Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to the Real Madrid squad will be crucial Wednesday
By Ben Sundock
Cristiano Ronaldo will likely make his first competitive start of the 2017/2018 season Wednesday as Real Madrid host Cypriot First Division champions APOEL. After missing four games due to a five match suspension, his return to the line up could not come at a more crucial time as Los Blancos try to defend their Champions League title.
Are Real Madrid a deep team? Yes. Maybe one of the deepest in the world.
But do they need Cristiano Ronaldo to succeed? Yes, they do.
While Real Madrid haven’t lost a match during Ronaldo’s five match suspension he picked up for shoving an official during the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup back on August 13th, this team needs a man like Ronaldo who can take over a match and score when a goal is desperately needed.
Since Ronaldo was banned for the second leg of the Spanish Super Cup against FC Barcelona and the first four LaLiga matches of this season, it has been the Marco Asensio show as the young Spaniard has been the main source of goals for this squad.
Asensio bagged two goals in Real’s draw with Valencia shortly before the international break, leading the team. Four other players have scored one goal, but no one has proven to be a reliable scorer thus far.
Ronaldo can be that man and is that man.
CR7 played just 24 minutes in the first leg of the Super Cup, and scored one of the most beautiful goals you will ever see to propel Real to a 3-1 win.
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Now, with Gareth Bale again struggling to be the attacker everyone wants and Karim Benzema out for over a month with a hamstring injury, this is the time Ronaldo needs to take over and be a ball hog.
In his past, Cristiano has been referred to as a selfish player, taking too many shots and not looking to pass to teammates. Although these assumptions and claims are completely false (Ronaldo has 11 assists in league and UCL play last season) the Portuguese beast needs to embrace these claims and become a little more selfish with Los Blancos lacking in forward scoring depth.
While Asensio has proven he can score goals when needed, Ronaldo is a man who can take over matches and single handily win them.
Real Madrid need to reestablish themselves after back-to-back draws; there’s no better way to do that then dominating a weaker opponent at home to kick off the Champions League group stage.
Ronaldo looked great on international duty with Portugal last week, bagging a hat trick in a 5-0 win.
Cristiano’s teammates agree that they need him back in the squad especially now after Saturday’s draw, as both Marcos Llorente and Lucas Vasquez expressed their happiness to having Ronaldo back for the mid-week fixture.
“It’s clear that he’s very important to this team and has the ability to score incredible goals and that would have served us well today,” said Llorente Sunday.
Vasquez echoed Marcos, telling the press, Another player who can play up front is Cristiano, we’ve been without him for four games and it’s far too long.”
Ronaldo should breathe life into this lackluster Real Madrid attack and we already know Zinedine Zidane will be more than happy to plug #7 back into the lineup the moment he is available.
Next: Karim Benzema out with injury – what does that mean for Real Madrid?