Below the radar, Vinícius Júnior has swiftly become one of the greatest footballers on the planet, and even Real Madrid, with all their quality, play to facilitate his genius in any way they can. Here are a few of the fundamental patterns and tactics Real Madrid use:

Get him on the ball quickly from build-up

In an ideal world, Vinícius Júnior will always have a counter-attacking opportunity on the left channel behind the full-back. However, even during Real’s slow build-up, they want him to see the ball as soon as possible. 

French midfielder Eduardo Camavinga has been playing as an auxiliary left-back this year, inverting to aid Real’s 3-box-3 on the ball. The image below shows how their first phase looks. Camavinga inverts, and they’re left with a back-three. This means building up down the left takes two passes to get to Vinícius. 

Opposing sides cannot afford to let Camavinga invert and create a four-man midfield against their two midfielders, so the wide-right player will track his run, leaving the passing lane to Vinícius open. 

Overload to isolate

When Real have possession on the right flank, they trigger an overload. Three midfielders, a winger, and the right-back engage in ball retention, using close triangles to entice the opposition. Once the other team have shifted across, they will look for an outlet and then play a long switch across to Vinícius, who can use the vacated space to take on the opposing full-back. 

The reason this works so well is because of Luka Modrić’s positioning. He will never join the overload but instead double up with Vinícius to improve Real’s success rate when they switch the ball. In a wide two-v-one isolation is where Vinícius often does his best work. 

Use bounce passes to draw a press

Vinícius is a winger whose movements will usually start from on the touchline. On the ball, he can be left a long way from the danger area unless Real can manufacture a transitional moment. 

Linking up with Modrić, their quick one-twos can draw a press from full-backs and centre-backs, leaving space in behind to be exploited. As soon as a defender steps up, Vinícius will offload the ball and run around the outside, knowing he’ll get it straight back again. From here, he’s far better positioned to create problems with crosses, cut-backs or dribbling further into the box.