A completely unimportant match at the Bernabéu between Real Madrid, who cannot win LaLiga after Barcelona secured the first place, and Real Oviedo, who have mathematically been relegated, turned into news when Kylian Mbappé contradicted his coach Álvaro Arbeloa, seemingly using irony to explain why he wasn't in the starting line-up on Thursday (he played only the last 20 minutes, subbing Gonzalo García).
"I'm 100% fine. I haven't played because the coach said that, for him, I'm the fourth striker in the squad", Mbappé explained in the mixed zone. "Ask the coach, I was ready to start, it's his decision". When pressed if he had problems with Arbeloa, he said "no, nothing, but I have to accept the coach's plans. I have to work to be better than Vini, Mastantuono and Gonzalo".
Mbappé's version directly contradicts what Arbeloa later said on press conference. "I don't have four forwards nor did I tell him such a phrase. ", said the coach, laughing ("I don't really know that to tell you", also responded nervously) and adding that "if I don't put him, he cannot play, because I am the coach and I decide who plays and who doesn't".
"I had a conversation with him before the game and I don't know what he could have interpreted. For me it is very clear that a player who four days ago could not be on the bench, today should not start. Especially because it's not a final, it's not a game of life or death."
Between the lines, this is believed to be a quarrel because Mbappé is angry that Arbeloa left him out of the squad for Sunday's Clásico (he wasn't even called as a substitute), which angered Mbappé, who reportedly left the training grounds earlier on Saturday. Then, it's understood that Arbeloa "punished" Mbappé but only giving him 20 minutes of play, and even suggest he chose to use a substitute window only on him so he could be the sole target of the fans' boos and whistles at the Bernabéu, still angry about his trip to Sardinia weeks ago...
