Of everything being asked of Vinicius Junior at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday night, the simplest is the thing he has managed least often. The Vinicius Junior Rayo Vallecano record is two goals in 10 meetings since he arrived in Spain in 2018, per Mundo Deportivo, and his most recent goal against the franjirrojos is now more than a year old. On a week when a section of his own support has made its mood unmistakable, that is an awkward number to carry into a game.
The Ratiu problem
Mundo Deportivo frames Saturday as the start of Vinicius’s reconquest of the Bernabeu, and it begins with the man the paper calls his nemesis: Andrei Ratiu. The Romanian right-back has given the Brazilian as difficult an evening as any full-back in La Liga over the past few seasons, and the individual duel has been one of the most evenly matched in recent meetings between the two clubs. Rayo’s long absentee list for this trip — Jorge de Frutos and Fran Perez suspended, Isi Palazon, Randy Nteka and goalkeeper Augusto Batalla injured, Ivan Balliu a doubt — does not include him.
That matters, because Benat San Jose’s side arrive at the Bernabeu, in the coach’s own words, “en cuadro” — down to the bare bones. If Rayo are going to survive the night, they will lean heavily on the one player who has historically handled Madrid’s left flank.
The Vinicius Junior Rayo Vallecano record, and the noise around it
Two goals in 10 attempts against one opponent is the sort of statistic that only becomes a story when everything else is already being questioned, and it is. Vinicius has one goal and two assists in Madrid’s opening five games of the season. The goal came against Real Sociedad; he has gone three matches without scoring since. It is not, by itself, a crisis. What has irritated the Bernabeu is the sense that the winger who used to settle matches with a single moment has stopped producing those moments.
The irony of Tuesday is worth recording. Vinicius was booed by parts of the crowd during the 2-1 Champions League win over Inter Milan on a night when, defensively, he was arguably Madrid’s best performer, registering as many as nine recoveries. We covered the reaction to that in full when the whistles first started.
What Mourinho says
Jose Mourinho spent a sizeable chunk of Friday’s press conference defending his forward, reaching for a Portuguese proverb to do it. “You only throw stones at trees that have fruit; you don’t throw stones at a tree that has nothing on it,” the Real Madrid coach said, via Managing Madrid. “And Vinicius Junior has a lot of fruit.”
He went further. “What is the best version of Vinicius Junior? The best is still going to come,” Mourinho said. “The Vinicius Junior who used to win matches on his own — right now we have a Vinicius Junior who is working harder than ever.” It is a generous reading, and a pointed one: the manager is asking the stadium for patience that the stadium has not been in the mood to give.
Why Saturday night matters
Los Blancos sit third on nine points, needing a league win after the defeat at Real Betis and a scratchy European night that flattered them on the scoreline. Marca’s probable line-ups have Vinicius starting on the left of a front line led by Kylian Mbappe, with kick-off at 21:00 CEST — the full kick-off time, TV and team news is here.
Mourinho can keep making the argument in press conferences. Vinicius can make it far more efficiently in about 90 minutes, and against the one opponent his record says he has never enjoyed.
