Man United’s statement win, Barca look good but lose, more: Marcotti recaps the weekend

Another European soccer weekend is in the books, we’re fast approaching the holidays and the midway point of the season, and we’ve got plenty to talk about. Where shall we begin? How about Manchester United, with Ruben Amorim dropping Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho pregame before his team went on to win 2-1 at Manchester City? Arguably the result of the weekend, the victory showed the true scale of Pep Guardiola’s task to turn his side around.

Elsewhere, Barcelona dropped more points in LaLiga with defeat vs. Leganes despite playing much better than the scoreline suggests. Also, Liverpool made a mess (thanks to Andy Robertson’s early red card) vs. Fulham but showed impressive resilience to battle back and earn a draw. Beyond that, Bayern Munich stumbled in the Bundesliga, losing at Mainz without Harry Kane (injured) and with Jamal Musiala off the boil. We also had a frustrating Arsenal draw, more question marks about Juventus and Real Madrid, and another impressive performance by Chelsea as they continue to pick up wins in the Premier League.

So, let’s get to it. Here are reactions to the most memorable moments of the weekend …

Manchester United’s bravery rewarded; Manchester City’s futility punished

The single biggest takeaway for me from Sunday is about Ruben Amorim. The man has intestinal fortitude, guts — whatever you want to call it.

Manchester United’s late comeback should not overshadow what was a hugely brave decision: to leave Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford out of the 20-man matchday squad. Whatever your view is of the two of them, they both have expensive long-term contracts through 2028, and for better or worse, they are club assets on the Glazers’ balance sheet.

Amorim stressed the omission was neither disciplinary nor fitness-based; it was just that he weighed up performances in training and games, the way the two engaged with teammates, the way they pushed their teammates, even “how they dress” and “how they eat,” and made his decision. The door is still open, and they might be straight back for the next game, but he said that standards are high and that everyone has to fight their place. It’s a big call to make for a new boss who had he lost on Sunday would have recorded three league defeats on the bounce, and who is still just one place above where Erik ten Hag was when he got sacked.

It tells you two things. One is that he feels empowered to make these sorts of decisions, and that’s a positive: you go through the trouble of getting Amorim, you have to let him work. The other is that he thinks this is the right way to motivate Rashford and Garnacho, and of course that remains to be seen. Some guys respond to the carrot, others to the stick.

On the pitch, even before the late City meltdown, United more than held their own despite Amorim having to scrap his plan of Bruno Fernandes in a deeper position after Mason Mount‘s early exit forced him to send on Kobbie Mainoo. In a game that didn’t offer much in the way of pretty football (as often happens with derbies), United kept at it and largely dominated after the break, leaving City with zero shots on target and xG of just 0.22.

City’s downfall arguably began just before half-time when, for reasons known only to him, Kyle Walker engaged Rasmus Hojlund in one of those testosterone-fueled forehead-to-forehead stare-downs that ended with the City captain throwing himself to the ground in the hopes of getting his opponent sent off. I can live with “gamesmanship,” but this was pretty horrendous to watch. Walker is the club captain, and he’s trying to goad a 21-year-old into a red card. Not only does it show weakness and a lack of confidence, it’s also breathtakingly silly in the presence of VAR. Referee Anthony Taylor dealt with it by showing both a yellow card, as often happens: he could well have shown Walker a second yellow for simulation.

Speaking of Taylor, United probably should have had a penalty when Rúben Dias tripped Hojlund 20 minutes into the second half. VAR official Stuart Attwell chose not to send Taylor to the monitor even though he was far away from the action and was unlikely to have had a clear view. You hope it wasn’t because Taylor is one of England‘s top referees and Attwell didn’t dare send him to have a look. You also hope referees have the humility — if they don’t see something clearly — to communicate it with VAR.

