Ole is just talking. Ronaldo will take them either way.
Will Bruno leave penalties and free kicks to Ronaldo now?
- Thread starter Andycoleno9
- Start date
Tbh if Ole allows that to happen imo it's not good man management. The best player get to do it, status doesn't score goals. Bruno would actually score with his freekick and I can't remember the last time I saw Ronaldo did.
This threat does make it seem like Bruno is brilliant at freekicks. He isn’t even that good at them, I never particularly fancy him to score.
When he is playing, I think Rashford is our best threat. Really surprised Pogba is not better at them as I imagine he has the technique. Fred must be good in training to even get near the free kick takersm
I reckon Ronaldo would score more goals with Bruno on free kicks than if he takes them himself.
84% and 93% for penalties aren't all that different in the grand scheme of things. It is not like everyone's life depends on it. If it was maybe 93% against 60%, then you'd probably have the better taker on them.
Ronaldo has been successful at every club he has been with, and has been taking penalties for his teams for upto 15 years now. I personally think it should be a straight forward decision to let him have them when he is on the pitch.
As it stands, Fernandes is a very good penalty taker, and Ronaldo is also a very good penalty taker. 84% vs 93% doesn't mean much when one has been very successful taking them since 2007 or so. Football is not played on paper.
We get 10-15 pens a season or did before refs stopped giving fouls
That’s 1 or 2 goals difference over a course of a season
Goals are the hardest thing to do in football, Fernandes should remain on them until he misses. And even then, I’d keep him on until he missed a second in close succession.
My fantasy team is banking on Ronaldo taking pens so Ole better give them to him.
1-2 goals difference is nothing over the course of a season.
Okay, but if Bruno is 1-2 goals better, why shouldn't we take it? Seems really weird.
Bruno is at 96% since joining United. And considering his only miss during this period was also scored (by him) via rebound, he is virtually at 100% efficiency.
Because 1-2 goals difference is not much. A 28 goals-a-season striker isn't a much better goalscorer than a 26 goals-a-season striker. They are both great goalscorers, and that is how I see Ronaldo and Fernandes as penalty takers.
Personally think it comes down to factors beyond statistics and conversion rates.
He can take a great free-kick but he's not a great free-kick taker, the same for Ronaldo and Rashford.
I actually think Mata is the best free-kick taker we have but he rarely takes them.
Agreed.
I would actually prefer Greenwood to start taking them. He scored plenty at youth level (with both feet).
Ronaldo isn't just any player. He's the GOAT or the second best player in history, depending on your viewpoint. Period. As such we should accomodate him and let him deliver. And quite frankly, if this club relies on free kicks and penalties to score goals, then we have much bigger problems than Ronaldo taking set pieces.
From Ole's comments I take it that Bruno will remain on the pens
Ole's comments in PC are almost useless. He won't give away anything.
Btw welcome back.
Bruno is the most reliable penalty taker I have ever seen in my life bar Hazard and I just dont see the point in breaking something that is perfect. Its nonsensical. Why would you replace someone who is 100% at delivering a high pressure important action? I mean if Cristiano takes them the moment he misses will be questioned. I mean Cristiano is only here for about 18 months and Bruno is here for the foreseeable so the coaches should just keep it as it is unless Bruno fanboys his way out of them. I doubt Lampard would step aside no matter who Chelsea signed he would always take them when healthy
Thanks
Bruno isn't 100%. If he misses the next pen he takes for us, his conversion rate drops to 91%. Another miss, and it is 88%. He has neither taken as much penalties as Ronaldo, nor has he taken as much pressure penalties in big games.
Ronaldo is a very good penalty taker himself, and over the years, has earned the right to demand to take them, so not sure what is nonsensical about it. I'd be disappointed if Fernandes doesn't give them up.
For me no player should be bigger than the club, the team. Regardless of who he is. If Bruno is better than Ronaldo at freekick or penalty, he should take them. The team play to win, not for Ronaldo.
Brunaldo will take both.
This! Why would anyone change this?
But it sounds like it's more important to you that Ronaldo takes them than Bruno, why is that? If Bruno gives you two more goals, regardless of importance, that's my obvious choice.
I can see the arguments for pens both ways. Bruno has been near flawless taking pens in a Utd shirt and I can see Ole wanting that to continue for the good of the team. On the other hand Ronaldo is also a fantastic pen taker and it will be vital for him to continue scoring and taking pressure off himself. A fit and firing Ronaldo could be the difference between a title challenge and a title win. Ole may feel he has to give Ronaldo every chance to keep scoring. Certainly an interesting sub plot.
What kinda BS is this. "if he misses his next 2 his conversion drops?" no shit Sherlock, if Ronaldo misses his next 5 his conversion probably drops too. Its irrelevant. Bruno conversion is high 96% and the missed ones were scored on the rebound no? The point is over a long sample when Bruno steps up he pretty much guarantees a goal. In fact these are the actual stats going back 4 years (2017)
Bruno Fernandes 26 taken 25 scored 96.15% conversion rate
Cristiano Ronaldo 31 taken 26 scored 83.87% conversion rate
Ronaldo scored 1 FK in 69 attempts at Juve and went 931 days between that FK and his previous at Real.
Bruno has scored 2 FK in 35 attempts at United.
Bruno is just better and Ronaldo is more about the stuff of legend
The deification of Ronaldo is pretty creepy. Or maybe it has something to do with a complete lack of respect for Ole. It's normal for players to desire things and ask for things, but the idea that anyone would make demands on how Sir Alex set things up would've been laughed out of here.
