supercrystal7 said:
Ronaldo's role in the team under Mourinho was no different than Di Maria's.
And that's where your argument is just completely wrong. I'm sure you know that Ronaldo has a vastly different role for RM in comparison to di María; if you don't it is startling news. The goal totals mean very little; it is very clear that Ronaldo is the first, second, and third option at the capital club. You can see it when he commands the ball in the final third and how he takes shots from ridiculous angles.
He shows very little football-IQ at times -- look at the match against Athletic Club yesterday, diMa was open on the left wing at one point but Ronaldo refused to acknowledge his presence -- and his insistence on scoring makes him an almost intolerable teammate at times:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9ZopQxh8-U[/youtube]
I'm not one to look at statistics as a measure of judging a "one-man-team" or not; ask any perceptive culé and they will tell you that Messi bailed out Barça consistently due to Tito's (lack of) ability as a coach. Ask any perceptive Madridista about how often Ronaldo gets the ball in a promising position and takes a wild shot and you will see a standard response.
If I recall correctly, Ronaldo takes the most "out of distance" attempts in European football. He almost certainly takes more shots than all of his attacking teammates combined; I don't know the exact numbers, but I am very sure that Ronaldo takes more shots than Bale, Benzema, di María, Jesé, and Morata.
Since you're insistent on using stats, lets compare Ronaldo's shots in the 2011-12 season, and compare that total to Higuaín, Benzema, Özil, di María, Kaká.
Ronaldo: 264 shots
"The Rest": 272 shots
It's astonishing. If I do the same thing for 2010-11, I guarantee that you will see the same phenomena. This reeks of a player taking almost any attempt he can get, and seeing as how Ronaldo's dribbling has clearly devolved under Mourinho, you can see that Ronaldo isn't creating these chances by himself. The vast majority of his goals are directly assisted -- that is not a coincidence.
Ancelotti is playing nearly the same style as Mourinho was the previous season. RM can dominate the weaker teams but against a team with a good midfield they struggle. Look at Modrić for instance -- hailed as RM's best player this season, yet he has never played well against a good midfield with RM. No surprises.
Against well-drilled sides, Real Madrid are shown up. Barcelona in 2011, Bayern in 2012, Dortmund in 2013. Coincidentally they all target the capital club's weakness -- the left flank. And that leads me to the crux of RM's issues: their most recognised footballer makes them the most unbalanced "elite" team in world football.
-- Mon Feb 03, 2014 2:09 am --
greasedupdeafguy said:
Although an Atlético success would be a true "child's tale" story, greater upsets have occurred in football. Some of them very recent; most people would look at Porto's 2004 European conquest but they would have never won it without ridiculous referee decisions throughout the entire knock-out stage.
