Henry slams ‘scripted’ Real Madrid star vs Liverpool as Spanish side ‘plan to sell’ Brazilian | OneFootball

Thierry Henry has hit out at Vinicius Junior’s “scripted” performance against Liverpool as Real Madrid lost 1-0 at Anfield on Tuesday night.

Alexis Mac Allister scored the only goal of the game as the Argentina international scored a second-half header to give the Reds all three points against the Spanish outfit.

Liverpool moved level on points with Real Madrid in the league phase of the Champions League with Los Blancos putting in an underwhelming performance.

The La Liga side mustered just seven shots to Liverpool’s 14 as the home side looked the most dangerous, while Conor Bradley did a brilliant job defending against Vinicius Junior.

And Arsenal legend Henry singled out Vinicius Junior for being “too scripted” against Liverpool with the forward refusing to attack Bradley at every opportunity.

Henry told CBS Sports: “I do not understand it. You have to play with what’s in front of you, you have to play the moment.

“And even if there’s nobody in the box, as you said, at least the opposing team has dropped 30 yards back and then you can give the ball to your midfielder, who might have a strike from outside the box.

“But I don’t know, sometimes people try to be cute when there’s no need to be cute, if there is space, just give the ball, recycling the ball… sometimes it’s too scripted.

“You have an opportunity at the beginning, for example, Vinicius Jr had Conor Bradley for the first five to seven minutes, and then he let him breathe. Why do you let him breathe? Have a go until he gets a yellow card and then he can’t defend in the same way, but that didn’t happen.

“When we watched the game, Vinicius Jr received the ball in a one-on-one after a good battle in the first five minutes against Conor Bradley, and he passed it back to his left-back to receive it back… and now it was a one-vs-three.

“Then he attacked alone against the three of them, and I thought, wait, do the math. You had a one-on-one, try to see what you can do with that.

“Why do you move the ball back so it comes back to you and you can play a one-vs-three? I just don’t get it at times.”

Former Real Madrid winger Gareth Bale agreed with Henry that Vinicius Junior and the La Liga side were disappointing in the final third against Liverpool.

Bale added: “I think it was that spark that Thierry and I were talking about, that we didn’t see Mbappe and Vinicius in the final third work a bit of magic and bring Madrid back into the game. It was a bit disappointing that in that final third there really wasn’t that kind of quality that you expect from Real Madrid players.

“It’s frustrating, I think they complicate things maybe.

“Sometimes they just need to try and test the defender. They’re clearly faster than anyone else on the pitch.

“But I think maybe they don’t do it because there’s no one else in the box waiting for the crosses. Maybe they need that focal number nine.”

A report in German publication Bild on Tuesday claimed that Real Madrid now ‘plan to sell’ Vinicius Junior following his poor behaviour during and after their El Clasico match against Barcelona.

The report added: ‘Club president Florentino Pérez (78) is known as a friend of the superstars. However, Vinicius has gone too far with his falling out with Alonso after numerous extravagant behaviors in recent years. For Pérez, it’s about showing that none of his players are bigger than the club.’