Mbappe and Vinicius will play together… but not together | Relief

March 5, 2024, 10:54 pm.

A quarter of an hour into the match and it’s a draw. A piece. Even less than expected. La Real lasted as long as Mbappe wanted. Why deceive us?. Kilian seemed to be more motivated than usual. Or happy to retain the opportunity to win his first Champions League. Or be angry at Luis Enrique for making the last two substitutions early. Who knows. The reality was that it was as if he wanted to remember and show who he was and what he wanted to become: the best footballer in the world. Messi of the next decade. No more no less. His goal is nothing less than to become a title collector. About groups and individuals. They all fit in the closet.

And all this in a quarter of an hour. He faked twice and struck out a third time. Great goal. Great goal. Great goal. ¡How easy it is to overcrowd, end up, feint, start and stop in small spaces!

In a very well tactically organized PSG, with great control over the situation and with high pressure injected into the vein by Luis Enrique, the future Real Madrid player played where he always wanted to play. His thinking is easy to imagine. “I play where I want… I’m good, very good.” This. Free verse in a sonnet that sounded good on Anoeta, but very good.

In theory, it seemed that he would be number 9, as in the first match at the Parc des Princes. The most focused striker of the front three. In practice, he was a “lying” striker who knew exactly where he wanted to start to put on his show.. For a footballer with his speed, his change of pace, the natural space created between the full-backs and center backs, it is an invitation to run and get to the kitchen as if he were in the hallway of his Bondi home. Of course, the chosen attack sector was on the left, between Traoré and Zubeldia. His club for life is the same one that, coincidentally, Vinicius usually occupies at Real Madrid.

In short, Mbappe played for the space that he won by hitting it. Another right-hander who positions himself with a modified leg. There he feels most comfortable. Dembele, almost a fourth midfielder, and Barkola, who was very open on the other flank, understood perfectly well that they needed to earn a living and occupy as little as possible the zone of influence of their still teammate. What becomes more clear with each game is that on the right flank Kylian doesn’t even seem to have inherited.

I have no doubt that many Real Madrid fans have already started Forum what will be the position wanted. Two WhatsApp messages during half-time confirmed this theory. Complaints. Doubts. Uncertainty. “This player will want to play on the left flank, where Vinicius is… we have already prepared everything.” It was as if the field was no more than 50 meters wide, and games did not continue until Gil Manzano wanted to! That all problems can be like this. Let two football players of this quality coexist. Vinicius and Mbappe will play together, but not together. And they will switch positions. And they will play alone upstairs. Or with a third partner. And even though Bellingham is behind. Nothing that would keep Ancelotti up at night and that, moreover, the Italian ego-tamer couldn’t solve.