Andrea Pirlo ‘did not like Cristiano Ronaldo’ when he was coach of Juventus, revealed his assistant manager. ‘He didn’t want Ronaldo, but he couldn’t do anything about it.’
The 2006 World Cup winning midfielder retired from playing in 2018 and two years later took his first management role, thrown straight into the mix at Juventus in 2020.
Although he only lasted one season there, Pirlo did manage to win the Coppa Italia and the Supercoppa Italiana, then fired at the end of the season.
It was not entirely a happy experience, as confirmed by Alparslan Erdem, who was his assistant manager at Karagumruk the next year.
Pirlo frustrated by Cristiano Ronaldo at Juventus
“We analysed the data, which showed that Cristiano Ronaldo was the worst at sprints and the high press,” Erdem told the Bild podcast, via Corriere dello Sport.
“Pirlo didn’t want Ronaldo in his team, but he couldn’t do anything about it, because this was Cristiano Ronaldo.”
CR7 represented a huge investment for the Bianconeri, as well as a remarkable draw for sponsorship and revenue purposes, so the coach felt duty-bound to play the Portuguese veteran regardless.
It wasn’t just Ronaldo who was imposed on Pirlo, according to his assistant manager.
“Pirlo much preferred Alvaro Morata, who was perfectly suited to his 4-4-2 tactics. The system just didn’t work with Ronaldo or Paulo Dybala, but there wasn’t anything he could do about that.”
Following another brief experience at Sampdoria, Pirlo is now the coach of United FC in the UAE.
Meanwhile, Erdem has gone on to a main role of his own in North Macedonia with Rabotnicki Skopje.
EmeraldJ
140
So without Ronaldo, can we now count what Pirlo has achieved as a Coach?
malablata
105
That's what Cristiano Ronaldo had to deal with, wasting his time under average coaches like Pirlo, another is that Egg head Ten Hag.
Fepbcilnoz
69
When you have a player like Ronaldo or Messi you do not expect them to press and fight to get the ball. You build a team around them and deploy someone to cover because will deliver and produce magic no other player can produce. This is not a secret and they have been doing it for many years. Ronaldo just did that against Juvi when he was in Real Madrid. Jose Moreno tried to do the same and failed big time at Real Madrid when he asked Ronaldo to defend more! Zizo did otherwise and proved successful.
Desciklnot
58
no one wants penalty merchant
Woubcdkopy
22
this flop Ronaldo made the team' to sack coaches
Yoyemru
10
no one wants penalty merchant
ronaldo scored 101 Goals & 20 Assists in 134 Apps for Juventus (only 29 penalties) you called him penalty merchant 🤦 the issue is they have the idea or plan to how to manage ronaldo that is the issue not ronaldo 🤍