Reports of Cristiano Ronaldo’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Despite overwhelming criticism, the 33-year-old Real Madrid talisman continued to show on Saturday he’s still a force to be reckoned with. His two-goal performance against Alaves put him on 28 goals for the season. That briefly put him level with Lionel Messi before he bagged a brace of his own later in the day.

These aren’t the kind of numbers that suggest a crisis.

Ronaldo even demonstrated some generosity, deferring penalty-taking duties and a chance at a 50th career hat-trick so that Karim Benzema could gain confidence. Benzema – who’s endured whistles from the Santiago Bernabeu faithful all season – buried from 12 yards to secure a 4-0 win.

What’s most important is that Ronaldo is back to scoring. The complaint against him earlier in the campaign was that he was missing a lot of chances, but the reality is that Ronaldo has never really played all that poorly. The only difference between then and now – albeit a pivotal one – is that he and his teammates are converting effort into goals.

Many blamed Madrid’s early-season struggles on Ronaldo’s own inefficiencies in front of goal, but it was an unfair burden. The famous “BBC” triumvirate had barely played together, Isco’s influence had waned, and supplementary scoring wasn’t there. Two figures who would have relieved Madrid up top – Alvaro Morata and James Rodriguez – were dispatched in the previous summer.

So a greater share of the responsibility has fallen on Ronaldo, and every misstep has meant that much more. Zidane’s lack of a Plan B, coupled with increasing talk of Ronaldo’s transformation into a veritable No. 9, amplified the focus on the superstar’s scoring output.

He has made things difficult for himself, missing several clear-cut opportunities in the first half of the season. Taking into account matches up to Feb. 16, Stratabet shows the Portuguese has been inadequate in this department. His goals per 90 minutes is fairly low for the number of shots he takes.

(Courtesy: @RowzReport)

He’s also been terribly unlucky. Only Messi has struck the woodwork more times than Ronaldo across the top five European leagues, and only Harry Kane has had more shots blocked. Not to mention that some of the goalkeepers he’s faced have produced truly fantastic saves.

He’s tried to make things happen in midfield as well. Ronaldo could only watch in agony as Gareth Bale wasted an inch-perfect through ball in the 5-3 victory over Real Betis. The score was 2-2 at the time, and Ronaldo tracked back from a fairly high position in search of an opening. Betis ‘keeper Antonio Adan made an excellent stop on Bale, but if nothing else, it showed Ronaldo has tried to affect games outside the box.

And a closer look at Ronaldo’s stats reveals that his struggles are essentially confined to La Liga. Outside of the Spanish top flight, he’s done what everyone expects him to do. He set a Champions League record with a goal in every match of the group stage, and scored in the Spanish Super Cup and the final of FIFA Club World Cup. He isn’t exactly shrinking on the big stage.

With a few months of the season left to go, Ronaldo isn’t quite finished yet.

Further evidence of a disconnect between Jose Mourinho and Paul Pogba was provided Wednesday at Sevilla. The out-of-form Frenchman came on as a substitute after initially taking a seat on the bench, and although he wasn’t at his worst, he couldn’t really influence the match.

He mostly jogged about the pitch at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium, picking his moments to get involved. Whether he was still ill from the weekend or not, Pogba looked disengaged until the final moments of the 0-0 draw. It was as if he was told to restrain himself, to focus on seeing out a scoreless result that United could then build on in the second leg at Old Trafford.

Related: De Gea stars as Manchester United settles for Sevilla draw

And therein lies one of the main reasons for Pogba’s struggles. It’s not just a personal problem, it’s down to Mourinho’s tactics. The Portuguese manager prefers soldiers to individual brilliance and defensive responsibility over freedom of expression, and it’s prevented the attack-minded Pogba from truly affecting the play on the pitch.

The same could be said for many of United’s players. Mourinho’s commitment to conservative football has forced the Red Devils to abandon their natural talent and follow a more pragmatic approach.

“If you look at the players they have – (Marcus) Rashford, (Anthony) Martial, (Alexis) Sanchez, (Romelu) Lukaku being backed up by Pogba – wouldn’t that frighten you?” former Arsenal striker Ian Wright told BBC Radio 5 Live. “United should be doing better with the players got (sic) they’ve got. I’m baffled with the sterile football. If I was a United fan, I would be disgusted.”

Every team has to play within a system, and there’s a time and place to line up defensively, but Mourinho seems either unable or unwilling to see his team’s attacking strengths.

His uncompromising devotion to playing not to lose has harmed Pogba’s development the most. The kind of player who thrives on confidence, he has to be allowed to make runs through the heart of midfield and dictate the pace of the game.

(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)

On Wednesday, he wasn’t allowed to do much of that. Pogba didn’t exactly help himself – he was slow to close down players and easily dispossessed – but he gave a glimpse of what he can do in the last 15 minutes. There was more combination play with Lukaku and Rashford, a few decent turns, and one moment when Pogba found the Belgian forward with a smart overhead pass.

