Robinho Needs Counseling
By: Corey | September 3rd, 2008I found these tidbits in the press today about some of Brazil’s more esteemed football personalities and their thoughts on the Robinho transfer saga:
Pele is disgusted by the behaviour of his fellow Brazilian: “Chelsea are lucky. This boy needs some serious counselling. In my view he has been badly advised,” Football 365 quoted him to say.
Santos President, Marcelo Teixeira added: “This is one of the most disgraceful episodes in Brazilian football… He is a player who is an idol to children… But he has not acted like one.”
Jose Fernandos, Santos manager said: “We are ashamed at having produced such a player.”
Hmm. Pretty damning words from three important men in Brazilian football as well as his own career. You be the judge.
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Matt, John is right. Madrid did loose something in this deal, they lost a very talented player on his day, he brought us the depth out wide we needed. We dont have that anymore, because while Robben is very good, he is injury prone. Thats why all of us are upset. Also as Cesar pointed out, alot of the things people list as faults of Real could have been avoided, but it seems to me Robinho was angling for a move to Chelsea all along only to sign for Man City. That just tells me he had no honor in wearing the shirt, which is one of the main things we Real fans demand from our players. Mercenaries are not appreciated here.
But you can always come back, we take all kinds of commentators here, a debate is why I do this job, so it was nice to here another view point even if i disagree. But when your dealing with a pro-Madrid crowd and are out numbered, you dont endear yourself with snide remarks and pointing out we people are stupid. But your opinion is always valued, as john said.
Posted from
United States
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Robinho as a mercenary is a joke, but I can understand the hurt. Everyone on here criticizing Robinho sound like that guy who gets dumped for cheating on his girlfriend but gets upset anyway and says “F*ck U B*tch” in an attempt to vent and heal his wounded pride, knowing in the back of his mind that he truly has no one else to blame but himself. Thats the way it is MADRIDISTAS, don’t get all emotional now and start whining about mercenary this or traitor that when your favorite players are still at MADRID. Some people are also upset because in Robinho’s absence the lack of world class talent at MADRID is exposed to all. If CALDERON & MIJATOVIC had renewed his contract last season like they promised, then Robinho wouldn’t have even thought of leaving. When they kept going back on their word several times and then only seemed interested after the C.Ron deal fell through, is ROBINHO supposed to think they have his best interests at heart? Basically most madridistas are pissed because Robinho is smart enough to not get screwed by the club. Robinho said it best in his ‘press conference’ “The club has its pride, but I have my pride too.”
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United States -
Robinho did have a reason to be upset, using him as an exchange card to buy CR was stupid and not well planned. Real should have been careful about the matter understanding that it wasnt 100% positive CR could make it here this season. The brazilian hasnt met the expectations yet since after all pele labeled him as “brazil’s future golden child” and true, he’s on top of the chart but in a very bold untalanted brazilian status quo (compared to other eras) he’s improving but he hasnt fully flapped his wings yet, so its not a dire loss. Real desperatly attempted impossible bids the last couple hours before the clock struck midnight…the outcome was obvious…but its not that terrible. Real have been gaining intertia on the winning spree without robinho’s presence, that is ever since robben recovered from his last injury. The interia is pointing to positive numbers but the club is in for a headache if the dutchman gets injured. Lets see how shuster places van der vaart now.
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I’ve said before (in my blog) that Madrid made a massive mistake in thinking / considering or allowing the notion that CRon was a sub for Robinho. They should have instead try a Florentino Perez-esque ploy to market RM as the place where the football wizards play. Thus they should have renewed his contract. That was a mistake by Calderon and Mijatovic: it was stupid and it was wrong.
Robinho’s first and biggest mistake was his embarrasingly childish attitude. CRon wanted to come to Madrid. He confessed it openly many times to the press. BUT he respected the will of the club and his contract by not raising hell for not getting his transfer. Yes, Robinho is right to have pride, but he must also have Professionalism and Maturity - and his behavior leading up to his transfer showed that he has hardly an ounce of it.
