Italian pundit made shock claim over Cristiano Ronaldo

Juventus star is scoring fewer goals at the Serie A side than he did at Real Madrid because of Juventus mentality, according to the Italian pundit Gabriele Marcotti. Ronaldo’s goalscoring numbers have not been as high in Turin as they were with Real Madrid with Ronaldo scoring just 12 goals in all competitions this season. That’s his lowest tally at this stage of the year since his final year with Manchester United in 2008/09. During his nine years with Real Madrid, the 33-year-old averaged 23 goals by this stage of the campaign. “Simply put, Ronaldo moved from a team who scored many goals, Real, to one who score substantially fewer: Juventus,” Marcotti wrote for The Times. “His new team have scored 43 goals in all competitions this season. At this stage of the campaign, Real had never scored fewer than 58 since Ronaldo’s arrival in 2009 and averaged 70 goals throughout his tenure. It’s something that is obvious, but also something we often forget when looking at goalscoring numbers: you can be a phenomenal striker but if your team generally scores fewer goals you too will score fewer. It’s not that Juventus score fewer than Real because they are a worse side, relative to the competition. In fact, it is quite the opposite. "After Saturday’s 1-0 win over Roma, they were eight points clear at the top. Real, by contrast, were 14 points back last season and four points clear the year before. Rather, it simply is not in Juventus’s DNA to score a lot of goals and, in particular, to run up the score once the game is won. They have scored three or more goals only five times this season: at a similar stage the past two years, Madrid had done it 12 and 15 times respectively. "You can debate whether it is the right approach, but Juventus’s ethos appears to be to do just enough to win, without running any additional risks or adding to the goals total. That is in sharp contrast to Real, particularly at the Bernabeu where crowds have been known to boo if they sense the team are no longer attacking wholeheartedly even when 3-0 up in the second half.”

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