The Athletic have analyzed Ronaldo's performance via figures and charts in their newest article Cristiano Ronaldo and the Manchester United return that hasn’t gone to plan.
So what about the specifics of his effect on the team on the pitch?
Ronaldo’s return to United has seen individual success hampered by wider team issues. The forward’s eight goals in 17 Premier League appearances, six in the Champions League and three league assists mean you can easily come to the conclusion that Ronaldo is upholding his typically high goalscoring standard while the United team declines into wider dysfunction.
However, by looking deeper into the numbers, some links can be made between the forward’s individual success and his side’s collective struggles.
The above image looks at every touch Ronaldo has taken in the Premier League. As you can see, while he does a large amount of work inside the penalty area, a number of his touches occur when he is stationed on the left-wing and left half-space.
Such movement is encouraged from modern forwards but Ronaldo’s slight physical decline (he’s still one of the quicker strikers in the Premier League but not as quick as he was a decade ago), coupled with his position as lead striker, means this movement can be a hindrance as much as a help for United.
There have been instances this season where Ronaldo drifting away from central positioning has created disorder in United’s collective attack. His team-mates don’t often replace him as the focal point and Ronaldo is rarely hanging on the last line of defence. As Ronaldo no longer has the same explosive speed or trickery he used to carry the ball over long distances, he is now attempting to make more of the crosses that he should be on the end of.
Ronaldo could be a more effective player for United if he chose to move less and held his position in the penalty area, but it is doubtful even a player of his talent is likely to reconfigure his goalscoring approach at this late stage in his career.
The above image uses smarterscout data to highlight changes and developments in Ronaldo’s playing style in recent years.
The top left illustrates Ronaldo’s slight decline in chance creation since leaving Real Madrid. While his shot-taking ability still marks him as one of the better attackers in the world, he stopped being the conquering attacking nucleus of his side at Juventus and at United. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing: if Ronaldo is playing with the correct type of players then he shouldn’t need to be the fulcrum of his team.
The top-right graph looks at Ronaldo’s shot volume. He has always been a ball-dominant forward who would rather trust himself to take a difficult shot than lay it off to someone else who might have a chance at an easier one. But he has taken fewer shots at United and Juventus than at Real Madrid when he was last winning Ballon d’Or prizes.
Some of this is to do with the change in the quality in the teams Ronaldo has played in since 2016. Some of this is to do with the difference in playing style between various Real Madrid, Juventus and United teams. Some of this is to do with the passing of time. Ronaldo is not quite the Ronaldo he used to be and needs a greater degree of facilitation around him.
The middle-left graph shows Ronaldo’s receptions in the box and further illustrates his tendency to move left rather than hold his position centrally. This, coupled with his inconsistent ability to drive with the ball from the left (the graph on the middle right) shows some of the difficulties that have become apparent since Ronaldo left Real Madrid.
The reasons as to why Ronaldo is attempting to play more like the winger he once was is tricky to fathom. Perhaps he does not trust his newer team-mates in the same way he trusted his Real Madrid ones? Perhaps he is trying to be more of a team player, despite his added efforts being less effective for the team? Perhaps he lacks a managerial figure who can convince him of the virtues of doing less to help more.
The final graphs look at Ronaldo the defender, measuring his intensity (the higher the number, the more it shows the player to be actively applying pressure and making defensive actions) and his impact (the higher the number, the more the player forces turnovers or limits ball progression when they are the assigned defender).
Ronaldo has never been the most diligent or aggressive defender and arrived at United ranked in the bottom two per cent of forwards for effectiveness when pressing. That his intensity and impact have dropped this season compared to his performances at Juventus is not a shock — you don’t sign Ronaldo for his defensive qualities — but it does mean United need to surround him with attacking players who can carry the defensive load for him. Outside of Cavani and Lingard, United’s squad lacks forwards with any affinity for pressing.
Put this all together and you have a player who, while still arguably the world’s best at specific actions on the field (darting near-post runs for poked finishes or back-post headers), is probably no longer one of the 10 best players on the planet. It is a crude metric but Ronaldo has not won a Ballon d’Or since 2017 and has not been voted in the top three positions since 2019.
When Ronaldo left United in 2009 he was was a floor-raising talent, capable of making a good team great. The modern-day iteration is a ceiling-raising player — better deployed as the cherry on top of a well-designed and structured cake. The 36-year-old now has a playing style that requires certain concessions and compromises from team-mates in order to truly thrive, but there are only a handful of teams in Europe with the squad make-up to provide him with such a platform. United, currently, are not one of them.
On Wednesday evening at the Brentford Community Stadium, Ronaldo’s dugout strop opened a new debate. For some, Ronaldo’s response to a substitution emphasised his hunger and dedication at the ripe age of 36. A bout of Ronaldo petulance is nothing new, either, given long-time United watchers will remember him throwing down a jacket at Old Trafford when being substituted by Ferguson against Manchester City in 2009.
For others, it undermined Rangnick just at the point the German appeared to be turning a corner with his United team.
