Karim Benzema has offered insight into why Kylian Mbappé has struggled to make an immediate impact at Real Madrid, focusing on his positional challenges.
After joining Los Blancos from Paris Saint-Germain in the summer, Mbappé’s start to the 2024/25 season has been underwhelming, despite high expectations following his move alongside Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior.
Benzema believes the issue lies in Mbappé’s positioning on the field,
“The problem for me is that Mbappe is not a centre forward,” he told El Chiringuito TV.
“Every time he plays for France as a ‘9’ he is not good, it is not his position. The problem is that on the left there is another player who is at the same level as him. You can’t put Vini on the right or as a centre forward, where he makes a difference is on the left. Let’s see how Ancelotti does that.
“Mbappe is not a ‘9’. There is a lot of pressure at Real Madrid, this is not PSG. A piece of advice? He shouldn’t give up.
“I don’t think Ancelotti is going to move Vinicius, he’s the best in the world right now in that position. Mbappe has to get it into his head that he has to be a ‘9’ and forget about the left. He’s been very good on the left and now he has to be good somewhere else.
“My situation in my first year and Kylian’s is different. I was 21 and he is 25, it’s not the same. He knows that there is a lot of pressure at Real Madrid. If you don’t score a goal in two or three games, they’ll kill you. He has to learn to live with that. He has to put up with that pressure.
“Every game is new and you have to score goals, they brought him for that and he has the level for it.”
Despite scoring eight goals in 14 appearances so far, Mbappé is far from replicating his prolific form at PSG, where he netted 44 goals in 48 games last season.
Article updated 11 months ago. Content is written and modified by multiple authors.
