It’s been just over a year since Cristiano Ronaldo rocked the football world with his decision to move from Real Madrid to Juventus. After nearly a decade with the Spanish giants, Ronaldo was set to take on a new challenge in his career.
The move certainly had risks for both sides. For Ronaldo, he would have to adjust to an all-new team, league, and country at the age of 33, which is quite an undertaking.
And for Juve, they were paying a massive amount of money for a player who was well into his 30s and would likely never reach the amazing heights of his prime.
But they brought him in, anyway. And now that a few months have passed, it’s a good time for SBOBET to take a more in-depth look back at Ronaldo’s first season in Italy and Juventus.
Ronny’s decline continues
Cristiano Ronaldo was already on somewhat of a decline in his last few seasons with Real Madrid. Although his tally of over 40 goals in his last two years was impressive for mere mortals, it was not quite good enough for him, especially after he previously topped 50 goals in six consecutive seasons.
With his advancing age, he had begun the trend of conserving his energy earlier in the season so he could go full bore during the business end, particularly in Europe. And as his amazing Champions League-winning performances for Real proved, that strategy worked.
Nevertheless, the downward trajectory of his numbers continued in his first season with Juve. He finished with a modest 21 goals in Serie A — fourth in the league behind 36-year-old Fabio Quagliarella (26), Duvan Zapata (23), and Krzysztof Piatek (22)– and more importantly, just 28 goals overall. That was his lowest goal total since his last year at Manchester United a decade ago.
The advanced metrics also lent evidence to the fact that Ronaldo was no longer among the top contenders for the title of best player in the world.
While he remained a prolific shot provider, the quality of his shots declined. Per StatsBomb, his expected goals (xG) per 90 minutes notably fell from 0.78 in his last season in Madrid to just 0.57 in his first season with Juve. He also turned the ball over an additional one time per 90 minutes, as did his average touches inside the opposing penalty box (21.58 to 15.04).
Of course, Ronaldo was still capable of producing the sublime. His magical second-leg hat-trick against Atletico in the Champions League instantly springs to mind. But those types of performances are quickly becoming fewer and farther between as time continues to catch up to him.
Change out of Cristiano’s control
To be fair to Ronaldo, though, he wasn’t exactly put in the absolute best position to succeed at Juventus.
In his final few seasons at Madrid, he was allowed to transition into more or less an out-and-out centre-forward, which was in part how he was able to maximize his goalscoring potential.
But at Juventus, there were times during the season where he had to return to his original position out wide out of necessity to accommodate Mario Mandzukic in the line-up.
It likely wasn’t all that fun for 34-year-old Ronaldo to return to the wing at this stage in his career. Not only was it more taxing physically, but it also took him further away from goal, which played a factor in his dip in scoring.
To his credit, though, he did not cause any sort of controversy or publicly voice his displeasure about his role; he simply went out and did what manager Massimiliano Allegri asked of him and made a handful of Serie A 2019 highlights along the way.
Another Serie A, but no Champions League
In terms of silverware, Ronaldo was obviously a significant contributor to Juventus’ Serie A championship. But it’s also quite likely that they would have won another title even without him.
As the pre-season Serie A 2019 odds showed, Juve are just head and shoulders above their main rivals. And so it proved as they strolled to their eighth consecutive championship by 11 points.
However, winning the Champions League was the main reason Juventus bought Ronaldo. After he helped Real beat them in the past, it was his presence that was supposed to take the Italians over the top. Unfortunately, though, he couldn’t follow through on that promise.
Of course, it would be unfair to blame Juventus’ continued Champions League failure on Ronaldo. He did almost single-handedly rescue them against Atletico in the quarter-final. But these are the remarkably high standards that have been set for a player of Ronaldo’s immense greatness.
For any other player, especially a 34-year-old, what Ronaldo did this year with Juve — leading his team in goals en route to a league title — would qualify as a very successful debut season. But the fact that they did not accomplish their ultimate goal in Europe means that his first season with the Bianconeri still fell well short of expectations.
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