He's the GOAT for sure. 2 x hatricks a few weeks apart, in a dreadful MUFC team was an incredible achievement.
Ronaldo: Stay or go?
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I take this article with a pinch of salt, as is usually the case with football journalism. Nevertheless, I do believe faking injuries on and off the pitch is a regular occurrence, because if you want out of a situation, you have that ready-made / believable excuse always there. In the past, we've seen defenders mysteriously get an injury on the pitch directly after being humiliated by the attacker. I don't condone faking an injury, but it's so convenient.
I mean, this is technically true but not really alarming when you realize Ronaldo only missed 5 league games after signing, and 2 of those were against City and Liverpool (who also destroyed us in the return fixtures with him playing 90 minutes).
Big fan of the guy and I want him to stay another season, but this isn't really the sort of stat I'd use to make the point. It's about the same as the Paul Mersons of the world trying to say we were better before signing Ronaldo (2 wins and a draw in the opening 3 games!)
I worry with him at the club as we have already seen him thinking he I bigger than the manager and shown a real lack of respect towards both ole and ragnick, along with him supposedly telling the club not to appoint conte, as well as constantly distancing himself from the team during poor results, that scream individual and not a good team member.
We don't need a situation with ten hag's authority being challenged by ronaldo and negative drama publicised within media of Ronaldo's lack of respect for the manager.
We don't need a situation with ten hag's authority being challenged by ronaldo and negative drama publicised within media of Ronaldo's lack of respect for the manager.
Its a no brainer, ETH must keep him; in fact Id make Ronaldo captain and use his experience, the knowledge he has regarding diet and keeping fit, plus his incredible skill, desire and passion to inspire his team mates, both old and young. Ronaldo is a "one off" and we should make the most of him.
He has to stay, he isn't the Ronaldo of old, but to be tearing it up at 37 years old is phenomenal. He gets into any Prem team guaranteed. The only worry is we can't rely on him being our star man for years to come for obvious reasons and we need to have worked on Plan B the moment we signed him. I do feel he does need a big character manager to keep him in line a bit though, so we shall see how ETH does with that one. The strops when subbed aren't great although understandable for a man of his talents I suppose.
He also will be great for the youngsters as a role model!
He also will be great for the youngsters as a role model!
If we also count the games he didn’t start, and other cup games he missed, we’ve only manage 1 win in 11 games without him starting/playing since he has joined us. And that’s about 1/4 of all the games we’ve played this season, not exactly just a small sample size there.
It's an overblown stat for many reasons. One being Cavani and Martial gave up on us because of the role shift. Whatever one thinks about them it's not the same attack. Another thing is the games he didn't play were few and even included inconsequential results like last CL game where we played kids and one against City we were going to lose with or without him. Can't remember the rest off the top of my head but I don't exactly think we'd be dramatically worse off, we'd just be different.
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Looks like Ronaldo's agent Mendes put him on the market... He's been contacted by Roma according to Corriere della Sera
Why would he entertain Roma? They’re a smaller club who also aren’t in the champions league, and on top of that he has to work with Mourinho.
I thought Ronaldo and Mourinho liked each other?
I think now it's clear he is staying - and I'm glad he is. He is still a top player and by far the most clinical player we have here. As much as I do want him here, it does create a bit of an issue with additions/squad planning. Who would we say is the obvious back-up to Ronaldo? Rashford to me isn't really good enough to lead the line and seems to prefer to come in from the left - he could provide some back-up though. Beyond that - Martial isn't really an out an out striker and isn't good enough either. I don't know who we look to. We need to sign a striker. But can you sign a top striker when he will have to mostly be cover for Ronaldo, for now? Or can you sign potential - someone to come in and learn from Ronaldo and take over when he moves on/retires? We may not have long enough to do that. Maybe sign someone who can cover across the front 3? I don't know what the plan is and I don't see where we can go with it for next season.
On a side note,
Ronaldos legal case in America has been dismissed by the judge.
Ronaldos legal case in America has been dismissed by the judge.
Nigling injuries starting to catch up with him, we may need a young CF to play with him this season.
Look I love the guy - more than I’ve ever loved any footballer - but he needs to leave. He’s a big part of why the team fell apart last season as he really can’t play in a team that defends from the front and sucks all the attention from everyone from the coaches to his teammates and the fans. Everything is about him - getting the best out of him, getting him chances, getting him the ball, keeping him happy, etc.
