Vinicius's gift and his golden replacement: has Real Madrid become a new team before the Clasico?

Real Madrid did their homework before the Clasico, and it showed at the sharp end of the pitch. Their last three outings in La Liga and the Champions League told the story.

Twelve goals in three games. Four against Roma, four more against Leipzig in the Champions League, then another four past Sevilla in La Liga.

That weeklong blitz topped everything Los Blancos had managed across their previous six matches, when they mustered just 11 goals, fewer than two per game.

Here's the surprise: 9 of those 12 goals Real Madrid scored across the last three matches arrived without Brazilian star Vinicius Junior on the pitch.

The capital club netted three times against Roma after Vinicius went off, then repeated the trick with two against Leipzig. Throw in the four they put past Sevilla, a game the Brazilian sat out through suspension, and the pattern is hard to ignore.

Stranger still, Real Madrid have won 10 of the 11 La Liga matches played without their Brazilian star over the last three years. Just one defeat.

Vinicius will again be missing for the upcoming Clasico against Barcelona. Given his dip in form, that absence could prove a good omen for Jose Mourinho's side.

Ivorian winger Yan Diomande, meanwhile, is enjoying his best spell since arriving at Real Madrid from Leipzig last summer.

Over his last 4 matches, he has had a hand in 6 goals for the Royal side, scoring 3 and setting up 3 more.

Five of those six goals came from the left wing, the position he is expected to take up in the upcoming Clasico.

What sets Diomande apart from Vinicius is not skill, nor even speed. It is the ease of his decision-making, never agonising over more than one option between dribbling, passing and shooting the way the Brazilian does.

That quality shows clearly in the goals he has created of late. These were not magical passes, just simple ones that fit the flow of play.

That attacking excellence, which emerged specifically without Vinicius Junior, does not paper over the defensive crisis gripping Real Madrid, Brazilian or no Brazilian.

Real Madrid have scored 12 goals in their last three matches. They have also conceded in every single one of them.

Five goals have gone past the Royal club in that spell, three of them in Rome, plus one each from Sevilla and Leipzig. That is close to two a game. An alarmingly high rate.

Given the firepower Barcelona can call upon, this defensive crisis could be the very thing that loses Real Madrid the Clasico. It could undo every attacking solution they have found.