Ronaldo for Bench?

The Plump Poet

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Do you like the knockout stages of the champions league, I do. We wouldn’t be there without Ronaldo. He, Cavani and Bruno are the only true match winners in the squad but sadly Bruno and to a lesser extent Cavani have been stinking up the joint. Ronaldo is a legend, even if he’s lot a step, he’s a winner unlike the other bluffers in our squad.
Let's keep it simple: Do you think he's value for his wage?
 

JebelSherif

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He could be benched, but what would Sir Alex Ferguson say?

(and would Ralf Rangnick appreciate his advice>?)
 

Garethw

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No. He’s the best goal scorer at the club. The other 9 outfield players should work harder to compensate for Ronaldo’s lack of pressing.
 

Giggsy13

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Let's keep it simple: Do you think he's value for his wage?
I think there a few elements missing from our squad. There is raw talent in some areas but mentality is lacking. One, that winning mentality and two, calmness in high pressure situations. Ronaldo brings both of those elements to a squad sorely lacking in real personalities. Bruno whinges that’s all he does these days. He’s also taken off his game way too easily if calls don’t go his way. Ronaldo could be having a terrible game but then is capable of a moment of brilliance. As I’ve said, Cavani and Bruno are the only other two with that type of drive to pull off a moment of brilliance when you least expect it. Bruno has been on a horrid run but he will eventually rediscover his form. I just think that many in our squad hide in big moments or go missing. Who would you trust in this squad to take a big free kick or penalty: Ronaldo or Rashford/Greenwood/Sancho. It’s a pretty easy answer.

Even when our squad was going through a transition in the early 2000s with two bright 18 year old talents in Rooney and Ronaldo, they had established United greats in Keane, Scholes, Giggs and Neville to turn too in tough situations. Ronaldo has credited them for getting him thru the tough early days. Sadly we don’t have that type of group now due to being mediocre the last decade. Ronaldo is the only one who could speak to true United standards. So yes you can be shortsighted and bench him or you utilize his experience and winning mentality to help build up our younger players who are crying out for a leader. IMO Ronaldo is worth every single penny.
 

Garethw

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The real question is why are you considering benching Ronaldo? Because he’s lazy?

Well Cavani is always injured and is therefore not dependable and both Rashford and Greenwood are just as lazy as Ronaldo but without half the goal scoring output.
 

cyberman

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Ronaldo clearly isn’t the problem. Even with forum favourite Cavani running about up top we still have the same problems.
When did our fanbase start picking sides like this? You can already see the spill over from the Ole in v out brigade levelling up.
you can just see how much Madrid and Juve improve by when this menace left them
 

Giggsy13

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The real question is why are you considering benching Ronaldo? Because he’s lazy?

Well Cavani is always injured and is therefore not dependable and both Rashford and Greenwood are just as lazy as Ronaldo but without half the goal scoring output.
The answer to your rhetorical question: ignorance.
 

Josh 76

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Bench the GOAT ?
Are you mad ! How dare you even think that.
Should be extending his contract, not taking about benching him.
 

goptun

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Do you get paid to make insane posts? Probably the best passer of the ball in our squad, maybe only behind Pogba & can kill a ball dead if it was dropped from the moon but apparantly he has no touch.
Eh?! Are we watching the same player? He most certainly is not the best passer of the ball, in fact his pass success rate percentage is lower than that of Mason Greenwood, despite the fact that a third of Ronaldo's passes are backward.
 

Wolf1992

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Ronaldo clearly isn’t the problem. Even with forum favourite Cavani running about up top we still have the same problems.
When did our fanbase start picking sides like this? You can already see the spill over from the Ole in v out brigade levelling up.
you can just see how much Madrid and Juve improve by when this menace left them
Juventus are certainly in the same position they were with Ronaldo in his last season, hardly a big loss for them.

Real Madrid is doing OK.
 

RedCurry

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He should just be used potently. That is, we don’t need to play him for 90 minutes in every game. If he’s looking sharp, sure keep him on but if he’s fading away, bring him off and get someone else on. Rest him once in a while and bring him from the bench.
 

goptun

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The real question is why are you considering benching Ronaldo? Because he’s lazy?

Well Cavani is always injured and is therefore not dependable and both Rashford and Greenwood are just as lazy as Ronaldo but without half the goal scoring output.
Is that accurate? All the stats indicate Greenwood works harder for the press than Ronaldo does, which isn't surprising given he's nearly 20 years younger but does show what Greenwood can bring that Ronaldo can't. We still haven't seen Greenwood be given a consistent run upfront to see what he can do yet, so to compare his goalscoring output to Ronaldo isn't exactly fair.
 

goptun

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Ronaldo clearly isn’t the problem. Even with forum favourite Cavani running about up top we still have the same problems.
When did our fanbase start picking sides like this? You can already see the spill over from the Ole in v out brigade levelling up.
you can just see how much Madrid and Juve improve by when this menace left them
I find it really weird when people bring up Juventus. They only just scraped 4th last season on the last day when Ronaldo was still there and all things ran through him. More telling than that, though, is that Bonucci and Buffon, two much bigger legends of the club than Ronaldo, both said Juventus is better off as a team for Ronaldo having left. That's pretty damning, and yet people never acknowledge it and go on as if Juventus is in dire straits since he left and are pining for Ronaldo to return.
 
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2 man midfield

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I’d have him as the lone striker as long as everyone else was prepared to do the donkey work for him, but I don’t think they are.
 
