Reports of Cristiano Ronaldo’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Despite overwhelming criticism, the 33-year-old Real Madrid talisman continued to show on Saturday he’s still a force to be reckoned with. His two-goal performance against Alaves put him on 28 goals for the season. That briefly put him level with Lionel Messi before he bagged a brace of his own later in the day.
These aren’t the kind of numbers that suggest a crisis.
Ronaldo even demonstrated some generosity, deferring penalty-taking duties and a chance at a 50th career hat-trick so that Karim Benzema could gain confidence. Benzema – who’s endured whistles from the Santiago Bernabeu faithful all season – buried from 12 yards to secure a 4-0 win.
What’s most important is that Ronaldo is back to scoring. The complaint against him earlier in the campaign was that he was missing a lot of chances, but the reality is that Ronaldo has never really played all that poorly. The only difference between then and now – albeit a pivotal one – is that he and his teammates are converting effort into goals.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s last 7 games for Real Madrid:
???? vs. Deportivo ?? vs. Valencia ? vs. Levante ????? vs. Sociedad ?? vs. PSG ? vs. Real Betis ? vs. Alaves
Still here, still great. pic.twitter.com/4wlXMyrFTq
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) February 24, 2018
Many blamed Madrid’s early-season struggles on Ronaldo’s own inefficiencies in front of goal, but it was an unfair burden. The famous “BBC” triumvirate had barely played together, Isco’s influence had waned, and supplementary scoring wasn’t there. Two figures who would have relieved Madrid up top – Alvaro Morata and James Rodriguez – were dispatched in the previous summer.
So a greater share of the responsibility has fallen on Ronaldo, and every misstep has meant that much more. Zidane’s lack of a Plan B, coupled with increasing talk of Ronaldo’s transformation into a veritable No. 9, amplified the focus on the superstar’s scoring output.
He has made things difficult for himself, missing several clear-cut opportunities in the first half of the season. Taking into account matches up to Feb. 16, Stratabet shows the Portuguese has been inadequate in this department. His goals per 90 minutes is fairly low for the number of shots he takes.
(Courtesy: @RowzReport)
He’s also been terribly unlucky. Only Messi has struck the woodwork more times than Ronaldo across the top five European leagues, and only Harry Kane has had more shots blocked. Not to mention that some of the goalkeepers he’s faced have produced truly fantastic saves.
He’s tried to make things happen in midfield as well. Ronaldo could only watch in agony as Gareth Bale wasted an inch-perfect through ball in the 5-3 victory over Real Betis. The score was 2-2 at the time, and Ronaldo tracked back from a fairly high position in search of an opening. Betis ‘keeper Antonio Adan made an excellent stop on Bale, but if nothing else, it showed Ronaldo has tried to affect games outside the box.
This pass from Ronaldo to bale was completely outstanding. Bale was unlucky to not to finish it. The internet would have gone viral if it was someother.#HalaMadrid #LaLiga #RealBetisRealMadrid pic.twitter.com/Pk7FVP9N1d
— Madridista (@iamAbdullah342) February 18, 2018
And a closer look at Ronaldo’s stats reveals that his struggles are essentially confined to La Liga. Outside of the Spanish top flight, he’s done what everyone expects him to do. He set a Champions League record with a goal in every match of the group stage, and scored in the Spanish Super Cup and the final of FIFA Club World Cup. He isn’t exactly shrinking on the big stage.
With a few months of the season left to go, Ronaldo isn’t quite finished yet.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Mike Vrabel kicks his feet up on his desk and leans back in his chair. He still looks like an NFL linebacker, but he has the Tennessee Titans’ big office now. He’s breaking it in his way.
A melodious country music playlist, ranging from Garth Brooks to Blake Shelton, plays slightly softer than speaking voice in his office. Vrabel’s Boston College-bound son, Tyler, makes a tepid entrance. He’s up at the Titans facility at 8:30 a.m. on a Friday for a workout with Titans strength and conditioning coach Steve Watterson.
