Honestly I'm impressed he can still have those chances.
Cristiano Ronaldo - 976/1000 | Football only
- Thread starter Bastian
- Start date
Not difficult when he has world class players feeding hin the ball, and against poor teams.
An ideal weapon for the opposition.
That’s why now is the perfect time to drop him tbh. No chance Portugal sack their manager during a WC, and after it the Portuguese FA will be looking towards Euro 2028, which surely won’t involve Ronaldo.
3 months ago was the dangerous time.
It is not sad at all. He has done this to himself, as his narcissistic and selfish personality doesn't care if his performances hurt the teams he plays for as long as he gets his 1000 goals.
Even if he scored 10 penalties this tournament, he would be happier that he won the golden boot, rather than him not playing any games and Portugal going on to win the World Cup without him.
Doubt that would happen given that he's still by some distance their biggest goal threat in terms of forwards.
He really isn't, considering they play better without him, and recent results prove it. They didn't need him last night to score and win. They have enough good players without him.
If that were true they wouldn't play him. If you look at the other players on the forward roster, there's really not much to select from and none of them even come close to being able to contribute the goals he does.
I think he means his movement, speed, leap etc. I think he'll score a few this WC.
The first one is bad, but it's a good run and it seems it doesn't go in by a few inches. The header is actually good and would have been a brilliant goal had it gone in. The rest is comedy gold, including his live action take on the crying behind the mask meme.
Is this not just an exaggerated version of the Haaland/City debate? Haaland gets mad figures for them but yet before they signed him they scored more as a team with no striker.
(Haaland obviously much better than current Cristiano)
Probably similar, yes. Although I haven't seen much evidence that Portugal have the firepower to score enough goals without him as opposed to with him playing. The narrative that they do is based around cartoonishly lopsided wins against minnows like Luxembourg and Armenia, not against very good WC quality teams. If we want to assess how good CR7 is in the present, his numbers are comparable to those of Ivan Toney in the Saudi league, which is imo an appropriate comp for him right now.
And Toney is good enough for the England squad.
Ramos scored a hat trick at the WC 4 years ago, everyone thought Ronaldo was finsished. He has scored 6 goals since then. In that time Felix has scored 7, Bernardo Silva 5, Bruno has scored about 15. Ronaldo has scored 25.
There's many arguments for not playing him, but when you see what the rest of them are capable of infront of goal, that's why he's still there.
Agreed. If Portugal had a Pauletta quality striker in the squad (as they did early in Ronaldo's career), then they would have more options. Unfortunately, the likes of Ramos, Felix, Trincão, Neto et al, simply aren't on that level right now.
Actually he never was so clinical. At times even because he took far too many not that smart shots from anywhere. Or trying to finish in instances he should pass it, etc.
Yet he was almost always there (a massive atribute in a goalscorer) and quite frankly, he still has that, specially on headers.
The thing going against him it's that he always was a tad stiff trying to look too fancy, now he actually IS stiff due to his age and it's extremely noticeable at times.
If he keeps his positioning on check, he manages his runs, he does not try to control more difficult balls he should not even try to reach, uses more his mates even in the little area and try tobresoove as simple and direct as he actually CAN, he still can dobhis job.
Then will remain if Portugal actually keeps the ball and provides constantly of chances, sthg that at times will all those great CMs, they can't.
Well how would you, if he's basically playing pretty much every match. But therefore you can also reverse the statement: There's not much evidence that Portugal lack the firepower to score enough goals without him as opposed to with him playing. There's only one game over the past 3-4 years he didn't play where Portugal failed to score: A goalless draw against Mexico this March. However, he himself also failed to score in the two matches he was involved in since that game. Other than that the best teams they played without Ronaldo over the past 2-3 years were probably Croatia (1:1, 1:2), Sweden (5:2) and the USA (2:0). And let's not forget Ronaldo failed to score a single goal in any of his five games at the Euros 2024. They definitely missed an opportunity to at least try out a few players and systems here and there. From a team/squad perspective there was really no need for Ronaldo to be playing pretty much every single of their friendlies over those past few years other than him chasing personal records.
He shouldn't even be in that squad, never mind playing.
Ridiculous they''ve wrecked a golden generation to accomodate him.
Ridiculous they''ve wrecked a golden generation to accomodate him.
There was that game vs Switzerland in the knockout rounds in Qatar where Ronaldo was benched Ramos who went on to score a hat-trick in a 6-1 win. That was by far Portugal's most impressive performance in the tournament. I remember Ramos offering so much more off-the-ball than Ronaldo.
Even if Ramos hasn't been in good form recently, Martinez would be a fool to not try something similar in the knockout rounds.
He'd be benched already if Portugal had a WC striker to do it.
