Vinicius's collapse leaves Real Madrid and Mourinho facing a difficult dilemma

The Portuguese coach defended Vinicius at the press conference and played down the Brazilian's anger at being hauled off. Mourinho knows better. This is not an easy situation.

Within the dressing room, Vinicius is a difficult player to leave out. His current level tells a different story, though, and on that evidence he ought to be behind a handful of others. It even begs the question of whether some of the squad's forgotten men now deserve to be ahead of him.

Results have kept coming, so Mourinho can afford to keep Vinicius on the pitch. The moment the Portuguese sensed his side might suffer further damage, though, one of his first calls was to cut the player loose.

He left him on the bench against Villarreal, a game Real Madrid had to win after the shock of the derby defeat and the criticism that followed.

Then came Roma. Vinicius made a mistake and became the first player off, with Madrid needing to claw back the scoreline.

Vinicius has turned into a player who shackles his team and weighs it down the moment he steps on the pitch. Mourinho admitted as much in his press conference, explaining that Gasperini tore Real Madrid's defence apart down that flank by pressing Cucurella, who got no help whatsoever from the man ahead of him.

Switching Vinicius and Diomande on the flanks was the Portuguese coach's attempt to stem the bleeding. When things got worse, he simply hauled the Brazilian off.

Defensively, Vinicius barely exists. His current coach knew that long before kick-off.

No coincidence, then, that Mourinho targeted the same weakness when Real Madrid met Benfica last season. On taking the Spanish job, he made it clear the days of Jude Bellingham defending like an auxiliary left-back were finished.

Kylian Mbappe's situation is not far off, with one crucial difference: the Frenchman still delivers in attack at a level the Brazilian cannot even dream of right now.

Going forward, Vinicius isn't scoring, isn't creating and isn't unsettling anybody. Nothing is left of the player who stunned the world a few years ago.

Then there's the punishment handed to him for pulling an opponent's hair, which will keep him out of several league fixtures.

That might suit Mourinho. It hands him licence to be bold with his selections rather than shoehorning Real Madrid's number 7 into the side come what may.

Two Champions League nights, against Leipzig and AEK Athens next month, are all the Brazilian winger has left to rediscover his level and get back on track.

Vinicius is going through a difficult period off the pitch, and that may well be affecting his level, as can happen to anyone in this life.

But the player's problem lies in the fact that Real Madrid and their fans wait for no one. The Santiago Bernabeu crowd have got on the Brazilian's back on several occasions, and he has admitted himself that it doesn't help him.

For the club, though, this runs deeper than supporters grumbling about the dip in form of one of their leading stars. This is a structural dilemma.

Everyone still remembers the clash with Xabi Alonso. Real Madrid's board sided with the player, and in practice that meant sacrificing the coach.

Madrid have handed Vinicius influence that doesn't appear to match what he delivers on the pitch, and the summer contract renewal only confirms it.

His deal with the Spanish giants runs until 2032, by which point he will be about to turn 32. That's six more seasons for a player on one of the biggest contracts at the club, even as his market value keeps sliding.

Since 2024 that value has fallen by 70 million euros. He isn't gelling with the rest of the team's stars either.

On top of all that, Vinicius has become a factor restricting Mourinho's tactical options. The coach looks nothing like his usual self, as if he fears being forced to confront the problem head on.