The reason why Mbappe performed so well in the last two world cups and struggled here is the same reason why he's struggling in Real Madrid. He's not a striker. He's a winger. Mbappe is at his best when there's a tall, big 9 to divert attention away while he slithers past to either score himself or create chances for the 9. Players like Giroud for France or Joselu for Real Madrid would have worked wonders for 25-26 Mbappe but instead, he's forced to play as a 9 in Madrid and France. Even when he's not playing as a 9 for France, he has Dembele as the 9 instead of Thuram. Dembele won the balon d'or of course, but Mbappe needs a striker with hold-up play and heading capabilities instead of a fast one. Also the fact that both Madrid and France don't have a proper 10 just further isolated Mbappe. Griezmann and Giroud did wonders for that France team and this France team will continue to struggle until they figure out that playing the best players statistically in terms of G/A on the pitch won't always result in the best results, and they should instead play one or two of their top performing players and then build around them. Thuram should've started and Cherki too imo.