i´m not saying ronaldinho is crap but...

[lfcruleus]

I guess we will see in 2 weeks time, we are in a good position now but Benfica beat us at home last year, Ronnie is one player who could have a huge impact.
I will reserve judgement till we knock the ****ers out then slag the goofy **** off.

[Howard_lfc]

Two of the best players in the world (Ronaldinho & Henry) have both been well below par this season. But i feel it's nothing that a bloody good rest wouldn't cure. Even Stevie and Xabi have been below their best for us this season IMO. I reckon alot of this can be attributed to a world cup 'hangover'.
Ronaldo at OT bucks this particular trend but his team-mate Rooney is also performing below his best.

Next season, these players will be back on form, having had 6-7 weeks off in the summer.

[animal magic]

Two of the best players in the world (Ronaldinho & Henry) have both been well below par this season. But i feel it's nothing that a bloody good rest wouldn't cure. Even Stevie and Xabi have been below their best for us this season IMO. I reckon alot of this can be attributed to a world cup 'hangover'.
Ronaldo at OT bucks this particular trend but his team-mate Rooney is also performing below his best.

Next season, these players will be back on form, having had 6-7 weeks off in the summer.

well said

[Fiddy]

I think the difference between Buck teeth and Stevie was summed up nicely in an article I read this week, saying how Ronaldinho 'embellished and added sparkle' to games but didn't 'grab them by the scruff of the neck and take over' like Stevie does.

So basically Ronnie might have a moment of magic that wins a game, but he never has games like Stevie in Istanbul or the West Ham game where he just bosses everything and makes his team-mates better too - to make comebacks like that it has to be a team effort. Obviously, in an ideal world, both would be in the same team. At the new Anfield

[Ron_Mexico]

So basically Ronnie might have a moment of magic that wins a game, but he never has games like Stevie in Istanbul or the West Ham game where he just bosses everything and makes his team-mates better too - to make comebacks like that it has to be a team effort. Obviously, in an ideal world, both would be in the same team. At the new Anfield

youve obviously missed his last 3 seasons in barcelona. his first two seasons he carried barca on his back, scoring goals and making goals and coming through for the team time and again. hes destroyed madrid a number of times, the standout being the game he had two incredible solo goals, the madrid fans gave him a standing ovation.

its unbelievable to me how short fans memories are when a player goes through a rough patch. some of the comments on here are just ridiculous

[glynner]

I guess it's a bit like asking would you marry a bird who would blow your mind in bed, would make all your mates jealous wherever you both went, but couldn't make toast to save her life.

I would say you'd probably be mental not to want Jar Jar Binks in your team - but you'd be better served with a Didi Hamann type player playing behind him.

[Fiddy]

youve obviously missed his last 3 seasons in barcelona. his first two seasons he carried barca on his back, scoring goals and making goals and coming through for the team time and again. hes destroyed madrid a number of times, the standout being the game he had two incredible solo goals, the madrid fans gave him a standing ovation.

its unbelievable to me how short fans memories are when a player goes through a rough patch. some of the comments on here are just ridiculous

Hmm, maybe I have got a short memory. But then again, Stevie has never been surrounded by the calibre of attacking players Ronaldinho has - or a goal machine like Eto'o

[Ron_Mexico]

Hmm, maybe I have got a short memory. But then again, Stevie has never been surrounded by the calibre of attacking players Ronaldinho has - or a goal machine like Eto'o

very true, im not arguing against stevie at all, i just think ronaldinho deserves a bit more credit. even tho he's a shadow of himself at the moment, and will continue to be for at least two more weeks

[Joe Le Toff]

If you have a player like Ronaldinho in your team then you have to compensate for that by having water carriers in there who are going to do his defensive work, and that IMO is a price worth paying to have a player like that who can destroy any team in the world.
I dont believe theres a manager anywhere who wouldnt take him, he is the best player on earth by a country mile who's head is in bits and is going through a rough patch, every world class player in the history of the game has done that at some time or other.

[simey85]

when ronaldinho 1st went to barca he did track back and worked his socks of, maybe he now thinks that he is too good to do it. his habits also seem to be rubbing of on messi!

[AFII]

Barcelona concerns over fatty Ronaldinho
tribalfooball.com - February 23, 2007

Doubts are being raised over the weight of Barcelona star Ronaldinho.

The World Player of the Year is clearly carrying extra baggage and AS says he has already confided to close friends: "I am not well."

Barcelona physios and medical chief, Dr Ricardo Puna, refuse to speak to the media about Ronaldinho's increasing waistline, while the local press are comparing his situation with what Ronaldo went through at Real Madrid.

