Real Madrid: Comparing Rodrygo, Vinicius Junior hurts the team

Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo Goes are two of the most exciting prospects in football at the moment, and we are lucky enough to be able to witness them both playing at Real Madrid. However, that admiration should not be used to compare to extremely raw and young talents against each other.

Why is it so difficult for us to just enjoy watching two incredible talents grow and learn in the team that we love? When you compare Cristiano Ronaldo to Lionel Messi, that is understandable (though I personally have my reasons to disagree with that as well), but why do we have to go so low to a point where we are practically picking sides between two teenagers that both play for Real Madrid?

Is it age? Nationality? The fact that they arrived to the club within one year of each other? I personally see no reason why we should add to the already unimaginable pressure that they’re under. When we go ahead and tweet something like “Vinicius only prepared us for the arrival of Rodrygo” or anything that seems as harmless as a few words, that means way more to the players. Obviously, they may not see specific tweets, but the word generally gets to them.

We don’t the right to push them to their limits emotionally. Vinicius’ form has suffered a little because of all the pressure when what we should have done was let him grow. He was getting the chances under Santiago Solari and then under Zinedine Zidane afterwards. This season, though, it changed as the manager has realized how much the youngster is being affected and has decided to slowly help him in the background.

Vinicius Junior has been focusing more on training rather than the games themselves and that was clear when we saw that Zidane has not included him in the squad list a couple times so far. He’s not the full product yet, and that’s expected with his age. Rodrygo is not the full product either, and whether he’s better than Vinicius at the current time should not even be a topic of conversation at this point.

Both players have already proven that they are able to help this team in times of need and they are ready to be a part of the Real Madrid squad. Zidane has given them both chances and naturally, there are things that Rodrygo is good at which we don’t see with Vinicius, and it’s also the same the other way around.

The positive side to all this is that as of now, it seems as though the players are not letting the criticism from the fans and media get to their heads and are instead focusing on helping each other out.

As per an article from Bleacher Report, Rodrygo was asked about his relationship with Vinicius:

"“Vinicius and I support each other, we’re friends and team-mates and will continue to be,” said the 18-year-old. “He has helped me a lot because he arrived a year before me in Madrid. There are also comparisons between players from Brazil, but we never do that ourselves; we will continue to support one another.”"

The fact that we feel as though we have the right to sit back and compare the two young players the way that we do is astonishing to say the least. We are hindering the development of two players that definitely have the potential to be our best players in the future and could give their best years to us. Growing up in the world of football is tough for anyone, the pressure is increased tenfold when it comes to growing up in Real Madrid. Some of the best players have come here and found themselves buried in the pressure, can you imagine how that feels for Rodrygo and Vinicius?

That’s how it should always be between them and more importantly, that’s how it should be for us as well when we speak about to exceptional young talents who are on the right road to terrorizing opponents on the left and right wings for years to come. Florentino Perez has done magnificently to bring them both to the club and let us not waste this chance to watch them flourish in front of our eyes.