Robinho’s ‘circumstantial mistake’ was to go to Man City. Sure, it was his only way out: but it was a way out that exposed him as a pesetero. How can he say he wants to be the best in the world playing for Man City? At this time? (I seriously doubt their ability to lure Kaka, Cesc, Torres, CRon, etc. as they are saying). He’s now the best paid player in the world in a mid-table club: he can’t expect to have the credibility to say that he came coz this was the place that allowed him to grow to become the best…. not at this time.
Madrid was a great chance for him to grow to become the best: Big Club, Champions League Football and surrounded by many of the world’s best players. Some of us believed it could happen (part of me really did): so we lament the loss but with understandable anger for reasons mentioned above. We are also right to worry and be upset because now, it is clear that we are left with an unbalanced team.
As for Robinho, if he truly wants to be the best player in the world, he must do a few more things beyond perfecting his stepover-pedalada, working on his consistency or polishing up on his goal scoring skills: Robinho must learn that even in these times. the club will and must always be bigger than the player, that he must respect his team mates… that he must be a mature professional.
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Singapore -
Ok first of all need to say I am not a Madrid fan, i am more in the opposite direction actually, but what is a one boy fault compared to a huge organization fault like Real Madrid? First they made a big mess about a player that if signed he would simply ruin the dressing room (yea I mean C.Ronaldo- but that’s how i c it anyway) and they were so dispirit to sign him that he would have cost as much as Di rossi, Silva and Vila together -of course before euro 2008, now i can imagine what kind of squads it would have been with this trio in, or with that clown in. Then they delayed renewing the contract of one of their most reliable players considering AGE and performance, unsettling him. specially when there was that rumor - lets say it was a rumor- that they wanted to use him in the C.Ronaldo transfer, that was the moment where the board had to prove it wrong, the only way was to renew the guy contract, or at least sit to negociate it, they didn’t, and now they claim it wasn’t true, the same as calderon claim that he didn’t want casorla, right… they wanted what they felt its the best of the club, and get screwed then fair enough if he do what he feel that’s the best for him, what comes around goes around, right?
Now regarding his move to Man city, what other options he had? either staying with Madrid hooked with disgrace and booed every time he show up in a cafe’ or staduim, or move to where he can expect to be worshiped and where he was promised to be the corner stone in a huge project -and i am not a fan of it- he is young so instead of wasting a year suffering in Spain, he will spend a year cheered in England, and looking forward for better years to come, noting that some of you still don’t understand what happened in Man city. of course Chelsea was not an option anymore, after they started selling his kits before he sign, that would turn to be an insult for Real if they agreed that move anymore, and certainly they were not going to let it happen.
Money was a key factor in the move?well welcome to the new world…Posted from
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Ramzi and Nakan have artictulated this issue well, and I think between there two view points that should be the end of the debate. Nice job everyone, this is why I became a blogger.
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Yo corey, let me get just one in for NAKA & 9ChampionsLeagues. When Maradona left BARCELONA in ‘84 after 3 years with our Catalan rivals during which he did well but not what everyone expected of him after being so good for BOCA JUNIORS, there was all this talk at the time of him ‘not really fulfilling his potential’. Sound familiar, well it gets better, MARADONA complained about being undervalued and was attacked for being a ‘pesetero’ after leaving BARCA for Napoli in the Serie A. People claimed going to such a small team like Napoli was a ‘circumstantial mistake’, he would never become the best player in the world there. It just so happened that yeah Napoli was still average(he didn’t have a billionaire backing his move) but MARADONA was worshipped there and he helped them win a title or two and then two years later at WORLD CUP ‘86 a legend was born. Hmmm . . . if I’m not mistaken WORLD CUP 2010 is only two years away, so now the rest is up to ROBINHO. Judging by the way he put BRAZIL on his back and won COPA AMERICA 2007, I wouldn’t be surprised if MANCHESTER CITY joins the ranks of NAPOLI in being a smaller club with the best player of the world playing for them. If MARADONA had done the “professional” thing and stay unhappy and undervalued at BARCA we all would have missed out on some really great futbol. I would suggest the same is true for unhappy and undervalued Robinho at REAL MADRID, and even though I’m a MADRIDISTA I know he, like MARADONA was stifled at our big club while other more pedestrian players are allowed to thrive. Sometimes unpredictable soccer genius can be as problematic for management off the pitch as it is for defenders on the pitch.
