Real Madrid are furious that their star winger, Vinicius Junior, is not receiving the protection he should from referees in their view. Carlo Ancelotti has regularly defended him in recent weeks, claiming he is not responsible for the treatment he gets, but the Brazilian seems to be treated more harshly by defences than any other footballer in Europe – by a distance.
Part of that is a complement to his ability, that defences are so ready to foul him in order to ensure he cannot make the difference. Simultaneously, there is a responsibility on referees to ensure that constant fouls are prevented, so that Vinicius can still show his full range of qualities.
However Los Blancos do not feel that is happening currently. The Brazilian winger was fouled on ten occasions against Real Mallorca, yet he was booked before any of the Mallorca defenders.
In total, Mallorca made 29 fouls during the game, compared to Real Madrid’s 14, but both received five yellow cards. Los Bermellones were allowed nearly six fouls per booking.
The Madridista outrage is not just limited to this game though. According to Marca, Vinicius has been fouled 79 times this season in La Liga. A remarkable 20 more than Neymar Junior, the next most-fouled player. In La Liga, Isi Palazon is the next most fouled player with 52.
Already Vinicius has been fouled more times than last season in its entirety (76), despite only having played 20 matches. Only Isaac Success of Udinese (every 22.03 minutes), averages more fouls than Vinicius (22.30 mins).
Furthering their argument, Vinicius is only fouled once every 40 minutes in the Champions League, which totals to 11 fouls so far.
While fouls are part of the game for every great player and even more so for a dribbler like Vinicius, it is hard to argue that those statistics do not suggest a certain leniency against him.
Image via EFE/ Sergio G. Cañizares
Vinicius is the epitome of what is wrong with Spanish futbol . . . he is a “diver” who tries to deceive the referee multiple times per game. VAR needs to be used to penalize diving because it is ruining the game and inflaming emotions unnecessarily.
Footballer have to dive to protect themselves. If they didn’t dive, I believes their career will be short. We have seen many player injured their self because of not diving. Being brave to accept all the tackles is not a very good decision nowadays. Most of the teams focus to win not by their tactical anymore, most has has set to do anything as long your team didn’t loose.
As per Felipe La Bomba mentions, The VAR should or try to advise the referee by letting him know the players that keep on pretending on purpose to be fouled. Its not an easy tasks, but there is nothing wrong to try. The referee than can tell the players that the VAR is watching and any deliberate acting will get yellow card.
Exactly, if refs called fouls right and protected star players, there wouldnt be need for diving.
Look at Neymar, he is what ppl call a diver. Everyones like “He dives all the time!” but he is getting beat up on pitch by lesser skilled players and injured perpetually bc of that. WC was a good example of that.
Today, trash tier teams are taking points off Real because they are allowed to go hard in on him, thanks to referees leniency.