Striker Kylian Mbappé admitted that he lacked fight, leading to poor performance in the first four months of defending Real Madrid.
Moved to Real in August, received a lot of expectations. However, there were only 11 goals in 21 rounds. He scored in his first official match, a 2-0 win over Atalanta in the European Super Cup in mid-August, before scoring six goals in the following month. But after that, the former PSG star only had two goals in game nine, when the home team lost to Lille, AC Milan, Liverpool in the Champions League and Barca in La Liga, before scoring against Getafe and Girona in December.
On the verge of an unusual failure, MBappe was also criticized for his failure as a center forward, being lackluster when seeing Vinicius playing as a striker and taking two miraculous free kicks. These efforts are holding back the career of the player who won the 2018 World Cup, was crowned top scorer of the 2022 World Cup and set a record of 256 goals for PSG.
According to Mappe, he is too impatient to succeed at his new club. To do that, he was under pressure to express himself more and did not achieve good performance.
“At first I was too impatient and that was not good, because I lacked aggression,” Mbappé said on Canal Plus. “But I am passionate and ready to fight. I will succeed at Real.”
Real ranked second in La Liga with 36 points, only close to Barca’s two points and played one match less. If they win the compensation match against Valencia in early 2025, the defending champion will return. And in the Champions League, Real ranked 24th in the group stage, with six points after the match. They have matches left to show a top 24 performance to enter the play-offs into the 1/8 round.
Mbappé added: “We didn’t start well, but at Real you have to wait until the second half of the season. That’s when you are evaluated.”
Mbappe last played for France in September. But after recovering from injury, he was not called up in October and November. The 26-year-old striker admitted that he once asked Coach Didier Deschamps not to call up. September, with new entries Real. After that, the main coach removed him from the remaining month’s plans.
“I wanted to play, but I can’t say why Didier didn’t call me,” Mbappé said. “My love for the team has not changed. I miss the team because I haven’t participated in it for a long time.”
France still played well in two months without Mappe. They beat Belgium 2-0, won 4-1, drew 0-0 with Israel and beat Italy 3-1, to win tickets to the quarterfinals of the Nations League. In March 2025, France will play two quarterfinal matches with Croatia.