Yeah, all of this, plus in games we're winning comfortably he should be the first one brought off at the 60-70 minute mark. This season we've played him 90 mins week in week out, sometimes with midweek games as well, because we're so toothless up front without him. He can definitely be a big part of our team next season but a priority has to be a new attacker who's comfortable carrying the attack without Ronaldo so we can rotate him more easily
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- Appearances
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- Goals
- 24
- Assists
- 3
- Yellow cards
- 9
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This depends on who we can bring in as a striker, when we have so many other areas to improve.
I personally can't see us bringing in anyone good enough to keep him out bar the occasional rested game.
Brilliant today. Unlucky to have been on the losing side. Great pass through to elanga on the right where he should have had a penalty.
Yeah good point! You could see he was running himself into the ground and that’s totally understandable. Does make you wonder what would happen under Ten Haag, but at the very least he’s proven he can still do the business in a specialised role, and he still has the desire to adapt even when pushed to his limits. Fair play.
To rotate him he needs someone to rotate with.
I can't be sure obviously but I think that's the more obvious reason for him starting almost every game as opposed to his ego.
I can't be sure obviously but I think that's the more obvious reason for him starting almost every game as opposed to his ego.
I think its abit of everything - training intensity, Rangnick conservative/defensive approach, lack of chances created, then mainly the hectic schedule during Jan-Feb etc.
Yup, there is no other decent choice upfront, well being available. It is totally crazy though considering only a few months ago, people thought we were very top-heavy.
Yeah a lack of someone to rotate with but also game situations where we can risk playing a lesser player. We never have any breathing space, every game is desperation.
I have been critical of him in the past, specifically saying that if he is not scoring he adds nothing to the team. His tracking back still leaves a lot to be desired but he was our best outfielder today by some distance, had some lovely touches and on another day could have had a couple of assists. And yes, he did what he does best and put the ball in the net and was very unlucky not to get two.
Also set up Dalot as well for the save onto the post if I recall correctly. Was excellent today.
Maybe we shouldnt have loaned out Martial
It's incredible that the 37 year old with more miles on his legs and more trophies in his cabinet than anybody out there on the team is the one that seems to care the most. The way he was going towards the end of the game was impressive and it's a shame the latter part of his career has been so muted being stuck with this lot. Huge props to him for coming back so soon from such a tragedy as well.
Maybe the only one playing on the level needed. Good performance and scores despite getting less service than he should.
I don’t think we wanted to, it was Martial who was determined to go out on loan and he made it clear to Ragnick from day one.
So did Lingard…
By far and I mean farrrrrrrrrrrrr the best player at this club and it’s not even remotely close.
He’s really gone up a level the last couple of games which shows to me with a good supporting cast he will bang them in for fun. Third top scorer in the EPL in the middle of garbage and at 37.
He still got it.
He’s really gone up a level the last couple of games which shows to me with a good supporting cast he will bang them in for fun. Third top scorer in the EPL in the middle of garbage and at 37.
He still got it.
Do you think he’s going to leave next season?
Fair play to him today. One of the very few to come out of the game with any credit.
The best player for us today by a distance.
Even at 37 to score 22 goals in such a shit team is phenomenal!
We don’t deserve him tbh.
Even at 37 to score 22 goals in such a shit team is phenomenal!
We don’t deserve him tbh.
Games we’re winning comfortably? When has that happened?
Really good performance.
Shame more in the club don't have just half of his desire or attitude.
Shame more in the club don't have just half of his desire or attitude.
You know it man.
I would, but with only one year left what’s the point.
Looks to me like he will be playing in the Europa league next season.
Well that was kind of my point we've been so poor this season, with so few genuine alternatives that we haven't been able to rest him or bring him off early apart from maybe 3-4 games the whole season, and his form has definitely suffered from this overuse. Hopefully this is something Ten Hag can fix next season
Next season don't play him in the Europa League or whatever it is we end up qualifying for. Not until the latter stages anyway. That's a bunch of rest right there.
When he also said Maguire is world-class I realised being British must be a vital requirement for him.Still amazed Rooney said he's been a failure and we should be looking to build around young guys like Lingard and Mctominay
Not true. Ralf himself said Lingard at first said he wanted to stay in January only to change his mind in the last week of the window.
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We just lost 3-1 to Arsenal and this thread fills up 3 pages with praise to Ronaldo. Nice goal by the way.
Our club has literally been in free fall since we signed him.
We haven't been in a worse place since the 80's, and it's all happened to us since September.
If only a small part of the rumors about the dressingroom environment is true, it's a f'ing catastrophy.
We have no room for bigger than the club profiles at this club.
"....in the middle of garbage..."
You're a Ronaldo fan, not a Manchester UNITED supporter.
You can only jugde a player by his own performances. No doubt that's he's been really wank in a lot of games this season, but he deserves praise for his good games like yesterday and the his 2 world class hattricks. We've had our worst season since moyes no doubt, but literally everything has been dysfunctional. Our defense, our midfield and our forward line.
Yeah this thread is bizarre. The guy cost us vital points missing chances for the better part of three months which as much as anything is why this season is already over.
Only if you haven’t been paying attention to performances. We’ve been dreadful for a long time and eventually the results were going to catch up to performances.
I think with a system where we create chances, Ronaldo scores alot of goals for us. I know he gets criticised for his tracking back but I have noticed in the biggest games, his worth ethic is there. obviously at him age you cant expect him to press in every game however; if we manage to condense the pitch so all our forwards can press as they dont have to run the length of the pitch.
