Ronaldo more complete than Messi - Saha

Posted Friday, December 16, 2011 by ESPN

Everton striker Louis Saha believes former Manchester United team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo is a more complete player than Barcelona's Lionel Messi.

Saha, who has played with the likes of Ronaldo, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Wayne Rooney and Alan Shearer during a long career in English football, believes the Portuguese winger is the superior player to Messi - because unlike the Argentine the Real Madrid star does not need help from his team-mates to find the net on a regular basis.

Saha believes Ronaldo is so good you could put him anywhere on the pitch and he would still make an impact.

"There is not a more complete player in the world," Saha said, in a wide-ranging interview with France Football. "He could play in any position. He will always score because he runs quicker and jumps higher than everyone. His endurance is crazy - his power of shot as well.

"He would score 30 goals in any team, because he can do it all on his own. Messi is maybe the best player in the world, but I am convinced he needs the team to play."

Ronaldo departed the Premier League for Spain in 2009, with Saha having left for Goodison Park a year earlier. Having experienced his first taste of English football at Newcastle in 1999, the 33-year-old believes the game on these shores is more physically demanding than ever.

"It has become more intense. Quicker. More physical," he said. "Today, the tactical element has almost become a side issue. What matters is to be ready physically and mentally, because it never stops.

"In Italy, matches have rhythm with strong and weak periods. Here, it is 90 minutes solid.

"I also believe that the arrival of foreign coaches has changed the deal. They have brought more rigour in all aspects and Europeanised the play. When I arrived in 1999, we had the habit of seeing play with wingers, and attackers surging into the box and aiming balls onto their heads.

"But the tradition still lives on, like at Manchester United, where attacking play is part of the tradition since the time of the Busby Babes and George Best."

Saha is in his fourth season at Everton, currently back in the first team after starting the season out of favour with David Moyes. The Frenchman was vocal in his displeasure at being left out of the team early in the campaign, but now believes the manager was trying to test him - and insists they have a good relationship once more.

"The situation is normal again," he said. "It is normal that there are little tensions. Maybe he wanted to get a reaction from me. The important thing was that I got the explanation that I needed because I am playing again.

"The start to the season has been very complicated at the club. The financial problems meant we did not have a real recruitment campaign. Indirectly, that impacts on us.

"When a player like [on-loan Real Madrid midfielder Royston] Drenthe arrives at the last minute and [Mikel] Arteta departs [to Arsenal], it is disturbing. It takes time to settle again."