Cristiano Ronaldo had a bad game on Sunday against Atletico Madrid, emphasizing the fact that the superstar, to this point in 2015-16 has not been able to provide big moments for his team in big games. He has 10 goals in nine games but has tallied in only three matches. He has only scored in one of seven La Liga contests, coming up empty against such tough teams as Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao.

His lack of success this season and Ronaldo's decreased overall impact on the team has marked him as a player that can score lots of goals against small teams or when the outcome simply doesn't matter.

The rallying call for this kind of thinking has been emblemized in two instances - the Champions League final in 2014 when he scored in a penalty goal with the outcome no longer in doubt. The other example would be his 10 goals this season, all of them against rather mediocre to poor competition.

A recent piece by SB Nation took the player to task on the subject. The conclusion was that he has not been great since the 2010-11 Copa del Rey final but posits that he is at the mercy of a poor team around him.

So what constitutes a big game? One could claim that it is a game in which the outcome is still meaningful in a cup race or title (a knockout round performance in cup contest, a game against a major rival in a cup contention). Moreover, a big game for Ronaldo since 2011-12 has usually revolved around scoring big goals in big moments for his team. However there is another wrinkle - are Ronaldo's stats so good because he scores so many against bad teams or is he spreading the wealth in bigger games?

La Liga

Ronaldo has been a Pichichi winner in the Spanish League for the last two seasons and many have complained that he has seen most of his totals spike either by scoring meaningless goals or putting them up in bucket loads against minnows. Does that hold true? Does Ronaldo really disappear in big games against top sides?

Considering Real Madrid's status as a top team in La Liga, one would expect the side to struggle with a top five side and struggle far less with everyone else. It is obviously difficult to gauge which team will give teams fits, but that is the understanding when entering into such an analysis. The bottom teams are the weaker ones and thus the ones considered "not big games" for the purpose of this analysis.

In 2011-12 he scored 46 goals in La Liga overall. Ten of those goals came against top five teams that season, including Barcelona, Valencia, Atletico Madrid and Malaga. He scored 15 goals against teams ranked six to 10 in La Liga that year and the remainder against the lower half of the league. Context plays a huge role as well and Ronaldo put up 10 goals in the first 10 weeks of the season, including a hat trick against Malaga. After that point, Madrid held on to first place the rest of the way with Ronaldo scoring 36 goals to finish the year. Moreover, he scored a huge winner at the Camp Nou to essentially clinch the League trophy.

A year later, he scored far less goals in La Liga, totaling just 34 overall. Real Madrid finished second in the league that year, but Ronaldo could hardly be blamed for the poor outing of the team as Jose Mourinho struggled to get the club playing at peak level. Madrid did not get into second place until it was two late, 27 weeks into the season. For most of the year the team was chasing Atletico Madrid and Barcelona. Ronaldo scored 26 of his 34 goals prior to the team reaching second place, proving a big reason for the team's success to that point.

That year he scored seven goals against the top four teams, five against the sides ranking between six and 10 and a whopping 22 against the bottom half of the league. The seven goals included two big strikes in a 2-2 tie with Barcelona.

A year later, Ronaldo scored 31 goals and seven of them came against the other top four teams in the league; he also scored 13 against the bottom feeders in the league, providing a far more even distribution of goals. It was a losing season for Madrid as the squad finished third, but Ronaldo did produce against the top sides.

Last season, his biggest goalscoring display to date saw him put together 48 goals overall in La Liga. Ronaldo scored seven goals against the top five sides, nine against the middle table teams and a whopping 32 goals against the "minnows," more than his output in La Liga the year before. This season was a particularly disappointing one and started that conversation of missing out on big games as Ronaldo missed a huge penalty against Valencia in week 36 of the Spanish League season that would have given Madrid a vital three points in its quest to win the Spanish League title. Instead he missed the penalty and the team ultimately lose the trophy. The last few weeks of the season, when Ronaldo wound up scoring hat tricks in each game were seen as irrelevant at the point in time.

So what do these numbers tell us? Ronaldo has been consistent in scoring goals in games against top sides over the course of the last few seasons, putting in an average of seven to eight goals in a year against them.

