Did Kylian Mbappe’s absence spark Real Madrid’s best display of the season? | OneFootball

Real Madrid produced their best performance of the season in their 3-0 victory over Manchester City. Was it a coincidence that Kylian Mbappe was watching from the stands?

When Xabi Alonso took over last season, he raved about Federico Valverde, comparing him to his old midfield partner Steven Gerrard.

“I haven’t seen many players with his physical performance,” Alonso told reporters at the Club World Cup.

“I’m very happy to be coaching him. Every manager would like a Valverde on the team.”

You wouldn’t have known that from their uneasy relationship as Madrid toiled in the first half of the season. Valverde didn’t have an obvious place in Alonso’s set-up. He made his displeasure at filling in at right-back clear.

But you could certainly see something of Gerrard in the Uruguayan’s performance against City. All action. Cropping up everywhere. Olympiacos, Istanbul, all the good stuff.

Working diligently to make sure Trent Alexander-Arnold wasn’t left exposed up against Jeremy Doku. Just as important and impressive as being the talisman in the final third with an inspired hat-trick. As Alonso had said, a manager’s dream, with a rare 10/10 from L’Equipe.

Valverde’s display was also reminiscent of Jude Bellingham in his debut season at the Bernabeu. Time and again, the England international would crop up in dangerous areas.

Bellingham scored 23 goals in all competitions, including injury-time winners home and away against Barcelona, as Madrid won a La Liga and Champions League double.

Then Mbappe showed up.

Madrid scored 87 La Liga goals when they won the title in 2023-24. They scored nine fewer in Mbappe’s debut season.

Barcelona pipped Madrid to all three domestic trophies, scoring eight goals in a stylish league double and beating them in two cup finals.

Mbappe played a prominent role in all four defeats to Barca. He also played almost every minute when Los Blancos were soundly beaten 5-1 over two legs by Arsenal in the Champions League quarter-finals.

While Los Blancos scored fewer goals as a team, Florentino Perez’s latest shiny Galactico did at least claim his first-ever European Golden Shoe with 31 league goals. More than he ever managed in Ligue 1.

He’s on track to better that tally in year two. He boasts an exceptional tally of 38 goals from 33 appearances in all competitions this season. Numbers his idol Cristiano Ronaldo would’ve been proud of in his record-breaking pomp.

Goals are not the problem with Mbappe. They never have been and likely never will be. But Madrid aren’t scoring more collectively with him. They aren’t winning more games. They certainly don’t look like winning more trophies. Is he the problem?

Following Mbappe’s arrival, we saw a lot fewer match-winning interventions from Bellingham. Valverde cut an awkward figure while Alonso tinkered to find a functional system that worked around Madrid’s biggest star. Vinicius Junior, too, has looked a shadow of the player that came so close to winning the Ballon d’Or.

It would be ridiculous to suggest that Madrid’s problems begin and end with Mbappe. For one, Madrid didn’t have a challenger anywhere near as formidable as Hansi Flick’s Barcelona back in 2023-24.

Toni Kroos retired. Luka Modric started to look his age before moving on to Milan. That’s an era-defining midfield gone. It took Barcelona years to move on from Xavi & Iniesta.

Madrid haven’t looked especially impressive with Mbappe sidelined of late. They were unconvincing against Benfica. Beaten deservedly at home to Getafe.

Mbappe defenders might point out that he himself scored a hat-trick at home in a comfortable victory over Manchester City in the early knockout stages last season.

Fair point. But the issue isn’t the goals. The goals can come from elsewhere. Be it from Valverde, Vinicius or whoever. Madrid, as ever, have world-class footballers in abundance.

The most striking thing was that Madrid looked a genuinely functional, organised team with a well-executed gameplan against City. Front to back, back to front.

Every player was working for one another. The gaps were squeezed. City struggled to create chances, mustering just 0.56xG at The Bernabeu.

How often has that been the case, against top-level opposition, with Mbappe in the line-up? How often was it the case at PSG? And what happened when he left?

In Luis Enrique’s one season working with Mbappe, he publicly berated the superstar forward for not working hard enough after scoring a hat-trick.

“Michael Jordan would grab his team-mates by the balls and defend like a madman,” the Spanish coach famously told Mbappe in a one-on-one meeting.

The PSG manager echoed that sentiment after Ousmane Dembele’s performance in the Champions League final.

“Everyone is talking about the Ballon d’Or, but I would give it to Ousmane Dembele just because if we think about how he defended today, he showed just what he was made of,” he said.

“He was a leader, he was humble, he got back down [the pitch] and he defended, and I think that without a shadow of a doubt he deserves this, not only for the goals that he scored but also for the pressing that was seen.

Dembele may have the Ballon d’Or, but few would argue he’s on Mbappe’s level. The consensus pick as the best footballer on the planet in the post Messi & Ronaldo era. In terms of his talent and goalscoring prowess, few compare.

And yet he’s still not lifted the Champions League trophy. He’s still awaiting a Ballon d’Or. To win those, he needs a team that works around him.

Therein lies the paradox of Mbappe’s career to date. Can you be a truly great individual if you can’t make a team great?

Has he been a repeated victim of flawed squadbuilding? Unlike Messi and Ronaldo before him, has there simply been a failure to build a platform for his out-of-this-world ability?

Or does he need to look within? Is he himself antithetical to a functional, elite-level team? Does he need to listen to Luis Enrique and take a leaf out of Dembele’s book?

Is he football’s greatest example of Bill Simmons’ Ewing Theory?

These questions will be answered in due course. It will be fascinating to watch how things unfold in Mbappe’s prime years.