Four Ways Ronaldo Can Overtake Messi as the Best in the World
By Stefan Gouyet ,
In the past few years, it has appeared as though Lionel Messi has clearly established himself as the best player in the world. The second best player in the world is almost certainly Cristiano Ronaldo. No matter what people say about his temper and attitude, Ronaldo is amazing. He cuts past defenders superbly and has a wonderful dipping shot.
Although I am a Barcelona fan, I can still admit that Ronaldo is a top-class player. He still has a lot to do to reassert himself as the world's number one.
Here are four ways he can do that.
I know this will be a huge challenge for C. Ronaldo. Especially when he played for Manchester United, he was portrayed as an arrogant and selfish person. It is clear that Mourinho has calmed him down and his "selfish" tag had all but vanished, with his assists becoming almost as common as his goals.
Lionel Messi has made himself well liked by people because of his attitude. The Barcelona man is modest and keeps his comments to a minimum. Of course, Messi is the best player because of his skill, but his attitude makes him well liked. Mimicking Messi's attitude would surely go a long way for the Madrid striker.
Ronaldo Running with the ball
I know that Ronaldo has become less selfish, but he needs to be more aware of his teammates when Madrid counter. I watched him play several times and I realized that he sometimes holds the ball for far too long.
Ronaldo is normally aware of everybody around him, but I feel that he becomes excited when he feels that a break is on for the team. Just when a perfect pass to Di Maria or Ozil looks imminent, a defender steals the ball and the counter attack has been thwarted. He just needs to make that pass a little bit faster. This is one of the only aspects of Cristiano Ronaldo's game that really should be reviewed.
Ronaldo has a habit of standing still or walking slowly when he doesn't receive a pass or loses the ball. First of all, this helps portray him as a lazy and arrogant man; he just walks and doesn't try to win the ball back.In addition, it feels as if Madrid are down a man for some time. Ronaldo takes time coming back in position and is sometimes in the opposing half for quite a while.
Just compare this to Messi. The Barcelona man tries to win the ball back as soon as he loses it. He is barely ever shown standing still or walking. In conclusion, this isn't a huge problem for Ronaldo, but it would be good for him to break the habit.
2010/2011 Season All Competitions (as of April 27,2011):
Ronaldo:
Goals: 42 Shots: 284 Shots on Target: 108
Messi:
Goals: 47 Shots: 194 Shots on Target: 106
We see that Messi and Ronaldo have similar goal statistics as well as shots on target stats. The shots statistics aren't similar. Sure 47 goals in 194 shots isn't superb, especially considering that it is the best player in the world that we are discussing.
But Ronaldo has 42 goals in 284 shots which is quite poor. He loves taking shots but it seems that he misses an overwhelming majority. Ronaldo needs to decide whether he should take less shots or if he should start practicing his shooting. The efficiency part of his game certainly does need work.
