Another game for Juventus and still no goal for Cristiano Ronaldo.
Since completing his move from Real Madrid this summer, the five-time Ballon d'Or winner has made a slow start to life in Serie A despite featuring in three consecutive victories.
Juventus secured themselves a dramatic 3-2 win against Chievo on the opening weekend of the season, before breezing past Lazio at the Allianz Stadium.
Next up was the journey to Parma, which would feature another victory for the Old Lady virtue of Mario Mandzukic and Blaise Matuidi either side of a Gervinho equaliser.
There was, of course, still no goal for Ronaldo who was active throughout the match without creating any clear goalscoring opportunities.
Ronaldo struggled vs Parma
After the game, Matuidi said: “He is a great player and will score eventually, as he’s very important for this team. He was unlucky this evening, but we will help him and he’s got plenty of time.
"He was a little annoyed at not being able to score, but it’ll come.”
Ronaldo holds himself to incredibly high standards, so there's no surprise he was frustrated at not being able to break his duck.
His performance also saw him reach a rather unwanted statistic, taking more shots than anyone without scoring (23) than any player in Europe's top five leagues.
Football fans have a suggestion for Juventus
That's not to mention a rather pitiful attempt at a scissor kick that will no doubt continue to do the rounds on Twitter.
It's all led football fans to wonder why Ronaldo has struggled in his opening three games and the Parma match saw them come to an interesting conclusion.
Fans aren't convinced by Ronaldo playing alongside Mandzukic, suggesting that Paulo Dybala or Douglas Costa would perhaps be better partners for him.
Despite Mandzukic finding the net this weekend, he has shown little chemistry with Ronaldo and the pair's positioning together has left a lot to be desired.
Check out the tweets below:
https://twitter.com/sathyakabra
https://twitter.com/JDAngkasa
https://twitter.com/knukles_07
Mandzukic not Dybala or Douglas Costa is the player best suited to bring the best out of Ronaldo. Most comfortable out wide & through the middle amongst the three. Position's himself according to Ronaldo's convenience & movement. Runs his socks off too. #ParmaJuventus
At first glance, Ronaldo-Mandzukic pairing looks good. Seems like it could work like a charm. But too often we find ourselves not having anyone in the penalty box, because Ronaldo likes to get involved, while Mandzukic likes to run back so much. An issue which needs to be solved.
As long as Mandzukic is striking for juve Ronaldo will never get up to 15 goals (excluding pks if he gets to take em) in all competitions this season
's other TweetsIt certain leaves Massimiliano Allegri with an interesting dilemma.
Does he switch up the club's attack to try and accommodate Ronaldo better or does he keep Mandzukic in the team because of his goal scoring record?
No matter how many goals Mandzukic scores, Allegri would probably lean towards the former because a top-form Ronaldo would be a massive boost for Juventus.
Fans believe that with Dybala or Costa, Ronaldo would be able to better occupy the number nine position he moved to with Real Madrid last season.
The 33-year-old has shown himself to be a brilliant poacher through the middle in recent years and could be wasted when forced out wide with Mandzukic.
Given the opening three games, it seems that supporters are pretty spot on and only time will tell whether Allegri has the same thought process.
Of course, it's still early days and Ronaldo did make a slow start to league football last season, but it's quickly becoming apparent that Serie A is no walk in the park.
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