'Tackling' poor form in Ronaldo's way!

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Terrassa (Barcelona), November 20: Real Madrid goal machine Cristiano Ronaldo has been completely out of sorts in La Liga this season and is facing a severe identity crisis.

The four-time Ballon d'Or winner and this year's FIFA Best Men's Player, has scored six goals in four Champions League matches but has scored just once in the Spanish top flight.

The Portuguese skipper again looked off colour against rivals Atletico Madrid in Saturday's (November 18) derby.

Barcelona's midfielder Paulinho has scored three more goals than Ronaldo. But it does not end there.

Incredibly, a stat from Who Scored, shows that Ronaldo failed to make a single tackle or interception in 720 minutes of action in La Liga this season.

The stats have been taken from players who played more than 100 minutes this season. What makes this stat worse, is that four of those players are goalkeepers and the fifth player has not even started a match.

The Real No 7 isn't expected to be running all over and flying into tackles as that's not his style of playing. But it's still absolutely mental for a player of his ilk to have failed to win the ball back for his team. More shockingly, Ronaldo hasn't made a successful dribble in La Liga.

Against Atletico at the Wandra Metropolitano stadium, the 32-year old was again below-par, with one embarrassing moment seeing right-back Juanfran outpace him.

In the first half, Ronaldo tried to get onto a through pass from Luka Modric but was beaten to the ball by fullback Juanfran.

Juanfran may have had a couple of yards head start, but the Cristiano of two or three years ago would have easily got to that through ball.

The Los Blancos star, who scored 42 goals in 46 appearances last season, is going through his worst spell Saint Bernabeu since joining the club from Manchester United for a record fee in 2009.

Meanwhile, Ronaldo has blamed the five-game suspension (four La Liga matches) he was given at the end of the last season in the Super Cup against Barcelona for his slow start to the campaign.

"Things are going to change, I'm not worried," he said in an interview to L'Equipe. "I don't agree with what people are saying about me," "People don't know the difference between playing well, playing OK and not scoring goals.

"I'm looked at as a goal machine, like a guy who has to score all the time. If that isn't the case, nobody cares if I've played well or not, I'm only judged on scoring.

"Accept the criticism, but I don't agree with it. That's why I avoid reading or hearing what's said about me. But I've no choice but to accept it; I can't control the world," Ronaldo pointed out.