Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti admitted that his forward Kylian Mbappe is “not at his best … [+] level” following a penalty miss in San Mames which contributed to a 2-1 La Liga loss to Athletic Club on Wednesday.
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Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti admitted that his forward Kylian Mbappe is “not at his best level” following a penalty miss in San Mames which contributed to a 2-1 La Liga loss to Athletic Club on Wednesday.
Alejandro Berenguer put the hosts up on 53 minutes, and Mbappe had the chance to equalize from the penalty spot a quarter of an hour later yet failed.
Jude Bellingham did the honours by converting a rebound after Mbappe struck from distance, but Gorka Guruzeta capitalizing on a bad pass from Fede Valverde near his own penalty box meant that the Basques did FC Barcelona a massive favour and allowed the Catalans to remain four points clear at the summit.
Post match, a journalist at Ancelotti’s press conference reminded the Italian that Mbappe has only scored 10 goals in 20 games after joining on a free transfer from Paris Saint-Germain and has also missed two penalties while not looking “like even 1% of the Mbappe we had seen” in the French capital.
“It’s much more than 1%. He is not at his best level, but you have to give him time to adapt. He has scored 10 goals and is working to do better,” Ancelotti said.
Asked how the Frenchman is after the latest knock to his confidence, Ancelotti answered: “I haven’t spoken to him. It was a complicated match, even, fought, competitive. When we equalised we could think of having control and small details penalised us tonight.
“We missed the penalty… I don’t have to evaluate a player’s game because of a penalty that is sometimes scored and sometimes missed. Obviously he is sad, disappointed, but we have to continue.”
Ancelotti defended Valverde too, saying that “like Kylian” the Uruguayan “is sad and disappointed”.
“He made a mistake, but you don’t have to hit him. Fede is a great player. Mistakes in football are made, like everyone else [makes them]. We have to look at the next game.”
Overall, Ancelotti believed he watched a match that was “even”.
“Athletic is a very dangerous team, we competed and fought. I think the match was a draw. For what the two teams did for me it was a draw, but there’s nothing to say about the fact that they have won,” he said.
“I think we did well defensively in the first half, we could have done better with the ball. In the second half we were better in attack, we had chances. But it’s nothing, we are still in the fight. We could have got a worse result, but we’re there and let’s think about Saturday’s game in Girona. Vinicius has usually taken a lot of penalties and all of them are good. The ones who take penalties are the three of them: Mbappe, Bellingham and Vinicius,” he concluded on this.
