cristiano ronaldo has gone almost a year without scoring a free kick in la liga despite being real madrid’s designated taker, and supporters are now asking if the ball shouldn’t be taken off the portuguese and given to gareth bale the 30 year old last hit the back of the net from a set piece in the spanish league on march 26 last year against sevilla his last goal from a free kick in any competition came in the champions league last april against bayern munich he has now failed to score a single goal with any of his last 51 free kicks cristiano ronaldo has gone almost a year without scoring a free kick in la liga  ronaldo deploys his trademark technique as he attempts a free kick against villarreal last sunday  ronaldo and team mate gareth bale (left) line up a free kick against getafe in january  in any straw poll of best set piece deliverers ronaldo would be top of many people’s lists but the statistics tell a completely different story, and while his figures are poor bale’s are far more impressive ronaldo has sent 21 of his efforts straight into the wall and placed 14 high or wide of the target; while keepers or posts and crossbars have done for the rest gareth bale has only scored once this season but it is real’s only goal scored from a free kick and although bale insisted recently on spanish radio that he tends to take the kicks that favour a left footer and ronaldo those that favour a right foot, more often than not it is the portuguese who takes precedence when bale scored from a free kick against espanyol in january the strike rates of europe’s set piece specialists were published by spanish football statistician mister chip and they made tough reading for ronaldo ronaldo's last goal from a free kick came in last season's champions league against ac milan in april  bale fires a free kick over the atletico madrid wall during a la liga clash at the bernabeu  midfielder toni kroos could also take over free kick duties for real madrid from ronaldo  bale scores a free kick every 95 attempts while ronaldo's ratio is one every 156 attempts bale also came out ahead of andrea pirlo who scores one every 105 attempts and leo messi who scores every 14 times he takes a free kick madrid have various options from a dead ball with toni kroos and isco both ready to step in they also have james rodriguez and sergio ramos on their way back from injury to put more pressure on ronaldo, and with martin odegaard being tipped to play some part in real’s champions league second leg with schalke on tuesday there is even a 16 year old pretender to the crown
cristiano ronaldo nearly a year la liga real madrid gareth bale bale ronaldo galactico
cristiano ronaldo gone nearly a year without scoring a free kick in la liga  real madrid fans asking whether gareth bale should take over set pieces  bale scores a free kick every 95 attempts while ronaldo is every 156  gareth bale: 'it is surreal to be called a galactico' click here for all the latest real madrid news 