Does Ronaldo’s days of greatness is really over?
Madeira-born superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest footballers who has ever laced his shoes to play this beautiful game. Always loved by hundreds of millions of fans over the world and most of them even worship Ronaldo because of his never-give-up mentality. However, all is not going well for the Portuguese maestro. Currently having a barren run of five-match in front of the net is not something that represents a positive atmosphere.
Back in 2008-09 which was the last season of his first tenure with the red devils, he had gone an even longer streak of not scoring a goal nevertheless. Ronaldo was not just a poacher at that time rather a speedy, devastating winger who could cause every type of danger to the opposing defense. Contrasting to that, now he is just a scorer who relies heavily on the help of his teammates and merely could do anything apart from scoring.
It would be harsh to criticize a footballer for just not finding the back of the net for five matches. Even more so if the name is Cristiano Ronaldo who knows how to come back strongly better than anyone but the crisis is far grave than just this. The red part of Manchester which spent the most across the football world in the last decade was almost finding its harmony under the stewardship of Ole Gunner even though the playing style was not great.
United stood 2nd in the league table and reached the semi-final in the domestic tournament. After confirming the signature of Varane and Sancho OGS might have thought that his time as a title-winning manager was there. Did he want to sign CR7, a superstar who could upset the formula and the tactics which worked well and improved with time? No one could ever know that but the result is within a couple of months the baby-faced assassin had been sacked.
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Everyone blamed the manager at that moment and suggested that with a tactical coach at their helm, this talented United side would be a team to beat. Tuchel did what Lampard could not so the authority appointed a mastermind in Ralf Rangnick as an interim manager. Still, United is far from a team with vision, commitment.
Ronaldo scored some important goals to send his team to the KO stage of UCL, he is the highest scorer in his team too. So, how could the savior be the problem? Well, stats are always right but some hidden truths are always there that we can not overlook. The inclusion of Ronaldo alters the game plan of both coaches. The young guns like Greenwood, Rashford failed to shine like the previous season due to the change of formulation and position. The same is true for Jadon Sancho also.
The best player in the team, Bruno could not settle himself in the new style of his team also. There are some other problems also in this Manchester United team but the fact is that they were improving and now they find themselves fighting for the next season’s Champions League spot. It would be a crime if someone blames Ronaldo for all of this but we should take a look at the megastar’s Juventus days.
Every Los Blancos fan could think that Perez did a crime by selling their Crown jewel, their most loving hero. However, the president of Madrid did nothing but a great piece of business by acquiring more than 100 million for a 34-year-old player. Juventus was ambitious. They were the Serie A champion for the seventh time in a row including a domestic treble for the prior three seasons. The ultimate goal was then winning the accolade with the big ears, the holy grail of European football competition, UCL, and they were there to reached the final twice in four years. So securing the service of one of the best players on the planet could fulfill their long-cherished desire. The irony is Ronaldo failed to live up to the expectations.
His big ego and attitude helped him to be the center of the playing style and attack and it should be in this way too. A team should focus its main player in the middle of everything but those days were long gone for Ronaldo. There is a clear distinction between the nucleus of a team and the main scorer of the team. He scored 100 plus goals in three seasons for the old ladies but his presence left the club in an unsettled position. The hierarchy of the club sacked three coaches in as many seasons where the previous three coaches served the club ten years. This might depict the tense ambiance of the club during his time. Not only just this but also they lost their grip on the domestic trophies.
The dream of winning the UCL with the help of Ronaldo became a nightmare. They just reached the last eight once and were knocked out from the RO16 on the other two occasions. This clearly showed how deteriorating the condition was during the time of Ronaldo. His astronomical salary made the club paralyzed during the time of Covid. Above of all he stabbed the club in the back by leaving it in an unstable condition.
Ronaldo will surely score and break the unwanted streak but leading a team to the glory might be an arduous task for him. His ego, selfishness will do more damage to the collective goal. It is almost obvious that CR7’s days of greatness and winning big trophies are overtly over.
