The comprehensive Ronaldo thread

Dr. StrangeHate

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Is he a better coach than Pep and Sir Alex? He has coached two games. One won him the Euro and in the second he has transformed a struggling team to an attacking power house by dropping a waste of space up front.
 

B20

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His performance off the ball has been epic tonight
 

sugar_kane

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This ridiculous reception for him from the Qatar crowd says everything you need to know about the type of football fans who worship him.

That said, the haters who desperately want to see him crash and burn are just as bad as the Ronaldo obsessives. He’s left our club now, who cares!

I kind of hope he scores if only for his own sanity, this whole circus has been really uncomfortable to watch.
 

Longshanks

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Not of the same importance though. He was here longer and a great player but we often fell short when he was ‘the man’ in ways where Cantona and Ronaldo, also RVP got us over the line
Not of the same importance!? Really!? Prove it.
 

Poborsky's hair

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He's such a coward and always way, afraid to stick his foot or head out, could have had a goal or two if he wasnt lazy to beat easy offside situation as well.
 

Adisa

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He doesn't even bother with the offside rule anymore.
 

bosnian_red

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Oh you know this guy is fuming on the inside. Wonder what his feelings will be at finally winning the world Cup if he's not used at all
 

sullydnl

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All that matters is that Ronaldo being dropped and his replacement scoring a hat-trick is, objectively, extremely funny.
 

The Urban Goose

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Haha, the crybaby is crybabying off the pitch alone after such an epic night for his nation. What a colossal bell end.
 

Judge Red

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This World Cup is the best and most inspired anyone is ever going to see him from now on. And he’s a hindrance to his team.
 

Shane88

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His disinterested turn away after Leao's goal went in was lovely to see. A young player ignoring the old useless twat free as a bird at the back post to bang one in himself.

The penny must be starting to drop for him.
 

Eckers99

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Well at least he came on after watching other players excel without him for Portugal. He's really grown up this past month.
 

Pronewbie

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This ridiculous reception for him from the Qatar crowd says everything you need to know about the type of football fans who worship him.

That said, the haters who desperately want to see him crash and burn are just as bad as the Ronaldo obsessives. He’s left our club now, who cares!

I kind of hope he scores if only for his own sanity, this whole circus has been really uncomfortable to watch.
Wasn't it his compatriots chanting for him? I clearly heard ho-nal-du.
 

Gazza

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It is funny to see a certain poster here having a Piersesque meltdown over people not unanimously fawning over his idol, especially after his own nation has shown today that they are much better off without Ronaldo. :)
 

Mr Pigeon

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He wasn’t though ? We won more with Ronaldo than Eric. Ronaldo had a 42 goal season in which we won the league and CL, where he scored goals that earned us 21 points alone, he won four United Player of the years, three premier league player of the years, the balon dor. We won the league three times in a row for only the second time in our history, the CL for only the third time, the world club cup , two league cups and an FA Cup in which Ronaldo was outstanding and scored the opener in the final. He was as talismanic as Cantona and more successful. He was a far better player in addition.
It's great that Ronaldo scored 42 goals in a season and it's great you keep mentioning it but it's not relevant to this discussion because;

1) a goal alone doesn't equal a memorable or standout/important moment.
2) Ronaldo was the main attacking outlet for the team during that season, Cantona was a second striker. Goals weren't the only thing he did, as shown by him being top assister in the league twice. Comparison of goals scored is useless. Which is good because this was about player impact for the entire team.

You're right that Ronaldo scored a shit load of goals during our League and CL season, the CL being the one thing Ronaldo has over Cantona from a team perspective (since I as a United fan am looking for United moments and not how many Balloon Doors a player has to their name). Being a better player also doesn't mean they provided better moments. They're two completely different identifiers. Pure moments are subjective and depend on how much you actually saw both play. But since you're focused on numbers let's start with those...

Worth pointing out that Ronaldo has three league titles, Cantona four, and Ronaldo has one FA Cup, Cantona two.

Cantona also scored more match winners than Ronaldo. 16 match winning goals for United compared to 13 for Ronnie. A reminder again that Cantona was a second striker and played less seasons than Ronaldo.

Even ignoring anecdotal opinions and memories from people who actually saw both of them perform and sticking to the raw numbers doesn't do much for Ronaldo at United.

But the CL, the club honour Ronaldo has that Cantona doesn't. I remember it well. I remember his great header in the first half, and a couple of crosses before he became invisible for the rest of the game - barely got into the box and jogged around. Then he bottled his penalty. If Terry hadn't slipped we would have lost that game. Van Der Sar won Man of the Match.

To say Ronaldo was more talismanic than Cantona is just bizarre.
 

K2K

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"Can Manchester United score? They always score"
Really, maybe in seasons past but how's that going for him this season?
He needs his pace to get him into brilliant goal scoring positions. And he no longer has that in his arsenal.

Hence why he's looked so poor. His game has largely been centered on movement and being always at the right place at the right time. Age has caught up with him sadly.
 

Bobski

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The thing is, had he accepted the reality of time and his decline, adapted to a different role, shown some grace and humility, people would have loved him even more for it.