Ronaldo doesn’t press and positions himself wrong to open up the midfield

[Bebestation]

Presses 3.5 times a game at max, however- It's not just pressing. It's how he positions himself as a striker. He tends to position himself at a LS/LF angle due to his history as an inverted winger/forward. (We saw this with yesterday's offside goal(

He doesn't position himself on to the central opposition. All this lack of pressing and positioning leaves the central opposition defenders and CDM all the time in the world to do their own thing before picking their passes.

As soon as one of our midfielders try to react to this as press (we see Bruno press further up that Ronaldo) it completely opens up our midfield because our midfield had to put pressure in areas further up the pitch, when it should be our most central further forward player that initiates the press.

Anyway, apparently this is all bollocks and we have bad feelings towards him. This is just bullsh*t made up stuff.

Shows exactly what happened vs Everton when we were controlling the match vs them with Cavani up top and what happened when Ronaldo became our central striker after getting subbed on. We lost control of the game and all that pressure and balance on the centre of the pitch disappeared before we got cut through like a piece of cake as soon as he came on.

Great video. Shows the problem about quarter of the way through.

Oh well. Let's not believe it.

And no I'm not Ole in. The fact he doesn't have the balls to see this and utelises him as our main attacking unit is his problem.

The best form of defending is attacking and our attacking line has completely changed to the point where our attacking is not good and neither is our defending.

I can deal with the hatred and the consequences. This is not just a performance thread, it's a weakness of United thread.

Give it to me.

Ps: Added a new video I found highlighting similar problems.

 

[arthurka]

Again it's the managers responsibility to find a way to use his players to the best of their abilities. Let's not pretend that this is a new problem, it was way before Ronaldo came back.

 

[TMDaines]

@Bebestation At least you are advancing some sort of argument and providing some evidence for why Ronaldo is making us worse. Again, I'm still not sure that Ronaldo is causing the problems to this extent. Ronaldo defensively feels more marginal gains than explaining why Luke Shaw and Harry Maguire suddenly are offering some of the worst performances I've seen in a United back four. How does Ronaldo explain Wolves? Or even West Ham in the Carabao, where we again got done by a player hitting the byline and cutting the ball back?

 

[MUFC OK]

He's never done that in his career. Ronaldo is far from our biggest problem and actually scored a perfectly good goal yesterday.

 

[Skills]

Ronaldo's always been useless defending from the front. He's just never been managed by someone as inept as Solskjaer for it to be a real problem. Good managers hide their best players weakness & enhance their strengths.

 

[BlueHaze]

You think a #9 is the reason we lost "control" against Everton? Nothing to do with the midfield I guess? Or the shambolic defending? Put up the clip of their equalizer right here and show me how Ronaldo even played slightest part in that entire joke of a sequence.

I wonder why we didn't win the EL final against Villareal then.. After all the pressing lord Cavani was playing..

 

[Ixion]

Neville pointed out yesterday when Ronaldo was first at the club Sir Alex had him surrounded by Rooney, Tevez, Park, Fletcher, Giggs etc to make up for his lack of pressing. You can play someone like that but you need to account for it, not play another 3 players around him who barely press either. We ran into problems when dropping Tevez for Berbatov because you can't carry too many players that don't press.

 

[L1nk]

Whilst I don't think Ronaldo was a terribly great signing when looking at it objectively, it's clear to anyone actually watching the damn games that Ronaldo is the least of our problems when it comes to setting up tactically, infact we looked absolutely horrendous in the Wolves game before Ronaldo had even joined so why is it only a problem that you are pointing out now? Scapegoat. Some people would rather sellout their entire families than admit Ole is just a poor ass manager I swear

 

[Skills]

You think a #9 is the reason we lost "control" against Everton? Nothing to do with the midfield I guess? Or the shambolic defending? Put up the clip of their equalizer right here and show me how Ronaldo even played slightest part in that entire joke of a sequence.

I wonder why we didn't win the EL final against Villareal then.. After all the pressing lord Cavani was playing..

Yeah it's mental. Apparently the reason we get spanked is, because our striker isn't pressing hard enough and apparently our GK isn't good enough on the ball.

 

[RepardReece]

Had enough of this rubbish in the Ronaldo performances section.

