Madrid Left v Right
In terms of output, there’s a definite difference in both flanks. From the full-back position, Marcelo offers far much more threat going forward on the left than right-back Sergio Ramos. The Brazilian averages 0.88 Key Passes to Ramos’ 0.61 and makes 2.3 Successful Dribbles compared to just 0.3. It’s not as if Ramos isn’t attack-minded; he has scored 25 Goals for Real, with last season’s 3 his lowest ever total for the club. A better balance is perhaps required and regardless of whether Alonso or Sahin plays in the right of the double pivot, Ramos will clearly have a more cultured presence ahead of him in the centre, in comparison to Diarra or Khedira last term.

The same applies on the wings; Di Maria is equal to Ronaldo in many stats- he edges Key Passes 2 to 1.9, just loses out in Successful Dribbles (1.9 to Ronaldo’s 2.2) and made the same number of Assists, with 11. When it comes to goal threat, however, Ronaldo dominates; his 5.6 Shots per game to Di Maria’s 1.6 and 40 Goals to 6 a hugely substantial difference. Clearly, Di Maria doesn’t have the finishing ability of Ronaldo but with a more creative presence behind him playing quality Key Passes, Di Maria should increase his goals tally next season and better that poor goals return of 1 per 9.33 Shots.

A comparison with Madrid’s most-used front four last season, shows just how more clinical the Spanish side were. Mezut Ozil, while scoring just 6 Goals, only had 0.8 Shots per game, meaning he scored 1 Goal every 4.8 Shots, only slightly worse than Ronaldo’s 1 per 4.75 Shots, despite the latter scoring 40 Goals. Karim Benzema was of a similar ratio, with 1 Goal per 4.62 Shots. Angel Di Maria is the weak link when it comes to converting chances; he averaged 1 Goal every 9.33 Shots, scoring 6 for the season. Throw in Gonzalo Higuain’s 1 per 4.08 and Kaka’s incredible 1 per 3.2 Shots, however, and Sahin should see more of the chances he creates ending in the back of the net this time round.

Ramos didn't really score from open play from RB.

Ozil and Di Maria need to score more.

Di Maria and Ronaldo aren't as effective as people make them out to be in terms of dribbling.

Ronaldo’s 1 goal per 4.75 Shots

We should have gone for david silva instead of maria imo.

Maria cant pass to save his life,and i dont think he can take his crap passing and decision making to another level.Sure he will improve,but how much?

He doesn't score either, so he should be a bench player.

Also we should of got Aguero. I think he provides more than Ronaldo and Di Maria.

Ronaldo is your CF from the future, perfect goalscoring machine.

Who ever can make it happen will have my respect.

Aguro is not even close to ronaldo lol at anything.

He isnt triple marked in any games he has ever played in his life.

Let him prove he at least deserves a 2 man marking in man city.

you dont think La liga defenses were marking Aguero when they were playing atletico? putting 2 and sometimes 3 people on him when he approached the box?

mind you, sometimes only 1 person follows Ronaldo and often the second man only comes when ronaldo is wide.

That's never a fair assumption to rate a player. If i was a troll, i would tell you that messi destroys packs of defenders to go at him

From the reaction of people on these forums it seemed like Ronaldo had 1 goal every 15 shots.


If we got Silva it would not have been fair on football as we would have raped everything before us.

I am also shocked that Ronaldo has more successful dribbles than Di Maria.

Shocked? Cristiano can actually get pass his man and also has much better ball control than Di Maria. Also, and this one is a bit underrated, Cristiano would have a greater chance of beating his man because he can use both feet. Ignoring Messi and Maradona a bit, guys who can use both left and right have an unpredictable movement with the ball at their feet. Di Maria is solely left footed and thus there is really few places he'll be going and I can assure you it would be with his left foot.

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:you dont think La liga defenses were marking Aguero when they were playing atletico? putting 2 and sometimes 3 people on him when he approached the box?

mind you, sometimes only 1 person follows Ronaldo and often the second man only comes when ronaldo is wide.

That's never a fair assumption to rate a player. If i was a troll, i would tell you that messi destroys packs of defenders to go at him

Aguero is not much as marked as CR7.If you think he is getting marked as much as CR then i have nothing to say really.We are a completely left sided team and teams are filling the flank with truck load of players and leaving space on the right.Aguero has never been as marked as Cr in his entire career.