I wonder if Keane would be as disparaging with Portugal sacrificing the team in order for Ronnie to hunt down those 1000 goals as he was about Bruno (and I agreed with him, contrary to everyone here). Individual records are nothing compared to the collective ambitions.
It would have been interesting to see what Jose would have done had he taken over prior to this tournament.
It would have been interesting to see what Jose would have done had he taken over prior to this tournament.
With less ego he'd be an incredible super-sub. It's Ronaldo though so...
Hope he scores the remaining 27 in this world cup 
He should be used as a supersub or in dead rubber matches. We've come to the point where the opponent are happy to see him in the starting xi.
And yet still loses.Hope he scores the remaining 27 in this world cup
His smug grinning after missing chances is just the worst. I can’t wait for the consistent drama he brings to this team that leads to him inevitably crying on his way out
I’m not surprised he still gets chances given the vast array of quality and top talent behind him, but I feel like when the competitive games come against stronger opposition he’s going to be a serious issue for them for the third major tournament in a row. It’s hard to win the thing when it’s basically “Operation Cristiano’s Legacy” yet again. Funny thing is if they did win it with him making minimal impact on an individual level I’m sure that would be enough to get his cult elevating him above Diego and Pele! Portugal really needed a strong manager, but I suspect that’s why Martinez has the gig, he’s weak and any strong manager would end up being canned anyway when they drop Cristiano.
Don't be naive. The pressure is high on the manager to start Ronaldo.
The statistics don't lie, Portugal have been better for a while when Ronaldo is not on the pitch.
Apparently Ronaldo said (a few years back) he got the SUIIIII from Michael Jackson.
I was dubious until someone posted this online. Mike even does the hand thing before the SUIIIII too.
I was dubious until someone posted this online. Mike even does the hand thing before the SUIIIII too.
I agree.
I think there's a party that says that Ronaldo will break the teams synergy
But then there's a party that says he is their best ST and goalscorer.
If we look at Portugal's central attackes & you play Goncalo Ramos then the main goalscorer threat has to be someone like Bruno Fernandes. Is that going to be enough?
On the otherside playing Ronaldo reduces the synergy of the whole team and as such has the potential to hinder Bruno's goalscoring ability but the goalscoring target is done by 2.
Apparently Ronaldo said (a few years back) he got the SUIIIII from Michael Jackson.
I was dubious until someone posted this online. Mike even does the hand thing before the SUIIIII too.
Agreed. Bruno alone won’t be nearly enough in the absence of their forward players contributing.
Only if you factor in the rubbish games like Luxembourg and Armenia. I’ve yet to see anything vaguely believable that they are better against high quality opponents without him.
He was never "so clinical", his main strength was always* in being able to generate an ungodly amount of chances for himself via his movement and to convert them at an acceptable rate. The range of different finishes in his arsenal is (was?) also absolutely out of this world — but not the conversion rate, not really. Like Cristiano, Lewandowski etc. showed us generating those chances is the most important skill for a goalscorer though.
* well, since he had changed his overall profile to being a goalscoring machine first & foremost
I think the biggest problem is Ronaldo has such an ego that if he is dropped he will blow up the whole World Cup for them. The funny thing is he could be an asset and be more respected coming off the bench.
They are already doing that, you dont need to wait for Portugal to win the world cup
After all is said, he’s still in incredible shape for a 41 year old.
After seeing him stink out WC 2022 and then Euro 2024 two years later, it’s mind blowing to me he’s still odds on to be a starter in WC 2026, let alone their leader. He’ll likely want to play Euro 2028 too.
Well yeah, but I was in a conversation about *how* Roberto Martinez could do it if he wanted, rather than the wisdom of such a move. I actually think he won’t start all group games anyway, but will definitely start at least 1.
I kinda hope we do the same with Kane and any other players we are reliant on. Recovery times are going to be key after matches in excessive heat.
I'm not even sure that's true any more. I mean, yes, he's ripped and all, still able to run fairly fast and jump fairly high, but at the expense of other physical attributes, like suppleness or general agility/nimbleness (he looks stiff as feck even in highlight reels). Also, more and more players are extending their careers now beyond their mid-thirties and still look reasonably sharp. Also, everybody (except yours truly) is, or at the very least looks, fit these days, including plenty of people well into their forties and even fifties, and they aren't professional athletes and aren't paid a million a week or whatever to do exactly that (keeping fit). He's not that much of a physical freak in 2026, I reckon.
I'm not totally disagreeing, but I think you're underestimating a little bit what it takes physically to play professional football at such an advanced age. We know that the level in Saudi obviously is lower than in Europe, but he's still competing against pro athletes who are 10-15-20 years younger. Also, despite not being as agile as before he still scored a fairly impressive bicycle kick at 40 earlier this season.