Ultimately, Ruben Dias’ tackle on Hojlund foreshadowed the chaos that marked City towards the end. Matheus Nunes‘s botched pass, and even-more-botched panicky tackle, gave Bruno Fernandes the chance to equalize, which he did. And then came the ball over the top from Lisandro Martínez — and the collective misjudgement of the City defence — that enabled Diallo (who was exceptional on the day) to slip in and notch the winner.

City weren’t great throughout — 17 touches in the opposition box is the lowest they recorded this season, distinctly unlike a Pep team — but it’s clear this was a late meltdown of the sort that seemed unthinkable not that long ago. (Bernardo Silva said they played like an “under-15 side” at the end.) It was hard to tell what annoyed Guardiola more at the end: the self-destruction or the overall poor performance, as City’s press was too limp, their buildup too slow, and Erling Haaland too isolated.

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Laurens expects Man City to spend in January

Julien Laurens predicts that Manchester City will turn to the transfer market in January to help slow their current slide.

To his credit, Guardiola took it on the chin: “I’m the boss, I’m the manager and I’m not good enough; it’s as simple as that. I have to find a way to fix it … and I’m not good enough. I’m not doing well. That’s the truth.”

One win (and eight defeats) in 11 games tell their own story. We know he is good enough to make a very good team great again. The question is whether he can get an underachieving team to at least punch their weight, which isn’t something he’s had to do before.

No, Barcelona fans: Despite defeat, the sky isn’t falling, as long as they fix it vs. Atletico on Saturday

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How Barcelona have lost hold on LaLiga title race

Craig Burley details Barcelona’s shortcomings in what has turned into a three-way race for LaLiga with Real and Atletico Madrid.

I get it. Back-to-back home defeats to teams fighting to avoid relegation (first Las Palmas and now Leganes) will make you go all Chicken Little. But not all losses — however harsh — are created equal, and the fact of the matter is that their 1-0 defeat against Leganes was simply part of what makes this sport what it is: it’s low-scoring, there’s randomness and you have to look past the result to the performance.

The fact of the matter is that the performance wasn’t bad at all against Leganes. Yes, they should have done better on Sergio Gonzales’ early set-piece goal, but they did respond the way you’d expect them to: by creating chance after chance. When you should really worry is when you create fewer opportunities than you concede. That didn’t happen, as Barca put together a 2.63 xG (to Leganes’ 0.40) and 20 total shots. Raphinha hit the crossbar and Robert Lewandowski alone could have had a hat trick.

In other words, the team is clicking: whether Lewandowski can do it all season long is a different matter, but you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. What matters more is that they put the negativity behind them and turn it around in the top-of-the-table clash with Atletico Madrid on Saturday. Stumble there and it becomes a concern, but if they play like this, you kinda feel they’ll be alright.

Robertson red costs Liverpool, but there’s plenty to praise in their performance

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Is the glass half-full for Liverpool after Fulham draw?

Gab Marcotti discusses Liverpool’s latest form after their one man down 2-2 draw against Fulham.

You’re 17 minutes in, you’re a goal down and a man down at home. This after a Champions League game you won without playing particularly well (away to Girona). Your opponent, Fulham, is in the top half of the table, is undefeated in four games and has taken points off Arsenal and Spurs in the past two weeks. You have to reshuffle your back four, getting your holding midfielder, Ryan Gravenberch to play center-back, a position he has never played. And still, you storm back to a 2-2 draw, racking up more than 2.00 expected goals along the way, outshooting the opposition and conceding a second only due to a deflection.

If you’re Arne Slot, you either fret about Chelsea being two points back (albeit having played an extra game) or you remind your crew of what’s in the above paragraph. Titles usually are won in moments of adversity. The best teams know how to contain the damage, ensuring a blip doesn’t become a slump, and they find the energy to react when punched in the nose.

That’s what Liverpool did after Robertson’s red card. Twice, really, because after Rodrigo Muniz put Fulham ahead once more, they had to it all over again with 15 minutes to go.

