Ducking Ronaldo’s Defensive Duties Anger Pirlo, Fans 

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  • Portuguese superstar gets knocks for Parma’s free-kick goal

Juventus manager, Andrea Pirlo has admitted the need for an urgent decision on Cristiano Ronaldo’s continuous presence in defensive walls after seeing the Portuguese spark another ducking storm.

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner has scored 97 goals for Juve since joining from Real Madrid, and his presence is often required in defensive walls, given his height and frame.

However, the 36-year-old has continued to face criticism of late for an apparent reluctance to commit fully to blocking dangerous free-kicks, with Porto firing beyond him to claim a notable Champions League scalp and Parma drilling over Ronaldo’s head in a Serie A pairing on Wednesday.

And now, the Bianconeri Head coach admits that a decision has to come regarding his failure to perform blocking duties against Parma.

What has been said?
Juve hit back to claim a 3-1 win over Parma, with Alex Sandro stepping up as an unlikely hero to bang in two goals.

However, much of the post-match discussion focused on Ronaldo and Pirlo was quizzed by Sky Sport Italia on whether he will need to remove a superstar performer from wall duty after seeing him duck under an effort from Gaston Brugman.

The Bianconeri boss said: “Unfortunately these things happen, we will evaluate what to do in the next matches and whether to put him in the wall.”

On Aborted Super League
Happenings of the last few days also had Pirlo being quizzed on the Super League proposals that Juve featured in prominently.

Andrea Agnelli had been heading up those talks, but a project that had been in the pipeline for sometime has collapsed on itself following a fierce backlash from players, supporters and sporting organisations.

When asked for his take on the Super League, which saw 12 teams initially sign up to be founding members, Pirlo said; “Agnelli explained what was happening, but that the most important thing was to secure a place in the top four to qualify for the Champions League.”

He added on the closed-house format of a breakaway league that would have seen Juve facing no threat of dropping out of an elite competition: “I already spoke about it, so did the president and the director.”

According to him; “We all know the same things. Something has to be changed on the European level, because the ideas that were proposed were good ones, but we are also open to other suggestions and will respect the rules.” – With Goal.com reports

Manager Andrea Pirlo

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