The phrase "hat on a hat" pretty much covers Real Madrid this season, and especially so as they barely objected to being ushered out of the Champions League door by Arsenal. There was a really good team in there, it's just being covered up by their voracious appetites for splashy buys and headlines. It happens, especially at Real Madrid.
Cycle back a season, and Madrid had a pretty functioning outfit. It must've been, considering it collected the Champions League again and La Liga. While no traditional No. 9 was around, the spilt-striker system they used with Rodrygo and Vinicius Jr. worked a treat, providing space for Jude Bellingham to romp into the box late behind their runs and also leaving that space behind opposing central defenses for those not-quite-wingers-not-quite-strikers to slash into. The midfield had the perfect shield-progressor-attacker set-up, with two of Eduardo Camavinga, Aurélien Tchouaméni, and Ernesto Valverde positioned in front of the defense, Toni Kroos connecting that to the attack, and Bellingham the most aggressive.
But something isn't beautiful because it lasts forever. Kroos retired, and Kylian Mbappe had been batting his lashes at Madrid long enough that the relationship needed to be consumated for all our sakes. There's only one club that ever gets the chance to sign someone like Mbappe on a free transfer, and it's not the kind of thing Madrid is ever going to turn down. Toy collection is in their DNA. But that doesn'ts mean it all fit together that well.
Real Madrid had talent, but it just didn't fit well together
Mbappe's arrival, plus the defensive line being wrecked by injury most of the season, which in turn robbed the midfield of Valverde and Camavinga at times--they were needed to plug holes in defense--meant the entire structure Madrid had used the previous season was in ruins. None has been a bigger victim of the tremors shooting out from Mbappe's arrival than Bellingham.
Across the board, in La Liga and the Champions League, Bellingham's numbers are down. Less goals, less shots, less shots on target, less carries into the penalty area, shots from a farther distance, less key passes (all stats from FBref.com). Instead of getting to knife between two forwards who have opened up space, he's stuck behind three. All three of those forwards want to run in behind as well. There's no one to link Bellingham to those attackers from his deeper spot, or to link to Bellingham from deeper in midfield.
His games against Arsenal are a pretty good microcosm of the season. In the first leg in North London, Bellingham was mostly stationed on the left of a midfield four. He couldn't get to the areas he got to so frequently last season from there, especially with whatever possession Madrid had ending in their three forwards sprinting up the field as fast as possible. A Bellingham heatmap should include some time in the penalty area. When it doesn't, that's a major problem.
It's not all on the forwards. Without Kroos, and with Luka Modrić now three days older than water, Madrid lost almost all of their ball-progression. Now it's guys just hitting it up to the forwards and hoping they'll "do something." Those three forwards are so obscenely talented, that "strategy" works a good portion of the time. But not against the elite, it won't. Bellingham has been charged with doing trying to hit those passes or collecting second balls, which isn't really his strength.
Madrid were able to get past Atlético by essentially playing an isolation offense, torn right from the pages of the NBA of 10-15 years ago, stretching Rodrygo and Vinicius so wide that they could just run at a fullback one-on-one. Thanks to a slip during a penalty shootout, they could claim it worked. That limited way of trying to score was never going to trouble Arsenal much. Trailing by three and needing goals, Madrid put up just 0.11 xG in the first half of the second leg. Something was clearly amiss.
Those three can be terrifying on the break, but when that's covered there's no space for a late run, a Bellingham specialty. Mbappe is probably already standing where he'd like to go. It was hard to miss Martin Ødegaard, the kind of No. 10/advanced playmaker once of Madrid, helping to set up Arsenal's first goal in the second leg. Nor was it avoidable that Mikel Merino, even though he's only moonlighting as a central striker because Arsenal have no other options, drop off the front line to thread a pass for Bukayo Saka to run onto, into the space that Merino had opened up by dropping off.
That's the kind of moment and passage Madrid just don't ever get. Mbappe doesn't drop off the front line, meaning there isn't that space for diagonal runs from Vinicius or Rodrygo, and they don't really have anyone to make that pass.
It's an interesting lesson for other big clubs, perhaps, especially Madrid's opponent on the evening. Arsenal have been widely urged to buy a striker in the summer. So have Liverpool. Chelsea's on that list. Barcelona will be whenever Robert Lewandowski retires. Well, Madrid got the best one, and they've gotten worse. Perhaps it's better to see if the pieces fit before getting out the checkbook.
Madrid will probably fix this in the summer. Those rumors of Alexis Mac Allister, are at least a wave at fixing their ball-progression through midfield. The almost assured signing of Trent Alexander-Arnold, if they invert him into midfield, is probably another stab at that. They could get ruthless and sell off one of Rodrygo or Vinicius, or just bench the former, and shift Mbappe out wide again, where he's always preferred to be.
Still, even if the object out there is the shiniest one possible, it's not always wise to add it to your already shiny vehicle. Madrid learned that the hard way.