Cristiano Ronaldo doesn't need friends at Real Madrid

Andy West 07:35 17/02/2016
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  • Cristiano Ronaldo's last 16 goals have all come at home.

    Cristiano Ronaldo has hinted at a strained atmosphere in the Real Madrid dressing room – and suggested there were similar tensions during his time at Manchester United – by claiming that good personal relationships are not essential for success on the field.

    Over the last couple of years there have frequently been reports that Ronaldo and fellow big-money signing Gareth Bale do not get along, with Ronaldo’s regular frustrated on-pitch gesticulations towards his team-mates drawing plenty of attention.

    The obvious camaraderie enjoyed between Barcelona stars Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar is often cited as an example of how friendships can be helpful on the field, but Ronaldo last night rejected that theory.

    Speaking ahead of tonight’s Champions League last 16 first-leg trip to Roma, the Portuguese gave a surprisingly candid assessment of his chemistry with his Los Blancos team-mates.

    “I don’t need to go out for dinner with Karim Benzema or Gareth Bale,” he said. “What counts is what happens on the pitch.

    “When I was at Manchester United winning the Champions League, with some players like Giggs, Ferdinand and Scholes our discussions were limited to ‘Good morning,’ and ‘Good night’. But when we were on the pitch together, there was total understanding.”

    Ronaldo also hit back tetchily over criticism of his poor recent goalscoring record away from home. His last 16 goals have all come at the Bernabeu, with his last strike on his travels coming from the penalty spot in a league win at Eibar on November 29 – he had also registered a brace in the Champions League group stage win at Shakhtar Donetsk four days earlier.

    When those statistics were put to him, however, he had a readymade retort at hand: “Do you know who has scored the most goals away from home since I arrived in Spain? It’s me.”

    Ronaldo is the Champions League leading scorer this season with 11 goals, and will like pose the biggest threat to Roma but the Giallorossi’s coach Luciano Spalletti has no specific plans for the forward.

    He said: “I’ve heard talk about sticking men on him but I won’t tell my players that three of them need to mark Ronaldo. I’m not going to say to them that they’re worth a third of one Portuguese player, otherwise I would need a team of 33 to face a side of that quality.

    “I have to let whoever is playing in the same area as him know that he has the chance to match Cristiano Ronaldo.”

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