Not often do we get to witness a player prove almost the entire Footballing nation wrong in the space of like 3 years to become undoubtedly the best player within his position currently. The man who we will be discussing today is a player that many considered a waste of money, a showboat type of player, and someone who doesn’t have the end product to become a superstar. Fast forward to a champions league winning goal, a mainstay within his national team, and now the best player within his league, it’s safe to say that Vinícius Júnior has stepped up to the plate and is now on the verge of challenging the Mbappe Haaland race for the next G.O.A.T for the next 10 to 15 years or so, and ooouuuuu am I pumped to see how everything turns out! But for now, let’s discuss how to get the best out of Vini within SMW!
PLAYER BIO
For anyone who hasn’t been paying that much attention, Vinícius has truly come leaps and bounds over the short 3 year spell, as he’s gone from being a player with potential to someone who is an absolute world beater. It isn’t that often we see someone makes such staggering progression, but it just goes to show that Real Madrid tend to get most of their wonder kids right. Here, we can see that amazing progression since 2020…
BEST ATTRIBUTES WITHIN SM23
As a ‘Wide Forward’ Vinícius has some of the best Attributes within the entire game which makes him a seriously dangerous threat. So, if you have him within your team, don’t be surprised that he is putting up some amazing goals and assist numbers
BEST ROLES
He is without shadow of doubt the most valuable wide player within world Football today, and has the highest ceiling of any ‘Wide Forward’ currently playing the game Vini is of course Brazilian which means that “Samba” style of football comes naturally to him, and he tends to display his dribbling prowess on a weekly basis. Leaving opposition Fullbacks for dead in the midst of doing it When playing in narrower formations, Vini will still operate like a ‘Wide Forward’ so long as you have the right players around himVini has been actively working on his ‘Finishing’ ability since it was one of the traits within his game that many considered the area that he struggles with the most. Therefore, I do not advise playing him alone up front, instead, one should pair him with another F(C) of a particular type There is a uniqueness in Vini’s style that makes him even more effective within a back 3 or 5 formation than most players of his elk, and we will explain what this is shortly…
HOW TO BEST USE HIM
Rashford, Gnabry, Leao, Sterling, Son, and even Mbappe… I personally believe that Vini trumps them all (well, despite Mbappe) when playing in his best position which is on the left in a front 3
WHO ARE THE BEST TEAMATES?
The beauty about Wide Forwards is that they do not need a host of different players around them to be at their best, with the keys being a ‘Wingback ‘who will provide the width on his side, and a Playmaker who will be providing him with most of the chances that Vini thrives onAs you already know by now, in order to get your ‘Wide Forward’ playing like a ‘Winger’, it will require that you play a ‘Fullback’ behind him so that Vini can keep the width out wide, with the other key teammates remaining the same In narrower formations, Vini seeks to get into more goal scoring opportunities via finding pockets of space where he can collect the ball and use his world class dribbling to run at defenders from his more central positionVini is the type of Forward that likes to showcase his ball mastery via dribbling, and since this is something that will be difficult for him to do playing as a F(C), I suggest you play him upfront with a strike partner, preferably a ‘Target Man’When playing Vini in a back 3 formation, I believe his ability to isolate himself against a defender will be one of your greatest advantage points within a match, so there should be a D(C) within your formation that has good range of passing (particularly that crossfield diagonal ball) which will cause a lot of problems for the opposition. Of course, the other players within the formation will remain the same
I must say that Vinícius Júnior continues to prove all of his doubters wrong, and with Karim Benzema now in Saudi Arabia and Neymar potentially retiring from international duty, he can truly stamp his authority on becoming the best player in the world for the next 5- 10 years indeed.
With all these rating increases, it has gotten me so stoked to continue this season and we’ll be taking a look at one of the best ‘big game players’ that we’ve seen over the last 3 years as well as being a treble winning captain! 😉 🇩🇪
The Soccermanager Experience 