The worst Vinicius of the 'Ancelotti era'

Real Madrid defeated Leganes at the Bernabeu with more suffering than expected. The 'Merengues', in their fight for La Liga title, won by a tight 3-2 in a match in which Carlo Ancelotti rested some of his starting players, although he had to use them in the second half, given how the match was going.

One of those revulsive players from the bench was Vinicius, who left empty-handed despite having just over half an hour on the pitch of the Santiago Bernabeu. A bad taste in the mouth to which the Brazilian is getting used in a 2025 of the most worrying for the former Flamengo from the individual point of view.

And the fact is that the No 7 of the 'Merengues' has already accumulated 20 matches with the team so far this calendar year, with numbers that are far from what is expected of him: 5 goals and 2 assists. That is to say, Vinicius has 7 G/A in 20 matches (0.35 per game), directly participating in a 'Merengue' goal every 2.86 games.

Although such records could mean anything in any given circumstance, the truth is that comparisons are odious and Vinicius' past figures highlight the step backwards that the Brazilian has taken in attack in this 2025.

The most obvious proof of this is his start to 2024. In the first 20 games of the year, Vinicius performed at a superlative level, scoring 13 goals and providing up to 6 assists to his teammates. In other words, he had a total 19 G/A (+12 compared to 2025 and an average of 0.95 per game), scoring a Real Madrid goal every 1.05 matches.

One could blame his worse digits on the figure of a Kylian Mbappe superlative in attack in recent months (19 goals and 1 assist in 2025), but the presence of a striker as voracious as the French should bring in the worst case scenario an increase in the number of assists, something that has not even come close to happening. On the contrary, Vini has now accumulated 4 fewer assists than in 2024.

Any past Vinicius was better in the 'Ancelotti era'

If we leave aside last year's superlative start, Vini also loses out in 2025 if we put him in front of the mirror of the rest of his starts to the year with Ancelotti as coach of 'Los Blancos'. The Italian coach, who began his second spell at Real Madrid in the summer of 2021, has started 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 with Vini under his orders, the latter being by far the least brilliant.

Of the years not analyzed to date, in 2023, Vini scored 9 goals and 7 assists (16 appearances) in his first 20 games. On the other hand, in 2022, the year in which he began to make his breakthrough, the Brazilian scored 5 goals (the same as in 2025) and 7 assists (5 more than this year), participating in 12 goals in his 20th match of the year.

Figures in both cases above the current ones despite having at that time another French striker who monopolised the limelight, as those years of Vinicius coincided with the most superlative and goal-scoring version of Karim Benzema in the heart of Real Madrid's attack.

To find records below those of the current Vini, you have to go back to 2021, still with Zinedine Zidane on the bench. Back then, after a couple of dozens of matches, Vinicius, whose relevance in the team was light years away from the current one, had only 3 goals and 2 assists to his teammates.

These are all worrying figures, but they should not yet cause alarm bells to ring at the Bernabeu, as if Vini steps up at the decisive moment of the season, this will be water under the bridge. However, if the dynamic seen so far continues, Madrid's chances of winning any of the four major trophies that they are aiming for between now and the end of the season (League, Cup, Champions League and Club World Cup) will seriously diminish, as Madrid is much less dangerous without Vini at his best.