Playing for an in form side is beside the point. You don't need a great team around you to be recognised as a great player.

What about Paulo Di Canio when he was at West Ham? or Juniniho (not the one from Lyon) when he was Middlesborough? ...or more recently, Carlos Tevez last year at West Ham. All these players played for struggling teams who were either religated or narrowly escaped religation.

The reason these players were recognised as some of the best players in the EPL was because they, ultimately, were the difference between winning and losing on many occations.

KaKa last year was the difference between AC being CL winners and being knocked out by Man Utd.

Both this year and last year, Ronaldo is the difference between Man Utd being ahead of Chelsea and Arsenal instead of behind.

Don't you see, this is why great players are recognised... not for being able to dribble the ball past 6 players or for being able to perform a 60 yard cross-field pass.

Being a red devil, you will remember Roy Keane in 1999. Not a player who will ever be regarded for his silky skills (or lack of them) but that was his best season for Man United (remember Turin?) and many people regarded him as the best midfielder in the world at that time.

so you see? it's how effective a player is, not how well his team is performing or whether or not they're winning trophies.

By all accounts, Kaka is NOT having a great season this year... regardless of how well his team are performing. Last year he was making his own chances, not relying on his team, but this year he seems to have taken his foot off the pedal. Messi's best years are ahead of him. He has the talent to become the best player in the world.. he just needs a good, consistant season.

-pup-

You make some good points, however are you telling me that if Ronaldo was playing for the likes of Liverpool, or Tottenham, he would still be scoring all those goals? Do you really think people would still be calling him the best player in the world?

I highly doubt it. The fact he is playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world, and the fact that there are players around him creating chances constantly certainly helps his cause. There are players all over the park creating goal chances for United, and poachers will get goals in this side!

Honestly? Yes... Yes i do. If Torres can score 28 in a Liverpool shirt and Berbatov can score 21 in a Tottenham shirt, why couldn't Ronaldo score his 35?

I seem to remember a certain Kevin Phillips scoring 30 goals in a season for Sunderland in the EPL alone. This is a side that escaped religation the following season by 1 point!

If you're good enough, you can shine in any team.

-pup-

make that 36 goals now

-pup-

You have me raiging with your posts! You call yourself an United Fan!? Have you watched last season or even this? Only an idiot of a blind united fan could not see that Ronaldo is the most important player in the team and he makes all the team work better! did you watched the match against Villa at all or where you masturbating on a messi poster? 3 Assists and 1 goal! Man of the match and how many other times he came an stepped up to the plate? You think he doesnt perform against big teams? What about tonight? He run 50 yards to make a goal for himself. And just to finish, who do you think thats so great in Man U team? Fletcher? Hargreeves? Carrick? Ronaldo would good in any team!

By the way, I really dont like to break the rules and I know that I risk beeing banned from this forum but I think its worth the risk: YOU ARE NOTHING LESS THAN A [beep!] [beep!] YOU BLIND [beep!]! Ronaldo he is single handedly winning everithing for you, you ungrateful peace of [beep!].

PS: SORRY IF I OFFENDED ANYONE.

You're actually a moron.According to your logic Rio Ferdinand is one of the worst players in the Prem because he doesn't score goals.Apparently Ronaldo tackles everyone,makes all passes and heads in his own crosses.No?Am I wrong?Welll then "single handedly" ruins your entire post irregardless of everything else you say.I suppose you didn't notice,during the Villa game,that Rooney played better than Ronaldo did.Doesn't matter though.Sun Supergoals rating put Ronaldo ahead.

Plus you imply that somebody isn't a United fan unless they recognise that Ronaldo is the best player of all time.Yes,I suppose United fans must be blind to the contributions of players like Rio and Rooney.

In the game Man Utd - Aston Villa, in the Fantasy Premier League the bonus points were 3 for Rooney and 2 for Ronaldo and this is the rule for the bonus points: Player performance is assessed by Press Association analysts, all of whom are ex-professional footballers, who attend each match.

good post KimK. You can not discredit any other United player for what they have achieved this season. I do not see ronaldo contributing to the best defence in the league.

Also, i dont even think Ronaldo was that great last night. Yes he scored, a fantastic header at that, but other than that, he didnt seem to threaten to much. Once the 2nd goal went in it was easier for him to exploit the Roma defence as they had to push forward more. Countless times he couldnt even beat the first defender, and then moaned that he should have had a free kick, just like he did against Liverpool.

Do not get me wrong, he is a class act, and more than likely will be voted World Player of the Year, and rightly so for such a great season, but just because you play the best for me does not make you the best. I honestly think Messi is the better player.

You certainly have a temper on you, I'll give you that.
As you are quite clearly passionate about this subject, I will let it slide this once that you got personal, and wrote all that rubbish in the last paragraph. Feel free however to reply to my post with something intelligent, and not post something I would expect from a kid.

