Manchester City’s Champions League campaign is over.
On Wednesday night, Pep Guardiola’s side were hammered by Real Madrid at the Bernabéu, with Kylian Mbappé’s hat-trick seeing the holders easily progress; Nico González’s first goal for the club in stoppage time scant consolation.
It’s pretty indisputable that this Champions League campaign was an abject failure for the Citizens, this their earliest elimination since 2013, with their only victories in the competition coming over Slovan Bratislava, Sparta Prague and Club Brugge.
So, once again, Man City’s transfer strategy is coming under intense scrutiny; did the reigning Premier League champions let their answer to Mbappé go?
Kylian Mbappé's Real Madrid career so far
When the world was watching on Wednesday, Mbappé really came to the fore, scoring all three as Real Madrid swatted Man City aside, the 17th Champions League hat-trick by a los Blancos player, which is a new competition record.
The Frenchman now has 27 goals to his name this season, on target every 113 minutes on average, which certainly isn’t bad, but it hasn’t been all plain sailing since he made the move to the Spanish capital.
Earlier in the season, Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian argued Mbappé’s arrival had disrupted the ‘balance of the forward line’, adding that the Frenchman ‘cut a frustrated figure’ during October’s 4-0 Clásico defeat at the hands of Barcelona, in which he was caught offside eight times, a record-breaking amount.
In November, Didier Deschamps decided to leave les Bleus’ captain out of his squad for Nations League fixtures against Israel and Italy, citing ‘non-sporting problems’, which Mbappé later revealing he’d been struggling with a “mentality issue” throughout the season.
Nevertheless, speaking on the La Liga weekly podcast, former Man United and Wimbledon striker Terry Gibson believes the concerns surrounding Mbappé’s early season form were overblown, and that expectations were merely set ridiculously high when he signed.
Now, having scored 18 goals since the start of December, he is being widely praised, with Adwaidh Rajan of BBC Sport noting he’s gone from ‘adapting’ to ‘thriving’, teammate Jude Bellingham, speaking to TNT Sports after Wednesday’s win, described him as “brilliant” and “dangerous”, while Mbappé himself says he wants to “define an era” and “make history at Real Madrid”.
Man City had no answer to Mbappé on the night, but did they recently sell their own version, a decision they’re being made to regret?
Man City sold their answer to Mbappé
Mbappé wasn’t the only big-name striker who arrived in the Spanish capital last summer because, across the city, Atlético Madrid bought Julián Álvarez from Manchester City for a reported fee of £81.8m.
Chalkboard
At the time, this was viewed as an excellent deal for Man City, with Richard Jolly of the Independent noting they got great value for Erling Håland’s ‘second-choice’, while Steve Price of Forbes added that the Argentine became the Sky Blues’ record-sale.
However, this isn’t so much the case anymore, with Dermot Corrigan and Thom Harris of the Athletic documenting that Álvarez has ‘hit the ground running’ at Atleti, adding that nobody is questioning his transfer fee anymore.
His recent Panenka penalty in a Madrid derby, that finished 1-1 at the Bernabéu, takes Álvarez’s tally to 17 goals for the season, leaving los Colchoneros third in La Liga, just a point behind both Barça and Real Madrid, hence why Graham Ruthven of Total Soccer Show described this as Europe’s best title race.
Interestingly, FBref deem Alvarez to be a similar player to Mbappe among La Liga forwards, so let’s analyse how their first seasons in Madrid compare.
Statistics
Mbappé
Álvarez
Appearances
37
37
Minutes
3,043
2,385
Goals (per 90)
0.77
0.64
Assists (per 90)
0.09
0.15
Goals – xG
0
+3.7
Shots per 90
4.64
2.75
Shots on target %
50.6%
46.6%
Shot-creating actions
111
83
Goal-creating actions
14
12
Touches per 90
37.48
38.15
Take-on success %
44.7%
54.4%
As outlined by the table, Mbappé ranks higher than Álvarez for most metrics, but only just, with the Argentine coming out on top when it comes to assists per 90, take-on success % and touches, admitidly the latter is only marginal.
In this season’s Champions League, only one player, namely Barça’s Raphinha, boasts a higher goals – xG figure than Álvarez’s +3.8, underlining how clinical he has been; for reference, Mbappé’s figure of -1.7 leaves him 862nd, out of 870, in this statistic.
Alex Kirkland of ESPN claims Álvarez could become Atlético’s ‘next great striker’, following in the footsteps of Diego Costa, Radamel Falcao, Diego Forlán and current teammate Antoine Griezmann.
Meantime, Charlotte Coates of BBC Sport believes Guardiola made a ‘mistake’ letting Álvarez leave, with the manager himself admitting “it could be a problem”, having previously described the Argentine as “incredible”.
So, would Man City have beaten Real Madrid if they’d had Álvarez in their ranks? Perhaps not, but it is still looking more and more like a mistake to allow him to depart.
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