Kylian Mbappé has heard the criticism before. He does not defend enough. Vinícius Júnior does not defend enough. Put the two of them in the same Real Madrid attack and somebody else has to do the running. After another round of questions about his work without the ball, Mbappé has pushed back against the idea that Madrid's biggest stars are creating a structural problem for José Mourinho.
Speaking ahead of the start of the Champions League, Mbappé rejected the suggestion that his work rate — or Vinícius' — should be judged simply by how many kilometres they cover. His argument is straightforward enough: different players have different jobs, and the value of an attacker cannot be reduced to how often he tracks an opposing full-back. For a player who has spent most of his career being judged primarily by what happens around the penalty area, it is hardly a surprising position.
Mbappé also has plenty of evidence on his side. His goals have never been the problem. He remains one of the most devastating forwards in world football and arrived back from the World Cup with his reputation enhanced rather than diminished. He believes this could be the year in which he wins the Ballon d'Or, and there is nothing particularly outrageous about that ambition. If Madrid win major trophies and Mbappé produces the numbers expected of him, he will inevitably be part of that conversation.
The problem is that Mourinho is not really being asked to decide whether Mbappé should run more. He has a much more complicated question to answer: how do you build a balanced team around Mbappé and Vinícius without taking away the qualities that make both of them so dangerous? Madrid can afford to leave one elite attacker higher up the pitch. Leaving two there changes the responsibilities of almost everybody behind them.
That distinction becomes important against the best teams. In routine LaLiga matches, Madrid will often have enough of the ball and enough individual quality for the issue to barely register. Mbappé or Vinícius can decide those games with one run, one combination or one moment inside the box. The Champions League is different. Against opponents capable of controlling possession and attacking Madrid's wide areas, every player who does not recover into position creates space that somebody else has to cover.
This is where Mourinho enters the argument. Few managers have built their reputations more completely around controlling space without the ball. His greatest teams were not necessarily defensive, but they were organised. Every player understood what happened when possession was lost, where the next pressure came from and which spaces could be conceded. Mourinho's Inter won the Champions League with extraordinary discipline. His first Real Madrid side became devastating in transition because the defensive structure behind Cristiano Ronaldo and the other attackers allowed them to break with frightening speed.
The current Madrid squad gives him the possibility of doing something similar, but it also presents a problem that cannot be solved by reputation. Mbappé wants freedom to attack the spaces where he is most dangerous. Vinícius is at his best when he can stay high, receive the ball early and attack defenders before they are organised. Ask either player to spend too much time chasing backwards and Madrid risk reducing precisely the threat Mourinho wants available when possession changes hands.
That means the solution probably has to come from the structure around them. Jude Bellingham's positioning becomes crucial, as does the ability of Madrid's midfielders to cover large spaces quickly. The full-backs have to know when they can advance and when doing so would leave the team exposed. Mourinho also has to decide how aggressively Madrid press. A half-press with two forwards disconnected from the rest of the team can be worse than dropping into a compact block and accepting that the opposition will have possession.
Friday's 1-0 defeat at Real Betis did not prove that Mourinho's system is broken, just as Madrid's strong start to the season did not prove that he had already solved everything. Madrid created chances and Mbappé came within inches of scoring when he hit the crossbar, before Álvaro Valles saved his stoppage-time penalty. It was Mourinho's first defeat since returning, and the timing ensured that familiar questions about Madrid's attacking balance returned immediately.
There is a danger in reading too much into one defeat. Mourinho himself praised the collective performance afterwards, and Madrid could easily have left Seville with something from the game. But the result was useful in one respect: it showed how quickly the conversation changes at Real Madrid. A winning streak creates excitement about Mourinho's return; one defeat brings questions about Mbappé, Vinícius and whether the team works hard enough. At this club, there is rarely much space between optimism and crisis.
The Champions League will provide a much better test. Mourinho's first match back in the competition with Madrid comes against Inter Milan, the club with which he last won the European Cup in 2010. Inter will not arrive at the Bernabéu simply to admire Madrid's forwards. They have the organisation and experience to attack the spaces Mourinho's team leave behind, which makes the game an early examination of how far his work has progressed.
Mbappé is entitled to reject the idea that the solution is simply for him to run more. Football at this level is more complicated than that, and asking one of the world's best forwards to spend his evenings behaving like a defensive winger would be a strange use of his talent. Mourinho's job is to create a team in which Mbappé's freedom becomes an advantage rather than a problem somebody else has to constantly repair.
That is why the debate over Mbappé's work rate is ultimately less interesting than the question behind it. Real Madrid have two of the most dangerous attacking players in football, a manager obsessed with tactical balance and a Champions League campaign about to begin. Mbappé does not need to prove that he can score enough goals for Madrid. Mourinho needs to prove that Madrid can carry all that attacking talent without losing the structure required to win the biggest games.
Published by Patrick Jane
07.09.2026