Think he's the least of our worries right now. Go back and rewatch Liverpools goals and tell me where the result would've changed if Ronaldo wasn't on the pitch.

Keep saying it, judging our players when we clearly don't have a tactical setup in place is ridiculous.

Not to mention we'd have 2 points out of 9 rather than 6/9 in the CL group stage if not for CR7.

Behave.

 

[Jeppers7]

Presses 3.5 times a game at max, however- It's not just pressing. It's how he positions himself as a striker. He tends to position himself at a LS/LF angle due to his history as an inverted winger/forward. (We saw this with yesterday's offside goal(

He doesn't position himself on to the central opposition. All this lack of pressing and positioning leaves the central opposition defenders and CDM all the time in the world to do their own thing before picking their passes.

As soon as one of our midfielders try to react to this as press (we see Bruno press further up that Ronaldo) it completely opens up our midfield because our midfield had to put pressure in areas further up the pitch, when it should be our most central further forward player that initiates the press.

Anyway, apparently this is all bollocks and we have bad feelings towards him. This is just bullsh*t made up stuff.

Shows exactly what happened vs Everton when we were controlling the match vs them with Cavani up top and what happened when Ronaldo became our central striker after getting subbed on. We lost control of the game and all that pressure and balance on the centre of the pitch disappeared before we got cut through like a piece of cake as soon as he came on.

Great video. Shows the problem about quarter of the way through.

Oh well. Let's not believe it.

And no I'm not Ole in. The fact he doesn't have the balls to see this and utelises him as our main attacking unit is his problem.

The best form of defending is attacking and our attacking line has completely changed to the point where our attacking is not good and neither is our defending.

I can deal with the hatred and the consequences. This is not just a performance thread, it's a weakness of United thread.

Give it to me.

Knew I’d read Bruno’s name in there.

 

[Mockney]

We conceded 4 against Liverpool in the same fixture last season (which everyone seems to have forgotten about) with Cavani playing up top and Maguire injured… We also nearly shipped about 7 against Roma away around the same time, also with Cavani playing & “pressing” like mad from the front so, yeah… no, I’m not buying it.

Ronaldo also wasn’t playing when DDG & Varane had to save us against Wolves this season, or when we lost to a Moyes West Ham side in the cup who created significantly more than us.

It was Pogba’s fault a few weeks ago… until we dropped him and went even further to shit.

We concede a boat load of chances and have done for ages because the way we’ve been playing for the last couple years was always unsustainable, and no one has really been drilled to do anything that could mitigate bad form or stuff not working.

 

[BlueHaze]

Yeah it's mental. Apparently the reason we get spanked is, because our striker isn't pressing hard enough and apparently our GK isn't good enough on the ball.

Pure comedy. Have seen many things on here but scapegoating Ronaldo...

This is on another level.

 

[Wednesday at Stoke]

It might be best to switch him and Rashford position wise. He can cut in from the left, have more space to attack. Rashford has the legs to do the hard work as a center forward.

 

[Jeppers7]

Neville pointed out yesterday when Ronaldo was first at the club Sir Alex had him surrounded by Rooney, Tevez, Park, Fletcher, Giggs etc to make up for his lack of pressing. You can play someone like that but you need to account for it, not play another 3 players around him who barely press either. We ran into problems when dropping Tevez for Berbatov because you can't carry too many players that don't press.

I actually think Neville has issues with Ronaldo stemming from his first period at the club, he can barely say a positive word about him. Which is ridiculous considering he’s one of the greatest players of all time. There’s some resentment there.

 

[Ronaldo's ego]

Stop making Ronaldo the escapegoat. Provide him service and he’ll score plenty. I can’t remember who it was but it was a recent interview where he said Sir Alex knew Ronaldo wouldn’t contribute defensively and had the likes of Rooney and Tevez working like dogs to compensate for that. It’s all about having a system, which we clearly don’t have.

 

[Jeppers7]

We conceded 4 against Liverpool in the same fixture last season (which everyone seems to have forgotten about) with Cavani playing up top and Maguire injured… We also nearly shipped about 7 against Roma away around the same time, also with Cavani playing & “pressing” like mad from the front so, yeah… no, I’m not buying it.

