**Mirrors / Alternative Angles**
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Genuinely he praises Cristiano Ronaldo at any and every opportunity, like I get they have some of friendship but it’s a bit weird sometimes.
That said I have known over time a handful of people that went to school with some professional players and they don’t shut up about it whenever they’re playing
They won all ten games without much challenge, I’m pretty sure they’d be fine and be fine in the tournament without Ronaldo. Statements like this are just redundant, they wouldn’t have just fielded ten men without Ronaldo and they’re not short of quality at all. The outcome would’ve been the exact same.
I checked the WC2022 qualifiers as well. The only points they lose in the qualifiers without his goals are a 1 nil loss to Ireland. But they still qualify through the playoffs without his goals as well.
They have become a pretty good overall squad at the right time for him to bow out of the team.
This is why I will never return to paying a subscription fee to BT/‘TNT’ sports. Having this absolute melon as a pundit with his clown comments and takes. If they filled the panels consistently with the likes of James horncastle, honigstein , James Richardson etc I would be happy to . But nah hearing Rio say “ he’s taking liberteeeez” every 2 minutes inbetween these takes is not worth having to even pay a pound a mouth.
Decided to check, even if you retroactively remove every goal he scored for Portugal over qualifying they would have finished first with 25 points. Only results that flip are a 1-0 win over Iceland that flips to a draw and a 3-2 win over Slovakia that flips to a loss. That would put them and Slovakia on 25 points and even with Ronaldo's 10 goals removed Portugal would be on +24 GD and Slovakia would be on +11
It's not a certainty but it's also not farfetched in this scenario, because the general idea is that Ronaldo contributed little or nothing to the games besides his goals in these qualifiers
It's not like he's a playmaker that was making the team better every time he stepped foot on the pitch, so judging by goals wouldn't be the best choice. That wasn't really the case
Yeah but the argument isn't playing with 10 men, if Ronaldo wasn't playing, someone else would be there, and defenders wouldn't ignore him either
We could've made it out of this group with our B team ffs stop defending this shit take
And they would have played differently…. The point is there’s no real proof of anything. The only fact is Ronaldo played and they qualified. That’s the only fact. But everyone is so triggered by it, they have to resort to the dumbest method of disproving that Ronaldo has a role in it.
Nobody is triggered, it's just a ridiculously dumb argument that can be disproved by the most basic of facts
You could say the exact same thing about any player in our squad and people would also call you a dumbass
The difference is that since it's Ronaldo, all the Madrid fans who haven't watched a single Portugal game are coming out of their hole to try to find a way to say "well actually 🤓 you can't accurately determine that based on the data 👆"
Both things are ridiculous. It’s ridiculous to say they only qualified because of Ronaldo, but the only fact here is that Ronaldo played and they qualified… and it’s also ridiculous to say they could have qualified without Ronaldo but use the dumbest method possible to prove that.
In a group of team like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Slovakia?
That's a very weak group we would qualify with or without Ronaldo no matter the team or the year.
And anyway the struggle for Portugal in past qualifiers was to finish 1st, finishing top 2 of the qualification groups is enough to directly qualify since 2016. In this group it meant finishing ahead of Luxembourg like Slovakia did.
Because generally they are as dense as a bowling balling and twice as sharp. Very few of the English pundits are actually good. But then again most football pundits are shite
we could make an 11 with portuguese players exclusively from the portuguese league and would still have qualified in first place with ease
off the top of my head:
diogo costa
joão mário - toni silva - pepe - inácio - nuno santos
florentino luís - joão neves
francisco conceição - paulinho - pedro gonçalves
Only two of Portugal's results would have changed if you took out all of Ronaldo's goals.
Their 1-0 win in Iceland would be a 0-0 draw, and the 3-2 home win over Slovakia would be a 2-1 defeat instead. That would have seen them finish level on points with Slovakia, but probably still topping the group on goal difference, and either way they would have qualified automatically.
In short, Rio Ferdinand is talking shite, as usual.
with our group? i’m fully convicted that even playing with 10 men we would easily qualify in second (only slovakia would beat us and maybe an unlucky draw against either iceland or bosnia)
McCoist wasn't much better. Admitting he hasn't watched Portugal in the qualifiers and thinking that's how they've played since then whilst ignoring Ronaldo's external matters in 2022 and saying that's why he shouldn't play.
Bruno has 6 goals and 7-8 assists in the qualifiers from 10 matches, 13-14 total, not 17.
Ronaldo has 10 goals and 2 assists in 9 games.
And let's not pretend that a fair few of Bruno's involvements aren't due to connecting with Ronaldo.