There are plenty of reasons why Liverpool might not win the title. Even before Saturday, Robertson was showing signs of slowing down, Gravenberch is going to need a breather at some point, their three free agents-to-be (Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah) might yet let their contracts affect them, and there might be more injuries on the horizon. But what seems fairly certain is this: If they come up short, it won’t be down to a lack of mentality or cohesion.

Musiala dependency rears its head again as Bayern Munich suffer first league defeat of the season

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Did Bayern Munich display an ‘arrogance’ in Mainz defeat?

Ale Moreno believes Bayern Munich displayed an “arrogance” against Mainz that resulted in their 2-1 defeat.

Maybe it’s too easy to jump to conclusions, but sometimes Occam’s razor applies (and Toni Kroos was correct). With Harry Kane still out and Jamal Musiala having an off day by his lofty standards, Bayern were blunted offensively away to Mainz, losing 2-1. An expected goals of 1.39 with just one shot on target won’t get you far against a team that sits and congests the box, especially after taking the lead.

Make no mistake about it: Bayern weren’t great defensively either, but there was a fair amount of bad luck on Lee Jae-Sung‘s opener and for the second, you feel like saying they are what they are. But you expect more efficiency and volume from a Vincent Kompany team in a game like this. Thomas Müller did what he could up front (not much, as it happened) and it’s all the more evident that going into the season without a credible alternative to Kane (who, at 31, isn’t the bionic man) was an unnecessary risk to take. And so when Kane’s out, your options are Musiala or Muller out of position, or possibly Mathys Tel, whom Kompany doesn’t seem to rate in that role.

Again, Kane will be fit before and against most teams, even without him, it won’t really matter. But trophies are won on thin margins. Oh, and if you’re wondering what Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting is doing right now, he just signed for New York Red Bulls. It’s a shame he couldn’t hang around for another few months …

Quick hits

10. Eleven wins in a row and Atletico are flying, this time with help from the super-subs: We’ve talked before about how deep they are and on this occasion, it was Alexander Sorloth, Ángel Correa and Nahuel Molina coming off the bench and getting the ball over the line against the usual Getafe parked bus. In fact, Atleti probably should have gone ahead earlier, so dominant where they on the day. Diego Simeone seems to have finally found a formula that works for him and, should Atleti falter, he can always turn to his bench, which is one of the deepest around. And on Saturday, against Barcelona, they have the chance to go three points clear with a game in hand at the top of LaLiga…

9. League-leading Atalanta make it 10 straight wins: Is it time to ditch the ‘upstart’ tag? I’d say so. Not just for the fact that they finished fourth in Serie A last year, winning the Europa League, and this season, they’re top of the league and recording a higher xG at home than Real Madrid. For me, it’s the resilience. They weren’t great away to Cagliari (Marco Carnesecchi made a string of big saves), but they nevertheless turned the game with their subs. When you can call on Nicolò Zaniolo (who scored his first goal of the season) and Lazar Samardzic (who may be the most technically gifted player in the squad) to turn a game? Well, that’s a luxury usually reserved for big clubs.

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Burley praises Maresca for righting the Chelsea ship

Craig Burley praises Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca for turning his squad into a Premier League contender in his first season.

8. Enzo Maresca is still right, and Chelsea are still not ready: The gap may be just two points between them and league-leading Liverpool after the 2-1 win over Brentford, but the guy knows what he’s talking about. Chelsea’s manager pointed out after the game that they needlessly let Brentford back in by conceding that Bryan Mbeumo goal. He might have added that while they could have scored four or five, they also could have conceded three or four. (Robert Sánchez was excellent, which — after his recent outings — is encouraging.) And you can’t have one of your most experienced players acting the way Marc Cucurella did. He should know better than to get a pointless yellow deep in injury time, follow it up with some theatrics to get an opponent sent off and then, after the game is over, get a second yellow card. Leadership, eh? But the facts are there. Chelsea have seven wins in a row, folks other than Cole Palmer are creating chances and we haven’t seen this sort of buzz at Stamford Bridge since well before the Clearlake era. At this rate, they’ll be ready real soon.

