Kylian Mbappe, the Golden Boy Getting Used to Unreasonable Expectations

It would be, Kylian Mbappe suggested, "a match like any other." Those words, as per L'Equipe (in French), uttered after Paris Saint-Germain's Champions League demolition of Anderlecht in Brussels in reference to Le Classique at Olympique de Marseille, which took place four days later, will haunt him for a while yet.

The unfortunate phrasing (at least, unfortunate in retrospect after the grilling PSG's credentials received at a white-hot Velodrome on Sunday night) was in one sense typical of Mbappe. His candour, matter-of-factness and lack of amateur dramatics are a big part of the package. His charm is not restricted to his undeniable excellence on the field.

On the other hand, misjudging the prevailing wind like this wasn't very Mbappe at all. Even at 18 years of age, he's already proved himself to be wise beyond his years and an almost uniquely measured communicator.

Maybe we can understand that Mbappe would want to recognise PSG have their minds on higher things—titles, the Champions League, perfecting that promised front-three nirvana—but it is wrong to be fooled by Marseille's long winless run against their hated rivals from the capital, which now stretches back for 15 matches in all competitions (and almost six years) after Edinson Cavani's dramatic late equaliser at the weekend.

Yet this latest, especially-pulsating edition of France's most fervent face-off shouldn't have been necessary to remind Mbappe, or anyone, that when OM and PSG meet, it is nothing like any other game. Certainly few in the Paris camp would have shared that point of view. After all, it's PSG's commitment to going for the throat that has kept the occasion full of juice during an era in which Marseille have struggled to keep pace. That Mbappe quote would never have even hovered on the lips of Cavani, Thiago Silva or Marco Verratti.

Mistakes are made, of course. It's just that we've seen Mbappe make so few of them in a jaw-dropping beginning to his senior career. Set in the context of Le Classique rather passing him by, the critical eye of the media is training on him more closely than ever before.

Mbappe's performance in the 2-2 draw at the Velodrome was, according to L'Equipe, "his worst outing in a Parisian shirt, (and) without a doubt even his worst since he began to enchant the Hexagon a year ago." The French daily, known for its unforgiving marking system, "awarded" Mbappe a measly 2 out of 10 for his display, one mark fewer than either the lambasted Verratti or Kostas Mitroglou.

It was one of those nights where nothing Mbappe tried came off, perhaps captured in microcosm by a rare time he did get to burst down the right in familiar style and bear down upon goal in ominous fashion—only to be denied by an excellent recovery tackle by Jordan Amavi. It was a piece of defending so breathtaking that referee Ruddy Buquet didn't notice Amavi completing the action by scooping the ball away with his hand.

An excited Mbappe rushed straight to Buquet, holding onto his arm like a wronged child asking for parental leeway. It was a rare glimpse of the forward looking his age or, as L'Equipe suggested in that analysis of his night, "evidence of his current edginess." After Thiago Silva's red card against Valenciennes back in 2013 in an almost identical scenario, Mbappe, his team-mates and Unai Emery might muse that—on reflection—it could have been a lot worse.

Yet criticism of Mbappe still seems almost unpalatably harsh. Yes, he was caught off guard by Marseille's zesty press—but so were PSG as a whole. Thiago Motta, especially prone to this sort of treatment in the late autumn of his career, and the aforementioned Verratti were not at the races either for much of the evening, largely defined by the bite of Luiz Gustavo, who got OM off to a flier with his fine early strike.

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A reminder of how far Mbappe has come arrived after the match, as he headed straight to Monaco to pick up Tuttosport's renowned Golden Boy prize as the best under-21 player of 2017. He received it in the company of Monaco vice-president Vadim Vasilyev and Leonardo Jardim. Mbappe appreciates what those two—and especially the Portuguese coach—have done for his career. He is no ingrate with his head in the stars.

Neither is he immune to growing pains, though, and this will come as no surprise to the man himself, equipped as he is with considerable reserves of humility and realism. There have been other challenges this season. His sole outing for PSG at centre-forward, away at Dijon earlier this month in the absence of Cavani, wasn't a resounding success.

Mbappe missed a trio of good chances—and how Cavani knows about the criticism that comes with this territory—and even his saving grace of the match came with a caveat. He raced around the back to provide Thomas Meunier with the chance to bury a stoppage-time winner; and, in doing so, succeeding by dropping out of the central role and into the wide areas where he habitually (even by his own admission) does his best work.

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The hyper-critical will point to his goalscoring start, too, of two goals in six Ligue 1 starts until now, overlooking his three assists or his two goals in two assists in three Champions League starts to date. This isn't in any way reasonable. Anybody who has seen PSG on even a semi-regular basis this season would be forced to admit the impact that Mbappe has had on his side's game. His display against Bayern Munich at the Parc des Princes is a reminder of what sort of generational talent he is already proving to be.

The only problem is that when these are the standards set, even a hint of a slip poses questions. In truth, Emery didn't help matters after the game in Marseille by saying "players must be protected" by officials (via Europe 1, in French), drawing comparisons with the rough treatment Diego Maradona experienced at Barcelona in the ‘80s when he watched on as a child.

It smacked of asking for special treatment, it held Mbappe (among others) accountable to Maradona's levels and finally, it didn't even make sense, given how much the laws of the game have evolved to protect the sport's stars since the heyday of El Diez.

In one sense, though, Emery is right. Mbappe will be held to account for everything from now on. He has the temperament to deal with it, but nobody's perfect—and like his team-mates, he won't underplay a Classique ever again.