6 reasons Juventus should sell Cristiano Ronaldo this summer

Ronaldo Hasn’t Earned A Starting Spot This Season

This argument might be as controversial as the premise of this article, but the fact of the matter is Cristiano Ronaldo has been Juve’s 3rd best striker in a squad that only starts 2 of them. This has been especially true during his recent run of 2 goals in a month, which includes 0 goals from the run of play. It has been a while since he has made any kind of an impact for Juve.

On the other hand, Paulo Dybala and Gonzalo Higuain have been carrying Juve over the last month. In his last 5 appearances, Higuain has provided 2 goals and 4 assists even though 2 of those appearances were as a substitute. Dybala has scored in each of his last 3 starts, even though one of those was as a substitute.

For the season as a whole, Ronaldo has scored 7 goals and assisted 1 more across all competitions with 3 of those goals coming from the penalty spot. Gonzalo Higuain has scored 5 and assisted 5 without the help of the penalty spot, while Paulo Dybala has scored 7 and assisted 2 with only one of his goals coming from the penalty spot (and he drew the most recent penalty that Ronaldo converted). Ronaldo has also had around 250 more minutes than Higuain and nearly 400 more minutes than Dybala to produce inferior performances and inferior numbers.

I had a harder time convincing myself that Juve would actually be better without Ronaldo until we saw what the team could look like without him. The match against Atalanta was Juve’s first against a top Serie A opponent since October and they went on the road with Higuain and Dybala up front and won by 2 goals for the first time since an October 1st match against Bayer Leverkusen and scored 3 goals for the first time since that same match.

For the season as a whole, Juve hasn’t really needed Ronaldo against their toughest competition. Juve’s toughest matchups this season have been against Atletico twice, Inter Milan, Atalanta, and Napoli. In those matches, Juventus has scored a total of 12 goals. Higuain started only 3 of those matches, but has scored 4 goals and assisted two others. Dybala also started only 3 and has scored 3, including his incredible free kick against Atletico last week. Ronaldo has started 4 of the matches and has scored only 1 goal, assisting none.

If Ronaldo isn’t showing up for the big matches, then what exactly is his purpose at Juventus? As long as this continues, there is no reason to believe that Juve shouldn’t be starting Dybala and Higuain for now and the future because this likely won’t get any better next year.