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United States -
Surely, lightning doesn’t strike twice. And even more surely, Robinho is not Maradona! Interesting comparison though.
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I wouldn’t call Napoli a small club although they had there difficulties with having gone bankrupt in 2004. But in the late 60s and early 70s they were challenging for the league and was always finishing in the top 5 at least. They only started declining in 1983 but a year later Maradona arrived and as u say the rest is history. Now i know Maradona was a legend but Napoli surely wasn’t a one man team. Maradona needed his teammates to become the player that became a legend. Let me just say if Napoli was just a mid table team and not challenging or winning titles then would Maradona have been known as the best player ever? Other star players in that Napoli squad should also be mentioned like Ciro Ferrara, Salvatore Bagni and a few that i wont mention. My point basically is that Napoli was not a mid table team like Man City is. Napoli was an italian force back then and even when Maradona was banned for taking cocaine did Napoli still manage to win the supercopa italiana.
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With Robinho now at Man City, a mid table team and now with all the money to spend i still dont believe they would be able to challenge the top in the premiership or even the world. Robinho would need other world class players around him and has to compete and at least win trophies to become the best in the world.
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okay enough about Robinho! Did u hear the rumour that Florentino Perez is planning on running for president again? Anyone has any thoughts about it?
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donovan I agree, but please at least admit that NAPOLI did not have the talent at their disposal that BARCELONA had, however they built their team around MARADONA. MANCHESTER CITY surely does not have the team MADRID has, but like NAPOLI they will rally around ROBINHO. Both MARADONA and ROBINHO have personalities which require them to be at the center of things, not just filling a marginal role for a well oiled ‘futbol’ machine which is how they were each treated by BARCELONA & MADRID respectively. I think ROBINHO’s ultimate redemption will come about at WORLD CUP 2010 where he will cement his place in soccer history, just like MARADONA did at WC ‘86. On a side note, since becoming a starter for BARCELONA what has MESSI won there? Why is he being considered the best player in the world for his performance last year when he wasn’t that good and was even outscored and out assisted by ROBINHO in LA LIGA? Did he help BARCA win something last year that I missed? That’s another reason I feel ROBINHO left, BARCA and the corresponding BARCA press have been behind MESSI 100% even though he hasn’t really been that good as a starter for BARCELONA. MADRID & the MADRID press have never backed ROBINHO in the same way. ROBINHO had a much better year than MESSI last year, but you wouldn’t know it based on worldwide soccer press coverage. That will change at MANCHESTER CITY. OK, enough about ROBINHO, as far as FLORENTINO PEREZ coming back, it’s too little too late - CALDERON has already f*cked the team over and reduced them to a pedestrian hardworking defensive bunch as MADRID’s free flowing soccer impulse remains suppressed. Hopefully VDV, GAGO, DE LA RED & MARCELO(the last Brazilian standing) live up to their potential - they are MADRID’s only hope until the winter break.
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United States -
Man city will grow to become a top team but what the question is how long will it take. Its a difficult moment to snatch players easily, im sure players of the status of kaka, fernando torres, fabregas etc are fully committed to the colors of their jerseys, for which im inclined to believe man city will sign new young talent and some overhyped star. Another clear future prediction is that they’ll collapse the transfer market, it seems as the trend will permeate all around in order to keep up with the rest. Only clubs history and aura may lure those exceptional ones as opposed to the newbe millionares.
