Ronaldo or Van Dijk

[mu4c_20le]

VVD is far better than any other CB in the world.
Ronaldo, while still a great goalscorer, still needs service. He needs good crosses and players around him. When he played for us, he was less dependent on others to create. After going to Real he has developed more into a specialized goalscorer.

If you were to build a team from scratch, which we basically have to do, would you build around VVD or Ronaldo?

Well, your question has alot to do with longevity, which Van Dijk has the obvious advantage being 6 years younger. I don't think we need to build from scratch though, half our starters are very good, the other half is mediocre. Ronaldo would be replacing Mata/Pereira/James, VVD replaces Lindelof. If silverware is our objective for the next 2 years, would you rather have VVD/Maguire and stick with a front three of Rashford/Martial/James?

 

[diarm]

I love Ronaldo and I'd crawl over broken glass to bring him back to United tomorrow. But the answer is Van Dijk.

Every great side is built from the back and a rock solid foundation improves the attack ahead of them. We live in an era of mediocre defenders and Van Dijk is a shining reminder of the greats from the past. He's so much better than any other centre back at the moment it's ridiculous.

As good as Ronaldo is, he's 35 years of age and while that still works in a slower paced Italian league (thanks to his ridiculous physique and conditioning), how long is he realistically going to be able to keep up his levels in the Premier League? He's on a good run in Serie A but his Champions League output is a shadow of what it was at his peak when he was regularly banging in 5/6 goals in the group stages.

Van Dijk is 7 years younger and would immediately make our defence as good as anyones in football for the next 5 years. Him joining us would also instantly drag Liverpool down to the same level as the rest of us, fecking about between 3rd and 8th in the league.

There are better footballers than Van Dijk in the world at the moment, but none so important to their side as he is to Liverpool.

 

[Chipper]

Well, your question has alot to do with longevity, which Van Dijk has the obvious advantage being 6 years younger. I don't think we need to build from scratch though, half our starters are very good, the other half is mediocre. Ronaldo would be replacing Mata/Pereira/James, VVD replaces Lindelof. If silverware is our objective for the next 2 years, would you rather have VVD/Maguire and stick with a front three of Rashford/Martial/James?

We're not winning silverware in the next two years whichever on of these would theoretically join us, even moreso if we're suddenly to not to buy others too. Ronaldo + our current squad wins us nothing just as VVD plus our current squad does.

 

[Tarrou]

Unfair question, Ronaldo is about to turn 35

But that's the point. If he was in his prime there wouldn't be a discussion.

Anyway, even at his age I'd still choose him.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

The underrating of Ronaldo here, we'd be comfortably in the CL spots with Ronaldo in the side. And whilst VVD is incredible, I don't think he alone would change our league position all that much.

If all Ronaldo did was to just turned half of our draws to wins, we'd be on 43 points now.

We can't build anything from scratch and if we're gonna go on age here then your same logic obviously has to apply to soon 33 yr old Messi. I think of the question as more of what we need now, what could improve us most now.

Argument to be made that Lukaku is out performing Ronaldo this season with a far better conversion rate. where did Inter buy Lukaku from again?

Ronaldo would no doubt be an improvement but taking other factors in to account like his age, wage, fees and so on this team just isn’t good enough to make such a signing right now. Like others have said he is now reinvented as more of just an out and out goal scorer, that relies on service. That’s something this team just doesn’t provide.

The smart buy is easily the best defender in the world until other problems in the team are fixed like how woeful our midfield is without Pogba.

 

[Brwned]

I love Ronaldo and I'd crawl over broken glass to bring him back to United tomorrow. But the answer is Van Dijk.

Every great side is built from the back and a rock solid foundation improves the attack ahead of them. We live in an era of mediocre defenders and Van Dijk is a shining reminder of the greats from the past. He's so much better than any other centre back at the moment it's ridiculous.

As good as Ronaldo is, he's 35 years of age and while that still works in a slower paced Italian league (thanks to his ridiculous physique and conditioning), how long is he realistically going to be able to keep up his levels in the Premier League? He's on a good run in Serie A but his Champions League output is a shadow of what it was at his peak when he was regularly banging in 5/6 goals in the group stages.

Van Dijk is 7 years younger and would immediately make our defence as good as anyones in football for the next 5 years. Him joining us would also instantly drag Liverpool down to the same level as the rest of us, fecking about between 3rd and 8th in the league.

There are better footballers than Van Dijk in the world at the moment, but none so important to their side as he is to Liverpool.

I reckon most people would say Ronaldo's iconic season in the CL was in 16-17, when he scored 5 against Bayern in the quarters, a hat-trick against Juve in the semis, and a double against Atletí in the final. He scored just 2 goals in the group stages then, just as he has this season. And last season he scored 5 goals in 4 games in the knockout stages, including the hat-trick to singlehandedly knockout Atletí, while only scoring 1 goal in the group stages. Ronaldo has been much more decisive in big games in his 30s than he ever was in his 20s, and there's been no sign of that fading yet.

