Cristiano Ronaldo news: Key statistics reveal just how important the Portuguese was to Real Madrid's success

What's the story?

Real Madrid suffered their first defeat under new manager Zinedine Zidane yesterday. It was the Spanish club's ninth defeat in the LaLiga this season and the 15th one across all competitions. One key reason for their poor run of form this season has been the departure of Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, who ended his nine-year spell at the Santiago Bernebau last summer.

The Madrid based club had never lost more than 11 games in the nine seasons that Ronaldo was playing for them, but have lost on 15 occasions already this season and with more than a month of football still left to play for Los Blancos, they might end up loosing even more.

In case you didn't know...

With the former Manchester United star in their ranks, Madrid managed to score 100+ goals in eight of the last nine seasons in their domestic league, while they only have scored 53 goals this season.

Ronaldo is also the club's record all-time top-scorer, with 450 goals to his name in all competitions for them.

Karim Benzema, who's the top-scorer and assist-provider in the current campaign for the club , joined them in the same transfer window as Ronaldo, but has scored more than 200 fewer goals than the Juventus ace.

The heart of the matter...

Manu Sainz, a journalist of the Madrid-based daily sports newspaper AS, reported that the Bernabeu side have already suffered 15 defeats in all competitions this season.

The club underwent three changes in the dugout in the span of just nine months, which eventually saw, Zidane, who had resigned from the job last summer, back at the helm of the club.

Though, losses can be attributed to many reasons, the fact that with Ronaldo in their ranks the LaLiga outfit averaged approximately seven defeats per season, says a lot about the player's immense contributions to their success.

11 losses during the 2012-13 season with Jose Mourinho as the coach were the most defeats that Ronaldo and co. faced during his time with the club.

The losses suffered by the Spanish side over the last nine seasons are as mentioned below - seven in 2009-10, six in 2010-11, five in 2011-12, 11 in 2012-13, six in 2013-14, ten in 2014-15 and just 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons, another 9 in the previous season.

The stats just add to what has been clearly visible to all this season, the void left by the prolific 34-year-old forward at the club.

What's next?

Real Madrid have been knocked out of the Champions League this season, but the five-time Ballon d'Or winner can win the competition for the fourth time in a row with Juventus, who are one of the strongest contenders for the honor in the current campaign.