Woe betide anyone that dares to criticise Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portuguese superstar prides himself on his professionalism and being the best that he can be, however, that hasn’t stopped Antonio Cassano going in hard on the Juventus striker.
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Though Ronaldo’s goals-to-games ratio can’t be ignored, Cassano believes that the player has actually made Juve worse since he arrived in Italy.
“He [Ronaldo] has another year left on his contract, Juventus signed him to win the Champions League, but they have had worse results since he arrived,” he said to Football Italia.
“They would have won Serie A titles also without him. It was the wrong project.
“For 120 years, winning was the only thing that mattered at Juventus. It is still an obligation, but they tried to change their skin with Sarri and Andrea [Pirlo].
“Ronaldo has nothing to do with Pirlo’s ideas. He will carry on scoring because he can do it even sitting. He cuts inside from the left and can destroy the goal and his headers are unique.
“Andrea wants to build the action from the back, he wants to press high on the pitch. Ronaldo can decide games, but he doesn’t participate much.
“I think he has done badly in these years unless they manage to win the Champions League.”
The Daily Star have crunched the numbers from the year before the Portuguese’s arrival in Turin to now, and what they’ve turned up is fascinating.
Essentially, the bianconeri are scoring less and conceding more with him in the side, and whilst that can’t be attributed solely to Ronaldo, his lack of participation other than sticking the ball in the net has to be a major factor.
Currently seven points off of Serie A leaders, Inter Milan, Pirlo has an awful lot of work to do in order to ensure 2020/21 ends with domestic success.