You are forgiven for feeling a sense of deja vu in the coming minutes.
The question ‘should Cristiano Ronaldo be dropped by Portugal during this major international tournament?’ has been asked before, quite recently in fact.
In the Qatar World Cup in 2022, Fernando Santos was faced with the same dilemma that Roberto Martinez may or may not be considering now. If he is considering it, he has got a great poker face given the gushing he has done over Ronaldo in recent press conferences.
Santos, a man who you can imagine did not take kindly to suggestions that Ronaldo ran the team/dressing room, dropped the free agent — he had just left Manchester United and conducted that interview — for Portugal’s round of 16 game against Switzerland. They won 6-1.
Santos dropped Ronaldo at the World Cup in Qatar (Tom Weller/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Portugal’s shock exit in the next round to Morocco opened the exit door for Santos, but his successor Martinez did not use the opportunity to draw a line in the Saudi Arabian sand and put Ronaldo out to international pasture.
Instead he has placed him front and centre. Ronaldo responded with goals against also-rans in qualifying and averaged a goal per game in domestic football, albeit if people still call Ligue 1 a farmer’s league then the Saudi Pro League (recently ranked the 27th best in the world, below the Cypriot First Division) is barely deserving of a stable hands’ kickabout.
So after four goalless games, does he still warrant a place in the starting XI of arguably the most talented group of players Portugal has produced? He may not have scored yet, but is he doing enough to justify playing up front while Goncalo Ramos and Diogo Jota sit on the bench?
There were not many questions over his place in the side going into the European Championship; Martinez just kept pointing to his goal record in the past 18 months. The problem is, in comparison to the golden years of his career, Ronaldo has been prolific against bilge.
Ten of his 12 Portugal goals since the World Cup came against teams ranked 60 or lower in the FIFA rankings, with the other two against 45th-ranked Slovakia. That is not to diminish the fact that he has scored regularly, merely to point out that it has been some time since he scored in a top-level match.
Ronaldo came up against one of the best goalkeepers in the world in Slovenia’s Jan Oblak when failing to score with a number of chances, including a penalty, on Monday.
Contrast that with his club level; three of his goals last season came against Al Okhdood and ‘keeper Paulo Vitor, a 35-year-old Brazilian who has played most of his career in the Portuguese second tier.
He scored a hat-trick against Al Tai’s ‘keeper Moataz Al Baqaawi, a Saudi Arabian who has made 21 senior appearances during his career, all in his home country. He is 26.
Scoring for fun against Abha and Al Taawoun is one thing, the Euros are another. There is not a direct correlation between club and international level that equals a hard and fast rule; N’Golo Kante has been excellent, for example, but Ronaldo’s scoring record may be deceiving as to what he is still capable of, aged 39.
Ronaldo has plundered goals in the Saudi Pro League (Mohammed Saad/Anadolu via Getty Images)
What he is clearly capable of, despite being the second oldest player to feature at a European Championship — his team-mate Pepe is the oldest at 41 — is lasting the pace.
He has played 366 minutes across four matches; that’s 66 minutes more than anyone in the Portugal squad (Martinez rested a number of players for their third group game against Georgia, having already qualified in first place), with Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes and Ruben Dias on 300 minutes.
At the opposite end of the scale is Ramos — the man who scored a hat-trick in that 6-1 World Cup win over Switzerland — who, with 24 minutes, is only above Matheus Nunes (15) and the two back-up ‘keepers (0).
In what you might expect for a striker about to enter his fifth decade in life, Ronaldo may be fit to play but he cannot get about like he used to, hence a relatively small amount of touches; 117 is the 12th most touches of Portugal’s players, only one more than Pedro Neto, who has played 245 fewer minutes.
Part of that is because Martinez is asking him to generally stay in a central, attacking position while Fernandes, Bernardo and Rafael Leao buzz around him or put crosses — a lot of them — into the box.
Portugal have not only played the most crosses from open play of any side during Euro 2024, they have played 40 per cent more than any team; just the 97, with Austria the next highest on 68, then Spain on 65.
It was a fruitful tactic in their opening two games; Vitinha’s cross was headed down by Nuno Mendes for an own goal against Czech Republic, before Francisco Conceicao’s late winner came from Neto’s deflected low cross in stoppage time. Against Turkey, Portugal’s opener arrived via a rampaging Mendes who drove the ball low into the box and, via another deflection, the ball came to Bernardo who finished nicely.