Good post I don't know about the freekick percentage.
Anyway imo not only Bruno would be likely more to score but he also would offer a wider tactical choices in a freekick situation.
Ronaldo 100% he'll shoot. Bruno can pass and he's great with his passing. It'll make the opponent's defense much harder to organize and considerably increase our chance to score I think.
Precisely the opposite. SAF understood that albeit no player was bigger than the club, they needed to be accommodated and given an opportunity to shine. Which is why he let Ronaldo take the free kicks and penalties despite, at the time, deserving none of them. Because he knew that it would boost Ronaldo's confidence and make him a better player for us and so it did. Which is also why he put up with Cantona's shennanigans. or Rooney's demands. Sometimes even SAF had to put his own personal issues to do what's best for the club. And that is why he is the greatest manager in history.
Agree with the posters above - Bruno is stellar at taking penalties, but not great at freekicks. Rashford is more likely to score from certain angles than either of them.
I hope they'll make a system where they rotate when one misses a penatly or something to that effect. Though that'll ruin all my hopes for FPL.
I hope they'll make a system where they rotate when one misses a penatly or something to that effect. Though that'll ruin all my hopes for FPL.
Ronaldo was an excellent free kick taker for us back then, one of the best in the world (probably just behind Juninho, Ronaldinho and Pirlo). He was also great at pens and it wasn’t like we had great penalty takers. And bear in mind that he didn’t become first choice penalty taker until Ruud and then Saha left, so in 2006-2007 despite being arguably the best player in the world, he was second choice penalty taker.
Cantona didn’t demand to kick someone in the face. He made a bad decision and Sir Alex stood by him, because he’s loyal to his players (that have value). He rejected Rooney’s complaints about our transfer strategy, leading to Rooney returning with his tails between his legs after some public and private punishment from Sir Alex. He gave Ronaldo penalties after our main penalty taker left, the others failed to step up, and he proved himself in training after being with us for over 3 years.
In other words you’ve conflated three completely different situations, with completely different approaches, to fit a narrative you’d already subscribed to, and applied them in an almost entirely irrelevant context.
Yes Sir Alex did what he thought was best for the players he valued. After he did what he thought was best for the club. And in every situation he made the decision. That’s a world away from Ronaldo demanding responsibilities and just being handed them, with no decision making power for the manager.
He seems a bit obssesed about Ronaldo so I check his joined date. It's 30th Aug 2021 so I guess he joined right after Ronaldo signed or likewise. My bet he's one of his fans but not an United fan. It makes things more understandable.
We will have another war with another fanboy army I think if things doesn't work for Ronaldo. We've had enough with Mourinho, Pogba and now not with Ronaldo I hope.
Cantona literally didn't give a feck about the club and didn't apologize or tried to do sometihng to mitigate what he did. Sir Alex stayed loyal to him because he was useful. If he wasn't, he would have been binned faster than you can say his name. Same way he binned Roy Keane after that interview. It's not that Roy Keane was 'bad' for the group, it's that it was the perfect excuse for SAF to get rid of an aging player who couldn't contribute anymore. SAF was brutal with his demands, but he'd allow you leeway if you were useful to the club. That's it. You go on about Rooney having his tail between his legs, but from what I remember he was given a much upgraded contract and SAF refused to sell him despite the arrogant behavior of Rooney. Ronaldo started taking free kicks almost immediately when he was brought here despite there being better free kick takers than him.
Also, the examples are all similar. The main point is that SAF (the manager) put his own pride off in order to do what's best for the players and what is best for them is generally best for the team. Can I ask you a simple question - if SAF was here right now managing us, would he give Ronaldo the free kick/penalties? That's a rhetorical question.
And your join date is 2018. I assume you became a United fan then? I've been a United fan since Ruud/Beckham era when I was a kid, so you're talking absolute nonsense. I was also never a particular fan of Ronaldo given the way he left us and his "slave" comments and I still am not even to this day. . But that doesn't mean I won't be pragmatic about this.
I think the real question is will Ronaldo let Bruno take a free kick or pen?
Agreed, I think Greenwood would be pretty consistent with free kicks due to his brilliant technique in striking a ball. I think he would have a pretty high conversion for penalties too!
I don’t know if Sir Alex would have given Ronaldo penalties. I do know if he gave him penalties it was because he thought it made the most sense for the team, not because Ronaldo demanded it. If you believe Sir Alex gave into players’ demands on the pitch then you seem to have missed one of his most important qualities: controlling the team.
That involved managing personalities, much like this situation does. I agree with you there are some similarities. Things can be similar but different, and most discussions revolves around the nuances, the points of differences. The further you get into this conversation the more you conflate, and the more you obscure the entire point of the discussion.
The difference is who makes the decision and why. Ronaldo wouldn’t make the decision. He would argue for his case and Sir Alex would take his preferences into account, how that impacts the team and players' morale, etc. Whether he demanded it or not would make no difference because Sir Alex was the man in charge. That was always obvious.
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I don't think it's clear what decision would be best for the team. Bruno has been the talisman and a great penalty taker. Taking him off them to appease the new great superstar might be the correct decision but it might not be. Personally I'm more in the let Bruno keep them camp. He's better at them(most important criteria) and I don't think it harms the team morale if Ronaldo doesn't take penalties. As long as we are scoring goals and winning games everyone will get along.
The real question is when will Bruno stop attempting his silly hollywood balls?
Why the feck would you want him to stop attempting them? That’s his game, he takes risks and gets rewards.