Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe has been as scrutinized as expected in his first months at the club, and the criticisms reached a crescendo after an offsides-laden performance in a blowout loss to Barcelona that all but handed the league lead to the Blaugrana.
Mbappe bafflingly could not play the center forward position in that game, misreading his runs or the offside line with commentators like ESPN’s Julien Laurens reasoning that he wasn’t used to playing the line through the middle compared to the runs and positions he would take up as a left winger.
Carlo Ancelotti even shifted Vinicius Junior, the best left winger on the planet, to the middle to accommodate Mbappe in his favored position, but the Frenchman still failed to impress in that game.
But overall, Mbappe hasn’t been half as bad as the mainstream media will have you think. He is fourth in LaLiga with nine goals scored in spite of his high-profile misses, and even though he hasn’t shown the same juice in one-on-ones, the 26-year-old is still averaging a hefty 2.5 dribbles completed per game.
After looking sharp on the ball and scoring goals in wins over Atalanta and Pachuca, there is optimism that Mbappe is turning a corner in Madrid, and manager Ancelotti seems to be among those in agreement with that sentiment.
The sage manager said, via COPE, “His adaptation period is over, he has now shown a good version. I think he can still improve, but he has done well in the last few games,” he said of Mbappé. “Now he has recovered well from the small injury he had, he is more motivated, he is more excited, he is happy to be here. I think his period, which he obviously needed, because everyone needs it, is over.”
Ancelotti’s words are often prophetic, such is his level of experience in this game, and he has a particular connection with top attacking players; recall that Cristiano Ronaldo’s best goals to game ratio was with Don Carlo as his coach.
So if Carlo is optimistic, Madridistas around the world should be, too. Mbappe has been one of the top 10 players in the league this season statistically despite the negative media attention, and with a more confident attitude and the goals coming faster out of the ketchup bottle, 2025 may yield a fully realized version of KM9 at the Bernabeu.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.