When Kylian Mbappe arrived in the summer of 2024, many expected it to be the beginning of a new Galacticos era and for Real Madrid to be an invincible force. However, that has not necessarily been the case, and many have been left scratching their heads as to what exactly is going on.
While yes, Mbappe's statistics on an individual level have been remarkable, the team play as a whole has dropped off from past seasons, including the impressive 2023/24 season, the season before Mbappe's arrival, when Real won La Liga and their 15th Champions League title.
Real have yet to achieve that level of success with Mbappe in the squad, and it has led many to point the finger and suggest the 27-year-old disrupted what the team was building. While no one is explicitly saying Los Blancos would be better off without the Frenchman, as he has saved his side on a number of occasions, many are questioning whether he disturbed the team's mojo. One of his former managers had already made clear these issues that could take hold.
Luis Enrique on PSG without Kylian Mbappe
Luis Enrique spoke in the summer, a year after Kylian Mbappe left PSG and offered a harsh truth: having the France captain in your team can negatively affect the team as a whole. Enrique said (via Fabrizio Romano):
"I think I was very brave last season when I said that we were going to have a better team without Mbappe. I still think we are better, the stats are there... I'd rather have four players who score 12 goals each than one player who scores 40 goals."Luis Enrique
Again, it's not to say that Real Madrid are better without Mbappe but Enrique does bring up an interesting point. PSG struggled to win the Champions League with Mbappe in the squad, but the season after he left, they won a treble, with the goals distributed among four attackers: Ousmane Dembele, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Desire Doue, and Bradley Barcola.
This is definitely an intriguing point to think about. While some teams succeed with just one target man, it is better to have more than one player scoring the goals. So far this season, Mbappe has been doing it all on his own, and he needs help from his fellow attackers. In recent weeks, we've seen Rodrygo and Gonzalo Garcia start doing their part to help the Frenchman, and with more players getting goals, it could help solve Real's lack of success in recent years.