Real Madrid announced the signing of Kylian Mbappe on Monday. Many are already wondering about his position in the starting eleven. Rodrygo seems to be the most affected by his arrival, although he and Vinicius could be paired together in a front-three that has been seen less recently in Carlo Ancelotti’s line-up.
The Mbappe transfer saga has come to an end. Some more issues are opening up after Real Madrid announced the arrival of the French superstar, such as, for example, his position on the pitch. With Real Madrid more than settled as far as the starting line-up is concerned, Carlo Ancelotti will now have to fit in his new star in an eleven in which there will be collateral damage. The question is who will be affected and what formation the Italian coach will use.
You don’t have to think too hard to find the first big stumbling block. The Frenchman shares a position with Vinicius, the big name, at least until now, of the ‘Merengue’ team. Both are natural left wingers and, coincidentally, also share little interest in becoming the offensive reference. In fact, Kylian has already had a few run-ins with former coaches for this reason.
If we look at the BeSoccer Pro heat maps of both players, we find some differences. The new Madrid star has more presence in the central area of the box (10%) than his new teammate (7%), with more inside play (61% inside) than the Brazilian (53%). Mbappe’s 26% of his positioning is on the left flank, with 2% on the right and 11% in the opposition box. For his part, Vinicius plays more on the wing (39%), even less on the opposite (1%) and has 9% of movements in the opponent’s box.
If Ancelotti opts for a 4-3-3, the two of them plus Rodrygo would be the ones chosen for the front-three. One of them will have to play as a No 9, apart from the possible appearances of Joselu in the starting line-up. The former Santos man is not too attached to that position either and prefers to play on the right, an area where he could stay, as, although they don’t look favourably on being centre-forwards, neither Mbappe nor Vini, as we have seen, have hardly had any playing time on the right-hand flank.
This was the main problem until a few months ago, but nowadays, the 4-4-2 with which Real Madrid have been playing seems to be a more suitable alternative. In that case, it would be Rodrygo who would be the big loser, as the idea would be that the former PSG and Flamengo player would form the starting attacking duo. In this scenario, the situation would be less strict. There would be more mobility in attack, with players such as Bellingham playing an even greater role, who could join the attack when the two strikers drop deep. In midfield, in addition to the Englishman, Camavinga, Tchouameni and Valverde would feature, with Modric playing a less important role.