Ben Stewart
How good will Vinicius Junior become?
Vinicius Junior is already being dubbed as the new Neymar and we’ve crunched his numbers from the 21/22 season and looked into how good he could go on to become.
At only 21 years old, Vinicius has already made 170 appearances for Real Madrid and is regarded as their next star.
Gametime
Vinicius was already regarded as one of the most promising youngsters in world football, but this season especially he has taken his game to another level.
In the 20/21 campaign, the Brazilian winger was mostly utilised as an impact player as 13 of his 35 appearances were from the bench. That season he scored three goals and registered three assists.
In total he played 1,975 minutes of football as Real Madrid lost out on the La Liga title to Atlético Madrid.
This season has been a different story for the 21-year-old.
He has played 2,701 minutes of La Liga football, 726 more minutes than he managed last season.
He started in 30 of Madrid’s 38 league matches and he also played a vital role in their Champions League campaign, scoring the winning goal against Liverpool.
Goals and assists
The most impressive aspect of Vinicius’ recent season was his sudden improvement in his goal output.
His best goalscoring season up until this point was just six goals and this season he managed to score 22 across all competitions as well as providing 16 assists.
The Brazilian overperformed his xG in La Liga by 3.9 goals, backing up how clinical he was.
Carlo Ancelotti slightly adapted his role so that he could be more of a goal threat in and around the box.
The amount of shots he was taking each game increased from 1.1 to 2.3 in the space of just one season.
Real Madrid funnelled the majority of their attacks down the left-hand side last season as 42% of their attacking moves came from the left. Only Elche had a higher percentage of their attacks down the left-hand side last season with 43%.
Vinicius created 170 shot-creating actions last season which ranked him as the second most creative player in La Liga, right behind Iker Muniain who produced 172.
Based on Whoscored.com average match ratings, Vinicius was Real Madrid’s second-best player last season with an average match rating of 7.56. Only Karim Benzema managed a higher average rating with 7.69.
The 21-year-old also isn’t afraid of getting stuck in as he averaged 1.3 tackles per 90 in La Liga last season.
What the future holds for Vinicius
If the Brazilian managed to carry on his current trajectory then he will be one of the best players in the world over the next few seasons.
In some ways, Real Madrid missing out on Kylian Mbappé this summer may turn out to be a blessing in disguise for Vinicius.
Mbappe was heavily utilised on the left for PSG last season, so if he had made the move over to Real Madrid, either he or Vinicius would have had to move over to the right-hand side in order to accommodate Karim Benzema through the middle.
Vinicius and Benzema were the most prolific partnership in La Liga last season as Vinicius set up five of Benzema’s goals and the Frenchman returned the favour with six assists of his own to Vinicius.
Tite will undoubtedly see Vinicius as one of the key players for the upcoming World Cup in Qatar as Brazil are currently being discussed as one of the favourites for the tournament.
The 21-year-old has scored one goal for Brazil in his 14 caps, with his goal coming against Chile in a World Cup qualifier earlier this year.
The Brazilian has already won six trophies with Real Madrid across his first four seasons with the club and their pursuit of silverware doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon.