One can smell some sense of insecurity behind that smile (photo by Catonaut)

One can smell some sense of insecurity behind that smile (photo by Catonaut)

Ronaldo scores goals whenever he plays and wherever he plays (except for Portugal that is. At Portgual he does not have the liberty of getting the ball back in possession after losing it. Obviously playing for Real Madrid gives him that cushion). The media widely regards him as the most complete player of his generation. As far as being the best player of his generation goes, there is a little man known by the name of Messi, who is (to some) country miles ahead of Ronaldo in terms of goals scored and defenders humiliated. Ronaldo has been touted as master of all trades that one must have in order to be called a complete forward player.

However, even for Ronaldo there are somethings in football that he simply cannot do. More like, he has not done so far in his career and there are no signs of him doing it in the near future as well, I have short listed them to 3 and these are:

  1. Ronaldo cannot make a pass. His passing is woeful. Lets just face it, he is the kind of guy who knows how to run with the ball and shoot the hell out of the ball but he just cannot pass the ball. Makelele probably has better distribution and passing sense than Ronaldo. If you look at Messi, his passing is amongst the best in the game whereas Ronaldo’s is not even considered when talking about pass masters of the game.
  2. Ronaldo cannot perform in big matches. Really he can’t. I mean, yeah he can score goals and run at defenders, but he is unable to dominate games. He requires a lot of help from his teammates. I don’t want to sound redundant but if you compare Ronaldo with Messi on big match destroyer performances, then I am afraid, Messi is country miles ahead of Ronaldo. Ronaldo has shown some glimpses of what he can do in big matches and never has he won the game for Real Madrid by dominating the opposition. Messi is notorious for that amongst all his opponents.
  3. Ronaldo cannot dribble past players. Sure, he can outrun them. He can trick them with his revolving doors like step overs but he cannot dribble past players. Players like Robben, Messi, Iniesta and to some extent Kaka can dribble past 2 or 3 players with 2 or 3 touches. Ronaldo is unable to do that most of the time. You could say that it’s not really his game to dribble in tight spots. Afterall he is quite big and in order to wrong foot defenders and dribble past them one needs to move side to side really quickly with great acceleration. Ronaldo is more of a ‘look for space behind defenders and start running’ kind of a player.

Fact remains, that Ronaldo scores whenever he plays for Real Madrid. He is as close to a complete player as you are going to get as far as physical attributes are concerned. His technique is not too bad either but  with regards to tactics and making changes on the go, there are quite a few players who outrank him.

Can’t wait to see him and Bale go at defenders from both wings come next weekend.