Former Real Madrid boss Fabio Capello has been unimpressed by Kylian Mbappe’s first season in the Spanish capital.
Los Blancos finally completed a move to bring in the France captain last summer as he eventually joined on a free transfer after leaving PSG.
Following a delayed start to preseason, due to France’s run to the semi finals of UEFA Euro 2024, Mbappe joined up with his new teammates at the start of August.
The main debate over his place in Madrid focused on how Carlo Ancelotti would fit him and Vinicius Junior into the same starting line up.
Mbappe starred in a freer role on the left side of PSG’s attack in the same spot Vinicius had made his own in Madrid.
Ancelotti constantly batted away questions on the duo not being able to shine together with his ongoing plan being to start Mbappe centrally.
After some injury issues at the start of the campaign, Mbappe has started to catch fire, with Ancelotti delighted by his impact through the middle of Real Madrid’s attack.
As the campaign approaches the run-in, Mbappe is up to 28 goals scored in 41 games for Real Madrid in 2024/25, with Vinicius on 18 from 37.
However, Capello – who won two La Liga titles across two spells in Madrid – believes the pair are not clicking to a high level in 2025.
“Mbappe and Vinicius Jr play in the same position, they are stepping on each other and not performing well”, as per an interview with Flashscore.
“As individuals, they can do what others can’t in tight spaces, and do things nobody else thinks about, but that’s not the harmony of the team game.
“Real Madrid are a team of galacticos up front, with problems in the midfield after Toni Kroos left last summer, and they also have problems in defence with many injuries.”
Danny670
17
The issue is Vini has become more of a liability for the team. He loses possession too much and makes it difficult for Mendy to play around him. Vini should know by now that he's being targeted by opponents in most games i.e. they mark him in pairs so he can't dribble past them and they know he'll want to beat them rather than make a pass. If you watch most of our games, Mendy or Fran Garcia have always been available for him but he always chooses to take on the defenders which would've been a good thing if he was succeeding most of the time. As for Mbappe, he's not getting constant ball supply because we spend on average half of our time without the ball even against weaker oppositions. The gaps in midfield forces him to drop deeper to receive the ball and when he eventually does, he's always almost isolated and the only option is to try and dribble or pass backwards and so the momentum dies down. Ancelotti has failed to address this issue of too much space in the midfield and that's why teams like Barca, Atletico and Betis take advantage of that to beat us. Also we've lost our strength in transition.
olayinkaoyeb
14
Why most people are not complaining is because Madrid is still winning match even though it haven't been a well winning matches, this players are winning matches with individual effort not the real game plan, if you give a good coach this team, I am sure the front 3 will outscore any team in Europe. Cos the front 3 are very dangerous individually
Scoba2468
9
When I hear someone saying they ain’t working am like Mbappe scared 28 goals already Vin jr scared 18 goal’s already I won’t talk about the beast that got me scared always Rodrigo Bro am a Barca fan but I have to be sincere with you guys Barca ain’t ready for the second leg in laliga Guys pls don’t read this out loud—- we don’t pray to face Madrid in champions leagues final 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂the Galácticos