Dion

I don't think Neymar can be as effective as Messi in a false 9 role. I was not particularly impressed with the times I've seen him play more centrally. Perhaps that could change in the future given enough time for Ney to develop and grow into the role but that's not a certainty by any means, agreed. Even though Messi is an exceptional playmaker and is assisting Neymar a lot, Messi had prime Xavi and Iniesta to feed him whereas Neymar has the aged versions that get overrun in midfield against tougher sides and a not at the top of his game Messi - and even at his top form he's not as good of a playmaker as Xavi and Iniesta once were - so I don't think this is exactly fair. If Neymar can beat their numbers is yet to be seen.

Oscar is the shy/quiet type of person, I can't see him becoming captain in all honesty. He's also struggling a bit with learning English.

I don't know about the height. Probably if he was significantly taller it would affect his balance and dribbling, it's much easier to do it when you have a low center of gravity. That's how he can quickly change directions with explosive pace and still stand on his feet when knocked by defenders. His physique is very Messi-esque and it shows in his dribbling which resembles Messi's a lot with that close ball control and quick change of directions. Besides, if there's anyone on the pitch who can afford to be a bit on the shorter side of the spectrum are the wingers and attacking midfielders.

But you do realize we're talking about Brazilian Ronaldo, not Cristiano Ronaldo, right? It's not CR7 vs. Messi again.

I don't follow Barcelona all that much but my friends who do always complained that they lacked goals coming from anyone else other than Messi, and they blamed it on the system. It's hard to assess Ibrahimovic's case but if I remember correctly it was Ibra himself who said something to that effect. There are too many factors to consider when comparing players from different eras and that's my point. It's hard to say X is better than Y when so many variables are different.

That's very arguable. Not clear at all. If anything some people could argue it's the opposite. For the longest time it was argued that barça's system was made to work in favour of Messi, which is natural since he carries the team often and is their best player. But that seems to have taken a toll in the other attacking players. They all seemed to struggle to find the net because everybody's role was to feed Messi basically. That seems to be changing a bit in recent times but look how everyone else had been struggling to score there not too long ago. And when Ibra was scoring and Messi struggling a bit, Ibra was cut off from the team. Also I don't see how he improves Argentina as whole all that much, sure he can provide the game winning goal or play but what you're talking about is not even his role (to make the team play better as whole). I don't see where you're trying to go with this. Also IMO he was not even Argentina's most influential or best player in the last World Cup. Overall game better? I don't know about that either. Ronaldo had a better array of dribbles - Messi's dribbling whilst very efficient is also very one sided, but probably has the edge on efficiency. Ronaldo also was two footed and edged Messi in pretty much everything related to power and strength. Both very clinical. Messi has better vision but Ronaldo was no slouch either, he has some very beautiful assists to his name. It's too close to call. And Ronaldo has 3 ballon D'or, so they're about even in this regard too. And IMO it was harder to win one in Ronaldo's era. People are giving Messi awards that he didn't even deserve as of lately. And don't get me wrong. Considering everything I think Messi has the edge on Ronaldo but they're really closer than many people seem to think around here. I get the vibe from some people that there's a significant gap when there isn't.

