Unpopular opinion: Ronaldo will be a huge miss

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Vault Dweller

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Himself and Falcao at one stage was pretty unbelievable too.
Yeah he was excellent too. But Ronaldo really is something else in the air. The hang time and power in the headers is unbelievable, and you could easily pick a top 20 headers from him through his career and they would all be exceptional.

Even the two last night. They weren't his best or anything, and the crosses were alright but the way he meets the ball, thumps it and directs it to a side of the goalie is just mint. If we can stand up a few crosses like that through the season Ronaldo will score a good few headers just from his ability in that area.
 

Ali Dia

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Yeah he was excellent too. But Ronaldo really is something else in the air. The hang time and power in the headers is unbelievable, and you could easily pick a top 20 headers from him through his career and they would all be exceptional.

Even the two last night. They weren't his best or anything, and the crosses were alright but the way he meets the ball, thumps it and directs it to a side of the goalie is just mint. If we can stand up a few crosses like that through the season Ronaldo will score a good few headers just from his ability in that area.
We really need to up our crossing game. As I was saying to jeepers earlier on in the thread. We are 17th in the league for successful open play crosses since last season. Really below average
 

7even

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Despite playing like a pub team, spending a fortune on mostly unknown quantity and having 3 losses in a row the Arsenal supporters I know defending Little Pep Arteta to the hilt. Meanwhile at Redcafe some posters are questioning Cristiano WTF Ronaldo. Keep it up boys! Never change.
 

FrantikChicken

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We really need to up our crossing game. As I was saying to jeepers earlier on in the thread. We are 17th in the league for successful open play crosses since last season. Really below average
I think a large part of that is because we don't have anyone to aim for in the box. I'd imagine Ronaldo's presence will go a long way with improving that stat
 

Strelok

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Despite playing like a pub team, spending a fortune on mostly unknown quantity and having 3 losses in a row the Arsenal supporters I know defending Little Pep Arteta to the hilt. Meanwhile at Redcafe some posters are questioning Cristiano WTF Ronaldo. Keep it up boys! Never change.
Tbf that's probably why they're where they're and we're where we're now.
 

Bole Top

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at this point it's just unnecessary pessimism. we're not in 2016 and thanks to our board finally doing it's job in the market and covid fecking other clubs, United is now among the 5 strongest clubs in Europe. it's very simple actually; it's a very good team with very few flaws and it's finally a season where success isn't simply a matter of circumstances and good draw. the core was already good enough with Varane and Sancho coming (and City not signing a single striker) so United being legit EPL and CL contender won't really depend on Ronaldo being at his best. for 12 millions, just having him awaiting crosses while chasing a goal will be worth having him.
 

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Like, what is the fecking point of this entire thread?
 

Winrar

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Like, what is the fecking point of this entire thread?
The point of this thread is: Sack Ole, Sell Ronaldo.

And the moon is made of green cheese.
 

jem

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Like, what is the fecking point of this entire thread?
I don't understand why some people are so opposed to just discussing/debating something rather than disparaging the person who asks the question. I don't share the poster's pessimism (at least not 100%) but what is the harm in discussing? It's not like the poster said 'Ronaldo is shit' or some other throwaway line. Honestly, what's the point of a forum, if not to discuss and debate.
 

glazed

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It'll sound weird but I'm not actually that fussed over how good he is.
I just can't wait to see the guy play for us again.
This is the fan reaction in a nutshell. We all feel that way. But you can see how it could go horribly wrong.
 

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The team is probably looking at another high EPL finish, but no trophies, which won't be due to Ronaldo, but another season with a subpar midfield.
 

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Like, what is the fecking point of this entire thread?
Bit of a jump comparing people saying I think signing a 36 year old who will be the second oldest out field player in the league at the start of his contract which is currently our highest wage may not be a success dispite how good a player Ronaldo has been historically to people who think the earth is flat.
A bit unfair I would say.
 
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I don't understand why some people are so opposed to just discussing/debating something rather than disparaging the person who asks the question. I don't share the poster's pessimism (at least not 100%) but what is the harm in discussing? It's not like the poster said 'Ronaldo is shit' or some other throwaway line. Honestly, what's the point of a forum, if not to discuss and debate.
He didn’t say that, you’re right.

But he did say he’d be a huge miss (its the thread title), ruin our wage structure, offer zilch defensively, can’t play with his back to goal and will get Ole the sack.

