Kylian Mbappe delivered a pointed response to the critics who accused him of making a slow start to life at Real Madrid, insisting that he adapted “quickly, but not very quickly”.
The French superstar joined Real Madrid on a free transfer after decades of fruitless speculation. Mbappe scored 68 minutes into his official debut as Madrid lifted the UEFA Super Cup and found the net on his first Champions League appearance for the club.
Madrid’s new No 9 needed three La Liga games to open up his domestic account and after hitting “rock bottom” following consecutive missed penalties as November bled into December, Mbappe’s record for Madrid stood at ten goals in 20 games.
“It’s a combination of factors,” the France captain told Le Parisien this week. “You have to readjust to a new club, a new country… I was reaching a point in my career where I wasn’t the best in terms of sporting condition, and I had to be at my best right away because we already had finals to play in, a league where you have to win every match because there’s fierce competition, a new Champions League format, matches every three days, seven different competitions to play in…”
“There was a lot to assimilate, and very quickly,” Mbappe continued, adding: “Unfortunately, I only did it quickly, not very quickly. But I knew it would work. The club has always had the best attitude towards me; I knew that at some point, things would change and I would be able to show my qualities in Madrid.”
With so many new factors to process, Mbappe admitted everything grew to be too much for him during the early stages of the season.
“A Euros you don’t win, where you don’t play well, an end to the season at PSG where you play much less… It’s an accumulation of things, injuries, poor performances, things I haven’t experienced much in my career, that force you to have to get back on track to become the player you can be,” he explained.
“I wasn’t overthinking it, but I have such high standards that by wanting to do too well, it may have backfired on me.
“You can’t tell yourself that you don’t know how to play football anymore. But you want to do well, and with every match, you tell yourself that it’s going to be the game that turns the corner. No player in the world loses their qualities. The latest example is [Randal] Kolo Muani. He didn’t rediscover his football on the road between Paris and Turin; it’s just a question of context.”
Since watching his penalty get rebuffed against Athletic Club at the start of December, Mbappe has rattled in 21 strikes across 24 outings. The 26-year-old currently boasts 31 goals, which ranks as the fourth-best debut season in the club’s history, overtaking the Brazilian icon Ronaldo.
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