Mute for four matches, the captain of the France team appeared blunted during his last outings. He hopes to regain rhythm with the Blues against the Netherlands, in a match counting for the Euro 2024 qualifiers.
He is the last player of the France team to have entered the pitch, head down and face closed, during training the day before the match against the Netherlands, Thursday October 12, on the pitch of the Johan Cruyff Arena. An hour earlier, Kylian Mbappé did not appear at a press conference, giving up his place to Aurélien Tchouameni. The Blues striker, affected by a bereavement which briefly forced him to leave the gathering on Wednesday, did not have the spirit to answer the journalists’ questions. It was time for the field, despite his form being far from optimal.
Friday evening against the Netherlands, in a match counting for Euro 2024 qualifying, Kylian Mbappé will indeed start and will wear the captain’s armband. But what can we expect from the Paris Saint-Germain striker? Mute for four matches with the capital club, the Bondy prodigy is not in a period of uncertainty, because doubt is not allowed in the Mbappé software. But his latest releases have not lived up to his status.
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Against Newcastle, during the Parisian rout in the Champions League (1-4), Mbappé was non-existent. Against Rennes (3-1) last Sunday, he showed unusual clumsiness by shooting above the empty goal after hooking his former teammate with the Blues, Steve Mandanda. “I think that he [Mbappé] was a little tired in this match [contre Rennes]explained Ousmane Dembélé after the meeting. We play every three days, it weighs a bit.”
In search of your peak form
A dull and less successful Mbappé is quite rare and rather surprising. “It is perhaps a lack of lucidity linked to this fatigue and we can wonder if the preparation he had, a little different from the others, is not to blame.“, assures Eric Rabesandratana, former PSG player between 1997 and 2001, and now consultant for France Bleu Paris.
A month and a half after the end of the conflict which pitted him against PSG all summer, the impact of his time in the Parisian loft during pre-season preparation raises questions. After a euphoric start to the season, with eight goals scored in his first five matches, is Mbappé feeling a physical setback? “After what he experienced during the summer, he has the right to be a little worse and less effective“, reassures Didier Deschamps.
By only playing one friendly match – the last 25 minutes of PSG’s first preparation match against Le Havre, at the end of July – Mbappé undeniably fell behind physically. “A player placed in a loft (left out of the group)he will miss volume, work on large spaces, benchmarks, playing time with partners“, describes the physical trainer of a French club.
Despite everything, the captain of the Blues did not spend the summer basking in the sun. In addition to his personal physical work, the Parisian trained at high intensity with the other unwanted PSG players, as the regulations of the Professional Football League (LFP) require clubs to provide facilities and preparation for placed players. in lofts. But this individualized work is not worth the competition.
The Blues to regenerate?
“Now he has to play more matches to rebalance himself. He has to play“, assures the physical trainer. “There is no need to be alarmed, it is a rebalancing that will happen naturally“, agrees Rabesandratana. Even tired, Mbappé must accumulate playing time, without taking any risk for his body, to regain his best level and do wonders in the coming weeks and months.
“The French team can also do him good because they play a lot for him so it can put him in the best possible condition.”, describes Eric Rabesandratana. Like Antoine Griezmann, in difficulty in the past with his club Atlético de Madrid and who took advantage of the international breaks to regenerate with the Blues, Mbappé hopes to find the net against the Netherlands. Which would allow him to equal Michel Platini’s number of goals for the national team (41 goals).
Mbappé was sparkling in the first leg against the Dutch at the Stade de France in March (4-0) – two goals and an assist – and another XXL performance would be welcome, while the Blues can qualify for the Euro in case of victory. Nothing would please the French supporters and Didier Deschamps more, who said on Monday with a big smile: “It would be very good if he regained his effectiveness with us“.