Ronaldo in 3 years time would close his book. He's probably retired by then. He finished strong.
It's up to messi to catch up the 4 years he had without ronaldo.
It's up to messi to catch up the 4 years he had without ronaldo.
Cristiano Ronaldo - performances 2017/18
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Ronaldo makes a 6/10 Portugal into a 8.5/9/10 Portugal. Its incredible.
If you had put this Ronaldo into the Portugal of the Euro 2000 era they'd probably be favourites to win the World Cup.
If you had put this Ronaldo into the Portugal of the Euro 2000 era they'd probably be favourites to win the World Cup.
All true and you can definitely argue that Cristiano has had a greater career if that makes sense than both. However, Ronaldo Lima was called El Phenomenon because of the things he was capable of, not because of his success, titles or achievements. And I've never seen another player do the things he did, not even Messi. Ronaldo would simply take on complete teams singlehandedly and did so with an incredible physique and technique although he was really, really young. Probably the only aspect in which he was inferior to one of the two is his passing game. In that, I see Messi on top. But apart from that, he was basically both players mixed together with pieces of Ronaldinho-esque skill moves. That's what made him arguably the most talented player to ever step on a football pitch and hence all this "El Phenomenon" talks.
Taking consistency into consideration, it is clear that Cristiano is the better player (maybe even in his peak since Ronaldo Lima was never really allowed to mature and improve his decision making while his body was still intact) but for me he is no prodigy like his namesake and thus calling him "Phenomenon" feels wrong. He is more of an example of where hard work and determination can get you, not an example of pure, raw talent.
Don't know what Portugal would do without him with their current squad. Their most dangerous chances comes from any half decent ball Ronaldo is able to pick in the final third but their teammates can't also finish some of the chances he creates so I really don't know what they would do without him.
It's crazy to think that Ronaldo Fenomeno was just 25 for the 2002 World Cup.
Cristiano says he wants to play until he's 41. Ronaldo Fenomeno is 41 now.
I am of the opinion that Ronaldo is currently better but for the debates to be over forever, Ronaldo need to win it
Guedes, Andre Silva, Bernardo, Gelson and Quaresma have barely had an impact but they can definitely do more. It's just been two tough games for us, the big problem is the midfield isn't good enough to really control a game against a team like Spain or against a team that can bully them the way Morocco did. If we manage to get a grip of the game then we can play decent football too. Danilo Pereira being injured was a big problem tonight.
If we had the defense of 2016 we might have had a small chance but this team has too many obvious problems that won't be hard to exploit. A quarter final exit is our ceiling imo.
People are overly critical above Portugal. They've had 1 bad game out of 2 and even won that poorly played game.
You'd fancy them to beat Iran and progress to the next stage. Then you can judge them.
You'd fancy them to beat Iran and progress to the next stage. Then you can judge them.
Maradona's team in '86 wasn't better than what you have right now overall. You won the euros 2 years ago with most of this team. If Cristiano plays at that level(and so far, so good) you can win the WC. There's no 1970 Brazil on a mission waiting for you beyong the horizon
This is 100% correct.
Yep. Think itll be 50/50 unless one of the 2 manage to win it. That's the only way one of them will beat out the other as the majority. Winning the Euros for Ronaldo helps, but it doesnt decide anything just like if messi wins a copa america it wont change much. World cup is the pinnacle that would put them top, though I dont think either need to win it to be discussed alongside Maradona or Pele. But because Argentina and Portugal are far from the favourites, then I doubt theyll ever do it. Messi came close, but ultimately missed out.
You need to inform yourself at how these players have been doing at club level. Pele, Maradona and Messi never played in a team as devoid of talent as this portuguese team. Pele and Messi never were even close to it. If people are going to put impossible expectations on his head then obviously he's going to fail.
Wiliam and Gelson have been shit for us for a long while, Fonte has been crap in China after not being good enough for West Ham's bench, Joao Mario I don't need to tell you anything about, Guerreiro doesn't even remember how to play football anymore, Pepe is now 35 and declined, Moutinho is just alright for Monaco, Adrien spent half a season not playing and half a season being crap, Andre Silva is our striker and he scored 2 league goals all year, Patricio was available for free and the only team willing to take a chance was Wolverhampton... I mean, I don't excuse Ronaldo for bad performances due to teammates around him but the expectations for the team have to be realistic and there's noone that's been paying attention to these players that thinks we have any chance in hell of reaching a World Cup final.
