Real Madrid Legend Hails Mbappe's Leadership

One of the figures of this Sunday's Clasico was, without a doubt, Kylian Mbappe. The Frenchman scored a brace in Real Madrid's victory at the Camp Nou, which earned him being named MVP of the match. Merengue legend Jorge Valdano and Gerard Lopez analyzed the match offered by the ex-Paris Saint-Germain player on Movistar Plus Deportes this Sunday.

"There are technical leaders, there are emotional leaders, there are social leaders... each one has their own way of leading. A guy who scores at a rate of one goal per match, how could he not be a leader? Leading is having influence, and the one who scores has more influence than anyone, right? In addition, he is a very intelligent person, and he leads even if he does not want to, because anything that occurs to him surely catches the attention of his teammates," Valdano said, who played for Madrid from 1984 to 1987.

While Lopez, a Barcelona academy player and first-team player from 2000 to 2005, mentioned that, after Vinicius Jr.'s absence due to suspension, Madrid plays better. "The team plays better after Vinicius' absence; that is how it is. The team is much more balanced. Diomande, for me, is the player of the match for Real Madrid, and without Vinicius, this team runs more and runs better."

That is Madrid's current doubt. When Vinicius serves the two matches remaining on his suspension, he will start again, or that spot will go to Diomande. Mourinho has a quite broad squad to mitigate fatigue; he can easily use the Brazilian one matchday and the Ivorian the next. Those are the advantages of having a vast squad, in which you do not need to burn out your stars matchday after matchday.

Eduardo Camavinga was another great addition in El Clasico. He had a great performance that allowed him to make a play of great difficulty to shake off Pau Cubarsi and assist Kylian Mbappe. If the coach can recover his best version, it would be a new joy for Madridismo, which has been asking for better performances from the Frenchman since last season, when his error cost the merengues elimination from the Champions League.

Mentioning names one by one would make this go on too long; everyone had a great performance at the Camp Nou. Each of the players was seen running, chasing the rival, applying high pressure to mitigate the great Blaugrana midfield, and it was effective. Each of Mourinho's players did their task at a great level, and the reward is quite big: three points away from the (until then) unbeaten team in the league.