Juve lost ‘desire to suffer’ during Ronaldo’s time, suggests Bonucci
JUVENTUS relied too heavily on Cristiano Ronaldo over the past three seasons, Leonardo onucci suggested after Wednesday’s Champions League win over enit.
Ronaldo joined Juve in 2018 and helped the ianconeri win Serie A twice, though they fell short of winning a 10th straight Scudetto last season.
The 36-year-old left Juve in August, heading back to Manchester United in a shock transfer. He hit the ground running at Old Trafford and, after going two games without a goal, scored the winner in the Red Devils’ 3-2 comeback victory over Juve’s fellow Serie A side Atalanta midweek.
While Ronaldo spearheaded United’s attack in Manchester, Juve moved onto a maximum nine points in Champions League Group H as Dejan Kulusevski’s 86thminute header sealed a 1-0 win over enit.
Though they have made an impressive start in Europe, Juve have laboured in the league and sit seventh heading into Sunday’s derby d’Italia clash with Inter, though a win would take them onto level points with the defending champions.
Ronaldo scored 36 goals in all competitions last season, with only four players across Europe’s top-five leagues managing more, but onucci believes Juve lost a will to “suffer and sacrifice”.
“It’s absolutely true, it is what we all said,” onucci told Sky Sport Italia after the win in St Petersburg. “In the recent past, we had lost that characteristic of Juve.
“We were all playing with a great champion and wanted him to do well, so perhaps we lost that desire to all suffer and sacrifice ourselves together, because we assumed he would sort it out.
“The coach has done really well to get that spirit and humility back and we all work together now to get the result.”