The College Dropout

GC is one of the worst posters on the forum and he doesn't even support Newcastle

What is it with you calling players/managers with their first name? Sorry, I'll call him Mr. Redknapp.

He has improved no end though in the last season or 2. Still gives away a fair few penalties. Half the time he's played the ball TBF. If it's not 100% clean, you should avoid diving tackles in the box. Koscielny always takes the risk when the risk isn't the biggest imo

I know Harry doesn't seem the most intelligent of fellows but he's not a complete idiot. If/when Cisse leaves it will be abroad. His reputation here isn't the best. Most likely Germany or a random Turkish team or the like.

He has improved no end though in the last season or 2. Still gives away a fair few penalties.

He's very good but he's a little bit of a liability in terms of penalties conceded and red cards. Did both in the first leg I believe but he does it a fair few times for Arsenal (penalties at least). He's a bit like Colo at times, likes to get pretty tight and doesn't mind scampering/pressing up the pitch to make a challenge. Being so tight sometimes he can get caught out. He has a great partnership with Mertesacker who likes to stand off a bit and keep his position. Mertesacker doesn't want any parts of a foot race and positions himself as such. Koscielny doesn't mind at all.

He's a poacher, who has 5 league goals in a calendar year. At least 20 starts in that period. I don't understand your point. Even his biggest defenders can admit he doesn't contribute very much outside the box. So goals to game/minutes ratio is important for a player like him.

Deschamps really likes him. brought him on at 1 down against Sweden away for Remy. Must rate him highly.

And I'm sure you spend every other Saturday night at home watching Real Madrid and Barcelona. It's on from Friday/Sunday nights. Midweek cup games have League 2 as their rival. It's often repeated. Revista likewise which I have Sky+. If you have full control of your Sky box you'll watch a fair bit of Madrid/Barcelona and increasingly Atletico. La Liga is not an unknown quantity. To me at least. Especially Madrid/Barca who are on every. single. week. I personally watch as much of them as Liverpool or Spurs. And I wouldn't have anyone condescend me on the ability of Luis Suarez either.

Felipao's being very arrogant. We get to see Messi & Ronaldo for 90 minutes more than any other players that don't play for Newcastle if you have Sky.

Well, not really better, it's still a load of horse cack what you're saying. Take someone’s goals away from them and they'll have less impact, hardly rocket science that. However say they did both stop scoring, they both would still be highly effective in their teams and still outstanding players because their attributes aren't just tailor made to just score goals, they have many other aspects to their game. I think it's a fair comment to say that he does far less than Messi does. Messi scores more (except beginning of this season but I've already posted that they're actually not even far off) and Messi contributes more to general play in terms of creating chances, holding on to the ball. Just for the sake of it, what does Ronaldo do that he's great at except the obvious ones? Does he press high up the pitch constantly? Does he provide cover to Marcelo/Coentrao? Does he win ball back? Does he create a lot of chances out of nothing for his teammates? I'm asking because so many seem to watch him week in week out. The things you are describing are tactical and system based rather than individual attributes. You're basically asking "does Cronaldo play for Barcelona? Or does he play for a team that prefers the counter?" And even then Messi does the least pressing for Barcelona of any player. He gets to play as a striker so there's nobody to cover for. The Barcelona system is about winning the ball high up the pitch, it's not for Madrid. The creativity/selfish thing is over-stated. Messi had marginally more assists last season. And in the last few years most of the other Barcelona strikers have been slightly below par as Messi racks up 50 goals.

yeah if the goals dry up for Messi he wouldn't be the best in the world either. I don't see your point at all. "He would dominate games" or some other tosh. There's little evidence for that.

this sums up why messi has beat ronaldo so often for the awards tbh, ronaldo is a goal machine but you get the feeling if the goals dry up he's done for, with messi you know if he isn't scoring goals he's got the ability to dictate games at the very highest level I would say a lot of people under-rate Christiano. And the quoted is BS based on mystique. During his reign as the best in the world, Messi has been the difference, the goal machine. Dictating games while Busquets, Xavi and Iniesta have been playing? Nah. People say things like that based on little evidence that they've seen from their own eyes.

