After moving from Paris Saint-Germain to Real Madrid, Kylian Mbappé struggled with significant adjustment problems. He scored eight goals in his first 16 games for the club while being used in a central role. As a result, a lot of discussions arose around Mbappé; The fact that he was not in France’s squad for the international trip in November, despite being fully fit, brought him even more into the headlines.
Carlo Ancelotti emphasized that Mbappé never asked for a specific position in the team. But to get his new star signing back on track, he deployed him as a left winger against CD Leganes at the weekend – the position in which he had played so successfully at PSG. In his usual role, Mbappé opened the scoring in the 3-0 win when he capitalized on a chance created by Vinicius.
“It was a good performance from start to finish,” said Ancelotti after the comfortable victory. “The team was solid and focused. We changed the position of the two strikers a little: Mbappé on the wing and Vini Jr. in the center. They did that well. Vini Jr. helped him score.”
Mbappé had already put the ball in the Leganes net in the first ten minutes after a pass from Vinicius. That early goal was disallowed for offside, but his goal in the 43rd minute was legal.
Vinicius grabbed the ball on the edge of Leganes’ penalty area and jumped between two defenders. The Brazilian had only the goalkeeper in front of him and selflessly played a pass to Mbappé, who ended his month-long goal drought.
“He’s more used to playing on the left,” Ancelotti said of Mbappé, who was well rested due to his non-call-up for France’s squad. “Playing on the wing is more tiring than playing through the middle. Vini Jr. returned from international duty on Thursday and Mbappé was fresher than Vini. He scored a goal after a fantastic assist from Vini. Both are getting better little by little.”
While Rodrygo continues to recover from his injury, Arda Güler completed the newly formed offensive. The Turkish international prepared Madrid’s second goal, which was scored by Federico Valverde, who had to fill in at right-back due to injury problems.
Jude Bellingham finally made the clear victory perfect with his goal.
While Real celebrated two wins in a row, Barcelona only got one point from their last two games. The Catalans may still be top of the table, but Ancelotti’s side have reduced the gap to four points and have a game in hand.
“The positive feelings we had against Osasuna were confirmed today,” said Real’s coach happily after a successful tactical experiment. “We are much more compact and focused. Things are going well.”
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