Dude, come on. We're talking about Cristiano Ronaldo here who scored 42 goals in the PL at the age of 22 to 23. A player who also won 2 CL's, got a CL goal record, has a 1 goal per game ratio for 6 seasons running at Real Madrid. His peak might be less good than Ronaldo #9 but I find it hard to believe that Cristiano is 'a couple of levels' below.
Stats wise yes he has insanely high numbers that seem unbelievable.
As a player he is not in the same league as Messi, R9 or even Zidane for that matter.
Those guys could drag their teams to victory when the going got tough and their team looked to someone to bail them out.
Cr7 can not do this and when his team have their backs up against the wall he is no where to be seen.
At United he was genuinely exciting but very inconsistent as well despite all the goals.
He was given complete freedom to do what he wanted without having a care in the world about helping the team.
Man United sacrificed a hell of a lot to get the most out of him which credit to Fergusson did work out very well in the end.
He is an efficient finisher with very good positioning but he can not win matches on his own and hasn't been able to for a long time.