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sharkie
Austria18624 Posts
On November 26 2025 16:33 Acrofales wrote: It isn't in a world cup. What? Argentina won the world cup with Messi having no legs and 9 onfield players running just way more to compensate for that. Like I said it's just blind Ronaldo hate.... National team football is not club football. You can have a Messi, a Ronaldo, a Pirlo who are on the field just for game deciding moments | ||
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evilfatsh1t
Australia8842 Posts
ronaldo now is purely a poacher. probably the best poacher in the world still, but thats all he is. he cant do what haaland does for example which is make runs behind defensive lines so all he can do is stand around the box and hope the ball drops to him. messi on the other hand still got involved in midfield and the final 3rd, could still dribble past players or retain the ball, and messis overall passing game has always been insane. he didnt do defensive work but all of argentinas attacks went through him. his impact on 2022 argentina was wayyyyy bigger than ronaldos impact in portugal now. portugals attacks dont (cant) go through ronaldo; he only finishes them if he gets a chance. | ||
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Bacillus
Finland2034 Posts
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sharkie
Austria18624 Posts
Ronaldo's impact is just goals. JUST goals? Goals are the most important part of the game! Who are the best paid players on the planet? The ones scoring shitload of goals. Portugal's squad isn't that insane. It's not like France, Spain or even Argentina's and yet they score results as impressive as those nations. Ronaldo is ONE reason for that. Portugal won the nation's league TWICE! Do you guys seriously think they would have done so without Ronaldo? No way. Portugal has always been ONE of the top teams in Europe and the world. But so good that they keep trumping the biggest European sides? NO! | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland26508 Posts
On November 26 2025 11:51 evilfatsh1t wrote: in principle i agree on everything. but at the end of the day i want to see ronaldo and messi play for as long as i can, even if theyre not at their peak anymore. so do i care that a ban from qualifying matches was suspended to allow him to play in the main event from day 1? nope. other than fifa losing a leg to stand on for inconsistent enforcement of the rules, the suspension is pretty harmless as far as competition integrity goes imo. id rather he be available from day 1 purely for the entertainment factor. Then make it an across the board amnesty, where suspensions get wiped for the World Cup. It’s what the likes of Blatter would have done. You’d all know that the real motivation was to get Ronaldo or whoever unbanned, and that was the way they’d find to do it. ‘We want the best players possible, and apart from from serious incidents I hereby announce they are rescinded. Oh Ronaldo was one of them? I hadn’t even realised’ It’s just so blatant. Under my hypothetical at least other teams get back whoever they’re missing as well. | ||
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DropBear
Australia4399 Posts
On November 26 2025 05:31 gTank wrote: Didnt Messi publically flame a ref and got nothing for it? Against netherlands IIRC, also not getting another yellow for fouls plus there was something minor with the goal he shot in the finals. He also committed tax fraud and got a suspended sentence instead of jail time shrug | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland26508 Posts
On November 26 2025 21:02 sharkie wrote: All your points are valid on the overall state of the game of course. Ronaldo's impact on the full 90 is also obviously less as a striker than midfield Messi. But 2022 Argentina was not all Messi. They had Di Maria, MacAllister, Enzo, Alvarez... A lot of offensive play went through Messi but it wasn't ALL Messi like France 2006 Zidane was. Ronaldo's impact is just goals. JUST goals? Goals are the most important part of the game! Who are the best paid players on the planet? The ones scoring shitload of goals. Portugal's squad isn't that insane. It's not like France, Spain or even Argentina's and yet they score results as impressive as those nations. Ronaldo is ONE reason for that. Portugal won the nation's league TWICE! Do you guys seriously think they would have done so without Ronaldo? No way. Portugal has always been ONE of the top teams in Europe and the world. But so good that they keep trumping the biggest European sides? NO! 2006 wasn’t all Zidane either. He had two all-time great games against Spain and especially Brazil, but others did contribute too. The thing with 2022 Messi is he was what, 34/35? Which is an age many fall off the top levels of the game at, but equally it’s not uncommon for players