Vinicius Junior Starting Place Under Threat as Mourinho Calls AEK Athens Display Acceptable
Vinicius Junior starting place at Real Madrid is under threat after another blank night in front of goal, and the debate around the Brazil winger has grown louder with every match that passes without a goal or an assist. Jose Mourinho handed Vinicius a start in the 3-2 Champions League win at AEK Athens on Wednesday, yet the 26-year-old left the pitch after 81 minutes with Real Madrid chasing the match, and his replacement Brahim Diaz set up Federico Valverde for the 92nd minute winner.
Mourinho described the display as acceptable after the match in Greece, and insisted that Vinicius performed very well within a difficult team display. The words of the head coach offered public backing, but the numbers behind the display and the form of Yan Diomande on the opposite flank tell a harder story for the Brazil international. With Vinicius now serving the final match of a four match domestic ban at Valencia on Saturday, his return to LaLiga action after the international break will arrive with his place in the team no longer certain.
It is now seven matches since Vinicius last contributed a goal or an assist, an assist in the 4-1 win over Rayo Vallecano, and 11 matches since his only goal of the 2026-27 season. For a player who has carried the Real Madrid attack in past seasons, that run has turned a selection question into the main talking point around the club, and the Athens night gave the critics fresh material.
Mourinho Calls Vinicius Display Acceptable and Backs His Number Seven
Mourinho kept his public verdict short and measured after the win in Athens. He said Vinicius “had a very acceptable match” and added that “the team did not have an extraordinary match”, before saying Vinicius “performed very well” within a tough and serious team display. The head coach refused to single out the winger for blame, and he made the point that the whole team had found the night difficult, not only the number seven.
When Mourinho was asked whether he needed a firm hand or a soft hand to deal with Vinicius, the Real Madrid head coach answered with a ratio that summed up his man management of the forward. He said: “I would say, trying to imagine a percentage, so far, 80% with the right (soft hand) and 20% with the left (firm hand).”
Mourinho also reacted to the suggestion from a reporter that the Vinicius situation has forced summer signing Yan Diomande to switch wings. The head coach rejected that idea in clear terms. He said: “Vinicius did not provoke anything. Diomande comes to Real Madrid more to be a player who can play on both wings, rather than solely on one.” Mourinho added: “Diomande does not care at all. He plays with different characteristics, but being on the right or left does not change anything for him.”
The backing did not stop with the head coach. Club captain Federico Valverde spoke up for his team mate after the match in Athens, and fellow Brazilian Eder Militao added his voice too. Valverde said: “The important thing is that, even if he makes mistakes, he keeps trying, that he keeps contributing. He gives that energy we all have to the team. He is aligned to what we are doing, and good things will come.”
Militao said: “He is a lad who is cheerful every day. Things are not going the way he would like at the moment, but he is someone who never stops working. I think everyone can see that he keeps trying and trying, and unfortunately the goals just are not coming. But I think he is still making a contribution; he is contributing a lot. He is a very important player for us within our team. I think that, when the time is right, he will shake off this run of bad luck. He is someone who deserves so much, and I think he will come back stronger than ever.”
The support from the dressing room is real, and it matters. Yet public backing from a head coach and from team mates does not settle a selection question on its own. Mourinho picks the team, and the team that has won seven matches in a row in all competitions has done much of that winning without Vinicius in the side. The Brazil winger has admitted that he is battling confidence issues, and the Athens display showed a player still searching for the sharpness that once made him one of the most feared attackers in Europe.
Why Vinicius Junior Starting Place Is Under Threat After the Athens Numbers
The numbers from Athens explain why the Vinicius Junior starting place is now an open question rather than a settled fact. The FotMob statistics from the match show a forward who saw plenty of the ball in dangerous areas but turned almost none of it into threat.
| Vinicius Junior vs AEK Athens | Figure |
|---|---|
| Minutes played | 81 |
| Goals | 0 |
| Assists | 0 |
| Expected goals | 0.17 |
| Chances created | 2 |
| Shots | 3 |
| Touches in opposition box | 9 |
| Successful dribbles | 0 |
| Duels won | 0 |
Nine touches in the opposition box and three shots suggest involvement, but zero successful dribbles and zero duels won tell the story of a winger who could not beat his man on the night. For a player whose game is built on one against one threat, that is the most worrying line in the whole table, and it matches what the eye saw in Athens. Vinicius operated on the left, with Diomande moved to the right, but the former Flamengo player failed to produce the display required to strengthen his claim for a regular starting position.
The verdict in Spain was harsher than the verdict from Mourinho. Newspaper AS described the first half display as “appalling” and added that Vinicius tried harder after the break but was unsuccessful. The report said Diomande was now “ahead of him by a wide margin” in the starting eleven. Former Real Madrid player Jorge Valdano, usually measured in his television analysis, was also highly critical during a programme on Movistar. Valdano said: “Acceptable is not a word that applies to a player like Vinicius. He put in very little effort and rarely succeeded.” He added: “He made only one good move. We remember very little of his game tonight; for a player who maintained such an exceptional level for such a long time, this is far too little.” Valdano finished with a warning: “This flat performance from Vinicius will not help him recover the position that Diomande has secured.”
