from winning the double to being eliminated from the Champions League by Arsenal The historical kings of European football are out [Music] From being considered the heir to Ronaldo to having more red cards than free kicks for one of the worst challenges I can remember for a long long long time From saying that he's going to do it 10 times more to not doing anything at all Junior and it's high the window Wow Real Madrid are a story on their own When they added Mbappé a player who was considered one of if not the best player in the world to a team that had won the Champions League and La Liga everyone thought Madrid were going to take over the world This is a Real Madrid team that have just won a Liga Caner They've just won the Champions League Now they're signing arguably the best player in the world With Barcela struggling at the time Madrid dominance seemed inevitable You do need the Barcelona Real Madrid rivalry to be a real rivalry and not to become too one-sided I just wonder whether Mbappe is toting the balance yet now it's the exact opposite So why exactly is a team as star-studded as Real Madrid not living up to expectation well if this clicks they're going to win the league going to win the Champions League but they just cannot harness that kind of performance and put it into a 90 minutes and then a consistent run of games To anyone that has followed the history of Real Madrid it won't actually come as a surprise that the third edition of the Galacticos are underperforming They are actually experiencing similar problems to the first two generation of Galactic before them The first set of Galacticos were formed between 2000 and 2006 Perez had won the presidency due to his promise of an aggressive transfer policy where he would get the best and biggest signings Well he fulfilled that promise signing Lewis Figo from rivals Barcelona It was a record-breaking transfer and a statement signing Stealing the best player from your arch rivals sends a message to the entire world of football A year later Perez broke the transfer record again signing Zidane from Juventus for €75 million Now two big signings in 2 years that's pretty fine It's actually sustainable You could even argue that the Galactic hadn't even started yet because it was just two guys Madrid ended up winning La Liga in 2001 and 2003 They also won the Champions League in 2002 with Perez's marquee signing Zedane scoring the winning goal in the final But see this is where the problems began Perez wanted more star power bigger names So despite winning the league and the Champions League he brought David Beckham from Manchester United Beckham was very good a terrific player But there were concerns that he was actually more famous for his stuff off the pitch than his performances on it Especially at that stage of Beckham's career Keep in mind too the summer before in 2002 Madrid had signed R9 The Brazilian was dealing with persistent injuries and fitness issues but still ended up as La Liga's top goal scorer when Madrid became champions in 2003 But the bigger issue was that Madrid already had a great right winger They had Figo So the spaces that Beckham thrived in well that was the exact same spaces that Figo liked to occupy To many it was a signing that made more sense for commercial and revenue purposes than footballing reasons And these people were right Two high-profile players in the same position caused one of them to be forced to be played out of position Sound familiar when Beckham was on the right Figo would have to play on the left or down the middle When Figo was on the right Beckham would have to play as a central midfielder On top of that Beckham's arrival led to the departure of Malle He was one of the best defensive midfielders in the world but Perez didn't want to raise his salary because he did not want to pay large wages for a defensive player Guess winning the ball back and putting a crunching tackle wasn't sexy enough for Perez Well as you can imagine despite the star power the club had they failed to win any trophies for the next three seasons because there was no balance Their performances in La Liga suffered with the Galactic being outshown by Ronaldinho and Etto and Barca Funny enough Real Madrid owned 50% of the contract that Etto had signed with Mayorca They had the ability to sign him before anyone else if Etto chose to leave Morca Yet Perez sold these rights in 2004 because he felt that Madrid already had the two best strikers in the league in Raul and R9 Now he wasn't wrong technically but then it didn't really make sense because he ended up signing Michael Owen that summer I mean it was classic Perez All he cared about was the bigger names There were even reports that Carlos Curo the coach at the time was forced to pick the star players regardless of form due to Perez's instructions Anyways Perez ended up messing up because Etto would later join Barcelona and help them win the 2005 2006 and 2009 La Liga titles as well as the 2006 and 2009 Champions League titles Meanwhile Michael Owen the alternative signing to Etto left after one season after failing to secure a starting spot at Royale Then eventually when Beckham left to join the MLS it was seen as the official end to the first version of the Galacticos Beckham was the last of the big four to move on with Figo having joined Inter Milan two seasons prior Zidane retiring after the 2006 World Cup and Ronaldo moving to AC Milan half a season before Beckham's departure An unsuccessful era especially given the expectations the amount of money spent and the star power but some similar issues to the third version of the Galactic we're seeing now The Mbappé signing reminds me a little of the Beckham signing Not because Mbappe was signed purely for marketing reasons like Beckham was but the signing definitely didn't make a whole lot of sense from a footballing perspective Madrid already had arguably the best left winger in the world at the time in Vinnie Now of course the best version of Mbappé is much better than the best version of Vinnie but it still didn't make sense to get a player who is at his best occupying similar spaces as your other best player Do you guys remember the beginning of the 2024 2025 season where it would show the heat map and Rodrigo Mbappé and Vinnie were all having an orgy on the left hand side it wasn't working Now