Vinicius Junior - One Match Wonder?
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I haven’t had a chance to watch all four Champions League games yet - life gets in the way sometimes.
However, when I was watching Man City and BVB battle it out (at 5am, mind you - damn Australian time zones), my Instagram feed was lighting up with Vinicius Junior.
Two goals against Liverpool will do that.
There was a lot of people doing one of these two things:
Claiming Vinicius Jr is the second coming of Jesus (not the Gabriel kind) after not watching anything this season
Saying Vinicius has had a shithouse season and has had one good match - Still overrated
As, is often the case - the truth lies somewhere between.
We’ll look at Vini Jr’s match against Liverpool and his season underlying numbers.
Before we start - here’s my favorite Vini Jr GIF.
Just because.
Vinicius Junior Against Liverpool
Vini had an absolute day out against Liverpool
Two goals
Seven touches in the opposition penalty area - that’s a lot
Seven progressive runs - again, that’s a lot.
Two passes into the penalty area (completing both of them)
And looking at Real Madrid’s heat map for the night, we can see how heavily they favored Vini Junior’s side.
Side note: A lot has been made about Trent Alexander-Arnold’s match - some saying he’s responsible for all three goals. I actually feel really sorry for Trent this season. He’s had to really adjust his role with Liverpool being an injury away from calling me to fill in for CB. We don’t have to shit on everyone all the time. Trent is still class.
So, we can see Vinicius Junior was a clear man of the match.
But, if we look at Vini’s underlying numbers - he isn’t the flat out disappointment that a lot have made him out to be.
Vinicius Junior This Year
I really like FBref’s basic scouting report for a quick snapshot of a player’s numbers.
It’s not the whole story - but it gives some basic insights.
With that, we can see how Vinicius Junior stacks up against the other attacking mids/wingers throughout Europe’s top five leagues.
As you can see they’re not that bad!
If you’ve been following along with my newsletter this season you’ve probably seen Vinicius’ name pop up from time to time - especially when discussing touches in the box.
His average of 6.86 per 90 minutes played is in the 93rd percentile and is absolutely brilliant for a someone who stats moves off so wide.
Along with that, his drabbing and carry numbers are as good as you’d expect. Over nine progressive carries per 90 is really nice to see, and so is completing over three dribbles per 90.
Vinicius’ passing numbers are pretty shitty, but that isn’t really his role in the Real Madrid side - he’s the guy on the end of passing moves - which you can see with his 8.51 progress passing receives per 90.
His goalscoring is well down, and you’d want more than 0.27 non penalty goals per 90 minutes. However, he’s going below expectations - and his expected non-penalty goals plus assists of 0.49 is very solid without being spectacular.
All in all though - he hasn’t been as bad as some have been saying.
So, Why The Hate?
Good question, Vince. Why the hate?!
Well, I’d put it down to one of these few things:
People only see he’s scored three goals in La Liga - cue “LOL VINI JR IS OVERATED *EYEBALL EMOJI*”
We let the little frustrating things he does in a match cloud our overall judgement
We heard other people say he’s having a bad season
Now I don’t mind having an opinion on a player without seeing them play - it’s dumb to presume otherwise, there’s so much soccer going on and you can’t keep track of everything.
Hell, I haven’t watched every Real Madrid match this season.
However, I’d instead look to phrase things like “three goals is less than you’d hope for this season in La Liga” instead of “Vinicius Junior is having a terrible season”
All I know is those numbers - playing for a top club - at his age…. There’s absolutely no problem with that.
Don’t get me wrong, we’re probably not looking at a future Ballon D’Or winner here, but to completely write off a young guy who has the numbers Vini does is a little silly in my books.
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