And started the thread mid game because he’d missed a penalty.

He was asking for it basically?
 

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Portugal are better than 95% of the teams in the world. They are currently 8th in the rankings or something. That’s pretty dominant for this example.
I mean you can say the same about Man United. We're better than 95% of the clubs in the world too. And we finished 3rd and 2nd in the toughest league the last two years. So surely by your logic we're pretty dominant too?
 

Ali Dia

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I mean you can say the same about Man United. We're better than 95% of the clubs in the world too. And we finished 3rd and 2nd in the toughest league the last two years. So surely by your logic we're pretty dominant too?
We didn’t get out of the group stages of the CL last year or even past the quarter final since Fergie retired so up to now no I wouldn’t be inclined to agree that we are a dominant side at our level of aspirations, our league finishes also tally with that. Maybe this season if everything clicks. Compared to the win ratios of Real, Juve and Portugal? Not really.

It’s ok to have doubts about the sudden Ronaldo transfer and where he fits into what we’ve been building. It’s also ok to perish the thought. We are speaking in hypotheticals after all. Put it this way I’d rather have money on Ronaldo scoring vs him not scoring but there’s no harm in chatting about the effect he’ll have on the team and the way we will play.
 

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Because he's not the player he was 2-3 years ago, let alone 5 years ago. He's not the best player in the world now, he's nowhere close to it. He could probably be the best player in the MLS, or the best player at Sporting. But he's not even in the top 10 players in the Premier League, hell - I'm not even sure he's one of the best 5 forwards at Utd.

Obviously he was a great player, one of the all time greats, and he's still a good goal scorer. But he offers literally nothing else on the pitch. His work rate is appalling, he doesn't link up play well, he's not creative, he won't close down or harry defenders. He'll try and score at every opportunity - and will want and expect our attacking play to be set up in order to provide him with goalscoring opportunities. Because he hasn't got the ability or the legs to make goals out of nothing
I’d quit football if I was you.
 

Chesterlestreet

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Honestly, what's the point of a forum, if not to discuss and debate.
It's getting harder and harder to do that, I'm afraid.

Less discussion, more defending/attacking fixed opinions/stances.

In this particular case, I'm largely with you - I certainly don't share the overall pessimism of the OP. But it's pretty obvious that Ronaldo coming back, at this stage, isn't an entirely unproblematic thing which doesn't merit a single question being asked.
 

Wing Attack Plan R

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I don't understand why some people are so opposed to just discussing/debating something rather than disparaging the person who asks the question. I don't share the poster's pessimism (at least not 100%) but what is the harm in discussing? It's not like the poster said 'Ronaldo is shit' or some other throwaway line. Honestly, what's the point of a forum, if not to discuss and debate.
Because this discussion is moronic. Either Ronaldo will meet, exceed, or fall below expectations. A poll of those three options would be more useful. Yet here we are on page 13 of people guessing whether Ronaldo will be any good for us based on nothing, with shifting goal posts. A better discussion would be along the lines of "how many goals and assists do you think Ronaldo will get this season?" or providing some metric by which to measure and judge him. This whole idea of "I have an unpopular opinion and therefore I am a special snowflake" is ridiculous.
 

sourdough satellite

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Because he's not the player he was 2-3 years ago, let alone 5 years ago. He's not the best player in the world now, he's nowhere close to it. He could probably be the best player in the MLS, or the best player at Sporting. But he's not even in the top 10 players in the Premier League, hell - I'm not even sure he's one of the best 5 forwards at Utd.

Obviously he was a great player, one of the all time greats, and he's still a good goal scorer. But he offers literally nothing else on the pitch. His work rate is appalling, he doesn't link up play well, he's not creative, he won't close down or harry defenders. He'll try and score at every opportunity - and will want and expect our attacking play to be set up in order to provide him with goalscoring opportunities. Because he hasn't got the ability or the legs to make goals out of nothing
:lol::lol::lol:
 

Red00012

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Because he's not the player he was 2-3 years ago, let alone 5 years ago. He's not the best player in the world now, he's nowhere close to it. He could probably be the best player in the MLS, or the best player at Sporting. But he's not even in the top 10 players in the Premier League, hell - I'm not even sure he's one of the best 5 forwards at Utd.

