Real Madrid: 5 stars and 2 flops from an eventful January

Star: LW Vinicius Junior

Yes, Vinicius Junior would be rated higher than the veteran Karim Benzema. Although lesser goal involvements than the big Frenchman, January was absolutely Vini’s month as far as the attack is concerned. Real Madrid’s entire attack is built around the Brazilian and his importance was heightened by Real’s miserable display against Getafe in his absence.

Vini was out with COVID for the first two games of the year. But, he returned with a bang against Valencia scoring a brace and was arguably Real Madrid’s best outfield player. He continued his good form onto the trip to Saudi Arabia. He scored the opener in the semifinal against Barcelona. Although the goal was beautifully created by Karim Benzema, Vini had a lot of work to do before dispatching it past Marc-Andre ter Stegen in the best way possible.

He had a quieter game against Los Leones in the final but didn’t do anything wrong, his month was beautifully rounded up by the two back-to-back games against Elche, first in the Copa and then in the league. In the Copa game, Vinicius didn’t deserve to be on a side that couldn’t score in over 100 minutes. His consistent work down the left flank didn’t find the final product. The story was similar in the last game with just one difference and that was Eder Militao scoring with his head within added time.

It is good to see Vinicius’s development as a player. The season’s start was an explosion for the Brazilian. Now, fans have settled down to the fact that Vinicius is the new protagonist of the club and so has the Brazilian himself. He now looks to make better decisions on the ball and is taking up extra responsibility for the club especially in absence of Benzema like we saw in the last game. It was yet another month of tremendous growth and he ends with three goals and one assist in five games.