Real Madrid player remains protagonist and approaches PSG star; compare

It has been recurring since last season: Real Madrid wins and Vini Jr. is often the protagonist. It was like that in the 5-2 thrashing of Liverpool, Tuesday, in the Champions League round of 16, with a performance that made coach Carlo Ancelotti say that the Brazilian is the most decisive player in the world today. It’s the kind of performance, of commentary, that brings the number 20 shirt closer to the last Brazilian player to be so unbalanced in Europe: Neymar.

The evolution of the Real player shows this. The seasons go by and there is less and less talk of a dribble or a sprint. The agenda is an assist, a goal. The kind of feat that marked Neymar in his best days with Barcelona and early days with PSG.

In the fifth season in Europe, Vini Jr. It has very good numbers. He is constant: without serious injuries, always physically fit and with few cards, he has played in 94% of possible games so far. He has 15 goals and eight assists – there were two goals and a decisive pass in the defeat at Anfield Road.

— Vinicius doesn’t stop. He dribbles, assists, scores – Ancelotti listed.

In terms of presence, for three seasons the number 20 has already surpassed Neymar’s performance when analyzing the same profile of the player in European football. Better fitness and fewer suspensions – Vini has 27 yellow cards for Real Madrid, while Neymar received 43 during his time at Barcelona – explain why the Real player is already more reliable than the number 10 was in his first five seasons in Europe.

gaining space

In terms of direct participation in goals, the gulf between the players has already been much greater — Neymar, in his fifth season in Europe, his first for PSG, scored 28 goals and got 17 assists. Better numbers than Vini currently have, with the difference that the Real Madrid right winger still has just under half the season to play.

Unlike Neymar, the striker revealed by Flamengo had two first seasons in which he was more of a substitute than a starter. From the third, he won the title for good, but his performance still fluctuated. He was the player of poorly completed plays, with errors in the last pass and finishing that undermined his performance and Real Madrid’s results.

career turn

The technical revolution of Vini Jr. happened last season, the fourth for the merengue team. Vini maintained consistency on the field in 94% of Real Madrid’s possible games, with a jump in the number of goals and assists. It is no coincidence that the season ended with the Spanish title and the Champions League – with his goal.

Comparing the seasons, it was the first in which Vini surpassed Neymar in a technical aspect: he scored 25 goals in the fourth European season, against 20 that the Barcelona striker scored in the 2016/2017 season, his last for the Catalan team.