How overreliance on Cristiano Ronaldo is hurting Juventus' title hopes
Juventus’ title-winning teams have earned themselves many nicknames over the years, but a one-man team has never been one of them.
Unfortunately, Andrea Pirlo's Juventus are turning into a team almost over-reliant on one man: the evergreen Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese has been a key player for the Bianconeri since arriving from Real Madrid in the summer of 2018.
However, Ronaldo’s impact at Juventus has far exceeded expectations, something that is especially true this season. He is on course to become the club's top scorer for the third straight campaign.
Andrea Pirlo’s side have had an inconsistent league campaign, one that doesn't suggest they could mount a title challenge. However, Ronaldo's singular brilliance has kept Juventus in the title race.
Cristiano Ronaldo inspires Juventus' win over Crotone
On Monday, the 36-year-old once again demonstrated his importance to the side by scoring twice in their 3-0 win against Crotone. The scoreline may suggest a comfortable Juventus win, but that was far from the case.
Juventus laboured to create clear-cut chances and instead needed the individual brilliance of Ronaldo to assert their supremacy in the game. The five-time Ballon d’Or winner headed in the opening goal by rising highest to meet a cross from Alex Sandro.
Ronaldo then doubled Juventus' lead before halftime, this time heading home a delightful Aaron Ramsey cross. He’s been bailing the Bianconeri on far too many occasions this season, as other Juventus players have struggled to come to the fore.
The problem with over-reliance on one player is that once he’s injured or out of form, the team suffers. As it stands, Juventus need their other players to come to the party more often.
Cristiano Ronaldo single-handedly keeps Juventus’ title hopes alive
Juventus’ bid for an unprecedented tenth successive league title is not going according to plan, as they are third in points table. The Bianconeri trail league leaders Inter Milan and second-placed AC Milan by eight and four points respectively but have a game in hand on both rivals.
As has already been mentioned before, Cristiano Ronaldo is almost single-handedly keeping alive Juventus' hopes of an unprecedented tenth consecutive Scudetto.
The Portuguese is currently the top scorer in Serie A, with 18 league goals; that is thrice as many as the next best goal-scorer in the team. No other Juventus player has managed more than six league goals this season.
It’s obvious Ronaldo has been Juventus' main source of goals, something that could hurt their title hopes big time. At AC Milan, the goal-scoring burden is being shared by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Franck Kessie, while Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez have assumed a similar role for Inter Milan.
Juventus, though, continue to rely on the brilliance of Cristiano Ronaldo to bail them out.