Diogo Dalot and the rest of the Portuguese squad are side characters in the Cristiano Ronaldo show at the World Cup, but he keeps missing the point.
Portugal will face Croatia in the Round of 32 fixture after coming through a group stage where they flattered to deceive.
Two draws and one win deflated expectations around a Portuguese golden generation, and even Bruno Fernandes’ good exploits weren’t enough.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s decline became a running theme of the campaign, and Diogo Dalot has addressed it now, but missed the point entirely.
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Diogo Dalot addresses the “Cristiano Ronaldo show” for Portugal
One can like Ronaldo or hate him, but it’s undeniable that he dominates the discussion even at his age, when he’s a shell of the player he used to be.
There are glimpses of life, like when he scored twice against Uzbekistan and proudly claimed that “I’m back”, before another poor game against Colombia.
Diogo Dalot has been one of Ronaldo’s biggest supporters, and he’s now addressed the whiplash of emotions that Portugal have to navigate when Ronaldo is in the side.
He said [via Helder Martins]: “Criticism will always be part of the process. We ourselves are the first to want to make a difference. As a group, we are well, strong, cohesive, and united.
“Before the World Cup, we players all had a conversation about this. When you have Cristiano in the squad, you have to be prepared for an unusual amount of noise.
“We already knew we were going to go through this, and it ended up happening. The positive side is that it happened early, so we also put an end to the matter and moved on.”
Dalot has addressed the elephant in the room by admitting that the players spoke about the circus that follows Ronaldo.
However, he misses the point with his last statement, framing the external factors as a means to destabilise the team, when the destabilising factor is within the team.
Ronaldo stokes the flames his teammates burn in
Dalot proudly says that it’s positive how Ronaldo became a topic early on, which means they put an end to the matter and moved on.
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However, he misses a key point that the matter would never have opened in the first place if Ronaldo had just recognised his limitations and not pushed to play every minute.
Even then, the matter would have calmed down had he stayed quiet after his brace against Uzbekistan, but he proudly proclaimed into the camera afterwards that he’s “back”.
When your words write cheques that your actions can’t cash, criticism is bound to appear, which is what happened when Ronaldo wasn’t so “back” anymore against Colombia.
The matter is far from closed, and it’s not positive. The World Cup campaign of a golden generation is being hijacked by a player who refuses to believe that he’s not the player he used to be.
Ronaldo is the one who stokes the flames that his team burns in. It’s impossible to “move on” from it, as Dalot claims they have, when the cause is within.
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