Cristiano Ronaldo has eight goals in 2015-16. That is certainly a respectable number, especially considering that he has accrued that total over six games.

Yet there remains one major concern for the superstar who has now entered his second two-game goalless streak of the year, a rarity during the 2014-15 season.

Ronaldo's eight tallies have come across two matches, a five-goal outburst at Espanyol and then a hat trick (that included two penalties) against Shakhtar Donetsk. That scoring has been sandwiched by some rather concerning displays against other sides.

The performance against Athletic Bilbao, a club Ronaldo had scored 14 goals against throughout his career, was most concerning. He had a grand total of four shots on goal in the entire night, just one on target and only one of them came in the second half. In the waning moments of the game, he received a deft pass from Jese and yet he made a poor touch, a rather uncharacteristic display. It is actually rather hard to say that the superstar, who also picked up a yellow card, had any major moment of note in the game outside of the opening when he looked hungry to get things going.

So what exactly is going on with Ronaldo? He has had his chances to put the ball in the net in the opening month of the year and it is safe to say that on eight occasions he has taken it. But Ronaldo would have scored 15 goals by this point last season with the kind of chances he has had to bury the ball, yet he has seemed a bit lost at times, unable to create for himself.

One could make the argument that age is finally catching up, but that would not hold up when one considers that he put up five goals in a game and still looks fleet of foot in the closing moments of every game. The system may not be as kind to him, except for the fact that he has scored his chances. Opposing goalies have certainly put up tremendous performances against him that have denied the superstar quality opportunities.

It might be the fact that Ronaldo is facing some tough distractions. Every time the superstar is on the precipice of history, he seems to buckle up and struggle. Last year, he had a hard time scoring goal 300 for Madrid. This year he has two things on his mind simultaneously -- career goal 500 and topping Raul as Madrid's top scorer.

He has been stuck on 499 for a week now and he is just two shy of tying Raul atop Madrid's scoring list. And yet he simply cannot find a goal. The last two games since his eight goals in two games outburst have been the most frustrating with Ronaldo looking less and less influential in the offensive half.

The superstar, who is usually Madrid's talisman, has been overshadowed by the rest of the offensive crew. James Rodriguez despite only one and a half games this season has been terrific at creating offense from nothing. Gareth Bale has been Madrid's most influential player on the pitch going forward. Karim Benzema has scored in five straight games and now has more La Liga goals than Ronaldo. He has also scored game winners in the last three games for Real Madrid while Ronaldo has just one winner on the year.

Ronaldo also only has one assist to show for this year, something that is obviously not completely in his control. With that said, the superstar has looked a lot less influential in attack this term and a lot of it comes from his own inability to finish or create grade A chances on goal.

It is too early for concern as all scorers go into slumps, but Ronaldo needs to string together a few games with goals to gain some consistency. The reality is that while scoring five goals is nice, it is likely better to see the superstar score a big goal per game than a few games with him missing.

While he may not have much of a chance at winning the Ballon d'Or at this juncture, his inconsistency could find Ronaldo struggling even to hold down third place in the award race. He already finished in third in the Best Player in Europe Award earlier this year and he has been far from one of the best in the world in recent weeks.

It is up to Ronaldo to break the slump and find consistency.

It is essential to point out one vital statistic -- Ronaldo's scoring rate. Since 2009-10, he has scored on an average of 14 percent of his shots. A year ago when he scored 48 goals in La Liga, he was converting on over 21 percent of his chances, an outlier if there ever was one. He is currently scoring in La Liga on 14 percent of his chances, which would likely mean that on his current pace he is primed for about 37 goals on the year. If he manages to get back to his usual 15 percent scoring rate while keeping his shots up to the average of seven per game, there is no reason to think that he will not hit 40 again in La Liga. 

So statistics do signal better returns for the Real Madrid superstar if he can keep taking shots and picking his spots.