Two of the best attacking midfield players in history, Zidane and Ronaldinho both brought their own brand of football, unique only to themselves which showed the world that there is more than one way playing the beautiful game.
Zidane showed the whole world how one can become the greatest midfield player of all time by not going down the same route as 20 thousand other people do, that is strength, speed and cheat in order to muscle out the opponent, outwit the opponent (though he did it, in a different way) or out run the opponent.
Ronaldinho on the other hand showed the world that it was possible to play like you want to play as a child and still be one of the best of your generation. The variety in his game (in both player’s game) was incredible.
I mean now a days, you see Messi (I know he is some player) shredding grass down the right with his left foot, cutting inside. Doing the same thing again and again, beating defenders as if they were stationary cardboard figures and scoring goals after goals.
Albeit, great for Barcelona fans, but admit it, not much variety in what he does in his general game play. Whereas on the other side you got Ronaldo. Who seems to learn new tricks and flicks every game and tries to impose them on the play rather than wait for the appropriate situation.
Sometimes it feels like Ronaldo does not really care (or rather, does not really know) what the defender is doing, all he cares is that, he has to execute the new trick he learnt regardless of actually thinking about the outcome of that trick. If it works it works and if it does then…well..it doesn’t.
Zidane and Ronaldinho were both the kind of players that they knew what they were doing on the field. They did not just learn the tricks and executed them. They learnt on the field and evolved, many of their dribbles are not the ones you can work on in the training field.
Most of their dribbles are some variant of the standard ones. Like everybody knows how to do a elastico (where you take a ball with your dominant foot and in one motion move it from right to left or left to right (if you are a left footed player) but why was Ronaldinho’s elastico so effective.
Because he did not execute it the same way time and time again. He changed it little by little, which was enough to off put the defender, whereas I have hardly seen C.Ronaldo (known for his tricks) actually beat a player with an elastico.
He may have executed an elastico on a defender but that always seems to be for the cameras rather than to beat the defender, he always uses his pace to beat defenders. Messi is a bit more, ADJUSTING. He also looks at the variables that are present on the field not the ones he had in training and then according evolves his dribbles.
He looks for mistakes in the defenders stance or his balance. Looks at where the defender has given him that extra layer of thin air and then slides the ball across him to leave him in his dust, but he has only one or two ways of doing that. Whereas Zidane and Ronaldinho, had I don’t know how many ways of doing the same thing.
That is what made their careers so illustrious though Ronaldinho sort of started late. I mean Ronaldinho was not a whizkid who scored 40 or 50 goals in a season (He never did that actually) like Ronaldo or Messi, but when he did get into his groove, say like in his middle 20s then he showed the world a totally different brand of football.
He did some moves which were never seen before. Some people thought he got them made from heaven well others thought, well it was just pure brilliance. Ronaldinho and Zidane, basically had every trick in the book (and some more) but you cannot really say the same for C.Ronaldo and Messi though both are scoring way more goals then both of the former greats ever did.
But how do they do against each other. Zidane and Ronaldinho. Both are legends, both had great potential. The level of their forms were the level of potential for most other players playing in their positions. Well, lets have a look at who is better between the two of them by looking at different statistics.
I am going to mark according to the level they played at, at their peaks because both of them have basically passed it. Zidane has retired while, Ronaldinho now, has surely passed it, was not even called up for the world cup for whatever reason (by the way, I do think that was unjustified move by Dunga). Anyway, here goes:
Crossing:
I think they were both capable of making good crosses but Ronaldinho gets this one for me, his consistency was more than Zidane, may be it was the system they both played under, in their peaks (by the way, Zidane’s peak lasted way way longer than Ronaldinho’s) and also because Ronaldinho played as a winger many more times than Zidane.
Zidane could also make some really good ones but he just did not get himself into that situation often enough, because he did not need to.
Ronaldinho actually,also became known for making wonderful crosses
Zidane showed the whole world how one can become the greatest midfield player of all time by not going down the same route as 20 thousand other people do, that is strength, speed and cheat in order to muscle out the opponent, outwit the opponent (though he did it, in a different way) or out run the opponent.
Ronaldinho on the other hand showed the world that it was possible to play like you want to play as a child and still be one of the best of your generation. The variety in his game (in both player’s game) was incredible.
I mean now a days, you see Messi (I know he is some player) shredding grass down the right with his left foot, cutting inside. Doing the same thing again and again, beating defenders as if they were stationary cardboard figures and scoring goals after goals.
Albeit, great for Barcelona fans, but admit it, not much variety in what he does in his general game play. Whereas on the other side you got Ronaldo. Who seems to learn new tricks and flicks every game and tries to impose them on the play rather than wait for the appropriate situation.
Sometimes it feels like Ronaldo does not really care (or rather, does not really know) what the defender is doing, all he cares is that, he has to execute the new trick he learnt regardless of actually thinking about the outcome of that trick. If it works it works and if it does then…well..it doesn’t.
Zidane and Ronaldinho were both the kind of players that they knew what they were doing on the field. They did not just learn the tricks and executed them. They learnt on the field and evolved, many of their dribbles are not the ones you can work on in the training field.
Most of their dribbles are some variant of the standard ones. Like everybody knows how to do a elastico (where you take a ball with your dominant foot and in one motion move it from right to left or left to right (if you are a left footed player) but why was Ronaldinho’s elastico so effective.
Because he did not execute it the same way time and time again. He changed it little by little, which was enough to off put the defender, whereas I have hardly seen C.Ronaldo (known for his tricks) actually beat a player with an elastico.
He may have executed an elastico on a defender but that always seems to be for the cameras rather than to beat the defender, he always uses his pace to beat defenders. Messi is a bit more, ADJUSTING. He also looks at the variables that are present on the field not the ones he had in training and then according evolves his dribbles.
He looks for mistakes in the defenders stance or his balance. Looks at where the defender has given him that extra layer of thin air and then slides the ball across him to leave him in his dust, but he has only one or two ways of doing that. Whereas Zidane and Ronaldinho, had I don’t know how many ways of doing the same thing.
That is what made their careers so illustrious though Ronaldinho sort of started late. I mean Ronaldinho was not a whizkid who scored 40 or 50 goals in a season (He never did that actually) like Ronaldo or Messi, but when he did get into his groove, say like in his middle 20s then he showed the world a totally different brand of football.
He did some moves which were never seen before. Some people thought he got them made from heaven well others thought, well it was just pure brilliance. Ronaldinho and Zidane, basically had every trick in the book (and some more) but you cannot really say the same for C.Ronaldo and Messi though both are scoring way more goals then both of the former greats ever did.
But how do they do against each other. Zidane and Ronaldinho. Both are legends, both had great potential. The level of their forms were the level of potential for most other players playing in their positions. Well, lets have a look at who is better between the two of them by looking at different statistics.
I am going to mark according to the level they played at, at their peaks because both of them have basically passed it. Zidane has retired while, Ronaldinho now, has surely passed it, was not even called up for the world cup for whatever reason (by the way, I do think that was unjustified move by Dunga). Anyway, here goes:
Crossing:
I think they were both capable of making good crosses but Ronaldinho gets this one for me, his consistency was more than Zidane, may be it was the system they both played under, in their peaks (by the way, Zidane’s peak lasted way way longer than Ronaldinho’s) and also because Ronaldinho played as a winger many more times than Zidane.
Zidane could also make some really good ones but he just did not get himself into that situation often enough, because he did not need to.
Ronaldinho actually,also became known for making wonderful crosses
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