Physical limits, Parisian comfort or extreme demands: Mbappé, what’s the problem?

He probably couldn’t wait for the damn year 2020 to come to an end. Marked by injuries, average performances, defeat in the Champions League final, it was a laborious exercise for Kylian Mbappé who has always scored but less convinced. 2021 has not got off to a better start. He was first passed by Marcus Rashford, Erling Haaland, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Alphonso Davies in the highly questionable ranking of the most expensive players established by the Football Observatory. More annoying, his failed performance in Saint-Etienne on Wednesday (1-1), perhaps the most dull of his season, shows that he is still running behind his best level.

Months go by and the same question becomes commonplace: what’s the problem? He is undoubtedly living his most complicated season since his explosion among professionals in 2017. If he remains the top scorer in Ligue 1, his inability to carry his team in big matches (two goals in his last ten matches in the League champions) and its empty passages, more frequent and more spectacular, question.

The first and most obvious reason lies in its physical form. Between his severe ankle injury in the final of the Coupe de France, the Covid-19 or his thigh problem in November, he was not spared by the blows of fate but, blinded by his desire to continue, in the end only missed a few matches. Especially in a Final 8 that he played on one leg but played all the same. The Parisian returned to competition too early, lack of rest, physical preparation and pays, quite logically, today. Mbappé is exhausted chasing his best form and his performance at Geoffroy-Guichard is the most striking example.

It is not completely excluded that the world champion will stagnate at a first stage of his ascent. After having had a dazzling start to his career until 2018 and the supreme title with the Blues in Russia, Mbappé is struggling to progress. But that is the fate of every player. Even the greatest. From Thierry Henry, back down to the Hopes or in check at Juventus after winning the 1998 World Cup, to Cristiano Ronaldo, sometimes any in Manchester before 2006, careers are never linear, especially in their infancy. Mbappé’s problem is that he has set up new standards of precocity that pushes to the extreme. But he’s only 22, barely anyway, and going through a period of uncertainty at his age is nothing unusual or worrying about.

Especially since he is not the only one responsible. Ligue 1, PSG and Thomas Tuchel did not push him to his limits, did not challenge him. He lived in Paris under the direction of the German coach in a comfort that did not help him. It was enough to reign in Ligue 1 but not to progress and convince in Europe or even in the France team with which he lived a rather average autumn.

The arrival of Mauricio Pochettino must push him to question and take him out of the standards with which he is content today. It is obvious that the period he is going through is pivotal. Because he has to settle on the ground. What’s his best job today? On the wing or in the axis? Because he must also further sharpen the collective sense of his game without eroding its effectiveness. Mbappé seeks, seeks himself. But it is a necessary step. Progress requires instability, exploration, but also, arguably, failure.

But Mbappé needs to progress to surprise defenses who know better and better how to frame their talent. Here again, Pochettino’s role will be crucial. “People think I’m a jack of all trades. No ! I don’t do everything right (…) “, He already warned in 2019 in the columns of Ouest France. Words that resonate even more after a year of trial and error. In 2021, the situation has not changed. Not yet.