Real Madrid have been working well under new manager Jose Mourinho, winning all but one of their pre-season games. The only other non-win was a draw, meaning Mourinho’s first Real Madrid pre-season in more than a decade ended without a loss.
However, if there was one glaring negative that you could derive from their pre-season campaign, it would be the form of their newly renewed superstar, Vinicius Jr.
Vinicius Jr is a happy man after finally extending his contract at Real Madrid – which now expires in 2032, as opposed to running out next summer.
In a standstill that lasted over a year, Vinicius Jr and Real Madrid were finally able to come to terms on an agreement, failing which obviously had its consequences – such as losing the player to a European rival in Arsenal.
Now, Real Madrid do not have to worry about it anymore, and can keep their focus on the task ahead, which is to win titles.
Vinicius Jr has looked quite rusty during pre-season, but it may end up meaning nothing
Now comes the exciting part for both the player and the club – they get to work towards the same goal, which is to bring glory back to Real Madrid and end Barcelona’s brief run of dominance in Spain for these last two years.
However, Vinicius Jr’s form has been pretty bad. In fact, out of all the players that have played minutes in the pre-season, Vinicius Jr probably ranks among the bottom three players in terms of sharpness and match performance.
The latter is never the point of pre-season, and obviously, all of this is with a grain of salt because it is, after all, just friendly matches. However, if I had to pick the three least sharp players for Real Madrid this pre-season, it would be Denzel Dumfries, Vinicius Jr and Antonio Rudiger.
Even players like Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham, who arrived at the club later than the Brazilian superstar, are looking much sharper in their limited minutes than Vinicius was.
All this would not matter if Vini decides to play the way every fan is accustomed to seeing him play. It will just be slid under the rug as a way for the Brazilian to get in shape. However, we can only judge him based on what we are seeing at the moment, and Vinicius Jr just does not look good.
He looks lethargic, his touches are not sharp, he looks tired more easily, and he does not have that clinical edge in front of goal.
In a few months, fans can circle back on it and either start worrying, or laugh it off because Vinicius Jr started performing well. For now, though, caution is understandable, and so is being relaxed about this.
Add us as a preferred source on Google