Marca struck a more careful note, and warned that blaming Vinicius for all of the problems at Real Madrid would be too simplistic. At the same time, the newspaper said it was “not a coincidence” that the level of the Mourinho team had dropped when the Brazilian was on the pitch, and it highlighted what it saw as a lack of defensive commitment from the forward. That split in the coverage captures the position Vinicius is in. Nobody inside the club is writing him off, and nobody outside the club is pretending the current form is good enough for a starting place at Real Madrid.
The drought now frames every discussion of the player. Seven matches without a goal involvement is a long run for any attacker, and 11 matches since his only goal of the season is longer still. Vinicius has built his reputation on decisive nights in the biggest matches, and the Athens night was the opposite of that. He started, he worked, and he left the pitch with the match still level and the winner still to come from a substitute.
Diomande Moves Ahead of Vinicius in the Real Madrid Pecking Order
The sharpest pressure on the Vinicius Junior starting place comes from inside the same squad, and it comes from the teenager who has made the left wing his own during the suspension. Yan Diomande, the 19 year old summer signing from RB Leipzig, has impressed in recent matches in the left wing role, and the numbers behind his rise are hard to ignore. Diomande has scored four goals and registered four assists in 15 appearances for Real Madrid this season, including three goals and one assist in his last four league outings.
That form is the reason the debate has moved beyond one quiet night in Athens. Diomande did not only fill in while Vinicius was banned. He made the position his own, and he did it with goals, assists and the kind of direct running that Mourinho values. When Vinicius returned to the side in Athens, Diomande moved to the right to make room on the left, and Mourinho insisted the switch changes nothing for the teenager. The head coach is right about the flexibility of Diomande, but the message underneath is clear. The left wing is no longer a place that Vinicius owns by right. It is a place that has to be won back.
Mourinho has already shown his hand for the Valencia match on Saturday, and the team news underlines the shift. The head coach confirmed Dean Huijsen, Ibrahima Konate, Aurelien Tchouameni and Arda Guler as starters for the trip to Mestalla. Guler is likely to play on the right, with Jude Bellingham in the number 10 spot and Diomande off the left. Vinicius will watch from the sidelines as he serves the final match of the domestic ban, and the team that runs out at Mestalla will be the team that has carried the winning run.
Real Madrid travel to Valencia third in the LaLiga table on 27 points, three points behind leaders Barcelona, and the side has been victorious in the last seven matches in all competitions. Valencia sit in 19th position in the top flight in Spain, and the match is the final fixture before the November international break. The possible starting lineup for the match is Courtois; Valverde, Konate, Huijsen, Cucurella; Tchouameni, Bernardo; Guler, Bellingham, Diomande; Mbappe. It is a lineup built around the players who are in form now, and Vinicius is not part of it this weekend.
When Does Vinicius Junior Return From Suspension and What Happens Next
Vinicius serves the final match of his four match domestic ban at Valencia on Saturday 7 November, and his possible return date is 21 November against Celta Vigo after the November international break. The two week pause gives him time to work, to rest and to reset, but it also gives Diomande two more weeks as the man in possession of the left wing. The break will not change the pecking order on its own. Only performances after the break will do that.
The return fixture carries its own weight. Celta Vigo visit the Bernabeu on 21 November, and it will be the first LaLiga match for Vinicius since the ban began. If Mourinho picks him, it will be a show of faith in a player the head coach has backed in public at every turn. If Mourinho leaves him on the bench, it will confirm what the Athens night suggested, that the Vinicius Junior starting place now belongs to the player in form, and that the Brazil international has to earn it back from the bench.
The injury picture around the squad adds to the sense of a team moving on without him for now. Rodrygo is out with a knee injury and is working towards being available at the start of 2027. Ferland Mendy is still dealing with a long term thigh problem. Raul Asencio recently underwent an operation on a stress fracture in his leg and is expected to be on the sidelines for the next three months or so. None of those absences opens a door for Vinicius this weekend, because the door he needs is the one on the left wing, and Diomande is standing in it.
The question that will follow Vinicius through the international break is simple, and it is the question that Mourinho, Valdano and the numbers all point to in different ways. Can the player who once decided Champions League finals find the sharpness, the dribble and the goal again, or has the rise of Diomande changed the shape of the Real Madrid attack for good? The head coach has given him the soft hand in public, the captain has given him public backing, and the calendar has given him two weeks. What happens after the break, against Celta Vigo at the Bernabeu, will give the first real answer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Vinicius Junior starting place under threat at Real Madrid?
Vinicius Junior starting place is under threat because he has gone seven matches without a goal or an assist, his only goal of the season came 11 matches ago, and Yan Diomande has impressed on the left wing during the suspension. Mourinho called the AEK Athens display acceptable rather than strong, and the Spanish press has said Diomande is now ahead by a wide margin.
What did Jose Mourinho say about Vinicius Junior after AEK Athens?
Mourinho said Vinicius played an acceptable match, not an extraordinary one, and added that the team did not have an extraordinary match either. He also said he uses a soft hand with Vinicius 80 percent of the time and a firm hand 20 percent of the time, and he insisted that Diomande can play on both wings.
When does Vinicius Junior return from suspension?
Vinicius serves the final match of his four match domestic ban at Valencia on Saturday 7 November, and his possible return date is 21 November against Celta Vigo after the November international break.
Who has taken the left wing place while Vinicius Junior was suspended?
Yan Diomande, the 19 year old summer signing from RB Leipzig, has taken the left wing place. Diomande has four goals and four assists in 15 appearances for Real Madrid this season, including three goals and one assist in his last four league outings, and Mourinho has him down to start off the left at Valencia.
