How are Real doing without Vinicius?

Real Madrid will have to do without Vinicius Junior to face Las Palmas this Sunday. It obviously won’t be the first time.

Suspended for the next two days of La Liga for his bad gesture on the Valencia goalkeeper at Mestalla, Vinicius will watch his team’s match against Las Palmas from the stands of the Bernabéu this afternoon. Ancelotti explained yesterday that he was going to field Brahim Diaz, Mbappé and Rodrygo in attack to compensate for the absence of the Brazilian.

This will be the 6th match that Vinicius will miss this season. He first suffered a muscle injury in November which sidelined him for two weeks and caused him to miss the 2-0 defeat against Liverpool and the league matches against Getafe (2-0), the Athletic (2-1) and Girona (0-3). In addition, the 7th Madrid player missed the match against Sevilla (4-2) for accumulation of yellow cards.

Without him on the pitch, Real Madrid has two defeats and three victories in the current year. Note also that the Brazilian has not scored in La Liga for more than two months, and his hat-trick against Osasuna on November 9 at the Bernabéu.

If we look at the club’s results without Vinicius Junior, since the latter arrived in Madrid, we see that Real knows how to live without its striker. Since 2018, Real Madrid have played 68 games without Vini, for 46 victories, a winning percentage of 67.6%. In his presence, this percentage drops to 64.5% (182 victories in 282 matches).

An uncertain future

Since the Ballon d’Or episode and even before, we have seen that the Brazilian is struggling in the game, far from the level he displayed last season. His stats for the current season remain very honorable (14 goals and 10 assists in 25 matches), but the player is very often at the limit in his behavior, visibly incapable of tempering himself when provoked.

For the first time since he has been at the club, the possibility of seeing him leave at the end of the season is being considered by the Spanish press, and most certainly by the Madrid management themselves. The latter is aware that the offer from Saudi Arabia (1 billion euros over 5 years) could end up convincing the 24-year-old player to leave the club with which he has won everything in seven seasons.