u/Gembappe10

In my last post, I talked about why Mbappé is upset at the moment. I wanted to dive into the problem not from the point of view of a frustrated Madridista, but from his point of view. https://www.reddit.com/r/RealMadridFC/s/YOrRp87C57

Another thing I should have mentioned is that Xabi also tried to teach Mbappé how to play as a center forward. We all know that Mbappé doesn’t play well in that position. Everyone complained about Madrid’s winning streak without Mbappé, and when Mbappé returned, the whole structure fell apart. But the question they should have asked was this:

Why does Mbappé disrupt the team with Arbeloa but not with Xabi?

Mbappé with Arbeloa: Mallorca (L), Bayern (L), Benfica (L), Real Betis (D)

Mbappé with Alonso: Barça (W), Villarreal (W), Juventus (W), Athletic (W), Marseille (W)

Because Xabi also tried to correct that flaw in Mbappé. And the most compelling evidence to corroborate this comes from two key players: Arda and Trent.

Arda’s role was to give Mbappé the No. 9 identity he so desperately needed to develop. And don’t take my word for it, take Kroos’s.

>“Arda Güler is a PURE #10. You have to play him close to goal as his finishing is very good.

When he’s close to the striker or winger making runs, he has an OUTSTANDING final pass.

His partnership with Mbappé works very well because Mbappé is PERFECT for these runs.”

https://x.com/i/status/2054583930578145573

With Trent, Xabi’s vision also extended to his long, precise passes. And when you add a striker with formidable speed like Mbappé, the result is the goal he scored against Athletic.

So, with Xabi:

1. Mbappé was establishing himself as a true number 9.

2. He was pressing as part of a collective system.

With Arbeloa:

1. Mbappé has no idea how to link up with his teammates.

2. He doesn’t press because he has to watch out for counterattacks since no one else is doing it.

This is what Mbappé meant when he said that with Xabi there was structure and with Arbeloa there isn’t anymore, because Arbeloa doesn’t have the slightest idea how to integrate him, even though he knows full well that he is an obligated starter, according to Pérez.

Arbeloa doesn't know what to do with Mbappé or how to integrate him to the team, despite knowing his flaws he needs to absolutely work on. It was imperative for Arbeloa to continue Xabi's technical work on Mbappé. Xabi gave Mbappé a bigger purpose than what Arbeloa gave him. And that is why he is completely disconnected. That is why Mbappé is tense, frustrated, exhausted, and why he is playing like an idiot. He hasn't fixed his identity crisis. And instead of motivating him, Mbappé receives 0 reward for his success, because he is cursed. It's a high effort, no reward situation. If Mbappé succeeds, "he's selfish". If he doesn't, "he's washed". If Madrid wins without Mbappé, "the team is better off without him". If Madrid loses, "he's ghosting".

The narrative around Mbappé must change. Whether you are a fan of him or not, as long as he wears that badge, he is part of this team.

He may be stupid sometimes, he may piss you off, but as long as he is on this team, you can't give up on him. You have to find a shred of hope, and you must applaud his contributions to this team when we win, as well as criticize when he must be criticized, like the match today.

This season has been one of the biggest roller-coaster seasons I have ever witnessed. At the start, we had Mbappé in elite goalscoring form, and the project seemed promising at first. We had a new coach whose intention was to start a project that needed commitment from the players, because the process of transitioning from the Ancelotti-era Real Madrid into the new Xabi Alonso era would be a long process. That transition was never going to be easy. It required time, discipline, tactical commitment and, most importantly, commitment, faith and diligence from the players.

And that is exactly why everything that happened after Xabi’s departure matters so much. Because the more the season collapsed, the clearer it became that Xabi Alonso was not the problem. He may have made mistakes, but his diagnosis was right. Real Madrid needed structure, intensity, clear roles and collective responsibility. And I’ll explain why Xabi Alonso was right, and why Mbappé had a reason to be upset.

First, let me remind you all of something that Mbappé struggles with: pressing. Mbappé’s lack of pressing has been criticized by almost everyone in the team and at his former club. It has frustrated many of us and many of his coaches. Mbappé has even been called the “laziest” player in all top five leagues, as a matter of fact. But nobody has ever asked these two things:

Why doesn’t Mbappé press?

