The reality that Real Madrid, for a second year in a row, weren't good enough for any of the prizes is sinking in, and an increasing sense of frustration is building amongst the fans for their star players. Juxtaposing the way Harry Kane, Luis Diaz, and Michael Olise came through in key moments and have consistently played well together as a unified front has really exposed the extent of how disappointing Real's duo of Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe have been.
Before Mbappe's arrival to the Santiago Bernabeu, Madridistas were, for years, sold this narrative that the two attacking superstars would be stronger together. Instead, they are somehow weaker, and for all he has accomplished at the club as a two time Champions League winner and an unlucky runner up for the Ballon d'Or, Vinicius is, more and more, becoming a source of disappointment from the Madrid faithful.
There is no mincing words about his performance against Bayern Munich. Whereas he was the matchwinner against the Bavarians in their comeback two seasons ago, Vini, aside from one brilliant run to set up Mbappe's goal and a crossbar hit, was shocking at times in how little success he had at winning his one on ones.
Vinicius Jr. is in trouble
Vinicius Jr. is running into a problem that a lot of Real Madrid players are, such as Eduardo Camavinga, who is now playing his way out of the club. And Vini Jr. has to be careful he does not become the next one to go, because being Florentino Perez's chosen one only gets you so far; even Flo turned on the greatest ever Madridista, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Because if it really does come down to Vinicius Jr. and Kylian Mbappe and these two cannot co-exist, Florentino is not going to pick between them based on fan sentiment or who has been there the longest. He is going to pick on marketability and goals. Mbappe brings both, while Vinicius brings neither.
And so the onus is then on Vinicius, who is not a primary goal scorer for Real Madrid and gets to play his preferred position on the left wing, to be consistent and create. He needs to win his battles more often, he needs to actually create the chances with the right passes, and he needs to start producing more if he wants to be considered and paid like a top five player on this planet.
Because the reality is that Mbappe is competing for the Pichichi. Mbappe may be holding the team back, he may be setting Real Madrid away from a Champions League trajectory just like he did at PSG, and he may not even work half as hard as Vinicius. But when Florentino and the board look at the raw data, they are going to choose against him with less than half Mbappe's La Liga goals and only one more assist.
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