Now about Robinho once again. we already agreed upon that Real M went in the wrong direction mentioning the brazlilian as an exchange card for CR, but robinho also is a little pretentious and ahead of reality. Perhaps the CR saga is the “official excuse” why he left but the truth is quite bold, Schuster has been choosing Robben over Robinho. The brazilian wants to become the best player in the world and he doesnt seem to reach the status at the bernabeu. Now…who’s fault is it? Could it be Schuster for not placing Robben and Robinho together? Are we to question the german’s tactics? Or simply could the case be that robinho is failing to overflash robben and therefore prefers to become the new mesiah of a smaller club but which will obviously soak the lockerroom with new talents soon.
The way i see it, Real Madrid has equally lost and won in this transaction. Obviously the club needs more players and they are in no position to allow players to leave without new signings (note we still need to observe van der vaart, his performance could easily lead us to forget all this) and on the other hand, the club has pocketed a very good price for a player who hasnt clearly met the expectations, lets clear that out, robinho is important for the team, he’s decided many matches but he’s not who us fans hoped he’d become.
Through out many discussions many point out how important robinho was, and RVN but if we are some what more fair about the team’s overall performance, its clear that in some matches:
Casillas clearly saved the team
RVN is a sure bet
Raul elevated his numbers to 12 goals after a few bad years
Higuain has scored in almost every match he plays and has an impressive aim
Pepe has turned out to prove 30 million was well spent
Guti will always be the man who changes the match in the 60th minute
and robben has been marvelousetc etc etc
in the end, all players have added their share.
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u make some good points estoverao! Messi is Barca best player. He can change a game at anytime. Remember the 3-3 draw when he scored a hattrick against us. He is one of the best in the world. But he to is so often injured. With regard to Man city building there team around him, we will just have to see how he fairs in the premiership which is way different to la liga. Okay next topic. Did u notice that Schuster has been calling up lots of reserve players to join training while most of our squad is away on international duty. Its been different players but dont know if anyone else noticed to see that Chema Anton and Alvaro Lopez were called on most last week. Now i know we wont see them playing for the first team this year but i think it would be good to call them up to train with the 1st team to give them that exposure and also gives them confidence that there hard work will be noted. I wonder if this was the plan to avoid our promising youngsters on leaving the club to seek 1st team primera action else where
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Well just a respond to Robinho messi comparison, I am not the kind of emotional fans, but I demand fair judgment, you cant say robinho outclassed messi in assists and goals last season and ignore the fact that messi spent most of the season injured, and i admit he is not good enough to generate assists and score goals from the treatment table:) may be robinho can, but not messi:) Messi is a better talent - even Brazilians hailed that in their stands while playing against Argentina, but he need to improve his distribution of the ball and to shoot more if he want to be the best in the world, robinho was the best in copa america, no one can deny that, but naturally better than messi?Cristiano ronaldo would not even dare to seek madrid if thats true, forget about “madrid is my dream team” every player say so about the team that suit his career more.
Comparison with maradona is also not realistic, i have never seen robinho carrying the whole team on his shoulders yet, in napoli there were good players for forth place in seria A, but not to win the title and invade europe, he turned an average argentina to a world cup winner (average on argentina standards) neither robinho nor messi did so yet, even though I think in this football era, where tactical structures improved, i dont think anyone will do it again.Posted from
Germany -
Enough with Robinho
Corey, we need another blog regarding Raul’s poor performances so far…, is the end near??? or is it taking more time for him to get fit???
I don’t know about you guys, but I’m really worried about Raul…
Take care everybody
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United States -
First 9championsleagues - “Schuster has been choosing Robben over Robinho” are u kidding me? Robinho didn’t recover fast enough from injury which is why Robben got chosen over Robinho. Don’t act like Robinho lost his place while he was 100% fit, that’s a Madrid press myth that you’ve swallowed whole. Robben had 4 Goals & 4 assists last year, thats it, no really, I’m serious, thats it. Robben hasn’t scored as much as Robinho did last season since 2002-3 for PSV.
