Cristiano Ronaldo will go down as one of the world’s greatest ever footballers.
The Portuguese superstar has won virtually everything there is to
win, performing on the grandest stage for the biggest clubs in Europe.
Ronaldo
is renowned for his ability to find the net, scoring over 700 goals
over the course of his career, with 118 of those coming for Manchester
United.
However, his time at Old Trafford perhaps doesn’t receive the attention that it truly deserves.
Footballers
are scrutinised in the modern-day according to how their performances
correspond with numbers, but before 2010, stats weren’t as prominent.
Ronaldo’s
output under Sir Alex Ferguson was remarkable, and with the current
Premier League season on pause, there’s an opportunity to look back at
just how good he was in England.
Players that score plenty
of goals also tend to shoot with great frequency, with this season’s
most active shooters captured below.
Evidently, Mohamed
Salah is shooting more than any other player with around 3.5 attempts
per 90, based on those who have accumulated at least 1,500 minutes on
the field.
Raul Jimenez then places second, ahead of Marcus Rashford and Riyad Mahrez.
So if Ronaldo was posting his numbers under Ferguson in today’s Premier League, how would he compare?
Well, the answer is that he’d essentially be in a different league, as shown below.
Ronaldo
averaged 5.97 shots per 90 in 2006/07, 5.7 shots per 90 one year later,
and 5.93 shots per 90 in the season before his departure to Real
Madrid.
The Portuguese international had an innate ability
to generate shots that few players master, with over 5.5 shots per 90
taken over the duration of three consecutive campaigns.
For
perspective, both Sadio Mane and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are averaging
around just 2.5 shots per 90 this season in England’s top-flight.
Harry
Kane’s peak was in 2017/18, when the English striker managed to amass
5.4 per 90 under Mauricio Pochettino, while Liverpool’s Luis Suarez hit
5.5 in 2013/14 and 5.7 the year before.
Ronaldo, Kane and Suarez unsurprisingly managed to score plenty of goals, too, which isn’t a coincidence.
Ultimately,
it’s no shock that the Spanish giants came calling for Ronaldo’s
services considering the offensive threat that he demonstrated for the
Red Devils.
The 35-year-old is now one of the biggest names
in sport, but it shouldn’t be forgotten how his success stemmed from his
formative years as a shot machine at Old Trafford.
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