Cristiano Ronaldo
Discussion
It's pretty pointless comparing players now to 30 years ago and wondering who'd cope best. Maradona of the 80s might not be fit enough to compete at the top level today. With all the training and experts Ronaldo has maybe he'd be the best in the world (or dead by 21).
Dump Ronaldo into the 80s and maybe he couldn't handle the physicality or maybe his strength, pace and conditioning would mean he could bully defences into conceding a hattrick to him every game.
Much better just to compare players within their own generation. Maradona was the best of his, Messi and Ronaldo are the best of theirs.
Dump Ronaldo into the 80s and maybe he couldn't handle the physicality or maybe his strength, pace and conditioning would mean he could bully defences into conceding a hattrick to him every game.
Much better just to compare players within their own generation. Maradona was the best of his, Messi and Ronaldo are the best of theirs.
Davos123 said:
It's pretty pointless comparing players now to 30 years ago and wondering who'd cope best. Maradona of the 80s might not be fit enough to compete at the top level today. With all the training and experts Ronaldo has maybe he'd be the best in the world (or dead by 21).
Dump Ronaldo into the 80s and maybe he couldn't handle the physicality or maybe his strength, pace and conditioning would mean he could bully defences into conceding a hattrick to him every game.
Much better just to compare players within their own generation. Maradona was the best of his, Messi and Ronaldo are the best of theirs.
Agree with what you are saying. Dump Ronaldo into the 80s and maybe he couldn't handle the physicality or maybe his strength, pace and conditioning would mean he could bully defences into conceding a hattrick to him every game.
Much better just to compare players within their own generation. Maradona was the best of his, Messi and Ronaldo are the best of theirs.
That though is why i believe Maradona is the all time best because if he could do it tough in the eighties he would be even better with today's protection,but Ronaldo and Messi would get injured and not be as effective as a result.
Superflow said:
Davos123 said:
It's pretty pointless comparing players now to 30 years ago and wondering who'd cope best. Maradona of the 80s might not be fit enough to compete at the top level today. With all the training and experts Ronaldo has maybe he'd be the best in the world (or dead by 21).
Dump Ronaldo into the 80s and maybe he couldn't handle the physicality or maybe his strength, pace and conditioning would mean he could bully defences into conceding a hattrick to him every game.
Much better just to compare players within their own generation. Maradona was the best of his, Messi and Ronaldo are the best of theirs.
Agree with what you are saying. Dump Ronaldo into the 80s and maybe he couldn't handle the physicality or maybe his strength, pace and conditioning would mean he could bully defences into conceding a hattrick to him every game.
Much better just to compare players within their own generation. Maradona was the best of his, Messi and Ronaldo are the best of theirs.
That though is why i believe Maradona is the all time best because if he could do it tough in the eighties he would be even better with today's protection,but Ronaldo and Messi would get injured and not be as effective as a result.
But....another way of looking at it is this: the ultimate difference between say a 10 second 100m runner and the fastest kid in your county is often, like, light years. It can be huge. But at the very sharp end, the hundredths, people like Jim Hines were running 9.95s in 1968. Calvin Smith only went quicker 16 years later. Donavan Bailey, Asafa Powell, etc....there’s not a huge amount in it over nearly 50 years. Almost declining margins. Bolt aside!
So if you reflect things in football, and take the progression in athleticism angle, there certainly were players in say, the 80s, who were plenty quick enough or plenty strong enough to be able to compete today, not factoring in things like diet etc. Today we have guys like Vardy who enjoy his Red Bull, but there are some old timers who swear to me that Laurie Cunningham would clean out Vardy or Bellerin in a straight foot race. And with the ball. No contest. And do it on a rough turf not nice 4G.
Nearer today’s game, I’d say that if Prosinecki was born in 1989 rather than 1969, Modric wouldn’t be the main man in the Croatian side. Maybe Modric pays attention more and does a Herculean amount of knitting, but for moments of sheer majesty and taking a game by the scruff of the neck, it’s Prosinecki for me. Transport him to today and he’d run the current Croatia team. Boban, another one. Slower than Rakitic, but far more calculating in his play. And a Suker makes a Mandzukic look better as a bench option.
https://youtu.be/3D0MfKj7YVQ
In my view, you can see some clips of him (Prosinecki) and other top, top players of that era, and I think they’d be perfectly comfortable today. The top guys. Yes, the majority of modern players - the mean - are likely to be more athletic than yesteryear, but a guy like Prosinecki who had the full range, speed, vision etc and was physical with it...today he’d walk it. And be chainsmoking at the same time.
In Ronaldo’s case, I think he’d have adapted to the butcher Goikoetxea, Souness era well enough. Why? Because aside from any natural athleticism, his general mental ability and acute sense of positioning would make him standout.
If anything, in some ways the game has seemingly gone backward. We laud guys like Modric who pundits will fawn over and say, “look at how he controls the game and sees everything” or a Ronaldo who’s pure understanding of positioning means he could change his game mid-late career. But maybe it’s me, but that sort of level was more common/expected just a decade ago. But maybe we just have players these days who are so programmed to play in drill manner, heavily focussed on repetitive tactics and bleep tests. They’re so programmed out they can’t think for themselves on the pitch and work out the problem. Some domestic players come across as almost too thick to do much except what they are told to do and have written down for them on some paper by an assistant coach.
Frightening. Anyway I think there’s a general corollary between the top players native intelligence and how high they tend to achieve. England have suffered from it for years. We’ve got loads of players who know their way to the tattoo parlour and can play a mean FIFA ‘18 but can barely string a sentence together. How does anyone then expect them to problem solve an issue like a tactical opposition switch in the 69th minute on their own!
While I’m at - happy to be disagreed with - I think the ‘90 England side would dismantle the current team. Not because of technical ability on the ball or anything like that, but simply because footballers in that era were also managed by their clubs as and to be grown ups. Proper men. People who had to think for themselves a bit. Robson, Waddle, Barnes would just push right through guys like Henderson and Young. If you took Shilton out of the equation (40yo), the average age of both squads - ‘90 and ‘18 - is still the same, 26. But it’s men against boys in reality.
Black can man said:
andyjo1982 said:
Anyone know much about the accusations and investigations against CR7?
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=205&t=176963036 Pages of b
ks here sirselym said:
Black can man said:
andyjo1982 said:
Anyone know much about the accusations and investigations against CR7?
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=205&t=176963036 Pages of b
ks here sir
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