‘Mbappe and Vini Jr are playing well together’ — Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti backs misfiring superstars

Carlo Ancelotti has no doubt that Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior will come good after an underwhelming start to their attacking partnership at Real Madrid.

Los Blancos are yet to hit top gear in their LaLiga title defence and host Real Betis on Sunday having taken five points from their opening three matches.

Mbappe marked his Madrid debut with a goal in the 2-0 UEFA Super Cup win over Atalanta but the France superstar is yet to find the target in three LaLiga starts.

Vinicius salvaged a draw from the penalty spot at Las Palmas last time out and that is the only time either of the two marque forwards have scored in Spain’s top flight this term. Rodrygo netted in Madrid’s opening 1-1 draw at Real Mallorca, while Federico Valverde and substitutes Brahim Diaz and Endrick were the goalscorers in a 3-0 victory over Real Valladolid.

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“I think they’re playing well together,” Ancelotti told a pre-match news conference. “The problem of scoring isn’t a small detail, because obviously, it’s important for a forward. You can always play better, faster and show more movement, but the offensive problem isn’t specific to these games because we’re scoring in all of them and I’m sure we’ll improve. 

“The problem isn’t there. With time Mbappe and Vini Jr will combine better, but also Mbappe with the midfielders. We won’t have any issues offensively, we’ve never had any problems and even less so this season when we have the best players in the world.”
 
One problem flagged up by several observers is that Mbappe and Vinicius each prefer to play on the left of a front three.

“Mbappe and Vini Jr can change positions on the pitch, but we’ve played more with Vini Jr on the left and I think we’ll continue like that,” Ancelotti added.

Author(s)

Dom is the senior content producer for Sporting News UK.