It was as if Mourinho, knowing Sevilla would’ve tired itself out after firing shot after shot, let his players attack once the result looked safe.

Pogba also looked freer when Sanchez went off. The Chilean often encroached on the space Pogba would otherwise inhabit, dropping deep and running into the channels. There’s just not much room for Sanchez and Pogba to co-exist. That’s another tactical imbalance that Mourinho has to solve.

But the Portuguese manager may not care at all about Pogba’s personal growth. He just wants his players to carry out a plan, and those who can’t, such as Henrikh Mkhitaryan, will be disposed of. It’s why Mourinho, faced with question after question about Pogba, hugged a reporter who instead asked about Scott McTominay’s workmanlike performance.

“In the press conference, the questions were about Paul, but the question should be about the kid,” Mourinho told BT Sport’s Des Kelly. “He was fantastic. He did everything well. He put pressure on (Ever) Banega and stopped him playing. He’s their playmaker. I think Scott was brilliant.”

McTominay was indeed lively and more willing to press. Responsible for United’s sole shot on target, the youth product was deserving of praise.

But titles aren’t won with a 21-year-old McTominay. It’s with Pogba at his best. And until Mourinho can find a way to tap into his player’s undeniable match-winning talent, it’ll be one colossal waste of time.

These winter visits to Kharkiv only get better for Mircea Lucescu. The Turkey manager was at the Metalist Stadium to watch his former club, Shakhtar Donetsk, beat Manchester City 2-1 in December. He was there again Wednesday to see them repeat the trick against Roma.

Better yet, he might even have been able to pass this one off as a business trip. Lucescu had no players to scout in that first fixture – simply attending out of affection for his former club, and for the joy of immersing himself back into the improbable Brazilian football culture that he installed there.

This time, things were different. Roma had a Turkish forward in its starting XI, and one who Lucescu will certainly want to keep tabs on. Cengiz Under had scored four times in his previous three games for the Giallorossi, and this was his first-ever Champions League appearance. It took him just 41 minutes to mark it with his first-ever Champions League goal.

Lucescu was already well aware of Under’s talent, having handed the 20-year-old two starts for Turkey since taking the job over last summer. The player had only just scored his first league goal for Roma when his national-team manager lavished him with praise during an interview with Corriere dello Sport at the start of February.

“He has all the qualities you need,” said Lucescu. “He’s rapid, aggressive, he knows how to dribble, he feels the goal, he has an impressive shot. If he keeps listening to the coaches who are guiding him, he will have a great career.”

Under endured a tough start to life in Italy, confessing that he had underestimated the challenges of adapting to a new culture on and off the pitch. But Lucescu says he helped convince the forward to stick it out instead of taking the easy option of a loan move in January – insisting that he would learn more by persevering.

Italian defending is not what it used to be. Only La Liga averages more goals per game than Serie A among Europe’s top five leagues. But Under has unquestionably raised his game since he arrived, developing into exactly the sort of footballer that Lucescu adores: sudden, vibrant, and bold.

Brazilian, in other words, even if his passport and his parents say otherwise. Under’s goal against Shakhtar was probably the easiest he has scored for Roma so far, a side-foot finish from 10 yards out after Edin Dzeko had put him clean through on the goalkeeper. Still, he took it with more composure than we had any right to expect from a young man appearing on this stage for the first time.

For the next step in his development, perhaps Under will want to revisit the footage of what happened next. Or, to put it another way, to learn from the actual South Americans.

It was an Argentinian, Facundo Ferreyra, who pulled Shakhtar level, capitalising on Roma’s poor defending of a long ball forward to nutmeg Kostas Manolas and then sweep a finish into the bottom right corner. But it was Fred, one of the many Brazilians that Lucescu brought to the club, who stole the show with a brilliant winning goal. His 71st minute free-kick was perfection, kissing the crossbar on its way in.

The entire final act of this game was defined by his compatriots. Roma’s goalkeeper, Alisson, had minutes earlier denied Taison – a former teammate in Brazil’s youth teams – with an astonishing save on a shot that was swinging away from him into the very top corner. In the dying seconds, Bruno Peres blocked a shot on the line to prevent Roma from falling further behind.

How vital might that intervention prove? At 2-1, this tie still feels finely poised ahead of the return leg at Roma’s Stadio Olimpico. Under’s away goal provides the Giallorossi with grounds for optimism. It is certainly a much better result than the one they got the last time they faced these opponents in a Champions League knockout tie, back in 2011, when they lost the first leg 3-2 at home on the way to a 6-2 aggregate defeat.

Yet Shakhtar will draw encouragement from yet another impressive victory in this competition, having already defeated both City and Napoli in Kharkiv. And when it comes to game-changing forwards, they might have the edge. In Under, Roma has unearthed a Turkish talent with a dash of South American flair. But Shakhtar, thanks in great part to Lucescu, is absolutely awash in the real thing.