You can disagree but ask any of the other portuguese posters and I guarantee you everyone will agree no matter the club.
Just 12 players remain iirc and they aren't the same. Most of them are worse.
We won that on 3 things: As easy of a draw as it's possible to get, a lot of luck during games and our defensive solidity. This team is not as good as in 2016, it might have Guedes and Bernardo for the attack but we're crap defensively now and Nani was better in 2016 than those two will be in 2018. The only top team we faced was France and if we replayed that game 100 times we'd have won it 2 or 3 times.
Obviously if we had Croatia, Poland or Wales in the knockouts we might reach a final again but that won't be the case.
There are just about 6 or 7 teams who are better than us even if Ronaldo has a 10/10 game. Even with Ronaldo having the game he did vs Spain we still should have lost that by 2 or 3 goals. He was good today and we were dominated by Morocco.
Ronaldo can be as good as he wants, we're not going to reach far if the current problems in the team persist. Sorry for the long post but people talking about Portugal winning the damn thing really need to calm down. Don't think it's possible for anyone to have watched us tonight and thought that we looked like we could become world champions.
Portugal still has a much better manager and GK than Messi ever had in the NT level
Fernando Santos, tactical genius
Sampaoli is obviously a much better manager than Santos. Patricio is better than Romero but not by much.
Just play next to Ronaldo and suddenly everyone seems to rate you higher, it's weird how that works.
Argentina's teams have always been comfortably better than Portugal's.
Messi is just a poor leader and bottles the big moments more often than not.
Just give Ronaldo one of Di Maria, Aguero, Dybala Higuain or even Icardi that wasn't even selected....just one and see if they wouldn't instantly improve this Portuguese team. Heck even Banega, Mascherano or Pastore would improve this team.
It's hard to watch him and think of just how much we'd have won if we'd kept him another 2 or 3 years.
Talent-wise your team is better than that Argentina, in terms of actual current quality maybe not, but i don't think it's worse either. Seriously, that Argentina team was made up entirely of journeymen and nobodies. Valdano was the best player on that team besides Diego and he was never anything more than pretty good.
Don't get me wrong, what Maradona did is the biggest individual effort in football history but no way did he have a worse team around him than Ronaldo currently does. Valdano was playing for Real Madrid at the time and they had a couple of players at big clubs which isn't really the case for us. I'm not really aware of the form each individual player was in but from what I've read the general standard was definitely higher.
If our players were at their best it would be different but William, Guerreiro, Fonte, Pepe, Bruno Alves, Quaresma, Moutinho, Adrien, Joao Mario, etc. were all clearly better 2 years ago than they are now for example even if for some of them their age would suggest the opposite.
Yep. Then the Messi brigade laugh at "mentality" but I am willing to bet Ronaldo could rally up someone as spineless as Di Maria into a winner. If there was even one other player of proper world class quality on this Portugal team they would be some force. Maybe this is the tournament Quresma fills his potential?
They could use someone like Dybala the most, maybe even Icardi or maybe that Messi lad so he can go to him like this whenever he has to shoot a penalty.
Actually thought if Ronaldo had played with the Morocco players just now he'd be banging 4 or 5 goals. They played very well but needed a Ronaldo to finish their chances.
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Don't be ridiculous. Sampaoli is a better manager than Fernando Santos.
He also won a Copa Sudamerica with Chile, defeating you know who in the final.
On both players achievements and form, there is hard to find a player from Argentina's starting XI (and some from the bench or not called at all) who doesn't make Portugal's starting XI. Maybe wingbacks if you're being generous (in both sides they are equally bad).
I mean, Argentina/Portugal's combined starting XI is Argentina's starting XI with Ronaldo, Moutinho and Rui Patricio from Portugal. You can add Cedric there if you're feeling generous.