“You don’t seem too excited about this. You tired? Couldn’t go to bed last night,” Vrabel says before giving his son speed-training instructions. “Go work out. I’ll come find you. See you, brother.”
Tyler, a high school senior who has his dad matched in body measurables (6-foot-4, 260 pounds), exits. Vrabel smiles proudly, “He’s big, huh? They’re doing a great job with him.”
It has been only a month, but Vrabel is already at home here.
Vrabel, 42, has a unique and challenging job. He’s a first-time head coach tasked with being the ground-level CEO for the Titans, an up-and-coming playoff team that isn’t broken, has a strong locker room and a franchise quarterback.
“Everybody is going to tell us to win the f—ing Super Bowl and it’s f—ing February,” Vrabel said. “We all have to manage expectations, positively and negatively.”
There were grumbles from NFL assistant coaches at the Senior Bowl, expressing frustration that Vrabel was able to reach the head coach mantle so quickly.
It’s no secret that Vrabel’s 14-year NFL playing career, in which he won three Super Bowls and embodied the Patriots Way, helped expedite his path. His relationship with Titans general manager Jon Robinson, a former Patriots scout, worked in his favor too.
The Titans are counting on first-time head coach Mike Vrabel to take them from playoff team to Super Bowl champion. Mark Humphrey/AP Photo
But Vrabel isn’t about to apologize for his connections. He says he believes he’s ready for the job. Those who know Vrabel well say his presence, intelligence, ability to relate to players and unrelenting competitiveness will make him successful and worth the risk for the Titans.
“I love his passion for the game, his passion for players. Mike is one of the smartest guys that I’ve ever met. That’s why I’m here,” said Titans defensive backs coach Kerry Coombs, who coached alongside Vrabel at Ohio State for two years. “Mike understood players better than anybody I’ve ever coached with. He has a great handle on how to teach and communicate. There are people you encounter in your life that have that ‘it’ factor. He’s one of those guys.”
Presence, confrontations, brutal honesty
The Eddie George-Vrabel Ohio State practice battles were legendary. From 1993 to 1995, they competed at everything from wind sprints to 10-yard shuttles.
George recalls many practices having Vrabel as his blitz-pickup responsibility. Vrabel was trying to knock him into next week. It was physical, and they let each other know who won each battle.
“His motor was nonstop. He was hell off the edge. He was one of the great defensive players to come through Ohio State,” said George, the 1995 Heisman Trophy winner and leading rusher in Titans/Oilers franchise history. “Mike doesn’t back down from a challenge. He’s not afraid of being confrontational. He would call you out in a heartbeat — coaches, teammates. It didn’t matter.”
Vrabel figured he wasn’t the fastest, strongest or best player, but he could be the toughest. He learned that from his dad, Chuck, a longtime Ohio high school basketball coach.
“He embodied that Patriots culture. He’s a natural leader,” said 49ers general manager John Lynch, who briefly was a teammate of Vrabel’s during training camp with the Patriots in 2008. “Just because he was a great player doesn’t mean he’s going to be a great coach. But it’s important to Mike. He’s reflected that with the way he works. Knowing Mike and what he stands for, I think they found a good one.”
Former Patriots and Texans nose tackle Vince Wilfork said Vrabel was Houston’s best coach. Two others who played for Vrabel said he demands a lot, but he gets it from a player’s perspective.
“He’s willing to put his arm around you,” George said. “He’s not so insensitive that he forgets you’re a human being.”
That brings us back to Vrabel’s presence, sort of a fluffy buzzword.
“I don’t know what it is or means. I don’t try to pretend, I don’t try to be fake,” Vrabel interjected as if he had heard the word “presence” one too many times. “I can be an a–h— Monday to Saturday. I let them play on Sunday. That 3 1/2 hours is your time.”
University of Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickell, Vrabel’s best friend and former Ohio State teammate, predicts people might struggle adjusting to Vrabel’s brutally honest approach to football and life.
