🚨 Xabi Alonso: "Mbappé? I don't know if he'll play against Alaves." pic.twitter.com/UmQwSVKjie— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) December 10, 2025
Is it because he doesn't know about Mbappé's status or because he might not be around to make that decision himself?
Well, well, well... what do we have here. Haaland is Mbappe main competition for the the Balon d'Or and it was announced just days ago they will go head to head in the World Cup next summer then suddenly out of the thin air Mbappe sustains and unverified and undiagnosed muscle "discomfort" in his legs. Could it be that Mbappe purposely faked an injury because he thought the team would lose and he wants to have a favorable head to head record against his main rival and doesn't want to risk being upstaged in a CL match and having that in the back of voters minds when the BDO winner is chosen. Kind of fits in with the way he's treated the French NT, takes time off when he doesn't "feel" like playing and says he "needs" rest, shows up when it looks like awards will be handed out and surely it was only a matter of time before he was picking and choosing when he wanted to put in full shifts for Madrid.
Just some things I have said over and over again ITT. Our defensive breakdown starts upfront. And from there its a vicious sequence that leads not only to more leaking goals, but also to physical and mental exhaustion (and injuries) in trying to prevent more of those goals, frustration and mutual blame between players, concentration and morale drop, and upfront desperate throwing numbers, hero ball, and wild decisions out of the designed schemes. Mbappe and Vinicius together are impossible to play with. We shouldn't boot the coach, we should boot one of them. And since we just brought Mbappe, and Vinicius is more of a disruptive presence and arriving at the end of the contract, its obvious that hes the one that should go. This will enable Xabi to implement his ideas. Effectively we are choosing a headcase in the last year of contract demanding an outrageous salary despite seemingly having lost his ability, over possibly the most talented coach of his generation and a potential Madrid coaching legend if we stick with him. Its a decision that will come to haunt us for a long time because of all of its ramifications. But back to Mbappe. Last year was his first here, and it was a wash because of the same structural breakdowns that I have talked about so many times and the video focuses on. So it was perfectly normal to ask for a tactical coach knowing that Ancelotti was not that, hoping that a tactical coach will prevent that breakdown. But we also knew that these players are big headed, so the coach doesn't only need to be tactical, but also needs to be a big name that commands respect. Xabi was that tactical coach and big name. His reputation in the game implied that players will listen to him and change their ways. We simply didn't know these players are THAT big headed. And they weren't, until Mbappe showed up ushering the Mbappe culture of "everyone for himself".
I'm not sure, but I believe that Mbappe was on this club when our president said everybody that doesn't think Vinicius is the best player in the world is an idiot. There's also noise about a certain player agent/relative telling the club to either play his guy where he wants or to open the market for him but hey, let's blame the only player on our roster without gloves that's actually world class right now. The reason all those issues didn't appear is because we were winning. Players were going on vacation spending nights at the club during game weeks but when you win the CL it's all banter. When many complain about why this team is disliked so much is because of this. Rarely you'll see something so blind to it's own faults. Vinicius has like 5 goals in his entire national team career. Enough of this noise about Mbappe. He just shows us where some of our self proclaimed "world class players" truly stand when measuring up to the best.
We seem to be talking past each other. Im talking about whats happening on the pitch, youre talking agents, vacation nights and stats. As I said Vinicuis has to go so were in agreement there. But you seem to support Xabi being fired too. For me firing Xabi is about a 100 times more outrageous and absurd from the president than calling Vini the best in the world.
If you give me the two button meme "fire Xabi/don't fire Xabi" then i don't fire him, but i am aware that this is not a reformer or the man for the long term and pivot accordingly. Give him the full season, and wait for the final verdict. If the season goes astray, keep crushing him in the media and see what happens, because make no mistake the pressure he gets at home is mostly created from within the club.
On the other hand Vini was here FIRST. The team never went two season in row without titles with Vini. However Mbappe's gone his whole career without winning a single CL, so I think logic dictates we stick with the guy who brought home the titles.
Mbappe has never won a CL or a big league like England,Spain in his career and his is what 26,27 already The club sacrificed a winning team,a winning formula for PR,Fifa covers,galactico shirts
Losing is more likely than winning. With or without Mbappe, if you can't lose, it's on you. I said it when we hired Xabi and it applies about every single level of this club. There is a very realistic chance that we peaked with the team we had and it might take 20 years for us to see anything remotely similar. Like, if you'd tell me you're from the future and we had 3 to 4 title free seasons in the next 7 years, yeah, I believe it.
Sometimes it fells like a bad dream. Whould never thought the discussions etc. we are having atm whould ever occur this time at the season when looking at the squad comming into the season. I know medias etc. live of selling clicks etc., so the more they can suck on our misfortune atm they do. Could be nice with som good wins in a row, so we can focus on football.....but maybe i am just to optimistick.
This is a club that paid people to pretend they are journalists so they can hassle our coach in press conferences. This isn't a "rumor" either, the Club was funding this "Bernabeu Digital" platform that was giving Carlo grief and as soon as the Financials and links to Florentino were leaked the website disappeared and the people never got a press ID ever again. Zidane made the same point when he left. This job is very uncomfortable when things aren't going well. There's a version about this where we're basically just getting what we deserve after winning despite our own best efforts to not.
Zero fluidity with teammates movements. Breaks every action with wrong decisions. Wasteful and constantly on a separate wavelength from his teammates. Zero defensive contribution. The pass for their goal comes from him chilling and others having to cover, leaving the passer with total freedom in the middle. Ball should never reach that guy with that much space. Typical Mbappe game where he scores a cracker on the counter, and then we struggle because he drags down everything else.
Its not clinical when you miss a shitload of other opportunities, including those where you could be in a goalscoring position if you don't fumble your touch or decision.
Sadly people confound scoring any goal at anytime with being clinical, unfortunately Mbappe is far from clinical. If he was at least a typical goal poacher like Micheal Owen, Raul, R9 type of CF who could score a goal on 1 or 2 chances, that's a huge difference because the team isn't squandering chances and possesions all game long trying to force feed goals to player who is wasting their production. It's pointless tho. Vini can have monster second half of the season, win the World Cup and be favorite for the Balon d' Or in the fall and these same people will be tyring to give Mbappe the BDO by giving him credit for inspiring Vini and lighting the fire under his belly.
Kylian Mbappé on IG. 🤍 pic.twitter.com/KHIQaFUZc4— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) December 15, 2025 📲 Kylian Mbappé on IG. pic.twitter.com/yHdJnVvUe1— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) December 14, 2025 🚨 Kylian Mbappé is the fastest Real Madrid player to score 70 goals since Cristiano Ronaldo. pic.twitter.com/6Qw0sQH7B2— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) December 14, 2025
In case nobody remember how that went. The team was completely built around Cristiano, and scored goals by the bucket but only won 1 league title and zero CL in his first 4 years. People really willing to trade in 2 CL and 2 La Liga's in 4 years for 1 measly league title just because the guy is winning Pichichi's
There not remotely similar situations , Ronaldo wasnt the CF and he left a much better team to join a rebuilding madrid that was struggling to even go past the round of 16, ron was competing against peak messi with the stacked spain squad on top he's entire time here. Mbappe joined a double winning side and is competing against a barce side that cant even afford to pay there guy wages and cant even afford to sign a player .
I don't know Spanish, but Victor Valdepenas reminded me of Victor Valdes. Please correct me. With quick research, I found out that Valdespenas meant “Valley of Rocks” or “Valley of Boulders”. That is a good name for a centreback in my opinion.