate will make us so open. If we had signed Ronaldo first and still wanted a right winger or forward then we would have targeted someone in the Chiesa mould rather than Sancho.
I think we can make use of this thread to align our footballing expectations for this deal.
Aside from Falcao, haven't we got a pretty good track record of extracting the most out of aging top class forwards? Most of the comments I've read don't expect a 30+ goals flying winger either. Seems like most would be happy just for sentimental reasons and as long as he scores 20+ goals this season. Then there's the hope that he will elevate the younger players' professionalism over time.
If that's the baseline then barring injuries I don't see this being a miss.
And yes, OP created this post as a knee jerk reaction with some suspect non-footballing reasons thrown in.
Aside from Falcao, haven't we got a pretty good track record of extracting the most out of aging top class forwards? Most of the comments I've read don't expect a 30+ goals flying winger either. Seems like most would be happy just for sentimental reasons and as long as he scores 20+ goals this season. Then there's the hope that he will elevate the younger players' professionalism over time.
If that's the baseline then barring injuries I don't see this being a miss.
And yes, OP created this post as a knee jerk reaction with some suspect non-footballing reasons thrown in.
Agreed.
I don't think there's any question that he is still a player who can deliver certain things at the highest level. The main question marks for me are 1) will we need to adjust the way we play in order to integrate him and will those adjustments be successful and make the team as a whole better, and 2) how will his presence impact on player chemistry and team identity, which I think is uncertain. But I suppose OGS will have thought carefully about both things, and is confident about the answers.
Anyway, we'll find out soon enough.
I don't see how anything in that constitutes an excuse for the manager? The first three points are things OGS should be aware of, and if he thinks Ronaldo's worth signing (which he clearly does), then he must either have good solutions for them, or judge that they are outweighed by the advantages. The 4th point is up to him to solve, if it ever becomes an issue. And again, that's also something he must have taken into account when backing the signing.
As long as Ronaldo delivers more or less what you could reasonably expect judging from his performances over the past 1-2 seasons, both the good and the bad, then OGS is getting what he asked for.
I couldn’t care less about the whole tedious snowflake thing, but I can’t see how a poll would be more interesting than an actual discussion/debate. The OPs method of naming the post with a throwaway line about unpopular opinions has little impact on that, in my opinion.
There is a brilliant article in athletic how Juve exceeded the market expects in terms of commercial revenue when they signed Ronaldo.
Now if a small club (commercial wise) can exceed the market expectations, imagine what United can do ?
It's a statement signing. Club will only benefit from it. Agree that Ole has a challenge but that's why he is being paid as a manager. If we can't get the best out of a world class team, he needs to go. Someone like Zidane will get the better of this team.
Now if a small club (commercial wise) can exceed the market expectations, imagine what United can do ?
It's a statement signing. Club will only benefit from it. Agree that Ole has a challenge but that's why he is being paid as a manager. If we can't get the best out of a world class team, he needs to go. Someone like Zidane will get the better of this team.
I don’t think we’ve changed our overall approach
Any player can be a miss, no matter the name or age.
One thing I can't wait for is seeing his runs into the box. The last time we had that was when RVP won us the title.
Don't get me wrong, I like Cavani, but a 36 year old Ronaldo is still a level or two above.
I don't think he'll be a miss, but I also don't think he'll score 35.
One thing I can't wait for is seeing his runs into the box. The last time we had that was when RVP won us the title.
Don't get me wrong, I like Cavani, but a 36 year old Ronaldo is still a level or two above.
I don't think he'll be a miss, but I also don't think he'll score 35.
The issue with signing Ronaldo would simply be whether we can play to his strengths. And one major strength is his prowess in the air. I would love to see us scoring from more set pieces because I think our deliveries have actually improved from the beginning of last season. For some reason Maguire is a shoe in to score for England yet he doesn't seem to have the same success for us.We now have maguire, varane and Ronaldo as major threats from set pieces. Need to make them count.
Tell me about it, for a moment I thought Ronaldo had announced he would be transitioning into a women and OP was worried about her future height
He is simply proven in every way, except goalkeeper! I have no doubt he will express his requirements to the players and management. It also puts down one massive intent for Haaland.
DDG will be glad he won't be facing the free kicks anyway, something we've really been lacking.
Maybe Marcus will take a sabbatical as Mayor while Andy Burnham goes for MP
he's one smart guy, I'm half joking but he's an achiever. Allez les Rouges Could you imagine a thread titled ‘Ronaldo to flop hard’ …….the guys a serial winner, ultra professional makes a difference like no other player. He comes into United and does what? Ruins the cohesion of the team? We don’t have any. Doesn’t press? Our team doesn’t press effectively. Misses sitters? Cavani does that. Misplaces passes…Bruno does that. Doesn’t track runners? Pogba doesn’t. Worst case scenario we win nothing….we don’t win anything without him. We’re a bunch of losers. We go top of the league last season and fall to pieces. Finally get to a final and lose to fecking villereal. That doesn’t happen with Ronaldo in the side. He changes games where the team struggles until the last kick. He demands success and is driven. We need that. Our players are a bunch of losers. People are worrying about Bruno, he was terrible last season when we went top, terrible in the final, terrible in the Euros and terrible on Tuesday when Ronaldo rescued Portugal yet again.
The notion that United could have a thread with such a title is frankly laughable and surely only a moron would be more open to that type of thread title.
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