Now Ramzi, who I usually agree with - “you cant say robinho outclassed messi in assists and goals last season and ignore the fact that messi spent most of the season injured” Messi’s injury is canceled out because Robinho was also injured last year too, which is why he is no longer at MADRID, until he got injured he was world class for us. Notice how BARCA supported Messi throughout his injury while MADRID turned on Robinho during his injury. Interesting.
“Comparison with maradona is also not realistic, i have never seen robinho carrying the whole team on his shoulders yet,” did you watch COPA AMERICA 2007 = ROBINHO - 6 Goals, 5 assists PLAYER OF THE TOURNAMENT for an average BRAZIL!! MESSI - 2 Goals(couldn’t even score on the USA!!) 2 Assists for a great ARGENTINA team that lost in the final to ROBINHO’s BRAZIL!!!
I only compared Robinho to Maradona because he is in a similar situation as Maradona was when Maradona left BARCA and oddly enough for the same reasons.
“Messi is a better talent” - as of yet I see no proof of that, they are both talented players and Robinho is way more accomplished than Messi at this point in their careers. All of Messi’s highlights are from two seasons ago when he came off the bench. Last year he was mostly garbage. Can u name one memorable game Messi had for BARCA last year where he lived up to his billing? I can name several for Robinho at MADRID if you want . . .
don’t get me wrong I like Messi and he is definitely one of the top 5 players in the world right now, but if its true that Robinho hasn’t lived up to his promise, neither has Messi, and yet Messi can do no wrong, even when he had a way below par season last year.
PS - and to everyone who wants to change the subject away from Robinho, I’m just waiting for Corey to put up something else as well . . . lol.
Posted from
United States -
On the Robinho-Robben discussion: It’s clear that Schuster wants them both on the team to compete interanlly for that spot on the wings. It doesn’t suit their personal interest t have a guaranteed spot, but it works for Schuster - which makes sense given Robben’s history of injury and Robinho’s propensity to have a drop in form. It’s not so much that Robben is better than Robinho or the other way around, just that last season, Robben was injures for the most part and Robinho’s injury/loss of form co-incided with Robben’s return from injury. This shows why Schuster wanted them to play for the same position. To compare the 2 is not fair. Perhaps with an injury-free Robben this year and Robinho’s ‘freedom’ to Man City we might have a chance to do so and see if Madrid’ decision was right.
On the Messi-Robinho discussion: I honeslty believe that Messi is a better player. Once again, I find the comparisons between Messi last year and Robinho last year to be faulty. Messi was injured for a BIG part of last season - we saw him occassionally come from the bench and that’s about it. Add that to the disaser that was the Barca dressing room and it’s easy to understand why he wasn’t out of this world last season or in the Copa America. Robinho on the other hand was enjoying a great dressing room envionment and was only injured for 2 short periods of time. So statistically, it would be easy (but I think unfair) to compare the 2. One thing I think that should factor into the discussion in a Messi-vs-Robinho discussion is how they are off the pitch. Robinho whines when he’s on the bench (even during Capello’s time), was involved in that Camisinhas incident, and has a history of withdrawing his loyalty (he did that even when he was in Santos). Messi on the other hand only has his desire to play for his country in the Olympics to show for as an ‘off-the-pitch’ issue (if we can even consider that one): other than that, Messi who is younger that Robinho (thus more capable of fits of immaturity), has actually been an incredibly stand up professional who has shown absolute loyalty to Barca.
If you only wish to compare on-field performances, then let’ all pray that Messi stays healthy this year and compare what the 2 do for their respective clubs this year. Remember that Messi has now been handed the ‘10′ in Barca: that’s his team now. Robinho will lead Man City this season: let’s see who the better player is. I reckon it’d be Messi (though I hope that would still make Barca not good enough to beat us to the title!).
