Real Madrid lost to Liverpool in the Champions League on Tuesday night, with Vinicius Junior called upon by manager Thierry Henry for his lack of action in the final third.
Manager Thierry Henry took aim at Vinicius Junior’s performance against Liverpool and questioned why he didn’t offer Conor Bradley more of a challenge when Real Madrid drew empty seats in front of goal for the first time this season.
Despite their struggles in recent weeks, Alexis Mac Allister’s winning goal just after the hour mark catapulted the Reds to the top of La Liga. This is the second time in recent seasons that Los Blancos have come to Anfield and lost.
Real struggled to create chances, with Vinicius and Kylian Mbappé unable to get a shot on target. The Brazilian has had his share of ups and downs, most recently apologizing for an abusive attack he made while coming on as a substitute in a La Liga match.
He came up against a player named Bradley, who was impressive but still learning his trade as a full-back, and Henry couldn’t believe Vinicius hadn’t put more pressure on him.
“I don’t understand it. You have to play with what’s in front of you, you have to play in the moment. Vinicius Jr. was on Conor Bradley for the first five to seven minutes and then he let him breathe. Why did he let him breathe? Let’s do it until he gets a yellow card. Then he won’t be able to defend the same way, and that didn’t happen.”
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Referring to a specific situation, the former Arsenal player said: “When we watched the game, Vinicius Junior, after a good first five minutes with Conor Bradley, received the ball one-on-one, passed it back to the left-back and received the ball… and now it was one-on-three.
“Then he attacks on his own against three guys. And I thought, wait a minute, let’s do the math. It was one-on-one. Let’s see what I can do with that. Why move the ball back so that it comes back to you and you can play one-on-three? Sometimes I don’t understand.”
Former Real star Gareth Bale echoed Henry’s point, questioning why they didn’t trouble opponents with their pace and stressing that the absence of an instant No. 9 was probably holding them back.
“I think what Thierry and I were talking about was that spark. We didn’t see Mbappé and Vinicius work a little bit of magic in the final third and pull Madrid back into the game. It was a little disappointing that we didn’t really show the quality that we expected from the Real Madrid players in that final third.”
“It’s frustrating. I think they probably complicate things. Sometimes they just need to try the defenders. They’re obviously faster than everyone else on the pitch. But I think maybe the reason they don’t do that is because there’s no one else waiting for the cross in the box. Maybe they need that central nine.”
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