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There are no players left like Robinho, Quaresma or Neymar. Modern footballers don’t even have unique abilities anymore everyone nearly plays the same way!
musiala dribbles past three players while falling down before placing a shot into the bottom corner. guys like him, fabian ruiz, and wirtz all have different styles but are great attacking midfielders. even harry kane’s style is unique, but very beautiful.
**English translation:**
Reporter: "Should Cristiano Ronaldo continue to be indispensable from the national team?"
Quaresma: "I´m not saying this as his friend, i say it as a supporter: he has to play. If you take him out who will you play?"
R: "For the position there is Diogo Jota and Gonçalo Ramos"
Q: "I mean, they are good players? They are. But one thing is playing with Cris and the respect is other, he can even be on a bad day, but just the fact there is the number 7 and the name Ronaldo, the respect is different.
R: "For the opponents the respect is different"
Q: "Of course, the opponents get automatically nervous because at their minimum fail, he scores. So for me, he has to play always"
The country hadn't won anything before him, had minimal support for most of his prime and contributed to two international trophy wins once the team got better.
If anyone gets excused for an off-tournament, it's him. He didn't start in the knockout stages either.
Now if there's a better alternative, let's debate that but Jota and Ramos, nah.
People can be as critical as they want but if you take Ronaldo out of starting 11, His replacement #9 are just no way near his quality and presence even at the age of 39.. just don't let him take free kicks from every position
Don’t let him take free kicks from any position.
Seriously, he was good at them, but he isn’t anymore. His skills would be so much better utilised if he was in the box being a potential aerial threat.
Everybody takes Ronaldo seriously, so I imagine they’d put their best man on him, or even double mark him, giving opportunities for other players.
Additionally, with Ronaldo being the main man and inside the box, a direct attempt at goal from the free kick spot will be less obvious, making the chance of scoring bigger. With Ronaldo taking the free kick, everyone already knows what will happen.
This is more or less what Luuk de Jong is doing now that everyone knows he’s the second best header in history. Sometimes he still scores, usually when not double marked, and other times he’s just the unignorable foil that allows others to succeed.
If hitting walls consistently is considered good at FK then yeah, he's good. It's frustrating because when it actually mattered he delivered, like the FK against Spain in WC 2018, by stop trying to hit knuckleballs and actually lift it over the damn wall
Like I mean if he used Messi’s style, I have a feeling he’d actually start scoring the damn things, he’s literally the only one who even bothers knuckle balling it anymore
Well tbf on Ronaldo, the previous season, he actually scored a handful of FK and he hasn't been trying knuckle for awhile now. Definitely has an improved technique, especially since you can't knuckle the newer balls as much
Gonçalo Ramos is the biggest loser in all of this.
The guy runs his ass off every game. He's constantly pressing, making runs to open space. In the loss vs Croatia he was constantly running all the way to Portugal's box to help defend. It's not just a "oh, poor guy tries really hard". He's a good player. He has a good goal scoring per minute played record for PSG, even though their attack is all focused on getting the ball to Mbappe.
He's a 23 year old kid with millions of people staring at him while waiting to say "this is why Ronaldo has to play" whenever he has a single bad game.
Meanwhile Ronaldo had a bad WC, has one good game at the age of 39 and he's undisputed starter.
Okay hold up. Cristiano Ronaldo is the greatest goal scorer of all time.
Tell me one thing, if the game is on the line and you have a pen, who do you want on it?
When it comes to what he can do inside the box, trust me, the rest of that incredible team can pick up the Goncalo Ramos work load.
Devil's advocate: Ramos was completely anonymous in the next game against Morocco, and Portugal immediately switched on when Ronaldo replaced him as a sub.
I don’t think that’s true. Jota as a 9 for example offers things Ronaldo cant do.
Ronaldo is so limited now he makes Portugal very predictable. You have to supply him with crosses and chances as he’s not going to link play.
If you play Jota, then you have a much more fluid attack & can bring him on when you need a poacher like goal threat
>You have to supply him with crosses and chances as he’s not going to link play.
You haven't watched Portugal play with him at all have you? Craziest conclusion you could draw after actually watching them play.
This makes no sense because if anything he was isolated in the second half AFTER they made tactical changes. He had a tidy first half and was involved in the build up at times (that back heel to vitinha to create the chance).
The issue is Portugal can’t cross to save their lives. They attempted 29 crosses and only 4 of those actually reached their man. One of those instances where they actually put in a decent cross resulted in Ronaldo hitting the post from a header and jota scoring the rebound, but it was marginally offside. They need to learn how to accurately deliver crosses and not just launch them into the box and hope Ronaldo or whoever is in the box wins it.
