Here is a sprinkling of Cristiano Ronaldo statistics. Three games played and zero goals scored.
That’s two hundred and seventy minutes on Italian grass. It’s inspired a host of reactions, including national pride, ridicule and solidarity. The Portuguese is goalless in Serie A and it’s the major talking point going into the international break.
Ronaldo played every second of all three league matches against Chievo, Lazio and Parma. He had chances, caused problems for opponents and displayed his trademark tenacity. There have also been a few flounces when things haven’t gone his way.
Aside from the absence of goals, it’s been classic CR7 fare. He even broke Chievo goalkeeper Stefano Sorrentino’s nose in an accidental collision.
But in this age of twitter, silly ‘hot takes’ and instant gratification, three matches without finding the net is a ‘crisis’.
Except, it’s utter twaddle to speak of a crisis. To the dispassionate and rational observer, there is no issue. For fans and some corners of the media with their tongues in their cheeks, it’s a big deal.
Supporters of other teams find it amusing that the £100m man is yet to strike gold. The guy who earns £29m annually and owns more sports cars than he has got fingers, couldn’t even score against serial cannon fodder Chievo or newly promoted Parma. To make matters worse, his Cristiano Jnr plundered four goals on his debut for Juve under 9s.
It’s a neat opportunity to giggle at the almighty Juventus, Italian champions of the last seven years. Chances to mock the Bianconeri are rare, such is their domination. And those doing the teasing know that CR7’s drought won’t last long.
It also provides plenty of material to fill the papers and airwaves. Everything he does is scrutinised. That’s nothing new in Serie A, but this is hyper intense, unprecedented focus.
Amateur strategists have their say too, via social media. It’s unrelenting, forensic, 24/7 analysis. That’s one of the prices of being the best and a one-man brand. Italy already leads the world for post-match discussion, dissection and debate, but this is a new category. Welcome to sCRutiny.
Ronaldo’s failure to make any of his twenty three shots count has also generated some much-needed national pride.
You can’t go more than five minutes into a radio or television show without hearing how Italian defences are harder to score against than their counterparts in Spain or England.
It’s an entertaining concept. The theory is proposed by journalists and ex-players. To foreign ears it’s a shade fanciful.
Serie A defences are definitely better-organised than in the Premier League. But are they superior to the rest? The fact no Italian club has won the Champions League since 2010, or the Europa League since 1999, doesn’t support the idea.
Plus the national team conceded eight goals in ten World Cup 2018 qualifying matches (compared to Spain’s three against). It’s wishful thinking underpinned by nostalgia for years gone by, when Serie A was indubitably the toughest league for attackers.
Revealingly, high-profile former players are the most sceptical about the so-called crisis. On Mediaset Pressing, former Inter, Juventus and Italy superstriker Christian Vieri refused to give the Portuguese a rating for his performances.
‘I don’t give marks out of ten. It’s not as if someone misses a chance he gets five, if he scores he gets eight.
Juventus have to learn the right way to enable him to score. It’s only three games, give him time. The ball doesn’t want to go in at the moment. But he’s always in the right place. You can see he is another level to the rest. Sooner or later he’ll score,’ said Vieri.
Vieri’s ex-Juventus and Italy teammate Ciro Ferrara agreed. Even presenters find it difficult to hide their wry grin as they say the word ‘crisis’.
Juve boss Massimiliano Allegri is one of the finest tacticians in Europe. He is pragmatic and flexible. Max creates systems to win and nothing else. Those outside the Juve faithful (and some within) consider his sides a tad dull, lacking flair or flow. But he and his fans don’t care.
So far this campaign the Turin outfit have played a 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3. In both formations Ronaldo started on the left but drifted centrally, often a target for long balls from sweeper Leonardo Bonucci.
Allegri has never been afraid to tweak tactics, indeed, he regularly does it two or three times in the same half.
Once Ronaldo gets accustomed to life on and off the pitch in Italy, and Allegri’s computer-like brain has its ‘Eureka’ moment, the goals will arrive. And everyone connected with the Bianconeri hopes it will be in the Champions League.
Goals never tell the full story and the people that matter are happy with the former Real Madrid megastar. The more opponents double and treble-mark Ronaldo, the more space there will be for fellow forwards Mario Mandzukic, Federico Bernardeschi, Paulo Dybala and Douglas Costa.
Ronaldo has been a victim of his own brilliance. A third of the country expected him to grab four goals every weekend in Serie A. That’s clearly nonsense. But a fourth consecutive Champions League is what he craves, and why Juve signed him.
By the time spring arrives, the bars, papers, TV and radio will be packed with folks laughing as they recall the ‘three-match crisis of Cristiano Ronaldo’.