“The story of my career,” Kylian Mbappé called it, which it wasn’t really and would make his career surprisingly average, but at least he was polite. A little political perhaps, too.
After Real Madrid’s 3-0 victory at Leganés on Sunday night, the Frenchman spoke to the club’s TV channel about a game he had started on the left for the first time since his seven-year wait to reach Spain came to a close. He hadscored the opener, ending a four-match run without a goal, 21 shots rattled off without scoring, but his position, he said, was not the reason.
“It was good,” he said. “I’m starting to get the rhythm with my teammates. I said the first day I came here that I can play in every position: right, left, centre, in a two; I don’t mind. Today I played in a different position to the last game and in the next game I might play in a different position again.”
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Or he may not, not now. Because about the time Mbappé was huddled into a hidden corner of Butarque talking to the television, Carlo Ancelotti was explaining that one of the reasons he had switched his forwards for the night was fitness and Vinícius Júnior was in the dressing room telling medical staff that something was not right. With Vinícius out, Mbappé will surely stay in the role that, for all his claims to the contrary, he likes best. Instead of a one-off at Leganés, he will probably occupy the left in Liverpool.
Mbappé spent international week working at Valdebebas, mostly with academy players and was fresh, Ancelotti said. Vinícius, by contrast, had crossed the Atlantic, played 180 minutes against Venezuela and Uruguay, and not been back until Thursday evening.
In the middle, the coach explained, the physical demands are less, hence the switch. Protection as well as play had been on his mind, but Vinícius, who played another 90 minutes, felt something in his left hamstring. The following morning it was confirmed: out for three weeks. He did not board the plane for the UK.
“Harder yet,” ran the front of the sports daily AS and it was going to be hard enough anyway, a test of how real Madrid’s recent revival is. Liverpool came into this round top of the Champions League, having won every game. Real Madrid – and here’s a phrase you don’t hear often – were 18th. Defeated in Lille, beaten 3-1 by Milan at the Bernabéu, the holders’ place in the top eight is at risk. If playing an extra round may not matter much, even that is not guaranteed. Not with Atalanta following Anfield.
After that defeat against Milan, Ancelotti admitted a dreadful result was no fluke but a reflection of a “reality”. Madrid had been battered 4-0 at home by Barcelona and then conceded three more. Many lines stood out that night, including the moment he began: “I can’t say my players are lazy, but …” It would be a “long night”, he said, and that was a good thing, just as he wanted the players to feel as “sunk” as he was: the hurt would force them to react. “We have to find the solidity we had for a long time and which is lacking now,” he said.
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The next time he spoke to his players, he did so in no uncertain terms. “We have talked about it,” he said a few days later, “and we think we have found the solution. I see a motivated team, one that’s conscious of what’s happened. But that’s only words and those get carried off in the wind. What matters is how we play.”
The following afternoon, they put four past Osasuna and then, having scored three more against Leganés, Ancelottisaid he could see some of those qualities again.
There have been changes in shape and personnel. At Butarque, Dani Ceballos had made his second start; Arda Guler, his third; Eduardo Camavinga, returning from injury, his fifth; the centre-back Raúl Asencio had become the first academy product to start in the leagueduring the Italian’s second spell. Some of those were forced by injury and Fran García’s place was probably designed to reserve Ferland Mendy for Anfield. But it worked.
The problem was that they had beaten Osasuna and Leganés. Liverpool are another matter, even if they have not beaten Madrid in their past eight meetings, losing seven. While injuries bring opportunities, they also weaken you. Madrid have had 14 this season. Thibaut Courtois has returned and Lucas Vázquez will make it, just, but Dani Carvajal, Éder Militão, Rodrygo, David Alaba and Aurélien Tchouaméni are missing. And now Vinícius, the man who Madrid’s president, Florentino Pérez, said on Sunday would have won the Ballon d’Or but for the votes of Finland, Albania, Namibia and Uganda, small countries with journalists “no one has heard of”.
He has played every game this season, scoring 12 goals and provided eight more, the latest for Mbappé on Sunday. The last time he went to Anfield, he dragged Madrid from 2-0 down to 2-2 en route to a 5-2 win. In five games against Liverpool, he has scored four and assisted another; he got the winner in the Champions League final against them.
He is the reason Mbappé has not played on the left, where he has been for most of his career, the Frenchman turning up at maybe the only club where there is someone even better in his position. Ancelotti, asked why Mbappé doesn’t play in his usual position, said: “I don’t want to change the player that makes the difference.”
Instead, Mbappé continued in a role where he has not struggled quite as some suggest – he came into Sunday with eight goals – but where he has been less comfortable, less decisive. Ancelotti said “I can’t teach him anything about being a striker. Maybe he can teach me.” That it is a role for which Mbappé is perfectly equipped but he also admitted last weekend that he is “more used to playing” on the left.
“Three games without a goal is not much for most players but for me it is loads,” Mbappé said early in the season; he arrived at Butarque having gone beyond even that but departed having broken that run. Injury had intervened, an opportunity opening: a little good news perhaps in the bad, another story to tell.
