Alright guys, who do you guys think is the 3rd best players in the world after Messi and Ronaldo?

@Golazo: i see what you are saying. But let's try to understand one thing because you go bit far off my point. How do you think Barca and Real squad now are even?????

Real: best left back, 2 among best CBs, 2 best central mids, best striker, the most lethal on in history Ronaldo. Best left wing.

Barca: great left back, one overrated CB, another decent CB, one coverted RB, and a potential one. Busquet - crucial but againg and injured, the reset are just ok. Then Messi, then Suarez who half of the season was total crap.

How is that on paper better?

Leadership and characters are debatable. Just different opinion. I do agree Messi is a bit soft and quiet for a leader.

@LuisFigo: Roanldo fans like yourself, please also read the next sentence of that where I said, we cant judge Ronaldo performance on that. And by all your comments on all Ronaldo matches, even if he has the worst game, he is still wonder.

Do I wow when Ronaldo score wonder goals by his brilliance? Absolutely. Very often, when he scores tapins and the team create wonder attack? I wow the team. Do I laugh when Ronaldo makes those silly moves dribble and doesnt pass anyome, then dive and cry about it yes.

And to be fair: do I laugh and see Messi just walk around? Yes. What do I say when Messi doesnt score in crucial game, he is lost and wasnt good enough. Messi takes the ball too long and lost it... I do pffff.

Its a team sport. When a team is weaker, individual must step up more.

That exactly what De Gea has been doing and very one just on and on about Messi Ronaldo

Ter Stegen > Navas
Alba < Marcelo
Pique < Ramos
Umtiti = Varane
Sergi/Semedo < Carvajal
Busquets = Casemiro (different roles though)
Rakitić < Kroos
Iniesta/Coutinho < Modrić
Dembele <<< Ronaldo
Suarez > Benzema
Messi >>> whoever plays right side.

I agree that Madrid has better squad, that's for sure. But that just puts it in the perspective, Barcelona has one of best squads in the world, still Real beats them in almost every position.

@LuisFigo,

Funniest (and probably dumbest) thing I've read my entire life. And I've read some pretty bizarre stuff.

Well, let's not act like he doesn't lose balls or shoots from ridiculous angles, he sometimes even ruins actions when he feels like he can do it himself. He does it too, like every other player you can think of. Just that his ridiculous goal scoring record and fact he needs only one chance most of the time to get the goal makes him so apsurdly good.

Don't see reason why you think what @tuan said is so controversial. Maybe wow-factor is outstreched point, as Ronaldo definitely has ability for genuinely amazing stuff outside of typical finishing and positioning.

Bernardo Silva also needs to be on this list.

You mean near the top or overall list?

Aand another quality thread turned into CR7-Messi discussion real quick.

i see what you are saying. But let's try to understand one thing because you go bit far off my point. How do you think Barca and Real squad now are even?????

I think last season Real Madrid had a much better depth (still lost in El Classico even so) but now since they are without James and Morata and since Bale is always injured and not even playing things have changed, Real Madrid also lost Pepe and Danilo and didn't really get a new player for their first team or for backup so they are just weaker this season.

Barcelona on the other hand has got Coutinho and lost Neymar, they also added Dembele,Paulinho and Semedo so they are a stronger squad this year, the only player they didn't really replace totally was Mascherano since Paulinho can't step in the backline when needed.

Navas/Casilla < Ter Stegen/Cillessen is an even postition overall but I personally give a slight advantage to Ter Stegen over Navas.

Varane/Ramos/Nacho/Vallejo = Umtiti/Pique/Mina/Vermaelen is also equal of strenght you remove one of the first two in each team and both back lines become significantly more shaky but overall I can even argue that the backline of Barcelona has been more stable than the one of Real Madrid overall this season.

Marcelo/Hernandez > Alba/Digne here Real Madrid has an upper hand due to Marcelo being much superior in offensive tasks for Real Madrid.

Carvajal/Hakimi < S.Roberto/Semedo But at this position S.Roberto has been much more consistant and stable compared to Carvajal this season, further more Semedo as the second choice is much better than Hakimi.

Casemiro = Busquets as many can argue for both I think it's super hard to give advantage to either of them, both do great stuff on their position and I can't put one above the other this season.

