re: Wayne Rooney: Messi is the greatest player of all-time

And I guess finishing 7th, 4th, 7th, 5th and 5th their last three years proves your point as well?

Fine Messi is the goat. carry on.

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Considering both sides of an argument is what I'm doing. Ronaldo's accomplishments have come because the team has become fine-tuned to his abilities.

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You realize how ironic this is? Your next sentence literally says the same thing about Messi. As if Barcelona isn't 100% built around Messi?

Ronaldo becoming a center forward instead of a winger/playmaker is somehow different than Messi dropping deeper and changing his style of play?

Ok man. I'm the one saying stupid "myopic" shite.

I might take shite for this but Higuaín is the reason Argentina lost the WC Final in 2014 and the Copa Final in 2016. Yes, I said it. He fricking blew it both times.

What went wrong in 2010 with Maradona? Much like what happened in 2018 this year. Poor selection. Maradona didn't want Zanetti, Cambiasso, Milito, Riquelme, players who would challenge his authority.

This time, again poor selection and also injuries. The reason? Lots of speculation and rumors.

Regardless, poll 100 soccer greats and they overwhelmingly say Messi over Ronaldo.

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Ronaldo becoming a center forward instead of a winger/playmaker is somehow different than Messi dropping deeper and changing his style of play?

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The context of who is coaching each team becomes important. Mourinho used Ronaldo in a different way than Ancelotti and Zidane. Ronaldo carries the ball only half as much as he did earlier in his career. He's morphing into a center forward as he ages. On average, Messi will carry the ball 6 to 7 more times more a game than Ronaldo does. The ability of the team to become fine-tuned to his abilities has been a function of the coaching. Once Madrid moved away from Mourinho, the possession game became more important, and Ronaldo relied much more service into tight areas than he did running onto balls into space. Messi's move deeper has been a function of the drop in their midfield quality, as well as working with worse coaches, meaning he has to receive the ball deeper, and there has been no noticeable drop in his goals or assists. That, for me, has been the most impressive feature. When they both were essentially wide players, their goals and assists were very similar. One would expect a drop in Messi's goals in particular has he has dropped deeper, but we haven't seen that yet. It might occur as he ages though. Ronaldo has become a quintessential wide forward, but doing so, he loses the creating aspect of his game. Madrid have become arguably better in European competition the less Ronaldo carries the ball, which makes sense because he's focused on off the ball running, which always featured more heavily in his game than Messi's. It also allows the midfield free reign to control games, whereas Messi is asked to do more in general.

My argument rests on where Messi receives the ball, which is fairly deep. Look at his heatmap. He's playing the game where you would expect an attacking midfielder, but he's still scoring goals like he did when he was closer to goal.

I don't mind your opinion at all, and thinking Ronaldo's better is perfectly fine. In some respects Ronaldo's game is crazy good for a forward. He's done less of the things that use to make him so exciting, and his teams have done better in certain competitions because of his better defined roles. But the job Messi has done receiving the ball far deeper than he once did and to still produce results in terms of goals and assists somewhat beyond belief. That's an insane amount of influence one player can stamp on a game, to be on the beginning and ending of moves.

They are both on this pedestal. Not sure why you cunts are bickering about one over the other.