If you watched the first El Clásico of the season, you might've noticed Kylian Mbappé was offside quite a lot. Especially for a player with such pace and explosiveness with the ball at his feet, the linesman kept raised his flag eight times when the Frenchman received the ball.
It's not to say Mbappé just lives offsides in games, it was just one of a number of issues affecting Carlo Ancelotti's team early in the season. It just so happened to come in the biggest rivalry match in world soccer.
Offside has become trivialized in the world of VAR with long and intensive checks affecting games not using semi-automated technology. Defenses try their hardest to play offside traps with high lines while trying to keep a team pinned within their own half. Still, rules are rules and you cannot be farther than the last defender when the ball is played. With how many times the Real Madrid star was offside, it begs the question: Which player has been caught offside the most this season?
Which Player Has Been Offside the Most This Season?
After El Clásico, Mbappé has been flagged the most for offside this season in Europe's top five leagues, per Opta. An astonishing 17 times in just 10 games that is inflated by his performance against Barcelona. Everton's Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Fiorentina's Moise Kean have been offside one less time total in one less game each, not great.
Akor Adams and Chris Wood round out the top five with 12 and 11 offside, respectively, in nine games.
Strikers are going to take chances every game and defense are going to try their best to get those players to take one step too many. A player might even top Mbappé's unwanted total before the end of the season.
READ THE LATEST SOCCER NEWS, PREVIEWS, PREDICTIONS, TRANSFER RUMORS AND MORE
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Which Player Has Been Offside the Most in the 2024-25 Season? .