No need to bet on it. It had already happened while they were playing for Real Madrid.Yep. Then the Messi brigade laugh at "mentality" but I am willing to bet Ronaldo could rally up someone as spineless as Di Maria into a winner. If there was even one other player of proper world class quality on this Portugal team they would be some force. Maybe this is the tournament Quresma fills his potential?
If Ronaldo had Argentina's team and failed to win anything, he would get a lot more stick than Messi does.
For some mysterious reason people really tend to be far more sympathetic towards Messi than Ronaldo.
For some mysterious reason people really tend to be far more sympathetic towards Messi than Ronaldo.
Its because Ronaldo is perceived as egotistical and selfish while Messi quite the opposite. Although if the rumours of Messi and his influence on team selection are true then it could be a false perception.
Moutinho isn’t better than Banega or Lo Celso and he’s probably as good as Biglia. He’s not the Moutinho of a few years ago.
Cédric, Patricio and Ronaldo are the only 3 portuguese players that would start for Argentina. The gap between Cédric and Mercado or Patricio and Romero isn’t very big either.
Messi doesn't sell underpants and doesn't try to look like a top model in front of cameras.
Benega comes off the bench for Argentina but would start for Portugal easily
Was discussing this with my mate today, I actually thought if Ronaldo play for Morocco they might have a chance winnning this WC.
Yet he’s been doing quite poor with Argentina. I like Sampo but the team is flawed
Hahahahaha oh my god, yes Morocco will beat the Germany’s and Brazil’s and france’s
You guys vastly overrate Morocco
Because it’s true, Ronaldo acts like a petulant child and sulks all the time and always looks visibly frustrated with his teammates
Have you seen what Argentina look like without Messi? They wouldn’t even qualify for the WC. The team have no cohesiveness whatsoever. And they’d still lack a competent midfield to bring the ball up the pitch.
Ronaldo gets injured, his team can still win a final, if Messi was injured for argentina, they’d finish below the Panama’s and Peru’s in the world.
Hell, they wouldn’t even be able to beat Ecuador. It would be ridiculous to blame Messi or give him any stick for Argentina (although he deserves some for the missed penalty) when he does everything for the team. Other players just stand around all static and stare at him while he has to bring up the ball from the middle of the pitch, setup his teammates.
Get the ball back because they have no clue what to do with it and then try to score with 4 defenders draped all over him.
Except Di Maria was the one carrying Ronaldo in the 2014 final, ronaldo was nowhere to be found, Di Maria was excellent
You've lost the plot. Poor Messi having to be born in one of the best footballing countries in history and having to play alongside several world class players...
The fact there are so many people like you pretending Portugal is better than Argentina or that Santos is a better coach than Sampaoli pretty much sums it up. You don't even believe it to be true because it's impossible to watch football and actually believe so what's the point in lying about it when everyone knows it's more bullshit?
I like how you blame Messi's teammates for being static when he has the ball when he's the exact same when his teammates have the ball
Argentina without Messi beat Chile in the Copa America, then with him they lost the final. Portugal without Ronaldo beat France completely unfairly and you use that to tell people Portugal is better than Argentina? Surely you can see how nonsensical that is? the only person Di Maria carried was Messi to the World Cup finals where he bottled it.Let’s for one moment assume Argentina is stoke fc and Portugal is last seasons Man City. At the end of the bloody thing Messi has twice had to just hit a freaking penalty and he bottled it .... twice!
There is no team no dynamic nothing in play there. Just Messi crumbling under pressure .
Yet teammates have nothing but positives to say about him as well as manager. SAF who would not take any bs from anyone adores him. But we have to listen to the truth that daysleeper tells us from his Messi pjs
You've lost the plot.
The fact there are so many people like you pretending Portugal is better than Argentina or that Santos is a better coach than Sampaoli pretty much sums it up.
Poor Messi having to be born in one of the best footballing countries in history and having to play alongside several world class players...
I like how you blame Messi's teammates for being static when he has the ball when he's the exact same when his teammates have the ball
Big difference between a group stage win and winning a FINAL without your star player
The biggest tragedy is that all that talent on Argentina and they can’t do anything unless Messi does it for them. Messi and Ronaldo both had the luxury of having an amazing defense help them in the last World Cup and euro respectively. Pepe and mascherano deserve just as much credit