7. Paris Saint-Germain dominate Lyon, but there’s no love lost between Nasser Al-Khelaifi and John Textor: Luis Enrique left out a number of his big hitters (Marquinhos, Bradley Barcola, Gonçalo Ramos) and PSG still dominated Olympique Lyonnais on Sunday night. The trio will presumably be back on Wednesday for the clash with Monaco that could see PSG go 10 points clear of the chasing pack, but the undercard was equally entertaining between PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi (a man of many hats who also funds a big chunk of world football via beIN Sports, sits on the UEFA executive committee and heads up the European Club Association) and John Textor, whose ownership group controls, among others, Lyon and Botafogo. After WhatsApp messages (jibes, really) between Textor and Al-Khelaifi were leaked to French media, the former couldn’t resist some trolling via Instagram. At least the feud will liven things up if PSG end up running away with Ligue 1…

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Nicol: Arsenal won’t win the league if they can’t beat Everton

Steve Nicol says dropping points at home to Everton is far from an acceptable result for a title-chasing team.

6. Arsenal have a Plan A and Plan B: they just need a C and D: We’ve said it before, Arsenal are devastating on set pieces and with that righthand side chain of Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka. Beyond that, there’s little in the way of creativity and danger, as evidenced in Saturday’s 0-0 home draw with Everton. Mikel Arteta is obviously right when he says this was one-way traffic — they shut down Everton (2 total shots, 0.09 xG) and Jordan Pickford had to make a couple of huge stops — but that’s the reality of facing Sean Dyche’s Everton right now, they make no apologies for their approach to games (nor should they). So to give yourself the best chance to win, you need to be able to create from different sources, beyond the two cited before, and right now, it’s not happening. Mikel Merino, supposedly the creative alternative to Odegaard, is offering little, Gabriel Martinelli even less. Arteta needs to find Plans C and D (maybe Plan E too): whether it’s regenerating Merino and Martinelli, giving Ethan Nwaneri more minutes or figuring out the Riccardo Calafiori stepping into midfield thing (when he’s fit again). As it stands, they’re too predictable to regularly win games like this one.

5. Bayer Leverkusen go ‘blue collar’ again, and it’s not a bad thing … I’m not a fan of the more conservative version of Leverkusen — with Jeremie Frimpong and Alex Grimaldo deployed as wingers and a midfield stuffed with ball-winners — but I have to say, it’s working. They dominated Inter in the Champions League on Tuesday (don’t be fooled by the late goal and 1-0 scoreline) and on Saturday, they won 2-0 at Augsburg in league play. This time it was tweaked back to the more familiar 3-4-2-1 formation, with Martin Terrier ahead of Florian Wirtz and Nathan Tella, but it was still a low-key, safety-first performance. And that’s OK. It helps to be able to play in different ways as they wait for Patrik Schick (who came off the bench) and Victor Boniface (targeting a mid-January return) to be ready to start again up front. That said, it’s now seven wins on the bounce for Xabi Alonso & Co. …

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How Vinicius Jr.’s absence was felt in Real Madrid’s draw vs. Rayo

Craig Burley and Luis Garcia reflect on Real Madrid’s 3-3 draw against Rayo Vallecano with Vinicius Jr. and Kylian Mbappe out of the lineup. :+1::skin-tone-2: 1

4. Real Madrid aren’t a team right now, just grit and superstars … I wrote as much after their 3-2 win away to Atalanta in the Champions League, and it was much the same in the 3-3 draw away to Rayo Vallecano. Don’t get me wrong: that’s not a bad starting point, but it’s hard to judge Real Madrid when you look at Saturday’s lineup. Carlo Ancelotti ran his team in a 4-2-4 formation with Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham as a front two, Aurélien Tchouaméni and Lucas Vázquez as the right side of the back four, 39-year-old Luka Modric pulling the strings. The stars deliver the goals — Fede Valverde’s wonder strike defied the laws of physics, Bellingham was on the spot — and the grit got them over the line in a match they could just as easily have lost (3 goals off 0.69 xG to Rayo’s 1.62 tell their own story) as won (Rodrygo might have won a penalty, Augusto Batalla made an exceptional save, Lucas Vazquez mistakes on both goals). It’s a poorly assembled cluster mess right now and injuries make it worse. Ancelotti is bullish, saying they’re still in the running for all of their seasonal goals, which is true, but there are only so many rabbits to pull out of the hat. They need help in January.