We concede a boat load of chances because the way we’ve been playing for the last couple years was always unsustainable.

Every game we played last season was a coin toss. Games like Wolves and Southampton before Ronaldo came in we’re the same.

 

[Real Name]

Thing is even if he doesnt press which he doesnt why are other front 3 pressing instead of staying more deep. Guys in the video say it too. I mean there's absolutely no logic. Your number 9 doesnt press so you press instead of him leaving huge gap in the middle instead of staying deep and waiting for the ball to come to midfield. It defies logic.

 

[Lynty]

Ronaldo is not the problem. Lets not over complicate things:

1. Our midfield hovers between dysfunctional and nonexistent
2. Our defenders are in the worst form of their lives
3. Passing out from the back has been poorly coached/implemented

Those are the biggest problems, in that order.

 

[Neil_Buchanan]

Tifo videos used to be well produced and look professional. That was just two awkward nerds having a fake conversation.

 

[Mockney]

Every game we played last season was a coin toss. Games like Wolves and Southampton before Ronaldo came in we’re the same.

Exactly. It’s even part of the reason it’s intermittently been so “entertaining”

 

[Kostov]

Presses 3.5 times a game at max, however- It's not just pressing. It's how he positions himself as a striker. He tends to position himself at a LS/LF angle due to his history as an inverted winger/forward. (We saw this with yesterday's offside goal(

He doesn't position himself on to the central opposition. All this lack of pressing and positioning leaves the central opposition defenders and CDM all the time in the world to do their own thing before picking their passes.

As soon as one of our midfielders try to react to this as press (we see Bruno press further up that Ronaldo) it completely opens up our midfield because our midfield had to put pressure in areas further up the pitch, when it should be our most central further forward player that initiates the press.

Anyway, apparently this is all bollocks and we have bad feelings towards him. This is just bullsh*t made up stuff.

Shows exactly what happened vs Everton when we were controlling the match vs them with Cavani up top and what happened when Ronaldo became our central striker after getting subbed on. We lost control of the game and all that pressure and balance on the centre of the pitch disappeared before we got cut through like a piece of cake as soon as he came on.

Great video. Shows the problem about quarter of the way through.

Oh well. Let's not believe it.

And no I'm not Ole in. The fact he doesn't have the balls to see this and utelises him as our main attacking unit is his problem.

The best form of defending is attacking and our attacking line has completely changed to the point where our attacking is not good and neither is our defending.

I can deal with the hatred and the consequences. This is not just a performance thread, it's a weakness of United thread.

Give it to me.

Thing is, we had no clue how to press even before Ronaldo, it's nothing new. We got embarrassed by Liverpool at Old Trafford in April/May, and there was not Ronaldo then. We added Ronaldo to a team managed by a mediocre coaching set up, shit midfield and think about the pressing now? I think the problem goes much deeper.

 

[tomaldinho1]

1. We didn't press before Ronnie came here
2. Ronaldo has never pressed, it is ridiculous to think he'll suddenly change his game and, even if he did, see point 1.
3. You can press without your CF being the trigger & Ole has plenty of options if he wants to drop Ronnie but then, see point 1

 

[Mockney]

Also, the idea that we’ve suddenly decided to become a pressing team, after 3 years! because pundits and the like have decided that’s what the issue is all of a sudden, is an absolute fecking joke … of course we aren’t good at it, we literally seem to have implemented it this week!

Banter club.

 

[Kush]

We conceded 4 against Liverpool in the same fixture last season (which everyone seems to have forgotten about) with Cavani playing up top and Maguire injured… We also nearly shipped about 7 against Roma away around the same time, also with Cavani playing & “pressing” like mad from the front so, yeah… no, I’m not buying it.

Ronaldo also wasn’t playing when DDG & Varane had to save us against Wolves this season, or when we lost to a Moyes West Ham side in the cup who created significantly more than us.

It was Pogba’s fault a few weeks ago… until we dropped him and went even further to shit.

We concede a boat load of chances and have done for ages because the way we’ve been playing for the last couple years was always unsustainable, and no one has really been drilled to do anything that could mitigate bad form or stuff not working.

Don't bother mate, Ronaldo is the new scapegoat. Just like you mentioned, it was Pogba few weeks back.