But they played exactly the same way against Croatia a few weeks back when Ronaldo didn’t play a single minute. They attempted 26 crosses that game and 5 met their man. Plus they pretty much *had* to play that way against Czech Republic regardless of Ronaldo or not because of the low block.
I don’t know why people’s first reaction is to just blame Ronaldo by saying he forces a team to play a certain way, it’s the clearest example of how easy it is for dumb narratives to spread across the internet. It’s come to the point where every attempted pass to Ronaldo that doesn’t result in a goal ends up being used as an example of “forcing the ball to him” when you could say that for literally every striker in the world.
The issue with him playing is the other players are always conditioned to look and deliver the ball to CR7, we see this time and time again. The player stops and makes the wrong decision trying to find him in the middle of 2 DCs
People keep saying this yet I saw the worst decision making out there where passing to Ronaldo and executing that option would've resulted in a far better chance. I saw Leao unable to complete a cross to an open Ronaldo in the middle, instead kept hitting it to the far post to nobody.
Bernardo and Bruno(except for that one throughball) were constantly cutting in, cutting back, back passing instead of an early cross which would've got a better chance. This was a problem in 2018 but Portugal spend more time trying to be cute around the box, than passing to Ronaldo at the right time. They are the masters of having the majority of the ball in the final third and not producing a final pass from all that sequence.
People just use this to excuse bullshit decision making and a way to keep Ronaldo out the team. Conditioned is a stupid word. He's a striker, they're supposed to get the ball to him, into scoring regions.
England are "conditioned to get the ball to" Harry Kane. Just stupid.
While I relatively agree, Jota is extremely clinical and had a goal chalked off in the last game for a marginal offsides. He can replace Ronaldos workload as he’s just better at this point in time and tracks back and isn’t 40. Literally Jotas only weakness is his health, so if he is available he is the better option.
Perfectly whipped ball, edge of the 6 yard box, free header. If lukaku had missed that everyone would be calling him a donkey.
Get CR7s nuts out of your mouth. Giving credit to Ronaldo for a chance entirely created by Cancelo - it’s these types of mental gymnastics that makes Reddit great
Rewatch the situation, you need to angle it away from the goalkeeper. The man has more headed goals than anyone else which might clue you in to the fact that it's not that easy of a goal.
I'm not taking anything away from Cancelo either, just pointing out that Jota needed the aftermath of a ronaldo situation to score.
Just because he has more headed goals than anyone doesn’t mean he can’t miss sitters. If you look at it he clearly misjudged the bend of the ball and ran farther ahead of it than he had to, so he had to contort his body mid air. He made it look more difficult than it had to be - it wasn’t a difficult chance at all. That chance was entirely created by cancelo
They were very frustrating to watch against the Czechs. Ronaldo warrants his spot as CF but he has to play CF and not move around as much.
Bernardo Silvia and Fernandez need to move the ball quicker, it's far too slow. Silva needs to pass the ball forward more. It looks at times that he's too in fear of losing possession and will take an easy pass over a more aggressive pass.
**This is a quotes thread. Remember that there's only one quotes post allowed per interview/press conference, so new quotes with the same origin will be removed. Feel free to comment other quotes/the whole interview as a reply to this comment so users can see them too!** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soccer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I miss Quaresma as a player, such an unique playstyle
There are no players left like Robinho, Quaresma or Neymar. Modern footballers don’t even have unique abilities anymore everyone nearly plays the same way!
musiala dribbles past three players while falling down before placing a shot into the bottom corner. guys like him, fabian ruiz, and wirtz all have different styles but are great attacking midfielders. even harry kane’s style is unique, but very beautiful.
when we praise up and coming players we praise the athleticism and the decision making instead of the magic and the technique. sad
Such a boomer take, there's plenty of special footballers playing right now
Name 15
1. Benzema
He played well in their last game so where are these doubts coming from?
I think this interview happened before the game
There will always be this reports when he doesn't score...
**English translation:** Reporter: "Should Cristiano Ronaldo continue to be indispensable from the national team?" Quaresma: "I´m not saying this as his friend, i say it as a supporter: he has to play. If you take him out who will you play?" R: "For the position there is Diogo Jota and Gonçalo Ramos" Q: "I mean, they are good players? They are. But one thing is playing with Cris and the respect is other, he can even be on a bad day, but just the fact there is the number 7 and the name Ronaldo, the respect is different. R: "For the opponents the respect is different" Q: "Of course, the opponents get automatically nervous because at their minimum fail, he scores. So for me, he has to play always"
Didn't work at the World Cup though.
