He's missed 2 or 3 big or semi-big chances a game in at least 3-4 matches recently. Not that simple really.
7
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 38
- Goals
- 24
- Assists
- 3
- Yellow cards
- 9
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
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Personally I can't stand the fella but no one can deny without him our CL campaign would be all but finished, as well as our chances at a top 4 finish. Fantastic hattrick yesterday though. His first, although closer to the goal reminded me of that goal he scored against Porto all those years ago. Brought back some good memories.
100% agree, the slump of form wasn't just on the other players.
Best league performance since his debut
When he was winning ballon d’ors and scoring 50+ goals a season he was missing chances.
You can’t expect your striker to score every chance presented to them, he could have and should have had a few more but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been our best player this season, which he has.
He looked much better all game. Looked fully fit straight from the first minute.
He wasn't doing any silly air kicks, miscontrolling the ball etc. He actually smashed the ball like I expect to see him do also. Some of his shots in recent times have been very tame.
It was great to see him roll back the clock, but I fear that was the odd one of rather than a sign of things to come.
He wasn't doing any silly air kicks, miscontrolling the ball etc. He actually smashed the ball like I expect to see him do also. Some of his shots in recent times have been very tame.
It was great to see him roll back the clock, but I fear that was the odd one of rather than a sign of things to come.
No denying this and he has been out of form. But in the interests of fairness, so has everyone. Bruno missed an open goal which cost us our place in the FA Cup and Cavani missed an open goal from 2 yards out at Burnley for example.
If Cavani were leading the line we'd probably be around Spurs position right now.
Agreed. It creates an easy out to blame everything on everyone else. Not that we should be looking for scapegoats. Just being honest that Ronaldo's performance in front of goal has been subpar for a forward of his renown.
Not every chance but he's our clutch player. You need your main striker to be decisive when it matters. Yesterday he was. However, recently he hasn't been. That hasn't all been the fault of others. He has missed chances you would expect him to score. He likes to think of himself as the world's greatest. That's the standard by which he is judged. I imagine that is the standard he expects to be judged by too.
That wasn't really the point I was making. I agree that the rest of the team hasn't been good enough in front of goal. However, Ronaldo is our main striker. He's the guy that the main responsibility hangs on.
PSG went out of Europe the other night and their fans aren't asking where were Di Maria and Draxler. They're asking about Neymar and Messi. Cos when you need something special you look to your special players. For us that's Ronaldo. He showed it last night. I just wish he had shown it more often in the eight weeks before.
I do understand I'm just loathe to be too critical of a guy forced to play every game because none of our other centre forwards seemingly want to play for the club for various reasons especially given we've been ridiculously asking him to consistently play a role he's barely ever played in club football throughout his 20 year career. We saw yesterday a much more rested, energised player with what appeared to be more freedom to drop off the front line to find space and he was deadly.
Deserves credit for the positions he occupied yesterday. Didn't restrict himself to simply running off the last defender, when the ball got to advanced areas he made himself available. At points in the 2nd half was almost deep enough to be the 10. He had a good game even without the goals. Contrary to what people say a striker can link up and get on the scoresheet and Ronaldo can play as a complete forward when he chooses. I'd like to see more of it from him and I'd honestly also like to see Bruno play the 10 more similar to how Ronaldo played his deeper touches yesterday. Won't get pretty stats but using simple touches to facilitate attacks and acting as the pivot in passing triangles. Ronaldo is no doubt on another level when it comes to intelligence.
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True, apart from his goals, his passing and touch has been quick and neat on link up play, his decision making has been top notch, and he was a constant threat on our attack with some very good run and well taken shots too. It’s simply a world class performance, couldn’t ask for more.
He is a human being isn't he. Nobody has scored more goals in the history of the game, I think he knows what he's doing
before you say he's passed it, yesterday was a prime example that he clearly isn't.He need proper rest and proper service. I’ve said it many times, he shouldn’t play more than 90-120mins per week. But during his poor form in Feb, he was like playing full games every 3 days without any rest (7 games in 21 days). He is 37 afterall, his body can’t fully recovered under such intense schedule without any proper resting.
Looked so much better. Touch was good and he wasn't losing the ball. The week off seemed to have worked wonders.
What a weird fanboy defence of him. I just corrected a poster who said that he'll get things done like this weekend if he just gets the service. I like Ronaldo, I'm just stating that he has missed important chances quite a lot recently.He is a human being isn't he. Nobody has scored more goals in the history of the game, I think he knows what he's doing
The rest did him good. He can't play every game.
5 points behind with 2 games in hand? So about the same then.
