Does anybody ever miss the old CR7?

This thread isnt meant to hate on him whatsoever, he is the key piece to our puzzle and theres no debating it

But does anyone actually miss his style of play back when he was at united? I definately do. I watched United just to see what kind of crazy things ronaldo would do. The guy went from being the best dribbler in the world at United to not even being top 10

I know he plays a different role here at madrid but theres no question that ronaldo isnt half of the magician he used to be. In United, Ronaldo would amaze me week after week with his fancy footwork; his stepovers would terrify any defender, now his stepovers are pretty much useless and their the butt to so many jokes.

I think it has to do with PL's defense style which makes passing them much easier for someone like him. Anyway cutting back on those step-overs and making smarter moves I think made him a much stronger player. He netted more goals because of it

He also has become more of a team player for us so I don't think I miss that Ronaldo as the current one is more mature and more lethal

Yes I miss the player who did 40 step overs and scored 5 goals a season too. He's so much better than our current 50 goals a season Ronaldo.

Not all he is scoring more goals which us most important.

As long as he continues to makes a difference with his teamwork and goals, I'll appreciate that as "magic" over anything else.

PL defenders commit more with tackles while in La Liga they stand off more..

That's one of the reasons his style of step-overs ain't effective and can only hold up play.

Plus he bulked up, he's not as agile as before and of course comes maturity of play.

In the end, he sucks in dribbling.

His body won't allow him dribbling anymore. He's like a beast with huge muscles so it's hard for him now to do his old tricks and mouvements.

Btw, i forgot about United CR, 53 goals make you just admire how this player is booming by the years.

All our strikers have a taken a lot of the flash out for strength and balance. You don't get the spectacular plays with them as you see on youtube... but they are such better players. Good luck trying to push Benz, Higuain and CR7 off the ball. Defenders don't bully them... they bully defenders.

CR is a much better player now,who wants that useless step overs he does around corner flag just to get claps?

I miss the entertainment value in his former playing style, but needless to say, he's a far more efficient player now. Regarding his stepovers: "Fat Ronaldo" R9 is widely considered the "King of Stepovers", and that may be true. His pace and ball control allowed him to use his stepovers more efficiently than any other player I've ever witnessed, but it should be noted that the speed at which CR7 used tod do his stepovers was completely ridiculous.

This probably sounds retarded to the ones who have heard too many jokes about CR and his stepovers, but really.. he could shuffle his legs so fast that noone could possibly keep count of how many stepovers he had done. Sure, the speed of the stepovers don't mean jack unless you get past the opponent, but I haven't heard anyone mention it before despite the fact that he, on a regular basis, used to display perhaps the fastest stepovers in the history of football. Just thought I'd I point that out

In addition, the amount of inefficient tricks and flicks he could do kept me entertained enough to not fall asleep during Man United's most boring games

Step over is useless with out entire body movement,how ronaldo dont get it still is beyond me

He thinks number of step over per minute is some kind of achievement or some thing lol

.Look at zidane and R9 they used their entire body movement for step over and they watched their opposition movement too.

Ronaldo doesnt have the vision to watch opponent while dribbling,that is acceptable since all players will not have same vision and cant blame cr for having tunnel vision while dribbling lol

but why cant he improve his step overs? he can use his body instead of useless robotic leg movement.

The goal of stepovers or any move before dribbling the ball is to either get a player to lean one way or to get him on his heels. A lot of guys with great speed do it to show off... they just try to outpace the opponent without any use of the stepover. R9 post-surgery and Zidane did not have great pace; so they actually used it correctly. CR7 used to have great speed and did it for show. Now, he still doesn't know how to use it and, without his pace, it often is useless.

Disagree on last part,he still has some what same speed.

agree on first part,you have to get the oppo move in any direction to start kicking the ball,but CR dont watch his opponents enough,simply has a tunnel vision while dribbling.

I think for the step over to come off correctly you only need to put one leg over the ball and kick it away with the other one. Of course doing a lot of them in quick succession is more difficult but less effective in a way.

Anyway what Cris does in those situations where he is isolated on the wing is just to bide time IMO. Overall it's not really a major part of his game no matter how hard Youtube try to convince you other wise lol

However "The Chop" is a much bigger part of his game and a move he does perfectly IMO.

Adit wrote:Disagree on last part,he still has some what same speed.

agree on first part,you have to get the oppo move in any direction to start kicking the ball,but CR dont watch his opponents enough,simply has a tunnel vision while dribbling.

initial first step burst from a dead stop is no longer there. That's why Alves owns him so often... he lets him go one way and then just cuts him off because he knows he's quicker than CR7. That's what happens when you get stronger. You give up some quickness. Once he gets moving, he's just as fast.

Yes, I do kinda miss the entertainment value. With our current team we could be pulling off tricks 'n shit all the time.

But this Ronaldo is much better. Who says he doesnt have speed any more?

Zealous wrote:However "The Chop" is a much bigger part of his game and a move he does perfectly IMO.

That may be true, but "The Chop" is very predictable when performed too many times, as opposed to the stepover which, when performed right, is not as predictable. I think many here are being too harsh about CR's stepovers at United, though. He may never have excelled at it, but he did get past opponents on more than one occasion, to say the least, despite having long legs and an upper body that isn't very suitable for body feints.

Saetablanca wrote:Yes, I do kinda miss the entertainment value. With our current team we could be pulling off tricks 'n shit all the time.

But this Ronaldo is much better. Who says he doesnt have speed any more?

His speed is there, but his agility and pace while in possession of the ball has decreased significantly.

I do miss him, but having a not so selfish ronaldo that is a goalscoring machine is better for the team. Ronaldo V.2

He is faster now, but he lost his agility.

Nope not at all

This CR7 is perfect

EPL defenders are stupid, they cant handle getting dribbled

La liga Ds however are used to seeing crazy tricks

I once vehemently hated Ronaldo.

Now I moderately dislike/like him at different intervals.

Short answer : NO.

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:EPL defenders are stupid, they cant handle getting dribbled

La liga Ds however are used to seeing crazy tricks

To be fair, he did dance around quite a few "La Liga Ds" during his first season at RM I didn't find many videos of tricks and flicks from his 09-10 season at Madrid, but I found this one.. which shows mostly his heel flicks :/ Anyhow, his dribbling in La Liga used to be very efficient, despite all the needless showboating. But then again, at the end of the day I prefer the overall efficient, non-dribbling Ronaldo.