as the season went by Mbappé adjusted to the number nine role In fact you can argue that even in an underwhelming season for the team as a whole he was Madrid's best player the top goal scorer second in big chances created But what has happened is his individual brilliance has come at the cost of the team as a whole playing worse Now I think most Madrid fans would even tell you that at their best Madrid aren't necessarily playing the best football How many times have we seen them get outplayed then end up getting a win that's what they are most famous for pulling out a result when it all seemed lost It's happened so many times that you can no longer call it luck But at least in 2024 when they won the double in that diamond setup they played a lot better than what we have seen I mean think about it These guys won La Liga and the Champions League They had scored the most goals in Spain while at the same time conceding the least amount of goals Bellingham as the head of the 442 diamond was phenomenal His link up with Vinnie was almost at the same level as Benzema and Vinnie There's a reason Madrid had two of their guys on the podium for the Balandor But ever since Mbappé joined that fluidity isn't there anymore Now funny enough the fluidity was there for a bit when Vinnie was suspended Vinnie in typical fashion lost his head and got a red card then got suspended cuz he tried to fight the ref You know you're in the wrong when Rudiger is the one calming you down Anyways in that short period of time when Vinnie was out Rodrigo went on the left with Mbappé up top and Brahim Diaz on the right and it was working They beat Las Palma's 4-1 slapped Real Valadi with Mbappe getting a hat-tick Now I know these are not the best teams in La Liga But at least Madrid were playing fluid football and they were getting the best out of their new guy When Vinnie was out with a muscle injury Madrid also beat Gafe 2-0 which is no easy task by the way Those guys play to not lose rather than to win They also beat Jerona 3-0 Now again this could have just been a coincidence After all in the beginning of the season Vinnie was getting goals and assists for fun with Madrid winning the majority of their games It was actually Vinnie that was playing well and Mbappé being the one low on confidence The problem was the fact that when Vinnie came back from suspension he was awful He tweeted that he would do it 10 times more and then did nothing Yes Vinnie 10 time zero is still zero At one point he had zero dribbles completed across two matches in a row Not only have Madrid gone worse attacking wise they have also gone far worse defensively It doesn't help that the guys up front don't want to press Mbappé at times seemingly just doesn't want to run We know he isn't a natural nine but that doesn't excuse his lack of movement The guy is in his prime and walking around not pressing scratching his balls Look at this stat that tracked how many kilometers per 90 players are running in the Champions League And Mbappé is at the bottom Vinnie is towards the bottom too which is not a great look on the ball Also he has to do where more a run in behind when the team is high Whether you're a winger whether you're a nine or whether you're a 10 deep you can make a run Here are the running stats from the quarterfinals This is inexcusable for two guys who are incredibly young and supposed to be at their peak athletically Mbappé's lack of runs have forced Bellingham to make the runs that he won't which is not good because it puts too much responsibility on Bellingham's shoulders More often than not I will say always always but more often than not Bellingham trying to make the run trying to make the team play running in behind as that's him again trying to break the line That's your nine That's your 10 again Who's going to make the run in behind who's going to try to go it's him It's Bellingham going not your number nine It's not sustainable for him to do his normal role as a central midfielder and make Mbappé's runs for him In fact Bellingham is probably the guy that has been frustrated the most He went from being in all the headlines scoring bangers weekly being in many people's eyes the best player in the world But ever since Donatello arrived he's been doing double the work with half the recognition Cuz anyone that watches Madrid will tell you Jude has still been fantastic but his stats took a dip in the beginning of the season because he was pushed further back in midfield and Chelotti played a traditional 4-3-3 and Bellingham was asked to do more of the defensive work Madrid ended up finding more success using a 42-31 with Bellingham right in behind Mbappé But again out of possession Bellingham is forced to go to the left mid spot and Madrid transition into a 442 So most games the poor guy is just running around like a chicken with his head cut off trying to cover for the two guys up front who are just walking around sniffing their butt Now Mbappé isn't the only issue with this team The other issue Madrid are facing is something similar to what happened to the second version of the Galactic Initially with the second version of the Galactic Perez had learned his lesson After seeing Barcelona win the sixth tuple beating Real Madrid to La Liga by nine points Perez realized it was time again to assemble the Avengers Although they had success in the league winning La Liga in 2008 and the Super Copa Despia in the beginning of the 2009 season they were awful in the Champions League I know that's hard to believe since they've absolutely dominated the competition but their loss to Liverpool marked the fifth successive season of early Champions League exits in the round of 16 They hadn't made it to a quarterfinal since 2004 To get back to winning ways Real Madrid signed Kaka Benzema Ronaldo and Chabby Alonzo Big names but in a variety of positions not just all attackers But of course in the first season it was another trophyless one They lost 4-nil in the Copa del Rey and then got knocked out for the sixth consecutive year in the round of 16 of the Champions League to Leon This second version of Galactic needed more time to gel and even then they didn't really start tasting success until Jose Mourinho Mourinho changed the mentality of the club but on top of the managerial change it was actually the signing of Modric in 2012 Bale