3. Inconsistent Juventus booed off again, though this time, it’s a bit different: The headline is that this team is up and down — beating Manchester City in midweek and then needing a lucky, but correctly awarded, penalty deep in injury time to avoid a home defeat against bottom club Venezia — and that’s undoubtedly true. Just as it’s true that Thiago Motta’s tenure is a source of great frustration to many Juventus fans (especially those in the Allegri camp). Even those of us who have been defending him, recognizing the many challenges he’s faced, have to concede this team doesn’t look right, though maybe there’s some comfort from Saturday’s poor performance being poor for different reasons than some of his previous outings. Juventus weren’t overly conservative or risk-averse; they were simply way too slow and predictable in the buildup, like a kid trying to ride a bike for the first time. It’s as if they’re walking through Motta’s schemes, rather than executing them at speed (which is when they work). Throw in some poor individual performances (Teun Koopmeiners, Nicolo’ Savona, Weston McKennie) and some baffling choices (Kenan Yildiz stranded out wide, Francisco Conceição taking a dozen touches each time) that helps explain the result. The direction of travel is the right one, it’s just things are happening so slowly you wonder if, by the time they get where they want to be, Motta will still be there.

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Why Burley feels Postecoglou’s criticism of Timo Werner is warranted

Craig Burley says Timo Werner’s form was rightfully called into question by Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou.

2. Southampton are the perfect tonic for Tottenham, but they won’t get to play them every week: At least not with manager Russell Martin at the helm, since he has been let go. After the heavy criticism of the past week, Ange Postecoglou needed a big win and he got it, with Spurs scoring five goals before half-time. You hope he won’t be under any illusions, though. It’s not just that Southampton have been spectacularly bad (13 defeats in 16 games), it’s also that their style of play is a perfect match for Spurs. They won’t enjoy that luxury in the League Cup on Thursday against Manchester United, or in the league against Liverpool next weekend. Postecoglou says he doesn’t mind being in the eye of the storm and that he can get Tottenham out of it. Maybe so, but it won’t be against sides like he faced Sunday night that he’ll be judged.

1. Milan’s 125th birthday celebration is ruined … and it was avoidable: They had gorgeous throwback jerseys, they had invited a galaxy of past legends (including three Ballon d’Or winners), and they were all set to have a party by stuffing poor old Genoa. Instead, it ended a scoreless draw with a fan protest outside the stadium, Zlatan Ibrahimovic getting booed (to be fair, he was booed before kickoff as well) and the media speculating about a three-way civil war at the club: ownership vs. players vs. the manager, Paulo Fonseca. The latter had called out his captain (Davide Calabria) and vice captain (Theo Hernández) before the match, dropping them entirely and giving full debuts to 19-year-old Álex Jiménez and 17-year-old Mattia Liberali. It’s not the first time Fonseca has cracked down this season, but of course, if you pick these fights, you have to win them. And while the numbers say Milan actually played well, the 0-0 result means it probably backfired since the knee-jerk reaction is always to fret about results. Milan fans are divided, with many backing Fonseca and blaming the players; what they’re not divided on, however, is the club and the fact that owner Gerry Cardinale wasn’t there on such a big night does little to quell the anger. Much of the bile postmatch was aimed at him and the ownership group. You don’t know how this is going to end, and you feel a bit for Fonseca. As the football adage goes, it’s easier to fire one coach than a host of players, and as we know, owners never get fired.