The October international break has been and gone, and the return of club action across Europe’s top leagues gave us plenty to talk about! Starting with Manchester United, winning at Liverpool for the first time in a decade, though it doesn’t mean Ruben Amorim’s side are “fixed” by any means. (Also, if you’re a Liverpool fan, it might be time to panic a little… )
In LaLiga, both Barcelona and Real Madrid picked up dramatic late wins, with Madrid’s victory at Getafe pushing them back to the top of the table. In the German Bundesliga, Bayern Munich eased past rivals Borussia Dortmund 2-1 in the first Klassikerof the season, a result in which Harry Kane scored (again) and the Bavarians were a little fortunate to emerge victorious. Elsewhere, we had talking points galore around Milan, Juventus, Tottenham, Chelsea, Marseille and much more.
It’s Monday morning, so what better time for Gab Marcotti’s musings? Let’s get into it.
Credit Ruben Amorim for thinking outside the box. Dropping your pricey center forward (Benjamin Sesko), bringing back the most derided (sometimes unfairly) United center back since Phil Jones (Harry Maguire) and starting 33-year-old Casemiro after his 180 minutes in Korea and Japan with Brazil were certainly counterintuitive.
If you were really cynical, you might suggest that at this stage, he might as well throw everything at the wall and see what sticks (except for ditching the 3-4-2-1, of course), but that would be unfair. His changes don’t mean he out-coached Arne Slot — just that he gave his team the best possible chance to get the best possible result. Which is exactly what a coach should do.
– Reaction: Man United’s statement win plunges Liverpool into crisis
– Slot admits ‘challenge’ in turning Liverpool around
– Ogden: Should Liverpool drop Isak, Salah, or both?
Slot said United’s early goal, their “low block” and long balls for the counter were difficult to play against. You get what he means, but it’s a bit of a simplistic reading of the sort coaches might make in throwaway post-match flash interviews, and he likely knows that. Even if Bryan Mbeumo had not scored inside the opening minute, it’s unlikely Amorim’s game plan would have been any different, especially given how late the equalizer came, and it was by no means one-way traffic. This was a game that could just as easily have finished 5-2 to Liverpool or 4-1 to United. It had the sort of openness — often marked by individual errors — that (some) fans love and (most) coaches hate.
Slot also said his team created “an unbelievable” amount of chances. It was certainly many. Cody Gakpo scored once, hit the woodwork three times and missed a sitter at the end, while Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak also squandered big chances.
Liverpool paid a hefty price for two craven defensive blunders, so a lot of the focus will be there. Virgil van Dijk and the rest of the back line reacted in slow motion for the opener, and there was a total breakdown of set-piece marking for Maguire’s winner (there were two teammates lined up behind him who could have scored if he’d missed his header). We’ve covered just how short-handed the club are at center back and how big an ask it is to expect Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konaté to perform at their level every single game this season, but this was just another reminder they will need a break at some point.
Beyond that, it rarely felt as if Liverpool were in control: opportunities came via opponent errors or individual skill, because they simply have far better players, and too often they weren’t put away. Slot evidently recognises this — witness the dropping of Florian Wirtz — but it’s still not clear how all his pieces will fit together.
Dominik Szoboszlai in the No. 10 hole is a smoother option, but obviously you want Wirtz somewhere in the XI. The same goes for Isak: his summer travails have slowed him down, but you don’t pay a record fee for a back-up striker even though they looked better with Hugo Ekitike.
Then there’s Salah. He got a massive new deal at the end of last season, has had a slow start in 2025-26, and there’s the Africa Cup of Nations coming up in January. He’s not where he was last season offensively or defensively: do you start managing his minutes with a view to getting the best version of Salah in the spring?
There are plenty of questions for Slot to figure out. Still, probably not as many as Amorim despite United taking all three points.
Yeah, it’s classic “sometimes, both things can be true” kind of stuff. Borussia Dortmund were set up in a park-the-bus 5-3-2 formation, with Julian Brandt on the bench, for their visit to Bayern Munich, and it was pretty evident the plan was to minimize damage while hoping to nick something at the other end.
Well, they didn’t.
Harry Kane gave Bayern the lead, Michael Olise hit the post, and Dortmund mustered a total of zero shots of any kind while seeing just 26% of the ball. Dortmund defender Nico Schlotterbeck bemoaned his team’s “lack of guts in the first half” after the game.
