think its a bit different considering from the 4 penalties neymar has taken at barca he also missed half.
when the time comes (probably soon in madrid) and the players get fed up one will stick up to ronaldo and eventually get him sold/benched
same with messi.

happens to all the top players when they stay too long in a club.

there doesn't need to be a "face" of real madrid. everyone just needs to do their job and recognize that when guys may be out of form, others need to step up. cristiano on the other hand needs to do his part to make those around him better....although i reckon that at this stage it may be too much to ask. and btw, i see where this is going, benzema isn't better than cristiano, he's in better form at the moment, but let's not get ahead of ourselves....are we going to say benzema has been second only to messi all of a sudden? let's relax and not start acting like skip bayless. and james needs to focus on not getting injured, i heard he's out for another 3 weeks.....

that said, the "let's all pass to cristiano, all the time, every time" has to chill, i like that benzema's putting in numbers too. its now up to others to also demand more, whilst at the same time not get too selfish.

tito no one is saying benzema is better than cr, but it needs to be acknowledged that cr is getting away with some average performances for years and he has been a main reason why the team dropped points, i have seen benz half as bad and the whole forum goes into an uproar with threads, but cr can do this get a goal and it all good.

How do u know that? Suarez took 3 for liverpool and missed them all.
@titto. Well, we both know there'll always be a face of x club sadly. Much less a club like madrid.

What @donut said tbh, +1. I mean, there will always come a point where someone will rebel/oppose a teams "go-to player" directly or indirectly, clutch or scrub, good or bad. Especially if the said player has been there for too long. And i think cr7 has gotten to that point.

How is Suarez best at free kicks at Barca? Because of that Europa League free kick against Zenit?

Or maybe the one he scored in the pre-season us tour.

@chad, that's the way football has always been. in football we as fans, myself included look at your resume. your resume dictates the kind of criticisms you get in tough times. also, as much as we understand what the team needs (the operative word being team) needs, its very very very difficult to levy criticism at someone who's putting up numbers, stat padding or not.

@bankz, the whole "face" thing isn't straight forward cos, nobody goes to a player and says u're now the "face" of this team, its somewhat inherent, its something everybody just knows without having to say it, and its really based on intangibles more than anything. so its not like the squad or coach can just say "hey everybody, from now on pass to this other guy and listen to what he says" . all that does destroys team chemistry....whoever wants to be the "face" has to take it by himself, on the pitch and be authoritative, and over a period of time and A plus performances, teammates will defer to such player. which is why i find it ridiculous when i hear stuff like "board wants a greater role for bale", he has to grab the role, nobody's going to give anything, regardless of what position on the pitch he plays

Messi is a WC FK taker though... It is only his penalty taking that is being questioned.

So is Neymar. Just couple of matches ago he did this.



There's more.



http://giant.gfycat.com/AdorableInfantileElver.gif

http://i.minus.com/ibsfhcZphoeh8J.gif

Just last match this happened. Unlucky as f.



So it's not like Ronaldo who has scored 2 free kicks in 85 attempts. Barca free kick takers are actually scoring so there is no need for Suarez to take them. In fact I have seen him take a few and I don't think he has scored from the few he got.

So suarez has suddenly become better than messi at freekicks now cause of some odd 5 fk goals he scored at liverpool missing all his 3 pk's to go with it.

Jack Daniels wrote:Messi is a WC FK taker though... It is only his penalty taking that is being questioned.

Nah he's not. I saw some stats not too long ago and Messi's freekick success is only slightly better than Ronaldos. Both poor imo.

You can't build around Benz... this is coming from a France NT fan. We've tried for years

Messi has massively improved his FKs though after being meh early on (tbf, Xavi was the specialist for Barca and there was no reason to change that) and he only takes those that are REALISTIC...  unlike a certain someone who takes them all past the halfway line

Messi's freekicks usually test the goalkeeper even if they don't go in. He rarely skies them or hits the wall repeatedly. Very often he hits very good freekicks. Not a specialist like Calhanoglu for example, probably also worse than Neymar, James and Bale. But up there in the next bracket for sure.

I don't even care when we get free kicks at this point I make bets with friends.

Will it hit the wall or will it hit the stands.

I feel like I unleashed a monster by teaching m99 how to embed streamable

Enable twitter video embedding, and i will praise you 'til the end of time, BC

Have you tried this?

https://blog.twitter.com/2015/embed-twitter-hosted-video-on-your-website

@earlyprototype, stats don't necessarily tell how good a set piece taker is...obviously 2 in 85 is extremely woeful, especially if the bulk of those are going miles over the bar like rugby shots or are hitting the wall. imo a good fk taker should have a reasonable conversion ratio, i'll say about 30-40 percent (around 2 of every 5, or 2 of 6). and if this quota isn't being met, then the bulk of misses should either actually test the goalie or be close shaves. in this regard messi's quite good, i doubt he's hitting 30 percent, but his kicks are usually threats and they get opponents unsettled.

i don't think anyone is worried when cristiano steps up for them these days. no disrespect to him, but sometimes i just use that as an opportunity to rush to the fridge or get something done quick before the game picks up again. its funny but that's how i missed the one he scored against i think it was eibar

Remember in the World Cup, Germany put Lahm as a one man wall and Ronaldo still hit him

Didn't Willian just do that too? If anyone has a gif of that I would love to see it