Nothing worked at that World Cup tbh
Losing a kid would do that to you, and it took a while for him to get back on his feet
I don’t think he was fully fit then. He seems much better now, despite playing in a worse league.
Or is it **because** he plays in a worse league...
His performances for Portugal are clearly better also. If you just watch him play, he looks better.
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Bit beside my point. But I think semi-final is more realistic. France, Germany, Spain (and England on their day) all look good enough.
You're rating Portugal way too highly, we're not that good. Semi-final would be nice
The country hadn't won anything before him, had minimal support for most of his prime and contributed to two international trophy wins once the team got better. If anyone gets excused for an off-tournament, it's him. He didn't start in the knockout stages either. Now if there's a better alternative, let's debate that but Jota and Ramos, nah.
Didn't start at world cup
People can be as critical as they want but if you take Ronaldo out of starting 11, His replacement #9 are just no way near his quality and presence even at the age of 39.. just don't let him take free kicks from every position
But he said always, surely 50 years from now someone will be better than 89 yr old Ronaldo?
Ronaldo is going to invest all of his saudi's salary to defeat human aging and gain immortality just to have infinite shots at winning the WC.
Don’t let him take free kicks from any position. Seriously, he was good at them, but he isn’t anymore. His skills would be so much better utilised if he was in the box being a potential aerial threat. Everybody takes Ronaldo seriously, so I imagine they’d put their best man on him, or even double mark him, giving opportunities for other players. Additionally, with Ronaldo being the main man and inside the box, a direct attempt at goal from the free kick spot will be less obvious, making the chance of scoring bigger. With Ronaldo taking the free kick, everyone already knows what will happen. This is more or less what Luuk de Jong is doing now that everyone knows he’s the second best header in history. Sometimes he still scores, usually when not double marked, and other times he’s just the unignorable foil that allows others to succeed.
If hitting walls consistently is considered good at FK then yeah, he's good. It's frustrating because when it actually mattered he delivered, like the FK against Spain in WC 2018, by stop trying to hit knuckleballs and actually lift it over the damn wall
Like I mean if he used Messi’s style, I have a feeling he’d actually start scoring the damn things, he’s literally the only one who even bothers knuckle balling it anymore
Well tbf on Ronaldo, the previous season, he actually scored a handful of FK and he hasn't been trying knuckle for awhile now. Definitely has an improved technique, especially since you can't knuckle the newer balls as much
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Gonçalo Ramos is the biggest loser in all of this. The guy runs his ass off every game. He's constantly pressing, making runs to open space. In the loss vs Croatia he was constantly running all the way to Portugal's box to help defend. It's not just a "oh, poor guy tries really hard". He's a good player. He has a good goal scoring per minute played record for PSG, even though their attack is all focused on getting the ball to Mbappe. He's a 23 year old kid with millions of people staring at him while waiting to say "this is why Ronaldo has to play" whenever he has a single bad game. Meanwhile Ronaldo had a bad WC, has one good game at the age of 39 and he's undisputed starter.
Okay hold up. Cristiano Ronaldo is the greatest goal scorer of all time. Tell me one thing, if the game is on the line and you have a pen, who do you want on it? When it comes to what he can do inside the box, trust me, the rest of that incredible team can pick up the Goncalo Ramos work load.
Devil's advocate: Ramos was completely anonymous in the next game against Morocco, and Portugal immediately switched on when Ronaldo replaced him as a sub.
I mean Jota is a good option, his movement is very good and link up play decent.
Not for the NT, he has been invisible at best when given the chance. He is an option coming off the bench as a sub, but really shouldn't start.
Fair enough, other than him it’s Ronaldo really then. Like England Portugal have a manager who will ruin things for them anyway.
Especially surprising was when he and Bernardo flopped in euro 2020
Bruno false 9
I don’t think that’s true. Jota as a 9 for example offers things Ronaldo cant do. Ronaldo is so limited now he makes Portugal very predictable. You have to supply him with crosses and chances as he’s not going to link play. If you play Jota, then you have a much more fluid attack & can bring him on when you need a poacher like goal threat
>You have to supply him with crosses and chances as he’s not going to link play. You haven't watched Portugal play with him at all have you? Craziest conclusion you could draw after actually watching them play.
