The French forward made his long-awaited move to the La Liga giants from PSG last year and admits that he fell victim to overthinking as he struggled for form during his early months with Real.

Mbappe said: "I believe it was a mentality issue and that was a point I realised that I had to work harder.

"I was thinking too much about how to do things. Whether to go into space, whether to go to Vini's (Vinicius Jr's) area of the pitch, to Rodrygo's area ... when you overthink you don't focus on your game.

"I was fine physically and with the group but I knew I had to do more, that was the time to change the situation. I didn't come to Madrid to play badly. Here we have to play well all the time and now I am ready to do that.

"I felt bad because I'm a player who always wants to do more and when you don't perform in that level it's normal to get targeted.

"I couldn't do any worse, so when you hit rock bottom you can only go up."

Mbappe knows that a lot is expected of him at Real but is embracing the pressure that comes with playing for one of the world's biggest clubs.

He said: "When you're a player like me, with everything that was expected of me, it's normal that people talk. But for me it's not something personal, you have to be calm and focus on your game. I knew I could change the situation and I did.

"I'm never going to be a shy player. But when a player like me arrives at Madrid he has to come with humility. It's not shyness, I can't arrive here and demand. I came with maximum respect and it's good that every day that goes by I have more importance in the team.

"My objective is to play my best game for Madrid in every game, to do better. I have the feeling that I can do better, I have it in my legs. I'm the kind of player who needs this pressure and who needs to do more."