Respected Spanish journalist Guillem Balague has said that Cristiano Ronaldo 'needs to accept' playing as a central striker in order to prolong his career at the top.

The Portuguese international notched his 16th goal of the season in Real Madrid's 2-0 win over Eibar at the weekend, but the attacker's overall performances have been questioned in recent months.

Balague has claimed that Ronaldo no longer has the physical attributes to be a wide player, but has said that the 30-year-old can continue to score goals if he embraces a position at the tip of the attack.

"I think Ronaldo is going down physically, he has peaked. He has demanded lot of his body from very early on. He went to the gym a lot when he didn't need to. He was self-learning as he was going along which perhaps meant he overexerted himself with weights, something he perhaps shouldn't have done," Balague told Sky Sports News.

"You see his body is not the body of a football player and he has constant pain in his knees. With that comes less practising from set pieces. He has scored only two goals out of the last 92 set pieces he has taken, that's not good enough, not for him anyway.

"But, at the moment, there doesn't seem to be spark in his game, he's lost his pace, he doesn't beat players anymore and, in the number nine position, he's not enjoying himself and that makes him less effective. He can still convert into a super striker, he just needs to accept the role."

Ronaldo, who has been strongly linked with a move away from Real Madrid next summer, has scored nine times in the league this season, but five of those came in one match.