What’s eating Kylian Mbappe? Out-of-sorts PSG superstar needs to find some form with France

The captain of the French national team has faced challenges at the beginning of his club season, but he now has the opportunity to rediscover his exceptional form during this international break.

In Paris Saint-Germain’s recent match against Rennes, Kylian Mbappe came remarkably close to scoring one of the goals of the season.

It was a worrying showing for a player who stayed at his club on the very promise that he would bring the Champions League home — the final piece of his Parisian puzzle. This wasn’t exactly the performance his pledge deserved. After the game, an image emerged of Mbappe shrugging after Newcastle’s fourth went in. What more, his shoulders suggested, could he do?

Perhaps this international break is exactly what Mbappe needed. France is not devoid of pressure for him. Nor is it necessarily a notoriously harmonious environment, full of forgiving personalities and cool heads. But it is where Mbappe tends to thrive.

This has, historically, been an easy forum for production for PSG’s star. In 71 appearances, he has scored 40 goals and assisted 21. He averages 1.02 goal contributions per 90 minutes, and, as is common knowledge, scored a hat-trick in the World Cup final. Mbappe, in short, lives for these games.

And Les Bleus’ first opponent, the Netherlands, is one of Mbappe’s favourites. The then-18-year-old bagged his first international goal against them, and has scored four in four games — most recently turning in a dominant showing in a 4-0 hammering in March. If there ever was a window, and an opponent, to find form, this is it.

Of course, it is more complex than that. International football is radically different to club competitions. It tends to be slower, more defensive, and worse on the eyes. Mbappe, perhaps, just finds it easier.

But finding a goals coring touch isn’t about battering a hat-trick home (although that would be nice). Rather, for Mbappe, this ruthless finisher, it just needs to happen once. The others will simply come. This is a rare blip, but not a worrying one — yet.