Your post and opinion is painfully narrow-minded, you have absolutely no control over the big picture.
Signing Ronaldo was a "mistake" based on the fact that he will never replicate what he did in the past or for Real Madrid, but damn sure he has scored a few goals and been our best player even at 37. We also signed Sancho this summer, perhaps he could be the big reason for everything bad? What about Varane? You pick and choose based on your simple agenda, your post has no substance.
The big picture for me is that the culture after Solskjær was incredibly bad and on its way down no matter way, signing Ronaldo or not had no impact on this, my opinion is that he is an inspiration for most of the players regardless. Does he get special rules and special treatment? Of course he does, he is a unique player and one of the best players of all time without question - it should however set goals for the not so incredible players. If that riles up absolute dross like Maguire and McTominay then so be it, they are not here for the long-term anyway if we want to be successful again. One thing is if Ronaldo shows up late and lavishes around like a Balotelli-character and misses traning and still play games, but we all know Ronaldo shows up first, leaves after all others and trains like a champion.
I suppose you could read some of my other posts in this thread to get some more substance. There is plenty of analysis there on how our game has changed and how it has affected our numbers, gamestyle and the dynamics of our games.
Do you really think Varane and Sancho has had the same impact in our dressingroom as Ronaldo?
Do you really think we have completely changed our way of playing to fit in Sancho or Varane?
To play a 36/37 year old striker with record low pressing numbers comes with some costs. That means other midfielders and attackers must cover more ground, we won't win the ball when the opponent is off balance as often, we play less direct, we let the opponent enter our half more often, we create fewer chances and we concede more chances. To justify this, the pro's should have been a lot bigger than they have been with Ronaldo. We also become more predictable and one dimensional when attacking. A non penalty goal from Ronaldo every 155 minutes does not justify this sacrifice.
Also, like I've posted plenty of times, Ronaldo is still among the best when it comes to off the ball movement, positional awareness, occupying the right spaces and in general getting into good scoring positions. His allround game has improved a bit again lately, but in general the pros are too few to cover for the cons. And this is just on the pitch.
For some reason there are rumors of clicks and division in the dressingroom. Key players have become shadows of their former selves and most (if not all) players are performing worse than they were last season. It's quite obvious that plenty of players are unhappy now, as opposed to happy 12 months ago. There is most likely many factors playing in here, but if Ronaldo is this great inspirator, rolemodel and motivator, it's not rubbing off. On top of this it seems like the management hasn't been able to capitalize on the obvious resources he potentially could bring to a club as a whole. I'm not a fan of stopgap solutions or buying players past their peak in general and I think it was an extremely short sighted signing from the start. I can't see any scenarios where we become a top club again by feeding the ball to a 37 year old who doesn't press. It just isn't possible in the PL or the CL.
it's honestly difficult liking these Man Utd players at the minute so I can understand why he'd call them garbage. This team is the worst Man Utd team I've seen, and some of the players I cannot stand currently, don't mean I'm not a United supporter, and I'm still off to old trafford for the 2 remaining home games....
This pressing malarky is a load of rubbish, when have we pressed effectively without Ronaldo? One of the most ridiculous statements going. Football doesn't just revolve around pressing, it isn't the first game-changing tactic and it won't be the last. There's a video posted in the Rangnick thread, shows pretty good analysis.
Ronaldo has missed chances, there's no denying that, but he's back on goalscoring form and he's literally the only player capable of scoring goals currently. Bruno, Rashford, Elanga are missing clear cut chances game on game, which really has caused us to drop loads of points. He ain't the issue for that terrible defense, which we have seen all season long. CR did his part against Arsenal, and if other players did their part we would still be in with a shot of the top 4.
Ronaldo ain't the problem here chief. Just yourself and few other people in here have it out for him, even while it's obvious there are so many bigger problems.
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We were a quite good counterattacking team just 8 months ago.
Our pressingnumbers against Arsenal (from the attackers):
Ronaldo: 6
Sancho: 8
Elanga/Lindgard/Rashford: 16
Bruno/Mata: 16
Total: 46
Total pressings in the attacking 3rd: 17 (Ronaldo: 1!)
Arsenal vs us:
Nketiah: 21 !!
ESR/Martinelli: 12
Saka (73 minutes): 14
Odegaard: 24
Total: 71
Total pressings in the attacking 3rd: 46 (Nketiah: 16!!)
Even when dominating possession they pressed >50% more than us (almost 300% more in the attacking 3rd) and they forced many errors on our defense. Of course pressing from the front is important for game dynamics and it's one of many weapons you must have in your locker. Without it you start almost all your possession from the back against balanced defenses.
We don't have that weapon with Ronaldo leading the line.
As you point out: The defense has been terrible and error-prone, Elanga is too lightweight to start every match, Rashford is totally out of form and Bruno has been less effective lately. So it's not entirely down to Ronaldo. That doesn't change the net negative playing a player like him brings.
Except he was our best attacker on the pitch...
I've been a critic of Ronaldo's time here at least for the periods he looked finished, but yeah he was our best attacker on the pitch yesterday and scored our only goal.
I really hope he stays, do people think he will?
He went to shit when we started to overplay him during a very busy part of the season (xmas/Jan).
If we actually manage his game time well (which is why it was pretty stupid to loan Martial) then he will be fine.
No surprise he played well vs Arsenal after a bit of a break
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