14 goals in 24 appearances: Kylian Mbappe completes a good half-season with Real Madrid despite criticism and poor form | OneFootball

There were not a lot of additions to the Real Madrid squad in the last summer transfer window. Still, this window was important as the Merengues were finally able to land one of their most desired targets for the last few years, i.e., Kylian Mbappe.

Being one of the best players in the world, the Frenchman arrived at the Spanish capital with a lot of hopes and expectations. Meanwhile, there were also some concerns, the most reasonable being that he would have another world-class player to compete for his preferred position on the left wing, i.e., Vinicius Junior.

The French World Cup winner was able to mark his debut in the white shirt with a goal in the UEFA Super Cup. However, he was unable to score in his first three La Liga appearances and opened his scoring account only in the fourth game against Real Betis.

He then scored in the next three consecutive La Liga games as well, and scoring goals has not really been one of his problems this season, even though he has struggled to impress in this first half of the season.

With the match against Sevilla, which was one of his best performances in a Real Madrid shirt, the Frenchman has played almost one-half of the season in his new club, and it is an opportune time to assess his performance up to now.

In total, Mbappe has played 24 games for Real Madrid in this half-season, 16 in La Liga, 6 in the UEFA Champions League, and 1 in the UEFA Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup each.

He has scored in all of these competitions, scoring 10 goals in La Liga, 2 in UCL, and 1 in the UEFA Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup each. Furthermore, he also has 4 assists to his name, 2 in league, 1 in UCL, and 1 in the Intercontinental Cup.

In the league, Sofascore data shows that he is scoring with a frequency of a goal every 137 minutes and scores 0.6 goals in every match. However, he has also benefitted from a plethora of chances, as he takes 4.6 shots on average in a game, 2.3 of which land on target.

Rather uncharacteristically, he has also missed 14 big chances up to now and his goal conversion rate stands at only 14%. According to FBREF data, he lies in the 82nd percentile of players in non-penalty goals but in the 99th percentile of players in the total number of shots taken.

He has also been rather decent in the creation department, as he has created 5 big chances and gives 1.3 key passes on average in every game. He also has an 86% passing success rate, despite making most of his passes in the opposition half.

He lies in the 96th percentile of players in regard to progressive passes, progressive passes received, and pass completion.

Mbappe has also kept up his performances with the ball, as he wins 45% of his attempted dribbles and 43% of his duels. He is in the 96th percentile of players with the highest progressive carries, successful take-ons, and touches.

Thus, despite it being his first season in a new team and a new country, Mbappe has been far from bad in a Real Madrid shirt. His last few performances have been particularly encouraging, and hopefully, he will unleash his true self for the club of his dreams in the second half of this season.