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I find it really weird when people bring up Juventus. They only just scraped 4th last season on the last day when Ronaldo was still there and all things ran through him. More telling than that, though, is that Bonucci and Buffon, two much bigger legends of the club than Ronaldo, both said Juventus is better off as a team for Ronaldo having left. That's pretty damning, and yet people never acknowledge it and go on as if Juventus is in dire straits since he left and are pining for Ronaldo his return.
We know. You posted the same thing in the Ronaldo thread.
 

antohan

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If he isn't going to bother putting an effort to improve his all around play, then yes. It's getting ridiculous to watch a primidonna act as if he has the privilege of standing around waiting for chances to be created for him, and throwing his arms around every time it doesn't happen.
Primitive Madonna spotted @horsechoker
 

antohan

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Yes. Long term we need to work on a system that can be effective when any player is not available...not build around one player and especially not a player of his age and levels of performance. Both he and Cavani should be “plan b” or used sparingly until we figure out how to use Rashford, Greenwood, Sancho, Amad, Elanga etc. Effectively.
Agree on this.

Going into this season I was worried about the wisdom of having our frontline revolve around Cavani. Adding Cristiano to the mix was baffling, to say the least.

Not knocking either and expect them to offer not just quality but experience, winning attitude, etc. They are not the future though, make no sense to drill a side on a "playing the ball to Ronaldo system".
 

goptun

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Yes. Long term we need to work on a system that can be effective when any player is not available...not build around one player and especially not a player of his age and levels of performance. Both he and Cavani should be “plan b” or used sparingly until we figure out how to use Rashford, Greenwood, Sancho, Amad, Elanga etc. Effectively.
Agree on this.

Going into this season I was worried about the wisdom of having our frontline revolve around Cavani. Adding Cristiano to the mix was baffling, to say the least.

Not knocking either and expect them to offer not just quality but experience, winning attitude, etc. They are not the future though, make no sense to drill a side on a "playing the ball to Ronaldo system".
Good posts. Agreed on all counts.
 

KeanoMagicHat

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Good posts. Agreed on all counts.
Yep, and we wonder why we're so far behind City, yet City regularly drop their best player De Bruyne if Pep thinks he doesn't suit a game, and pretty much any of their front 5 players are interchangeable, despite all being better than our equivalents. Yet subbing an almost 37-year-old striker is a big issue here. Different levels at the moment.

Pep was asked why he chose the team he did against United. He said "I wanted a left footer on the left and a right footer on the right for this game". So he chose Foden on the left and Jesus on the right. Imagine choosing players to suit a gameplan and not trying to fit square pegs in round holes in every single match. What a world.
 

cyberman

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Juventus are certainly in the same position they were with Ronaldo in his last season, hardly a big loss for them.

Real Madrid is doing OK.
That’s a strange way of saying Juve aren’t in the CL spots and Ronaldo didn’t hold them back!
 

Wolf1992

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That’s a strange way of saying Juve aren’t in the CL spots and Ronaldo didn’t hold them back!
He wasn't holding them back.

Certainly i don't think he should have moved to Juventus, it was a bad move for both parties.
Ronaldo loves Balloon D'or , and he was never going to be a contender playing in Serie A(given the current state of italian football) unless he wins the CL, and Juventus wasn't any better in CL with him.
 

RedRonaldo

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Well do you want to see Rashford (3 goals in 15 games), Greenwood (5 goals in 21 games) and Sancho (2 goals in 22 games) leading our attack line then?
 

Chesterlestreet

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Well do you want to see Rashford (3 goals in 15 games), Greenwood (5 goals in 21 games) and Sancho (2 goals in 22 games) leading our attack line then?
I'd go for Cavani myself, if he's fit.

But I'd obviously take Ronaldo over both Rashford and Sancho, sure. Might even take him over Greenwood - but let's be realistic here: if Greenwood starts per default up front, his goals total will increase. His goals per ninety (minus penalties) ratio isn't miles off Ronaldo's.

Anyway, just looking at numbers is rather pointless. If Ronaldo hadn't joined us, we wouldn't automatically have been 14 goals worse off at this stage - it should be unnecessary to point out, but football doesn't work that way.
 

RedRonaldo

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I'd go for Cavani myself, if he's fit.

But I'd obviously take Ronaldo over both Rashford and Sancho, sure. Might even take him over Greenwood - but let's be realistic here: if Greenwood starts per default up front, his goals total will increase. His goals per ninety (minus penalties) ratio isn't miles off Ronaldo's.

Anyway, just looking at numbers is rather pointless. If Ronaldo hadn't joined us, we wouldn't automatically have been 14 goals worse off at this stage - it should be unnecessary to point out, but football doesn't work that way.
I am not sure about Greenwood though, he has always been inconsistent in front of goal, as shown last season (12 goals in 52 games, avg 0.23 goal per game). He is clearly talented but he still needs time to develop his maturity/consistency, and he has wasted so many chances this season already.

Cavani has been poor lately, and always unfit, and he has 2 goals in 12 games.
 

Chesterlestreet

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I am not sure about Greenwood though, he has always been inconsistent in front of goal, as shown last season (12 goals in 52 games, avg 0.23 goal per game). He is talented but he still needs time to develop his maturity/consistency.
Yes, I don't disagree with that - and like I said, I would probably pick Ronaldo over him to lead the line if I had to choose one or the other for a hypothetical individual game.

It's nevertheless a fact that Greenwood's (who is inconsistent - as you'd expect from a player his age) pure numbers compare reasonably well to Ronaldo's if we're looking at contributions per ninety (not total contributions, obviously).
 

Dr. Dwayne

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Yes.

He should be used as an impact sub more often than a starter because it's clear he does not have the legs to outrun defenders anymore. Let him at them when they have been at it for an hour and he is fresh. If the team is everything then egos are expendable.