It was Kylian Mbappé's first El Clasico to forget after Real Madrid were beaten 4-0 by Barcelona on Saturday. Pundits pointed out what was "ridiculous" about the Frenchman's performance, with one saying he was "playing against himself".
Mbappe had two goals disallowed for offside against Barcelona and was caught offside a remarkable eight times throughout the match. The heavy defeat means Real Madrid are now six points behind Barcelona in La Liga after 11 games.
And although Carlo Ancelotti will be right to question himself, Mbappé's performance when all eyes were on him has been questioned.
Speaking on ESPN FC, Craig Burley effectively criticized Real Madrid for "ripping up the plan" of their double-winning squad to include Mbappé. Burley said: "When someone is caught offside like that, and we talked about it all game, it's funny at the end. This is ridiculous. To continue to be offside while having this level of understanding of the game and experience. Don't he was not the only one, but the biggest culprit.
"I think a lot has happened at Real Madrid. You have recruited these galaxies, these great stars, you have to find a way to do it right. But basically, they took, again, another team that was fluid and had a lot of success and took that model and moved a lot of people around to try to make it work for Kylian Mbappe.
"And yes, they are only a few points behind, but we have seen all the performances, we have seen the games. So far it has not worked.
"They didn't have runners in midfield trying to break the offside trap, and they had one man trying to break it for 95 minutes, and he couldn't do it."
"Maybe they're not as good as we all thought"
Former Real Madrid winger Steve McManaman has also been baffled by Mbappe's continued performances and suggested that he and his teammates were perhaps not as good as everyone thought. McManaman explained: "It will be a great post-mortem. Kylian Mbappé looked unable to play at the end. He lacked confidence.
"Madrid were everywhere, it was a very strange performance in the second half.
"Even at five minutes, Mbappé was still offside. Incredibly, we have this conversation about one of the greatest players in the world, with his fantastic pace, he could not continue on the field.
"It was incredible to watch and watch and it brings you back down to earth when you look at these humbling experiences because maybe they're not as good as we all thought.
"Yes, at times it was extraordinary, but tonight, on the biggest stage, in their first El Clasico, when it looked like they could score at will after 20 minutes of play in the first half, Madrid seemed to miss, and it is a very strange scenario.
"We should not dwell on the poor performance of Real Madrid, because it is disrespectful to Barcelona. They went there one night with some young people and they just crushed Real Madrid.
"It was an outstanding performance, so a lot of credit has to go to Hansi Flick because he's good at playing this style of football against Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappé, but he came away with a fantastic 4-0 win.
Mbappé "plays against himself"
As for why Mbappé struggled so much, former USMNT manager Jurgen Klinsmann said he was "very motivated" - but there were other problems with the players' positions. Klinsmann concluded: "This process will take time and he played a little against himself because he was very motivated in my opinion.
"They have to grow together. They have Vinicius Junior, Mbappé, [Jude] Bellingham - the position he occupied did not work at all; he could have made a huge difference in my opinion if he had played behind the strikers at the number 10.
"Carlo has a lot of work ahead of him, but that's what he's doing."
Real Madrid will have to wait until next Saturday to try to pick things up when they visit Valencia in La Liga.
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