Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian Mbappe has reached the point in his career where even after a sluggish run of games, he will be criticized and questioned for his down performances. This has been the case as of late with the French forward scoring a total of four open play goals in his last 13 appearances in all competitions.
Former French midfielder Emmanuel Petit has noticed Mbappe’s recent underperforming showings and notes several factors for why this is the case. The French forward is currently fit and available to feature for PSG, but Petit notes that mental and physical fatigue could come into play for his recent underperformances.
Petit spoke about Mbappe’s play to RMC Sport.
“Apart from the issues related to his physique and possibly his mind, I have the impression that he has tangled up in his brain and that he needs to take a step back and regenerate himself,” Petit said. “But I find that even before the pandemic, I already found that he started to change his attitude on the pitch both on the pitch but also when he had the ball or when he didn’t.”
More so, Petit is signaling out that Mbappe is doing too much on the pitch, including attempting to play and take over games like Neymar has done many times for the club.
“He has a bodily expression that does not seem positive to me,” Petit said. “I have the feeling that it is ‘Neymarized’ that he wants to do what Neymar does on the pitch when he does not have the qualities of Neymar at all.
“I also have the impression that his opponents have well analyzed his main quality: speed. The real quality of this boy is to play on spontaneity and not to take the lead.”
Mbappe could begin to turn around the talk with his performances if he has a strong showing in PSG’s upcoming Ligue 1 fixture against Brest.
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