“Some people would say it’s brash. Some people would say it’s arrogant,” Fickell said. “No, this is the standard he’s going to set. He’s going to set it for himself, and he’s going to hold people to it.”
Fickell saw people grapple with Vrabel’s tough method of leadership, like when he wasn’t voted a captain at Ohio State.
“Mike was the best leader we had on the team. But it wasn’t a popular thing,” said Fickell, who also gave Vrabel his first coaching job at Ohio State. “He says things that people don’t want to hear. Some people didn’t like it. He found out at an early age that he didn’t care.”
Vrabel went on to become a multiyear captain and all-pro player with the Patriots.
“[Patriots head coach] Bill Belichick was brutally honest. [Ohio State head coach] Urban Meyer taught me to be brutally honest,” Vrabel said. “He was clear, clean, concise and direct. Sooner or later, you got to be honest. It might as well be sooner. In the end, players and people want to know you’re not bulls—-ing them.”
‘Vrabel was the smartest’
Vrabel doesn’t have much patience when it comes to his family. He used to get angry when Tyler’s high school football coaches repeatedly called out his last name as if he were his dad.
“He’s got a f—ing name,” Vrabel told the coaches. “I swear to God if you yell Tyler, he’ll turn around.”
Vrabel was trying to protect his son from the unnecessary expectations. He figures it’s not easy playing the same sport as your famous former NFL star dad. Tyler plays offensive line, which Mike hopes will make things easier. His younger son, Carter, plays baseball. His wife, Jen, loves sports and plays gatekeeper in determining who enters their lives.
Sitting on the back wall of Vrabel’s office is a collection of children books. Next year will be the 20th anniversary of 2nd & 7, a foundation Vrabel and his friend Ryan Miller started to promote childhood reading comprehension in Ohio. It started buying books for second-graders and reading to them. Then Vrabel and Miller decided to write books. Vrabel has plans to expand the program to Nashville by this fall.
Education was important for Vrabel, an only child, with a mother and father who were both school principals.
Once Vrabel retired from the NFL in 2011, at 36, he accepted a job from Fickell to be the defensive line coach at Ohio State the next day. He didn’t plan to leave Columbus. He built a home there that “I thought they would bury me in.”
Vrabel loved recruiting, and he was good at it — proving Meyer’s initial doubts wrong — but he grew tired of spending his springs in the homes of 17-year-olds while hearing Jen describe the awesome sports moments he missed with his own teenager and preteen.
“Some people would say it’s brash. Some people would say it’s arrogant. No, this is the standard he’s going to set. He’s going to set it for himself, and he’s going to hold people to it.”
Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell on Vrabel
So his coaching dream moved to Houston as linebackers coach from 2014 to 2016 followed by one season as defensive coordinator in 2017, and now Tennessee, where his family has a front-row seat. Vrabel thought back to when the Titans told him he’d be their head coach.
“I’ve won a Super Bowl. I’ve been on the podium with my son when he was 3 years old. Caught a TD in the Super Bowl. Strip sacks in the Super Bowl,” Vrabel said. “To me, it’s right up there with all those moments and probably a little higher.”
This opportunity is special because Vrabel wanted to be a coach before he was a player. Those who know Vrabel well laugh when they see people miscategorize him as a “football meathead.”
“Vrabes was always the guy who saw more than just what was on the handout. He would understand why,” said Bruschi, now an ESPN analyst. “All of us were smart players, but I always thought Vrabel was the smartest. Before I went to a coach with a question, I would check with Vrabes first.”
Bruschi remembers Vrabel as the only guy who could naturally joke about him coming back from a stroke while still matching his intensity on the field.
“Toughness and humor, a lot of guys can’t mix the two,” Bruschi said. “Vrabes mastered that.”
Managing expectations
The Vrabel-Fickell college dorm consisted of drinking, little sleep and wrestling until 2 a.m.