Kroos/Modric/Kovacic > Rakitic/Iniesta/Paulinho Since even if Real Madrid has statistically the better midfield, on paper these players can outplay eachother in any given match, proof is the last El Classico but the small advantage is there for Real Madrid.

Ceballos > Suarez/A.Gomes Here as the backup Real Madrid does have more quality.

Isco = Coutinho It's simple I can't put a clear advantage for a player here but you could argue that Isco is better since Coutinho just came to Barcelona and is still adapting, it didn't help Barcelona the fact that he couldn't play in the CL this season.

Bale/Vasquez/Asensio << Messi/Dembele/Vidal This is actually a huge advantage for Barcelona this season.

Ronaldo/Benzema >> Suarez/Alcacer with Ronaldo having better stats than Suarez and Benzema having more experience than Alcacer it's a clear advantage for Real Madrid.

This is a rough comparison and it's shows that they are pretty much even from my perspective this season, last season Real Madrid had a better squad and bigger depth but like you see it's more or less an even squad comparison.

But to go back to what I tried to say, if we go that road then there is this big elephant in the room which is the fact that Messi benefited a lot from Iniesta/Xavi and at that time nobody dared to point it out how Messi's performance fell down as soon as he leaves Barcelona for Argentina he was like half of the player in the past when he was in the national team compared to what he was doing in Barcelona.

t's a double edge sword to bring out how somehow now Ronaldo has better teammates around him being 34 years old and not think about how much better Xavi/Iniesta/Fabregas/Thiago/Busquets/Villa were compared to the likes of anyone from Madrid from Ozil/Khedira to Xavi Alonso/Essien/Isco/Higuain...

Ronaldo, Messi, Salah.

carvajal/hakimi < s.roberto/semedo wrong
they are both equal in overlapping prowess.

isco = coutinho wrong
adapt or not adapt isco influence more than coutinho this season.

and most importantly, zidane > valverde when it comes to tactics and flexibility.

messi benefited from iniesta/xavi definitely. no one even argue about that as much as ronaldo benefited from kroos and modric. simple question if ronaldo is the cf of chelsea this season instead of morata, would he scored as much goals as in madrid or outscore salah? I don't think so, simple af chelsea don't have the services/midfield madrid have.

carvajal/hakimi < s.roberto/semedo wrong
they are both equal in overlapping prowess.

Not this season like I said Carvajal has been inconsistant for the majority of this season and Hakimi is far worse than Semedo so you're wrong sorry no argument there...

isco = coutinho wrong
adapt or not adapt isco influence more than coutinho this season.

The point is that even if Isco played more and Coutinho still didn't adapt the player quality is about equal.

simple question if ronaldo is the cf of chelsea this season instead of morata, would he scored as much goals as in madrid or outscore salah? I don't think so, simple af chelsea don't have the services/midfield madrid have.

If we had Ronaldo we would have been top 2 in the league by this point, by not having a good striker this season made it so hard for the team even when we play good, Hazard/Ronaldo/Willian with Kante/Fabregas and Alonso/Azpilcueta is too easy for a top 2 finish ahead of Manchester United.
Simple question to you, if Xavi/Iniesta played for Real Madrid and not Barcelona how many more goals would Ronaldo have scored per season? 20? 30? And would Messi still do as well with Khedira/Xavi Alonso? LOL

@Golazo

The point is that even if Isco played more and Coutinho still didn't adapt the player quality is about equal.

Player influence on the performance of the whole should matter most when comparing them about their quality though.

carvajal/hakimi is as inconsistent as roberto/semedo so you're still wrong

coutinho just arrives while isco has found his feet at bernabeu for ages, performance is not about new comer.
isco influence the game more than coutinho, it is what it is, so you're wrong again

could easily finish top 2 my ass, chelsea's defence and midfield have been shambles due to poor transfer window. the defence is so poor that gifted teams like barcelona and tottenham. if ronaldo would play for chelsea, he would have been screaming all week with frustation.

messi wouldn't do as well with khedira/alonso which is why florentino perez spends everything to find the perfect midfield to support ronaldo. talking about spendings in transfer window some more, team needs to spend to compete, which is why chelsea deserved fifth.

which is why chelsea deserved fifth.

