Mbappé-Luis Enrique, truce before the return match against Real Sociedad in the Champions League – – 2024-03-07 06:32:15

Nobody considers the conflict between PSG coach, Luis Enrique, and his captain, Kylian Mbappé, closed, but both parties seem to have reached a truce ahead of the decisive round of 16 match of the Champions League next Tuesday in San Sebastián against Real Sociedad.

The scuffle last Friday in Monaco, when the coach changed the player during the break without giving him any explanation and he, instead of following the game on the bench, went to the box with his mother, made it clear that there is tension in the atmosphere.

But both the club’s all-time top scorer and the current coach have enough reasons to try to make the most of this situation.

It was Mbappé who this Saturday before training at the Poissy sports city knocked on the door of the coach’s office to ask for explanations.

Two weeks after it was announced that he had informed the leaders of his intention not to continue, the world runner-up does not want his last months in his hometown to be an ordeal and intends to leave the best possible legacy in the form of titles.

That is why he asked Luis Enrique for explanations about his change of attitude. On February 13, on the eve of the first leg against Real Sociedad, the Spanish coach assured: «When a team has a player of Kylian’s caliber, the only thing we can understand is that the more he plays the better, for the benefit of the team. equipment”.

Since then things have changed in the head of the coach, who assures that now that he knows that he will not have his star for next year, he has to start preparing for the future.

Mbappé did not start in Nantes in the first match since it was rumored that he would not continue, he left the field on the hour of the game against Rennes in the next one, and did not leave the locker room after the break against Monaco.

In total, for an essential player the balance is low, since he has only played 50% of the possible minutes.

In Luis Enrique’s office, Mbappé did not find an explanation very different from the one the coach has been giving to the press: the team is preparing to play without him.

From the meeting, the forward came out with good words but without any guarantee. Luis Enrique did not promise him more minutes or more indulgence. He told him, yes, that he would be in the key duels, starting with the Anoeta clash next Tuesday.

The Spanish coach also took the opportunity to reproach the player that in recent weeks he has seen him less involved in the life of the club and that this translates into lower performance on the field.

Luis Enrique thus expects to obtain a double benefit from this tension. On the one hand, to encourage the footballer to go out onto the field with even more hunger and, on the other, to definitively implement his creed that the group has to be above all individuality.

During the six months that Mbappé’s farewell to Paris will last, the Spanish coach is counting on getting the most out of one of the best footballers in the world without having his hands tied to use him as he deems most appropriate.

The reputation of the Spanish coach precedes him and in Paris they are already beginning to remember that his relationship with the big stars has not always been a bed of roses.

Franceso Totti confirmed this in the 2011-2012 season when the coach did not hesitate to leave him on the bench despite his status as a great idol in the stands.

Two years later, his arrival at Barcelona was marked in the first months by a clash with Lionel Messi that ended with the Argentine on the bench during a match, precisely in San Sebastian.

That duel, which the San Sebastian team won, put the coach on the ropes, but for many it was the pivot on which Luis Enrique’s Barça won the treble that season.

During his time with the Spanish team there was also no shortage of friction with the star, defender Sergio Ramos, whom he left out of the boat for the World Cup in Qatar.