REAL MADRID
Lopetegui hasn't bent to the wishes of Pérez over Vinicius
Florentino Perez wanted Julen Lopetegui to play Vinicius more in the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo but he has only played 12 minutes for Real Madrid.
Julen Lopetegui's sentence may have already been handed down even if produces evidence on Sunday that he can turned it around. The whistles at the Bernabeu on Tuesday despite the victory over Plzen might be the finishing touch after a string of poor results and performances. One thing that must be noted, however, is that Lopetegui has stuck to his convictions regardless of the wishes of Florentino Perez. Especially when it comes to Vinicius. In the absence of Galactico signings, Perez was keen to see more of the Brazilian to start the season given his excellent for during the summer tour of the United States.
But Lopetegui had a different opinion. In fact, he didn't see the young Brazilian as being ready for the big time yet. Upon hearing the news that Lopetegui didn't see him up to speed, Vinicius volunteered to play for Castilla, in Segunda B, instead of leaving for another team where he might have to play 30+ games or even leave the country like Mayoral and Carvajal, who went to play in Germany. The Basque manager is sticking to his initial assessment.
Vinicius is currently in the middle of a very atypical season. With Madrid, he has just played 12 minutes in two games, against Atlético and Alavés, but he has been called up to the squad for a number of games including the Super Cup against Atlético, in the league against Getafe and Sevilla and in the Champions League against CSKA. On the other side of things, he has played 343 minutes for Castilla and in the last game he was sent off, which means he misses the Clásico. Lopetegui only called on Vinicius in the drawn Madrid derby recently and he came on to shake things up with Lucas Vazquez and more experienced players on the bench. There were even some heavyweights in the dressing room who reproached the manager for the decision. But Lopetegui is sticking to his guns for better or worse on when he think the 18-year-old can and can't be used.
