Vinicius Junior is a 21-year-old Brazilian winger who plays for Real Madrid but if you are reading this, I expect you know who Vinicius Junior is by now.
He arrived at Real Madrid in the summer of 2018 from the Brazilian side Flamengo despite agreeing to join the La Liga side the summer before.
Vinicius Junior arrived with lofty expectations with lots of comparison to the likes of Neymar however even with good performances he only managed to muster eight goals over the course of three seasons.
This season it is a different story with him being the second top scorer in La Liga behind fellow teammate Karim Benzema and with him now managing to score goals regularly he is on the path, if not already on it, to become one of the best players in the world and at the tender age of 21.
He has a long and promising career ahead of him.
This tactical analysis and scout report aims to unpick some of the key attributes of Vinicius’s game and why he has started to produce a tangible output of goals and assists.
Data
So far this season Vinicius Junior has managed to score 12 goals and produce five assists in all competitions for club and country.
This is shown in the below graphic comparing Vinicius’s output against other La Liga attackers, we must also note that Depay especially has had his numbers padded with goals for the Netherlands against the likes of Gibraltar and Montenegro.
With Vinicius Junior, 10 of his goals have come in La Liga where he is the league’s second top scorer.
Now let’s look at the expected goal and expected assists numbers which help us better understand whether a player is being lucky in front of goal or is getting in the right position to score consistently.
