Real Madrid News
Real Madrid winger has no plans to change his game despite being targeted by opponents
Real Madrid superstar Vinicius Jr has found himself on the receiving end of harsh challenges from opponents on a regular basis this season.
The most recent such occurrence came in Los Blancos’ 3-2 loss to Rayo Vallecano, with their right-back Ivan Balliu even admitting to using intimidation tactics and rough challenges to keep the Brazilian quiet.
Earlier this week, Carlo Ancelotti insisted that the opposition try to provoke Vinicius relentlessly and keep fouling him as he called for protection for his star attacker.
And according to journalist Jorge C Picon, Real Madrid have been aware of this growing trend of opponents targeting Vinicius since last season.
Indeed, the 22-year-old has been fouled as many as 44 times in La Liga this season, which is by far the highest in the competition in 2022/23.
But despite this, Vinicius Junior does not plan on changing the way he plays and will continue to do what he does, given that it is what has brought him to this level and helped him achieve success at Real Madrid.
Los Blancos, however, want him to improve in some aspects, and particularly work on the aspect of not getting dragged into fights and losing his focus which has hurt the team on occasions in the past.
Vinicius started the new season in red-hot form and has bagged ten goals and five assists from 20 matches in all competitions, six of which have come in La Liga.
However, he has only netted just once in his last six league matches. The Brazilian will be hoping to return to his goalscoring ways later tonight against Cadiz and build some momentum as he gets set to fly to Qatar for the FIFA World Cup.
It is astounding that despite being the biggest club in Spain, Real Madrid do not have many Spanish players to show for it.
Los Blancos do indeed boast of a special diversity in the dressing room, but their lack of locally trained players could pose problems according to MARCA.
The Spanish outlet confirms that UEFA does not mandate the inclusion of any minimum number of locally grown players for a club. However, the Spanish federation stipulates that a club in Spain must boast of at least eight players who meet a specific set of conditions.
Of the aforementioned eight candidates, there must be at least four players who have spent three seasons or 36 months at the club between the ages of 15 and 21.
Currently, only Nacho Fernandez, Dani Carvajal, Lucas Vazquez, Federico Valverde, Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo and Mariano make up the required number on that front.
The problem, however, arises with the condition for the other four players in the list of eight. RFEF stipulates that the second set of four players must have completed at least 36 months in teams attached to the federation of Spain between the ages of 15 and 21.
Only Jesus Vallejo, Alvaro Odriozola, Marco Asensio and Dani Ceballos tick the aforementioned box. However, all four players have uncertain futures at the club and are well-placed to depart in the summer.
There are thus big decisions to be taken over the transfer strategy for June. Real Madrid can work ways to ship all four players out, it would require the re-integration of players like Sergio Arribas, Miguel Gutierrez or Fran Garcia to ensure the fulfilment of the criteria.
With both Vallejo and Odriozola seemingly frozen out of Ancelotti’s plans, their departures from Santiago Bernabeu appear inevitable. Thus, the management could be forced to renew one of Asensio or Ceballos come June.
