Sometimes, less is more.
Perhaps someone should’ve mentioned this to Florentino Perez this summer before he pulled out all of the stops to finally bring Kylian Mbappe to the Santiago Bernabeu.
The 77-year-old Real Madrid president had been obsessed with the explosive forward for close to a decade. It always felt like a matter of when and not if Mbappe would swap the capital of France for the capital of Spain. It likely would’ve happened sooner had Paris Saint-Germain not essentially given the 25-year-old the keys to their club in a bid to extend his stay there.
All this did, however, was prolong the inevitable.
Mbappe was always destined for Real Madrid.
The fact the reigning European champions didn’t need the superstar striker was irrelevant.
Carlo Ancelotti had figured out a way to get the best out of the likes of Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham. The fact they didn’t have a recognised, senior out-and-out striker didn’t matter. Madrid won the Champions League and La Liga last term. In fact, they coasted to victory in the league, finishing 10 points clear at the summit.
They could’ve bolstered their squad this summer. They needed a new number nine. You could make an argument for a new right-back, maybe a new centre-back and perhaps someone to fill the void left by Toni Kroos’ retirement. What they didn’t need, though, was an Mbappe.
Vinicius Junior has been one of the best players in the world over the past 12 months and the arrival of Mbappe was always going to have an impact on him and his performances. That was the fear. And that fear has been realised in the early stages of the 2024/25 campaign.
Madrid find themselves trailing Barcelona in La Liga having dropped points against the likes of Mallorca and Las Palmas, and they’ve had a sketchy start to life in the Champions League. Lille defeated them on Matchday Two while Borussia Dortmund had a 2-0 lead over Ancelotti’s men before Los Blancos turned it around in the second half with five unanswered goals. The star of the show on Tuesday evening was Vinicius Junior.
The Brazil forward netted a hat-trick. He finished the game having taken seven shots and attempting 12 dribbles. He also carved out two chances. By comparison, Mbappe had to settle for just one assist.
When the Madrid No7 is on form, the team are just better. So it makes it even more bizarre when you realise how accommodating the 24-year-old has been since the arrival of the new Madrid No9.
He’s having fewer shots on a per 90 basis and his shot accuracy has tanked from 49% last season to 18.5% this time around. His Real Madrid average prior to this campaign was 45%. His Non-Penalty Expected Goals average is now 0.2, down from 0.59 during the successful 2023/24 campaign, per FotMob.
The former Flamengo starlet has had to adapt his game to make way for the arrival of Mbappe. The Frenchman, however, hasn’t gone out of his way to fit into the Real Madrid system.
He’s having a similar number of shots as last season (4.88 to 4.65) and his Non-Penalty xG is almost identical (0.57 to 0.6). He is, however, attempting fewer passes and he’s less involved in general play. But in the final third, it is the same old Mbappe.
This might be okay if he was firing but he’s actually underperforming as a goalscorer. He has just three non-penalty goals to his name from a Non-Penalty xG haul of 4.8. So, he’s wasting chances while impacting the involvement of other attackers.
He’s not a huge problem but he could soon well be.
Because it isn’t just Vinicius Junior who has had to adapt to life alongside the 86-cap international.
The impact on Jude Bellingham
Bellingham is goalless this term and is being heavily criticised by the Spanish media. Ancelotti recently had to defend the main man for England, saying: “We're satisfied with his work, I'm very satisfied. He works a lot, he's always present, he competes, he fights, he sacrifices himself.
"It's true he hasn't scored the goals he scored last year, but the surprise isn't this year, the surprise was last year, when he scored lots of goals which nobody expected and helped us a lot.
"The problem this year isn't that we're lacking Bellingham's goals. We've always scored goals, and we'll always score, because we have talented players up front. For us, in this moment, the work he's doing is more important than the goals the scored last year."
Bellingham has seen his shot average drop to 1.5 per 90, down from 2.4. His Non-Penalty Expected Goals average in La Liga last term was 0.4 Right now, it is just 0.07. He is a non-entity in the final third this season. What was a huge strength is now being limited. The same goes for Rodrygo. The Brazilian winger has seen a reduction in shots (down to 1.8 from 3.2) and his threat in open play has taken a hit. His NPxG last season was 0.44 and it is currently just 0.14.
The numbers for all of the Madrid attackers, with the exception of Mbappe, have taken a hit this term and that cannot be a coincidence.
Ancelotti’s side don’t look anywhere near as dangerous. Obviously, here are teething issues and this could well improve. For now though, it appears Madrid have nullified the rest of their attackers to accommodate Mbappe. And that just doesn’t appear to be sustainable. It was completely unnecessary.