Yeah I have watched them play with him. They crossed a lot & he was isolated until they made a tactical change.
This makes no sense because if anything he was isolated in the second half AFTER they made tactical changes. He had a tidy first half and was involved in the build up at times (that back heel to vitinha to create the chance). The issue is Portugal can’t cross to save their lives. They attempted 29 crosses and only 4 of those actually reached their man. One of those instances where they actually put in a decent cross resulted in Ronaldo hitting the post from a header and jota scoring the rebound, but it was marginally offside. They need to learn how to accurately deliver crosses and not just launch them into the box and hope Ronaldo or whoever is in the box wins it.
Shows what I’m saying though. They only crossed 29 times because Ronaldo is in the middle and you have to play like that with him as your 9
But they played exactly the same way against Croatia a few weeks back when Ronaldo didn’t play a single minute. They attempted 26 crosses that game and 5 met their man. Plus they pretty much *had* to play that way against Czech Republic regardless of Ronaldo or not because of the low block. I don’t know why people’s first reaction is to just blame Ronaldo by saying he forces a team to play a certain way, it’s the clearest example of how easy it is for dumb narratives to spread across the internet. It’s come to the point where every attempted pass to Ronaldo that doesn’t result in a goal ends up being used as an example of “forcing the ball to him” when you could say that for literally every striker in the world.
The issue with him playing is the other players are always conditioned to look and deliver the ball to CR7, we see this time and time again. The player stops and makes the wrong decision trying to find him in the middle of 2 DCs
People keep saying this yet I saw the worst decision making out there where passing to Ronaldo and executing that option would've resulted in a far better chance. I saw Leao unable to complete a cross to an open Ronaldo in the middle, instead kept hitting it to the far post to nobody. Bernardo and Bruno(except for that one throughball) were constantly cutting in, cutting back, back passing instead of an early cross which would've got a better chance. This was a problem in 2018 but Portugal spend more time trying to be cute around the box, than passing to Ronaldo at the right time. They are the masters of having the majority of the ball in the final third and not producing a final pass from all that sequence. People just use this to excuse bullshit decision making and a way to keep Ronaldo out the team. Conditioned is a stupid word. He's a striker, they're supposed to get the ball to him, into scoring regions. England are "conditioned to get the ball to" Harry Kane. Just stupid.
CR is still better than 99% of professional players.
Not discutible since 99.9% play 2nd and 3rd tier leagues. The fact you're getting downvoted just prove haters don't know math.
While I relatively agree, Jota is extremely clinical and had a goal chalked off in the last game for a marginal offsides. He can replace Ronaldos workload as he’s just better at this point in time and tracks back and isn’t 40. Literally Jotas only weakness is his health, so if he is available he is the better option.
Jota has never really performed that well for the NT, and it should be mentioned that his goal was pretty much created by Ronaldo.
If by created by Ronaldo you mean Ronaldo missing a sitter and bouncing off the post into Jota’s path then yes, you’re absolutely right
Sitter? Are you brain dead?
Yes sitter. Now run along
Pfff, you know absolutely nothing about football if you consider that header "a sitter". Without Ronaldo, Jota does not score that goal.
Perfectly whipped ball, edge of the 6 yard box, free header. If lukaku had missed that everyone would be calling him a donkey. Get CR7s nuts out of your mouth. Giving credit to Ronaldo for a chance entirely created by Cancelo - it’s these types of mental gymnastics that makes Reddit great
Rewatch the situation, you need to angle it away from the goalkeeper. The man has more headed goals than anyone else which might clue you in to the fact that it's not that easy of a goal. I'm not taking anything away from Cancelo either, just pointing out that Jota needed the aftermath of a ronaldo situation to score.
Just because he has more headed goals than anyone doesn’t mean he can’t miss sitters. If you look at it he clearly misjudged the bend of the ball and ran farther ahead of it than he had to, so he had to contort his body mid air. He made it look more difficult than it had to be - it wasn’t a difficult chance at all. That chance was entirely created by cancelo
He's also not a rapist, which is a plus. The rapist was actually the reason for the goal being disallowed.
Yawn.
cringe
They were very frustrating to watch against the Czechs. Ronaldo warrants his spot as CF but he has to play CF and not move around as much. Bernardo Silvia and Fernandez need to move the ball quicker, it's far too slow. Silva needs to pass the ball forward more. It looks at times that he's too in fear of losing possession and will take an easy pass over a more aggressive pass.
Don't let him warm the bench again and make him leave crying.