Obviously he was a great player, one of the all time greats, and he's still a good goal scorer. But he offers literally nothing else on the pitch. His work rate is appalling, he doesn't link up play well, he's not creative, he won't close down or harry defenders. He'll try and score at every opportunity - and will want and expect our attacking play to be set up in order to provide him with goalscoring opportunities. Because he hasn't got the ability or the legs to make goals out of nothing
Take a bow son you deserve a name tag for that post
 

bond19821982

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Because he's not the player he was 2-3 years ago, let alone 5 years ago. He's not the best player in the world now, he's nowhere close to it. He could probably be the best player in the MLS, or the best player at Sporting. But he's not even in the top 10 players in the Premier League, hell - I'm not even sure he's one of the best 5 forwards at Utd.

Obviously he was a great player, one of the all time greats, and he's still a good goal scorer. But he offers literally nothing else on the pitch. His work rate is appalling, he doesn't link up play well, he's not creative, he won't close down or harry defenders. He'll try and score at every opportunity - and will want and expect our attacking play to be set up in order to provide him with goalscoring opportunities. Because he hasn't got the ability or the legs to make goals out of nothing
Ronaldo was never famous for chasing defenders anyway. Did he defend deep when played for SAF ? For Jose , who is known to park the bus ? Zidane ?

Link up play - he would be playing as a striker and not a link up player. What did Cavani do in terms of link up last year? What is Lukaku going to do for Chelsea ?

Work rate- agree. But as long as Ole adjusts the team tactics a bit, think we should be fine.

You have the option of improving the team by signing one of the GOAT . If you are saying, I won't be signing that player because it would make us worse, then you are wrong bro.
Because as things stand our attack is bang average without Ronaldo, atleast when compared to our competitors.

If the 34 year old Cavani is injured, we don't have a striker. Pogba is in last year of contract . Do you really think we are better off without Ronaldo ? Seriously?

If anything, it's Ole job to find a solution to make it work. Ronaldo is going to be our best player by a mile.
 

Eric_the_Red99

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I don't understand why some people are so opposed to just discussing/debating something rather than disparaging the person who asks the question. I don't share the poster's pessimism (at least not 100%) but what is the harm in discussing? It's not like the poster said 'Ronaldo is shit' or some other throwaway line. Honestly, what's the point of a forum, if not to discuss and debate.
I was going to say something similar. Personally, I am reserving judgment on Ronaldo until we’ve seen how he’ll fit in with the existing team and how much he’ll improve it. He’s clearly going to offer goal scoring ability, but as the OP correctly pointed out, there are some limitations to his game these days, which may be a particular problem given United’s current weaknesses.

I think people are perfectly free to challenge the OP’s pessimism and address the points they make. But what I really don’t understand is the way certain people are getting bizarrely angry at the OP for daring to suggest there may be drawbacks to the Ronaldo signing.

I just get the feeling that where players like Ronaldo are concerned, some fans have an almost religious fervour, and will treat any criticism at all as ‘heresy’.
 

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Alexis Sanchez had 32 starts and 11 sub appearances in the Premier League and scored 3 goals. That was a huge miss. I predict Ronaldo does better than this
 

redmanx

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Alexis Sanchez had 32 starts and 11 sub appearances in the Premier League and scored 3 goals. That was a huge miss. I predict Ronaldo does better than this
My Granny would have done better than Sanchez.
 

BorisManUtd

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Let’s give him a chance first shall we, it’s a different team and different manager.
I'm just saying it's a possiblity, if it works out great if not we'll still be happy that he actually came back and played again for us, after more than a decade and in a situation where no one really believed he'd actually be back ever, despite all those rumours over the years.
 

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We didn’t get out of the group stages of the CL last year or even past the quarter final since Fergie retired so up to now no I wouldn’t be inclined to agree that we are a dominant side at our level of aspirations, our league finishes also tally with that. Maybe this season if everything clicks. Compared to the win ratios of Real, Juve and Portugal? Not really.

It’s ok to have doubts about the sudden Ronaldo transfer and where he fits into what we’ve been building. It’s also ok to perish the thought. We are speaking in hypotheticals after all. Put it this way I’d rather have money on Ronaldo scoring vs him not scoring but there’s no harm in chatting about the effect he’ll have on the team and the way we will play.
So what? Portugal barely got out of their group finishing 3rd (just like us in the CL last season) and then fell immediately at the next step.

