Cristiano Ronaldo, more anonymous than ever in LaLiga
Only once in his career - when he was subbed off against Bayern Munich in 2014 - has the Portugal international had less of an impact on a game than against Las Palmas last night.Real Madrid vs Barcelona: El Clásico
Real Madrid’s muted firepower in their recent away games can be attributed to the team’s top scorer suffering a drop off in form. Cristiano Ronaldo was anonymous against Las Palmas and only got on the ball 28 times throughout the match, his lowest tally in La Liga since joining the club. He has only had less of an impact on six occasions, however, on each of those he benefitted from the excuse of not being on the pitch longer than 45 minutes.
The glaring statistic from yesterday’s match is by no means an isolated incident of late. Before travelling to Gran Canaria, he recorded his meekest participation of the season on 21 February against Málaga (getting on the ball a mere 37 times), when Zidane’s side were blessed to come away with a point. Madrid also came away from their trip to Granada with fortunate result: the Portuguese’s fifth least impactful performance (41).
The Mediera native has also been guilty of going missing in action at the Bernabéu, where he only managed to get involved on 38 occasions against both Eibar and Rayo.
Scanning over his Champions League stats since moving to the Spanish capital, the 31-year-old forward has only shown himself to be less effective than last night once, when Los Blancos faced Bayern Munich in the first leg of the semi-finals on their way to winning La Décima. Ancelotti’s men beat the Bavarians 1-0 courtesy of a Benzema goal, however, Ronaldo came off in the 73rd minute having only been in control of the ball 16 times up until that point.
La Liga: Fewest number of times on the ball with Real Madrid