It is exactly as you said, there is no Ronaldo to carry the team, their defense has been horrible since ever (at least past 10 years that I've been watching football), but they always had an unstoppable attack scoring 4 goals when needed.

I didn't know about those stats of Vinicius Junior, 3 goals are just not enough, not even from a player that jumps off the bench. My father is a supporter of Asensio and he has probably more goals of the bench than Vinicius. And I wonder why Bale and Asensio are not on the starting 11, I don´t think it is because of training.