Real Madrid president Florentino Perez hired Jose Mourinho to try and get all the superstars to be on the same page together, and while that has happened so far, there are limits to the miracles arguably the greatest manager of all time can pull off.
As evidenced by their 1-0 loss to Real Betis on Friday night, Jose can't be the one to put the ball in the back of the net. Real Madrid created copious chances, and, as Jose said at the post game press conference, actually did play the better football. But to Mourinho - and most importantly to the Real Madrid faithful - that means very little when the actual result is a loss.
A huge reason why Real Madrid lost was Kylian Mbappe. Worse than on Matchday 1 against Espanyol when he did not score a single goal despite being presented with 10 shooting opportunities as a result of world class work from playmakers Jude Bellingham and Arda Guler, Mbappe squandered so many opportunities to score or at least get the assist and let someone else finish the chance.
Kylian Mbappe missed too many easy chances
Mbappe missed open nets, one on ones, other clear cut chances, and even a penalty. It was an anti Cristiano Ronaldo performance from the Real Madrid No. 9, and in juxtaposition to the harder working Carlos Espi off the bench, Mbappe did not provide enough of a presence, nor do enough of the all around dirty work as a striker to help Real Madrid.
In a meritocracy, Mbappe would not start the next La Liga game and Espi, who has looked more impressive and even scored that winner on Matchday 1 against Espanyol when Kylian Mbappe was about to fluff his lines badly, would get the opportunity.
Right now, Mbappe is skating by on his name, stat padding against bad teams at the World Cup, and the fact that he scores the goals by default that better players like Jude Bellingham, Arda Guler, and Vinicius Junior are practically force feeding him.
Alvaro Arbeloa and Xabi Alonso did not have the guts to stand up to Mbappe and be the ones to bench him when he was not the best option. Jose Mourinho's big test is going to be giving Mbappe the treatment he deserves and putting him on the back burner to Carlos Espi or even Endrick if those players prove they can help Real Madrid win more games; the Real Betis loss was unacceptable and a lot of that was down to Mbappe.
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