Real Madrid: 5 burning questions after incredible win over Barcelona

Can Real Madrid do more to help the wide forwards?

Real Madrid had a lot of standout performances from individual players in the 3-1 Clasico triumph. Sergio Ramos, Toni Kroos, Ferland Mendy, and Fede Valverde were exceptional, for example. But the two wide forwards, Vinicius Junior and Marco Asensio, had a limited impact for much of the game.

Vinicius’ subpar performance was the most surprising, considering how good he’s been this season. He was a bright spot for Real with a goal off the bench against Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday, and he scored important goals in back-to-back wins over Real Valladolid and Levante in La Liga. And last season, he was the decisive player in the second Clasico.

While Vini has to take the blame for some poor passes, the 20-year-old shouldn’t be blamed for his lack of an imprint on the game. He seemed very isolated for much of the match, and that was a similar issue in the loss to Cadiz. Vini, per WhoScored.com, had zero dribbles completed, which is a rarity for one of La Liga’s most prolific dribblers, arguably only after world-class stars Lionel Messi and Eden Hazard.

Asensio had a better game than Vinicius, considering the work he put in defensively for Nacho. And he woke up later in the match in the attack. But for most of the game, he was a total passenger, even more invisible than Vinicius. He had as many touches as Nacho, 43, despite playing nearly double the number of minutes!

This is something for Zidane to think about as Real Madrid prepare for Gladbach and their masterful tactician, Marco Rose.