This time, I will write about Kylian Mbappe, a new hero in the soccer world. I wrote down his profile, playing style, strengths and weaknesses. I am sure that reading this article will help you better understand Mbappe.
Kylian Mbappe
Mbappe, a Paris Saint-Germain FC soccer player, is of French nationality and plays as a striker. He is currently serving as captain of the French national team and vice-captain of Paris Saint-Germain, and led France to victory in the 2018 World Cup.
In Ligue 1, he has won 4 Player of the Year awards, 5 top scorers, and 1 assist top award, and has achieved individual achievements such as the 2018 World Cup Rookie of the Year Award, 2022 World Cup Golden Boot, Trophy Kopa, and Golden Boy. In addition, he has won a total of 12 trophies at PSG, setting the record for the most offensive points in PSG history and the highest scorer of all time.
Mbappe was born in the 19th district (Buttes-Chaumon District) of Paris, the capital of France, and is of mixed black and white race. He started playing soccer at AS Bondy as a child and showed outstanding talent. He spent his youth days at Chelsea FC and even met Chelsea star Didier Drogba on a tour of Stamford Bridge.
Afterwards, he wanted to join another big club's academy, but his parents advised him to stay in France. He trained at Clairefontaine, the French national youth training institution, on weekdays and at AS Bondy on weekends for two years, showing outstanding skills. Real Madrid invited Mbappe to meet Mbappe's idol, Cristiano Ronaldo, in November 2012, and this was such a special experience for Mbappe that he was mentioned several times even after his debut as a professional player.
Mbappe's position
Mbappe can play both winger and striker positions adeptly. When playing as a wing forward or a top striker with a competitive striker, he performs better than up front. Previously, he played the role of second striker in Monaco's 4-4-2, and after moving to Paris, he mainly played as a right wing forward until the Russian World Cup.
However, after Coach Tuchel took office, he mainly played on the right side until the 2018-19 season, but from the 2019-20 season, as Neymar took his place as a central free-roll or false nine, he also started playing as left wing forward or at the front line. In the early days of Pochettino's tenure as manager, he was established as a left wing forward, and during this period, Mbappe displayed the best performance of his career.
However, starting from the 21-22 season, he moved to the front line with Neymar and Messi. For the French national team, he played between left and center, but after Karim Benzema's return, he formed a duo with Benzema. Under coach Galtier, he has been active as a left attacker and up front, and at the Qatar World Cup, due to Benzema's injury, coach Deschamps brought back the tactics from the Russia World Cup and played as a left wing forward.
Mbappe’s style of play
Mbappe is one of the fastest soccer players. His top speed is 38 km/h, and he is more famous for his speed than Erling Haaland or Vinicius Junior. However, he is not simply a fast player. He uses his long strides, overwhelming agility, and elasticity to accelerate into an instantaneous sprint, which makes him feel overwhelmingly fast as he competes for the world's fastest speed.
His line-breaking ability, which actively utilizes his speed, is an outstanding ability that destroys the space behind the opposing team at once and creates many goals. He also moves smartly when attacking, and has the ability to create numerous chances by recognizing the positions and strengths of his teammates and creating space by moving to catch up with defenders or create space for teammates. Mbappe's line-breaking ability provides modern soccer coaches with tremendous tactical options, and is especially the best tactic for coaches who emphasize post-player counterattack tactics. The French national team is also a team where the importance of Mbappe is highlighted. He is not only a powerful player on counterattacks, but also has an excellent ability to quickly break the line and create a one-on-one situation with the keeper even in a ground attack situation.
Mbappe's dribbling style
Mbappe is a penetration dribbler, and like this type of dribbler, he places the ball on the outside of his right foot and uses his speed ability to simply hit, accelerate or decelerate to steal the defender's timing, and mainly uses scissor feints.
He has excellent individual skills and can confuse defenders by using flashy footwork and small techniques, and because he has high instantaneous speed, he can easily beat defenders with a simple run. Starting in the 20-21 season, thanks to the constant bulking up he has done since his debut, his body has been perfected, so he is not easily pushed aside in physical fights even by players who are famous for their physical strength in Europe, and even if the ball touch is slightly off, he pushes his body and shows superiority. Breakthrough scenes are also frequently shown.
