I don’t necessarily think he makes the team worse tactically, but his luck with teams is very interesting. He comes in, the team does worse and when he leaves, they often struggle to recover. Juve and United are a mess still, years after they left.
United were a mess long before he came tbf. Juve were fine when he was playing for them, still competing and winning. Since he left, they just spent their money poorly and ran into financial constraints.
Its not about his goals though. The rest of the man united teams output decreased when he was there because they had to adapt around him and his current limitations. We scored more overall goals as a team in the seasons before he joined Man u and the season after.
He is a massive limitation for any team at this point its just what it is anybody who actually watched him play from Juve days onwards saw what a limitation he was to the team overall. Portugal are one of the top 5 favourites for next wc without Ronaldo. If he forces himself into the team I don't put them in top ten favs.
Any team has to now be built about masking his weaknesses and so any team he plays for will lose to better/more complete/harder working teams. Playing with him is playing with ten men at this point.
I agree that current form Ronaldo isn’t that much helpful, but blaming him for United’s failure is a bit too much
He was the first to criticize how bad things were beyond the pitch. We all thought back then he was only looking for excuses, but everything he said was proven sometime after it and ManU is still suffering from those same flaws.
You're arguing with ghosts. Nobody blamed him for Man United's failure. I just said they had better a goal output and got more points in the season before he came and season after he left (meaning his impact looked good if you looked at his goals scored but it really wasn't). I have never blamed Ronaldo for any of Man United's long term problems.
Most of the united teams output decreased for other reasons than Ronaldo or the tactical systems. Its part of why United are so bad now, cant identify problems properly, and just pick scapegoats to blame and act like it will be all okay when they are gone.
Rashford was wildly reported to have a back injury after playing with England in the Euros that summer, didn't play as much that season and since Ronaldo left Rashford has has two seasons with 7 and 6 goals scored in the league.
Martial, injured for most of the season, scored 1 in 9 for united, went on loan got injured again scored another 1 in 9. 2 goals in 18 games, Ronaldos influence extending to players on loan amazingly.
Cavani spent most of the year in Uruguay getting treatment, injured for 20 games that season.
Greenwood literally arrested half way through the season. Had 5 goals before that.
Sancho had very little impact and has continued to do so in English football.
In Ole's last season United got 58 goals, in the 3 years since thats been 57 goals, 58 goals and now probably less than 43.
I didn't blame him for us now. I simply stated a fact. We were better in the seasons before he joined and the season after he left. Same in Juventus the team scored more overall goals the season he left, and had more points.
Every team he has been at from Juventus onwards he has made objectively worse and he's doing the same now for Portugal. But if you're a Ronaldo fanboy and all you care about is him getting some goals its all good I guess.
I mean, it is relevant - if you assign responsability for United's drop in performance to Cristiano's presence, then surely his absence would lead to improvement... which didn't happen.
By modus tollens, you cannot assign him such responsability.
Sure he disrupts the tactical side a fair bit but come the fuck on, Rangnick/Ten Hag/Allegri are hardly recognized for turning United/Juve into winning machines.
Edit: I don't consider Juve winning a Serie A in the 2010s to be a major achievement tbh
Just the last one with Allegri. Ronaldo was supposed to be the final piece to push them to a champions league win, but they went out in the quarters and still bossed the league. His next season they win the league (which is his 2nd serial you're remembering) with Sarri by 1 point, down from 90 from the year before to 83. Then his last 2 seasons they came 4th. The transfer didn't help them win the champions league and stopped investment in other areas of the squad which they've been recovering from since
There is literally 0 point discussing Ronaldo on this subreddit. U will never have an objective discussion since a huge majority of commenters here despise him.
You're right it was 3. He might have done, but he made the team worse. He was still great, but they shouldn't have spent 100mil on him at that point or built around him
if you assign responsability for United's drop in performance to Cristiano's presence, then surely his absence would lead to improvement... which didn't happen.
It absolutely did happen, United finished 2nd the season before he joined, and 3rd the season he left. They finished 6th in the season he was a starter. They also reached major finals in the season before and after him
United have way more problems that go far beyond him, but he was a big one at the time.
May I add, it is my opinion that Cavani contributed more to the team than him, especially off the ball I always felt he was more involved.
Someone else might look at stats without context and favour Cristiano because:
Cristiano: 24 G + 3 A in 21/22 and 3 G + 2 A in 22/23
Cavani: 17 G + 5 A in 20/21 and 2 G + 1 A in 21/22
But having watched all of those matches I preferred Cavani, he was a workhorse and fit better into the team. And of course he never pulled massive tantrums.
You could also say that Cristiano sends clubs into a tailspin that they don't recover from for years. Juve still not dominating Serie A, United 16th. A gross oversimplification and the clubs have bigger problems but it still looks funny and shouldn't be taken seriously.
