Former Real Madrid player and coach Bernd Schuster says you can see in Cristiano Ronaldo's face his personal frustration at having scored just one La Liga goal so far this season.

Ronaldo has converted just one of his 48 shots at goal in seven La Liga games, although he is this season's Champions League top scorer with six goals in four outings.

Madrid's all-time record goal scorer made clear his angst at not finding the net during Sunday's 3-0 La Liga win over Las Palmas, with coach Zinedine Zidane and captain Sergio Ramos saying afterwards that his mood was not good when not scoring himself, even if the team had got the three points.

Speaking to AS, Schuster said watching Ronaldo on Sunday had reminded him of his former player Raul Gonzalez, who also used to get upset if he did not score in a game.

"When [Cristiano] scores again everything will change," he said. "The nice thing is to see his face when he does not score. I had Raul, and when they do not score, forwards almost eat you. This is their job, we don't look at other things they do. Every year the goal-scoring bar is set very high for them."

Schuster also said that Madrid were currently paying for having sold last season's back-up striker Alvaro Morata to Chelsea in the summer for €65 million, especially as Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema had been hampered by injuries recently.

"I was very sorry to see Morata leaving Madrid. I said at the time his absence would be felt over the season," he said. "Bale is out at the moment now, Benzema has been injured too. But [Zidane] has many options at such a big club. Isco has made a big step up, and [Marco] Asensio scored that golazo [against Las Palmas]."

Ex-Madrid captain Fernando Hierro declined to read too much into Ronaldo's current dip in form, saying he was sure he would be back among the goals soon.

"Cristiano for me is the best goal scorer in the world. We should just take our time and be relaxed," Hierro said. "We all know what he can do. In 11 months of competition there are good and bad moments. But I don't doubt Cristiano Ronaldo at all."

Source:
courtesy of ESPNFC

by Dermot Corrigan

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