Real Madrid fans have spent years and years defending Cristiano Ronaldo from unfair criticisms, particularly after the greatest player in the club's history departed for Juventus, Manchester United, and eventually Al-Nassr. But even when he was at Real Madrid, Madridistas had to hear insufferable commentary about their beloved No. 7 when it came to the Portuguese national team - even including when they won the 2016 European Championship.
Cristiano is in his sixth and final World Cup, and he is still the starting No. 9 for Portugal. Although people want to suddenly pretend like Goncalo Ramos of PSG is an effective striker despite being a massive transfer flop and buried on the bench, Cristiano is still, by far, the best option at striker for Portugal and coming off an excellent season in which Al-Nassr won a tense Saudi Pro League title race.
Portugal, just as with Belgium, have looked frustratingly plodding and out of ideas tactically under Roberto Martinez, whose system of staying wide and avoiding any patterns of play in the middle of the park has, once again, unsurprisingly proven ineffective. And as Rio Ferdinand warned everyone, it is Ronaldo who has to answer for the manager's poor decisions following the disappointing 1-1 draw with a very underrated DR Congo side (shoutout to Yoane Wissa and La Liga icon Cedric Bakambu).
Cristiano Ronaldo was not the problem
But at least Martinez has the decency to be a gentleman and not throw Cristiano Ronaldo under the bus, unlike some even worse coaches (here's to you, Erik ten Hag). Martinez told reporters after the Portugal vs. DR Congo match, via Fabrizio Romano, “It made no sense at all to take off Cristiano Ronaldo who is the best goalscorer in history off the field when we were looking for goals”.
There were a lot of fans who wanted Cristiano off the pitch, but Roberto Martinez is 100 percent right in defending his decision to keep the legendary No. 7 on the pitch. Ronaldo is one of those guys who can score from out of nowhere, and he was making some great runs in the box that the overrated Pedro Neto - a player Chelsea are desperate to axe from their lineup - could not find or pull the trigger on a decent ball. Meanwhile, Bruno Fernandes was a total ghost, partially due to Martinez's poor tactics.
Real Madrid fans have seen the genius of Ronaldo over the years, and they have also seen the ugly bashing of him when Portugal cannot play well, create, or are held back continually by bad coaching. Ronaldo was not the problem against DR Congo, and at least Martinez knows that much.
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