Di Maria goes past 3 players in quick succession you always see him skin players, I am very shocked that he is more successful at dribbling than Di Maria.

I know Di Maria is left footed and more predictable, but from what I have seen I always thought Di Maria was more effective at going past a player.

ya,and what about ronaldos 1 goal every 452452 shots theory?

Adit wrote:ya,and what about ronaldos 1 goal every 452452 shots theory?

You just put that theory to bed.

Adit wrote:Aguero is not much as marked as CR7.If you think he is getting marked as much as CR then i have nothing to say really.We are a completely left sided team and teams are filling the flank with truck load of players and leaving space on the right.Aguero has never been as marked as Cr in his entire career.

Well i do, when you would play Atletico, you would try to keep Aguero on a short leash, because he would simply destroy you if you gave him space.

I think it's a little misguided to claim that 3 people mark Ronaldo. It's not exactly something you can measure, sure, teams will keep him in check and double team him most of the time, or even add that extra man, but it's true for many players as well. It's not an honest assessment of things and you make it almost sounds as bragging contest, "look how many players can mark my player...". If i am given the choice between both player, i wouldnt use that argument to determine which player is best for my side, extremely subjective.

We are a left sided team because we made of Ronaldo our primary attacking outlet. Does that mean that there is more space on the right? i dont think so, if you attack left, the defense shifts left, if you attack right, defense goes right. There isn't necessarily more space, if we transition from one side to the other, so will the defense. The advantage with having both side running at the same pace, would be the amount of troubles you would give to a defense. You just overload them and they dont know from which side the attack will push forward.

What is lacking however, is the fact that Di Maria isn't making runs inside the box to create more passing options, and the CF is alone in there. Ronaldo is the goal scorer, so it would make more sense to attack right and make the ball available inside the box for the forwards, but Di Maria is sucking really hard at the moment, and he isnt our n1 attacking outlet. He tries to create things with dribbles and such, but i dont think he commends the ball enough. Also, we have Marcelo making channeling runs forward from the left, while Ramos is more restricted in his movements to maintain the shape of the defense.

It's by design that we are this way, it's flawed to me but it's the way it is. We could have achieved more Balance if we had a natural DM that could slot in the defense and give more freedom to the fullbacks to attack.

EarlyPrototype wrote:

Adit wrote:ya,and what about ronaldos 1 goal every 452452 shots theory?

You just put that theory to bed.

Now expect "he scored around 15 goals against weak teams in the end " comment,which has no basis at all.

So every la liga teams where just bending over to ronaldo to score when the points separated 8th team to 18 th team(relegation) where just 3 points in 34 th round? are you kidding me? is this game played by madrid alone? this is a game played by two clubs ffs.Inbefore "he scored when we were already winning" comment,goal difference was also a serious consideration for relegation last year ,so that argument is also put to bed.



its not against you early.

Adit wrote:

EarlyPrototype wrote:

Adit wrote:ya,and what about ronaldos 1 goal every 452452 shots theory?

You just put that theory to bed.

Now expect "he scored around 15 goals against weak teams in the end " comment,which has no basis at all.

So every la liga teams where just bending over to ronaldo to score when the points separated 8th team to 18 th team(relegation) where just 3 points in 34 th round? are you kidding me? is this game played by madrid alone? this is a game played by two clubs ffs.Inbefore "he scored when we were already winning" comment,goal difference was also a serious consideration for relegation last year ,so that argument is also put to bed.

Exactly my thoughts, those claims are usually made by Barca fans that were butthurt Messi lost out to Ronaldo.

To sum it up:

Real Madrid had nothing to play for, but the other La Liga teams did.

I don't want to be a party pooper but take out Ronaldo's penalty goals (8 last season) and his goals per shot ratio is 5.69.

You sure about this bro? Are we talking last season? I was checking out soccernet for stats last year and here's what they were (no stats for CDR. Just La Liga and CL):

Ozil: 7 goals on 54 shots = goal every 7.7 shots

Di Maria: 9 goals on 101 shots = goal every 11.22 shots

CR7: 46 goals on 323 shots = goal every 7.02 shots

Benz: 21 goals on 105 shots = goal every 5 shots

Take out free kicks and those stats become accurate.

Zealous wrote:Take out free kicks and those stats become accurate.

Doesn't look like it... Because then you would have to take out PK and FK goals too. You can't keep the goals from set pieces and take out the shots. Also, there's no way Di Maria took 50 FKs.