Did we try Rooney behind Sturridge?

Fancy James Milner. Yes. Never seen him take it to a top top side.

Shows how much you follow Bayern. Robben is inconsistent as hell, and reason he looked more dangerous is because he's given more of a free-role. Ribery plays a very rigid style of football and works twice as hard as Robben. i largely agree. He looks amazing from the highlights from the Bundesliga. But in the big games he's a fancy James Milner. Talent wise he isn't top 5 in the world for me. Not a big fan at all. Get the f*** out of here Fancy James Milner You're so full of s*** sometimes. Although I'd still have Ronaldo over Ribery in terms of footballing ability, he's just not THAT much better, they fulfill different roles. fwiw. Rivaldo is a step above Ribery too. Ribery's never truly been the sole star man in a great team. This is a lad who has been to a world cup final too. He wasn't particularly good in that tournament either. Robben was the best player in the latter stages of the CL. I would have Totti & Robben over Ribery. Robben is a bigger threat than Ribery in big matches. A missed penalty here, taking an extra touch in the WC final - Robben's has been close to book-ending a few monumental moments. I'm glad it was him who closed the door on Dortmund.

No one is saying that.... just that last season he was better than Ronaldo in the sense of driving his team to success as an individual. Which to me is more impressive than scoring a boat load but winning nothing, wouldn't dream of implying Ribery is better though because he isn't. You have obviously seen a lot more of Bayern than i have out of interest why isnt Robben is getting similar praise to Ribery? Robben always looks a lot more influential whenever i have seen Bayern play. He spent a fair bit of time on the bench earlier in the season.. cos he's a lazy injury prone lad. While Ribery is Rooney-like in the Bundesliga. Robben also gets accused of being selfish and a trouble maker. But he's a much better footballer than Ribery imo.

i largely agree. He looks amazing from the highlights from the Bundesliga. But in the big games he's a fancy James Milner. Talent wise he isn't top 5 in the world for me. Not a big fan at all.

Because he's a greedy b******. Outstanding player though. Unbelievable how little he gets injured as well. To a degree aye.

I saw the last 20 minutes of the France game after switching from the Portugal game. I've watched loads of Ribery over the last decade. He's not on Ronaldo's level. If they swapped teams, Portugal would be out.

Tbh he wasn't that bad last season. Was pretty decent at the start of the season. He got injured, our season went to crap. He came back, played well the team picked up. Then we sucked again for a period where he was also poor. IMO he was a top 5 performer last season. Which isn't saying much but still. Had the best goals to game ratio of any player that ended the season as a NUFC player IIRC. He wasn't good, nobody was. He did himself an injustice last season overall but to a far lesser extent than many others.

I believe it's worse for the current crop because they have little top level experience be it international or Champions League. Not that the "Golden Generation" where particularly great but they have a particular know-how. This for me is one of the reasons why Cole has to start. Without him the back 4 have probably only played 25 games total in the Champions League. There's players who won't get into the German squad in their mid 20's that have more top level experience than a lot of our lads.

Five I think. Would eb delighted if he could get to 8 for the year at this rate. Ovber the moon.

Not sure about the vision or passing. Ronaldo has one of the most accurate long shots ever so he takes many less through ball attempts. He rarely hits balls too long or short in good positions though. Closed spaces aye.

Neil do you watch a lot of the Bundesliga or a lot of Real Madrid? Their footballing ability isn't THAT for off, the difference between both is that Ronaldo scores more for the team while Ribery works more for the team. I think Ronaldo is a better player, but you can't really say it's a no-contest in terms of footballing ability. Ronaldo is clearly the more spectacular player, but don't down on Bundesligas best player who also happened to qualify his team last night from a much harder position. I don't mean this lightly but Ribery is not in Ronaldo's class. his assist was a crappy shot and he skied another chance you would bet Ronaldo would at least hit the target with. Ronaldo scored 4 goals and hit the bar. You say he struggled when Sweden played deep but he scored and almost scored another. Ribery's a great player. Ronaldo is an all-time great.