Spanish press applaud Zinedine Zidane’s decision to substitute Cristiano Ronaldo in Real Madrid’s 2-2 draw at Las Palmas

CRISTIANO RONALDO is widely tipped to be the next Ballon d'Or winner, but you wouldn't know it with the way he has begun the season at Real Madrid.

The Portuguese captain has made his worst start ever to a La Liga campaign.

With six games players Ronaldo has scored just once.

The match at Las Palmas was the first time he has ever been substituted by Real Madrid for tactical reasons and Spanish newspaper Marca said he should have fully expected to be taken off given his performance.

Ronaldo was also condemned for his reaction after his shot was saved by Las Palmas goalkeeper Javi Varas and Karim Benzema knocked in the rebound.

"Throwing up his arms in disgust wasn't really the way in which Cristiano should've celebrated his teammate's strike," wrote the Marca report.

Meanwhile in a poll for AS, a staggering 84% of readers thought Zidane was absolutely right to replace the striker with Lucas Vazquez.

Even though Las Palmas' equaliser came after Ronaldo had been subbed off, nobody was fooled into thinking his performance was acceptable.

"It hurts to see him [playing] badly, slow, late into challenges, poor in his execution.

"It's like seeing your son getting bad marks," wrote AS columnist Tomas Roncero.

"When he took him off in the 72nd minute, Zidane was being the model father."

In Barcelona, newspaper Sport could barely hide their delight.

"Every day that passes he is becoming more renowned for his tantrums than his goals.

"It seems evident that the best of Cristiano Ronaldo is over and his decline is an unstoppable truth."

However the man who subbed Ronaldo off defended his performance.

"It was not that [Ronaldo] was playing badly," Zidane told reporters after the match.

"We are playing on Tuesday and Cristiano must rest too sometimes. It was just for that."

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