He can't defend. He can't do the stepovers with the same level of intensity and success. He can't dribble past a defender these days. And he seems to be missing the target more consistently than expected.

We are of course talking about Cristiano Ronaldo, the reigning Ballon d'Or winner who scored 61 goals last season despite winning no trophies.

Ronaldo has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons of late. Fans and pundits have no problem tearing into the superstar, calling him selfish and useless when not scoring goal.

On some level, seeing the superstar unwilling to press for the ball could be frustrating, especially when everyone else on the pitch is working hard at that very job. Yet the reality is that Ronaldo has never been one to track back, even when he was terrorizing players up and down the lines.

Yet what Ronaldo is good at is creating space in the offensive zone. And he has arguably done that better than he ever has before.

Just look at this goal that he scored this past weekend against Celta Vigo.

Ronaldo makes a pass out wide to Lucas Vasquez before running through the middle of the defense to the opposite end of the box. At that point he has time and space to fire the shot in.

The finish was terrific (and certainly been lacking for most of the year for Ronaldo). However what was the real genius of the play was the pass and the run. Ronaldo put the ball through to Vasquez in a dangerous space but, in doing so, forced the defense to collapse on the Madrid winger. However, Ronaldo's run also created a tremendous amount of issues for Celta's defense. The centerback on the far end of the pitch is concentrating on the ball and running toward the middle thinking that Ronaldo is going to cut in for a simple tap-in in the middle of the box.

What does Ronaldo do? He runs right around him so that the defender stumbles in having to turn around.

And how about the second Madrid goal? Take a look at the opening of the play.

Ronaldo moves toward the left flank getting rather close to Marcelo, but providing the ultimate pick. Look at the defender charging at Ronaldo right before he dishes off to Marcelo. That leaves the entire middle of the pitch open for Jese to make his decisive move.

Ronaldo commands the respect of the defenders. Maybe another defender does not dart out of position to pressure the superstar letting the other defender already there take care of business. Moreover, if the defender stays then it is likely Ronaldo is either forced to cut inside where he eventually gets surrounded, or has to play a give-and-go with Marcelo on the flank, which is far more manageable than what ultimately happens.

Then comes Marcelo's decisive goal in the waning seconds.


Ronaldo stands in an offside position while the ball is crossed from right to left to Marcelo. Yet the defender refuses to challenge Marcelo, instead tracking Ronaldo into the box. The result? Marcelo is one on one with the keeper and has a rather easy shot to score on.

So that was a very impressive game from CR7 right? But the rest of the season has been patchy, and he has not really been as consistent as usual, instead wasting golden opportunities.

How about this piece of magic against Atletico Madrid, one of Ronaldo's poorest performances of the season?

Notice the defenders' positioning at the start of the play as Ronaldo approaches the box. Both are in a position to receive a cross and head it away. Yet when Ronaldo charges toward the near post what happens? We see the defender chase after Ronaldo vacating the space in the middle of the box where Benzema has all day to prepare the header. Juanfran makes no move to cover the space, mainly because no one was anticipating Ronaldo to force his man away from the central area.

Or check out Gareth Bale's second goal at the end of the following video to see how the two Real Betis defenders converge on Ronaldo expecting a through ball only to realize (too late!) that they have given Bale a free shot at goal.

Here is yet another game in which Ronaldo seemingly had a bad night. It was on Sept. 26 against Malaga and Ronaldo had a whopping 14 shots at the goal and scored none. Yet go to 5:45 of the video and see that give-and-go to Benzema and how Ronaldo's slight run forces two defenders out of position, thus freeing up Karim Benzema for a shot. Then go through the rest of the video and note that while wasteful, Ronaldo was getting a lot of opportunities and connecting on a lot of Madrid's attacking plays. He was also creating some himself.

The point? Ronaldo's finishing might be down, especially when compared to last season, yet the simple fact that he is getting as many opportunities as he is points to Madrid's offensive machine succeeding in finding its most successful scorer. Anyone can realize how good that is.

Ronaldo is getting more chances to score than ever in his career with an average of 7.6 shots per game in La Liga. He is currently scoring on only 10 percent of those chances, down from his career average of around 15 percent. He is likely to regress back to the mean, and if he does, then he could score as many as 33 more goals in La Liga when all is said and done. Throw in other competitions and the annual 50 will also be back for Ronaldo. Yet if he were to see fewer shots per game (closer to the career average of 6.9 shots per game), then he should still score close to 30 more goals in the Spanish League this season

That would be fantastic, but even if he never reaches those lofty goal totals again, his other work cannot be overlooked. Ronaldo is brilliant in creating space in and around the penalty area from the mere motion of his legs in any one direction. That should not be overlooked.