If Ronaldo is also needed with Crotone and Benevento, then Pirlo’s Juve has a huge problem | First page

Having Cristiano Ronaldo is a merit, a luxury. Consequently, it is normal for the team to be built around him and for CR7 to be called upon to be decisive every time he plays. The problem, one of the problems, of Juve, however, is closely linked to an addiction to Ronaldo that is going beyond the expected or foreseeable. In some ways, beyond the acceptable. True, we are only at the beginning of the season, injuries have complicated life in every department, there is no time to train and so on. But Juve, without Ronaldo, in fact only managed to beat Dynamo Kiev. For the rest it has faced bad figures and poor performances, against opponents that are anything but leading, gritty and mangy but who have salvation as the only and perhaps complicated goal to achieve.. Juve without Ronaldo drew in Crotone, at home with Verona, in Benevento. And even in Cesena with Spezia, without Ronaldo, the result was still stuck at 1-1: two minutes of CR7 were enough to unlock everything on that occasion. THE ALARM – You step forward and then you step back. But these are normal. Much less normal is the difficulty that Juve encounters with any opponent, in the absence of Ronaldo it means. Except that CR7 should be in Turin to make a difference especially on big occasions, especially in the Champions League. And every time he plays, of course. But against Crotone and Benevento, with all due respect for the newly promoted, Juve should be able to win anyway. If he can’t, without even being able to appeal to bad luck, it means that there is something structural that is not working. Which must make you think, even worry. Absences, from Ronaldo onwards, have their weight and cannot be ignored. But if Juve must not need CR7 even to beat small or very small teams, then the season risks becoming more complicated than it is already now. Also because Ronaldo will not always be there. And Juve have already wasted too many points.–