It’s hilarious how some on here were claiming he might even STRUGGLE in the MLS
Even though the numbers (even before yesterday’s game) showed he was the topscorer in a very disjointed and dysfunctional side.
Now he has more goal contributions than anyone in the league not named Salah despite his advanced age and how poor we’ve been as a team. It’s actually quite astonishing. His determination means he’ll shine no matter the adversity and the tall order required of him.
Even though the numbers (even before yesterday’s game) showed he was the topscorer in a very disjointed and dysfunctional side.
Now he has more goal contributions than anyone in the league not named Salah despite his advanced age and how poor we’ve been as a team. It’s actually quite astonishing. His determination means he’ll shine no matter the adversity and the tall order required of him.
We already are. Spurs are 5 points behind us, but also have two games in hand, so that is pretty much a similar position.
Rest and rotate.
Shame the Atletico match is only 3 days after the previous game and could basically end our season if we lose.
Shame the Atletico match is only 3 days after the previous game and could basically end our season if we lose.
With Cavani leading the line we were 2nd last season.
Indeed, it was all him that carried us to 2nd in those, checks notes, 13 league starts.
I think we'd have done great relying on him this season too given he's only missed 19 games injured so far this season.
There was no relying on him, in fact he hasn’t been that good this season and is far far too injury prone but he still scored 10 league goals last season from those 13 league starts and in a hypothetical situation where he was leading the line for 26 or 27 games, I don’t think United would be worse for it, I think they’d be better. But alas.
Are those stats correct?! Didn’t realise he was so prolific. The combination of him being basically unavailable all season and the Greenwood situation has really screwed us. In a way it’s a miracle we’re still in the mix for 4th. Especially when you consider we’ve also forgotten how to defend.
I certainly think we'd be better (and Ronaldo would be better) if we'd - hypothetically - had Cavani available for 26/27 games this season as we'd have had the option of a) resting Ronaldo, b) playing them together and c) putting Ronaldo out wide to find more space at times.
Yeah it's correct. To be more specific it was 6 in 13 starts and 4 in 13 games off the bench. Combine that with the 6 in 5 games in the Europa League where he was exceptional and the goal in the league cup and he ended the season with 17 goals in 39 appearances (19 starts, 18 sub).
That first goal, absolute genius.
If cavani was relied upon to lead the line this year and we didn't sign Ronaldo who would actually be playing?
Same question but different lense, has ronaldo been the key to united still being in the champions league and still having a chance at making 4th...or has he been part of the reason the 2nd placed team from last year is clinging to 5th
Rashford scored 11, Bruno 18, other people stepped up big time last season. I mean dont get me wrong, I love the guy, but he aint a superhero, he's not gonna single handedly drag Rashy out of his slump, or fix a certain youngster's life and attitude by himself.
He’s just an ABR (anyone but Ronaldo), I wouldn’t pay much attention to it.
We were second last year because liverpool had an unreal amount of injuries and chelsea had frank leading them, not because Cavani was leading the line but that fella will go to whatever argument to fit his ABR agenda.
I think the loss of greenwood, rashford absolutely shitting the bed and cavanis injuries have been a bigger cause for where we are than anything Ronaldo has or hasn't done.
That's a lot of fire power for 3 different reasons that we haven't had virtually all season.
How are we behind Arsenal (up to 10 points behind if they win all their games in hand) and far closer to Wolves than we are Chelsea, never mind Liverpool, this season? It’s been a much worse season, no matter what way you spin it. Our average goals per game has dropped from 1.9 per game to 1.65 per game.
Fernandes and Ronaldo can’t play well together. The weekend showed as much on Ronaldo’s part as Fernandes’s part. But a team based around Fernandes was more successful than a team based around Ronaldo, the evidence suggests, and one of two is much higher paid and 10 years older than the other.
Well that's part of the point, Bruno scored 18 goals, goals were spread out rather than sucked towards one individual. Cavani at his best was both clinical and selfless last season and a real asset. This season he hasn't because he hasn't been fit for the majority of the season.
You could have started and ended with that.
So, potentially one point better than our current position?
Thought people were accusing Bruno sucking all the goals alone for the past 2 years. How many assists did Cavani have last season? It sounded like he was being an assistant machine or something.
Indeed mate...SIUUUUChelsea and Liverpool have improved to a level that we weren’t playing at last season. Liverpool already have 66 points compared to the 69 they got last season. Both are on course to get way more points than we got last season.
Are you sure that evidence suggests that a team built around Ronaldo does worse than a team built around Bruno?
That match was like a blast from the past. I doubt it will get repeated but it's always good to see such great players managing to pull out such games in the late stage of their career.
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