Are Messi and Ronaldo incompatible with modern football?
Carlo Garganese
- Updated: 23 May 2023 08:54 CDT
- 7 min read
There can be little denying that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have been the two best players of their generation.
Between them they have won 11 Ballons d’Or, nine Champions Leagues, 17 league titles and scored over 1500 goals – breaking record after record for club and country.
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Even now, at 34 and 36 respectively, Messi and Ronaldo remain world class players.
Last season, Messi won the Pichichi Trophy as La Liga top-scorer for the fifth year in a row. He then won the Copa America Golden Boot and Best Player Award. He will almost certainly lift a seventh Ballon d’Or next month.
Meanwhile, Ronaldo hit 29 goals to take the Capocannoniere crown in Serie A before claiming the Euro 2020 Golden Boot, despite being knocked out in the last 16.
HOW MUCH IS CRISTIANO RONALDO'S PRICE TAG?
Individually, Messi and Ronaldo are still performing at a level that very few footballers are capable of.
The question is: can Messi and Ronaldo still win major team honours in what has become overwhelmingly a team sport in recent years?
Do Messi and Ronaldo contribute enough defensively?
Football today, unfortunately, requires all 11 players to contribute to both the offensive and defensive phases of the match.
Gone are the days of a number 10 being gifted a free role, or a holding midfielder or sweeper just defending the space behind their line.
Just as goalkeepers and defenders must be able to pass, dribble and navigate their way through the opposition press, so must attackers contribute to defending and closing down from the front.
Not one player in the team can be carried any longer, no matter how good they are.
Italy’s Euro 2020 triumph was the perfect example of what is possible when every player is singing from the same hymn sheet.
The team moved as one unit both offensively, defensively and positionally, with every player understanding their tactical role and working hard to press and win the ball back – regardless of where it was.
This was particularly evident from goal kicks as Italy often stopped their opponents escaping their own penalty area and trapped them.
PLAYER RATINGS: Italy v England - Euro 2020 final
This elite level of pressing and positional play which Italy demonstrated at the Euros is impossible if even one player doesn’t follow the script.
Messi and Ronaldo – as has been the case for a few years now – refuse to join in and press with their teams, nor contribute defensively in terms of tracking back and winning the ball. If Messi or Ronaldo were playing for Italy, their opponents would have escaped the press at goal kicks.
Additionally, teams target areas on the pitch where an opponent is not picking up the slack.
For example, when Ronaldo was not tracking back last season in his left wing position of Juventus' 4-3-3, the other team would double up on the left back, creating an overload. This then caused Juve’s left central midfielder to move over to help out, which then left them a man light in the centre. It was a domino effect all stemming from Ronaldo.
The same signs have been on display already at Man Utd this season, with Ronaldo playing as the lone striker in a 4-2-3-1.
The Daily Mail showed that Ronaldo has pressured opponents less than any other forward in the Premier League this season. He has even covered less ground than a goalkeeper in the Champions League this term.
Although much of the blame will rightly be placed on manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for Man Utd's recent struggles, it is also true that Ronaldo's lack of running and pressing is making it even harder for them to play as a team. All this despite Ronaldo still having an impressive five goals in seven games this season.
Positional play has become exceptionally complex now. Another real-life example, again in Euro 2020, was in how Spain managed to neutralise Italy during their semi-final at Wembley (and then again in the UEFA Nations League semi-final last week).
Luis Enrique stopped Italy from escaping from goal kicks by man-marking the Azzurri's ball-carriers, Jorginho and Marco Verratti, via Dani Olmo and Koke.
This caused all kinds of problems for Italy tactically in this game but was only possible through incredible levels of discipline and fitness. In the end Italy won on penalties, but it was Spain who in truth won the tactical battle.
Can Messi and Ronaldo win another Champions League?
In the last few years, Messi's Barcelona and Ronaldo's Juventus both struggled badly in the Champions League.
Juve won just one knockout game in Ronaldo's three seasons at the club, and were eliminated by the weakest remaining team in the competition for the last two years of those. This was a dismal return given the €341 million the Bianconeri invested in the Portuguese between transfer fee and wages back in 2018.
My beautiful queen ❤️ pic.twitter.com/Jmbld6ySq7
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) July 22, 2021
As for Barca, they were thumped 5-2 by PSG in the last-16 earlier this year and 8-2 by Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals last year. Meanwhile, the two seasons before that they suffered historic collapses to Liverpool and Roma, respectively.
The Champions League winners in these last few seasons have been ultra-disciplined, super-fit and well-drilled outfits in Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Chelsea who press high up the pitch, run all day and carry no passengers like Messi and Ronaldo.
It can be argued, of course, that neither Barcelona nor Juventus were strong enough in any of these seasons to win the Champions League.
Both clubs have been run appallingly when it comes to the transfer market in recent seasons, as demonstrated by the fact that they found themselves €1.2 billion and €400 million in debt, respectively, heading into this summer. Barca have since received a new bank loan, while Juve welcomed a cash injection from their parent company.
Messi’s fans would also point out that he helped Argentina to a Copa America triumph this summer. However, one could argue that winning the Copa in its current guise is not the achievement it once was.
Four of the five teams in each group qualified for the quarter-finals, before Argentina beat Ecuador and then Colombia on penalties to reach the final against Brazil. Those who watched the tournament wouldn’t disagree that the standard of South American international football right now is as low as it has been in a long time. European football is much higher, as shown by all four semi-finalists at the last World Cup being from UEFA.
The elite football is elsewhere and the best of the best is reserved for the Champions League knockout stages.
Messi's chances of winning the Champions League have increased now he is at a super-team like PSG. But it remains to be seen if even a team boasting world-class stars like Messi, Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Marco Verratti can carry a player who does no running.
As for Man Utd, very few would tip them to win the Champions League.
Juventus wanted Ronaldo out
Juventus certainly realised that Ronaldo was a tactical issue. Maurizio Sarri often complained that his type of football, which relies on a high press, was incompatible with Ronaldo (and to the same extent Paulo Dybala). Returning coach Max Allegri harboured the same concerns, which is a reason why Juventus tried to find a buyer for Ronaldo earlier this summer, before his dramatic departure at the end of the window.
Ronaldo and Messi will both go down as all-time legends, but it seems as this brave new world of football doesn't welcome their type of player any longer.