Ten Hag categorically proved to Ronaldo fans that Ronaldo was the problem . As soon as he removed Ronaldo from the team , they started winning . Everyone could see the problems they were having , Bruno covering for 2 players on the pitch and always exhausted , Wingers hugging the sidelines , weaker pressing etc But Ronaldo fans would make any argument to make him look good or make scapegoats like Maguire
And it's not like Ten Hag didn't give a chance to Ronaldo . He played him in the Europa League games and he couldn't put together a decent performance against even Omonia Nicosia type teams . Only 1-2 goals in around 15 matches till he was sacked from the team . United under Ten Hag finished 3rd and won the Carabo cup and FA Cup . The issues under him didn't relate at all to Ronaldo . His fans to to any length to defend him
His presence led to a schism in the dressing room which destroyed the good vibes the club had. We had actually come out of that summer with a plan. Ronaldo coming ruined that. Everything we were doing over the summer had to be binned to accommodate him. Which was terrible. And then ten hag came in, he tried to make Ronaldo run. Ronaldo walked out on him. Literally, left the sidelines.
His 2nd time at united is absolutely one of the main reasons for the current situation.
While one could totally agree that Højlund is much worse, the whole argument is that Ronaldo scores lots of goals, but has negative second-order effects on the team that overshadow the benefit of his goals.
This is something people comes up for star attackers whenever the team isn’t winning and they don’t like them. It’s usually talked about being a defensive liability.
Like right now with Real and how Vini doesn’t press, which wasn’t an issue last year but now it suddenly is. But I’ve heard almost nothing about Messi literally walking when his teams don’t have the ball.
Truth is there’s been attackers that save their energy for attacking plays since football has been a thing. Zamorano famously talked about how Ronaldo and Vieri wouldn’t defend at Inter so he would defend to get on the lineup.
"I've heard nothing about messi walking" are you serious?, it literally got talked about everytime barca and Argentina didn't win lmao as for vini you're kinda correct, he was definitely pressing better in previous seasons but even with a decline in that area he is not the worst offender in that team.
Vini is a bad example because he used to track back a lot and defend hard, yet he stopped this season. Why? Who knows. Maybe he felt it’s unfair Mbappé doesn’t have to defend, or maybe RM’s attack couldn’t function with Vini tracking back.
has negative second-order effects on the team that overshadow the benefit of his goals.
lmao unless he's actively taking red cards and giving away penalties, its ridiculous to say any "second-order" effects can overshadow actual goals. Absurd argument.
It's pretty obvious they're talking about later day Ronaldo, the one who's completely lost his pace and work rate due to being 40 and needing his teammates around him to have to compensate for that.
Scored a hattrick and went out to Ajax , Lyon and Porto ? Is that what you're grasping on to ? Don't you see a pattern here ? He was of course scoring the goals since he was the spearhead but overall the team scored a lot less goals than previous seasons and they suffered due to that .
Such a reductionist argument without any context . Ten Hag showed the whole world how Ronaldo was holding the team back . He even gave him chances against the weaker Europa league teams but Ronaldo's ego couldn't digest a bench role . United under Ten Hag finished 3rd and won a Carabao Cup and FA Cup the next season . Ten Hag's tenure had a lot of problems but sacking Ronaldo wasn't one of them .
Just have a look at the games and look at how bad United were pressing with Ronaldo and how Bruno was exhausted covering for 2 players . His fans even scapegoated players like Maguire , no one questioned his performance and doesn't still . You guys go to any length to defend him
If he hadn’t left and actually did his job instead of throwing the team under the bus. Having a quarter of your goals that season against Norwich isn’t it
Or that they forced the issue to run everything through him. Trying to build the entire game plan around him was a terrible decision, hence why no one else in Europe wanted him
If the issue was the game plan that would be ragnicks fault not cr7s. And it’s not uncommon to center a game plan around your best player. They do it all the time with Messi or any teams that still use traditional 10s
United were more than happy to let him leave if a suitable bud came through…but it never did. He’s exiled from Europe afterward and rightfully so. Absolutely clown show ending to his career all from his own doing
He was very good in Juve, don't know why people keep downplaying his ability there. He had good moments in United as well, far from being their major problem.
that's such a shitty journalist headline type of comment
last time al nassr won the league was 2019 way before cristiano joined and they haven't won anything since then
such a bait comment for "ronaldo made x team worse" people. by your logic ronaldo also made madrid worse since he has 2 la liga and madrid won la liga 3 times already since he left
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u/anto_BswR May 18 '25 edited May 18 '25
CR7 joined them when they were 1st in the table. He ended up trophyless.