![\"Are](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/real-madrid-forward-kylian-mbappe-1778086085-196350.jpg\" "\\"Are")
<\/p>\nLos Blancos problems\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n \u00a9IMAGO\n <\/p>\n
Real Madrid\u2019s<\/a> season hasn\u2019t exactly gone to plan. Alongside an early exit in the Spanish Cup<\/a> third round and defeat to Bayern Munich<\/a> in the quarter-finals of the Champions League<\/a>, the Spanish giants could also cede the LaLiga<\/a> title to Barcelona<\/a> if they aren\u2019t able to beat their historic rivals in El Cl\u00e1sico on Sunday. Everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong for Los Blancos in the past few months. And it seems as though the trouble is only getting started.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to The Athletic, star striker Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/a> was involved in a training ground spat with members of the coaching staff ahead of a recent league clash with Real Betis. The publication claims that several people at the club were critical of Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s behaviour, which was then followed by the Frenchman being spotted taking a break in Italy with his partner. This then led to interim head coach Alvaro Arbeloa needing to respond to questions from the media about fan frustration over Mbapp\u00e9 jetting off on a break during a difficult period of the season.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIn their free time, each player does what they see fit, and I don\u2019t get involved in that,\u201d said the Madrid coach. \u201cAll planning regarding injured players is supervised and managed by Madrid\u2019s medical staff, who are the ones who decide when they need to go to Valdebebas (the club\u2019s training centre) and when they don\u2019t.\u201d Fans will now wait to see whether the club\u2019s star striker will be back and ready to play in Sunday\u2019s all-important clash with Barca. But there may also be some growing concerns over the team\u2019s overall performance this season, with Mbapp\u00e9 leading the line.<\/p>\n \nHave Real Madrid been better without Mbapp\u00e9?<\/p>\n Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s persistent injuries have led to the player missing 10 games across all competitions in 2026 and 11 in total across the entire season. That, in turn, has given Madrid fans enough opportunities to watch their team without the world\u2019s most valuable player. And while 11 games is by no means a huge sample size, it does give an indication of whether Madrid have been better or worse with Mbapp\u00e9 in the starting XI this season.<\/p>\n As we can see in the table above, Madrid have actually averaged more points per game without their French talent than with him in all competitions this season. If we equate every game won or drawn in cup competitions as three and one point respectively, the numbers state that Madrid have averaged 2.10 points per game with Mbapp\u00e9 but 2.18 without him. Curiously, the same can be said of Madrid\u2019s attacking output, with the Spanish giants actually averaging 2.45 goals per game with Mbapp\u00e9 out of the team and just 2.05 with him in it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Player Comparison<\/p>\n \u20ac200.00m<\/p>\n Market Value<\/p>\n \u20ac150.00m<\/p>\n Centre-Forward<\/p>\n Position<\/p>\n Left Winger<\/p>\n 30\/06\/2029<\/p>\n Contract until<\/p>\n 30\/06\/2027<\/p>\n \n Full Player Comparison\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n This, perhaps, will come as no great surprise to Madrid fans. Despite leading the club\u2019s goalscoring charts this season, Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s role in the team has often overlapped with Vinicius Jr\u2019s<\/a>. While Jude Bellingham<\/a>, the club\u2019s industrious attacking midfielder with 30 goals and assists last season in all competitions, has been forced to curtail his dribbles and runs into the box to accommodate Madrid\u2019s No.9. As such, Mbapp\u00e9 has been shoe-horned into Madrid\u2019s team to varying degrees of success, as opposed to the team being built around him to get the best results.<\/p>\n This, undoubtedly, explains why Madrid have failed to win any titles this season. But it may grow into a far bigger issue than just a one-season hiccup in domestic and continental competitions. Whether it be training-ground arguments or tactical puzzles, Mbapp\u00e9 and Madrid clearly aren\u2019t in sync. And whoever is tasked with replacing Arbeloa next season will have to fix that before they can even begin to get Madrid back on track in LaLiga or the Champions League.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Blancos problems\u00a0 \u00a9IMAGO Real Madrid\u2019s season hasn\u2019t exactly gone to plan. Alongside an early exit in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1055,266,3204,223,91,557,85,82,83,1236,2420],"class_list":{"0":"post-18271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-madrid","8":"tag-alvaro-arbeloa","9":"tag-bayern-munich","10":"tag-copa-del-rey","11":"tag-fc-barcelona","12":"tag-jude-bellingham","13":"tag-kylian-mbappe","14":"tag-laliga","15":"tag-madrid","16":"tag-real-madrid","17":"tag-uefa-champions-league","18":"tag-vinicius-junior"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"With](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/with-and-without-mbappe-1778086148-196351.png\" "\\"With")
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