One of the longest transfer sagas of modern times could finally be coming to an end.
It was revealed on Thursday that Kylian Mbappe will leave Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the season and he has had plenty of time to think about Real Madrid’s offer to join them.
Bringing the 25-year-old to the Santiago Bernabeu would be an unmistakable statement signing for Madrid — a modern-day Galactico, echoing back to the arrivals of Luis Figo or the Brazilian Ronaldo.
But on and off the pitch, Madrid have evolved drastically since those days. Even since last summer, when Karim Benzema’s departure left them without a star striker, things have moved on. Jude Bellingham’s superb debut season in midfield has altered their tactical setup, his relentless performances quickly easing fears around the need for a direct replacement as a No 9.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side have adapted brilliantly to that seismic loss at the top of the pitch. Could adding another headline act to the mix disrupt what now looks to be a perfectly balanced front line?
Madrid, of course, still want Mbappe — no club in the world wouldn’t – but do they still need him?
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Benzema was the glue that allowed Madrid to keep winning through testing times of change.
On top of his 354 goals for the club, his ability to adapt to the superstars around him cemented his legacy in the Spanish capital. In terms of succession planning, it made total sense for Madrid to target Mbappe last summer, but they have had half a season without either player now, and you have to say it has gone pretty well.
Vinicius Junior became one of the most destructive wide players in world football thanks to Benzema’s tendency to drift out to the left during build-up, able to combine with the Brazilian as well as pose a threat in the penalty area for cutbacks and crosses. But crucially, those are both moves Bellingham has also been able to perfect.
This season, no one in La Liga has played more passes to a team-mate than his 75 to Vinicius Jr and no one has received more from a colleague than his 54 off the Brazilian. That equates to around 7.9 passes to the winger per game — even more than Benzema (7.2 per game) managed last season.
Even in his all-action midfield role, Bellingham finds plenty of time to drift over and bring Madrid’s left-winger into the game.
That support seems to be having the desired effect; no player has averaged more touches per game in the box (10.2), while only Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal has taken more in the attacking third (38.5), than Vinicius Jr this season. His 9.7 take-ons per game also leave him clear of the pack.
And on the other side of the pitch, Rodrygo is thriving, too. Without a fixed presence in the No 9 spot – Joselu is unable to nail down a starting berth – the two wingers are enjoying a split-strikers setup, allowing Bellingham to box-crash through the middle.
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The pass network from Madrid’s opening game of the season at Almeria laid out the framework nicely; the Englishman scoring twice, breaking into the space that Rodrygo had vacated to head home his second, while also providing an assist for Vinicius Jr.
A left-sided bias to the team gets players closer to Vinicius Jr, allowing Federico Valverde to career forward on the opposite flank, while it is Bellingham’s busy role at the top of a box midfield that provides the balance.
In the Champions League trip to Portugal’s Braga in October, Bellingham again took up a more advanced role on the left-hand side to get close to Vinicius Jr, as we can see in the build-up to the game’s opening goal.
With a long pass out to the left, the three-pronged attack springs into life; Vinicius Jr takes on his man and drives to the byline, Rodrygo makes a move in the penalty area, while Bellingham looks to burst into the space between them. Note how defender Vitor Carvalho (red arrow) is looking towards the arriving Englishman.
As the final pass comes in, Carvalho is stranded.
The cutback to Bellingham is on, but Vinicius Jr elects for a ball to Rodrygo, who darts into the space behind the distracted defender and opens the scoring. This goal is the result of swirling movement and the late run — a move only made possible by a player with the energy to arrive from midfield as consistently as Bellingham does.
Three months later, it was still working to devastating effect.
Vinicius Jr’s hat-trick against Barcelona in the Supercopa de Espana final on January 14 was another powerful performance facilitated by the unpredictability of the late run.
In the below example from that match, Bellingham once again tears through the midfield into the central space, giving Vinicius Jr that extra bit of room to get the ball under control and take on his man. His cutback is not dealt with and Rodrygo steals in to score.
Even when he is not running in to score himself, Bellingham adds an extra dimension to Madrid’s sweeping attacks — Vinicius Jr has not lost his service and the penalty area is not without a central presence.
Bellingham is La Liga’s current top scorer, with a tally of 16 that Benzema has only bettered twice at this point of a season, while both Rodrygo and Vinicius Jr are contributing to goals at career-record rates.
All of this is not to say that Mbappe could not adapt to a new system himself, but the positions the 25-year-old prefers to take up would seem to make things a little crowded.
Principally, the France captain enjoys playing down the left, able to scythe through defences by cutting onto his right foot, but increasingly this season he has found himself drifting inside in a more fluid role under new PSG coach Luis Enrique.
When Lee Kang-in was away playing for South Korea in the Asian Cup in recent weeks, PSG were utilising Bradley Barcola out wide, a much more natural left-sided winger — as we can see below against Toulouse on January 3.
Receiving the ball in a tight central area, Mbappe’s close control and elite finishing can still be harnessed away from his favoured flank.
“The good thing is that no matter where I play, or where we play, the manager adapts to our qualities,” Mbappe said after PSG’s 2-0 win that night. “We’re never out of touch. Wherever I play, I don’t think I’ll have any problem performing well.”
Mbappe is not selfish in these central areas, either — even if he took an incredible 31 shots in his first four games playing this new No 9 spot. He also created five chances for team-mates in those matches, including this perfectly-weighted pass to set a rampaging Barcola through on goal in another 2-0 victory, over Lens on January 14.
Dropping deep to receive the ball, turning, and threading through to the wide player is a move that would certainly endear him to Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo at the top of the Madrid team.
Needless to say, Mbappe is endlessly inventive and frighteningly effective, his qualities undiminished by any role he fills across the front three. More encouraging, however, has been a perceived shift in attitude.
More receptive to Luis Enrique’s positional experiments — a marked contrast to the “pivot gang” fiasco of the previous campaign — there are signs that Mbappe could be further convinced to be more tactically amenable. If there is any coach in world football to keep a front-heavy football team functioning, it is Ancelotti.
Few can rotate as efficiently as the Italian, famous for keeping his star-studded AC Milan team fresh throughout their dominant run in the early 2000s. Since returning to Madrid for a second spell as coach in summer 2021, he has only twice named unchanged line-ups in successive La Liga games.
Even for such an experienced figure, Mbappe poses a luxurious problem, but Ancelotti’s latest super-team is built around versatility and it will surely bend to fit a player of his quality.
Sacrificing Bellingham’s transformative box-crashing runs might not seem wise, but some signings are just too good to resist.
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(Top photo: Christian Liewig – Corbis/Getty Images)
