Bryler

🚨 Marcelo responds to Erik ten Hag’s comments about Cristiano Ronaldo being finished since leaving Real Madrid: “I had to read it twice. Because I genuinely thought something was wrong with the translation. And please, don’t tell me he only meant Cristiano was declining, not finished. That’s not how he sounded. There’s a difference between saying a player is no longer at his peak and speaking as though he can no longer deliver anything. Cristiano might have declined from the level he reached at Madrid, but even in that decline, he’s still a better finisher than the vast majority of strikers in world football. That’s what makes this conversation ridiculous. I want Erik to name five strikers who have scored over 300 goals since Cristiano left Real Madrid in 2018. Just five. Then explain to me how the man who managed that was finished. But I think I understand the problem. Cristiano created a standard that eventually became a punishment for himself. I remember at Madrid, there were matches where he’d score twice and still be unhappy. I’d tell him, ‘Cristiano, what’s wrong with you? We won.’ He’d say, ‘Marcelo, I should have scored 4.’ I’d tell him, ‘Brother, some strikers haven’t scored 4 goals in 3 months.’ And he’d reply, ‘That’s their problem, not mine.’ That’s Cristiano. I remember telling one of our teammates, ‘This guy is going to make scoring 30 goals look like a bad season.’ He laughed and asked, ‘How?’ I said, ‘Because once he scores 50, people will expect 50 every year.’ And look at what happened. He leaves Madrid, scores over 100 goals at Juve, returns to United and scores 18 Premier League goals in his first season. Then someone says, ‘Yes, but he wasn’t the same Cristiano from Madrid.’ Of course he wasn’t! What did you expect? For him to remain 27 forever? I watched that Tottenham game when he scored a hat-trick for United. I called a friend afterwards and asked, ‘Did you watch Cristiano?’ He said, ‘Yes, unbelievable.’ I told him, ‘Imagine knowing this man has been doing this for nearly 20 years, and you still cannot stop him.’ Now I’m supposed to believe he had already been finished for 4 years before that match? Come on. I spoke to Cristiano about age once. I said, ‘Brother, you’ve won everything. When are you going to relax?’ He told me, ‘Marcelo, why should I relax when I can still play?’ I said, ‘One day your body will tell you to stop.’ He replied, ‘Then I’ll listen when that day comes.’ I laughed and told him, ‘Knowing you, your body will probably have to send you a written letter.’ And look at him now. 41 years old, still scoring hat-tricks, still chasing 1000 goals. People say, ‘Marcelo, it’s Saudi Arabia.’ Okay, and? Was Juve in Saudi Arabia? Was United in Saudi Arabia? Were all those important goals for Portugal scored there? You cannot keep changing the argument whenever he proves you wrong. And I don’t understand something about United. Cristiano leaves, and people say, ‘Now we can build a younger, faster attack.’ Fine. No problem. But I’d like to ask, ‘Where are the goals?’ Someone will tell me, ‘Marcelo, football isn’t only about scoring.’ I agree. But when your team needs a goal, are you going to explain to the scoreboard how well your striker pressed? A normal striker scores 20 goals and people celebrate him. Cristiano scores 20 and someone says, ‘But he used to score 50.’ Think about that. You’ve become so good that people use your greatest years as evidence against you. I respect Erik’s right to choose how United played. Saying Cristiano didn’t fit his plans is one thing. Saying he stopped delivering after Madrid is another. Because if a man can score hundreds of goals after you declare him finished, perhaps your definition of delivering needs some work. And I’ll tell you something. The Cristiano I know will probably read those comments, shake his head and go to training. Then he’ll score another goal. And somebody will still say he’s finished.”

🚨 Wayne Rooney on people calling Cristiano Ronaldo’s 2008 season overrated: “I’ve seen people questioning Cristiano’s 2008 season again, and I genuinely wonder how many of them watched us play that year. I was there. I played alongside him. I saw what defenders were doing to try to stop him, and I saw what happened when they couldn’t. I remember one game where Cristiano had two players following him almost everywhere. At one point, I said to him, ‘You’ve got two of them worried about you now.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Good. That means somebody else is free.’ And that was the thing people sometimes forget about him. Everyone remembers the goals, the tricks and the celebrations. But when teams started organising their entire defence around stopping one player, the rest of us benefited. There were matches when you’d look up and see Cristiano making another run, even though he’d already made five or six without receiving the ball. I’d tell him, ‘You know you don’t have to chase every goal?’ He’d say, ‘Wayne, if I stop running, how am I going to score?’ You couldn’t argue with him. But Moscow is what I remember most. He’d scored our goal against Chelsea. People forget that sometimes because of what happened in the shootout. When he missed his penalty, I knew exactly what he’d be thinking. He’d scored 42 goals that season, helped us win the Premier League, and suddenly he was standing there believing he might have cost us the biggest trophy of the year. When Edwin saved Anelka’s penalty, everybody went crazy. We were European champions. But Cristiano was crying. I remember looking at him and thinking how strange football can be. A player can have the season of his life, score in the Champions League final, and still spend those last few minutes believing he’s let everyone down. That’s how much it meant to him. And that’s why I find some of the criticism ridiculous. People sit there nearly 20 years later, looking at clips and statistics, trying to explain why it wasn’t that special. We were playing against some of the best defenders in Europe. They knew what he wanted to do. They’d spend the entire week preparing for him. Then Saturday would come, and he’d do it anyway. I’m not saying we didn’t have a brilliant team. Of course we did. We had players who could win games all over the pitch. But even in that dressing room, we knew Cristiano was doing something extraordinary. The funniest thing is that people now use the fact that he played in such a good team against him. Well, I was one of the players in that team. And I can tell you that having Cristiano alongside us made our jobs easier, not his. If you want to argue about which individual season was the greatest, that’s fine. Football is full of opinions. But don’t tell people who were there that what we watched every week wasn’t special. I saw Cristiano win his first Ballon d’Or. I’ve also seen him win four more. And I still think there’s something about that first one that people will never fully understand unless they remember the player he was before he became the Cristiano Ronaldo everybody knows today.”