Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Tue Jun 22, 2021 6:19 pm
By the way I was talking to a friend the other day (someone who's actually into football, unlike me), and I asked him about who's better between Messi and Ronaldo (Cristiano that is, not the real Ronaldo). He said that Messi's skill comes more from artistry, whereas Ronaldo is more about physical presence. He also said that Ronaldo fans are more likely to be Brexit-voting knuckle-draggers, or words to that effect. Where does that sit with the c4c football experts?
The components of footballing ability can be categorised into 3 groups: mental, technical, physical (and yes, these are the categories that the Football Manager games use). The debate is endless as to which of Ronaldo and Messi leads in the first two categories, but it's quite obvious that Ronaldo excels in the physical department. I think some people sneer at physicality in football (and perhaps other sports too) as if physical attributes are less valuable, important, or admirable than mental or technical attributes. Some even seem to consider them to be somewhat 'base', hence the allusion to knuckle-dragging. It seems one part of this attitude is the belief that physical attributes are largely inherited and unearnt (Ronaldo is taller and has a bulkier frame than Messi so of course he's going to be better in aerial duels, etc).
I think this is bollocks. We should be analysing Ronaldo and Messi as football players, which means analysing football. Not walking football, with a five-a-side style 'nothing above head height' rule. Pace, acceleration, strength, power, endurance, jumping, heading; these are part of football. If someone doesn't like them in football then they need to accept these attributes are part of football whether they like it or not, admit that they therefore don't really like football for what it is, and leave debates on football to those that do. In particular the sneering at physicality as if it isn't sophisticated on an artistic or intellectual level really annoys me, but that's a phenomenon that goes well beyond football. At some point maybe these righteous pseudointellectuals will realise physical fitness, strength, and conditioning are at least equal to - if not greater than - artistic or intellectual endeavours.
"No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable." - Socrates.
Anyway, as for the Ronaldo/Messi thing: someone at my local pub (this someone may or may not have been me) once conducted a survey there to determine a hypothesised correlation (it's a very intellectual pub) between preference of Ronaldo or Messi with preference of arse or tits. While there were a few outliers, there was an undeniable trend for tit-lovers to prefer Messi and arsemen to prefer Ronaldo. I'm not sure what this finding says, but I think it says it emphatically. Make of it what you will.