Real Madrid turn to Zidane to save Mbappé‘s season

It seems Mbappé‘s choice of clothing for Real Madrid games this season has not been the most intelligent. He’s playing wearing wellies, trudging through mud, and those jeans are going to be stained for the rest of his life.

Of course, even if it looks like it, Mbappé is not wearing wellies or jeans while he plays, but the Real Madrid shirt clearly weighs just as heavy.

The Frenchman’s beginning at the Bernabéu can been summarised by the fact that it feels like it hasn’t even happened yet: we’re all waiting for him to kick on and strut his stuff but there comes a point where patience slides across the boundary into concern, and Real Madrid themselves may already be there.

While the message after the game against Liverpool, a thumping 2-0 loss, was that of calm, behind closed doors conversations have been had. “We played well until the penalty miss” said Ancelotti about the shot from the spot that was missed by Mbappé, a weak effort swept into the grateful palms of Caoimhin Kelleher in the second half. He may have been calm on the outside, but the chewing gum in his cheek was mashed to a pulp.

As arrogantly confident passes from the Liverpool defenders fired like lasers around a static Mbappé, head hanging off his neck, staring deep into the pitch’s green shoots to see if would open like the new Bernabéu surface and swallow him up, cogs whirred in the hive mind of the fans that their new star might have a problem that went deeper than just form.

Suggestions have been made about his mental health by some in the media which are, quite frankly, out of place, out of line and exceedingly unhelpful to the situation in which Mbappé finds himself. Whether it’s confidence, shoelaces or whatever, he clearly needs help and Madrid have made moves to do so.

According to reports, the club have turned to former player and manager Zinedine Zidane to coax Kylian out of his slump. The retired playmaker is a close ally of Mbappé and was one of the people who told Real Madrid of the young talent at Monaco. Like Mbappé, Zizou also suffered in his first season at the Spanish club, and the two maintain a strong relationship. Wiggling out of tight spaces, be it mental or physical, has been shown to be one of Zidane’s strong points.

Whether or not he teaches him about the pressure of the shirt, the stadium, the fans or the local tapas, one innately trusts Zidane to have some form of impact on Mbappé as he looks to swap his jeans for shorts and get back to blitzing back lines up and down the continent.

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