Stress, partying and outside commercial interests are all being blamed for Ronaldinho's weight problems, which are now affecting his form.

[DeeTheDog]

Ronaldinho albeit not as his most effective still won three extremely dangerous free kicks against us. I remember he ran the length of the pitch to win back possession as well. Let's wait until the return match is finished before questioning the player who along with Henry has been streets ahead of every other player in the world.

[desertscouser]

For a fat bast@rd who's out of form, 19 goals this season is phenomenal. Imagine if he was fully fit and on top form.

[tsb]

Ronaldinho's soft centre is weighty issue for Barcelona

Ronaldinho is playing soft and looking flabby, and his manager, Frank Rijkaard, should do something about it.

Richard Williams

February 23, 2007 12:15 AM

The longer the second half went on in Camp Nou on Wednesday, the less likely Barcelona looked to produce the goal that would have given them at least a measure of respectability. Liverpool were the masters, but the admirable organisation of Rafael Benítez's team was not the only reason for their superiority.

If you wanted another reason why Barcelona had fallen from the heights upon which they were parading so seductively at this time last year, it was there in the sight of a shirtless Ronaldinho heading for the tunnel. Around the great man's midriff was a discernible covering of fat - the sort of thing most middle-aged men carry, but not what is expected of an athlete in his peak years.

In a word, Ronaldinho looks soft. And, against Liverpool, that was how he played. Early on there were some neat combinations with Deco, Lionel Messi and Javier Saviola, when the ball hummed around like a bee flitting from flower to flower, but too often the failure of one of the Brazilian's tricks would be followed by a gesture of helplessness.

A year ago he was irresistible. In the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Chelsea he played as if in some private zone of weightlessness, darting and spinning and hurdling past defenders as if freed from the law of gravity by which they were bound to the earth. Many of his passes, perhaps even the majority, took the form of backheels, meaning that the ball was always being smuggled away at unexpected angles. His opponents could never even begin to guess where it was heading next.

This was the form that won him every player-of-the-year award for which he was eligible. He kept it up until the end of the season, when he produced a command performance to celebrate the winning of the championship in Barcelona's last home match of the season, detonating a party which kept the city up all night. But by the time he arrived in Germany for the World Cup a few weeks later the magic had departed, and on Wednesday we saw that it has yet to return.

Early this month there were rumours that he was back in form. Before Wednesday he had scored all the three goals Barcelona managed in the month of February, but each of them had come from a dead-ball kick. Against Liverpool he and his colleagues showed again that the flowing open play with which they delighted Europe last year is now a thing of fits and starts.

The sight of his naked torso on Wednesday reminded us that Ronaldinho has never been a keen trainer. His second season with Paris Saint-Germain was studded with rows over missed sessions. In Barcelona he seemed to discover a new maturity, but the last nine months have felt like nothing more than a long anticlimax. When Barça were flying, Frank Rijkaard appeared to be their ideal coach. On the basis of recent weeks, however, it seems the laid-back Dutchman may be too easy-going to galvanise the same players all over again.

Ronaldinho's lack of fitness is one signal. Another came 11 days ago with the refusal of Samuel Eto'o, absent since the beginning of the season, to comply with Rijkaard's request to take the field as a substitute in the final few minutes of the league match against Racing Santander. The Cameroon striker then stayed at home when the team travelled to Valencia, and watched from the stands as they lost to Liverpool.

Eto'o may have set something of a trend: on Tuesday night Emerson, Real Madrid's Brazilian midfielder, similarly refused Fabio Capello's request to take the field after 84 minutes against Bayern Munich. If there are further copycat outbreaks, in Spain or elsewhere, Rijkaard will deserve to be hauled before Fifa and severely punished for allowing a dangerous precedent to be set.

Not that Barcelona's players looked unwilling to perform for the coach or the club on Wednesday. They tried hard, but whatever balance they enjoyed was lost when Rijkaard replaced Thiago Motta, his holding midfield player, with Andrés Iniesta, a purely creative force, early in the second half. What might have looked like a progressive substitution merely re-emphasised the vital importance of a holding player - although Motta is by no means of the quality Camp Nou, once the home to Josep Guardiola, has a right to expect.

On Wednesday night it was like watching butterflies trying to break into a nest of spiders. Liverpool deserve immense credit for their team spirit, their resilience, and the priceless ability to make their chances count. But those who were enraptured by the Barcelona of 2006 will be saddened by the loss, temporary or otherwise, of a force for beauty.

[cobain]

Hehe...

I totally agree with those of you who say that he is out of form... Just look at these two pictures. The left one was taken last year, the right one on this Wednesday. See any difference? :whatever:



Palea's a bitch!