WHILE discussing the 2019/20 Juventus home shirt, Inigo Turner – the Adidas designer responsible for the half-and-half look sported by the Serie A leaders – gave a number of reasons for the striking change, but one sentence summed up the new style in perfectly succinct fashion.
“Everybody has an opinion” he told ESPN’s James Horncastle, a viewpoint that not only stands for those black, white and pink kits, but also for the most famous player wearing them. Just like the decision to move away from the club’s traditional stripes, when it comes to Cristiano Ronaldo nobody is left sitting on the fence.
Take Sunday’s game in Turin against AC Milan. With just 55 minutes on the clock, the Portuguese star signalled to the bench that he needed to be replaced. He had been poor against AC Milan, just as he had in his previous few outings for Juventus and the frustration was clear as he left the pitch, heading straight down the tunnel rather than taking a seat on the bench.
The moment he made that decision, what would follow was inevitable. Stories of a verbal outburst against Maurizio Sarri soon surfaced, which seems bizarre given the fact Ronaldo very clearly asked to be substituted as the footage below reveals.
Looks like Cristiano was struggling and asked to come off.pic.twitter.com/VF7vShRqSW
— Juvefc.com (@juvefcdotcom) November 10, 2019
Sarri told Sky Italia that CR7 “made a sacrifice to be there at all tonight in a difficult situation,” going on to explain that the 34-year-old “has had this little knee problem, he had a knock in training and it hurt the collateral ligament. When he trains at high intensity or plays, it unbalances him, so he ends up overcompensating and it damages the calf and thigh muscles. It is affecting his performances and he is not at his best at the moment.”
However, the coach did admit that all players “will have at least five minutes of being annoyed when they are substituted,” before adding that “a coach would in general be much more worried if he didn’t seem upset.” Seemingly the entire footballing world would weigh in, Fabio Capello demanding that Ronaldo “must show respect for his colleagues,” while Patrick Vieira believes the incident “shows how difficult it is to be a coach.”
The situation was only exacerbated when the player reported for international duty, Portugal team-mate Goncalo Paciencia telling A Bola that his captain “looked fine to me,” before coach Fernando Santos told reporters that “he is fit and he will play.”
Whatever his physical condition, there is no doubt that Ronaldo has looked out of sorts for a few weeks now, struggling to make any tangible impact in matches and rarely contributing to their attacking play. With Paulo Dybala and Douglas Costa in top form, that has not mattered as Juve have continued to set the pace in Serie A and the Champions League, already qualified for the knockout stages of the latter and sitting top of the domestic table.
Prior to that he had linked up well with Dybala, a partnership that simply did not work last term bearing fruit under a new coach as Sarri found an approach that brought the best from both men. Ronaldo has scored six times for the Bianconeri so far in 2019/20, two of them coming via assists from the Argentina international, their understanding growing tangibly as the season progresses.
24 passes… 10 players… 1 match-winning goal!
What a sequence! #InterJuve #ForzaJuve pic.twitter.com/F6A2ASGx0m
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) October 17, 2019
It is exactly the kind of interplay that Juventus envisaged when they appointed Sarri back in the summer, hoping he could usher in a more entertaining brand of football following years of pragmatism under Antonio Conte and Max Allegri.
Dubbed “SarriBall” in England but known in Italy as Sarrismo, the free-flowing style seen at Napoli and Chelsea has only been evident in small doses, perhaps most notably in the passage of play that led to Gonzalo Higuain’s match-winning strike against Inter last month. That saw no fewer than 24 passes exchanged as every outfield player touched the ball, and it showed just how good this team can be when everything clicks into place (see above).
"This season we're playing more attacking football," a clearly impressed Ronaldo told reporters recently. "We are using a new system which I like. I like the way Sarri wants us to play. I think the team is more confident, we create more chances and you can see that by the way we move the ball. I am happy as are the team. We play more forward and we're improving week by week. We are more confident. We play, in my opinion, a different type of football, in attack with more possession.”
They certainly have, and they remain the team to beat in Serie A and have been early pacesetters in the Champions League. It will be interesting to see how the furore surrounding this injury (or lack thereof) plays out but, whatever happens, Cristiano Ronaldo will – just like the kit he wears – continue to divide opinion.