It is worth noting that in games against Barcelona, Ronaldo has scored a whopping 15 goals in the big match; seven of those have come in La Liga. Moreover, Ronaldo has registered at least one goal in the matchup Clasico in all seasons since the 2011 Copa del Rey final where he scored the winner. In the Copa del Rey, he was a key to Real Madrid eliminating Blaugrana in the knockout stages of the competition during the second leg.

Against Atletico Madrid, a common foe, he has been scored 15 times as well and he has scored big goals against the inter-city rivals. One notable moment would be the 2013 Copa del Rey final where he produced a big goal. He did take a red card, though it was a truly controversial call at the time.

Champions League

Most would argue that the most meaningful games in a Champions League campaign happen in the knockout rounds. And that is undoubtedly true. Though it would be hard to overlook group games in tough groups against top sides. More on that later.

In 2011-12, Ronaldo scored the winner in the first leg against CSKA Moscow and added a second goal later in the tie. A round later he scored a double against APOEL, a match few consider a "big game" considering the opponent. That said, Madrid had been eliminated at the round of 16 stage with previous iterations for what seemed like an eternity prior to Ronaldo's arrival, so his scoring goals in a knockout round still suffices. A round later he was hero and villain all the same, scoring two goals in the second leg against Bayern Munich, but missing the opening penalty in the shootout. However, you cannot overlook the fact that his goals allowed for extended time and that he was not the only one to miss penalties in the shootout.

A year later things got interesting as Madrid was cast into the group of death with Borussia Dortmund and Manchester City. Ronaldo scored last gasp winner against City in the opening game after his team had come back twice. In the knockout rounds he scored a tying goal against Manchester United at the Santiago Bernabeu and then scored the winner at Old Trafford to help Madrid through to the quarterfinals. The he blew past Galatasaray scoring three goals over two games as Madrid won 5-3 on aggregate. The semifinals was a bad showing for everyone.

In 2013-14, he broke the Champions League record by scoring 17 goals in one season. Ronaldo scored twice against Schalke in the first leg of the round of 16 before adding another two in the following leg. He scored a crucial goal in the first leg of the quarterfinals, the supposedly "meaningless" goal that would ultimately prove the difference for Los Blancos in that tie as Borussia Dortmund would win 2-0 in the return leg. He scored three goals across the final two rounds, but the results were already beyond doubt by the time he got his goals. Regardless, he still scored them.

He was huge however last season in the UCL producing big moments when the team needed them. He scored a big goal in the opening game against Schalke in the round of 16 and set up the second. However his contributions were biggest in the final game of that playoff where he scored twice to even the score and ensured that the team moved on despite falling behind and losing 4-3 at home against the German side. In the quarterfinals he set up the goal that would put Los Blancos through to the semifinals. In that round he scored twice, including a penalty in the return leg that would have put Madrid through to the final. 

Portugal

One final note. Ronaldo has been huge for Portugal on a number of occasions, but has not been blessed with a solid team to back him up. In 2012, he scored the opening goal of the second leg against Bosnia and Herzegovina before eventually adding a second. In the tournament he got off to a poor start but showed up in the big group tilt with Netherlands. Portugal had three points and needed a win to move on to the next round. The Dutch scored first but Ronaldo eventually set things right, scoring two goals to lead the team to a 2-1 win. In the ensuing round, he scored the winner against the Czech Republic.

In the 2014 World Cup Qualifiers, Ronaldo and Portugal struggled in the group round before being faced with Sweden in the playoff. Ronaldo scored all four Portugal goals en route to getting his team in the tournament.

He was not great at the World Cup, but his last second cross against the U.S. saved Portugal's hopes for its final game against Ghana. And few would complain of the injured Ronaldo's performance against the Ghanese in that game. He had eight shots on goal in that game and six were on target. He scored the winner in that match, but it was too little too late for Portugal which needed a blowout to stand a chance at moving on.

During the 2016 Euro Qualifiers, Ronaldo has been solid for Portugal, scoring a last-second winner against Denmark in Copenhagen. He also scored a late winner against Armenia in Portugal and then single-handedly took down Armenia on the road with a hat trick. Some might claim that these games against minnows do not count, but considering how tight the group is, it would be more realistic to argue that every game is huge.

So in sum -- is Ronaldo a big game player or does he save his big goals for minnows? Context is everything. While the superstar has faded in some finals (not the 2013 Copa del Rey), he has put up some stellar performances in crucial moments for both club and country.