Real Madrid Transfers: Playing keep or sell with every winger

LW Vinicius Junior

Let’s shift back to the left-hand side, where Vinicius Junior has played more minutes than anyone else, in part due to Eden Hazard’s injuries. It’s not ideal that Real Madrid are relying so much on a 20-year-old player, because, in an ideal world, Vini would be playing around 1,000-1,500 minutes and would have a role somewhere closer to Rodrygo Goes’.

Vinicius has dealt with a lot of ups and downs this season. The biggest “up” was his glorious brace against Liverpool in the Champions League, and one of his worst “downs” was an error-prone performance in Real’s Copa del Rey exit at Alcoyano.

On any given play, Vini is capable of giving Madridistas an “up” and a “down”, creating a glorious chance from nothing, only to leave the chance begging with an atrocious miss that has to be seen to be believed. Vini’s had the worst misses of any player on the team this season, underperforming his xG by 3.4 goals.

Yet Vini makes up for his flaws in front of goal, which seem to be more due to nerves than a lack of technical quality or sense, in other ways. He is a great ball-carrier for Real and creates chances with his runs into the box. His energy on both ends of the pitch helps the team a lot, and he can help Real Madrid win important matches. We’ve seen it on multiple occasions in each season he’s been in Madrid.

So Vini has to stay. In an ideal world, he would have gotten a year on loan by now where he could establish himself as “The Guy” somewhere. I don’t know if that will happen in the future, but I do know that Vini, as frustrating as he can be sometimes, is not a player you give up on.

Verdict: Keep