Cristiano Ronaldo's 'disasterclass' shows Manchester United need to come to terms with reality

Ten shots. That's how many attempts Cristiano Ronaldo had on goal against Middlesbrough, and he scored zero goals. Not even a penalty could guarantee his name on the scoresheet as he dragged it wide of the post from the spot.

It wasn't a great match all around for United in terms of finishing, with the team only scoring one goal from 30 shots and Bruno Fernandes probably missing the clearest cut chance of the bunch. Still, with Ronaldo being the focal point of the attack, he needed to do better.

This has been the story of Ronaldo's season since Ralf Rangnick was appointed. However, the forward only had a single open-play goal, with the other being a penalty against Norwich.

Before Middlesbrough, several fans had stated that Ronaldo was not being given enough chances. Still, after Jadon Sancho and Fernandes provided several good chances for the forward, which he either squandered with a poor shot or inexplicably ran away from the goal, we need to have a serious conversation about United's famous number seven.

Firstly I'd like to preface this entire argument that this is not an attack on Ronaldo's entire career. You can state that he's won numerous trophies and five Ballon d'Ors, but that has no bearing on the conversation. If he fails to perform this season because, as the old idiom goes, you're only as good as your last match, and Ronaldo hasn't been good for at least ten now.

A more reasonable defence would be his Champions League form, where his goals are what carried a poor and floundering United side through the group stages. Still, I can argue these moments of brilliance overwrote the poor performances that preceded them, and in some cases, a more involved striker would have meant that United didn't need to be