Mbappé-dependence: Real Madrid need more than just Kylian for success

He led the game in shots (four), dribbles (four), completed passes in the final third (22), was second in chances created (three, behind the six from Arda Güler) and was the only one to score. He appeared to break the deadlock with a pinpoint header and, with surgical precision from his right foot, to breathe life into a Madrid side that needed more football than oxygen. The 0–1 and the 3–2. Offensively, that was Mbappé – and that was Madrid. They were one and the same. Kylian tried. He lifted his goal tally to 36 in just 19 games. His Champions League count to 13 in only seven. And still, it wasn’t enough.

Because the collapse was too widespread, too severe. Without the lights on from the start, he was the one who found the switch – his own and the team’s. Without his best feeling, he still showed up. Out of nowhere, as so often. As almost always. Quick to meet a delivery of real quality from Asencio with his head. And after what looked like the decisive blow, he combined with Güler and there was a flicker of hope. But when Mbappé stopped biting, Madrid did too. Between him and Thibaut Courtois (seven saves), they did a lot – but they couldn’t do everything.

The 50% mark

This game wasn’t the needle, but the haystack. Mbappé set out at the start of the season to take another step forward. To turn the 44 goals of his first year in white into a footnote. And he certainly has. Before January is even over, he needs just nine more to set a new personal high. But he already accounts for 49.3% of the team’s goals. Of the 73 scored, 36 carry his name. Next on the list is Vinícius with seven; then come the six from Bellingham and the five from Gonzalo. Too far from the rest. Too alone. That is the reality. And it was the reality in Da Luz as well.

Up to 62%

The trend, moreover, is accelerating. If over the season he is hovering around 50%, under Arbeloa – where the only game he missed was the shock loss to Albacete – he reaches 58.3% (seven of 12). And in the past two months, he has gone beyond that: he has scored 62.1% of the goals. From the Athens four-goal haul onward, 18 goals in his last 12 games. He had scored in all of them except against Celta and Barça – his only two defeats in that stretch. Scoring meant winning (Olympiacos, Athletic, Alavés, Talavera, Sevilla, Levante, Monaco and Villarreal) or, at worst, drawing (1–1 in Girona). Until Benfica. There, not even a brace was enough.

Projection

His numbers are Cristiano-like. And he is competing with Cristiano. With Cristiano Ronaldo, whom he has already matched for the best calendar-year tally (59 goals in 2025), and whom he is on course to surpass if he keeps this pace. In the Champions League, where Ronaldo’s 17 from 2013–14 are already within reach. And overall, too: Cristiano’s best season was the 61 goals of 2014–15. Kylian, with a maximum of 24 games still to play, would reach 66 at his current rate (1.24 per match). The turtle is getting closer and closer to the hare.

The problem is that the hare was never so alone in the race. Because Madrid’s dependence on him was lower. Cristiano never scored more than 37.6% of the team’s goals – 61 of 162 in 2014–15. Mbappé, with more than half the season gone, is already near half at 49.7%. And in recent games, 62%. Against Benfica, he scored 100% of the goals and led in shots, dribbles, passes in hostile territory and ranked second in chances created. Everything, everywhere, all at once. But it still wasn’t enough. Mbappé, this time, couldn’t do it all.

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