Posted from
Singapore -
I agree Mac it’s definitely Messi’s team now, what did u think about the start of the Messi era? How did BARCA do with their new ‘10′? U mean they lost their opening game, really? Wow, so you mean when defenses aren’t preoccupied with Ronaldinho & Et’o(like they were in 2006 when he used to come off the bench and work wonders) they have no problem shutting down Messi, interesting.
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United States -
Estoverao…i know you are a pure hardcore robinho fan so i dont expect this to go far but i live in madrid, i attened the bernabeu often and ive worked within the team and press for a couple years. I dont mean to say i exactly know what happens in the lockeroom but robben absolutely dropped 70.000 jaws in his latest performances and it was followed by the eurocup’s impressive run. Robinho got injured right when robben recovered from what appeared to be another dreadful injury and all of a sudden made calderon’s 35 million bid look fair enough. Ever since…he’s been “finishing” the plays unlike robinho, who impressed everyone with his straight 7 bicycle dribbles but rarely ended in the net (i know you’ll go apeshit for this but its simply my opinion)
You know, i know we all know that schuster rarely places them together…so why should it be a surprise he wanted to leave. I am absolutely positive robben has been schuster’s main choice towards the end of the season and robinho was fit to play. The brazilian mentioned the CR deal and it makes sense, a simple decoy but smartly used. The club was naive to play with his pride but…robinho needs to prove himself and so far he’s added an awful lot and seems to improve but he’s not what pele described before coming to madrid. The good news is that CR continues to speak about his desire to come to madrid (even stated in the man u web page no matter how absurd it sounds, its posted for everyone to see, well, to make it clear he says its his childhood dream nevertheless he’ll give it all for the red devils this season). And i dont think he’ll sell out for man city since they also eat fish and chips there.
Posted from
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Re: Estoverao’s comment: once again, I find the comparison to be unfair. It was ONE game: against a team who played 11 men behind the ball. I’m not sure I’ve seen Robinho lead RM to vircotry with 11 men behind the ball either.
Like I said, let’s see how the season goes: if Messi is healthy and his Barca remain awful, and Robinho is able to bring Man City to a CL spot or even to say, 5th or 6th place, then perhaps I will have to concede that Robinho is a better player. Until then, I think that we’re in no position to come to that conclusion just yet.
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Singapore -
First Mad Mac - granted its early and you’re right its one game, my point is that everyone overlooks those type of games for MESSI(he has way more of those than people realize) but if ROBINHO(doesn’t have as many of those games as people think) had a sh*tty game like that, everyone would be saying how he isn’t fulfillin his potential - its just a double standard thats all.
Now the good stuff with ‘9ChampionsLeagues’ who claimed “Ever since…he’s been “finishing” the plays unlike robinho, who impressed everyone with his straight 7 bicycle dribbles but rarely ended in the net” - C’mon man, Robinho has averaged more goals than FIGO did when he was playing for us, the only ones who scored more were Ruud & Raul(and they are strikers not wingers) since he has been there and only Guti has more assists. The whole Robinho ‘not finishing’ is pure Raulista propaganda to distract people from realizing that he should play for Madrid like he does for Brazil, right behind the striker where he is most effective.
I remember his first year when there was a 6 game stretch when Raul was injured and Robinho, Zidane, Guti, Roberto Carlos & Beckham(believe it or not) put on a clinic of beautiful attractive flowing ‘futbol’ - then Raul came back from injury and Lopez-Caro benched Robinho and the rest is the history of an undervalued, underutilized, misunderstood soccer genius. Everyone thought it couldn’t get worse for Robinho and then CAPELLO arrived and boy did the ‘futbol’ get worse for anyone with a creative impulse. Robinho needs to play free, honestly, politics aside, Robinho is leaving Madrid because this Madrid isn’t playing Madrid ‘futbol’. Hopefully, MAN CITY will be his liberation, like NAPOLI was for MARADONA. I know u think Robben is a finisher, but look at his stats, once again, he hasn’t scored as much as Robinho scored last year(someone who you claim is not a finisher) since 2002/3 when he was at PSV. Robben a finisher??, c’mon man, we’re all MADRIDISTAS here, keep it ‘REAL’ - if you are counting on ROBBEN to deliver 2 LA LIGA titles in a row like ROBINHO you’ll be very disappointed this season. They key players this season for us are DE LA RED, HIGUAIN, GAGO, MARCELO & VAN DE VAART. If they don’t have outstanding seasons we are doomed!!!
