"The only problem is that I keep seeing this dressing room as cold as it was five months ago." That was Antón Meana, quoted by Foot Mercato in translated comments, and it fits the mood around Real Madrid right now. José Mourinho is dealing with a squad that looks unsettled, while Kylian Mbappé has become the face of a wider discipline debate.

The dressing room mood

Meana also said two footballers, to his knowledge, came to blows. Another source went even further, saying Mbappé had not yet understood how Real and their environment worked. Those are reports, not proof of a full-blown split, but they are not the kind of detail a settled dressing room tends to produce.

The on-field numbers do not hide the problem either. Real Madrid have 15 points from 7 La Liga matches and sit 4th, 6 points behind Barcelona, who have 21 points from 7 matches. They have only one clean sheet in their first 8 matches, the 4-0 home win over Málaga CF, and Thibaut Courtois has already made 28 saves so far, more than three per match.

Mbappé and the pressure around him

Mbappé is still producing. He has 10 goals in 8 appearances across all competitions and 94 goals and 14 assists in 111 matches for Real Madrid. That level of output is why the noise around his recovery and behaviour stands out even more.

Pablo Polo, quoted by goal.com, said Mourinho did not appreciate how Mbappé managed his recovery. The striker had been back in full collective training on Wednesday after withdrawing from France duty with a left knee tendon injury. Mourinho's public line is uncompromising. Speaking to goal.com, he said: "You are a football player 24 hours a day".

Raúl Asencio, quoted by So Foot in comments translated from French, backed Mbappé for the Ballon d'Or and called him the best player among the nominees. That view sits in obvious tension with the scrutiny around him, and it shows how little the outside noise has changed the footballer himself.

Real Madrid now face Villarreal on Saturday, then AS Roma on 14 October, Sevilla on 18 October and RB Leipzig on 21 October. After that comes the Clásico against Barcelona on 25 October at Spotify Camp Nou, and the margin for another bad week is already thin.

Written by Daniel Hartley with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 4 outlets. How we work →