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What's the story?
Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric has said that the Spanish club misses a prolific goalscorer like Cristiano Ronaldo, who used to score 50 goals per season for them, according to Marca.
The Croatian star also claimed that though the attacking options available at their club's disposal like Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Vinicius Jr are all great, they have failed to step up to the Portuguese talisman's standards.
In case you didn't know...
Modric led his nation to their maiden World Cup final last summer and was awarded the Golden Ball following his brilliant performances throughout the competition.
The 33-year-old had one of the best years of his career in 2018, in which he won numerous individual accolades that included The Best FIFA Men's Player award and the prestigious Ballon d'Or, that was dominated by his former teammate Ronaldo and Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi for the last decade.
While Ronaldo has continued his goal-scoring ways with Juventus, Los Blancos have struggled to keep up with arch-rivals Barcelona in Spain, having lost two Clasicos back to back at the Santiago Bernebau, without scoring a single goal in both the games.
The heart of the matter
Modric reflected on his side's back to back losses to Barca and said that Ronaldo's goals were sorely missed in those crucial fixtures.
He told reporters that it would be impossible to replace the five-time Ballon d'Or winner and no one else can score 50 goals per season. He said: (Via MARCA)
"Cristiano is a player that every team would miss. Looking for a replacement is almost impossible."
"Cristiano scored 50 goals, and you can't find someone else who can do that."
He said that it is quite apparent that his club misses Ronaldo, one of the greatest goalscorers of our times, but complaining about that won't help anyone. He added:
"Of course we miss him, given everything he did for the club. Cristiano is not here, so we can't complain for the next ten years that we don't have him."
He also said that players like Benzema, Bale, Mariano and Vinicius haven't stepped up and that is hurting their title chances. He concluded:
The club has put faith in other players, like Gareth, [Marco] Asensio, Karim [Benzema] and has bought Mariano [Diaz] and Vinicius is doing well for his age. But sometimes things don't work out as we wont."
What's next?
Real Madrid host Ajax in the second leg of their RO16 UEFA Champions League tie in midweek. It remains to be seen, in the absence of Ronaldo, how far they can go in this year's edition.