to remain up there. Even if he’s not capable physically of doing what he could at 27 or whatever, he still has many of his attributes. He’s always going to have his close control and technical ability, and he still has a burst of acceleration. As Gvardiol found when Messi gave him twisted blood. Come 2026, maybe it’s a tournament too far for the lad, we’ll have to see. Maybe he’s dropped off physically a little so he doesn’t have that explosive burst and acceleration to break lines as effectively. On the flipside, he’s such an absurd player with his mazy dribbles and prolific goalscoring, that people almost forget he’s one of the best pure passers of his generation. He could conceivably just stroll around and do a pretty good Pirlo impression, and good luck dispossessing him with his control. Both Ronaldo and Messi across their careers have basically been 3 different players. Both started as flashy wingers who could torture defenders, but weren’t hugely productive in terms of numbers. Then they became numbers monsters, Ronaldo a times off either wing, Messi off the right and as a false 9. Now old man Ronaldo has transformed to more of an old-school poacher, and Messi’s gradually evolving to more of a pure playmaker who scores over being a goal scorer who creates. I think the problem with Ronaldo is that either he, Martinez or both of them don’t employ him in a way that gets the best value from him. Which seems less of a factor with Messi and Scaloni. Either Ronaldo starts and you hope he grabs a goal or two, and then you swap him out for Ramos. Or Ramos starts and runs himself into the ground, and Ronaldo comes on fresh against tired defenders. Instead, it’s just Ronaldo playing, all of the time. He has attributes, the problem is you can’t squeeze them out of him because he’s too ‘big’ a star. Saw this at Man United as well. For Portugal, he’s seemingly taking every set piece going, and he’s not the best set piece taker in that squad. Portugal have one game without him and score a direct free kick. And not just shooting at goals, he’ll frequently take it off people like Fernandes when it’s in a good spot for a whipped cross, and Fernandes is better from those positions. Does the Nations League matter all that much? The English certainly don’t care much about it, I dunno how that is elsewhere. I think it’s a great competition and is great prep for the big tests. But if a big World Cup or Euros knockout game is 100 for intensity, and pressure in carrying the hopes of the nation, a NL semi is probably in the 80s, and maybe the final squeaks a high 80 or low 90. Not saying it’s irrelevant by any means, merely that I think the intensity is lower, and Ronaldo can still do it under those conditions. Ip Im skeptical if he can still do it in a big WC game, or at least that he’s a better option than someone like Ramos. Portugal’s squad is bloomin excellent. I think it’s better than Argentina’s, and comparable to Spain’s, at least with first 11s, worse than England and France. It’s probably a better squad than Germany, Brazil or others who are traditional titans. Although with Spain, they have a huge weapon of a pretty ingrained way of playing, which makes them favourites here for me. But if I was playing football manager with unlimited moolah, I’d probably take more English or French players than Spanish right now. Across the board, 1-11 it’s as good a Portugal squad as I’ve ever seen. The ‘Golden Generation’ had some cracking players but they had problem positions too. This one is at worst solid, and at best world class in basically every position. | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland26508 Posts
On November 26 2025 21:49 DropBear wrote: He also committed tax fraud and got a suspended sentence instead of jail time shrug Apparently that is pretty normal procedure as per Spanish sentencing guidelines for non-violent offences. Perhaps it shouldn’t be, but it wasn’t like something atypical because Messi Plus hey if you jail a footballer of his status, at basically the peak of his powers, well you’re ultimately depriving the state of a rather large amount of tax revenue. | ||
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evilfatsh1t
Australia8842 Posts