Everyone has their own opinions, and that is something that makes the game special - if we all agreed, then forums such as this wouldn't exist!

Now as for last night, Ronaldo had a decent game, but he was nowhere near the best player on the park, for me - that would go to Rio Ferdinand. He played out of his skin, and was absolutely superb at the back. He made one error early on in the game, but more than made up for that with that superb interception when he read that through ball, and slid in to intercept it. That right there was just as important as the goal scored by Ronaldo.

I would say Ronaldo's goal was a moment of brilliance from him, and he really did cover some ground to get on the end of the ball by Scholes - but give some credit to the ginger genius won't you? The ball he played was fantastic and the vision from Ronaldo to actually read that ball and get on the end of it was also superb.

As for the Villa game, many will and have already agreed that Rooney actually had a better game than Ronaldo - however this is one of the things that angers me about fans who don't sit and watch the games. Rooney has in many games been our most important player on the pitch, however because Ronaldo is the man who gets on the scoresheet - he gets all the plaudits!

The other thing that annoys me is the fact that unless you are a goal scorer or a flair player, you are not recognised as being up there with the best of them. Rio Ferdinand is in the form of his life right now. He is having a superb season, and this season he is by far in my opinion the best defender in the premiership - however I very rarely see his name getting mentioned in the press. Same goes for Evra, he has improved so much over the last few years, and he is now probably the best left back in the league going on form - but again nothing is really mentioned about him.

So you can sit there and read the stats all you like - I have not slated Ronaldo at all, but what I have said is true. There are still parts of Ronaldo's game where he needs to improve, such as not losing the ball so much - and personally for me, that is a good thing. It means that he can get even better. Do you really think there are no weaknesses to Ronaldo's game?

Now you have two choices of how you reply to this post:

a) discuss the topic at hand, without resorting to personal insults

or

b) continue with the pointless personal abuse and get yourself banned

I am more than happy to debate and discuss the subject with you. If you disagree with me, then fine, say so, and say why - but personal insults and petulant posts will only end up in you being banned. To me that is just pointless.

Dogg your point about Ronaldo doing well because United are in form is kind of a catch 22 (or something).

One of the main reasons, if not the main reason they are doing so well is because of Ronaldo's form.

Now I know United are far from a one man team and I could praise practically any one of them for their performances this season, but Ronaldo has been the best individual for many reasons and is our only contender for the 'best player in the world', you can't argue with that. And without his goals and attacking play perhaps United would not be such an 'in-form team'.

We have scored 68 Prem goals, 26 of which have come from Ronaldo. And the reason we are looking so good at the moment is the goals. Look at Arsenal a couple of seasons ago when they couldn't score to save their life. Imagine if they had someone scoring so freely as Ronaldo. I'm sure their form would have improved dramatically.

Juvenile delinquent.

Do we really need morons on here like this who can't have a normal discussion?

There was one really good line in there though...


"did you watched the match against Villa at all or where you masturbating on a messi poster?"



...Ronaldo adds to big game goal tally...and puts in a good performance...

I honestly believe that if Messi can stay fit for a full season without getting a serious injury he could have amn even better season than Ronaldo is now. My not goal wise but he wouldn't be far off, when Messi's on top of his game no one can touch him.

I think some people are splitting hairs here. You cant judge a player on individual performances (the Villa game for instance). Kaka and Messi have poor, substandard games every now and then... or games where they played really well but weren't necessarily the best player on the pitch.



i stand by my point.

on form and effectiveness, Ronaldo IS the best player in the world right now... without question.



the same can be said about many many players.... Ronaldinho, Bezema, Robinho, Adabayor, Fabrigas, Gerard, Henry.. Rooney! ...the list is endless. What matters is constistancy and no-one has performed more consistantly over the course of the current season than Ronaldo.

-pup-

You had to write Ronalninho, Rolinho, Herry and Romney to complete your mistakes

if there's 1 thing that should go into room 101, it's spell-checkers in forums



happy now?

no-one likes a smart-arse



-pup-

'IF', 'COULD HAVE', 'Wouldn't be far off'.

We're not talking about what could be. Ronaldo IS currently the best player in the world.

Pease tell me who has been BETTER than him over these 2 seasons. Not as good as, or 'not far off'. Not based on team performances either. Who has been the better individual? Nobody!

If you were to ask me who was the most inform player out of the 3, then I would say Ronaldo - it is plain to see, however I still don't think he is a better player than Kaka or Messi. If all 3 were on top of their game, I personally believe that Kaka and Messi are more of a threat.

So that is the reason I don't think Ronaldo is the best player in the world.

I was thinking bout this too the other day. If your talking about who has been playing the best over the past two years, you'd have to say Ronaldo. If you look at it like, who is the best, ability wise, I'd still say Ronaldinho. There isn't a player on the planet than can do the things he has over the past few seasons. He's had a bad dip in form, but I still beleive he is the best footballer on the planet