Las Palmas 1-1 Real Madrid: Three talking points | OneFootball

Real Madrid faced Las Palmas away from home last night in their third league encounter of the season, but they came back with their second draw.

Los Blancos have already dropped four out of possible nine points early in the campaign and sit in fifth place on the standings, four points behind leaders Barcelona.

Alberto Moleiro opened the scoring for Luis Miguel Carrion’s side at Gran Canaria in just the fifth minute of play, pushing the visitors against the wall and taking the lead.

After toiling hard for over an hour, Real Madrid won a penalty in the 67th minute that Vinicius Jr. skilfully converted to equalise the score.

Neither team had it in them to push for and score a winner.

We look at the three talking points about the team’s underwhelming result against Las Palmas.

A worrying start to the season

Real Madrid have been under pressure in La Liga from day one as the defending champions. After all, their campaign last season was close to flawless as they lost only one game in the competition.

Their start to the new campaign, however, has been anything but stellar, and they already stare at a large deficit just three games into the season.

Real Madrid’s title defense already got off to a poor start when they drew against Mallorca on Matchday 1. A win over Real Valladolid promised to set things right, but matters went awry again last night.

The poor result against Las Palmas was not for a lack of chances, for Real Madrid created an xG of 2.81 over the 90 minutes. In that duration, they enjoyed five big chances and recorded 25 shots on the night.

To not score despite such opportunities created in the final third is borderline criminal, and Carlo Ancelotti has to make big fixes soon.

Mbappe disappoints once again

(Photo by CESAR MANSO/AFP via Getty Images)

After scoring his opening goal for the club against Atalanta, Kylian Mbappe has struggled to hit the ground running for Real Madrid.

The French forward has started all three of the team’s games in La Liga so far, and it is safe to say that his performance has been on a steady decline.

What initially appeared to be sizzling chemistry between Mbappe and Vinicius Jr in the UEFA Super Cup has not been recreated in the matches that followed. Last night, once more, Mbappe and Vinicius appeared completely out of sync.

In 90 minutes against the Canary Island-based side, Mbappe recorded two shots on target, two shots off target, and had five shots blocked. None of his strikes, however, were good enough to beat Jasper Cillessen.

With just 17 passes completed in ninety minutes, it is clear that Mbappe’s role was to stay in the box and look for the lethal finish. That, however, was exactly what he lacked.

The pressure is mounting on the new signing, and an improvement is necessary, be it from the player’s side or the manager’s tactical plan.

Where is the Real Madrid spirit?

Real Madrid’s sensational run last season was not without the team’s usual set of off days. As with any other side, the men in white often dished out performances far from their best, but there was a stark difference.

Even when uninspired, fatigued, or just enduring an off-day, Real Madrid have always been ones to conjure out a win. Be it individual brilliance or a sudden spark of teamwork, something was inspiring about the team’s mentality.

It was that very mental fortitude that helped them tide over the lowest of lows across competitions and even aided them time and time again in the UEFA Champions League.

That belief, spirit, and determination have been missing so far this season, and last night was more of the same.

Los Blancos were sloppy with their distribution, had holes in defence, were lazy on the field especially off the ball, and wasteful in front of goal.

Even when the hosts went 1-0 up, they did not appear as motivated as usual to strike back and earn all three points.

The mental relaxation, needless to say, is not what Carlo Ancelotti expects from his side.

The Real Madrid spirit is the essence of the team’s success over the years, and the manager must light it up once more if the side are to improve.