Against Norwich, Cristiano Ronaldo once again put on one of his shows. Another hat-trick (the 60th of his career), shortly after the one he scored against Tottenham, to give Manchester United a hard-fought 3-2 win and put him one goal away from 100 in the Premier League.
The Portuguese star came to the rescue by scoring the winning goal from a free-kick. It was a goal that was well worth three points and the 12th Premier League free-kick goal of his career. He is only behind James Ward-Prowse and David Beckham in the historical ranking of free-kick scorers.
But the goal also had another important connotation. CR7 rediscovered the feeling of scoring a free-kick, something that had not happened since July 4, 2020 against Torino. Almost two years later. The 48th free-kick of his club career (he has scored another 10 with Portugal) was a long time coming.
Cristiano's free-kick effectiveness has declined dramatically over the years. Earlier in his career he bagged a decent volume of goals via this method, with an average of 5-6 per season. We are talking about the last years of his first period in Manchester and the first years in Madrid. That is no longer the case.
The decline was already beginning to show in 2014/15, but it became clear from the 2017/18 campaign onwards. Since then, only three goals: one with Madrid, one with Juve and another, the latest, with United.
Low strike rate
His low efficiency is not only seen in the number of goals, but also in his percentage in relation to the number of attempts. If we look at all the free kicks taken in the last five seasons in the five major leagues and select, to avoid bias, players who have taken at least 35 free kicks (an average of seven per season), Cristiano is 33rd with a 2.74% success rate (two goals from 73 attempts).
This is a far cry from the best in the last five years, Ward-Prowse (16.22%), who has taken only one more shot than the Portuguese but has scored 12 goals. Ahead of him there are players who everyone recognises as set-piece specialists, but there are also others who many would never think would be ahead of the Portuguese star.
Going back a little further, to the 2014/15 campaign, where the decline began, CR7 has only scored six goals from free kicks in league competition: in addition to the goals against Norwich and Torino, there were strikes against Eibar, Getafe, Celta and Atletico. All six were scored from relatively far out. And all of them, except for the Norwich goal, left of centre.
This most recent direct free-kick goal earned a win, which has a lot of merit. And that's something which has happened 19 times before. Credit where it's due. But there is no doubt that Cristiano Ronaldo is no longer the free-kick specialist of his earlier years.