World Cup 2022: Why France’s Kylian Mbappe is most complete striker in Qatar – Didier Drogba

For me, a complete striker is someone who can create an assist as well as score – someone who can change the game within one action.

Some teams even prefer to play without a striker at all, but in the big moments I always think you need someone to finish the actions, as well as start them.

England have Harry Kane, who I love to I watch, but France’s Kylian Mbappe is the player who stands out as the being the best at doing all of those things I have mentioned, all together.

If you put Mbappe in a centre-forward’s position, he will score goals but still come back and try and make chances for other people – you can see he was doing that a lot in France’s first two games in Qatar.

He can expose defenders one-on-one with his pace but I think the fact he has played in different forward positions for his club, Paris St-Germain, has helped to make his game more rounded – to become more complete, if you like.

That is how it worked for me too. I became a complete striker, if you will allow me to call myself that, because I learned how to develop my game and give myself more tools to use on the pitch.

Mourinho asked me to change my game

When I joined Chelsea from Marseille in 2004, the manager Jose Mourinho asked me to play in a way that was different to what I had been doing in France.

With Marseille I was more about attacking the line, running forwards and really going into the space behind the defenders.

Instead, Jose wanted me to play in more of a holding position, to help the team get up the pitch.

I knew that if I didn’t adapt to his philosophy, I wouldn’t play. I wanted to be in the team, so I made the effort to change my game.

At Chelsea, I had to learn how to come backwards, towards the ball, to receive it.

That’s where I think some people under-estimate the intelligence of footballers, because firstly you need to be smart enough to realise what you need to do to be able to play, and then you have to apply it.

I wanted to go into training and for Jose to think ‘oh wow, this is exactly the player I want’ but I knew I needed to put a lot of effort in for that to happen.

That effort was not only about working hard, or looking after my body properly afterwards. To develop as a player and become a better striker I knew I had to use my brain too – to work out how to fit in with the team’s style, and enhance it.

So, when I came to Chelsea, I spent a lot of time watching a lot of different videos, studying my team-mates and the style of play of the manager – all to understand what he wanted, and as quickly as possible.

It worked and, as I got used to coming back for the ball, it gave me more options in games because I could drop back or run forward, depending on who I was playing and what the manager wanted me to do.

Right now, there are only a few players who do all of this. Mbappe’s France team-mate Olivier Giroud can do part of it, because he is a good finisher and always in a good position inside the box, but he is not too mobile.

I like Manchester City and Norway forward Erling Haaland, who is not at this World Cup, because he is an excellent finisher, and he can make long runs with the ball, but I still want to see him being a bit more creative as well. You cannot be a complete striker without doing that too.

Of course, when a striker is not scoring people quickly forget about these other parts of his game.

We are supposed to score goals, so when that doesn’t happen then people think there is a problem – like with, say, Harry Kane at the start of this World Cup.

I disagree. We all know Kane is a proven goalscorer and a guy who will destroy goalkeepers if you put him in the box, but I love what he is doing for England.

When I see him coming deep and being so involved in the game, holding the ball and releasing it, I love it. He is really smart, and he does so much good work for the team.