TA: Real Madrid coaching staff believes team is more compact and organized without Vinicius

Real Madrid secured one of their most complete performances of the season with a dominant 4-1 victory over Sevilla at the Bernabéu on Sunday evening, a match in which Vinicius Júnior was absent due to suspension, according to The Athletic.

Mbappé scored twice in a performance reminiscent of his best form for France at the World Cup. Güler orchestrated play in midfield and opened the scoring for Real Madrid with a world-class goal. Diomandé sealed the scoreline in the 82nd minute with a thunderous strike.

The 26-year-old Vinicius was sent off for pulling Saliba's hair in last weekend's home win against Villarreal and received a four-match La Liga ban. The Sevilla match was the first he would miss, and he will also be unavailable for Sunday's away game against Barcelona.

A single game without Vinicius is too small a sample size to conclude that Real Madrid are currently better without him. But Sunday's victory did offer a glimpse of what the team might look like if he were to transfer to Arsenal this summer, and it brought the ongoing debate surrounding his position into sharper focus.

The questions surrounding Vinicius are not new. Since being ranked second only to Rodri in the 2024 Ballon d'Or – months after Mbappé's arrival – he has struggled to maintain the extremely high level that helped him and Real Madrid win the Champions League in 2022 and 2024, scoring in both finals.

His conflict with Xabi Alonso after being substituted in the first Clásico of last season did not improve his situation, and with Real Madrid now having gone two seasons without a trophy, there is a strong feeling that he and Mbappé still struggle to link up effectively.

Since Carlo Ancelotti was sacked in January and Álvaro Arbeloa took over, the Bernabéu home crowd has often booed and whistled, with Vinicius frequently being the target of fan dissatisfaction.

The Bernabéu fans also played a role in the match against Sevilla. Supporters unfurled a banner that read: "This is not football, this is Tebas and Negreira." This was a response to La Liga president Javier Tebas's social media comments on Friday, where he compared Real Madrid's communication strategy to that of Nazi Germany's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels.

Mbappé was booed after his first shot went wide, and Güler was also booed for being too slow to release the ball to Diomandé.

Diomandé replaced Vinicius on the left wing, and there was a certain degree of uncertainty in the air. The 19-year-old joined this summer from RB Leipzig for a potential club-record fee of 140 million euros (£111.7 million), but had a somewhat slow start. When he sent an inaccurate cross into the box before the half-hour mark, a collective sigh went through the stands.

Diomandé kept demanding the ball. In the next attack, he received the ball on the wing and passed it to Güler, who opened the scoring with a beautiful shot. The goal was not without controversy. Güler appeared to elbow Sevilla's Gerard Fernández during the play, prompting protests from the visiting team. But it was a stunning shot, offering a glimpse of Real Madrid's new attacking potential.

For a long time, Real Madrid's most reliable attacking threat came from Vinicius's runs down the left wing. At times, he was portrayed as the only answer to Ancelotti's system. With the Brazilian struggling for form and the persistent difficulty of operating in the same dangerous areas as Mbappé, there was a feeling that Real Madrid lost balance and were sometimes too easily defended against.

Against Sevilla, Mbappé seemed to have greater freedom to move across the front line, with teammates no longer occupying the same positions repeatedly, and Diomandé on the left and Endrick on the right. Güler's contribution in central midfield was particularly noteworthy. He made Real Madrid's play more fluid, knowing when to slow down the pace and when to accelerate. This has often been missing from Real Madrid since Toni Kroos's retirement in 2024. A key decision was moving Federico Valverde from midfield to right-back to make space for the 21-year-old Turkish international.

Members of Real Madrid's coaching staff, speaking anonymously (as they are not authorized to comment publicly), felt the team looked more compact and organized. They also agreed with the assessment that Mbappé had more freedom.

The Frenchman's earlier boos were quickly forgotten with his spectacular goal that made it 2-0. After a clever flick from Jude Bellingham, the 27-year-old Mbappé showed exquisite control, turning away from defenders with silky footwork and calmly finishing. In the second half, he won a penalty and converted it with a Panenka.

Mbappé celebrates after scoring a penalty against Sevilla (Oscar Del Pozo/AFP via Getty Images)

Real Madrid were in full flow. Even a brief lapse – Mbappé losing the ball in his own half, allowing Manu Bueno to pull a goal back to make it 3-1 – didn't change the atmosphere in the stadium.

Fans rose to applaud Endrick, and especially Bellingham when he was substituted in the 69th minute. But Diomandé's fourth goal most clearly indicated that something significant had shifted.

As Diomandé bore down on the Sevilla goal, he could have squared the ball to Marc Cucurella, who was making more frequent runs into the box on the left. He could have passed to Mbappé, giving him a chance to complete his hat-trick. But he chose to back himself, shooting into the top corner, becoming the first player under 20 in Real Madrid's history to score and assist in a La Liga match this century.

Indeed, this wasn't solely about Vinicius making way, and that debate may continue for some time, but on Sunday, the mood inside the Bernabéu finally eased, and fans seemed more comfortable with the team's performance.

Vinicius will again be absent for Sunday's match against defending champions Barcelona, but manager Carlo Ancelotti stated he would start in Wednesday's Champions League game against RB Leipzig. The manager has publicly defended him against criticism multiple times this season.

"He's a fantastic lad, and it's very easy to build a good relationship with him," Ancelotti said about Vinicius at Saturday's pre-match press conference.

"There isn't a day that I don't spend some individual time with him. I like him very much; he's a great lad. I give him huge credit for sticking with life, surviving, and keeping that smile. I value that greatly. If I were in his position, I probably wouldn't be here.

"Last summer, I might have forced a move to a competition, country, and group of opponents where I felt respected. But out of love for the club and the city, he renewed his contract and continued with that smile. For him, there's no better place."

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