Why does Real Madrid continue to rely on Cristiano Ronaldo?
We all know Cristiano Ronaldo is a big game player. Taking Real Madrid to numerous finals and scoring on all the biggest stages. His ability to score is more than any team can ask for, but without him how does the team fare in important matches and tournaments?
The gap in goal scoring
If you look at top scorer for Real Madrid the past few years, you’ll see one man, Cristiano Ronaldo. He’s currently leading the team with an astonishing 42 goals in all competitions this campaign. This is even more impressive considering the form he was in the beginning part of the season.
Yes, the team has one of best scorers in the world, but where do the rest of the forwards in the squad place? According to Who Scored!, after Ronaldo Gareth is Bale with 14 goals in all competitions. That’s a massive 28 goal difference between the top scorer and the second highest!
Following them is the youngster, Marco Asensio, with 10 goals, then Benzema with nine, and finally Lucas Vazquez and Isco both with eight.
This disparity is too large to be ignored. The quality and ability of these players makes the stats even more disappointing.
One can only imagine the weight on Ronaldo’s shoulders in must win games and even regular season games as well. It’s reaching a point that if Ronaldo doesn’t score, there is seemingly no hope of winning matches or even putting pressure on teams at the very least.
This topic must be addressed at some point. It’s concerning how long Zinedine Zidane has continued to brush off Bale, and even more so, how he will continue to show faith in Benzema even though he has a shockingly low number of goals this season as a striker.
Assisting the team
After seeing Ronaldo’s goal contribution, you’d probably think there’d be a player or two dominating the assists category for the team. Sadly, this isn’t the case.
The highest number of assists this season so far goes to Lucas Vazquez, a player heavily criticized in the earlier parts of the season and has since turned things around. This is followed by Benzema with nine, Cristiano and Isco with eight, then Kroos, Bale, and Modric all with seven.
Ronaldo is close to topping the assists leaderboard, just needing four more to do it. He is doing some very heavy lifting for the squad. The top midfielders aren’t even assisting to their usual standards, only further defining the season the squad is having in La Liga.
Conclusion
Seeing the stats above really puts things into perspective.
Ronaldo is literally defining the phrase of “carrying a team.” This makes you wonder what the squad would look like without him in the lineup. Mind you, he has these stats while being rested several times throughout the season and serving a ban in the beginning.
Is it time to bring in new players?Do we sell some of those that are on the team currently?
Next: Real Madrid: Zinedine Zidane brushes off draw against Athletic Bilbao
These are types of questions that run through the heads of many of those following Real Madrid. Ronaldo is 33 and his ability to continue doing this is unknown to even him.
Hopefully, we see a change this summer and the team finds form as a whole. They haven’t had such low player performances in over a decade and hopefully won’t have to experience this in the near future.