Having a striker press from the front isn't going to gain you "control" of the game, if the players behind them are not pressing in an organized and coherent manner. We've seen us look shaky with Cavani up top too, folks just have memory of a gold fish. We look dis-organized in 90% of matches under Ole, and our "pressing" has always been a joke, no matter the personnel, because there isn't a functional system behind it.

We play by far the worst football of any supposed top club across Europe. It's football from the dark ages, and it stems from one man and one man only despite the mental gymnastics in here to shift the blame to different players depending upon which week it is.

 

[Bebestation]

Also, the idea that we’ve suddenly decided to become a pressing team, after 3 years! because pundits and the like have decided that’s what the issue is all of a sudden, is an absolute fecking joke … of course we aren’t good at it, we’ve literally implemented it this week!

Banter club.

I don't think anyone said that even in the video.

Cavani positioned centrally and pressed 13.5 times per game last season. This means according to the video that it helped the rest of the team to know where to position themselves in line with the opposition.

Ronaldo just sits there and it leaves them not knowing where to go, where to press where to move, how high to go.

 

[largelyworried]

Pretty fair assessment. They make the point that Lukaku barely presses either, but he's pretty successful when he does, probably Chelsea as a team press really well. He benefits from the entire team being coordinated behind him.

I don't think Ronaldo is incompatible with a pressing game but he obviously isnt going to lead it with lots of hard running. It'll have to work in a different way.

 

[Reapersoul20]

Weird agenda, shite take. Ronaldo is not the issue.

 

[tomaldinho1]

I don't think anyone said that even in the video.

Cavani positioned centrally and pressed 13.5 times per game last season. This means according to the video that it helped the rest of the team to know where to position themselves in line with the opposition.

Ronaldo just sits there and it leaves them not knowing where to go, where to press where to move, how high to go.

That's an individual stat though, it has nothing to do with a team pressing as a unit. If you put me or you up top and we sprinted around without ever even touching the ball we'd end up with a high 'pressing' number.

 

[Rightnr]

Not another thread like this... Our issue is not our 36-year-old star striker but the other players who are around him, are younger and should be supporting him.

If our so-called manager got Ronaldo and thought he'd do a Cavani (even that same guy rules himself out for a lot of games due to dodgy fitness and has shown he cannot sustain a style like that at his age), he is less knowledgeable on football than a laymen who have been watching Ronaldo for the past 10 years.

It's somewhat similar to Pogba. These players are not there to do the running - they should be supported in a system to create and score the goals.

 

[Green_Red]

And yet Allegri and Sarri were able to win Serie A titles with him in the side.

 

[RepardReece]

I don't think anyone said that even in the video.

Cavani positioned centrally and pressed 13.5 times per game last season. This means according to the video that it helped the rest of the team to know where to position themselves in line with the opposition.

Ronaldo just sits there and it leaves them not knowing where to go, where to press where to move, how high to go.

Sure, he presses more, but if you read other comments you would realise that stat is as useless as this thread. Here -

We conceded 4 against Liverpool in the same fixture last season (which everyone seems to have forgotten about) with Cavani playing up top and Maguire injured… We also nearly shipped about 7 against Roma away around the same time, also with Cavani playing & “pressing” like mad from the front so, yeah… no, I’m not buying it.

Ronaldo also wasn’t playing when DDG & Varane had to save us against Wolves this season, or when we lost to a Moyes West Ham side in the cup who created significantly more than us.

It was Pogba’s fault a few weeks ago… until we dropped him and went even further to shit.

We concede a boat load of chances and have done for ages because the way we’ve been playing for the last couple years was always unsustainable, and no one has really been drilled to do anything that could mitigate bad form or stuff not working.

It's the coaching, end of.

 

[Brwned]

Neville pointed out yesterday when Ronaldo was first at the club Sir Alex had him surrounded by Rooney, Tevez, Park, Fletcher, Giggs etc to make up for his lack of pressing. You can play someone like that but you need to account for it, not play another 3 players around him who barely press either. We ran into problems when dropping Tevez for Berbatov because you can't carry too many players that don't press.

Yeah he’s always had a world class, hard working foil: Rooney then Benzema. Generally supported by at least one other runner. Even Giggs in his 30s ran more than all of our attackers beside Ronaldo, never mind Park or Fletcher.

