Top Five Reasons Why Ronaldo Is Better Than Messi [Must See For All Messi Fans]

It seems that whenever somebody brings up the great debate as to who the best player in the world is, the consensus has bestowed the title upon Lionel Messi.

Yes, Messi is the best dribbler in the world and maybe the best goalscorer, but he is by no means the standalone best player.

Cristiano Ronaldo has a plethora of skill-sets that not only off put, but may even surpass Messi’s talents.

Inevitably, the argument will break down at the point that ‘you can’t compare apples with oranges’ but given the volume of people declaring Messi is the best, here are five reasons why Ronaldo is at least as good as, if not better than Messi…

1. Proven All Over The WorldRonaldo has bested them all.

He can deal with technical players, physical players and even players who frankly are just out to hurt him.

It’s hard to argue with the fact that the Premier League is the most physical in the world. Tackles that would warrant red cards in La Liga are common place in the Premier League, and the tackles that do warrant red cards in the Premier League would be dubbed grade-A assault in Spain.

There’s a reason why superstars score so many more goals in Spain than they do in the Premier League – the physicality acts as a check against skill, making the ability to stay fit as important as beating your man.

Ronaldo came, saw and conquered. One can hardly imagine Messi thriving in a rainy match against Stoke City. When teams get overly physical against him, he tends to choke. Just look at his performances against Chelsea…

2. Madrid Ae Not Dependent On Ronaldo, Meanwhile Barcelona Is In Trouble Without MessiLionel Messi is the embodiment of Barcelona.

The team is set up in such a way that he is the focal point. All the chances go to him. The first thing a player does when he receives the ball is look for Leo. World-class strikers have come and gone in droves to keep the Argentine happy.

At Real Madrid, it’s hard to imagine anyone shunting Karim Benzema to the left to accommodate Ronaldo. Sure, they try to get him chances but the team isn’t overly focused on one player like they are at Barca.

Attesting to that very point, they just shipped out Ronaldo’s biggest assist provider to Arsenal. Real Madrid set up with four lethal goalscorers every game and three supporting passers.

Barca use a system of six passers and one scorer. Ronaldo has had to do more with receiving the ball less often. He isn’t first option out on the left wing, but he does a hell of a job anyway.

3. Ronaldo Is Even Better In Defence
Ronaldo is Capable in Defence too…

Yes, I know this sounds ridiculous but here me out…

Ronaldo doesn’t often go back to help out the back four. But then again neither does Messi, and when it comes to defensive utility, Ronaldo wins it every time.

The sheer number of corners Ronaldo has cleared for his team is actually a feat in itself. Can you imagine Messi doing the same job? The short answer is no.

So, even though Ronaldo’s work rate is sometimes the subject of criticism, he does come back and help his team out. The same can’t be said about Messi…

4. Ronaldo Is A Threat In The Air When It Comes To Heading

This one kind of comes out of the last one…

To be honest, we can’t blame Messi for this one – it’s just genetics. Nobody on the planet would question that Ronaldo is a much more potent aerial threat than Messi. Both in attack and defence you can count on Ronaldo to fight for the ball in the air and score a decent number of goals with his head.

He offers the option of a target man in the box for both goal kicks and corners and in doing so, further frees up more players to cause mayhem. Does anyone remember his goal against Manchester United?

Messi’s unchallenged header was pretty good, but Ronaldo got a three-foot vertical leap on Patrice Evra, someone less that four inches shorter than him…

5. Big Game Player – Messi Goes Missing In Big Games

This is the most controversial one so far.

It’s ironic because one of the arguments against Ronaldo used to be that he choked in big games and that Messi dominated. Some time in his second season in La Liga, that trend began changing.

Ronaldo has scored in each of his last six games against Barcelona, along with scoring against Manchester United and Bayern Munich in the last two years. He also put in massive performances for Portugal against the Netherlands.

Messi in the same time has withered. He was pathetic against Chelsea and then Bayern last year (though he could play the injured card).

He hasn’t been nearly as effective against Madrid as he has in past years and seems to go missing against teams with good enough players man-mark him out of the game.

He is by no means a big game flop (just watch his goal against United) but there is little doubt that his big-game performance standard has fallen over the last two years.

Conclusion:

As much as I want to say that Ronaldo is better than Messi, doing so wouldn’t be completely true.

I simply wanted to present five areas in which Ronaldo does a better job than Messi. Everybody says free-kick this, speed that, but those to be honest aren’t entirely true.

The big-game player is by far the most controversial, but checking the facts will prove it true.

Ronaldo and Messi are both legends in their own right, but people are starting to dismiss Ronaldo.

Maybe it’s the Ballon d’Or titles that Messi has won (although I do believe two of those should have gone to Ronaldo and Wesley Sneijder respectively).

Either way, they are both absolutely sublime players and it’s time to acknowledge Ronaldo as being on the same level as Leo.

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