Posted from
United States -
By finishing a play i don’t necessarily mean scoring but assisting or making the right choice, robinho has improved that side of the game, but when he arrived, he was far from finishing any play since he was more immerged in performing fancy footwork than simple small steps to create danger. Im not downplaying robinho, im not happy he left but i keep it “Real” by outweighing the pro’s and con’s and finally assessing he wasn’t madrid’s clear mesiah, by this i mean the equivalent of what ronaldinho was for barca, CR for man u or gerrard for liverpool. On the bright side, robinho is slowly progressing, he didn’t skyrocket at the beginning of his career but this in my opinion is an advantage, he slowly is improving and becoming a better team player, sometimes its better to grow at a small pace than reach a star status at a young age and lose the competitive appetite. Reminds me of zinedine zidane, he exceeded at an older age.
Real now will have to take advantage of their midfielders now that robinho is out, Real is in a critical moment to sign important players soon before man city actually lures more competitive players, names like kaka, CR will only move to a club that can do well in the CL, that’s the only negative aspect at the moment for man city.
Posted from
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estoverao - I agree with most of your points, and long before the Man City transfer actually happened, I’ve been worried that Robinho would leave us and be revealed as(or recognized as) one of the top players in world football. One thing that I think Robinho realized, and a point I’ve been trying to make for years, is that a player with Robinho’s style of play (or Ronaldo’s, or Messi’ for that matter) will enjoy more success in England, at the moment. This is due to the typical style of defense in the EPL - which could change now that CL trophies are attainable there, and a lot of young talent is opting for the EPL over La Liga or Serie A; English defenses (on the whole, not just the top four who are, for the most part, every bit as good as Spain’s) might have to adapt. But my point is that part of why Cristiano Ronaldo has looked so good over the past year is that a mojority of EPL’s defense can’t defend a creative player with horizontal ball skills. They’re used to players sprinting in vertical patterns. Look what happens, for instance, when they’re faced with the likes of Fernando Torres, who was pretty good in Spain, and absolutely brilliant in England (those of you who follow this forum often are probably sick to death of me bringing this up!). My point: Robinho will almost certainly dazzle folks a lot more in Man City, especially when up against teams like Stoke, Bolton, Fulham, etc.
But to think that Manchester City will put flowing, beautiful football together in the near future - now THAT is borderline delusional. Maybe in 4, 5 years, but by that time Robinho will likely have already seen his apex come and go, in which case the Abu Dhabi group will be looking for the next big thing. I certainly could be wrong though…
Posted from
United States -
first of all I just wanted to give 9Championsleagues props, excellent points that I want to contest but I really can’t especially about how Robinho wasn’t to Madrid what ‘Dinho was to BARCA. Though Robinho was definitely Madrid’s best player, as long as Raul is there no one else can claim to be the MAN there unless you come in fresh from winning the WORLD CUP(like Zizou & Ronaldo).
john - thats actually a good point about the defensive abilities of premiership defenders - that because of the futbol culture there that prizes vertical movement, horizontal attacks yield better results. I personally agree that MAN CITY won’t challenge for CHAMPIONS LEAGUE titles anytime soon but the premiership is definitely within their grasp. Honestly, I think ROBINHO will continue at MAN CITY and do extremely well but his legend will only be cemented if BRAZIL win in 2010. As much as CHAMPIONS LEAGUE glory is important the all time greats are determined by their WC performances. As Madridistas we all love ZIZOU for his great CHAMPIONS LEAGUE winning goal but he made his name at WC ‘98.
Posted from
United States
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