On Friday evening, Real Madrid dropped points for the third time in four La Liga games, as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Real Betis after a 95th-minute equalizer from Hector Bellerin. 

So, what went wrong for Los Blancos to fail to win again?

Let's begin with the performance of Kylian Mbappe. Once again, the team's dynamics are off with him on the team, and unlike on Tuesday, he didn't score to make up for it. 

During the game, the Frenchman accumulated just 0.19 xG, indicating a clear lack of goal-scoring threat. In the second half, he completely unnecessarily strayed offside before converting an excellent cross from Trent Alexander-Arnold. Very avoidable. 

The dynamics between him and Vinicius have just never worked at Real Madrid. They've both had good games and good runs of form in the last two seasons, but very rarely - if ever - at the same time. 

So far in La Liga this season, Mbappe has 16 non-penalty goals and 18 big chances missed. Meanwhile, Vinicius has nine non-penalty goals and 12 big chances missed. This is simply not enough to negate the lack of chemistry and general team cohesion.

Without Aurelien Tchouameni, Alvaro Arbeloa's side does not have enough steel in the middle of the park. Sure, Federico Valverde and Jude Bellingham are top athletes with great engines, but when it comes to a player to screen the back four and put out fires, Real Madrid have nobody like Tchouameni.

It is clear that Thiago Pitarch is not up to this level, at least not yet, whilst Eduardo Camavinga has been in awful form, and was unbelievably passive for the equalizer last night. Signing another defensive midfielder in the summer should be a priority. 

Some of Arbeloa's in-game management was weird, too. Why did David Alaba come on for Dean Huijsen? Sure, he was on a booking, but you have to trust high-level footballers. The buildup got noticeably worse after that change, which in turn invited Betis onto the team even more. 

Finally, not through the fault of anybody in particular, the injuries are really hurting the team. This goes back to the point about Tchouameni, but also the likes of Arda Guler, Rodrygo, and Eder Militao. Thibaut Courtois, too, though the goal was not much to do with Andriy Lunin. 

So, just collectively and individually really poor at the moment. An incredibly disappointing season. 

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