All three involved an element of luck, be it an own goal or a deflection, but Portugal have forced the issue and asked questions of defenders. From Ronaldo’s point of view, though, he has often struggled to get on the end of those crosses. A familiar sight at the tournament has been him leaping under the ball, or being blocked behind a clearing defender.
His acceleration, pace and leap just are not what they were and defenders are well aware of Portugal’s obvious tactic. He has occasionally resembled a swimming float that has been let go from under the surface, bobs up above the water level and then drifts harmlessly away.
Ronaldo struggles to hide his histrionics (JAVIER SORIANO/AFP via Getty Images)
There is no denying his movement is still exceptional in theory, off the last man looking for a through ball or darting into a goalscoring position in the box from a cross.
“He’ll go that way to drag you out to drag you in,” Gary Lineker said of Ronaldo moving centre-backs around during BBC’s coverage of Portugal v Slovenia. “And he doesn’t wait to see where the ball is going to go; this is the secret of goalscoring, making a run at a space where you think the ball will go.
“Lots of times, like we saw in that (first) half, it didn’t quite go, just over his head, just behind, but if you keep going to that space eventually the ball will come and he’s the best at it, the best I’ve ever seen.”
The practice has not matched the theory and, if Ronaldo isn’t going to contribute much to build-up play, isn’t going to touch the ball much and isn’t going to score, there is a legitimate question over his place in the XI.
The fact he cannot do what he once could must be difficult to accept and is probably part of his visible and histrionic frustration. His ego has always been fragile, but he has arguably become increasingly erratic and desperate in recent months as his powers wane, be it wiping an opposition scarf on his crotch in Saudi Arabia the other month, or head-butting an opponent, or his uncontrollable sobbing after missing a penalty against Slovenia.
Again, Ronaldo has never been immune to shedding a tear or two, but this was not something we have witnessed from him before. He has always been melodramatic and the ringmaster of a circus, but his behaviour feels more extreme of late.
It has been a frustrating four matches; 20 attempts at goal, the most of any player at the tournament, but no goals, or 2.75 expected goals (xG), the second highest of any player at the tournament (only behind Kai Havertz on 3.6), but no goals.
Is he putting himself before the team in search of personal glory? In many ways you have to say no; he of course could have scored, or at least had a try, when through on goal in the second half against Turkey, but chose to square the ball for Fernandes to score in what felt like the epitome of him being a team player under Martinez.
You would be hard pressed to find a player who cares more about Portugal and its success than Ronaldo.
That fragile ego does hinder the team on the odd occasion, notably from free-kicks, with the ludicrous sight against Slovenia of him attempting to score from wide on the left wing. It felt desperate.
“Even the strongest people have their (bad) days; I was at rock bottom when the team needed me the most,” Ronaldo said after Slovenia.
“Sadness at the start is joy at the end. That’s what football is. Moments, inexplicable moments. I feel sad and happy at the same time.”
Martinez had not had to field a single question about Ronaldo after Portugal’s group stage win over Czech Republic, something that just never happens, but on Monday, apart from Diogo Costa of course, there was only one player to talk about.
“When you see a player, the only player to play in six Euros, with the desire and that belief like a young man, those emotions are incredible for someone who has won everything and experienced everything,” Martinez said.
“He doesn’t need to care that much and that is why I thank him for the way he is. For caring for the group. For being someone who after missing a penalty was the first penalty taker.
“The dressing room was delighted and he gave us a lesson in having real high standards and never giving up. Life and football give you difficult moments and he is an example that we are really proud of in Portuguese football.”
There is no doubting Ronaldo’s past, but as the tide in Portugal gradually moves away from the public considering him an automatic starter, you have to wonder if Ramos, who ended the season scoring 14 in 40 games for Paris Saint-Germain, or Jota, who scored 15 in 32 matches for Liverpool (both all competitions) last season, are more befitting options for a team of such rich creativity and movement.
It would involve a change of style and approach, but if high crosses towards Ronaldo’s head aren’t working, that doesn’t feel like much of an issue, especially when you consider that in two of the last three competitive matches Ronaldo was unavailable to start, Portugal scored a combined 15 goals.
The numbers back it up and so does the eye test; Ronaldo has lots to offer, in his movement, as a talisman and via his incredible experience, but those attributes are better utilised as a finisher from the bench.
(Top photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
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