I was watching some goal highlights of both players and it dawned on me that they have never scored a freekick! It is kindof depressing that the two supposed faces of football lack so much to their game. Mbappe is probably the player most would agree is the best in the world but the fact that he is doesn’t bode well for the coming generation.
Why do you think both players have been so abysmal at freekicks? They don’t need to be great but at least score at least one. My goodness
Interesting. I think Haaland makes sense to not be assigned as the free kick taker. With his size and finishing/heading ability, he is much likelier to score off a free kick rebound or cross, than to score the free kick itself.
Mbappe is indeed a little more puzzling, but I think it boils down to 2 things:
Kicking a dead ball is suprisingly unpredictive to a player’s general footballing ability. Relatively speaking of course. Most greats like Messi, Ronaldo, and Ronaldinho are great FK takers. Some, like Ronaldo Nazario, aren’t. Some of the best FK takers like Juninho and James Ward-Prowse are not considered amongst the greats. Mbappe is probably ‘merely good’ at the FK.
He does not have many seasons at the top flight and in those he always had a teammate with world class FK ability. Moutinho at Monaco, and Neymar, Di Maria, and Messi at PSG. So there never was a need for him to get better at it