Nope. Ronaldo's goals and ages: 1993: 20 goals in 21 matches. (16-17 years old) 1994-1995: 24 goals in 26 matches for Cruzeiro, 35 goals in 36 matches for PSV. (17-18 years old) 1995-1996: 19 goals in 21 matches. (19 years old) PSV. 1996-1997: 47 goals in 49 matches. (20 years old) Barcelona. 1997-1998: 34 goals in 47 matches. (21 years old) Internazionale. 1998-1999: 15 goals in 28 matches. (22 years old) Internazionale. 1999-2000: 03 goals in 08 matches. (23 years old) Here starts his major injury problems. 2000-2001: 00 goals in 00 matches. (24 years old) His injury was so bad he missed an entire season. Total: 197 goals in 236 matches. 0,83 goals per match. Ronaldo didn't even get to hit the best years of his career before fucking up his knees. It's like if Hazard got severely injured in this season, he's just entering his prime years. When you say he's an icon of the early 2000's says it all. In the 2000's he was already about half the player he previously was and was still amazing. Let's see Messi. Messi: 2004-2005: 01 goal in 09 matches (17 years old) 2005-2006: 08 goals in 25 matches (18 years old) 2006-2007: 16 goals in 40 matches (19 years old) 2007-2008: 38 goals in 51 matches (20 years old) 2008-2009: 47 goals in 53 matches (21 years old) 2009-2010: 53 goals in 55 matches (22 years old) 2010-2011: 73 goals in 60 matches (23 years old) Total: 236 goals in 293 matches. 0,80 goals per match. As you can see, they're about evenly matched until Ronaldo got injured. In addition, Messi only started scoring more than a goal per game in the exact same age as Ronaldo barely played because of his knee injury. Also keep in mind that in those last seasons before the major injuries Ronaldo also struggled with minor ones (see how he's only played 28 and 08 matches in the last two) and moved to the Italian league, where, let's face it, defences were WAY better than anything we see in La Liga these days, especially at the time when it was one of the strongest if not the strongest league in the world. CR7 bloomed even later than Messi, so there's really no comparison. Not only Ronaldo did manage to score as much, but also OUTSCORE CR7 and Messi in his early years of career before injury. You're wrong. That's why people wonder how good he could have been if not for his fucked knees. If there was a player with similar skill (because he was so much more than number of goals per match) and numbers as 22-23 years old Ronaldo today, my brain can't even fathom the amount of hype he'd have. People would be oozing all over themselves everywhere on the internet.

That being said, oddly enough the lesser sides were the ones who gave us trouble last season. Maybe we should save Costa for those fixtures?

Yeah, he's playing the Hazard here. When I'm finished with Choulo I'll let you have a bite, don't worry Spike

Hazard got jealous and tried to pull him for the kiss instead.

Try it. Look how fun it is:

I love whoscored.com but their grading/rating system is ludicrous to say the least.

I think non-cutaway guitars are slightly more robust and richer sounding, it's really subtle though. On the other hand I find cutaway guitars better aesthetically for some reason - and they also provide better access to those last frets of course. Yes, I can play the guitar but I also suck at fingerpicking, I wish I was as good as Sungha Jung, hahaha. I wanna buy a Taylor guitar in the near future but why are they so expensive?

I'll add to these: steel or nylon strings? cutaway or non-cutaway?

First we steal Cole and then Cesc. Classic.

We can compare them both playing the same match too. Chelsea vs. Arsenal - which one had the better work rate? Even Arsenal fans pointed out that Oscar's work rate in the match highlighted how poor Ozil's is. And Ozil wasn't even particularly creative. Also, even though Oscar worked hard in defense he still provided a few good passes - I remember for example a pass from him in the left flank between two Arsenal players finding Hazard in a huge gap of space in the middle. Bottom line is you can't really compare one of the attacking midfielders with the highest work rate in the world with another who has one of the poorest and just proceed to talk about creativity while pretending their work rate and defensive prowess is about the same.

This last page:

That's why it caught my attention, I thought they were surprisingly low for what I had seen in the match.

77% and 81% were the stats they showed on ESPN. I didn't made them up, I even said if I remembered correctly. I don't know if they were 77 and 81 exactly but they were definitely lower than 90 and 88. If ESPN got them wrong it's another story.

Well said.

You can tell there are times when he almost speaks stuff in Portuguese and then he remembers he must speak English, HAHAHA. So funny.

Only overshadowed by his reaction after missing a sitter: It's like he's thinking: "What the hell did I do? Holy shit, I'm so bad."

Only caught the second half but to me he was the MOTM. Take out his assist which was phenomenal and you still got a complete performance. Good defensively and offensively. He's had a low passing percentage for his standards but so did most of the players. But what stood out to me the most in this game in particular was how well he managed to keep possession while under heavy pressure, most of the time he managed to either keep the ball or pass it to someone else, it's incredible how fast his mind works in finding passes to teammates even when there are two players trying to take him down.

Not saying he was not poor but pretty much every attacking player had a below standard passing percentage in this match. For example, Fabregas had 77% and Hazard 81% IIRC, not too bad but below their standard quality for sure.

Where's the gif of Oscar's flying kick to block that one shot?