 

[diarm]

I reckon most people would say Ronaldo's iconic season in the CL was in 16-17, when he scored 5 against Bayern in the quarters, a hat-trick against Juve in the semis, and a double against Atletí in the final. He scored just 2 goals in the group stages then, just as he has this season. And last season he scored 5 goals in 4 games in the knockout stages, including the hat-trick to singlehandedly knockout Atletí, while only scoring 1 goal in the group stages. Ronaldo has been much more decisive in big games in his 30s than he ever was in his 20s, and there's been no sign of that fading yet.

That's a fair point.

I stand by the rest of my post though. Van Dijk is the smart pick.

 

[Fosu-Mens]

The underrating of Ronaldo here, we'd be comfortably in the CL spots with Ronaldo in the side. And whilst VVD is incredible, I don't think he alone would change our league position all that much.

If all Ronaldo did was to just turned half of our draws to wins, we'd be on 43 points now.

We can't build anything from scratch and if we're gonna go on age here then your same logic obviously has to apply to soon 33 yr old Messi. I think of the question as more of what we need now, what could improve us most now.

If we created a lot of chances then there would have been an argument for who would serve us best short term, however, we are not. No point in having one the best set of tires if the car has no engine. There is more to scoring goals than just finding a historically great goalscorer and expect him to score goals.

VVD would improve our build-up play immensely with his leadership/teaching the players to move and long-range passing. We would be able to have more players in attack due to not getting d*cked on every counter attacking situation.

 

[Fosu-Mens]

Well, your question has alot to do with longevity, which Van Dijk has the obvious advantage being 6 years younger. I don't think we need to build from scratch though, half our starters are very good, the other half is mediocre. Ronaldo would be replacing Mata/Pereira/James, VVD replaces Lindelof. If silverware is our objective for the next 2 years, would you rather have VVD/Maguire and stick with a front three of Rashford/Martial/James?

Yes, because Rashford and Martial are mainly goalscorers, and James can't do sh*t without space to run in. Don't see how you would fix our attack by putting another goalscorer in the team and hope that this will make us create more chances which is fundamentally what is needed to score goals.

 

[MackRobinson]

For current United, Ronaldo easily. Scoring goals is the issue and Liverpool's front 3 are still the big threat. Nobody plans on stopping VVD. You have to plan to stop Ronaldo.

 

[2mufc0]

Take the goat.

 

[Tom Cato]

I pick Ronaldo over Virgil. Our defensive gaffes can be fixed with the current backside, or even introducing Tuanzebe into the squad over Lindelöf. Ronaldo is a physical speciment and treats his body like an absolute temple. He still got 2 more beast seasons left in him after this one.

 

[momo83]

None of them would change much with an incompetent manager.

Nail on the head

 

[The_Midfielder]

Are we talking about the same Ronaldo who will arguably go in as one of the best players ever ..
this is a no contest..
What next messi or Gomez ?

 

[The Boy]

Are we talking about the same Ronaldo who will arguably go in as one of the best players ever ..
this is a no contest..
What next messi or Gomez ?

This, I'm surprised this has got to 3 pages, in my mind there is no argument whatsoever, it has to be Ronaldo

 

[Todd]

Look at the season Zlatan had for us at age 34, that should be enough to convince anyone who has any doubts as to the answer here

If Cristiano came back next season I could honestly see him scoring 20-25 in the league

 

[F-A-C-T-S]

It really is though, the game is about scoring goals.


And they will always do

People say it alot because it absolutely is true.

It just isn't true. I can give you a pretty obvious and simplistic argument. Teams score more than they keep clean sheets. Even the worst teams in the league will have more goals than clean sheets. That alone tells you what is more difficult to do.

 

[F-A-C-T-S]

Strikers still tend to go for bigger money, and get bigger wages than defenders. There's a reason for that.

I argue that is for an entirely different reason. Defensive solidity requires a team effort, which is why I argue that it's way harder to keep clean sheets than to score. Having the best defenders in the world does not guarantee clean sheets and also keeping clean sheets does not guarantee winning football games which are 2 factors which make defenders cheaper than attackers. Then there is the fact that top class attackers can get you goals out of nothing and scoring wins you games so scoring 2 and conceding 1 is way better than conceding non and scoring non.

It's much more difficult to keep clean sheets even for a side that defends very well luck can play a part...think Liverpool's past few games. Now let me clarify I'm not arguing that keeping a clean sheet is as important as scoring it isn't...it's just much harder. Nowadays it might even be harder Than it's ever been given teams press each other intensely leading to goals from from errors.

 

[kouroux]

It just isn't true. I can give you a pretty obvious and simplistic argument. Teams score more than they keep clean sheets. Even the worst teams in the league will have more goals than clean sheets. That alone tells you what is more difficult to do.

I'm sorry but your argument makes little sense to me. There are 10 possible goalscorers in each teams (and more with subs and even keeper) in each game so the chances of keeping a clean sheets are logically lower than one of those players scoring a goal, that's without mentionning the possibilities of own goals, referees fecking up.
Someone sane never judges a defender on clean sheets only anyway but attackers and strikers will be judged on goals