 "Ronaldo wants Mbappe to make one change to improve as a forward: ‘Kylian shouldn’t be a typical striker’")
Kylian Mbappe is considered the best among the current generation of young footballers. His talent helped him secure a move to Real Madrid from Paris Saint-Germain at the start of the current season.
Mbappe, however, has struggled to cope with the expectations at Real Madrid, scoring 15 goals in 20 La Liga matches so far and making two assists. While 15 goals are not less, it’s below the lofty standards he had set at PSG or Real Madrid legend Cristiano Ronaldo made a norm .
Ronaldo, however, has full confidence that 26-year-old Mbappe would be a big success at Madrid as he asked the Los Blancos fans to take care of the French striker.
“I say this to the Real Madrid fans… Take care of the kid,” Ronaldo said in an interview with El Chiringuito. “I have no doubt Mbappe is going to give Real Madrid fans a lot of joy”.
Ronaldo: ‘I love Mbappe’
Mbappe is known to be a big Ronaldo fan, with images of him as a youngster posing with posters of Ronaldo on his walls.
“I love him (Mbappe) very much, and not only because of the story he had as a young man that he loved Cristiano Ronaldo very much and he was his idol,” the 40-year-old Ronaldo said.
“But I really see him as a crack [i.e. a star player], and he is going to give Real Madrid a lot of joy,” the five-time Ballon d’Or winner said.
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One of the reasons Mbappe has been slow to find his scoring form at Real Madrid is the fact that he has been moved to the central forward position. At PSG and in the French team, he played at left wing. But at Madrid, Vinicius Junior plays on the left wing.
Ronaldo asks Mbappe to imitate his playing style
Ronaldo felt that Mbappe still didn’t know how to play as a striker, a transition that the Portuguese international himself handled excellently at the club.
“The striker position makes it a bit difficult for Mbappe because he doesn’t know how to play as a striker in my opinion… It’s not that he doesn’t know, it’s not his position," Ronaldo said.
The Al-Nassr, however, shared a word of advice for Mbappe to excel in his role, asking him not to try to play as a conventional No.9.
“If I were at Real Madrid I would teach him to play as a 9. Because I wasn’t a striker. I got used to playing as a striker. I played on the wing and people forget,” he added.
“Kylian shouldn’t be your typical striker. If I were him, I would play more or less like Cristiano Ronaldo plays as a striker,” Ronaldo shared.
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