"He wasn’t the only one, but the biggest culprit" - Pundit hits out at Kylian Mbappe and Real Madrid players after Barcelona loss
Football pundit Craig Burley has criticized Kylian Mbappe for his performance in Real Madrid's heavy 4-0 defeat to Barcelona on Saturday, October 26. He believes Mbappe was among the chief culprits of the defeat as he couldn't find a way out of the Blaugrana's offside trap.
Mbappe was caught offside eight times during El Clasico, the highest for a player in a LaLiga game over the last 10 years. Analyzing the game on ESPN FC, Burley gave his opinion on the Frenchman's performance and said:
"When somebody's getting caught offside as much as that, and we've talked about it all game, ridiculous in the end. Ridiculous. To continue to be in offside positions, when you have that level of understanding of the game and experience. He wasn't the only one, but the biggest culprit. I suppose at Real Madrid it's happened a lot. You sign these Galacticos, these big stars, you've got to sort of find a way to get it right."
"But they've basically taken, again, another side that was fluid and very successful and ripped up that blueprint and moved a load of people around to try and make it work for Kylian Mbappe. And yes, they're only a few points behind, but we've seen all the performances, we've seen the games. Thus far, it is not working. They had no midfield runners to try and break an offside trap, and they had one guy who was trying to break it for 95 minutes, and he couldn't do it," he added.
Robert Lewandowski scored twice early in the second half before late goals from Lamine Yamal and Raphinha sealed a famous win for Barcelona at Santiago Bernabeu. Kylian Mbappe's strike in the first half was ruled out due to offside.
Carlo Ancelotti questions Kylian Mbappe after Real Madrid lose to Barcelona
Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti acknowledged that Kylian Mbappe drifted offside consistently against Barcelona. The Los Blancos manager also rued that his side could not take advantage of the high line from Hansi Flick's side and said (via Football 365):
"We knew that they played with a high line, and we just couldn't take advantage of it. Sometimes (Mbappe) fell offside, but he had three or four chances to score and needed a better finishing touch. It was very evenly match until they scored the first goal. We wre not that efficient, we had opportunities in the first half.
"It is a hard moment. I thank the fans because they kept pushing us until the last moment of the match. We need to forget the last 30 minutes because we wanted to get back into the game and they took advantage of that. Of course we are behind in the table but there are many games to be played. We cannot through everything to the trash. This team will improve."
Real Madrid are now six points behind Barcelona in the league table after 11 matches. They had the chance to go level on points with the Catalan side but failed to win a home El Clasico.