Theres no way ETH will be able to implement anything approaching his style with Ronaldo here.
Theres no way ETH will be able to implement anything approaching his style with Ronaldo here.
Well this has been discussed many times, whether he needs to leave or not for the long term future of this club, our team was complete pile of shite last season even without him playing too. We've only managed to get 1 wins out of 11 games (league+cups) without playing/starting him, since he joined us last season, which is absolutely worst case for us ever. So blame him all you want for last season, won't magically change this fact.
I’m not blaming him. It’s not like he actively wanted this to happen, but the fact remains we were a team on the up before he arrived. There were plenty of other reasons why we went to pieces last year from Ole’s stubbornness, Maguire’s regression, lack of midfield signing, etc, but having to have everything go through Ronnie destroyed any semblance of pressing game we had. His form also was quite patchy. Yea he was our overall top scorer but he scored much more in bunches than consistently through the season.
Whatever, he should be one of the last to be blamed for last season, and defintely should not be the first, which your original post made out to be.
Never said he was the first reason. But he was definitely a reason. And you can argue his goal output wasn’t enough to make up for all the other stuff, and his goal output wasn’t all that amazing anyways. He’s still the GOAT for me and I love the guy to death. I just don’t want him to be around for another year so every PC with ETH is gonna be about “how do you get the best out of Ronaldo?”
Ronaldo staying effectively pushes back the rebuild another year. Ended up having a strong second half of the season last year after looking very poor in the first half, but I think Utd would have been much better off moving him on this Summer and fully committing to the rebuild.
You said he was big part of reason, and go on to claim/imply how he disrupted the team overall attack, defence and everything. This sounds like he is the first reason to you. Anyway, I think for a 37 years old player to be able to become top 3 goalscorer in this league, and being voted as part of PL team of the season, deserve a little more respect, than saying he is the problem.
It’s just that some see the difference on how a team has to play when Peter Crouch is their striker compared to when Firmino is a striker.
The fact is that Cavani and Martial play a different style of football to Ronaldo.
Ronaldo is a better striker - but we became a team that tried to create for a central striker in comparison to what we were before Ronaldo arrived - we were creating for our wider forwards like Greenwood oRashford on the counter. Ronaldo is not a counter player at the age of 38.
Whenever people bring up the fact that Ronaldo changed how we as a team played - people act like we have a problem with the player.
Yes he became our best goal scorer but this was again not how we played - our central striker was the least likely to score compared to our wider forwards.
Then there is Bruno Fernandez that has stats and Data to show that Ronaldo took the spaces and areas that Bruno would normally be to score goals or assist. He is another player who was our main attacker and suddenly that changed too no matter how overrated people find him to be after this season.
Ive got no problem to Ronaldo and Value his 20 goals - but that 20 goals came from a different type of football in comparison to the way the rest of the team played before his arrival.
Some people just don’t see it and assume that we have a problem with Ronaldo.
The way we would have to play as a team to accommodate Lewandowski is different to a team that accommodates Benzema. Different strikers needs different teams and tactics. Ronaldo changed ours.
How much more respect does the guy need than me saying he’s the GOAT and my favourite ever player? Maybe his fanboys need to accept some nuance.
I agree with parts of this. Ronaldo's strong finish to the season patches over a long streak of games where he was gash. However unless we can in a better striker than him I think we have to keep him and in this current generation of strikers, good strikers are hard to come by, so I prefer him to stay since we aren't getting in any world class strikers.
Striker alongside the GK are by far the hardest positions to recruit for in football - especially at the highest level. Cause once you've fecked up, it becomes the highest priority and the most expensive position to fix.
Naa I think we were fine on the goals scored front the year before without him as well I reckon. These days you can get by with a striker by committee sort of approach.
Anyone wanting ronaldo gone needs brain surgery.
Who will score them goals ? Don't say martial and rashford.
Who will score them goals ? Don't say martial and rashford.
That was that year before though. I don't think we can rely on our other forwards now and Bruno. We aren't like City. Greenwood is gone. Sancho doesn't score many. Martial is wildly inconsistent and doesn't want to be here same applies to Rashford.
