World Cup winner Emmanuel Petit has given a damning insight into the national sentiment regarding France superstar Kylian Mbappe.
Mbappe was a shock omission from Didier Deschamps’ squad for the upcoming Nations League games for Les Bleus.
It marked the second-straight international window Mbappe won’t feature for his country after he missed games in October with an injury, despite featuring for Real Madrid just three days before the international break.
Deschamps revealed Mbappe ‘wanted to come’ and play for France against Israel and Italy, but the 56-year-old made the call not to include the Real Madrid superstar.
Petit, who won 63 caps for France, was asked by talkSPORT’s Jason Cundy if Mbappe had now become a problem in the national team.
The former Arsenal star’s response was telling.
“I think this is the next episode of a long story that started almost 16 months ago with Paris-Saint Germain and the national team.
“With Euro 2024, he was not good at all. The communication is bad, really bad. He’s been amazing in terms of communication for years. Now, it’s not the same anymore.
“The feeling of the French fans is really bad when you talk about Kylian Mbappe, because they don’t like him anymore.
The weight of expectation on Mbappe’s shoulders has grown significantly since his summer switch from PSG to Real Madrid.
Although there was no fee between the two clubs, Mbappe reportedly netted a €150million [£128.5million] signing-on bonus and will earn €35m-a-year at Madrid.
The arrival of the French superstar was heralded by Madrid president Florentino Perez as the final jewel in the crown, but Mbappe has so far struggled to live up to the notoriously lofty expectations of Madridstas.
Mbappe has eight goals in all competitions for Madrid but has scored just once in his last five appearances which, for a player the club heavily invested in, is simply no good enough.
The 25-year-old’s struggles are emblematic of a Madrid side that still doesn’t quite know what it’s best line-up is.
However, Petit stuck up for his countryman when asked if Mbappe was the ‘main problem’ at Real Madrid.
Instead, Petit pointed to another area on the field.
“Everybody is focusing on Kylian Mbappe at the moment,” Petit said.
“For me, the main problem at Madrid is not Kylian Mbappe, it’s the midfield players. [Luka] Modric is not the same player anymore at his age and [Toni] Kroos is not playing anymore.
“When you are Real Madrid, you want the best players in the best positions. Kroos and Modric have been marvellous for years. I know it’s hard to replace them, it’s hard to find the same profile, but you have players actually that can fill up the role.
“For me, this is the problem for [Carlo] Ancelotti.”
One of those midfield stars Madrid already have on their books is England international Jude Bellingham.
The former Borussia Dortmund ace rocketed to superstardom in his first season at the Bernabeu as he scored 20 goals and registered 12 assists in 35 appearances for Madrid.
Most importantly, Bellingham’s best performances came in an attacking midfield role.
Bellingham has struggled for consistency this term having been forced to play on the left and right flanks, with Mbappe’s arrival providing Ancelotti with endless headaches in terms of cramming his best players onto the park at once.
With Bellingham yet to score a goal this season, pressure is on Ancelotti to find a solution to get his midfield ace back firing.
Luckily for Ancelotti, Petit believes he has the solution.
“If I was Ancelotti for one minute, I would try to put Bellingham and [Federico] Valverde in front of the defence, just like the way Bellingham used to play for Dortmund,” Petit said.
“He was amazing in this position. Box-to-box. Valverde is a very good player as well. So I would put them in front of the defence.
“I would put Vinicius left, I will keep Mbappe as a number nine even though it’s not his natural position, and I would bring back Rodrygo on the right.”
Whether Ancelotti opts to listen to Petit remains to be seen, but changes are needed if the Italian is to stop Madrid’s LaLiga campaign from slipping away.
Ancelotti’s side have already fallen nine points behind bitter rivals Barcelona, who sit top of LaLiga with 33 points.
Madrid also copped a 3-1 defeat at home to AC Milan in the Champions League earlier this week to leave them sitting 18th in the table.
The defending Champions League winners will look to arrest their worrying run of form on Saturday when they welcome Osasuna to the Bernabeu.
talkSPORT