I'm not saying Ronaldo couldn't be a bad move or it couldn't turn into an expensive mistake, but to suggest Portugal is a dominant team whereas United is not is ridiculous. Portugal are less dominant in international football compared to the best international teams than United are in the Pl compared to the top PL teams.
 

RedRonaldo

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Because he's not the player he was 2-3 years ago, let alone 5 years ago. He's not the best player in the world now, he's nowhere close to it. He could probably be the best player in the MLS, or the best player at Sporting. But he's not even in the top 10 players in the Premier League, hell - I'm not even sure he's one of the best 5 forwards at Utd.

Obviously he was a great player, one of the all time greats, and he's still a good goal scorer. But he offers literally nothing else on the pitch. His work rate is appalling, he doesn't link up play well, he's not creative, he won't close down or harry defenders. He'll try and score at every opportunity - and will want and expect our attacking play to be set up in order to provide him with goalscoring opportunities. Because he hasn't got the ability or the legs to make goals out of nothing

Think you will hate it even more if we have Lewandowski, Haaland or Kane etc signing for us then, as they offer even less other than goals.
 
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Think you will hate it even more if we have Lewandowski, Haaland or Kane etc signing for us then, as they offer even less other than goals.
Again, I don't hate it - I'm just of the (clearly tiny minority) opinion that 2021/22 Ronaldo isn't the elite player he used to be. Hopefully I'm wrong, and either way it'll be great to see him back at Old Trafford in a Utd shirt
 

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Disgraceful OP. Hang your head in shame.
 

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Easily outscored Lukaku while playing in a worse team, but morons like Neville will still try and tell you chelsea have strengthened more than us this summer and it’s unfair on Ole to expect us to finish above them.
 

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Unpopular opinion: the earth is flat.
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Unpopular opinion: the CIA controls the weather.
Unpopular opinion: the moon landing was faked.
Unpopular opinion: hundreds of thousands of people conspired to steal the 2020 US election, including Republican governors, the Supreme Court, the FBI, state elections officials, poll workers, Dominion voting machines, SmartTec software, and Chinese satellites - all that together was gang-banging the election against Tr*mp, who will be reinstated as supreme leader any day now.

Like, what is the fecking point of this entire thread?
:lol:
 

Galactic

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This will be a regular thing throughout his time with us. Huge miss after a bad performance/defeat, still GOAT after yet another MOTM game. Welcome to the CR7 circus!
 

amolbhatia50k

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Unpopular opinion: the earth is flat.
Unpopular opinion: vaccines contain microchips that let the gov't control you.
Unpopular opinion: the CIA controls the weather.
Unpopular opinion: the moon landing was faked.
Unpopular opinion: hundreds of thousands of people conspired to steal the 2020 US election, including Republican governors, the Supreme Court, the FBI, state elections officials, poll workers, Dominion voting machines, SmartTec software, and Chinese satellites - all that together was gang-banging the election against Tr*mp, who will be reinstated as supreme leader any day now.

Like, what is the fecking point of this entire thread?
Seems you're unable to differentiate between an opinion and a fact/untruth. OP holds a view that many here don't but forums are all about differing views.

Personally, I think we have to get this to work out and not doing so would harm us long term. This summer we have spent big on transfer and wages on top top players. The club can only keep spending a fortune without corresponding success for so long without it impacting us. Up to Ole now, we have loads of talent in the squad. Come on United!
 

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Seems you're unable to differentiate between an opinion and a fact/untruth. OP holds a view that many here don't but forums are all about differing views.

Personally, I think we have to get this to work out and not doing so would harm us long term. This summer we have spent big on transfer and wages on top top players. The club can only keep spending a fortune without corresponding success for so long without it impacting us. Up to Ole now, we have loads of talent in the squad. Come on United!
Instinctive cynicism and pessimism is also not an opinion though. It's one thing to foresee problems that might occur and discuss areas of weakness/concern (which most people share) and another to proclaim "Ronaldo will be a huge miss". Just because its unpopular doesn't mean its true or even likely. Its a possibility - where everything that could go wrong does go wrong. You might as well just say "I will have a shit day today".
 

roonster09

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Again, I don't hate it - I'm just of the (clearly tiny minority) opinion that 2021/22 Ronaldo isn't the elite player he used to be. Hopefully I'm wrong, and either way it'll be great to see him back at Old Trafford in a Utd shirt
Ofcourse he isn't the elite player he used to be. Btw who are the 5 better attackers than Ronaldo at ManUtd?
 
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