Cristiano Ronaldo Is Better Than Lionel Messi
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are simply on a different level than any other current, or indeed recent, player.
They have both dominated an era of football drawing comparisons to the very greats of the game such as Pelé and Diego Maradona - but which one is a better player?
Messi had a golden year in 2012, breaking all sorts of records and is widely considered the best player in the world and perhaps ever.
However, Ronaldo, for me, seems to be the more complete and superior player.
He is more complete than Messi and possesses a vastly wider array of skills: he has the pace of Bale, the flair and skills of Neymar and better shots than those of Falcao. It is common knowledge that he is able to dance around players and he is not the only player in this category but only Ronaldo can completely take to pieces the ability and confidence of a player.
He is almost unstoppable as witnessed by the lamentations of many a manager throughout the world as they describe what I call the 'Ronaldo paradox'.
Essentially Ronaldo knows that he is going to beat his man, either with the ball or by winning a foul, so what he does is he runs straight at them and if they show him away from goal he beats them down the flank and if the other occurs he reciprocates and cuts in to shoot on goal. And if they commit Ronaldo simply has to knock the ball past them and go down with the inevitable contact.
Messi uses his quick feet and low centre of gravity to squeeze his way through defenders but when teams assign more players to him inevitably this system becomes a lot harder.
If the player commits, which more often than not they do, then Ronaldo will be able to use his 'knuckleball' technique to bamboozle the keeper. Only a few players - notably Bale and its creator Juninho Pernambucano - have come to grips with this system and it is evident to many that Ronaldo has mastered it.
I hope this is not too damning on Messi because he can strike a dead ball, but I think everyone has to
They have both dominated an era of football drawing comparisons to the very greats of the game such as Pelé and Diego Maradona - but which one is a better player?
Messi had a golden year in 2012, breaking all sorts of records and is widely considered the best player in the world and perhaps ever.
However, Ronaldo, for me, seems to be the more complete and superior player.
He is more complete than Messi and possesses a vastly wider array of skills: he has the pace of Bale, the flair and skills of Neymar and better shots than those of Falcao. It is common knowledge that he is able to dance around players and he is not the only player in this category but only Ronaldo can completely take to pieces the ability and confidence of a player.
He is almost unstoppable as witnessed by the lamentations of many a manager throughout the world as they describe what I call the 'Ronaldo paradox'.
Essentially Ronaldo knows that he is going to beat his man, either with the ball or by winning a foul, so what he does is he runs straight at them and if they show him away from goal he beats them down the flank and if the other occurs he reciprocates and cuts in to shoot on goal. And if they commit Ronaldo simply has to knock the ball past them and go down with the inevitable contact.
Messi uses his quick feet and low centre of gravity to squeeze his way through defenders but when teams assign more players to him inevitably this system becomes a lot harder.
If the player commits, which more often than not they do, then Ronaldo will be able to use his 'knuckleball' technique to bamboozle the keeper. Only a few players - notably Bale and its creator Juninho Pernambucano - have come to grips with this system and it is evident to many that Ronaldo has mastered it.
I hope this is not too damning on Messi because he can strike a dead ball, but I think everyone has to