Cristiano Ronaldo has completed a transfer to Juventus, for a fee reportedly in excess
of 100 million euros, including additional fees for youth clubs he supports.
The fee is the largest ever repaid for a player over 30 years old, and the largest ever paid
by an Italian club.
Ronaldo is still a world class player, but he joins a squad bristling with others: currently,
Juventus can boast World Cup finalist Mario Mandzukic, Paulo Dybala and Gonzalo Higuain,
wingers Federico Bernardeschi, Juan Cuadrado and Douglas Costa, and prospects like Marko
Pjaca and Moise Kean.
So where will Juventus’ new big money signing fit?
At Real Madrid, one of Zinedine Zidane’s most impressive feats was his management of
Ronaldo.
He convinced him, for the first time ever, to sit games out and rest when required, partly
as a result of the ligament injury suffered in the Euros.
No longer a winger cutting in from a 4-3-3, based on acceleration, physicality, and driving
runs, Ronaldo was transformed into a brilliant striker, with his positioning, intelligence,
and goal threat from closer pre-eminent.
Zidane lined Real up in a 4-3-1-2 or attacking 4-4-2, with width coming from the full backs
or aggressive wide midfielders – Ronaldo could be more predatory, looking to pounce
on crosses, and play more statically.
Creativity came from midfield, with Karim Benzema and Ronaldo the focal points in the
attack, but with Benzema dropping to link play.
For Portugal, Ronaldo played in a 4-4-2, generally alongside the mobile, hard-pressing Goncalo
Guedes.
Guedes tended to play ahead of Ronaldo in build-up, with the captain dropping off to
link the play but more as a deep passer, than someone who bursts up into space; obviously
he could still do this, but Ronaldo’s movement was more about shifting the play and then
moving into the space created by that shift to pose a goal threat from the return pass.
Ronaldo showed that, not only is he a goal threat from open play, but that he retains
his devastating ability from set pieces too.
Both of these systems paired Ronaldo with another striker, someone who could either
do the hard running in the press, like Guedes, and move to draw players away from Ronaldo,
or, as at Real with Benzema, drop off and link play to Ronaldo, who stayed further up
the pitch.
While Ronaldo is still extremely fit and plays a very physical style of football, it makes
sense to take as much of the physical burden from him.
So how will he fit in at Juventus?
Generally, Max Allegri has played two systems recently, a 4-3-3 and a 4-2-3-1.
Juventus like to build from the back, playing vertical passes to the midfield or to the
central striker or attacking midfielder dropping in, looking to suck the opposition into the
central space before rapidly moving the ball wide.
They also look to overload one flank, and then switch play, especially if using quick
players like Douglas Costa or Cuadrado out wide.
Mandzukic, one of the more versatile forwards in world football, has played either as a
striker or as the wide left player, moving in to present an aerial threat in the gap
on the opposition’s right between the full back and the right-sided centre back and bringing
other players in.
Higuain is both a focal point and the striker who drops in, working hard to hold up the
ball, move it back to an open player, and then turn and burst into the box to find shooting
chances.
Ronaldo could do either of these roles, although without the benefit of another player alongside
him, his work load would increase from the ways in which he has been used with Real Madrid
and Portugal.
While Ronaldo is excellent in the air, he would not be a like-for-like replacement for
Mandzukic – he is less abrasively physical and less selfless than the Croatian striker,
who works very hard in the service of others.
It seems likely, then, that his competition could be mostly with Higuain, but there are
ways the two could work together.
Ronaldo could play slightly ahead of Higuain, with the Juventus 4-2-3-1 looking slightly
more like Real’s 4-4-2; the wide players would need to cover the wide spaces a little
deeper to compensate for Higuain’s pushing up from the 10 space, but he is very capable
of linking play and leaving Ronaldo as a front man.
This role could also be easily performed by Dybala, should either Higuain or Ronaldo need
a rest.
Otherwise, Juventus could play a very adventurous style of 4-3-1-2, with Dybala playing off
Higuain and Ronaldo.
The young Argentina player is very capable operating in the wide spaces, drifting around
the pitch to create passing options and feeding the front two.
Cuadrado could play on the right hand side of the midfield three, with Matuidi on the
left, to give Juventus more attacking options, with Miralem Pjanic or Emre Can the deep playmaker.
Should this be too defensively open, Cuadrado could be swapped out for more of a holding
player, or Can could add energy on the right hand side of the three, getting forwards to
support Dyabala with Matuidi doing the same.
In Alex Sandro and Mattia De Sciglio, Juventus have full backs who can add width to this
system, but Cuadrado could also drop back to play as an aggressive right back, should
Juventus opt for this 4-3-1-2, and with covering centre backs as capable as Giorgio Chiellini,
Daniele Rugani, and Medhi Benatia, Juventus could likely cope with this sort of attacking
game.
The question for Allegri, then, is one of system change versus rotation.
If he wants to rotate, then Ronaldo can play centrally in Juventus’ 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3
instead of Higuain or Mandzukic.
Should Allegri want to change, he has the players to use an attacking 4-3-1-2 that would
benefit his new signing greatly.
Allegri has shown he is a capable coach, unafraid of switching tactics from game to game; ultimately,
Ronaldo will likely be used in different ways for different opponents, but Allegri has added
a real weapon to his arsenal, and Juventus are an even stronger side for Ronaldo’s
acquisition.