Ronaldo: A massive lost but are United coping?

When Cristiano Ronaldo signed for Real Madrid in June, all of England apart from the red half of Manchester collectively breathed a sigh of relief.

The Portuguese winger come striker had been the bane of many a defender’s life so none were too sad to see him depart. Yet whilst they rejoiced most Man Utd fans were shattered, Real had gotten there man albeit a season late.

Where would this leave United? And with £80m to spend fans speculated as to who would replace the now departed maestro?

His goals had been vital in the past 3 seasons as he helped United to 3 Premier League titles, 1 Champions League trophy and another final. So when United only brought in Antonio Valencia, Gabriel Obertan and Michael Owen it raised a lot of eyebrows.

Ronaldo is unbearable to play against and the mere sight of him warming up to come off the bench or even on the team sheet could dishearten any team. So in his departure pundits as well as players said United had lost their ‘fear factor’ and him not being there gave them more hope that they could get a result against the champions.

But how are United really doing without Ronaldo?

One thing immediately noticeable is their goal output has dropped drastically. Of the ‘Big 4’ United have scored the least goals with 23 compared to Arsenal’s 30, Chelsea’s 29 and Liverpool’s 27. United have always been a team that have scored plenty of goals so this is intriguing. When he left Ferguson claimed Ronaldo was irreplaceable and that the only way to lighten the burden of his departure would be for other players to step in with goals yet so far only apart from Rooney, Berbatov and Owen (United’s strikers who have 15 goals between them) only Darren Fletcher has scored more than once in the league hardly a case of the rest of the team picking up the slack.

Another noticeable difference is United’s style of play. Although still picking up points, it is not the same kind of football we are used to from United. This is not to say that United played beautiful football every game as the succession of 1-0 wins last season will say otherwise but there is a touch of scrappiness about United’s play this season. Case in point being the Arsenal game where Arsenal looked the better team but it was United who came away with the 3 points after a Wayne Rooney penalty and Abou Diaby own goal. This is in marked contrast to how United carved up Arsenal a few months earlier in the Champions League semi final. Yet positives can be taken from this point, in that not every team can be beaten with fancy football (if that was so Arsenal would not be without a Premier League trophy since 2004) and the fact United can play spectacular football as well as win scrappy makes them multi dimensional.

It’s not all doom and gloom as in Ronaldo’s absence Wayne Rooney has been allowed to go back to his preferred position as a centre forward and has flourished grabbing 7 goals already in all competitions. With Ronaldo in the team Rooney had to sacrifice himself in order to accommodate Ronaldo but now he is able to get back to what he does best rather than finding himself out on the wing etc. Another positive is the fact that United no longer have to play players like Park Ji Sung in midfield simply as defensive cover for Ronaldo was not the best at tracking back.

It is only November so the long term implication of Ronaldo’s departure to Madrid won’t be evident for a while but short term it is apparent that United as would any team miss the dynamism and magic that he brings with his style of play. 5 points of leaders Chelsea and in 3^rd place, United are by no means out of the title race but it just leaves people wondering, would Ronaldo have made a difference in games like the Sunderland draw, the Burnley loss or the Liverpool loss?