It’s hard to tell whether Bayern got more complacent after the break, or whether Dortmund were actually better. Certainly the goal that put the match away was a bonehead classic with Jobe Bellingham, on his own goal-line, doing the one thing you’re not supposed to do (other than poking it into your own net). Facing his own goal, he tried to pass along the ground, across his body, only for Olise to steal in and deflect it home to make it 2-0 and game over. Brandt, who had to wait until six minutes from time to come on, pulled one back right after entering the pitch, but it was obviously too little, too late.
And so Bayern remain perfect — that’s 11 wins in 11 games across all competitions — even without the injured Jamal Musiala and you suspect, against most opponents, the only way they’re going to lose is if they beat themselves.
Shout out to Kane, too. Nineteen goals in 11 games tells its own story, but the way he adapted to moving into the hole behind Nico Jackson (where his passing can be decisive) in recent outings is just as impressive.
As for Dortmund, it’s easy to slaughter manager Niko Kovac because his plan didn’t work. On the other hand, such is the gulf between these two sides right now, you can’t blame for something wacky and had it not been for Bellingham’s screw-up, it might even have worked.
But, of course, this being Barca, don’t hold your breath. The fact that the Uruguayan center back whom nobody seems to like, and whom they tried every which way to move out had to come on as an emergency center forward to score the winner against Girona, who are dead-last in the table, ought to prompt a comprehensive top-to-bottom review of where they are and where they’re going.
Manager Hansi Flick will shoulder a lot of the blame — and yes, getting yourself foolishly sent off and missing the Clasico isn’t leadership — but it can’t just be him. I’ve talked before about how poorly constructed this squad is, how resources were devoted to wingers/wide forwards (Marcus Rashford, Roony Bardghji) while defence was neglected (like Iñigo Martínez not being replaced). But putting Flick into a situation where he’s encouraged to play a 17-year-old from the fourth tier up front because Ferran Torres and Robert Lewandowski are unavailable borders on the irresponsible.
Almost as irresponsible as the execution of his high line — not the high line itself, mind — by Pau Cubarsí and Eric García. After Pedri’s brilliant opener, Girona could have scored three or four, such were Barca’s limitations. And all of this while more and more pressure gets heaped on Cubarsi and Lamine Yamal: yes they’re great, but they’re also developing. You can’t just lean on them (and Pedri) to paper over your many cracks.
– Hunter: How Rashford revitalized himself at Barcelona
– Flick disputes red card in dramatic win
– Barca game paused in protest at LaLiga fixture in Miami
Hey, maybe they won’t change a jot and they’ll win the Clasico next weekend. Heck, maybe they’ll win LaLiga again, possibly the Champions League too, and maybe the folks in charge will take it as evidence of their brilliance. If that happens, most likely they’ll be wrong. It will be the brilliance of individuals that carries them; at this stage, the choices made at the top are simply weighing them down.
Let’s start with the ugly. Four minutes from time, the game deadlocked at 1-1, Fabiano Parisi grazed Santi Gimenez’ cheek in the penalty area and the Mexican striker went down clutching his face as if the Fiorentina defender had sprayed him with acid. Referee Livio Marinelli — correctly — waves play on, VAR Rosario Abisso sends him to review and Marinelli changes his mind, awarding the penalty. Leao, who had previously scored a worldie, puts it away, Milan win 2-1 and go top.
I’m all for playing on the edge, pushing the envelope and trying to win fouls. But on this occasion, Gimenez was an embarrassment (not for the first time, either, in my view) and the VAR intervention felt like it was straight from the muppet show. Fiorentina feel cheated because, well, they were. The match officials may have been in good faith; Gimenez did not appear to be.
So what now to make of first-place Milan? Credit Max Allegri for toughing it out despite his numerous injuries (Pervis Estupiñán, Christopher Nkunku, Christian Pulisic and Adrien Rabiot, among others) and for believing in a youngster like Zachary Athekame (when kids aren’t really his thing).
But yeah, this wasn’t pretty. It won’t be pretty until he has regulars back and even then, based on what we’ve seen thus far, there’s no guarantee it will be pretty. Max has a lot of work to do.
