[Saba Sports News] For Real Madrid, Kylian Mbappe, who was brought in at a cost of more than €100m, should have shown a higher level of performance, but for now the 180m French striker has been lost in Madrid. “Save the Player,” read the headline on the Nov. 29 cover of L ‘L, a headline reminiscent of the Hollywood World War II classic “Save Private Ryan,” intended to underscore the severity of Mbappe’s current slump. That is now a task that Real Madrid president Florentino Perez must complete, as they do not want to see a repeat of the Eden Hazard nightmare, but saving Mbappe is clearly not an easy task.
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The gap in Mbappe’s form compared to his time at Paris Saint-Germain is huge: His conversion rate in the Champions League this season is just 5%, the lowest in his nine seasons in the Champions League, with a minimum of 14% in the past (2018/19) and a maximum of 35% in 2016/17. Although Mbappe’s goals per game in the Champions League this season was once stable at more than 0.66, he has scored just one goal in Real’s five matches in the competition, averaging 0.2 goals per game, a decrease of more than 60 per cent.
Not only that, Mbappe has averaged less than 9km per game this season, the least of Real Madrid’s non-goalscorers. And the game’s explosive power, balance and other data also decreased significantly. Known for his lithe agility in his prime, Mr. Mbappe is now slow, ploddy, diffused and even prone to self-abandonment.