Real Madrid embarrassed themselves yet again, drawing 1-1 with lowly Girona in La Liga to continue a winless streak in which the Merengues look like a shell of a team that dominated rivals Manchester City across two Champions League Round of 16 legs.
Against Mallorca and Girona, Real Madrid were truly pathetic, and while they had their moments against Bayern Munich in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals, they were no doubt second best to the Bavarians.
Watching how cohesively Michael Olise, Luis Diaz, and Harry Kane play as a front three really only further exposes the problems the front two of Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe are having at Real Madrid. These two superstars should, in theory, be the best tandem in the world, but the duo of right footed left wingers just cannot work together. They do not click at all.
Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe do not click
That has been an issue for months ever since Mbappe arrived at the Santiago Bernabeu, and no matter what people try to tell the loyal Madridistas, every single fan can see the evident truth before them. There is no point in pretending, and with how little these two gelled in a 1-1 draw with Girona in which the only goal was an error off a Fede Valvede long shot, there should really be no turning back from this truth.
And yet, in the immediate aftermath of the match, all Real Madrid manager Alvaro Arbeloa could do was pretend as if there was no problem and assure fans that he was not concerned. Arbeloa said at the press conference, via Madrid Xtra, “Mbappé and Vinicius? Man… (laughs) I can’t be worried about them with the numbers they have when they’re among the top 5 players. I’m not worried.”
That is the whole problem. Everyone is so concerned about their own numbers that nobody bothers to care about what actually matters, which is how the team is doing. The scoreboard, the table. Those things matter. Not how many goals Kylian Mbappe has, how may dribbles Vinicius Junior completed, or who won the Golden Boot. And news flash, Mbappe is nowhere near Harry Kane as a scorer and Vinicius Jr. nowher near Lamine Yamal as a dribbler.
So instead, these two need to work together to win. Vinicius is holding the ball too long and losing possession in the box like that's what determined his next contract's salary. Mbappe is even worse. He does not even pretend to try on defense, he acts like he can't be bothered to play like a striker, and he would rather take bad shot than pass for his teammates. To pretend like this pairing is working is blasphemous, because if Real cannot even break Girona, how can they act as if they are a championship worthy team?