10. Mason Greenwood scores four, Marseille go top and maybe Paris Saint-Germain are not a shoe-in for the title: Yeah, it’s early and PSG have a heap of injuries and Luis Enrique’s crew’s preseason was messed up by the Club World Cup. And, of course, it’s Ligue 1, which they usually dominate. But the table speaks volumes: Olympique Marseille 18 points, PSG 17, Strasbourg and Lens 16. It’s pretty darn tight, and the fact that PSG had to come from two goals down against Strasbourg in their 3-3 draw Friday suggests this season may not be a walk-over.
Marseille beat Le Havre 6-2 with four goals from Greenwood. Their manager, Roberto De Zerbi, is unpredictable and the club is chaotic (witness Adrien Rabiot and Jonathan Rowe’s fist-fight in late August, which forced them both out of the club.) But PSG have won just five of their first eight games; last season, they clinched with 22 wins in 27. We may yet have a proper title race.
9. Arsenal can’t plug their Martin Odegaard-shaped hole, but defending and set pieces see them through: And that’s a good thing. Away to Fulham, at a ground where they’ve struggled in the past and after an international break, without one of their two main creative sources — it was all set up to be a trap game. You can be snooty about the set piece goal and how Leandro Trossard got lucky with his scuffed finish, but the three points were deserved.
Mikel Arteta’s crew excelled in other areas, absorbing Fulham’s attacks in the first half without allowing a single shot on target (and an xG of 0.31) and then, after taking the lead, bolting things down even further: a single off target shot for 0.03 conceded in the last half hour. Odegaard’s absence weighs heavy and they’re a different side with Eberechi Eze in that role, but that’s OK: they can still grind out points in different ways.
8. Rough night for Real Madrid, but they avoid getting ‘Bordalased’ and stay top: Travel to Getafe, managed by Javier Bordalas, and you know you’re in for a tough night. With a bunch of players unavailable and coming off the back of an international break, Xabi Alonso knew it was a trap game. And while Kylian Mbappé’s winner came late and Thibaut Courtois’ save from Coba da Costa even later, I think he’ll be broadly happy with his team’s performance.
Eduardo Camavinga made his first start of the season (and Jude Bellingham his second) without incident. Rodrygo was a bright spark down the left, confirming he’s the alternative to Vinícius. David Alaba had a tougher time at centerback, but hopefully, when Dean Huijsen and Antonio Rüdiger are fit, we won’t need to see too much of him.
Getafe ended up with nine men, and their first red card was straight out of the Bordalas play book. Allan Nyom comes on as a substitute, gets a standing ovation from his fans, and with his first touch of the game, he whacks Vinicius for a straight red. It reminded you of a goon in old YouTube videos of 1970s National Hockey League games.
7. Erling Haaland delivers again for Man City, but who else is going to score? Pep Guardiola was asked about it after Erling Haaland bagged both goals in Saturday’s 2-0 win against Everton. Manchester City have scored 17 league goals this season: 11 of them came from Haaland, two were own goals and four players had one each. Is this a problem? “Yes, it is a [concern],” Guardiola said. “We have to score. In the training sessions they are good at finishing. I don’t have doubts that when it is unlocked, players will score.”
It’s hard to tell what he means by “unlocked.” Coaches in all sports cling to the belief that things suddenly happen, possibly because they’ve seen it before. The issue though, as I see it, is City are singularly Haaland-focused in the way they attack. And the risk — in addition to Haaland getting injured — is predictability. There are creative in-house solutions to vary the way you attack — Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva, Rayan Cherki all spring to mind — but we just haven’t seen them yet this year. If and when they kick in, hopefully before Haaland hits the inevitable rough patch, City will be just fine.
6. Injury riddled and battered, fortune shines on Chelsea at Nottingham Forest: And yes, that good fortune was not paying a hefty price for a string of first-half turnovers and playing away to a Forest team counting down the minutes until Ange Postecoglou got sacked. But maybe, given the absentees from their starting XI — Tosin Adarabioyo and Levi Colwill at the back, Enzo Fernández and Moisés Caicedo in midfield, Cole Palmer, Estevao Willian and Liam Delap up front — they were due a bit of luck.
The suspended Enzo Maresca will have noticed his B-team is several notches below his regulars, especially in midfield, where Andrey Santos and Romeo Lavia (yes, we had a Lavia sighting!) lasted just 45 minutes, as did Alejandro Garnacho (another chance not seized for him). With news landing Sunday that Palmer will miss the next six weeks (or nine games), Maresca has little choice but to find a Palmer-less formula that works. João Pedro in the hole seems to be the most viable solution, and it’s what we saw after the break when Marc Guiu came on.
