Real Madrid explores the League without the melancholy of Vinicius, absent four games due to suspension

Diego Simeone did it in the derby and the Roma coach, Gian Piero Gasperini, repeated it on Wednesday. The Italian, a 68-year-old fox who is clear about what he wants, ordered his men to attack in a rush from the right wing, that of Vinicius. In the first ten games of the season, two of the toughest opponents that Madrid has faced, Atlético and the Giallorossi, understood that their offensive plan was to get the better of the Brazilian. “The one who had to jump Wesley was Vini,” explained the white coach, laughing, “and they killed us there,” concluded the Portuguese, who also admitted that his counterpart's tactical movement caught him by surprise.

During the next four League games, someone else on the white team will take care of that side of the pitch because Vinicius begins his sanction this Sunday against Sevilla (9:00 p.m., Movistar) for grabbing Saliba, from Villarreal, by the hair, and then confronting the referee. "I thought they were going to put him in one or two more games. I'm happy," Mou said this Saturday, who has gained momentum and no longer misses the opportunity to relentlessly attack external organizations and the press.

The absence of the merengue seven, who will not reappear in the championship until the end of November if there is no reduction in the punishment, definitively opens the door for Yan Diomande, whom the club wants to see with continuity after the costly outlay (up to 140 million with variables). And what is limited for a few days is the noise in the League around Vinicius, more of a protagonist in recent weeks because of what Mourinho decided with him than because of what the winger was agitating on the field, trapped in his melancholy.

It had been more than a year and a half since the Brazilian had disappeared from the call-ups in the domestic tournament for so long. In the entire last season, in fact, he was only unavailable for two individual matches. Further back, injuries have sidelined him for several games, but, since his explosion in 2021-22, his starting status has never been so at risk as now.

“If I were Vini, I would have left”

The window of these four league games without Vini (Sevilla, Barcelona, Racing and Valencia; the last three away) opens a scenario of uncertainty in a team that still cannot find the point and creates an opportunity for the contenders. What the Brazilian finds himself upon his return to the championship after such a poor personal start (as many goals as expulsions, one) within such a dwindling collective functioning makes it one of the plots of the white season.

In between, the seven has two Champions League matches left (“without promising anything, he will start on Wednesday” against Leipzig, the coach noted), and the good public words of the boss, with whom he maintains frequent conversations in Valdebebas about the game and other aspects of his routine as a top-level footballer. "I give him tremendous value for having that smile. I, in his place, would not be here. In the summer I would have forced an exit to a rival country and stadiums that respect him. I have doubts that I would have the mental strength to endure with that smile. He has renewed out of love for the club and the city," Mourinho dedicated to him this Saturday.