How Kylian Mbappe went from potential problem at Real Madrid to Mr Indispensable under Xabi Alonso

It is worth remembering, first, how we got here. Mbappe's first season at Madrid was a strange one. The raw numbers were nothing short of staggering. He bagged 31 goals in La Liga and 42 in all competitions. He set the record for the most goals in a debut season for the club and won the European Golden Boot. He established himself as the only Madrid player to score in seven different competitions in a single season. 

This is the elite goalscorer Madrid knew they had signed. But the bigger picture isn't so flattering. Madrid may have gotten goals out of Mbappe, but they got little else. 

It wasn't just a lack of assists as much as the way he failed to work as part of the collective. He didn't press. He didn't run. He invaded spaces that others liked to operate in. For a lot of the season, it felt like Mbappe scoring lots of goals while 10 others watched. 

The result was a team-wide failure, Madrid finishing second in La Liga, being bounced from the Champions League, and going a full season without a major trophy. It cost Carlo Ancelotti his job, and threw the rest of the side into jeopardy.

It all left things a little uncertain. The Club World Cup always felt like a bit of a wash for Madrid. They might have retooled before the tournament, but there was an overwhelming sense that they were an incomplete side, outmatched by whomever they faced. 

Paris Saint-Germain beat them in the semi-final emphatically, and it really wasn't much of a surprise. After that game, Los Blancos' media team didn't make a single player available to awaiting journalists. 

Mbappe was hospitalised for a few days during the group stage, but still managed to appear in all three knockout games. In fairness, he grabbed a signature moment, burying an acrobatic volley late on to defeat a resilient Borussia Dortmund in the quarter-final. But he turned in an anonymous showing in the semis against his former club, going 90 minutes without having a real impact.

In fact, the real star of that tournament for Madrid was someone who operated in Mbappe's position. Gonzalo Garcia, a little known academy striker heading into the tournament, paced Madrid's attack during the group stage, scoring in each of Los Blancos' first three games. There was scattered talk that with Vinicius Jr and Mbappe dueling for two spots, he could also make a push. 

Alonso did away with those concerns from day one. Mbappe has started every single game for Madrid thus far, and played all-but 16 minutes of Los Blancos' perfect start to the season. 

Nominally, he has operated as a striker, but Alonso has been flexible in the way he has used him. Indeed, the manager relies heavily on positional play, asking his side to fill individual tasks within a position. Against Osasuna, in the first week of the season, Mbappe played much like a traditional striker - staying mostly central, and offering a run off the last defender when Madrid had a chance to hit on the break. He grabbed the only goal in a slightly unconvincing 1-0 win. 

But he has filled other roles, too. Against Espanyol, he started up front with Garcia. It seemed a confusing set-up. But instead of having two alongside each other, Alonso used Mbappe as a second striker of sorts, linking play and working in coordination with the midfield.

"Today he played in a more different role, as a playmaker," Alonso explained after the game. "We talked about the responsibility he had to be closer to Urko (Gonzalez de Zarate). On (Marko) Dmitrovic’s long balls, that superiority was important. Kylian understands football very well. Today in his role, in a different position, as a second striker, he did very well."

It would perhaps be a bit premature to dub Mbappe a "complete striker". There is a long way to go on that front. But his improvements are clear to see.

But more than anything, Mbappe is a goalscorer. That's why he's here. Sure, Madrid can try to tinker with more versatile genres of him, ask him to do different things against different teams; that's just good coaching. But getting Mbappe into positions where he can put the ball into the net is absolutely vital. And the stats there aren't bad, either. 

Mbappe has scored seven in six games. He bagged two against Levante in a 4-1 win, two against Oviedo in a 3-0 win, and played a crucial role in a signature Champions League comeback. He has scored or assisted in all but one of Los Blancos' contests so far.

The underlying numbers make for good reading, too. Mbappe is being clinical in front of goal. Thirty-three percent of his shots have been on target - the best mark in the league. He leads La Liga in goals, expected goals and shots. But he has also created 18 chances, and is in the 96th percentile in pass completion percentage.

More impressive, though, are his defensive figures. He has won possession in the final third 10 times, putting him in the 99th percentile among all La Liga players. He is winning his duels at a higher rate than in previous years. 

So, while the assumption had always been that Mbappe was perhaps a little one-dimensional, that perception is eroding, little by little.

But, of course, there's a knock-on effect. Last year, Ancelotti effectively gave up on trying to configure a system in which Mbappe and Vinicius could play together. He simply resorted to a 4-4-2, played on the break, and trusted the duo to combine. A lot of the time, it simply didn't work, two of the world's best players just getting in each other's way. 

Alonso hasn't cracked the code, either - not quite, anyway. Vinicius is still working his way back to full fitness after enduring a limited pre-season, but the duo have only started two games together. And there are a lot of familiar patterns as a result. 

Mbappe creeps over to the left a little. Vinicius is reluctant to switch and ghost into the middle. The cute combinations that many had hoped would simply develop still aren't there yet.

It has all done little to quell fears that the duo are fundamentally incompatible. Some had called for Vinicius to move on at times last season. That felt perhaps a little premature. But there has been scant evidence thus far to suggest that he and Mbappe can play together. That is one of the bigger problems Alonso will have to resolve. 

There are probably two goals remaining in Mbappe's footballing career. The first is a team-wide effort. He certainly wants and probably needs to win a Champions League. That is the only trophy he is yet to claim. 

This is a footballer who lifted the World Cup as a teenager, broke PSG's all time goalscoring record in his early 20s, and has won countless league titles already. At this rate, he will almost certainly be La Liga top scorer again. But a Champions League is still a glaring hole in his trophy cabinet. 

Winning that might unlock his second remit: to win the Ballon d'Or. A player of Mbappe's talents really should have done so by now. It was assumed, for some time, that Mbappe would be the singular star of the post-Lionel Messi generation. If Messi had won eight Ballons d'Or, there was a chance that Mbappe could claim the next five. His raw talent is more or less unmatched in his era.

Obviously, this year's iteration passed him by. Ousmane Dembele deservedly claimed the award Monday afternoon after a treble-winning season with PSG - filling the role that Mbappe never could for Luis Enrique. 

But now, Mbappe has a manager that he is clearly willing to play for and the goals are coming. Sure, Dembele won this one. Lamine Yamal will also be a favorite in 12 months. But the early pieces are in place for Mbappe's personal campaign to take flight. And that might be the ultimate measure of what could be a career-defining campaign.