Lots of comments on my position that Messi’s career “punted” post Iniesta and that Cristiano Ronaldo will not transform ManU until they improve the midfield. Members are dropping the number of goals scored by these legends to counter my point.
Sure, we see it differently. I make these notes:
– Number of goals scored by ace players is not the only metric. CR scored many goals and his team finished 4th in Juve; he was the highest goal scorer. He won the battle but lost the war. It is key you look at the whole team performance as most of CR goals were against bottom teams (from individual skill) but he struggled against top 10 teams.
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– Post full- Iniesta, Messi goals/season against top 10 dropped and he ended with a season where they won nothing.
– CR can score many goals this season in ManU but his team could still underperform. Why?More than 80% of his goals will be against poor teams where he uses his individual brilliance to pack goals. But with GREAT teams, his team fades. To win medals, you need to be competitive against those good teams. ManU lost 5-0 to Liverpool, 2-0 to MC but next week or so CR can put 5 behind Norwich City. If that happens, next year, some will argue that he scored many goals this year without examining the distribution of those goals.As a football analyst, I look at goals scored against top 4 teams; CR has underperformed there for ManU. That is very key to winning medals.
-For CR to do well in ManU, the midfield will improve so that they can compete against good teams and he can score against good teams.
– Messi has scored many goals post-Iniesta but his numbers dropped. In decent teams, he struggled but he piled goals on yoyo teams. My point was that Iniesta made him GREAT against good teams who typically demolish average teams with GOAT-like players.
-In general, I am not one of those analysts who use goals without considering the positions of teams to assess players. Break the goals into three: against top 3, bottom 10, and the rest; if 60% is against bottom 10 (adjusting for number of games, etc), that is a bad season.
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