Will even be worse next year.
Ronaldo will take Rooney’s record
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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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You'd think people would have learnt by now not to write him off. Yes he was terrible last night, and yes he's been on a poor run. But he'll pop up at some point in the season when we really need him, you can almost guarantee it.
That is the best way to look at it and that way we can enjoy him. The problem is some fans still have huge expectations of him as they believe he is still the 40 goal a year beast that he used to be and it’s us that’s holding him back.
haha, he is absolutely finished. Yes, he will score some more goals, but he will still be shit and offer nothing to our football. The sooner Rangnick will bench him, the better.
He's our main striker, he'll score again and have some moments, but lets not keep pretending the guy is anywhere near his prime.
To be fair, we hardly play any forward passes.
Last night a couple of times our players were running past the defenders for clear run on goal, ball got passed sidewise.
This is the biggest problem for our forwards right now.
Last night a couple of times our players were running past the defenders for clear run on goal, ball got passed sidewise.
This is the biggest problem for our forwards right now.
He's starting every game up front for us and taking penalties so of course he'll score an important goal or two. The problem is loads of other forwards could too and for £600k a week we could almost have anyone.
I more mean in absolutely clutch scenarios. People seem to forget we'd probably not have even made the europa league without him in the CL.
The only record Ronaldo will be taking is Rooney's record of starting the most games of an undroppable legend that is holding the team back.
But this is a total non sequitur. The games go entirely different if there isn’t a passenger up front. Did that passenger get a last minute goal? Maybe, with movement up top we might be 3-0 up and not need those goals.
We don't know that, we might have played better with a more dynamic player up front and not needed last minute goals.
How do you know that? Without him playing, the team is more cohesive and might not have won even more easily.
On the other hand, last night was an important clutch moment, and he shrunk which resulted in us being eliminated from another competition.
Yeah, for example, he was absolutely terrible against Villarreal at home and got a quite fortunate goal in the last minute. Cavani coming on made a bigger impact in that game when he came on. In the game against Atalanta, 100% Ronaldo deserves the credit, but in the end Atalanta finished 5 points behind United. They only got 1 point against Villarreal in 2 games, and drew against Young Boys as well. We would have had a very good chance of going through regardless, such were the other results in the group.
He doesn't have the legs anymore. He makes great runs but doesn't have the speed to beat the defender and if he gets to shooting positions he lacks the strength to kick the ball.
Still a good poacher but our attack is so one dimensional with him that we are very easy to defend.
We have to use him as a decoy, but he is a whiny primadonna and gets mad if the ball doesn't go through him.
Still a good poacher but our attack is so one dimensional with him that we are very easy to defend.
We have to use him as a decoy, but he is a whiny primadonna and gets mad if the ball doesn't go through him.
This. Ronaldo fans are becoming desperate to justify him, reminds me of when Ole fans were supporting him rather than our own club. Sensible arguments have gone out the window, people are now ignoring science and reality, pretending that he is 37 year old but hasn’t aged. Every goal he scores they contribute entirely to him and say we would be hopeless without him as if we didn’t finish 2nd last season without him.
I think his all round game is OK, his touch is tight enough and he still finishes really well (tho obviously not last night)
The issue is he can't explode anymore, those first few yards where he'd burst into space have gone. He's pretty slow now really
He's also been surprisingly weak, I expected far better strength from him
I said it a couple of weeks ago he'd be a great impact sub against tired minds and bodies but he seemingly insists on starting every game and there's no question he hampers our play
The issue is he can't explode anymore, those first few yards where he'd burst into space have gone. He's pretty slow now really
He's also been surprisingly weak, I expected far better strength from him
I said it a couple of weeks ago he'd be a great impact sub against tired minds and bodies but he seemingly insists on starting every game and there's no question he hampers our play
Simply not true about his finishing. There have been multiple times where he gets a 1 on 1 to the keeper and just smashes the ball through the middle. Yesterday happened again.
About his body strength, I guess he just have a good looking body but not functional. On the other hand you have Zlatan whose body isn't as defined but he's really tough. Ronaldo has a models type of body, Zlatan has a UFC fighter type.
What a set of whinge bags have infiltrated the thread 
Sure if you want to go down the route of another player potentially performing better in a system that had proved over the last 3 seasons to make players worse then sure. However what actually transpired was Ronaldo scoring goal after important goal while the team looked devoid of any confidence or creativity.
Like I said in my opening post, he's not the player he once was, far from it and yes, we likely could do better if we went and splashed the money on Haaland, but the thing is we haven't and we've got the squad we've got, so dropping him isn't going to achieve anything. He's the best striker we've got and it's crazy to write him off after a bad month given everything he's done previously.