 

[TMDaines]

Presses 3.5 times a game at max, however- It's not just pressing. It's how he positions himself as a striker. He tends to position himself at a LS/LF angle due to his history as an inverted winger/forward. (We saw this with yesterday's offside goal(

He doesn't position himself on to the central opposition. All this lack of pressing and positioning leaves the central opposition defenders and CDM all the time in the world to do their own thing before picking their passes.

As soon as one of our midfielders try to react to this as press (we see Bruno press further up that Ronaldo) it completely opens up our midfield because our midfield had to put pressure in areas further up the pitch, when it should be our most central further forward player that initiates the press.

Anyway, apparently this is all bollocks and we have bad feelings towards him. This is just bullsh*t made up stuff.

Shows exactly what happened vs Everton when we were controlling the match vs them with Cavani up top and what happened when Ronaldo became our central striker after getting subbed on. We lost control of the game and all that pressure and balance on the centre of the pitch disappeared before we got cut through like a piece of cake as soon as he came on.

Great video. Shows the problem about quarter of the way through.

Oh well. Let's not believe it.

And no I'm not Ole in. The fact he doesn't have the balls to see this and utelises him as our main attacking unit is his problem.

The best form of defending is attacking and our attacking line has completely changed to the point where our attacking is not good and neither is our defending.

I can deal with the hatred and the consequences. This is not just a performance thread, it's a weakness of United thread.

Give it to me.

Worth pointing out that Tifo posted this today analysing yesterday's match, and Ronaldo is barely mentioned. I think you are really overstating his negative impact.

 

[Bebestation]

That's an individual stat though, it has nothing to do with a team pressing as a unit. If you put me or you up top and we sprinted around without ever even touching the ball we'd end up with a high 'pressing' number.

So an individuals pressing ability who plays a central position to a central player like ball playing CB'S or CDM'S has no result to the rest of the team? I'm not sure but okay.

After all a pressing of a player is useful.

Park's ability to just stick to another player stopped plenty of players having a free day like Pirlo's - all the video is showing is that our opposition back 3 are having a very free time and if our midfield react then it gets opened up.

 

[Righteous Steps]

You can’t have a true ‘pressing’ team without players who press from the front so if United going forward want to adopt similar philosophies and patterns of play to City Liverpool etc then he will become an increasingly big problem.

 

[tomaldinho1]

So an individuals pressing ability who plays a central position to a central player like ball playing CB'S or CDM'S has no result to the rest of the team? I'm not sure but okay.

After all a pressing of a player is useful.

Park's ability to just stick to another player stopped plenty of players having a free day like Pirlo's - all the video is showing is that our opposition back 3 are having a very free time and if our midfield react then it gets opened up.

No I’m saying you can’t just use that single stat in isolation.

I don’t think anyone would disagree that Cavani would suit a pressing system better than Ronaldo but we don’t use one so it’s just a bit of a nothing debate.

 

[RUCK4444]

He's never done that in his career. Ronaldo is far from our biggest problem and actually scored a perfectly good goal yesterday.

On this, I also thought it seemed on side, not sure if it was mentioned much in the match day thread as I try to stay entirely clear of it.

Great finish.

 

[Righteous Steps]

Not another thread like this... Our issue is not our 36-year-old star striker but the other players who are around him, are younger and should be supporting him.

If our so-called manager got Ronaldo and thought he'd do a Cavani (even that same guy rules himself out for a lot of games due to dodgy fitness and has shown he cannot sustain a style like that at his age), he is less knowledgeable on football than a laymen who have been watching Ronaldo for the past 10 years.

It's somewhat similar to Pogba. These players are not there to do the running - they should be supported in a system to create and score the goals.

I understand this attitude with two of the greatest players of all time in Ronaldo and Messi but to say a midfielder isn’t there for running is ridiculous as if top midfielder aren’t capable of both, before anything else Football is still a sport.

 

[tomaldinho1]

On this, I also thought it seemed on side, not sure if it was mentioned much in the match day thread as I try to stay entirely clear of it.

Great finish.

Yh agreed. He timed his movement perfectly and they gave his shoulder offside by a cm…wouldn’t have made a difference but was a nice finish