Fickell was a wrestler, but Vrabel wanted to win. So they fought and fought, often drawing blood and leaving bruises.
“I whooped his ass. He would never admit it. But he would never stop. You would have to knock him out,” Fickell said. “He’s probably the most competitive son of a b—- I’ve ever met. It doesn’t matter if it’s football, recruiting, playing cards for money, shooting baskets or in some business endeavor. He’s in it to win.”
That competitiveness is part of what attracted Robinson to Vrabel. Robinson wasn’t satisfied with being a “decent” team, and he says he believes Vrabel can push them toward “great.”
The Titans went 9-7 in 2016 and 2017, and last season won their first playoff game since 2003. Marcus Mariota is the present and future. This team isn’t broken. But it’s a lot harder to go from decent to great, with further to fall than to climb. The realistic goal is a championship.
“You can look at the Rams. Yeah, they had a QB, but they weren’t a playoff team,” Vrabel said. “This is a very unique situation.
“We’re going to have to manage expectations. We talk about winning the division, something that we haven’t done since 2008 here, hosting a playoff game, then seeing what happens.”
Before winning, Vrabel will have to teach his culture and sell his program. Many Titans players loved former head coach Mike Mularkey.
“His biggest challenge is going to be winning that locker room over,” George said. “You have to be careful with friction at the beginning. It can be a distraction.”
Vrabel’s experiences as a player — being an underachieving draft pick, a backup, a special-teams player, a captain, an all-pro player, a champion, a traded player and a grizzled veteran trying to hold on — will help him relate to his players.
His coaching experiences — swimming in his first year from player to coach, bombing his initial interview with Meyer in 2012, and becoming a hot coaching candidate over the past two years — have shaped him, too.
Vrabel’s dad taught him the importance of teamwork and toughness. Meyer taught him the importance of teaching a player. Belichick taught him the importance of preparation. Former Steelers coach Bill Cowher taught him the importance of special teams. Vrabel will take from them and add his own style.
“I’m going to treat each individual player exactly how they treat the team,” Vrabel said. “If they treat the team or teammates like s—, I’m going to have a tough time having a relationship with that player, and that player probably won’t be here very long.”
Vrabel’s first training camp might make some players puke. He’s that type of coach. But winning could make everything better.
One month in, Vrabel looks content with the challenge, comfortable in his new home and confident in his ability to make it work. One thing is certain: He’ll do it his way.
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Rams agreed to acquire All-Pro cornerback Marcus Peters from the Kansas City Chiefs on Friday, a move that was first reported by ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.
Details of the trade, which won’t be processed until the start of the new league year on March 14, have yet to be disclosed. But the Chiefs are expected to receive a package of draft picks, not players, in return, according to Schefter’s sources.
Pro Bowl cornerback Marcus Peters has 19 interceptions in his first three NFL seasons. John Rieger/USA TODAY Sports
The 25-year-old will cost $1.74 million toward the salary cap this season, which is nearly one-tenth of Johnson’s cap hit last year. The Rams would then have until May 3 to pick up Peters’ fifth-year option for 2019.
The Rams entered the offseason with a desperate need at cornerback. Johnson, who spent the past two years playing under the franchise tag, and slot corner Nickell Robey-Coleman are scheduled to be unrestricted free agents. Their No. 2 cornerback, Kayvon Webster, ruptured an Achilles tendon in December. Beyond them, there isn’t much depth.
The Peters acquisition gives the Rams salary-cap flexibility, which they could use on pending free agents such as safety Lamarcus Joyner and wide receiver Sammy Watkins. It also helps them sign defensive tackle Aaron Donald to an extension that is expected to eventually make him the game’s highest-paid defensive player.
Just as important, it provides a shutdown corner for defensive coordinator Wade Phillips.
