Real coach answers critics
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Kylian Mbappé has scored eight goals and two assists in 16 games for Real Madrid since his move around 100 days ago. Actually not a bad yield. Now the 25-year-old has not scored in four games in a row, including during the painful home defeats against Barcelona (0:4) and Milan (1:3). The success of the biggest transfer of the summer is therefore being hotly debated in the transfer market community and club-affiliated media such as “Marca”. There is also the question of position: Does Mbappé prefer to play on the wing occupied by the much more successful Vinicius Junior (24) than on the nine? Real coach Carlo Ancelotti found answers on Saturday regarding both this and Mbappé’s form.
“Kylian never asked me for a position on the pitch. Like everyone else, he wants to be in the first eleven. “He and Vinícius don’t have a fixed position on the pitch, they can change positions depending on the game situation,” the veteran Italian coach told “realtotal.de” at the press conference before the game at CD Leganés not far from Madrid on Sunday evening (18.30). clock) quoted.
The question of Mbappé’s ideal position is causing a lot of discussion in the TM community’s real forum. “You have to accept that Mbappé will probably never move like a real nine because he has never learned how to do it,” writes forum sponsor “Ann04”. “And even if he does move like that at some point, it will still take months, maybe even years. Just because Mbappé is lined up as a nine doesn’t make him a real nine. (…) The movements that a nine player makes have a lot to do with the individual game situations. The nine must quickly recognize whether, in the given situation, they should tie the central defenders directly, come towards them or offer a deep running path. This is not Mbappé’s game. In recent years he has also made deep runs from the (half) left or (half) right, but hardly from the middle. You can also see this in Mbappé’s movements in the penalty area. He usually moves where the advancing winger or the advancing ten would move. He probably does this instinctively because that’s what he’s learned and has been doing for years. An Endrick, for example, who is of course still very raw, instinctively moves completely differently when playing with the ball and in the penalty area.”
User “TitoMundial” replies: “Mbappé is a footballer who has already scored around 300 goals in his career and who should actually know how to run. With his speed, it ultimately doesn’t matter whether he starts from the left, right, center, half-space or anywhere else. I don’t know if he imagined it would be easier, if he’s putting too much pressure on himself or whatever else it is, but what he’s shown here so far is really poor.” The French striker legend Thierry Henry had previously appeared on the TV station “CBS” linked Real’s offensive problems to Mbappé’s positioning.
Ancelotti: Speculating about Mbappé’s psyche is “ugly”
Ancelotti brushed off another question about Mbappé’s alleged mental problems: “What a question! It doesn’t seem that way to me because I see him happy and relaxed. It doesn’t seem like he has this problem to me. At least he doesn’t show it. In my opinion, speculating about this is ugly.”
There have been corresponding reports since October. A muscle injury interrupted his run of five straight games with at least one goal each. In order to fully recover, Mbappé canceled his trip to the national team in the middle of the month, but was then spotted in Stockholm – and was then named by the media in connection with an investigation into an alleged rape. He is said to have canceled the international matches in November due to psychological problems. Coach Didier Deschamps confirmed after the 0-0 draw against Israel that the exclusion was not a sanction: “Everyone has the right to go through a difficult time, there is the physical and the psychological aspect.”
In any case, Ancelotti was convinced on Saturday that Mbappé will soon overcome his recent problems: “He had the opportunity to train and did it well. He has improved his condition. Hopefully tomorrow he can show all his qualities, of which he has many. A negative run happens and has happened to every great striker. There are times when a striker doesn’t score, which can make him a little frustrated. That’s not the case with Mbappé because he seems motivated and happy to me. The run will come to an end. I’m convinced he’ll have a great game tomorrow and this run will end. It’s just a matter of time, he has huge quality and will show it sooner or later.”