in 2013 and Kos in 2014 that led to Madrid dominating Europe They won Champions League after Champions League from 2014 to 2018 K and Modric along with Casemiro were essential to those teams They added balance and control to the midfield Of course we can't forget Ronaldo's goals and Bale's big moments but Ronaldo was scoring before their arrival and Madrid kept losing And even after he left he kept scoring Champions League goals for Juventus but he didn't win anything Meanwhile Modric and K won two more Champions Leagues You have to have creative midfielders that can dictate the tempo of the game that can control the speed of matches That's the problem the current version of the Galactic are facing Nobody is there to replace K Now of course a player of his caliber can never truly be replicated but they have to at least look for a profile of a player close to him Right now players like Valverde Camovinga even Bellingham these guys cannot control the tempo of a game They can't break the lines with passing They don't offer that control I mean Modric can do it but the guy's almost 40 That's too much responsibility for him to keep playing every game for 90 minutes For a period of time during the season Sios was actually doing that role well and Madrid as a team were actually playing better What a shocker When you have a central midfielder that can dictate the tempo and control possession you have more control but he ended up getting injured which left Madrid in the same position as before I actually feel that Ara Guler can do the same role but Carlo just doesn't want to play him for some reason Most likely because he didn't want to drop one of the big guys The same issue we were seeing with Carlos Kirro with the first version of the Galacticos When Angelotti did play Guer he played him on the right wing which is just not his best position He does not have the pace and power to be a winger for Real Madrid He's a number 10 like Ozil which to be honest makes Guer's decision to join Madrid look a little weird He knows that that is a club that doesn't play with a natural attacking midfielder That's why James Rodriguez never made it The other person that is definitely not blameless here is Carlo Angelotti He did a really good job in 2024 considering the amount of injuries the team had and the fact that they didn't have a natural nine but the team has enough talent right now to be playing much better Yes the recruiting hasn't been the best but spamming crosses against Arsenal when at one point your striker was like 56 is inexcusable He also just doesn't like rotating the team or giving the youth a chance Asencio was a great story for Madrides a player coming through the youth academy and starting for the first team But realistically he only got the opportunity because Ancelotti literally didn't have another choice They had no more center backs fit In normal circumstances Carlo would never give this guy an opportunity And it would be a shame because he's actually been one of the better players on the team And at one point had less minutes in La Liga than Bernal Yes the Barca youngster who tore his ACL right in the beginning of the season The team had found some success with Valverde as the right back Yet Ancelotti still kept using Vasquez Against Arsenal Real Madrid had all these superstars yet I was watching Lord Vasquez spam long shots over and over again As great as Angelotti has been throughout his career let's just say there is a reason why this guy has so few league titles across decades of managing despite the fact that he has had some great teams under his management He's a great manager when it comes to man management and handling the ego of superstars But his free flowing football where he just lets the stars do their thing isn't working And when Angelotti style doesn't work the play looks awful Cuz even at their best the play isn't necessarily the best football but it was getting results What's funny is that this third version of Galactic was supposed to be the scariest of them all When Ronaldo and all those other stars joined Madrid it was supposed to be a rebuild in 2009 They had done well in the league but they didn't have that fear factor or success in Europe Then the first version of the Galacticos you could argue they were players that were closer to the back end of their careers than their primes Like Beckham wasn't the same guy we saw at United R9 was on his way down Mbappe on the other hand was joining a young Madrid team a core made up of players young enough to keep getting better but good enough that they were winning Now they had just won the Champions League and La Liga In fact the majority of the players at the club were still there when they won the Champions League in 2022 This wasn't a rebuild project like 2009 or an older core of players like 2003 Yet so far it's been underwhelming Whether it's a change in manager or recruitment I'm sure Madrid will figure it out There's too much quality for them to not find a solution But I will say they have to figure it out quick because it seems like Barcelona have the blueprint to defeating Galacticos The first set of Galacticos were defeated by Ronaldo Etto along with a young Chavian Iniesta What Barcelo do is they recruit well and then they combine it with their youth development from Lamasia It's the perfect formula for defeating an army that has more money than you Then the second version of the Galactic were stopped by Messi Chav and Iniesta as the face of the squad Thankfully Madrid dominated the Champions League or the second version would have also been seen as a failure since they didn't win that many league titles But that formula that Barcelona have well they're using the exact same thing against the third version of the Galactic Good signings from before like Leandowski and Rafiniah are being combined with the development of youth players like Yamal Kubari and Casado as they destroy Perez's star-studded army In fact the 4-nil win in Eláico seemed very reminiscent of the Eláicals we saw in 2009 and 2011 under Pep It's still very early days though I'm sure Real Madrid can gel together and they'll find a way of managing the Eagles I mean this isn't the first time that there's a lot of star quality in those Real Madrid locker rooms But man imagine if this team had prime Modric instead of 40-year-old Modric