Ronaldo vs. Griezmann: Which Madrid Superstar Is More Effective?
As Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid prepare to go head-to-head in the UEFA Champions League semi-finals, both sides will be hoping their world-class forwards will be on form and ready to fire them into the final.
For Los Blancos, it's Cristiano Ronaldo, the goal machine who has continuously broken records and is the all-time top scorer for the club, a living legend of the game and the reigning best player in the world.
For Los Rojiblancos, Antoine Griezmann is the go-to man for goals and inspiration, third-place in the Ballon d'Or and often making the difference for an Atleti side famed for its defensive resilience but not always for consistent attacking threat.
Both players carry the hopes of their respective teams as European glory beckons, but who is the more effective player for their side?
All statistical data is via WhoScored.com unless stated.
Basic Stats: Shots
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Numbers don't tell everything about a player's game, but they're a good place to start.
For forwards, three basic metrics can tell us about a player's interaction in offensive moments of play—not as a clear indication of how good they are but certainly offering insight as to how often they are involved and what they bring to the team.
Shots and key passes are fundamentals for attackers, with dribbles another worthwhile indicator.
In the first area, it's rare that any player in all of Europe would best Ronaldo for shooting, and that's the case again in the 2016/17 season.
The Real No. 7 is ludicrously shot-happy, perfectly capable of hitting double figures for attempts in any given match. However, it's worth remembering the pure number offers no insight as to the quality of chance, or even whether it's on target.
Even so, the more shots on goal a player takes, the chances of him scoring naturally increases, and that has long been the mantra Ronaldo subscribes to.
This season he weighs in with an average of 5.8 shots per league game, highest in Europe's top five leagues, with only Barcelona's Lionel Messi (5.2), AS Roma's Edin Dzeko (4.7) and Manchester City's Sergio Aguero (4.6) even remotely close.
Griezmann's average of 2.6 is way down that particular list, 12th in La Liga and comfortably outside the top 50 across Europe.
Effectiveness at getting shots away: Ronaldo, comfortably.
Basic Stats: Passing and Dribbling
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There was a time when a striker would be judged purely on the number of goals they scored, with little attention paid to their supplementary game.
Thankfully, that era of wilfully ignoring what matters in a team game is rapidly passing, and a complete forward is eminently capable of contributing far more than just finishing off a move.
While both Ronaldo and Griezmann have the primary function of being goalscorers in their team, both have the all-round ability to create openings and set up chances for their team-mates, which is reflected in their assist tallies for the season.
Ronaldo has created 28 chances in La Liga, a rate of 1.1 per game, but that jumps to 1.7 per game in the Champions League.
Similarly, Griezmann sees an improvement on the continental stage. The French attacker has laid on 53 chances in La Liga, 1.6 per game, but that's up to 2.1 per game in Europe.
Across both competitions, Griezmann has nine assists this term, while Ronaldo has 11.
Neither player relies on dribbling past opponents as their primary means of creating shooting chances (for themselves or others), though both are capable in one-on-one situations. Both average less than one dribble per match in league play, and Ronaldo just about breaks the 1.0 mark in Europe.
Effectiveness in buildup: Griezmann, as a consequence of style perhaps more than ability.
On the Clock
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Involvement is important, but ultimately these two stars are considered world class because of their end product: how often can they finish or create scoring chances?
It's now 21 goals and nine assists for Griezmann this season (La Liga and Champions League), and 27 and 11 for Ronaldo in the same two competitions. However, the Portugal international has been injured twice this season, and thus he has clocked up less game time.
Ronaldo: 3,210 mins played—a goal or assist every 84.5 minutes
Griezmann: 3,704 mins played—a goal or assist every 123.5 minutes
Those are the two main competitions to judge on, as both men play almost whenever possible. But Griezmann has also netted four and assisted two in the Copa del Rey this season, while Ronaldo has one goal in the Copa and four from the FIFA Club World Cup.
After adding in those lesser competitions, the figures become:
Ronaldo: 3,592 mins played—a goal or assist every 83.5 minutes
Griezmann: 4,128 mins played—a goal or assist every 114.7 minutes
Either way, it's still the Real Madrid man who is clearly the more regular contributor, averaging a goal scored or assisted more regularly than one-per-game.
Effectiveness where it matters most: Ronaldo, despite dropping below a goal-per-game scoring rate this season.
Reliance
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It's important to acknowledge that Real and Atletico are very different in their approaches. Tactically, with formation and particularly with the expectations of the midfield, the teams couldn't be more distinct.
Ronaldo takes far more shots than Griezmann—but so do Real as a whole compared to Atletico. He has a better goal contribution rate, too, but Los Blancos score far more than their city rivals—92 to 65 in La Liga this season, in fact.
Even so, the Portuguese forward still dominates in terms of how much he's responsible for goal-getting.
Ronaldo's 5.8 shots per game works out at 33 per cent of Real Madrid's total 17.8 shots per game; Atletico only manage an average of 13.5 per game, making Griezmann's 2.6 per game worth just 19 per cent.
But that's just shots—actual goals are a different matter.
Ronaldo has netted 22 per cent of Real's total Liga haul and 25 per cent in Europe, while Griezmann accounts for 25 per cent of Atleti's domestically and a huge 36 per cent in the Champions League.
Suddenly it's Griezmann who is required by his team to net a greater portion of fewer goals—and he does so.
Effectiveness at being the team leader: Griezmann, who is of huge importance to his team.
With or Without
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It would be useful to compare and contrast how each team does without the pair, but they are so rarely absent that we can't learn much from this season.
Diego Simeone has played Griezmann in every Champions League game and all but two La Liga games, one of which he was suspended for on the opening day of the season.
Ronaldo, meanwhile, has played every minute of Real's Champions League run under Zinedine Zidane, and since missing the first two Liga games through injury, he has missed only a further six, all of which were won and five of which were against teams placed 15th in the table or lower.
Even so, it's notable that when Griezmann went on a nine-match goalless streak in La Liga earlier this season, Atletico lost four of those games (they've lost six all told this season) and didn't score in five of them.
Symptomatic of reliance, or merely the player struggling because the entire team was?
Effectiveness of the team at replacing either player: Real Madrid, for squad depth and perhaps timing of rotation, which makes an in-form Griezmann the more irreplaceable player.
Team Context
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Atletico play 4-4-2 more often than not, while Real usually approach a game with a 4-3-3.
Ronaldo has a wide-left starting point, but he has licence to roam infield, take up a second-striker position off the ball and attack through the middle. Griezmann starts centrally as a striker but drops deep to link play, offers himself wide as an outlet and can drop in to make a five-man midfield as required.
The buildup of both teams is different, the scoreline expectation of the crowd in any match is different, and—perhaps most notably—the off-the-ball work done by each of these two stars is different.
Griezmann is younger at 26, was formerly a winger, and his manager demands self-sacrifice as a bare minimum; Ronaldo is increasingly expected to conserve energy for moments of attacking magic, and Zidane is happy to set up the rest of the team to allow him to do so.
In the biggest games (against Real, Atleti, Barcelona and key European fixtures), Griezmann has four goals this season from 10 matches, while Ronaldo has nine in 10.
There's no doubting that Atletico have a greater reliance on Griezmann than Real do on Ronaldo.
Even so, there's simply no escaping that even now, with a better squad than in recent years, with more self-belief in the team and with Ronaldo perhaps aged past his physical peak at 32, it's still the Real star who remains the most effective player out of the two overall; the man who would still be the better bet to make the critical difference in the Champions League semi-finals.
Ronaldo has the historical form, the unwavering determination and the penchant for coming good in the biggest of moments, the next of which will take place at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday.
