Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti has admitted that Kylian Mbappe is struggling for confidence following his poor performance in the 2-0 loss to Liverpool in the Champions League.
The French forward struggled to impress in the encounter at Anfield, missing a penalty in the 61st minute.
Mbappe was handed the opportunity to play from his favourite position on the left wing following the absence of Vinicius Junior due to injury, the former PSG forward failed to shine.
Ancelotti has urged Mbappe to keep working hard, while admitting that he is struggling for confidence.
He said: “It happens a lot with forwards; there are times when it’s hard for them to score.
“There’s a cure, and it’s patience. It’s a difficult moment for him, above all today, with the missed penalty. Everyone has to support him.
“It could be a lack of confidence. Sometimes, when you have a moment when things aren’t going well, the idea is to play simply, and you can complicate things a bit. He’s scored a lot of penalties. Sometimes you can miss one.
“He has to work, keep fighting, and the moment will pass.”
Alexis MacAlister, and Cody Gakpo scored two second half goals to hand Liverpool the maximum points.
Ancelotti also revealed that Liverpool deserved to win the encounter, which further cemented their place on top of the log.
He said: “We weren’t good enough as a collective, they played better. I liked the team because we competed well, but it doesn’t change much because even if we won, it was difficult to be in the top eight.
“Liverpool deserved to win. They have a real good dynamic at the moment and are in great form. They were really switched on, connected, playing with high intensity.
“We did okay in the first half, we held them and set up quite well and defended well as a unit.In transitions we were okay. But then we lost the ball and once we gained the ball we made the wrong decision going forward.
“We fought right up until the point of the penalty. If we could have evened it up, we had competed well up to that point. But we have to keep going.”
Ancelotti admitted that the team must fight to qualify for the second round of the competition as they occupy the 24th position.
He continued: “This is the road we are on at the moment, we have to fight for everything. There are things we have to improve. And we will improve, nothing more really.
“In the second half we didn’t make the right decisions. But Liverpool were great in the second half.
“This game wasn’t a decisive game in terms of our league position, it was always going to be tough for us to finish in the top eight so we have to finish in top 24 as high as we can. We will be competing in the Champions League knockout stages like we always are.”
Liverpool continued their perfect start in the competition with their fifth straight win to go two points clear of second-placed Inter Milan.
The Reds have scored 12 goals and conceded one in the newly-expanded Champions League.
Real Madrid have only won two out of their five Champions League games this season, losing to Lille, AC Milan, and Liverpool.
Ancelotti Urges Mbappe To Work Hard After Poor Liverpool Outing is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