Hahaha
Well said. The idea that his contribution is beyond reproach “because respect” is literally insane.
Ronaldo is obviously going to be a huge issue for ETH to deal with next season. One he could clearly do without. It’s not as though we’re talking about a player whose contribution was variable for reasons that can be fixed. He’s a class player but time waits for no man.
Building an attack around a player who turned 37 half way through the season was a bad enough idea. Doing it all over again with someone who will soon turn 38 is absolute madness. A horrendous situation for ETH to inherit which badly needs to be sorted. Hence, presumably, his attempts to sign Nunez. The Ronaldo fanbois might have their heads in the sand but ETH is no mug.
I suspect only parts of ETH's philosophy will come into play this season and Ronaldo is only a stop gap until other issues in the team have been solved.
The idea that we're going to go into next season with a bunch of pressing monsters from the get go is probably not going to happen. Literally only two first team players in this side that I can think of fit the bill and that's Fred and Bruno (maybe Elanga but is he really a first choice player/automatic starter?).
The idea that we're going to go into next season with a bunch of pressing monsters from the get go is probably not going to happen. Literally only two first team players in this side that I can think of fit the bill and that's Fred and Bruno (maybe Elanga but is he really a first choice player/automatic starter?).
A rebuild, like the one we need, can't be done in one summer. Far more important to fix the areas that desperately need fixing and not replace our 25 goal striker, which would likely require another £50-60m on top of everything else we need this year
Ronaldo will stay and play a part in the initial rebuilding. I’m happy he is staying. He’s a winner and delivered last season on many occasions.
During games you can see his petulance when things are not going right. This and his ego are reasons why some want him gone. And that’s all noted, accepted, appreciated.
His good traits and ability outweigh these IMO.
In any event, if United were to bring in a better player for any current squad member, you would let them go. Continuous / continual improvement. Who (realistically) can we get that is better than Ronaldo for a short term fix.
During games you can see his petulance when things are not going right. This and his ego are reasons why some want him gone. And that’s all noted, accepted, appreciated.
His good traits and ability outweigh these IMO.
In any event, if United were to bring in a better player for any current squad member, you would let them go. Continuous / continual improvement. Who (realistically) can we get that is better than Ronaldo for a short term fix.
Spot on.
You don't actually need a 25 goal striker though do you? Especially if those goals come at the expense of zero defensive work or pressing from the front. Building an effective team is far more important than any individuals goal tally, and that is hard to do when you have to work around the things that Ronaldo can not do.
To expand, Utd are not going to be challenging for anything next season, too much work to do, quite likely they will be outside the top 4 again with new players bedding in. Don't see the point of keeping Ronaldo for that when they could be prioritizing getting the best out of Sancho, rehabilitating Rashford and developing whoever else they bring in this summer.
Also gets rid of half a million a week in wages.
All good points.
In principle I’d agree. Selling RvN was correct move despite him guaranteeing us 25+ a season. But the supporting cast isn’t the same. Ronaldo isn’t holding anyone back. When Ruud went it made us more open, freer and creative. Because we had players poised to grow into that system.
We’re not close to that now. Ronaldo not doing defensive work is least of our worries. Especially when one or two of the players you mentioned as ones you flourish if he went did even less in terms of defensive duties than he did
You weren't, you were as much as a joke of a team the seasons before he arrived.
Ronaldo not working is a huge part of our issues because it means Bruno has to try and press more onto the defenders of the opposition and the gap between the front and 2 midfielders is so vast the midfield becomes overwhelmed.
The only other options to dropping Ronaldo are to go to an early Klopp Liverpool midfield (Henderson, Wijnaldum and Fabinho) where they are generally mostly workers and DM's and drop Bruno out completely and rely on the strikers and wide forwards to do all the creating and scoring even then against the best teams we'll be found wanting in my opinion or not press at all because you can't just a press a little it's and all or nothing scheme and you can't carry a non pressing player in a pressing scheme
You can’t really say his defensive work is the least of our worries when we just conceded 57 goals last season, it’s a team game and all related. Defending needs to be far better from the front in the same way where we’d score more goals if De Gea and the full backs were better on the ball. A few managers said that it was far easier to play United last season because they could plan for their defenders to walk out of defence uncontested, that’s an issue.
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