A former Arsenal striker, Thierry Henry has heavily criticised Vinícius Júnior following Real Madrid’s narrow 1-0 loss to Liverpool in Tuesday night’s Champions League encounter.
New Telegraph reports that Liverpool secured all three points at Anfield with Alexis Mac Allister’s 61st-minute strike, handing Real Madrid their first Champions League loss of the season.
It was also the first time this season that Madrid had failed to score, with neither Vinicius Jr. nor Kylian Mbappe registering a shot on target.
Henry was particularly unhappy with how Vinicius Jr. handled his one-on-one battles, especially early in the match.
“I do not understand it. You have to play with what’s in front of you, you have to play the moment,” Henry told CBS Sports.
“You have an opportunity at the beginning, for example, Vinicius Jr had Conor Bradley for the first five to seven minutes, and then he let him breathe. Why do you let him breathe? Have a go until he gets a yellow card and then he can’t defend in the same way, but that didn’t happen.”
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Henry cited a specific sequence to illustrate his point: “When we watched the game, Vinicius Jr received the ball in a one-on-one after a good battle in the first five minutes against Conor Bradley, and he passed it back to his left-back to receive it back… and now it was a one-vs-three.
”He concluded by questioning the logic behind creating a harder situation for himself.
“Then he attacked alone against the three of them, and I thought, wait, do the math. You had a one-on-one; try to see what you can do with that. Why do you move the ball back so it comes back to you and you can play a one-vs-three? I just don’t get it at times.”
Meanwhile, Liverpool has now won consecutive games, including keeping two clean sheets, after a run of four league defeats.
