But we are not talking about any other sport. We are talking about football, and within the context of football, Messi's body type is more ideal than Ronaldo.
Acceleration - Messi's first 5 steps have always been significantly faster than Ronaldo. This allows him to get away from his marker more effectively.
Top speed - very close, both were absolutely rapid in their prime.
Balance - Messi's better balance allows him to ride challenges more easily than Ronaldo without falling down.
Ball shielding - Messi is harder to knock off the ball thanks to his lower center of gravity
Agility - Messi's shorter legs allow him to change direction rapidly. Ronaldo is very fast at running in a straight line but cannot change direction like Messi.
Do you really think that it is merely a coincidence that Pele, Maradona and Messi were all midgets? Or maybe being a midget actually brings some very tangible advantages when playing football?
The biggest advantage Ronaldo has over Messi is his height, leaping ability, and weak foot shots. This makes him a more unpredictable and varied goalscorer than Messi, but not a better player overall.
And I'm sure that Ronaldo can bench more than Messi, but Messi is more effective at using his strength on a football pitch:
Look at the challenges Messi can shrug off while keeping his balance. How many of those challenges would Ronaldo be able to take before he hit the deck? Again, I do not blame Ronaldo for that. His body type (6 foot 2 with heavy upper body muscles) just isn't as suited to football.
Yes we're talking about football and the things you listed, are all about dribbling. It's funny how you determine the physique around the dribbling even dribbling isn't even necessary to play football. Football is like tennis, you can be 170cm or 210cm and you'll still find a position to play. It really ain't more complicated than that. I really can't believe you're stupid as you're to come up with all those things and forgetting there are way more qualities than dribbling when we're talking about football in general. You could say same about tennis, the fuck you need to be more than 170cm because acceleration, balance, agility etc. are way better when you're shorter? Then out of sudden, you'd realize there's other aspects in the game where you can excel with the different kind of physique.
Ronaldo is way more advanced as an athlete and therefore, he's better and more versatile footballer. Messi is equal to some NFL player with 1 position, one system around and he will be excellent. And why it's like that? Because of his limited physical qualities. You can always throw Ronaldo to any system, any team and he will find a way to succeed, just because how good of an athlete he is. You could almost throw him into another sports like Jordan-esque and he would have been good. This is sports after all, nothing else.
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they slowed down both the us open and wimbledon courts for nadal. that says it all: atp/itf want these guys to succeed as they have bigger followings than any other player ever.
nadal would have been a bang average player on any surface but clay in the '90s. ~same goes for djokovic. they have stamina, physicality and they are very strong mentally, but their tennis is vastly helped by the slower surfaces and bigger rackets. it's no coincidence that in the open era, only agassi was able to achieve the career slam before the '00s, and 3 other players did it ever since.
murray
bottom line, the goat is either federer or sampras. nadal is the clay goat who would have won zero us opens or wimbledons on traditionally fast courts and normal rackets. tennis in the '00s turned into an endurance race. boring, meh.
You're so wrong man. Firstly, they never reduced anything for Nadal. Size of the court and the height of the net are still the same from way back compared to improved racquets, strings and the physiques of the players, so it was necessary thing to do so. Also the audience most likely wouldn't have liked all the points being serve/ace, missed return and max next shot, so there's more in that you'd know for sure. Secondly, Nadal and Djokovic would have been all time greats in any era. Game evolves, so evolves the players and Nadal/Djokovic are great examples of that. The examples you make out of those 2, would be equal to say that Borg/Mcenroe wouldn't have made it on 2000s, just because they used to hit more flat. It just makes no sense, because game was different. There's always the most effective ways to play the game, and all these guys took the advatange of it.
Also clay is the king of the surfaces. It requires to be more all round player to succeed on clay compared to the hard courts where you can just kind of "counter" the shots(ie. Medvedev for example). You can just use the speed of the ball way better. Hitting flat and middle and trying to drop out the opponent from the tempo etc. Big serve on top of that and you will always do good on hard courts if you have those couple qualities. On clay, you need to be more all round player. You need to open better angles with your ground strokes, even the serve as well, drops shorts are essential, you need to be able to produce more power to the shot by yourself instead of just countering it. Physique is essential, the surface being not that "stable" with the different kind of bounces also offers some challenges. Even learning the sliding is something to take into the account. It's the natural surface compared to the manipulated hard courts and such, it's raw and that's how it should be.
Federer-Nadal-Djokovic are all GOAT's. I'd put Fed on 3rd if anything, just because he had more weaknesses in his game than those 2 + he managed to sneak most of his slams before those 2 came into the picture(2008 and earlier). His game is just more classic and approachable for the older audience, which always makes him being the guy im watching if he's on.
. Those numbers don't really make it any more conclusive. One thing I could bet on is that Messi and Ronaldo fanbois have been super busy creating Twitter profiles. I think that poll perfectly encapsulates what I was saying about the GOAT discussion, fanbois super desperate to market their favourite as the GOAT. Will be interesting to see how these players will be viewed in 20-30 years.
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