Mbappe is the player who recorded the most successful dribbles in the Champions League from the 16-17 season in which he debuted to the 20-21 season, excluding Messi and Neymar, and ranked first in the number of successful dribbles in the 20-21 Champions League. Therefore, he is recognized as one of the best dribblers in the world. Additionally, he ranked first in overall dribbling success at the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
Mbappe's goal scoring ability
Mbappe has excellent goal-scoring ability, and has reached a level where he can score more than 40 goals every season since the 18-19 season, when he was the top scorer in Ligue 1. He has a very good touch in the box, creates the optimal posture for shooting after receiving the ball, and is constantly bulking up to maintain a strong body that does not easily lose balance. In addition, based on his naturally excellent ankle strength and accuracy, he has accurate and powerful kicking power, including shots aimed at the corners of the far post and near post, chip shots, and shots aimed between the goalkeeper's crotch.
When he is interrupted by a defender, he easily peels off with a feint move, creates space and hits, and because he uses both feet well, he can shoot with either his left or right foot. In particular, hitting hard at the near post has become another trademark of Mbappe. Despite his young age, he shows composure in the box, one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and the altruism to pass to a teammate in a better position for a scoring opportunity, and these strengths are expected to further develop as he gains experience.
Mbappe’s shortcomings
Mbappe is being criticized for his lack of activity. It is known that former teammate Neymar runs 9 to 10 km per game, and Erling Holland runs around mid to high 9 km, while Mbappe runs close to late 8 km to low 9 km. However, Mbappe is less active in order to make full use of his sprinting ability, which can place many tactical restrictions on the opposing team. Also, in Paris Saint-Germain's counterattack situations, you can see Mbappe mostly at the front line. However, it was also pointed out that it was weak against teams that used defensive tactics due to a lack of detail in linkage play and dribbling. However, starting from the 21-22 season, he practiced a lot with headers, improving his accuracy and strength, and recording many header goals, creating a threatening situation with his perfect offense even against teams that used defensive tactics.
Mbappe is also a strong big-game player, one of the players to score in two consecutive World Cup finals, and the first player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final 56 years after the 1966 World Cup in England. Even in the Champions League, he accounts for a significant portion of the team's goals and his goal purity is also very high. He is also good at PK kicking and is playing full-time in both the club and national teams. However, it is pointed out as a disadvantage that the goalkeeper is not able to read the direction well because he does not make moves to deceive the opponent when kicking a PK.
In the Champions League, activity level and activity radius are very important. As a result, a pattern that repeats itself from the Monaco days appears every season. In modern soccer, forward pressure is essential, so when the opponent is strong, having one player run less and focus only on counterattacks and quick attacks is a major disadvantage in terms of the team's energy level. In particular, in the case of Mbappe, it is difficult to take advantage of Mbappe's strengths if the opposing team blocks the space behind him, and it is difficult to win the game in a numerically inferior situation with one less player playing. Therefore, Mbappe will always be criticized.
Mbappe’s expectations
Despite being born in 1998, Mbappe has scored more goals in the Champions League tournament than Thierry Henry, Luis Suarez, Neymar, Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Didier Drogba, Ricardo Kaka, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, with Real Madrid, He scored against strong teams such as Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, and Manchester United.
There was a player who scored 12 goals at the Qatar World Cup. At the age of 23, the player surpassed Thomas Müller's record of 10 goals as the World Cup's top scorer, and was only 4 goals behind Miroslav Klose's record of 16 goals. This player played a pivotal role in the team's victory at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, scoring the winning goal against Peru in the second round of the group stage, a hat trick against Argentina in the round of 16, and the winning goal against Croatia in the final. In addition, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar, he showed a shocking performance by scoring multiple goals against Denmark in the second round of the group stage, multiple goals against Poland in the round of 16, and a hat trick against Argentina in the final. The player is tied with Ronaldo as the all-time leading scorer in a World Cup tournament, and is very likely to become the sole leader at the 2026 World Cup.
Among players who have played more than 50 games in the Champions League, Mbappe and other players have the highest attack points per 90 minutes, including tournaments and other competitions. Despite being only 23 years old in the 21-22 season, Mbappe scored 33 goals in 53 games in the Champions League. At the end of the group stage in the 22-23 season, he became the youngest player to score 40 goals in the Champions League and is challenging 50 goals. This is expected to surpass the records of Henry and other legendary strikers. Mbappe is also among the top in assist records, and since 2016, when he started playing in the Champions League, no player other than Mbappe has had a higher number of attack points.
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