Rangnick’s response was direct, saying: “He (Ronaldo) was asking why me and I said, ‘Listen, I have to take the decision in the interest of the team’ and we had exactly the same situation five days ago at Villa Park being 2-0 up with 15 minutes to play and we didn’t want to make the same mistake again. I decided to switch to a back five and bring on Rashford on the right and I think it was the right decision. When we scored the third goal, I said that to him and I said maybe when you’re a head coach yourself you will hopefully make the same decision.”
It may prove to be an overdue line in the sand for a player who has been indulged for much of the campaign, although fans will debate whether this has been more on merit than reputation.
For United players and staff, the question of commanding Ronaldo’s respect and authority has prevailed for much of the campaign. Ronaldo will always demonstrate application but some within the club have questioned whether the club’s captain in Harry Maguire and the stature of the coaching staff both under Rangnick and Solskjaer have been of sufficient pedigree and fame to impress him.
Upon joining the club, United’s players were immediately deferential. Cavani, who at the time held the No 7 jersey, gave it up on the club’s request and the Premier League approved an unusual shirt-number change three weeks into the domestic season. Cavani had previously been reluctant to give up the number when Sancho arrived at the club earlier in the summer. Much of what followed was utterly predictable. Fernandes is United’s long-term taker of penalties but after missing one against Aston Villa — in an episode which saw opponent Emi Martinez goad Fernandes by saying Ronaldo should take the penalty — he has now ceded responsibility to Ronaldo. Until the last couple of games, it has felt a little as though the artist became the artist’s apprentice in the dynamics between Fernandes and Ronaldo.
Equally, Ronaldo’s preferred position at Juventus had been as a left forward but this had been a potential spot in the team for Pogba, Rashford, Sancho, Martial and Lingard. Dan James, meanwhile, was told by Solskjaer that he remained part of his plans following Ronaldo’s arrival, only for a United director to subsequently inform James after the 1-0 victory at Wolves in August that he would be seventh choice and ought to leave for Leeds United.
The strong suspicion at Leeds was that Solskjaer would have preferred to move on Martial before James but United did not have a willing buyer. Lingard, meanwhile, was reassured during the summer that he would receive greater opportunities but he has not started a Premier League match this season. The size of United’s squad is not Ronaldo’s responsibility but the suddenness of his transfer evidently possessed a knock-on effect.
Both Solskjaer and Rangnick appear to have concluded that Ronaldo requires a strike partner next to him, with Greenwood, Rashford, Cavani and Anthony Elanga all being trialled. Rangnick’s 4-2-2-2 and 4-4-2 systems have shown his efforts to fit Ronaldo into a cogent structure, with support in advanced areas. When fit, Ronaldo has started every time under Rangnick and the tension that greeted his removal against Brentford indicates the upheaval that benching him would cause.
During his season as Juventus’s head coach, Maurizio Sarri lamented the reality of his line-ups. “I put Ronaldo’s name down first and then decide what to do next,” he said.
Andrea Pirlo, the Juventus coach for Ronaldo’s final season at the club, dropped the forward on several occasions towards the end of last season, including the last match of the campaign against Bologna, which was effectively a play-off for the Champions League. Sources who worked at Juventus detailed how coaches often felt a need to compromise on their own ideals to make it work with Ronaldo.
In the case of Max Allegri, this meant placing Mario Mandzukic next to Ronaldo, in order that the Croatian could go to war with opposition centre-backs and create space. This was bad news for Dybala, whose playing time reduced. Sarri placed Blaise Matuidi in a slot behind Ronaldo, as he felt the midfielder was capable of doing the running for two people. Supporters eventually became disgruntled with a more blue-collar midfield, which the coach felt was necessary to liberate Ronaldo.
The key debating point of the season has centred on Ronaldo’s contribution to the team’s defensive output. In Rangnick’s first match in charge of United against Crystal Palace, Ronaldo’s pressing was described as “outstanding” by pundit Jamie Carragher. Rangnick himself said: “By the way, Cristiano’s work off the ball — chapeau!”
Solskjaer felt that Ronaldo’s deficiencies in mobility could be compensated by others raising their output by three or four per cent, worthwhile for the team’s gain. In general, however, concerns remain and there are some at United who do believe Ronaldo must start accepting that even he is succumbing to age and has to tweak his playing expectations accordingly. In one recent 11-v-11 training drill, for instance, Ronaldo endured a tough time at centre-forward, so Rangnick switched him to left wing. Ronaldo, almost affronted, redoubled his efforts and finished the session strongly.
United’s season, we should not forget, could yet end happily. They have an inviting Champions League draw against an out-of-sorts Atletico Madrid and remain in the FA Cup. In the Premier League, they are within striking distance of fourth-placed West Ham.
Among the United squad, team-mates have long wondered whether Ronaldo would want to hang around for a second season in a team scrapping for Champions League qualification and competing in the Europa League. The Sun newspaper this week reported talks between Mendes and United’s chief executive Richard Arnold, which claimed Ronaldo would leave United if they failed to qualify for next season’s Champions League. His representatives Gestifute did not respond when The Athletic approached them for comment.
The summer remains five months away. In the meantime, both Ronaldo and United seek to repair an increasingly shabby marriage.
Adam Crafton(Other contributors: Laurie Whitwell, Carl Anka, James Horncastle, David Ornstein)