Vinícius slips behind Mbappé, Mourinho's first Real Madrid dilemma | OneFootball

Vinícius Júnior’s start to the season is far from what was expected, and his poor form is beginning to create a new situation at Real Madrid. The Brazilian admitted after the match against Elche that he needs to improve his finishing, but his situation also presents a challenge for José Mourinho, who is trying to maintain the balance between his two big attacking stars: Vinícius and Kylian Mbappé.

The Brazilian wrote on his social media after the match:

“The goals will come back… I can’t miss that many.”

The problem for Mourinho is that while Vinícius is going through a spell of low output, Mbappé is enjoying a spectacular start, with eight goals in seven matches.

Mourinho had kept things level between his stars

During the first matches of the season, the Portuguese coach had tried to split the minutes between them almost equally.

Vinícius and Mbappé both started against Espanyol, Real Sociedad, Málaga and Betis, and after those four matches there was barely a six-minute difference between their playing time.

Vinícius’s only substitution in that period came against Real Sociedad, when he left the field in the 84th minute with the match practically decided. On that occasion, he had also been directly involved in two goals, and Mourinho was looking to rebuild the connection between the Brazilian and the Santiago Bernabéu crowd.

But the picture began to change over the last three matches.

Vinícius has now been substituted in three straight matches

The Brazilian has been taken off in the three most recent games: in the 87th minute against Inter, the 89th minute against Rayo Vallecano and the 68th minute against Elche.

The gap in minutes is now becoming more noticeable. Mbappé has played 630 minutes, while Vinícius has logged 598.

The difference is still not major, but it does represent a shift from the balance Mourinho had maintained at the start of the campaign.

In addition, the attacking output of the two is very different.

While Mbappé has eight goals, Vinícius has one goal and three assists, in addition to having won a penalty against Betis.

The competition is starting to increase the pressure

Another factor complicating the situation for Mourinho is that he no longer only has to manage the minutes of Vinícius and Mbappé.

Brahim Díaz, Carlos Espí and Yan Diomande are also pushing for a bigger role with their performances.

Espí’s case is especially striking. The forward has played just 26 minutes and already has more goals than Vinícius at this stage of the season.

Because of this, the Portuguese coach will have to find the balance between preserving the status of his two main stars and responding to the performances of the players coming up behind them.

A story Madrid has seen before

The coexistence between Vinícius and Mbappé has already gone through different phases since the Frenchman’s arrival at Real Madrid.

Last season, for example, Vinícius struggled during the first half of the campaign under Xabi Alonso, while Mbappé was enjoying a prolific scoring spell. Later, under Arbeloa, the Brazilian regained prominence and Mbappé became less available due, among other factors, to a knee injury.

Something similar had already happened at the start of Mbappé’s first season in Madrid under Carlo Ancelotti. The Frenchman found it hard to get going, while Vinícius took on greater attacking responsibility.

As the months passed, the situation reversed: Mbappé ended up reaching 44 goals and Vinícius saw his output decline.

Now the story seems to be repeating itself. Mbappé is in extraordinary goalscoring form, and Vinícius is still trying to rediscover his best version.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.