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Real Madrid have suffered a major blow ahead of Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League clash with Liverpool at Anfield with the news that Vinicius Junior will be out for the next few weeks after getting hurt in the 3-0 win over Leganes in La Liga this past weekend. The Brazilian superstar has 12 goals and six assists across all competitions and will be a big miss for Carlo Ancelotti and Los Blancos with the Italian possibly on the hook for this given that the Spanish and European champions were 2-0 up after 66 minutes, yet Vini Jr. went the full 90.
The South American’s absence is a huge opportunity for Kylian Mbappe, who opened the scoring in the victory at Butarque with his ninth goal across all competitions to go with two more assists as the France international seeks to improve upon his start to life with Los Merengues. Vini Jr. did provide Mbappe with the assist for the goal over the weekend, but the Spanish giants’ firepower has now been seriously dented ahead of an important trip to face Liverpool who have won 100% of their UCL games so far.
“Kylian is more used to playing out wide,” said Ancelotti postgame on Sunday. “It was better for the team to have him there as it is more tiring out wide than it is through the middle. Vinicius only arrived back from international duty on Thursday and he trained with us. Kylian was fresher than Vinicius and he did a good job with the goal which was fantastically assisted by Vinicius. Both are improving little by little.”
Complicating matters further for the Italian tactician is the injury to Rodrygo which has kept him out of late and will also rule him out on Merseyside and essentially dictates that Mbappe is suddenly back to being the main man in attack as used to be the case for Paris Saint-Germain. There can be no underestimating just how big an opportunity this is for Mbappe to really make a statement for Real given that Arne Slot’s Reds have four wins from four in Europe and therefore are not exposed to the same level of risk as the defending champions.
Positionally, it is complicated for Ancelotti who just played Vini Jr. through the middle to make the most of Mbappe’s greater freshness, only to see the Brazil international struck down at a time when both attacking stars were required. Unless Real get adventurous with their setup, the French superstar will logically have to be the main focal point of the attack given that there is no credible alternative despite playing in from the left suiting his game better.
Jude Bellingham can step up and provide impetus more similar to that of last season, but there is no guarantee that it is a seamless transition with Mbappe given that Vini Jr. and Rodrygo had a lot longer to get used to it. There is also an excellent support cast of Arda Guler, Endrick and Brahim Diaz who could all also benefit from more opportunities which also offers Ancelotti the possibility to go with Mbappe as part of a front two or three as well as on his own.
Considering his assist against Leganes, Guler is arguably best-placed to benefit from this unexpected change in plans but Endrick also has the possibility of sending a reminder why Real spent big to bring him in alongside Mbappe having recently fallen out of favor with Brazil this past month. Brahim Diaz perhaps has the experience over the Turkiye international but Guler’s precocious talent and the need to have Fede Valverde at right-back should force Ancelotti’s hand somewhat ahead of what could be the defining game for Mbappe’s time with Real so far.
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