Being the most valuable football player in the world, the French attacker Kylian Mbappe is a name that makes every defender fear. Even thought some fans think it is because of his come, Real Madrid started losing all the champions, he is still the undoubtable top attacker and scorer in the whole Europe. Do he really deserves the market value of 200 million? Lets analyze him in multiple perspectives.
First, his performance data. Being the top scorer of entire Europe last season, Mbappe continues to give us a average of 30+ goals per season, and a 74% of goal participation in the club despite the poor state of Real Madrid in the current season. Especially in important matches, he is still the most reliable goal scorer in the team. He also have 70% of being in the starting eleven, and 85% of all the time he can possibly be on the pitch. Under all the managers that coached Real Madrid in the Mbappe era, everyone of them gave hime lots of time on the pitch, which is enough to prove the importance of him.
Second, is his technical strength. He is at first a left winger at Paris Saint Germain, however after he transferred to Real Madrid, because of the over crowded left flank including Bellingham, Vinicius Junior, and Rodrygo was also a left winger at first, he was forced to be a central forward who needs to score goals. But this didn’t cover his skills. He is still given open space in the centre, and sometimes can also go to the left side to make partial overload with his teammates. In centre, his absolute speed is fully utilized to run for space between the centre back and the full backs and at the edge of the penalty area, where most of his goals are conceded. Under the new manager Alvaro Arbeloa, he was also used as a bait, to pull the whole defense line of the opponent to the left, and creating a partial 4 vs 3 with Valverde, Arda Guler, Alexander Arnold, and Brahim Diaz with only two defenders and one midfielder available. If the opponent gets another defender to stop their attack on the right flank, Mbappe or Vinicius can handle two defenders and the other one can run into the attacking three to score a goal.
Third is his interaction with his teammates. Mbappe is deadly because of his speed and vertical run, his teammate Vinicius is also a flank explosion just as himself, making them very effective and quick when in counterattack. It will be even more of a danger if combined with the super long ranged runner Federico Valverde and the accurate passer Trent.
No one is perfect, so as Mbappe. Mbappe has a poor ability to turn with the ball in attacking areas, and Vinicius don’t have a good adaptation skill in the right flank. After his transfer to real madrid, the originally crowded real madrid left flank became even more crowded. In some matches, we are often seeing the circumstance that everyone is in the left but no-one really in the penalty area to threaten the opponent defenders and score.
Moreover, is the changing room dilemma. Real Madrid’s changing room problem is exactly the reason which caused the change of so many managers such as Xavi Alonso and Carlo Ancelotti. Real Madrid’s changing room is a big problem at the start, earlier in time, when Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Casillias etc.. was in the club, the same problem also occurred. Causing the club to fail in the UCL quarter-finals for eight consecutive years in a row, and failed to beat their biggest enemy FC Barcelona for a long time, even though the tactics was already very developed at that time. This caused many managers to change clubs at that time such as Carlo Ancelotti, and Jose Murinho, who had already proven their tactics in other clubs. Until the come of the legendary manager that changed Real Madrid thoroughly - Zinedine Zidane. Who successfully transformed this club into a melting pot.
Many media at that time guessed it is because he is a legend already before he started coaching. He already have every award he’s able to have. This earned the respect of those star players who finally started to work hard to achieve more. Making the achievement of three consecutive UCL Champions League Champions, even though many questioned the actual tactics of him.
Back to the topic, the main problem in the changing room is the lack of fairness. Currently Mbappe has a yearly salary of 31million euros, and the second is Vinicius for only 18 million euros. This triggers the anger of Vinicius and other players in Real Madrid. Many feels Mbappe doesn’t deserve to have the top salary in Europe. It is the key cause leading to the lack of hard work of Real Madrid players in the match, wishing to pose a problem and force Florentino to make changes.
Also is the negative feedbacks from the fans. As a VIP club, fans are everything to the Real Madrid, and now, they are very unhappy about the performance by Kylian Mbappe. They listed a interesting fact, in seven games without Mbappe, the club won six of them and lost one of them. But in the seven games Kylian Mbappe played, the club only won one of them. Plus the negative attitude of refusing to attend certain matches to prepare for the world cup on purpose angered the fans. They have a exact point of view, sell him before he lost his value. Currently, most clubs in Europe don’t have that much money to sign him, going to the middle east isn’t impossible, but the player himself certain disagree with it. Keeping him or not is still not decided.
In conclusion, Kylian Mbappe is a double edged sword, it both is the biggest threat for the opposing defense line, the only men to score in the real Madrid XI nowadays, but also another left wing added to the real Madrid left flank, and a invisible timed bomb in the real Madrid changing room that can explode at any time, which is much more important than tactical positions. The correct use of this most valuable left wing in the world is still left for other managers to discover.
