Ronaldo may have scored against a big team today but anyone who watched the game will know just how poor and inconsistent his overall play was today.

LOVE the 'all he did was score' argument, could use it the other way to say Kuyt has had a magnificent season

What do you really expect from him? To beat four men and lob the keeper from 40 yeards every time he plays a good team? Good teams are just that, good. There have been very very few players in footballing history who can run riot amongst the world best defences. For example Ronaldinho even at his peak the only time I saw him perform like he would against Albacete against a big team was that game against Real Madrid, that's one time. Good teams are organised and they man mark usually with several players. None of the worlds best are consistantly able to roll over the other leading teams in football.

Even Zidane wasn't the best player on the pitch in ever games against Barcelona, or every World Cup game, European championship game.

It's just not possible for one great footballer to be that much better than the bests defenders every time.

You cannot expect Ronaldo to beat world class defenders every time he gets the ball, he is a good player but no one is that good. Most world class players in games against other world class players are marked tightly all game and reduced to few opportunities to show their class. which the best of the best need to take. Ronaldo does actually do this, but no he isn't going to have a brilliant run past 3/4 players every ten minutes, and it's foolish of you to expect that from anyone against quality opposition.

Nobody is disputing the fact he is a great player or even a world class player - it is more the argument that he isn't the best player in the world at this moment in time.

Only an idiot would say Ronaldo isn't world class, however I trully believe that Messi is better. Simple as that.

here here. And you can hardly say that today Liverpool's defence was world class. It was a shambles yet he never once beat his man. He seemed to except the fact at one point he wont get past Aurelio (yes Aurelio) and opted to pass (for once). At one point he skied a shot from about twenty five yards when other players were better positioned. He needs to use his team mates more. He gave up when he and Aurelio were both going for a 50/50 ball and tried to get a free kick, then looked like he was about to sulk.
I think everyone in the world knows Ronaldo is world class, one of the best players around, but like mr dogg here, i too believe Messi is the better player.

I wouldn't really want to say either way. Both are spectacular players, I don't there is right now a definitive best player in the world like there was when Zidane was at his best.

Of course we can't expect Ronaldo to perform as well in this game as he does against say...Bolton, but apart from the goal, he had absolutely no positive contribution to the team. It was like the Ronaldo of two years ago, there was one occassion in the 1st half when he attempted 3 0r 4 stepovers and then fell over, he looked straight at the referee expecting a free kick, the same happenned when he went in against Aurelio and just stopped and waited for a free kick. Does he expect everything handed to him?And don't even get me started on the dive. Many times he attempted to beat the man but consistently failed.....of course i dont expect him to beat 4 men and lob the keeper, if he's having an off day (like he seems to every time he faces a big team) then he should just get the ball, pass it on and retain possession, not expect the referee to just hand him a free kick when it doesn't go his away. Liverpool do not have a world class defence, they have a very good defence but even today players like Carrgher didn't have the best of games, the had some new player in who will probably find it a big step up from the Russian league to Man United and they also had Aurelio marking Ronaldo, now don't tell me Aurelio is a world class defender, yet I don't recall Ronaldo beating him once.

He was poor yesterday, however even when he played poor he still scored. Job done.

Poor for him tho means he was still in the top three players on the pitch out there.

Some of you guys get so wrapped up into football that you forget what the aim of the game is. It's very simple. To score 1 more goal than the opposition. Personally i dont care if Ronaldo gets 3 touches each game, if he scores a goal then he's done his job to be honest.

Look at Arsenal, beautiful football, "best team in europe", yadda yadda yadda, They play great football ill admit it. But four draws and a loss against Chelsea this weekend and what do they have to show for it? Goals is what counts at the end of the day. You can have a blinder of game and rip the left or right back 20 million times, but if you don't put it in the back of the net it means diddly squat.

If Van Persie scored 34 in 34 games, or Shevchenko did, or Berbatov people on here would be falling all over themselves praising them. Just cause it's Ronaldo an arrogant brat that dives here and there, people cant swallow their pride and just admit that he's on another planet at the moment. They raise the bar or change the rules, or say United are a one man team, can't have it both ways.

I have to agree that Messi is a special special talent. BUT. He gets injured here and there, and before one can be considered to be judged as the world's best imo, he has to have 2-3 seasons injury free playing at a very high level. Messi hasn't gone through that yet... Brilliant yes, but on and off.

Right now Ronaldo is top.

It's funny that when Ronaldo always tries to take on the defence instead of passing he's ''an arrogant hogger who never passes'', but when he uses his team mates instead of running himself he's ''accepted the fact that he can't beat the defender''.

He scored against Liverpool but all of a sudden goals don't count, and he was nowhere to be seen.

In the world cup for Portugal he played brilliantly against runners up France, but because he didn't score no one says anything about that.

He can't do anything right! What do you want him to do? When he scores that doesn't count, all that matters is a good performance. When he puts in a good performance, suddenly goals are all that matters again.

When he does both against a good team like against Roma, then that doesn't count either, because Roma had a shocker and it was a freak result.

Again nobody is disputing how good a player he is, what we are saying is that he isn't the best in the world right now. He has to many areas of his game which he needs to improve - firstly teamwork, and secondly playing well against the big boys.

Regarding the goalscoring thing, if you believe that, then Andy Cole is the 2nd best player to play in the premier league.
Goals are important, but they are not everything!

I'm not saying goals are everything.

Unfortunatley I don't think any of them are able to understand that.

People get brainwashed by the step overs.

Wrong, I understand that just disagree.

Kaka was never the best player in the world in my oppinion. He was crap in Seria A last season, he was part of Brazil's shocking World Cup, he did'nt even bother to show up for the Copa America and this season he has been bad again in Seria A. He played two good matches against a tired Man United side and he receives the World Player of the year award which is just typical of Fifa. Give it to a decent Brazilian Player. Where was he against the maestro Fabregas? Shevchenko even won the award ahead of Thierry Henry and Ruud Van Nistelrooy. Makes me sick. The season Manchester United won the treble guess what Rivaldo from Barca who Man United knocked out in the group stage won it. Keane, Scholes or Beckham deserved it more that year. Cristiano Ronaldo can score 100 goals in a 100 games and he still won't win it cause Fifa are jealous of the amount of money, tv audiences and power of the Premier League.

Cristiano Ronaldo v Lionel Messi

Ronaldo is better by a mile. He's both footed, faster, stronger, more skillful, has a better shot, header and freekick. Messi is all left-foot, overated plus injury prone. All his goals are scored inside the box. Ronaldo is a goal machine who scores spectacular goals and he's a better athlete.

i love both of your posts.. lol..

I agree with what you said about Kaka KingDrog, but NOT what you said about Rivaldo.

The season he won world player of the year no one could touch him. He was magical. Absolutely out of this world.

I think it was that season he scored a hat-trick against Real Madrid.