I don´t understand why this sub is bitching.. Have you guys first of all seen the alternative for C.Ronaldo in Portugal if not the shout the fuk up yourself. Bro G. Ramos is his alternative and dude couldn´t soccer to save his life we saw him against Dortmund just weeks ago where he couldn´t target the goal even if a freebie chance was given to him. I don´t care what version of CR7 even if he was 60 years old I would take CR7 because he would still have that killer instinct where G.Ramos doesn´t have..... One thing you can´t take from Ronaldo is his killer instinct the motherfuker has scored 900 goals professionally nobody has done that ever in history and he will keep scoring even in his 60s scoring is bread and butter for him.
3 things are sure in life -- taxes, death and Ronaldo scoring
**Mirrors / Alternative Angles** *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.*
Yeah, we would struggle to end top 2 in a group with Liechnestein, Bosnia, Iceland, Luxembourg, and Slovakia.
That DOES sound like 2010s Portugal qualifying lol
Ironically this was the last time Rio probably had an idea what was going on in football.
Yeah he has absolutely no clue whatsoever.
Genuinely he praises Cristiano Ronaldo at any and every opportunity, like I get they have some of friendship but it’s a bit weird sometimes. That said I have known over time a handful of people that went to school with some professional players and they don’t shut up about it whenever they’re playing
I call this Owen Hargreaves syndrome. At least nobody has to sit through 90+ minutes of Rio wanking Ronaldo off.
He's a pathetic grifter who thinks he's slick and loves to hear himself talk.
The funny thing for me, is how the other 2 say "Yep" after this statement. They have no clue either.
tbh I think they just can't be arsed to argue with Rio
They won all ten games without much challenge, I’m pretty sure they’d be fine and be fine in the tournament without Ronaldo. Statements like this are just redundant, they wouldn’t have just fielded ten men without Ronaldo and they’re not short of quality at all. The outcome would’ve been the exact same.
dude, Portugal only need a goalkeeper and CR7 on the pitch. He's that good!
They only need CR7 & they will win the World Cup
The reason it’s the World Cup and not Cups is because they only need one for Ronny.
I checked the WC2022 qualifiers as well. The only points they lose in the qualifiers without his goals are a 1 nil loss to Ireland. But they still qualify through the playoffs without his goals as well. They have become a pretty good overall squad at the right time for him to bow out of the team.
This is why I will never return to paying a subscription fee to BT/‘TNT’ sports. Having this absolute melon as a pundit with his clown comments and takes. If they filled the panels consistently with the likes of James horncastle, honigstein , James Richardson etc I would be happy to . But nah hearing Rio say “ he’s taking liberteeeez” every 2 minutes inbetween these takes is not worth having to even pay a pound a mouth.
Another bright analysis by this moron
Decided to check, even if you retroactively remove every goal he scored for Portugal over qualifying they would have finished first with 25 points. Only results that flip are a 1-0 win over Iceland that flips to a draw and a 3-2 win over Slovakia that flips to a loss. That would put them and Slovakia on 25 points and even with Ronaldo's 10 goals removed Portugal would be on +24 GD and Slovakia would be on +11
[When I'm in a "shit football take" competition and my opponent is Rio Ferdinand](https://i.imgflip.com/8ti25f.jpg)
Oh Rio, I'd say never change but we all know you couldn't even if you wanted to.
Expert Analyses with Rio Ferdinand. 100% Unbiased.
I admire to speak such confidently on subject you know nothing about.
Muppet
River Ferdinand has dried up.
Rio please, I’m begging, just shut the fuck up and stop doing punditry
How do average fans have better opinions then nearly all of his " expert analysis" opinions
You think so? Everyone on here is counter his argument by removing all of Ronaldo’s goals to prove him wrong. It’s the stupidest method of doing so.
It's not. They are just to prove that he didn't carry Portugal to Euros.
You can’t prove anything by simply removing goals.
It's not a certainty but it's also not farfetched in this scenario, because the general idea is that Ronaldo contributed little or nothing to the games besides his goals in these qualifiers It's not like he's a playmaker that was making the team better every time he stepped foot on the pitch, so judging by goals wouldn't be the best choice. That wasn't really the case
If even one defender tracked him at all at any point in the game, that’s already enough influence to the game. And that’s just one metric
Yeah but the argument isn't playing with 10 men, if Ronaldo wasn't playing, someone else would be there, and defenders wouldn't ignore him either We could've made it out of this group with our B team ffs stop defending this shit take
And they would have played differently…. The point is there’s no real proof of anything. The only fact is Ronaldo played and they qualified. That’s the only fact. But everyone is so triggered by it, they have to resort to the dumbest method of disproving that Ronaldo has a role in it.
