Sporting Life
Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty but Juventus still went through to the Coppa Italia final
Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty but Juventus still went through to the Coppa Italia final

Cristiano Ronaldo stats profile: Juventus man finally slowing down according to Football Critic statistics

By Paul Macdonald
Football
Wed June 17, 2020 · 4y ago

Cristiano Ronaldo is finally starting to slow down - that's the startling conclusion from Football Critic's latest statistical investigation.

Cristiano Ronaldo is one player you can rely on to emerge from lockdown looking fitter than he was before it began, and it is this absolute dedication to maintaining his physique that will mean the Portuguese will be able to compete at a high level for years to come yet.

But you can’t cheat time forever. Ronaldo is 35 now and definitely moving into the final spell of his career at the very top of European football. His ability to transform himself in recent years from flying winger to out-and-out centre-forward has bought him some additional time.

But there’s simply no denying it - Ronaldo is slowing down.

Let’s look at his numbers since moving to Italy in 2018 in comparison to his final two seasons at Real Madrid, while also making one thing clear: looking at pure goal numbers here panders to his penalty-kick padding. In his past two seasons he’s scored 42 Serie A goals, but 12 of those (28.5%) were from the spot. So let’s remove penalties from the equation and look at non-penalty goals P90, utilising domestic league and Champions League statistics.

Ronaldo’s NPG P90 in 16/17 was 0.75, while his final season in Madrid makes it all the more baffling that the club chose to offload him, as he achieved 0.88 NPG P90, netting 34 non-penalty goals in just over 38 full games.

Or, maybe, Florentino Perez knew that he’d extracted everything from the maximum version of Ronaldo. Make no mistake, his platform and global appeal he has brought to Juventus has pushed the Turin club to another level, but when it comes to purely his impact on the pitch, the regression is there for all to see.

In 2018/19 his NPG P90 was 0.55, as the club won Serie A again but exited the Champions League to Ajax at the quarter-final stage, while in 2019/20 he has improved a little, back up to 0.60, but still well down on his best moments at Madrid.

Drilling down a little further we can see that looking specifically at his Champions League statistics - he was, after all, signed to win Juve the big prize for the first time in two-and-a-half decades - his NPG has dropped 0.85 in 17/18 to just 0.29 this season.

Ronaldo’s shot volume has also been consistently elite. It’s accepted that forwards shoot more, score more, and although the introduction of expected goals and players understanding the best positions to shoot from, a high shots P90 total is expected. But in this area Ronaldo is also falling off, too. Dropping from 6.8 in 17/18 to 5.6 this season.

Let’s also look at Ronaldo’s Expected Goals and here, too, we see the drop-off. Looking specifically at domestic league performances, Ronaldo drops from 1.05 in La Liga in 17/18 to 0.78 last season and 0.80 in this.

It’s worth addressing the general consensus that Serie A is ‘more defensive’ than Spanish football but taking a basic look at the number of goals scored in each league we see that Serie A has, on average, 2.92 goals P90 in 2019/20 compared to 2.54 in La Liga over the same period. Serie A isn’t the league of defensive masterclasses it once was, nor is it a place where teams ‘settle’ for a 1-0 or 2-0 win. So Ronaldo’s numbers aren’t really excused by the change in scenery.

We can also assess where he is touching the ball. In 17/18 whilst still the centrepiece of Madrid’s attack, his total touches P90 were 46, as opposed to 55.8 this season. But just 6.6 of those touches P90 are in the area, as opposed to 10 in 17/18. Ronaldo has gone from 21.7% of his touches being in the box, to 11.8% now. He’s involved more outside where he, certainly recently, spent most of his time. But that isn’t necessarily transferring to more assists (eight in 17/18, 10 in 18/19, and just four in 19/20).

The main thing to point out is that Ronaldo’s numbers are still elite, he’s still a hugely valuable asset to the team and with Juve just a single goal down to Lyon in the Champions League, he could still deliver on his objective in a tournament which has drastically opened up due to the qualification of some first-time quarter-final teams.

Time is ticking. He can jump, press-up, run, sprint, and ensure his body endures as long as he can preserve it. But one of life’s great inevitabilities is beginning to creep into the game of one of the greatest players in history.

More from FootballCritic

Serie A: Season predictions

Graham Ruthven looks at the remainder of the Serie A season and picks out five predictions for the return of Italian football - take a look by clicking the image below...

Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates

Serie A: Betting trends to follow

As we look forward to Serie A getting back into action, Graham Ruthven looks at five trends worth your attention and their betting impact - take a look by clicking the image below...

The Serie A ball

Follow Sporting Life on social - find us on Facebook here or tweet@SportingLifeFC

Related football content

Responsible gambling

We are committed in our support of responsible gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.

Sky Bet's responsible gambling tools are detailed here and if you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133, or visit begambleaware.org.

Further support and information can be found at GamCare and gamblingtherapy.org.