Vinicius Junior returns from suspension this month to the toughest question of his Real Madrid career: how does one of the world’s best attackers win back a place in a team that has been winning without him?
The Brazilian served a four-match La Liga ban after being sent off against Villarreal on 10 October for pulling the hair of Villarreal defender Nathan Saliba. The disciplinary committee handed him two matches for the incident and two more for his protests towards the referee, and Real Madrid’s appeal against the punishment was rejected on 16 October. He missed the league games against Sevilla, Barcelona, Racing Santander and Valencia — and Madrid won all four of them, scoring 12 goals in the process.
How Vinicius Junior lost his place
The man who took his shirt is Yan Diomande. Handed the chance on the left wing, the Ivorian scored a goal and created another in the 4-1 win over Sevilla, repeated the trick against RB Leipzig, played a strong part in the 2-1 Clasico victory over Barcelona and scored again in the 3-0 win over Racing Santander. He kept his place for the 3-0 win at Valencia on Saturday, confirmation that he is no longer merely a stopgap.
The numbers behind the dilemma are stark. Vinicius Junior has managed one goal and three assists in 874 minutes across all competitions this season, a goal contribution roughly every 219 minutes. Spanish newspaper AS has noted he is playing around 12 fewer minutes per match under Jose Mourinho than he did under Xabi Alonso, and the Bernabeu crowd has grown restless with his form.
Mourinho has refused to promise the Brazilian a way back. “For me, the most important thing is the team. I have never wanted to hurt the team to benefit an individual player,” he said before the Valencia game. “When Vinicius returns to his normal situation and is available, I will manage the situation.” The manager has already shown he will act on that principle, hauling Vinicius off early during the Champions League win at Roma after a technical error helped gift the opposition a goal.
Canizares: play Vinicius Junior as a striker
One solution has been offered by former Real Madrid goalkeeper Santiago Canizares, who told Mundo Deportivo that Mourinho should deploy Vinicius Junior as a number nine in place of Kylian Mbappe. “For me, the solution is for Vinicius to play in the role of an out-and-out striker, and to be a substitute for Mbappe,” Canizares said.
The idea has some logic behind it. Mbappe has shown time and again that he prefers drifting out wide, while Vinicius Junior has played centrally 82 times in his career, scoring 42 goals and providing 18 assists. But Canizares also warned of the cost: “Vinicius is a player who cannot be ignored, of course, and Mourinho will not leave him out of his plans. The team can achieve victories with him and Mbappe together, but it will not retain the same identity or the same balance or the same positive atmosphere.”
Whether the Brazilian would ever accept a role as Mbappe’s understudy is another matter. He was so recently the team’s leading light, remains a favourite of president Florentino Perez and has just signed a massive new deal. A reduced role is not something he is likely to accept quietly.
Mourinho’s break worry
The international break gives Mourinho two weeks to decide, but it brings a worry of its own. Eighteen of his first-team players have left for international duty, and the manager admitted after the Valencia win that he would rather keep them under his own staff’s care. “I’m worried about the international break because, if they stay with me and my staff, we could give them very special attention when it comes to their recovery, but they’ll be with their national teams,” he said.
Real Madrid return to action on Saturday 21 November, eight straight wins behind them and three points behind leaders Barcelona. The question waiting for Mourinho when his players come back is the one the whole of Spain is now debating: where does Vinicius Junior fit in a team that has learned to win without him? For more on the week’s football, check today’s predictions.
Photos: Wikimedia Commons (CC0) — collage by SportsBuddy.
