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#1 Good Underlying Stats-
While Ronaldo's Goals per 90 minutes stat in the league has fallen to only 0.40 compared to 0.89 last year and 0.99 the year before that- his underlying numbers are still very good.
Underlying statistics is the most objective tool to assess if a player is declining or is just going through a poor period of form and luck.
For example, Barcelona's Luis Suarez had a poor start to the season. However, he was still getting into good positions - taking over 3 shots from inside the area per ninety minutes. Nor did his shooting accuracy fall from the previous years. So it was a matter of if and not when Suarez was going to start scoring freely again like he is now.
Shots from inside the box are often referred to as "high-quality chances" since it is far easier to score a goal from inside the box than from distance. Cristiano this season has been averaging over 5 shots from inside the box. So what does this tell us?
Yes, it is true that the Real Madrid midfield does create a lot of good chances, but Ronaldo is getting to excellent positions to take advantage of this and hasn't by any means lost the instincts of a goal scorer.
His Shooting accuracy of 45% this season is not a significant fall from the 48% of the previous season.
In terms of taking players on 1v1, his successful take-on percentage has gone up to 60.87% from 39.68%. A remarkable increase. He is creating 1.82 chances per 90 mins, for his teammates, this year, almost double that from last year.
Winning 60.98% of his aerial duels this season, his personal best ever, the Portuguese is clearly showing that he is in peak physical condition.
With such elite underlying stats that haven't dropped from previous seasons and in some cases become even better - It is a matter of time before the Real Madrid superstar starts scoring freely again.
However, what will really help him continue being a top player is how he has adapted to the physical reality of ageing.