Peters is the first player since Ed Reed (from 2002 to 2004) with five interceptions in each of his first three seasons, even though opposing quarterbacks have continually shied away from him. From 2015 to 2017, Peters’ combination of sacks, forced fumbles and interceptions (25) easily led the NFL, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
But Peters also joins the Rams with some character concerns. He was thrown off his collegiate team at Washington for an altercation with an assistant coach. In December, he was suspended by the Chiefs for one game after tossing an official’s penalty flag into the crowd and then retreating to the locker room without being ejected during a game against the New York Jets.
Peters was also seen at different times on the sideline last season shouting at defensive coordinator Bob Sutton or others. In at least one instance, he directed expletives at a group of fans behind the Chiefs’ bench. The Rams are hopeful that a change of scenery can help fix that.
Further evidence of a disconnect between Jose Mourinho and Paul Pogba was provided Wednesday at Sevilla. The out-of-form Frenchman came on as a substitute after initially taking a seat on the bench, and although he wasn’t at his worst, he couldn’t really influence the match.
He mostly jogged about the pitch at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium, picking his moments to get involved. Whether he was still ill from the weekend or not, Pogba looked disengaged until the final moments of the 0-0 draw. It was as if he was told to restrain himself, to focus on seeing out a scoreless result that United could then build on in the second leg at Old Trafford.
Related: De Gea stars as Manchester United settles for Sevilla draw
And therein lies one of the main reasons for Pogba’s struggles. It’s not just a personal problem, it’s down to Mourinho’s tactics. The Portuguese manager prefers soldiers to individual brilliance and defensive responsibility over freedom of expression, and it’s prevented the attack-minded Pogba from truly affecting the play on the pitch.
The same could be said for many of United’s players. Mourinho’s commitment to conservative football has forced the Red Devils to abandon their natural talent and follow a more pragmatic approach.
“If you look at the players they have – (Marcus) Rashford, (Anthony) Martial, (Alexis) Sanchez, (Romelu) Lukaku being backed up by Pogba – wouldn’t that frighten you?” former Arsenal striker Ian Wright told BBC Radio 5 Live. “United should be doing better with the players got (sic) they’ve got. I’m baffled with the sterile football. If I was a United fan, I would be disgusted.”
Every team has to play within a system, and there’s a time and place to line up defensively, but Mourinho seems either unable or unwilling to see his team’s attacking strengths.
His uncompromising devotion to playing not to lose has harmed Pogba’s development the most. The kind of player who thrives on confidence, he has to be allowed to make runs through the heart of midfield and dictate the pace of the game.
(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)
On Wednesday, he wasn’t allowed to do much of that. Pogba didn’t exactly help himself – he was slow to close down players and easily dispossessed – but he gave a glimpse of what he can do in the last 15 minutes. There was more combination play with Lukaku and Rashford, a few decent turns, and one moment when Pogba found the Belgian forward with a smart overhead pass.
It was as if Mourinho, knowing Sevilla would’ve tired itself out after firing shot after shot, let his players attack once the result looked safe.
Pogba also looked freer when Sanchez went off. The Chilean often encroached on the space Pogba would otherwise inhabit, dropping deep and running into the channels. There’s just not much room for Sanchez and Pogba to co-exist. That’s another tactical imbalance that Mourinho has to solve.
But the Portuguese manager may not care at all about Pogba’s personal growth. He just wants his players to carry out a plan, and those who can’t, such as Henrikh Mkhitaryan, will be disposed of. It’s why Mourinho, faced with question after question about Pogba, hugged a reporter who instead asked about Scott McTominay’s workmanlike performance.
“In the press conference, the questions were about Paul, but the question should be about the kid,” Mourinho told BT Sport’s Des Kelly. “He was fantastic. He did everything well. He put pressure on (Ever) Banega and stopped him playing. He’s their playmaker. I think Scott was brilliant.”
McTominay was indeed lively and more willing to press. Responsible for United’s sole shot on target, the youth product was deserving of praise.
But titles aren’t won with a 21-year-old McTominay. It’s with Pogba at his best. And until Mourinho can find a way to tap into his player’s undeniable match-winning talent, it’ll be one colossal waste of time.
