Julian Dicks: How I would try to stop Cristiano (From Thurrock Gazette)

West Ham legend Julian Dicks talks to James Colasanti

12:26pm Friday 15th February 2013 in Sport

West Ham Legend Dicks has his say on West Ham

JULIAN DICKS COLUMN: ALL the talk in the build up to Real Madrid against Manchester United was about how United were going to stop Ronaldo.

It’s not obvious how you do stop him because he’s exceptional, but speaking as a former full-back I think I’d have tried to show him inside to my midfielders or my centre backs.

Back in my day you used to let players with that type of ability know you were there in the first five minutes by kicking them up into the air, but the laws of the game nowadays give them so much protection.

And I think in the modern day players like Ronaldo are given too much room to do what they want. If I was marking him I’d make sure I was always no more than two or three yards away from him – or try anyway!

If he’d played against me then every time he got that ball I would smash him! I think if he’d been playing 20 years ago when I started he would not have become the player he is because defenders would’ve smashed him knowing the ref would give them a few warnings before they even went in the book.

It was very tough to get sent off back then – even though I managed it nine times!

The type of player I hated playing were those really quick wingers like Tony Daley, Ruel Fox and Franz Carr. They were whippets and they could give me a 10-yard start over 20 yards and still beat me because I was not the quickest.

And that’s why when I played I knew I had to put them in ‘Row Z’ in the first five minutes because if I did that then I would have a relatively easy day, and if I didn’t they grew in confidence and gave me a hard time.