Cristiano Ronaldo must reinvent himself to prolong his Real Madrid career, says Rob Palmer
Monday 10 October 2016 11:17, UK
Cristiano Ronaldo must reinvent himself if he wants to prolong his Real Madrid career, according to Sky Sports' La Liga Weekly podcast.
The forward, who turns 32 in February, was recently substituted for tactical reasons for the first time in his seven years at the Santiago Bernabeu in Real's 2-2 draw at Las Palmas.
However, while Real head coach Zinedine Zidane was criticised in some quarters of the Spanish press for the move, with Ronaldo himself visibly unhappy with the decision, Sky Sports' Spanish football commentator Rob Palmer thinks the Frenchman made the right call.
"Ronaldo turns 32 in February and he is now at the veteran stage of his career, but the problem is he has not quite accepted that now," Palmer told this week's La Liga Weekly podcast.
"He still thinks he is a young man and he parades himself round the field and that does not help him.
"When he gets to the point where he accepts that he is no longer the great Cristiano Ronaldo when he was 27, 28 and scoring 55 goals a season and has to slightly reinvent himself, like Lionel Messi is having to do at the moment, then he will maybe become more acceptable to the general public.
"You would have to say though that as a manager, he would be your problem in the changing room because you would still want to get the best out of him, massage his ego and you would want Cristiano Ronaldo in your team.
"But I thought it was great management by Zinedine Zidane the other week to bring him off as he was not being effective in that game.
It would be foolish to get rid of him when he is 31, 32. He is not at the peak of his powers, but he is not past it yet either.
"And when you looked around the players and thought: 'Who should I bring off who is not having an impact on this game and who will raise the game of everybody else?' and he brought Ronaldo off.
"If you can bring Ronaldo off, then that gets everybody else's backs up, as if he is going to go for the first time, and it was the first time he had been taken off tactically, then this manager actually means the business.
"So I thought it was great management by Zidane, even though he got hammered in the Spanish press for it at the time."
If Ronaldo wants to maintain his career in the Spanish capital, though, the Portugal international - whose current deal at Real runs until the summer of 2018 - must copy the likes of Barcelona duo Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta and change his game, Palmer thinks.
"It is how Cristiano Ronaldo reinvents himself - he keeps coming out with: 'I am going to play until I am 40, I am still a great player.' So he just needs to look in the mirror really," he said.
"But he can still be an effective player 'till he is 35, 36 if he reinvents himself as Xavi [Hernandez] did, as Iniesta is currently doing, as Messi has done as well.
"But he has been injured and maybe he came back a little bit early and maybe Real Madrid are guilty of playing him before he is ready. Once he is back in the changing room, he is on the pitch as they want him to play."
Equally, however, if Ronaldo is to keep playing at the highest level until the end of Real contract, then Palmer believes Zidane will need to keep managing his star man's game time going forward.
"He has always played the full 90 minutes when he is fit, so maybe he has to be managed a bit more and Zidane has to be that man who goes head-to-head with him," he added.
"But it would be foolish to get rid of him when he is 31, 32. He is not at the peak of his powers, but he is not past it yet either."
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