Ouch, that harsh man, you musn't forget Chelsea got a bit unlucky at time this season, take their defeat against Burnley at the beggining of the season. Anyway, lets try to stay on the topic guys.

coutinho just arrives while isco has found his feet at bernabeu for ages, performance is not about new comer.
isco influence the game more than coutinho, it is what it is, so you're wrong again

Same quality of player, Coutinho even if not playing as much as Isco in La Liga yet has done better for Liverpool than Isco, the quality of the players is about the same which is why I put them as equal, if you think that Isco is better than Coutinho that's your opinion but in terms of squad strenght it's equal as both have a top ability as players.

if ronaldo would play for chelsea, he would have been screaming all week with frustation.

Ronaldo already proved himself in PL if had played for Chelsea this season the team would be in top 2 of the league like I said, on the other hand Messi without Xavi and an old Iniesta can't go far in Champions League anymore and has never played outside of his safe spot in Barcelona so I think that Messi would be screaming of frustration like he often did in his national team, sorry again for proving you wrong.

I wish people would realize foot isnt a exact science. They just go ahead and take whatever stat or results out of context or in the way they prefer and use it a "proof". Football is a sport but its also more of an art than it is a science. People can have many different opinion on art but they cannot take those opinion for granted and state it is fact since its abstract most of the time. Its how I feel anyway. :(

@emo, i am sorry but you can't blame burnley's defeat solely for 5th place. Anyway back to the topic, @golazo111 had a hard time to concede that this current madrid team is better than barca because clearly is a fanboy. coutinho just arrived halfway thru the season and not even in ucl, off course isco is better because he had more time and he already played for zidane for years not just this season. saying chelsea can come 2nd with ronaldo is a disrespect to madrid's midfield.

ronaldo already proved himself in epl haha man utd squad is forgotten then lol.

scholes>fabregas
rooney>morata
vidic>christensen
carrick=kante
nani>willian
vandersar > courtois

maybe I should stop that's too much L for chelsea lol. which means again you 're wrong and look at individuals rather than the team.
I already say messi wouldn't do better with khedira/ozil under mourinho, so again you have a problem of understanding.
fans like you maybe is the reason why conte resign lol.

@Thebaldgenius Well, technically, that was just one of the example of Chelsea not being lucky this season but I guess you are right, apart from that, Chelsea weren't unlucky all season long. Still think its harsh to say they deserved 5th place. :(

maybe I should stop that's too much L for chelsea lol.

If you were educated enough to read my comments I already posted, the team Ronaldo had in Manchester United a page ago that got +3 likes so you're not making any point at all, like I said if we had Ronaldo we would be doing much better as he is capable of scoring 20+ goals in PL which is more than Morata+Giroud put together so I don't see what is your point but just trying to act as if you have something of value to say but you are basically just fighting your own self at this point.

Like I stated, the squads of this season are equal to me when we compare Barcelona and Real Madrid, so trying to say how Ronaldo is somehow benefiting from a stronger squad comapred to Messi isn't true and is just an excuse in the making.

Last season however Ronaldo did have a stronger squad and did benefit from it, crucial points came from the bench when Morata,Isco,James showed up and that gave Ronaldo extra time to focus on important CL games as well.
But that was last season not this one, Real Madrid just had a bad start and Ronaldo was banned for many games after winning the Spanish Super Cup and that affected them a lot, even so Ronaldo played 25 games in the league and scored 24 goals, he also scored in every single game in the CL part from the last one (in which he also scored but was ruled out due to hand ball).

Instead of making excuses for Messi now we should be more objective because we could have been making excuses for Ronaldo in the past but that was never an option, you play with who you have and do the best you can and Messi still has a good team around him but people are very willing to now make excuses just like for his national team even if he always had good players to play with.

+3 can be done by just making another account mr so-called educated or do you want to be called luis figo?. you can be stubborn all you want but for me the fact that real madrid had the equal squad with barcelona by the team comparison this season is not true.

trying to say "ronaldo benefited from stronger squad isn't true" is a bs I don't take and don't act like chelsea has equal midfield with madrid because that's lack of respect to madrid's midfield and man utd 07/08 squad by using ronaldo.

