Ian Wright and Gary Neville both believe that Cristiano Ronaldo is struggling to deal with playing less football at the end of his immaculate career. The forward was brought on from the bench on Tuesday as Portugal thrashed Switzerland 6-1 at the Lusail Stadium.
Ronaldo was unhappy about being taken off in the 65th minute of his nation's 2-1 loss to South Korea in their final group game on Friday. His rage was initially aimed at opposition striker Cho Gue-Sung, who had tried to hurry him off the pitch with the score still level. However, word reached Fernando Santos that part of his striker's outburst was down to the displeasure of being substituted.
The 37-year-old didn't start the game against the Swiss as a direct consequence of his actions - a decision that ultimately paid off as Santos' side eased through to the quarter-finals.
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Nevertheless, Ronaldo's antics were always going to be a huge topic of conversation. Having left Manchester United by mutual consent in November, much has been spoken about how he failed to cope with playing less under Erik ten Hag. He came under a lot of criticism for obvious outbursts, including one incident against Tottenham Hotspur, where he refused to come on from the bench for the last few minutes of the Red Devils' 2-0 Premier League win.
The superstar's explosive interview with Piers Morgan only added fuel to the fire, as it became clear that he's been unsettled by a lack of game time this campaign.
Now, Wright and Neville have suggested that he's struggling to deal with playing less minutes at this stage of his career. In fact, Wright even compared his situation to how Lionel Messi is dealing with things for Argentina this World Cup at the age of 35.
Speaking live on ITV before the start of the last-16 tie, Wright said: "I don't know what more you can add. When you look at what a great player he's been, especially for Portugal, you'd like to think this is the stage of his career where yes, you might be on the bench sometimes, but you've got great players around you, you might get to come on. You look how Messi's doing it - just do your bit to help.
"They won the Euros without him, so we're talking about someone who's got to ingratiate himself into this team so they can help him to get to the levels he was. He can't do it without the team."
Neville then added: "His single-mindedness has been one of his greatest strengths over the last 10 to 15 years, his determination to be the best in the world, to score the most goals, to break all the records, that fight with Messi, but there still comes a point where you have to think about the collective.
"That's your teammates in the dressing room, and leaving the game early like he did at United twice, stomping off the other day when some of the his teammates were left on the bench the other - Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva didn't start that game and they're fantastic players - so it's coming to that point where he's not accepting the end of his career very well, but if Spain [who lost to Morocco on penalties] had him for the last half hour of that game he'd probably have got them through."
It'll be interesting to see if Ronaldo starts against Morocco, who've been resolute this tournament, having only conceded one goal in four games. He'll be hoping to be afforded the opportunity, but after Goncalo Ramos netted a hat-trick, leaving him out for a second time would make sense.
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