How would Ronaldo and Neymar do at Barca?

rwo power wrote:The question is more - would CRonaldo feel comfortable in a club that is mainly built around Messi? If he'd come to Barca, he would likely be expected to support Messi's game, too, and I wonder whether he'd like that idea.

spanky489 wrote:i dont think ronaldo would do well simply because he isnt as good of a passer as the other people on the team are.

Mr Nick09 wrote:ronaldo great in link up play, space he would have at barca.... this thread is like new year jokes galore

Abramovich wrote:I doubt either of them would flop, but to play inside forward for Barca you need to work really hard off the ball and not shoot like a madman like Ronaldo does. (This isnt a fantasy game where you suddendly tell Ronaldo to stop doing it and he will, else Balotelli would be a hard working serious professional).

The Ostracised One wrote:Right lets just follow the thread. The question is how will Ronaldo and Neymar both fare at THIS curent Barcelona?

Well lets get one thing straight, Messi likes to play centrally, He does not like people playing in his space and text Pep specifically that if he did not play in the middle, he did not want to play. The team plays for Messi. Messi is the man who finishes off most moves in Barcelona and before a superstar like Villa joined, he was told that he would have to play for Messi. So there, you can only have one, amd so that automatically indvalidates Ronaldo.

Tactically, Ronaldo would just not fit in. I mean he would score goals, but nowhere near this level. He would get into Messi's space. Contrary to popular belief, Ronaldo is not a winger and stopped being a winger between 2006 and 2007. He isn't a pure inside forward either like Pedro and Villa were. He is essentially a striker that starts off wide, but a lot of his goals and movement is through the middle. A wingers job is to provide crosses from the byline (ala Garteh Bale last few season, not this season though, at least not as much). Ronaldo doesn't really run down the line and cross as his primary objective. He makes runs in behind the defebce and most of the time, especially last season he exploited the space behind defence line left due to Madrid hitting them quickly on the break.

Now Barcelona wngers are required to A) Provide the width B) Make runs that open up space for Messi C) Press constantly high up and track the full back regularly. Now A) and B) are both for Messi. Now, this is a man that is 'sad at Real Madrid' because he didn't get enough support. He feels the fans don't like him at Madrid. So when he goes to Barcelona, what support will he get? He is the current face of Real Madrid and would be hated beyond belief, Barcelona players don't like him and can anyone here with a brain tell me that Ronaldo is willing to play for Messi? Anyone that says yes to the last question, kindly go to America, buy a gun, and point it at your head because you will offer humanity nothing...

Based on the evidence I have seen, Ronaldo will not track back constantly. The only time he did this in Madrid is after the terrible Barcelona games, and he asked the players what he should do so that the fans would stop booing him, he proceeded to track back for a few games, the fans cheered for him, then all that stopped. I will give you a history lesson. In the 2008 champions league final, Ronaldo did well in th first half when he bamboozled Essien. Guess what happened after that. Essien readjusted and had Ronaldo in his back pocket the whole game. Not only that, but Essien started surging forward and added more bodies to Chelseas midfield, guess what, Ronaldo never tracked him. That led to Lampards equaliser and the same problem happened throughout the game and we were lucky Drogba got sent off because CHelsea really were the better team over 180 minutes.

This is why Ronaldo was deployed as a centre forward for a lot of our games. So that this nonsense didnt happen regularly. I mean another game was the Porto game. First leg Ronaldo played wide, Ally Cisskho raped us, second leg Rooney played wide and tracked him back...

Same thing with the Bayern game where you could see Lahms overlap led top Gomez's winner in the first leg. Same thing happened in the Dortmund game, where again Ronaldo didnt track back, in most Classicos Alves as dominated the flanks, what was Ronaldo doing? I mean is it a coincidence that Mou's only victory against a full strength Barcelona came when Ronaldo played up front in the Copa del Ray final? Now ask yourself, is it a a tactical instruction? Will Ronaldo suddenly change his attitude that has been going on for almost 7 years for Barcelona? Again, using deductive reasoning, I don't think so.

Now people are saying Sanchez is a flop, Well I don't think he is, more to do with Barcelona's system and what is required of them. Sanchez played well for Udinese because he had a lot of space to exploit due to Udinese being a counter attacking team. At Barcelona, he is coming up against a wall everytime. Barcelona have to use combination moves to score goals most of the time as teams don't usually play that high a line and try to keep their back lines in position. Ronaldo needs space, even more so than Sanchez to operate. I mean Ronaldo was dribbling well in the EPL because of the space between the lines and how easy EPL defenders commited themselves. Its no surpirse that in pretty much all our big games, he flopped. I will pick Arsenal, Clichy had him in his back pocket in both games because he matched Ronaldo for Pace. Chelsea were always compact and so Ronaldo rarely found space do damage them. Liverpool away Ronaldo did absolutely nothing because under Rafa they were compact. Return leg he scored a header from a corner but was anonymous.

Son for Ronaldo to be at his absolute best, he needs space and room to run, things which they rarely get in Barcelona. So yes, I do not think he would score anywere near his current goal tally. In fact I reckon he would score just about 20. Ronaldo has the highest shot rate in Europe for the last 3 seasons, and he has the highest shots in EUROs History, so he will carry on shooting from stupid situations, something that is completely against Barcelonas patient play, so will he change something he has been doing for almost 7 years? Again, through deductive reasoning, I doubt it. How would the Barcelona players react? probably hate him more if that is possible. Now if he played in the 08/09 Barcelona he would have suited them much better because teams treated Barcelolna as equals and attacked them so Barcelona had a lot of space behind the defence. Now they really don't which is what makes them exceptional. We saw what happened when this started happening, Henry wasn't the same player as he had less space to operate. Now we can even see this at Madrid. Ronaldo is struggling now because a lot of teams are now sitting very deep. In fact Madrid players have complained that Mourinho doesnt have a solution when oppositions do this to Madrid and they have no options and look lacklustre against a team that sits deep. Now look at goal Ronaldo socred against Refchester Shitty, that was classic Ronaldo, give him space and he will rape your team. No space, no game.

Again, Messi will take free kicks, Messi will take penalties, which would take away a bulk of Ronaldos goals. So yes, from all this, I can conclude Ronaldo would not be a good fit in Barcelona, his strengths will be rarely utilised. His traits would have to change, his mentalityu would have to change and he would have to be in service to the false ostraciser, Messi. Look at my sig, starting anti clockwise what are all those guys doing bar Nerman? Bench. Ronaldo would get frustrated like Villa, even worse and would become sad at Barcelona.

Neymar would be a better fit, but not by much. Neymar is best when he plays on the left and so he would have no problems in his position. He is good in tight spaces and could provide that extra Fantasisti Barcelona are lacking when they face teams like Inter and Chelsea. My problem is that how would Neymar adapt after being allowed to free role in Santos? Ganso could probably answer this better than me. Hois coach thinks he would fit Barcelona better than Madrid. I think its the oposite. From what I've seen it will be more

OLpower wrote:Ronaldo has succeed at Manchester and Real Madrid, while being good with portugal as well. Messi has only ever be good with Barcelona.

In my opinion, speaking about adaptation to another system, Messi is a bigger question mark.