I already say "messi wouldn't do better either with khedira/ozil under mou", I am being fair instead of making fanboy excuses.

there is not much different between last season and this season. james was a surplus. it was between isco or him, you can't play both at the same time cpt education.

+3 can be done by just making another account mr so-called educated or do you want to be called luis figo?. you can be stubborn all you want but for me the fact that real madrid had the equal squad with barcelona by the team comparison this season is not true.

OK that is your problem and not mine, you posted a bunch of random stuff without even reading what I said, you can act as if I'm the stubborn one but I posted a pretty much fair post now you can invent fake account excuse and insult other users as well it doesn't help your case at all, just because you think something I said isn't true doesn't mean you're right.

I already say "messi wouldn't do better either with khedira/ozil under mou", I am being fair instead of making fanboy excuses.

I'm not making any excuses, I'm saying the total opposite and you are acting more with your feelings with multiple insults which makes you the fanboy that is making excuses not me.

there is not much different between last season and this season. james was a surplus. it was between isco or him, you can't play both at the same time cpt education.

I already posted why there is a big difference from last season and this one, if you just want to ignore pretty much everything people say and just act as a little kid saying no,no,no that's you again not being capable of noticing arguments because they don't fit with you wanting to force your opinion on others sorry but you're wrong and if you were educated enough to read what people post before jumping on fighting users and flaming them just because you have a pre-made opinion, maybe you would be capable of making a good value post like me.

the disrespect is your problem, no wonder even some of the mods aren't happy with your biased view. saying chelsea can finish 2nd easily with ronaldo is absolute rubbish, even more rubbish than leicester winning the league. what insults? your disrespect towards the rest of madrid's squad is an insult yeah. speechless, the current chelsea's side is not even close to man utd 07/08. maybe not being a ronaldo fanboy and see clearer the other 10 in the starting lineup would help.

off course, it's a no because it's not true, isco is already at the club full season and the season before, coutinho just arrived halfway thru the season, how many times do I need to repeat myself mr self-entitled educated. saying carvajal/hakimi < sergi/semedo is another disrespect, because it's not true both have been inconsistent at times.

Well I will just repeat my points and you be the judge of me insulting anyone is not possible since you already insulted me and randomly took shots and some other user, you seem pretty mad tbh.

• Last season Real Madrid had a superior squad compared to Barcelona.
• This season their squads are equally strong, I compared the full squads and it's not a huge advantage on either sides.
• I could argue that Ronaldo benefited more in Manchester United than in Real Madrid, at least in his first years after switching teams.
• If we are going to claim how Ronaldo benefits so much from a better squad why are we ignoring then that Messi benefited a lot in Barcelona over the years at the time of their best team of all time with some of the key players from the golden Spanish generation.

Making up excuses how Ronaldo has better player around him making that the reason why he is better is very biased and wrong, nobody was making that same excuse in Ronaldo's behalf in the past when Barcelona was dominating either.
I didn't disrespect any squad you can try to make false claims now after you have tried to fight openly and call me names but I'm very clear in what I'm saying here, let's not make excuses for players when it doesn't fit our feelings.

And lastly since you brought up Chelsea and a potential best striker in that team, I have the full right to say that if he had someone like Ronaldo or Ronaldo himself, we would clearly be in a much better position than we are now, Liverpool has 1 Salah and they are 3rd in the league even with a bad defense and mediocre midfield, Chelsea would be right up there after Manchester City with a top world class player and like I said, Ronaldo already proved himself in Premier League and won everything from Golden Shoe to Golden Ball he was basically the best PL player since George Best if we see his individual awards and those things are mostly due to his own hard work and development as a player while working with Sir Alex Ferguson.

Conte that had Costa last season won the league and played FA Cup Final, this season we lost the top 4 spot but are still once again in the FA Cup Final, if we had a real killer in the squad next to the players we already have there is no doubt in my mind that Chelsea would have been in a far better position than what we are today, Chelsea doesn't even need to be like Manchester United from 2007 in order to do much better with a world class player added into the team, we have a decent squad that is very much capable of taking advantage with someone like Ronaldo specially in his Striker years, even that Manchester United team needed penalties to win against Chelsea in the CL Final, fact is that Manchester United won 3 League titles in a row and as soon as Ronaldo left they couldn't defend the title anymore and lost the next year.