Nine goals in ten games sounds like a headline act. And in many ways, Kylian Mbappé’s 2026/27 season at Real Madrid is playing out exactly as supporters hoped when the Frenchman made the Bernabéu his home. But lurking beneath those impressive numbers is a statistic that will make even the most optimistic Madridista wince — because according to WhoScored, Mbappé has now squandered more big chances than any other player across Europe’s top five leagues this season.
The figure? Twelve. Twelve clear-cut opportunities that have slipped through his boots, or his head, or wide of the post. Twelve moments where a different outcome could have made his goal tally look even more ridiculous. By WhoScored’s own definition, a “big chance” is a situation where a player would normally be expected to score — think one-on-ones, tap-ins, and point-blank headers. Missing one occasionally is human. Missing twelve — and leading the entire continent in doing so — is a pattern that demands attention.
The Numbers in Full
Let’s be fair to Mbappé for a moment. Across his ten appearances in La Liga and the Champions League this term, the 27-year-old has found the net nine times. That is a return most strikers across Europe would take without hesitation. At that goal-per-game rate, he remains one of the most dangerous forwards on the planet, and there’s an argument to be made that the sheer volume of big chances he is generating speaks to how central he is to Madrid’s attacking play — if you’re missing twelve, you’ve been in a position to score at least twelve more times than most.
But that argument only stretches so far. The criticism directed at Mbappé for his finishing in high-promise positions has been a recurring theme since he arrived in Spain, and this latest WhoScored data — shared widely on social media on October 16th — puts hard numbers behind what many had already sensed watching him live. Twelve big chances missed is not just a lot — it is more than anyone else across the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, or Ligue 1 has squandered at this stage of the campaign.
What It Means for Real Madrid
From a purely tactical standpoint, this is both a problem and an opportunity for Carlo Ancelotti’s side. The problem is obvious: games that should be put to bed early are being left open. In a La Liga title race and a Champions League campaign where fine margins separate the contenders, those twelve missed big chances could prove costly if even a handful of them come back to haunt Madrid in the shape of dropped points.
The opportunity, though, is equally clear. Mbappé is getting into these positions consistently — that means the system is working, his movement is sharp, and the service is arriving. If his conversion rate on big chances improves even modestly in the second phase of the season, which historically tends to happen as strikers find their rhythm in a new or continuing cycle, Madrid could become genuinely unstoppable in front of goal. There is a version of the 2026/27 season where this statistic ends up being a footnote rather than a headline.
What’s Next
For Madridistas, the immediate reaction to this kind of stat tends to be a mix of frustration and cautious optimism — frustration because we’ve all seen Mbappé spurn chances that Benzema or Cristiano would have buried without a second thought, and optimism because, well, nine goals in ten games is still a very good return. The talent is undeniable. The cutting edge, when it clicks, is world-class.
What supporters will be hoping to see in the weeks ahead is Mbappé translating the volume of opportunities he is creating into a cleaner, more clinical finish rate. Whether that comes down to confidence, chemistry with teammates, or simply the streaky nature of elite finishing, only time will tell. But with the season entering a critical stretch across both domestic and European competition, Real Madrid — and Mbappé himself — will know those big chances need to start going in.
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