I'm guessing this is aimed at me given he quoted me?
I'm not a Ronaldo fan by any means, but I support my team and right now Ronaldo is a part of that team. Last night was our best performance in ages barring the finishing which is obviously a key part.
However, I'd rather be creating chances and not taking them, than creating feck all and scoring a random flukey goal. Last night can be built on and if the performance level stays around that mark we'll win miles more games than we lose
Bench him for who exactly? Cavani that only seems to play when he wants to?
So no,he won't take it in other words
He got bullied last night, and his new~ish tactic to come deep to get on the ball is somewhat just admitting he can't win the physical battle against 2 CB's. Which isn't easy so there is no shame in that, but then he can't expect to be the first name on the team sheet in a 4-3-3 formation.
Not at all, I actually wrote a direct reply to your post if your scroll up. I said I agreed with everything you said in your assessment of Ronaldo!
Ronaldo should be a key part of the squad. Your absolutely right that we aren’t making enough chances. To make it worst though, we have made in the focal point of our team.
He’s starting every single game, being kept on for the full 90 mins. He's 37 years old and will be a passenger for large parts of the game but as you say if you supply him chances then he will tuck them away all day. Nobody does it better than him. We desperately need to start playing as a team, and creating chances.
No longer true. All the stats show his finishing so far this season has been on a par with low to mid table strikers. Nobody does it better? Not any more.
Nobody in our team, including Ronald, is going to score loads of goals because the forwards have to survive on scraps. Look at last night, most balls to the forwards were over hit or hopelessly inaccurate. We appear to have a team who are incapable of doing the simplest tasks on a regular basis, like passing to a colleague. Unless it is backwards where we are almost competent. Look at our corners and free kicks into the box, usually over hit, especially if the defenders are big guys (they usually are ). Shaw’s corners were abysmal last night as were his attempts at crossing and Dalot’s were not much better. Forwards are made or broke by the supply they get and ours fare very badly.
Might add that he shoots on a scale that is comparable to players like Lewandowski and Haaland - which is what he's always done (shoot a lot). But he no longer produces anything special from all this shooting. If you post insane numbers - and your team wins trophies - nobody will scrutinize you as a finisher.
We're now at a stage where people will do that (scrutinize him) - and the stats back up the idea that Ronaldo still grabs the limelight like he used to, but without justifying it with numbers (in order to escape said scrutiny, he'd have to score twice as much - or thereabouts).
There’s no need to create fictional scenarios in your head that didn’t happen to defend your boy.
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We created loads of chances to have won 3 games so the excuse of the team not creating enough chances for Ronaldo does not count yesterday
It’s a bit of a stupid argument to argue that 37 year Ronaldo is still the same player he was or is still the best fit for Utd
Ronaldo will still score goals but He should be playing in a lesser,less physical league now
He is no Salah or Kane anymore and not even as good as Cavani
He is not the present or the future but could be an ok squad member which he will not accept but sooner or later age catches up with all of us and that’s what the fans should understand
Anyone that keeps saying otherwise is anti united
We all want the best for Man Utd not Ronaldo FC
It’s a bit of a stupid argument to argue that 37 year Ronaldo is still the same player he was or is still the best fit for Utd
Ronaldo will still score goals but He should be playing in a lesser,less physical league now
He is no Salah or Kane anymore and not even as good as Cavani
He is not the present or the future but could be an ok squad member which he will not accept but sooner or later age catches up with all of us and that’s what the fans should understand
Anyone that keeps saying otherwise is anti united
We all want the best for Man Utd not Ronaldo FC
Should be a super sub. He'd be the mother of all super subs. Cavani should start. He offers a true traditional CF role of hold up, heading and poaching.
We tried cavani - even less helpful.
Yeah, he can't seem to make that yard of space to get off a shot anywhere near as easily. Amazing it took this long.
Last year we didn't have Ronaldo and we finished in the third position in the third place in the Groups stage of CL, and we had to play Europa League. This season with Ronaldo scoring in every CL game we finished in the first position and we're gonna play the CL knock out phase. So we can say we improved with Ronaldo.
So first of all you think the passing in general and to the forwards in particular was acceptable? Secondly, who do you assume is “my boy” that I’m defending?
We also finished second in the league last season, so we can comfortably say we have regressed with Ronaldo.
Varane is shit as well
He’s hardly played tbf, bit of a sick note.
As it happens I don’t actually think that simplistically, just pointing out how silly the post I responded to was.
What?
1. Yes. 2. Ronaldo.
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