Cristiano
Ronaldo under Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United was a very great player
before his move to Real Madrid where he continued his fine form breaking and
setting records. He was very influential and instrumental at Real Madrid during
his era.
The
signing of Cristiano Ronaldo was a breath of fresh air for all Manchester
United. long-time targets, Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane was also added.
While amid all the fanfare, some questioned
the wisdom of the move.
Inverting The Pyramid author Jonathan Wilson
told WhoScored, “It’s an indictment of United that they don’t have such a
coherent philosophy and an individual can make an impact,” Wilson said. “But I
still think it’s a terrible move, there seems to be this desire to turn Old
Trafford into this theme park of Ferguson’s Manchester United.”
Truth
or not, after three months, things have been very complicated at The Theatre of
Dreams. Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was fired from his position and Ralf
Rangnick has come in to replace him as an interim manager. Ronaldo is still scoring goals for the club
and has six UEFA Champions League goals in five games. However, the problems
begins in the Premier League.
What’s gone
wrong?
Manchester United have a history
of signing older strikers (Eric Cantona) most recently
Edinson Cavani and Ronaldo. Both are successes, Cavani being pushed out of the
Paris Saint Germainteam was supposedly at the end of his career squad but when he arrived at United he brought quality and workmanship
not seen for a while.Maybe not an immediate
impact but when he got going he was looking like one of the best centreforwards scoring consistently and some very incredible goals. Ronaldo did virtually the same thing more so in the champions league but
because of his lack of physicality (old age) and link up play he restricts the speed of United'splay
With
Ronaldo’s presence it seems every through ball
is towards him. Some
players seem to rely on him too much to perform well so the team can win which as a result reduces the team’s creativity.
Last season, Solskjaer’s men kicked off the
2021-22 campaign with a brutal and brilliant 5-1 thrashing of Leeds United and
took seven points from the first nine on offer prior to Ronaldo’s return.
The reasons why may be a matter of debate,
but the fact remains that United’s performances have dropped off a cliff
suddenly and starkly following the signing of Ronaldo.
Points per game: 1.31
Win rate: 37%
Loss rate: 43%
Pre Ronaldo’s return, United had lost six of
their first 40 games of 2021. They’ve since lost six of the 13 games he’s
started.
Their defensive record has fallen off a
cliff, in Ronaldo’s 15 appearances, they’ve kept only two clean sheet,
conceding almost twice as many goals per game.
Most damningly of all, they’re not even
scoring more goals, begging the question – what has the 36-year-old CR7
actually brought?
United goals would literally come
from everywhere the midfielders, defenders and strikers. it made United a more
deadly team because of this it was hard to deal with because you didn't know
what to look out for last season.
He is
about 37 years old and he is considered old by some football pundits. As old
age comes with its natural side effect, Ronald's finishing hasn't been as good as fans have come to know, he
now misses clear chances, he can't take balls into his stride and also loses
possession too easily. With all these,
he can’t be dropped because of his influence.
The presence
of Ronaldo can make it really difficult for the manager to choose a starting 11
team without including Ronaldo in the mix- so
that’s a problem. However, the new manager has found a way to implement a
formation where another striker can play alongside CR7.
Recurring
themes
Massimiliano Allegri, Maurizio Sarri and
Andrea Pirlo all lost their jobs at Juventus after failing to deliver the
short-term success a statement signing like Ronaldo demanded. Solskjaer, who
signed a contract running until 2024 only in July, has now followed suit.
Ronaldo scored goals at Juventus.He became the fastest player to reach 50 goals in Serie
A, a record held
by Andriy Shevchenko, doing so in
65 games, and won the Capocapponiere award for the league’s top scorer as the
Old Lady barely scraped a top-four finish in 2020-21.
Juventus extended their run to an eighth and
ninth successive league title in Ronaldo’s first couple of years, but in Europe,
they were regressing. They’d finished runners-up in 2015 and 2017, but suffered
shock early exits to Ajax, Lyon and Porto during his three seasons there.
Despite the forward scoring for fun himself,
his signing didn’t actually result in Juventus scoring more as a team. In the
three seasons before his arrival, they scored 320 goals (averaging 1.96 a
game), while during Ronaldo’s three seasons there, they scored 293 goals
(averaging 1.90 a game).
“Cristiano’s presence had a big influence on
us. Just training with him gave us something extra but subconsciously players
started to think his presence alone was enough to win games,” Juventus defender
Leonardo Bonucci recently told The Athletic.
“We began to fall a little short in our daily
work, the humility, the sacrifice, the desire to be there for your team-mate
day after day. Over the last few years, I think you could see that.”
What next?
Floyd Hasselbaink also stated in heated
conversation between Jamie Carragher and Roy Keane that “the new coach needs
to find a way to get Ronaldo in the team while [accounting for his lack of
pressing]”. His record in Europe this season points to a player that can still
be effective if used correctly.
Mauricio Pochettino – who made his name by
getting his players to graft from front to back at Espanyol, Southampton and Tottenham
– is facing the same difficulty with Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar at
PSG.
All the while, Manchester City, Chelsea and
Liverpool – all of whom defend from the front and work diligently without the
ball – have pulled away at the top of the league.
Ronaldo continues to demonstrate that he’s
still absolutely lethal in the penalty area, but can a top-level team
accommodate a player that offers so little outside of it?
Is there still room for a Van Nistelrooy in
2021? Or can Ronaldo, at the age of 37, adapt his game once more?
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