Cucurella hands Vinicius a blank cheque
When he joined Real Madrid, left-back Marc Cucurella volunteered to shoulder the defensive burden for Vinicius Junior. Opponents are now exploiting that imbalance, forcing him to defend a flank on which he has also lost his attacking influence.
The trouble with volunteering to do the "dirty work" is the risk of suffering the consequences of the chaos it creates. Not long after arriving, Cucurella handed Vinicius something like a "blank cheque", according to the Catalan newspaper "Sport".
Cucurella spelt it out after joining the club: "I don't mind if he doesn't come back to help defensively. I'll take on doing everything he doesn't want to do. And as long as he is decisive and has enough energy to score goals, I'll shoulder the burden of the hard tasks." Time soon exposed the flaw in that promise.
It looked like a gesture of camaraderie. The reality on the pitch told a different story. There is a vast difference between covering for Vinicius, who enjoys freedom to roam, and defending an entire flank alone with all the tactical risk that carries.
His start in the full-back position was far from ideal. Carreras occupied the same role last season and ran into the same problems, particularly during the Madrid derby, where the space between the full-back and Huijsen again opened up as a glaring defensive gap for Real Madrid.
In La Liga, Real Betis found gaps through the runs of Antony and Bellerin down the right. Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone went further still, building his derby plan around attacking Real Madrid's left. Pubill, Marcos Llorente, Kang-in Lee and Giuliano positioned themselves at varying depths to hand Cucurella an impossible choice: press the ball carrier and another player would burst into the space behind him, or hold his position and let Atletico advance through the middle.
Vinicius did not return to the pitch with the intensity and focus required. His coach Jose Mourinho reprimanded him after he lost the ball several times at the Metropolitano.
Cucurella was left in a quandary: press the man on the ball, or track the runner heading into the empty space.
Valverde and Tchouameni both had to shift their positioning to make up the numbers, which in turn left other areas exposed. Cucurella finished the derby with 14 defensive interventions, more than any other player managed.
That figure does not cancel out his errors, but it helps explain the many difficult situations he was forced to deal with. The full-back is often the one under the microscope when something breaks down, even though the problem usually starts a few metres further up the pitch.
Under Mourinho, Vinicius has upped his rate of defensive interventions and ball recoveries in the opponent's half. The difficulty comes when the opposition beat that first press. The Brazilian pours effort into the front lines but does not always track back to cover the runners surging forward.
That sacrifice has also blurred the very qualities Real Madrid signed him for. Cucurella has yet to provide a single decisive pass in La Liga, and he now measures his steps carefully when he pushes forward, knowing that a lost ball could send him sprinting vast distances to recover his defensive position.
He does not hit his best levels pinned alongside the centre-backs. He thrives when he can drift down the flanks, break from deep and reach the final third.
That is how Cucurella shone with Spain at the Tournament. Vinicius, by contrast, spent years in a system built to give him freedom: Ferland Mendy anchored the defence, Toni Kroos secured the left, and Benzema dropped in to link play with him. Cucurella carries a greater attacking instinct than the Frenchman, yet he is asked to play a similar role without the same safety net.
The full-back pledged to take on the tasks Vinicius wants no part of, so the Brazilian could reach the box with full energy and leave a decisive mark.
It was a "sin" much like the one former coach Alvaro Arbeloa once committed, when he claimed he would spare Mbappe and his attacking partner the trouble of "running" more than they should.
Here lies the problem. While he waits for that decisive version of Vinicius to arrive, Cucurella sacrifices part of his own game and takes on jobs that are not really his. He volunteered for the "dirty work" and ended up carrying its consequences.