The answer isn’t as simple as “because he’s lazy,” even though that’s the most common answer. Is part of it deliberate? Yes. In fact, I have criticized Mbappé for not pressing enough as he should in this new era of football. But there’s a deeper reason that often gets overlooked. Mbappé doesn’t press because he was never developed as a pressing forward. His gimmick is being a transition weapon. Throughout his career, Mbappé has barely pressed because he’s an athlete who relies on his explosiveness for his offensive output. In other words, he chooses to release all his energy on the attack and not waste it on defense. This is why, when you look at his performances with Deschamps, you can clearly see Mbappé running at speeds very few attackers can match. And to his credit, this strategy has “worked” many times before, and very few coaches bothered to change his ways. Mbappé became one of the most dangerous attackers in the world precisely because he could conserve energy, explode into space and punish teams in moments where very few players could match his speed, e.g., Argentina, Man City, Barcelona and so on. The only coaches we know of who demanded more defensive work were Luis Enrique and Xabi Alonso. Not even Ancelotti asked Mbappé to press, and there’s a reason for that as well: because he scored goals. And this is where the next question comes in.

How do we incorporate a player who has never pressed collectively into a structure that motivates him to press, while still getting the best out of his offensive output?

THAT.....is exactly what Xabi Alonso was trying to do. In September, Mbappé wasn’t just scoring goals; he was starting to show signs of development and evolution in his identity as a player. And Xabi Alonso’s mission was to prove to the world that he CAN press and still be a nightmare for defenders. According to Sofascore, in his first 6 LaLiga games under Xabi, Mbappé had made 15 ball recoveries, an average of 2.5 per game. The previous season, he had made 36 recoveries in 34 league games, which was only 1.06 per game. In just one month, Xabi doubled Mbappé’s defensive work. That is an impressive sign of development, even if it was incomplete.

This is what nobody seems to understand. Xabi wasn’t coddling Mbappé, he was trying to shape him. He was gradually turning him into the player that we ALL wanted to see—not JUST a goal scorer, but someone who can be committed. And that’s why firing Xabi looks a lot worse, now. Because perhaps the only, and I do mean ONLY, coach in Mbappé’s career who was actually helping him adapt was the one the club sacrificed to appease the locker room and... Vini.

And that is why Mbappé is obviously and understandably upset. Because he finally had the coach of his dreams, and no one can tell me otherwise. His relationship with Alonso was like no other I have ever seen from him.

And yes, Vinícius matters in this conversation. Not because he is the only reason Xabi left, but because he became the most visible player who showed resistance against Xabi. A player who lashed out mid-stadium, laughed at Xabi many times, and who literally held an ultimatum that if he wasn't sacked, he would leave.

That is why Mbappé has every reason to be upset. Because, for the first time, he had a coach who was not just using him for goals. He had someone who ACTUALLY believed he could be more than just “a goalscoring machine,” and a coach who was trying to make him better. Matter of fact, his relationship with Xabi looked different. There was mutual respect. There was clarity. He was scoring, but he was also being pushed in a healthy and stable way. And what's saddening is that Mbappé was actually happy and excited for once.

But people criticized Xabi because they expected IMMEDIATE results. They did not understand that this was a project that would take time and dedication. There was one video that RMTV released in the early part of the season where reporters asked the players how their training session with Xabi was. The players were visibly exhausted, panting, and soaked in sweat. In the video, Militão, Rodrygo, Vinícius, Mastantuono, ALL of them described the training as “intense,” “hard,” etc.

Ancelotti rarely trained them this way. And this is not an attack on Ancelotti. He is a legend. But this Madrid needed a different approach.

Xabi failed in the big nights. Not because his approach was "wrong", but because the team did not fully commit into his ideas. And when Arbeloa arrived, it was different. He coddled them. His work was all about bringing stability into a broken locker room. And at first, he succeeded. This is why Madrid beat Man City, Benfica and Atlético Madrid, because other players felt more comfortable.

But coddling the stars isn’t a project. In the short run, it may bring some immediate results, but in the long run, it was devastating. And that is why Arbeloa has an entire war zone in that fucking locker room. And his biggest failure (besides all his clumsy and shitty press conferences blaming himself) was not knowing how to reintegrate Mbappé into the team. Because when the team lacks a tactical identity (like he told us yesterday), things don’t synchronize. They don't work neither for Mbappé nor for the team. And again, this was exactly what Xabi was trying to fix......even if it wasn’t perfect. He was trying to make Mbappé fit Real Madrid without forcing Madrid to become a team built around him. That was the whole point. And while the project may have not been perfect, he was right. And Arbeloa merely provided band-aid fixes. Band aid fixes aren't real fixes.

And that is why I can understand WHY Mbappé is upset, and why he feels betrayed. Add the fact that the media has punished him by making him out to be a “dictator,” the fans trying to crucify him, and the club failing to act when he needed their support. So, you can see why Mbappé is acting like a Trumpian arrogant asshole, now. In other words, WE may have turned Mbappé into an actual dictator. We could only ever see the worst in him that he's now starting to believe it and act on it.