Chesterlestreet
Man of the crowd
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2012
- Messages
- 19,528
Yep - sums it up well. Good post.On the one hand I have zero issue with Ronaldo expecting and demanding high standards from those around him off the pitch. That's what senior leaders should be doing and one of the pluses of having him here. So all that stuff surrounding the professionalism of the players is fine.
However, there should be some reservations about his influence on the pitch. He is well past his best, in the final years of his career and that's showing in different ways in his performances. The profile of CF he now is is also at odds with what a lot of top teams would demand from that position, where overall contribution to the team matters more than simply scoring goals.
Ronaldo (like all players in that dressing room) will have his own idea of what's wrong with the side and what needs to change for things to improve. And (as with most players) his interpretation of the way the side should play will invariably involve him being played regularly in a role that suits him. But there will very soon come a point (if it isn't here already) where the best thing for the team is for him not to be in it, a decision he will inevitably disagree with. I suspect we're much closer to being at that point than Ronaldo thinks we are. And when we are at that point I'm not sure his status, influence and intense attitude will still be a positive in the dressing room. As with someone like Roy Keane, that drive is perhaps a double-edged sword.
We have a number of posters on here who seem incapable of this, it seems.However, there should be some reservations about his influence on the pitch.
(And some of them are also incapable of understanding that having reservations about him doesn't amount to writing him off completely or dismissing the qualities he still undoubtedly possesses).
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