France captain Kylian Mbappe looked like a man with the weight off his shoulders when he was presented at the Santiago Bernabeu in July to an adoring Real Madrid crowd. Yet things have not quite gone to plan since he arrived at Real Madrid.
Mbappe has 9 goals in 17 games so far for Real Madrid, which is not a bad figure, but with several of those goals coming from the penalties, the feeling is that he is yet to show what he can do in a white shirt.
Something that is played out in the figures. Alex Kirkland of ESPN has highlighted that Mbappe is currently underperforming his expected goals figure by 1.83 in La Liga, and by 1.68 in the Champions League. His 12.7% conversion rate of shots to goals makes him the 48th-most effective forward in La Liga, and the 125th in Europe’s top 5 leagues, while Robert Lewandowski has taken 10 shots less to score more than double his La Liga tally.
It’s a worrying sign for Real Madrid, and makes it clear that Mbappe is in fact lacking confidence currently, hard as it is to believe. With Vinicius out for the coming weeks, Mbappe should get a run playing on the left side – his favoured position – which could help him to get back to his best. Mbappe scored from there on Sunday against Leganes, his first game in that position for Carlo Ancelotti.