On November 26 2025 21:12 WombaT wrote: Then make it an across the board amnesty, where suspensions get wiped for the World Cup. It’s what the likes of Blatter would have done. You’d all know that the real motivation was to get Ronaldo or whoever unbanned, and that was the way they’d find to do it. ‘We want the best players possible, and apart from from serious incidents I hereby announce they are rescinded. Oh Ronaldo was one of them? I hadn’t even realised’ It’s just so blatant. Under my hypothetical at least other teams get back whoever they’re missing as well. your method probably would have been the optimal way to go about it. but i guess from infantinos perspective, why beat around the bush? you know it, i know it, the whole world knows it. he does what he wants, he can be shameless about it and no one is gonna stop him lol. also yeah portugals squad now is stacked. so stacked its almost a shame this generation didnt come 10 years earlier when ronaldo was actually still in his prime. now theyre in the weird grey area where they should be playing without him because 1. they probably function as a team better without him and 2. because they have to plan for post ronaldo portugal anyway, but they still play ronaldo more often than not. he still has a role and can do a job, but he most likely shouldnt be playing 90 minutes every game now. the thing is, as an outsider looking at portugal, the national team seems to be the only place where ronaldo actually isnt as egotistical as he normally is. if martinez used him only for 30 or 60minutes per game depending on tactics/opponents, i dont see ronaldo bitching about it tbh. to be fair to him i think the national team is where he genuinely shows that he can put the teams glory first. | ||
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Bacillus
Finland2034 Posts
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gTank
Austria2604 Posts
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Jockmcplop
United Kingdom9799 Posts
On November 27 2025 05:32 Bacillus wrote: Urgh. Arsenal scoring from a corner with a bunch on players bumping onto Neuer. While I'm not against some physicality, I'm not really looking forward to bump-the-goalie meta and all the controversial calls that come with it. You only risk giving a free kick, so it's a gamble a lot of teams takes will happily take here and there. Yeah it sucks. Its up to the refs and rulemakers to sort it out though, teams taking advantage of the lax rules are just doing the smart thing. Crazy night of football. Olympiacos in a thriller against Real, Arsenal showing they are the very best version of Arsenal at the moment, Spurs being Spursy as usual, Liverpool 1-4 down at Anfield. | ||
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gTank
Austria2604 Posts
€: At home even against PSV? | ||
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Jockmcplop
United Kingdom9799 Posts
On November 27 2025 06:57 gTank wrote: Why is Liverpool so bad? I dont follow them so close tbh but they seemed to be dominant at the beginning of the season and now they lose 1:4? €: At home even against PSV? TBH I just think they're in a transitional season. | ||
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Jockmcplop
United Kingdom9799 Posts
They've not been in the news as much this season, but they are really showing something now. It'd definitely be a good story to see them get promoted again, straight from the Conference to the Premier League getting promoted every season. | ||
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sharkie
Austria18624 Posts
On November 27 2025 06:47 gTank wrote: That and Neuer has shown that he is prone to errors when under pressure lately, its a smart thing to try at least. Still not liking it a lot either. I am disgusted by German media and German ex-pros who keep demanding Neuer for the national team side so regularly... Baumann has done nothing wrong for club and country and yet there are so many idiots who say neuer needs to play the world cup because Bayern are on an insane run... | ||
GTR
51574 Posts
On November 27 2025 07:05 Jockmcplop wrote: Meanwhile in the Championship, after a poor start that suggested their magic run is over, Wrexham have gone 8 games unbeaten and are now just 2 points outside the playoffs, but in 10th place. They've not been in the news as much this season, but they are really showing something now. It'd definitely be a good story to see them get promoted again, straight from the Conference to the Premier League getting promoted every season. i feel like phil parkinson has peaked with that team but if he proves me wrong and takes them to the premier league they should build a statue of him in wrexham | ||
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gTank
Austria2604 Posts
On November 27 2025 11:29 sharkie wrote: I am disgusted by German media and German ex-pros who keep demanding Neuer for the national team side so regularly... Baumann has done nothing wrong for club and country and yet there are so many idiots who say neuer needs to play the world cup because Bayern are on an insane run... Yeah I have to agree, there are so many good goalkeepers that germany could field and Neuer is not the youngest or best anymore. Baumann is insane and got experience to not falter under pressure of a WC. | ||
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Jockmcplop
United Kingdom9799 Posts
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sharkie
Austria18624 Posts
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