1. Loses the Trademark Clinical Finishing, a Stark Contrast to Traditional Glory
A strong clinical finishing ability has always been Real Madrid’s core hallmark. In the context of European football in the past, the most common comment from opposing coaches in pre-match press conferences was that "Real Madrid are extremely efficient at seizing chances" and "you get punished for every mistake"—an almost universal evaluation of the team.
However, Alonso’s Real Madrid shows a completely different performance in terms of efficiency from the traditional impression. Despite having Mbappé, who scores goals at will, the team as a whole is losing its deadly threat. As club legend Valdano put it, Real Madrid now has to face a profound question: where would the team be without Mbappé’s goals?
2. League Data: 67th in Europe for Conversion Rate, Far Behind Barça
According to Camel Live statistics, in 17 completed league games, Real Madrid scored 34 goals, 15 fewer than Barcelona. To score these 34 goals, Real Madrid recorded 128 shots on target, with a shots-on-target conversion rate of 28.12%.
In contrast, Flick’s Barcelona had 136 shots on target with a conversion rate of 35.5%. Across Europe’s top five leagues, 66 teams currently outperform Real Madrid in this metric—a highly abnormal ranking for the club. Tottenham tops the list with an impressive 46.5% conversion rate.
In terms of total shots on target, only Barcelona (136) and Bayern Munich (129) have more than Real Madrid in Europe. This means it is clearly inaccurate to simply attribute the problem to "Real Madrid failing to create chances"; the data instead reflects the team’s inability to finish crucial chances.
3. Overwhelming Reliance on Mbappé: His Efficiency Far Surpasses Teammates
Against this backdrop, Mbappé’s importance and the team’s reliance on him are further amplified: he registered 61 shots on target in the league, scoring 29 goals with an outstanding personal conversion rate of 47.5%.
Among the team’s other key attackers, Vinícius Jr. has a mere 18% conversion rate, and Rodrygo only 16%—a huge gap that highlights the over-reliance on Mbappé.
4. Champions League Performance: Conversion Rate Slides Further, Mbappé Scores 69% of Team’s Goals
Real Madrid’s offensive efficiency drops even further in the Champions League, with a shots-on-target conversion rate of 27.6% (about 1 percentage point lower than the league), ranking only 17th among 36 participating teams.
Real Madrid scored a total of 13 goals in European competitions, 9 of which came from Mbappé. Bellingham, Brahim Díaz, Camavinga and Rodrygo each scored one goal.
5. Shot Distribution: Mbappé Accounts for Nearly 40% of Shots on Target in Europe
The gap is even more intuitive from the perspective of shot distribution. In the Champions League, Real Madrid had 47 shots on target, 18 from Mbappé (38.29% of the total), and half of his shots on target were converted into goals.
In the league, his 39 shots on target account for 30.4% of the team’s total 128, and his 18 league goals exactly make up half of the team’s total league goals.
6. Core Dilemma: Fix Structural Imbalance to Translate Individual Brilliance into Team Success
Thus, Real Madrid’s current problem is not the lack of a top striker, but how to translate Mbappé’s "alien-level" efficiency into better overall results. Mbappé’s attitude is clear—personal statistics mean little if they cannot be converted into championship honors.
The key to solving this problem does not lie entirely with Mbappé, but more with the overall improvement of the team.
7. European Wide Comparison: Mbappé Leads in Shots on Target & Goals Among Top Strikers
In a broader European comparison, Mbappé not only scores the most goals in European competitions (9 goals from 18 shots on target) but also tops the charts in shots on target.
Compared with other top league strikers, Harry Kane and Erling Haaland have one more league goal than Mbappé (19 vs 18), but both have fewer shots on target: Mbappé 39, Kane 37 and Haaland 35.
8. Offensive Portrait of Real Madrid: Structural Imbalance Decides the Season’s Fate
These statistics paint a clear offensive portrait of Real Madrid: the team creates plenty of shots, but the collective conversion ability is highly concentrated on Mbappé alone. Behind him, other attacking players have failed to provide stable fire support.
How to fix this structural imbalance will largely determine Real Madrid’s final outcome this season.
