Cristiano Ronaldo struggles hurting Real Madrid, says Terry Gibson
Monday 27 November 2017 18:58, UK
Terry Gibson thinks Cristiano Ronaldo's scoring problems are becoming a problem for Real Madrid, who are "hit and miss" and "hanging in" the title race.
Real needed a late goal from Ronaldo to beat La Liga strugglers Malaga 3-2 at the Bernabeu on Saturday.
The strike was only Ronaldo's second of the season in the league, while fellow forward Karim Benzema has scored the same number of goals.
And Sky Sports Spanish football expert Gibson said on the La Liga Weekly podcast: "They are over-egging the fact that they are guilty of not scoring the goals they should have done this season so they are shooting at every opportunity, and the main culprit is Ronaldo.
"It's becoming like the only thing that matters for Real Madrid is Ronaldo scoring, when it isn't. The biggest issue for them is winning games and having some sort of creative style and pattern of play, which at the moment, with the changes Zinedine Zidane is making, he is relying purely on individual ability.
"He is relying on Ronaldo having 20 shots a game and Benzema picking up the pieces, he is not thinking about Ronaldo's shot when he could have crossed or passed. It's become a real feature of their game.
"The emphasis is on Ronaldo to score the goals. He has taken that responsibility too far, shooting from everywhere, he's shooting from distance and they are going high, wide, and that's the reason we are not seeing a definitive pattern from Real Madrid in terms of possession and full-backs having time to get into attacking positions. It's hit and miss from Real Madrid."
Real are fourth in the table after the weekend's action, eight points behind leaders Barcelona.
And Gibson added: "They are hanging on in there. They seem to think if they score loads of goals against Malaga and APOEL then everything will be ok. I am not so sure, there are bigger issues.
"I want to see that style of play they had earlier in the season when they had 44 passes before scoring against Deportivo. That's the type of play I expected to see more of this season."
