2022 has not been a very kind year for Cristiano Ronaldo. So far, in seven games this year, he has only scored once, that being in the last match against Brighton.
He doesn’t even have an assist to his name this year, and to say he has underperformed is an understatement judging by his contributions in the matches of 2022.
But why has he undergone such a massive decline in a very short period of time?
No one is unaware of the fact that Ronaldo is in the twilight of his career, being 37 it’s not really wise to expect him to do things that he commonly used to do in the past.
He no longer has the speed or acceleration, nor the dribbling ability that he used to possess when he was younger, but his output in front of the goal was never a matter of question.
But this year, this has been an issue as well. Manchester United are not really in a good shape.
The tactics of the interim manager Ralf Rangnick have not been effective so far, nor has the team chemistry been good. This, in turn, has been hugely detrimental for Ronaldo who, to put it mildly, has never really played in a team this dysfunctional.
One can simply state that the Manchester United midfield pivot composed of Fred and McTominay is probably one of the, if not the worst, midfield combinations that Ronaldo had in his long and illustrious career.
And for a player whose game heavily depends on the quality of the midfield, it has not been anything short of a disaster.
Ronaldo no longer can press up front, off the ball movement is something that helps him sail through the matches, but due to the lack of a proper pressing structure in the back as well as the midfield, Ronaldo has suffered massively.
Bruno Fernandes, who was the main creative outlet in the past, have heavily been restricted by positional play, often at the cost of the roaming freedom of Ronaldo.
Ronaldo was a better player under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer than Ralf Rangnick, as the former didn’t restrict his role and had a vastly fluid attacking trio behind Ronaldo to support him and even at times had a hardworking center forward like Cavani to give him space.
But under Rangnick, despite mostly being paired up front with Cavani, Ronaldo does not really have the support that he had even during the times of Solskjaer, as the United players themselves have not adapted well.
Whether Ronaldo will recover from the slump or not is a thing to look for in the future. But considering his age, it is better not to anticipate him to have a lot of goal contributions per season.
