After the comments made by Kylian Mbappé, who believes that central defender is the simplest position in football, Samuel Umtiti did not hesitate to respond to his former teammate.
An exchange that has sparked a lot of discussion. Invited to Aurélien Tchouaméni’s The Bridge podcast, alongside Achraf Hakimi, Kylian Mbappé touched on many subjects, stating, among other things, that he harbored no ill will toward PSG, that he disliked interviews, and that he admitted to being “a player who defends less,” which did not go unnoticed by some Spanish media outlets.
The captain of the French national team was also asked to compare the difficulty of different positions, and he believed that the central defender position was the simplest in football. “You are covered from all sides, you can even play in a back three! And if you are the middle one in that case…These are the only positions where you see players of 40 years still playing in Europe, in big clubs,” he explained.
“This is often what attackers say”
Samuel Umtiti, his former national team colleague turned consultant, completely disagrees with this view, as he explained on RMC radio, stating that, “this is often what attackers say. But in defense, it’s totally different. You make a mistake and you pay for it immediately, so it’s not necessarily the easiest position.”
According to the former Lyon, Barcelona, Lecce and Lille defender, “you have to be much more focused than a forward who can make ten mistakes in a match, and it won’t matter.”
“I will talk to him about it”
“As someone who has played in that position, believe me, it’s very complicated,” continued the 2018 World Cup winner, who will be on the microphone for M6 during the World Cup. “When you defend in a back three, you have more security, of course, but you are still a defender. If you lose a duel, you know the forward can go straight to goal and it’s over. Kylian knows this. I don’t even know why he said that, I think I will talk to him about it,” he concluded with a laugh.
