All eyes will be on Cristiano Ronaldo on Tuesday night, but not for the usual reasons. The Real Madrid star is in Cyprus looking to seal his side’s progression to the knockout stages of the Champions League, though it may only be as Group runners-up. If their European campaign has been underwhelming so far, their start to the new La Liga season has been downright disastrous.
At the heart of Real’s problems – they are 10 points adrift of league leaders Barcelona – has been the form of Ronaldo. He is currently enduring one of the worst barren runs of his time in the Spanish capital, scoring from just one of his 55 shots on goal – the worst conversation rate (1.82%) of any goalscorer in Europe. In La Liga, 64 players have scored more goals than him this season.
His most recent performance against Atletico typified his early season strife. He fluffed the chances that fell his way, lost a sprint race with fellow veteran Juanfran, and when he left the field he did so in a blue mist of four-lettered swear words. All the while, rival fans joke that he has had more children (three) in the last five months than goals.
Statistically, he’s still doing all the things he used to before – besides making the net ripple. Most managers will say they are more concerned when their goalscorer is not getting on the end of chances than when they are simply not converting them. That feels true of Ronaldo. He is still getting in the right places at the right times.
Cristiano Ronaldo's 2017/18 La Liga stats
Games played: 8
Goals scored: 1
Expected Goals: 5.9
Assists: 2
Shots per game: 6.9
Shot conversion: 1.8%
Chances created: 18
Passes per game: 27
Passing accuracy: 79%
Tackles/interceptions: 0
In fact, his Expected Goals – a metric that identifies the quality of chances – is on par with last season, likewise his shots on goal and touches in the opposition area. This year he has even been dispossessed less often and created more chances. But few have been taken, with Karim Benzema largely to blame for that. The Frenchman, admittedly returning from injury, has been a long way short of his best form too.
And yet, something feels different about Ronaldo this time. The most shocking thing about his performances has been how utterly bereft of confidence he looks in front of goal. Yes, Ronaldo – a player whose ego is so big it needs its own postcode – is lacking confidence.
For so long there was an air of inevitability about Ronaldo in front of goal, his ability to find the bottom corner repeated so often in training it had practically become muscle memory. But now rival fans are not holding their breathe in expectation of a goal, but in anticipation of being able to ridicule him again.
He has now gone 360 minutes and 27 shots without a goal – arch nemesis Lionel Messi, who leads the division’s scoring charts with 12, would need to miss his next 595 shots to have a comparable conversion rate. Worryingly, there is almost a desperation about Ronaldo in front of goal now, and that has bred anxiety amongst the rest of the Real squad.
Compound that with Ronaldo’s infamous lack of work rate and defensive contribution and you have the perfect recipe for disaster. This season he has not made or even attempted a single tackle or interception. He’s always been the ultimate luxury player, but his outrageous goal tally forgave all those shortcomings and more. But when the goals dry up, what are you left with? A stroppy, wasteful diva, it seems.
There are rumours of a bust-up with club captain Sergio Ramos, while the Spanish newspapers went into meltdown over the possibility of Ronaldo quitting the club. PSG and Manchester United would both welcome him with open arms. But perhaps they would be wise to reconsider.
Zinedine Zidane on Ronaldo's bad run
Speaking after Real’s win over Las Palmas at the start of November: ‘Now Cristiano is getting assists, his bad run will end. Isco’s goal came from a Ronaldo cross. Both Ronaldo and Benzema have been doing the right things on the pitch.’
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner is 33 years old in February. He is coming to the end of his prime years, but while other legends have adapted – think of Steven Gerrard dropping into a deeper, playmaking role – Ronaldo probably lacks both the capacity and willingness to do that. He needs to be the star and defines himself by the goals he scores.
He has also had a negative impact on the future of Real. It was Ronaldo’s preference for playing alongside Benzema that forced Alvaro Morata to leave Madrid for Chelsea. Since then, he has scored eight league goals (twice as many as Real’s top scorer) while the Frenchman has netted only once. Even now there is a sense that Zinedine Zidane is reluctant to use Ronaldo and Marco Asensio together, despite the team looking so much more dangerous with the latter in the side.
In pandering to Ronaldo, Real have clipped the wings of their next generation. While that has yielded Champions League titles in three of the last four seasons, other clubs should not expect a similar return. It is just starting to feel like the beginning of the end for one of football’s greats; he looks human after all. He tailored last season so he would peak at the business end of the season and hit an astonishing run of form, but, in La Liga at least, it feels like he has already left it too late to start producing such fireworks again. Assuming he’s even still capable of it.
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