Mbappe was always gonna be a tricky valuation We look at his numbers and they are amazing. But we also see how much his club teams have struggled and won without him. Patrick Ewing effect? I dunno. But i wanna see him on the LWF with a proper 9 without Vini. Or at least Jude as a false 9.
What has Mbappe done that’s wrong in 2025? If you take every other attacker (Vinicius, Rodrygo, Brahim, Gonzalo, Endrick, Mastantuono) and tally all their goals this season together … Ferran Torres has scored twice as many. It’s not that complicated. These guys are failing.
I have written extensively what he has done wrong and yes it is complicated, because stats never tell the whole story.
He presses and defends as much/few as the other strikers in the game. On one hand you say he should be playing on the wing instead of as a striker, but on the other hand you want him to fall back and create numbers in defense when he's leading the line in attacks and counters. Those two don't mesh, but considering your dislike for the person, your judgements is clouded.
Not true at all. And yes the options were always either put him on the wing where he gets to do the CR7 act with a striker who hustles instead of him, or defend from the top. Which is not "fall back and create numbers at the back" but press with intensity and purpose, so that the next line (midfield) could win the ball, and not delegate this to that line, so that they are in scramble mode and you have opposition suddenly facing our backline. Also in case you didn't notice, its not only his defensive contribution that is the problem for me. His inability to anticipate plays, position himself properly, lack of coordination when it comes to the other players positioning and movement, lack of combination play ability, poor decision making when it comes to when to dribble or pass or where to run, all of this is killing our offensive game because hes the entire focus of it. But sure a couple of times he will hit someone on the counter with his pace or score a screamer from outside the box and everything is fine. Except its not.
Do you think Mbappe prefers to be a winger? I’m Just curious if he likes being a striker or if he’s there out of necessity
He wants to be a striker because of several reasons. But it mostly comes down to him being insanely self centered. First of all he likes to be the focal point of the team and get set up more for goals instead of creating them, because scoring does more for the career than assisting. Second he can have the excuse that you constantly give him "his job is just to score the goals" so he doesnt have to do anything else. Its all about his obsession with his career vision, self and outside perception, brand, image and all that. He saw his idols like Henry, Neymar and Cristiano move from the wing to the center so in his head the way to be a great like them is to follow their footsteps. Thats the biggest problem with Mbappe. Hes obsessed with his own legacy and his achievements. Its all about himself, he has zero team orientation and when thats your biggest player, the mentality spreads to the others. And because of his name, he can impose his decisions to the coach/squad building. Im sure he figured "its a perfect situation for me because Vinicius is there so they are not going to replace him, and I get to reap the rewards". Look how that turned out. Karma is a bitch.
You want him to have the movement in the box of Van Nistelrooy whilst still maintaining all his other attributes. Come on, every player has pros and cons. Overall, he’s been phenomenal.
His conversion rate is completely ridiculous, and his assists would be significantly higher if we'd have another guy on the team that would score them. Bottom line he is in the argument for the best striker in the game right now, which not a single other player on our squad is. If i have the arguably best performer in the world in a position, i don't worry about it, i worry about the other 9 that are not. You're just throwing buzzwords around for a lack of true arguments. It's like me saying Courtois doesn't pass the ball well enough, doesn't translate into commanding the game outside his box like Neuer does, literally nitpicking on an expanded scale.
I'm not even begrudging him box movement. I don't want him to be Ruud, thats a different player. But if he wants to be Henry, Benzema or Cristiano, he falls way short. And thats also without taking defense into account. His spatial awareness vis a vis teammates, linkup play, timing of his actions is just whack. This absolutely ruins a team's attacking gameplan and relies on his speed on the counterattack or just shooting ability against a deeper defense. Its not sustainable, and its not effective. Thats why Im saying at least compensate for this by playing actual defense. He would reduce the negative impact he has with the offense flow. If anything it easier to do because it requires simply more effort than rewiring neural pathways so that he sees the game differently. That is, more running than learning. ffs, GPG is NOT everything. Again, this is what HE should do, in order for us to keep the bulk of the current roster. But if he can't or he won't, since moving him is obviously out of the question, we have to change the team to mask for his deficiencies. Whose fault will that be again? Well obviously the guy who brought him in the first place, but then also HIM for not being better in critical areas, and showing no signs of improvement or even acknowledgment of this.
I just don’t agree with what you’re saying. He’s been sharp on the ball, the first touch has improved so much from last season, he can get past people one on one inside the box with ease, and he’s serving teammates with scoring chances which he wasn’t doing last season. To me it’s very surprising to read someone who watches the team every game not be happy with Mbappe’s performances.
Yeah. Mbappe built up a lot of negative energy with the fans before coming, but there’s no point on holding to that. We have other dickheads in the squad to hate this season .
Reliable scoring was a MAJOR issue for this team. We all agreed we can't rely on players going on career best streaks as a solution.
Mbappe is way better than Henry has ever been lmao. He's the best player on the planet and is doing things on the pitch only all-time greats are capable of. This guy reached two world cup finals back to back in his only two world-cup participations and broke records we havent seen since Pele. I don't think there's much to criticize.
Such a MAJOR issue that the club won the league and UCL even without Benzema. Really can’t wait to celebrate Mbappe’s pichichi at the end of the season.
You could say this about every single move we made after firing Carlo. Selective Karma doesn't exist, "It's Karma, but only where i think it is". Absurd. So i guess with Mbappe missing the game vs City, we should instantly beat them, because it's the winning, recipe, right?
Diaz has created a successful 1-2 punch with Kane in Munich with Kane being the number 1 and Olise being a creator, our players think they are Kane in every single context within the squad. Bellingham thinks he get preference over Fede, Fede thinks he gets preference over Jude, Guler thinks he gets preference over both etc. When you create this flat hierarchy, you need to have players that understand it.
Is it the new Lionel Messi-Cristiano Ronaldo debate?Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland meet for just the third time on Wednesday, when Real Madrid host Manchester City in the Champions League.Both are scoring at a sensational rate — and they are both changing, in interesting… pic.twitter.com/yoEYQG5yiv— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) December 10, 2025
It's clear that some players feel that they should be number 1. As an example: my impression of Mbappe so far is that he might be a bit too humble in how he expresses himself on the pitch (I don't know him, I just see him on the pitch and he gives me that impression), which may have given several other players the impression that they are or should be the absolute icon of this team. A bit exaggarated of course, but a healthy team hierarchy and dynamics are essential, and it's clear that things are absolutely not healthy in that regard. Something with two captains and one ship.
WOW attack looked so much better today without this guy, glad we sorted out the main issue. Vini's IQ even tripled!
Vini gonna retard either way. But spacing, structure, movement... all better without Mbappe. Hes not a 9, Gonzalo is a 9, just not elite one. Sell Vini, buy Osimhen, move Mbappe to the left. Thats all.