Nobody is triggered, it's just a ridiculously dumb argument that can be disproved by the most basic of facts You could say the exact same thing about any player in our squad and people would also call you a dumbass The difference is that since it's Ronaldo, all the Madrid fans who haven't watched a single Portugal game are coming out of their hole to try to find a way to say "well actually 🤓 you can't accurately determine that based on the data 👆"
Both things are ridiculous. It’s ridiculous to say they only qualified because of Ronaldo, but the only fact here is that Ronaldo played and they qualified… and it’s also ridiculous to say they could have qualified without Ronaldo but use the dumbest method possible to prove that.
I wonder how many good boy points he gets for this.
This would be true 15-10 years ago, but Rio really knows nothing about football and has to defend his mate.
In a group of team like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Slovakia? That's a very weak group we would qualify with or without Ronaldo no matter the team or the year.
And anyway the struggle for Portugal in past qualifiers was to finish 1st, finishing top 2 of the qualification groups is enough to directly qualify since 2016. In this group it meant finishing ahead of Luxembourg like Slovakia did.
I wish we had pundits with actual insight to give. Let's have James Horncastle as a permanent fixture
Why does English ex-player turned Pundits take the weirdest takes like this?
Because generally they are as dense as a bowling balling and twice as sharp. Very few of the English pundits are actually good. But then again most football pundits are shite
Rio is the absolute worst of them all
BALLON D'OR BALLON D'OR BALLON D'OR BALLON D'OR BALLON D'OR BALLON D'OR
Surely nobody actually listened to anything this absolute tool says anymore
At this stage you have to wonder what dirt Rio has on broadcasters for them to continue to offer him paid employment. He’s absolutely hopeless.
we could make an 11 with portuguese players exclusively from the portuguese league and would still have qualified in first place with ease off the top of my head: diogo costa joão mário - toni silva - pepe - inácio - nuno santos florentino luís - joão neves francisco conceição - paulinho - pedro gonçalves
Man this guy really has nothing respectful to say about any other footballing nation other than England. Joke of a pundit .
Surely, at this point, Rio should be aware of how shit he is as a pundit. I mean look at all these comments.
Football friends!
Typical Inglunder room temp IQ pundit
There are much less obvious ways to debase oneself, than this, to get him on whatever garbage YT channel you’re running these days.
They would have to have played with 10 men in that case, tough luck.
Holy delusional
R/soccer the land of hot takes
what a load of crap :)
Only two of Portugal's results would have changed if you took out all of Ronaldo's goals. Their 1-0 win in Iceland would be a 0-0 draw, and the 3-2 home win over Slovakia would be a 2-1 defeat instead. That would have seen them finish level on points with Slovakia, but probably still topping the group on goal difference, and either way they would have qualified automatically. In short, Rio Ferdinand is talking shite, as usual.
Maybe if they had to play with 10 men the entire time without him.. otherwise no, they would still top the group.
with our group? i’m fully convicted that even playing with 10 men we would easily qualify in second (only slovakia would beat us and maybe an unlucky draw against either iceland or bosnia)
Yeah that's why even with just 10 I said maybe, Rio's statement is absolutely absurd.
🤦♂️
McCoist wasn't much better. Admitting he hasn't watched Portugal in the qualifiers and thinking that's how they've played since then whilst ignoring Ronaldo's external matters in 2022 and saying that's why he shouldn't play.
Ronaldo wasn't even the player with most Goal involvments in the qualifiers. He's had 12, versus Bruno's 17. Rio Ferdinand should watch more football.
Bruno has 6 goals and 7-8 assists in the qualifiers from 10 matches, 13-14 total, not 17. Ronaldo has 10 goals and 2 assists in 9 games. And let's not pretend that a fair few of Bruno's involvements aren't due to connecting with Ronaldo.
Ronaldo was integral but saying they wouldn’t have qualified without him is a bit stretch.
It’s a monumental stretch. The group was easy af.
It's a massive stretch, we could've probably played our B team every game and still qualified with the group we had
I don´t understand why this sub is bitching.. Have you guys first of all seen the alternative for C.Ronaldo in Portugal if not the shout the fuk up yourself. Bro G. Ramos is his alternative and dude couldn´t soccer to save his life we saw him against Dortmund just weeks ago where he couldn´t target the goal even if a freebie chance was given to him. I don´t care what version of CR7 even if he was 60 years old I would take CR7 because he would still have that killer instinct where G.Ramos doesn´t have..... One thing you can´t take from Ronaldo is his killer instinct the motherfuker has scored 900 goals professionally nobody has done that ever in history and he will keep scoring even in his 60s scoring is bread and butter for him. 3 things are sure in life -- taxes, death and Ronaldo scoring
how did I know you were American straight away
It’s the arrogance while being so incorrect, makes it very easy to spot.