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Jose Mourinho's man-management style could be exactly what Kylian Mbappe needs

France v England: Bronze Final - FIFA World Cup 2026
France v England: Bronze Final - FIFA World Cup 2026 | Leonardo Fernandez - FIFA/GettyImages

Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe, despite being the top scorer for Real Madrid in both of his seasons at the club so far, is always among the ones scrutinised the most for the club's disappointing years since his arrival.

Mbappe has scored more than 40 goals in both of these seasons, but the sheer lack of team success has made his arrival more complicated than just the numbers. It is obvious that the club is in desperate need of a mentality shift, and even though Mbappe has been vocal about it in the past, he is also part of that shift.

That is where Jose Mourinho could come in. In any of his teams before, Mourinho's teams have always seen one star striker flourish more during his time at the club from a numbers' standpoint, while also seeing their mentality and team play improve, if it wasn't already at the top level.

Jose Mourinho always builds teams around his star attackers

Mourinho's system is built to get the best out of his star attackers, and although we have not seen Mbappe play under the Portuguese manager so far, he is among those who would have a crucial role if Real Madrid are to win anything in the next few years.

Be it his defensive work, his numbers, his movement inside the box or his mentality when it comes to the big games, everything can still improve. Mourinho, a manager known to bring the best out of his stars, can help him more than people would know.

It is not like Mbappe is not willing to learn, either. Mbappe had an incredible start to last season under Xabi Alonso, and his defensive numbers - at least at the start of the campaign - improved just as much as his goalscoring numbers, which was a surprise.

Maybe Mourinho's words will make Mbappe be more direct. Maybe his way of coaching would make Mbappe want to make more runs into the box. Maybe the conversations they'd have would make the Frenchman realise the importance of defending and attacking as a team.

If there is one manager who can make the player feel important enough to improve the rest of the team, it is Mourinho, and people have seen him do exactly that with stars like Cristiano Ronaldo before.

Ronaldo's mentality was never an issue - but he made the Portuguese winger such a huge part of the team, and made him feel so hungry for success, that Real Madrid ended up achieving a lot after his departure.

He sets the platform for players like Mbappe, Ronaldo and Vinicius Jr to succeed, and it will be really interesting to see what he does with the Frenchman.

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