Prime Ronaldinho

Was having a discussion with a couple Barca fans. They were bitching about how lately Messi has gone missing in some big games. It seems with some wc defenders and some good organization it's possible to mark him out(chelsea inter, recent real madrid games). One of the guys brought up that ronaldinho in his magic years(2003-06) didn't have this problem. He'd go up against even tougher defences(mourinho's chelsea, milan with nesta maldinin and stam, a very good valencia) and still make them look like jokers. For him messi is a better goal scorer but dinho was an unstoppable force. Was just wondering, do barca fans here feel there's substance to this?

right now Messi has no one but himself to score. If we had width like it used to be, i think Messi would have been level, if not better then him.

gnrfan wrote:Was having a discussion with a couple Barca fans. They were bitching about how lately Messi has gone missing in some big games. It seems with some wc defenders and some good organization it's possible to mark him out(chelsea inter, recent real madrid games). One of the guys brought up that ronaldinho in his magic years(2003-06) didn't have this problem. He'd go up against even tougher defences(mourinho's chelsea, milan with nesta maldinin and stam, a very good valencia) and still make them look like jokers. For him messi is a better goal scorer but dinho was an unstoppable force. Was just wondering, do barca fans here feel there's substance to this?

Hi mate. This has been discussed before and the bottom line is that Messi is an overall better player than ronaldinho ..
And how does messi go missing in some big games ? he is one of the most lethal strikers in the world . Suffering for a month or so is not a big deal.
He went missing against Milan and Real but so did the team ...

PS : Ronaldinho

In his heyday, 'Dinho would toy around with some of the fiercest defences for fun. Thing is, 'Dinho was more of a creator for Barcelona, whereas Messi is a finisher. 'Dinho's flicks, through balls and jukes gave others the opportunity to score (and a chance for him to humiliate defenders) whereas Messi is the one doing the scoring and generally looking to others to created opportunities for him. They have different roles in the team

Back when I used to watch Dinho play I didn't notice defenders swarming him the same way they do Messi. For example, look at the freedom afforded to him by Real:


Messi has never been as flashy as dinho but he can still beat 2-3 defenders one after the other on any given day. Dinho, given his position on the field his freedom and his trickery made him look unstoppable. It still does and he was one of the most enjoyable players ever to watch. But if you compare him to Messi's incredible efficiency, it's Messi all day.

And as far as the width argument, it's a bit double edged. Nowadays Messi is our only scorer and has to do all the work himself while getting swarmed but back in the day Dinho didn't have a midfield of a prime Xaviesta and Busquets so it's two different situations.

The problem is you cannot compare the two because they played with different teammates and against different opponants.


Also Lex is right, Ronaldinho was the creator. Messi is too, but Ronaldinho had one role, Messi has more than one for us. At the moment, we dont play with anyone he can create for so we are only able to assess his impact based on if he scores or not and right now he is not.

And moreover, Messi has already been at his level for longer than Ronaldinho was...so of course that means more games at that level and more chances to stop him.

His list of "failures" is longer than Dinho, but his list of destructions is far longer too.

totally different players and different contribute to their teams.

But man I love Dinho more than Messi.

I love Neymar to his skill is sick shame he is so slim :/

a Prime Ronaldinho in 2005 wouldn't be as famous if it wern't for Eto actually making runs and finishing his shots.
Messi is not a creater? If Alexis / Pedro / Cesc actually got their shots on target Messi would have well off 25+ assists every goal Barcelona make is either from Messi or some involvement from him.
Also Ronaldinho did not play in the middle, he played more from the left side same reason CR7 doesn't get marked by 4+ players the whole match like Messi does.
unfair comparison to be honest both great players but fact is Ronaldinho wasn't as consistent and people bias him for his flair which made the game more appealing where as Messi does the more simple game.

Donuts wrote:a Prime Ronaldinho in 2005 wouldn't be as famous if it wern't for Eto actually making runs and finishing his shots.
Messi is not a creater? If Alexis / Pedro / Cesc actually got their shots on target Messi would have well off 25+ assists every goal Barcelona make is either from Messi or some involvement from him.
Also Ronaldinho did not play in the middle, he played more from the left side same reason CR7 doesn't get marked by 4+ players the whole match like Messi does.
unfair comparison to be honest both great players but fact is Ronaldinho wasn't as consistent and people bias him for his flair which made the game more appealing where as Messi does the more simple game.

Agreed. Messi's consistency is still off the charts even with him being swarmed. And as a false 9 his workrate is immense (not lately, but u know) and of course he provides. Even with his insane number of goals he's always provided assists as well.

As a Milan fan, I'm extremely proud of how we restricted Messi at the San Siro. However, some people seem to think that because Messi didn't score in 1 or 2 games he is declining or not as good as he used to be. These people have some serious memory issues because in the weeks leading up to that, Messi was still destroying teams with ease.

I think Messi is a more complete player than prime Ronaldinho. Messi is both a creator and a finisher, whereas Ronaldinho was primarily a creator. In saying that, many people remember the flamboyant tricks and creativity of Ronaldinho in that creator role and that makes him more likeable than Messi, who (bar the odd flick and nutmeg) has refined his creator role into a unspectacular but efficient display of precision short passing and through balls.