5. Even after a big three points away to Roma, Inter mustn’t believe their own hype: They went away to the league leaders and won 1-0 to make it five wins on the bounce. Given how obsessed some are with results, even with a coach like Christian Chivu, who has only been in the job for a few months, at least it keeps some of the critics at bay. But the post-game narrative — Inter were brilliant in the first half, tough-minded in the second — leaves you a lot of flat.
Ange-Yoan Bonny’s goal after just six minutes should have enabled Chivu’s men to control the game and make Roma chase them. Instead, it was the giallorossi who had the upper hand, pushing Inter back into their box, squandering several clear-cut chances. Brilliant defensive display? Not sure about that, not when you concede 1.09 xG and 12 shots in a single half. There are positives other than the result, starting with Bonny and Francesco Pio Esposito, who confirmed Inter have quality understudies up front. But the worst thing they could do right now is sit on their laurels.
4. Tottenham derailed by Unai Emery witchcraft: OK, maybe witchcraft is too strong a word, though regular readers will know I’m not the biggest Emery guy. But the way his Aston Villa side stayed in the game away to Tottenham despite going a goal down, scoring a peach of an equalizer and then a winner straight out of the Twilight Zone, with Matty Cash and Lucas Digne, honest full backs but no more, turning into a football version of the Harlem Globetrotters? Well, that’s special.
Blame Tottenham? Sure. I’m all for the high-energy stuff, but there has to be some level of control and you’re not going to get it from Xavi Simons in his current condition. Mathys Tel is a slow burn that may never actually come to fruition. Thomas Frank is, clearly, still adjusting to a different sort of player.
3. Napoli fall at Torino, but the problem isn’t that they’re ‘too pretty:’ After the 1-0 loss, Antonio Conte complained that his team played “with their dancing shoes on” and were “too pretty,” with “not enough “nasty.” I guess when you’re a hammer you think everything is a nail (or maybe this is just Conte misdirection?) but I saw it rather differently. It wasn’t about pretty or ugly, it was about quality.
Napoli conceded relatively little, mostly on the counter. Gio Simeone’s goal (it was a great weekend for the Simeone family) came after an errant tackle from Billy Gilmour. The difference came at the other end, where the absence of Scott McTominay, Rasmus Hojlund and, especially, Stanislav Lobotka weighed heavily. Switching to two wingers was supposed to help Lorenzo Lucca, but he ended up getting very little clean service, which meant Kevin De Bruyne ended up trying to do too much. When you use the same script with inferior personnel, there’s a price to pay. Napoli executed as well as they could: the problem wasn’t “lack of nasty.”
2. Diego Simeone needs his bench (again) to bring home three points for Atletico: Which, I guess, is what it’s there for. You’re deadlocked and you can bring in Alexander Sorloth to wreak havoc, Conor Gallagher for some verve, Giuliano Simeone to beat his man and deliver the cross and Thiago Almada to finish. Easy peasy.
Would it be better if they wrapped things up with their starters? Sure, but Osasuna are a notoriously tough out, and putting your trust in Koke, Álex Baena, Antoine Griezmann and the returning José María Giménez wasn’t necessarily the wrong call. It’s just that it takes time to build chemistry, and Simeone’s frequent changes don’t help. Is it galling that, again, Saint Jan of Oblak had to save their bacon at the end when Osasuna got off one of their two shots on target? Sure. But again, he’s doing what he gets paid to do. This is a team that’s still evolving and it’s not necessarily going to be linear progress. Take the points and be happy.
1. Igor Tudor makes himself look silly against Cesc Fabregas: It’s not so much the defeat — though yes, Juventus were pretty much played off the park by a Como side that had as many key absentees as they did — or his choices (13 minutes of Dusan Vlahovic, Loïs Openda stuck again on the bench). It’s the way Tudor took a needless pop at Cesc pre-game when he said: “The Como coach gets to acquire players he wants.”
First off, while it’s true that Como have spent a ton of money — and those financial chickens may yet come home to roost when they qualify for Europe — it has been mostly on young players and they also uncovered some gems on the cheap. Moaning about Como’s resources when you’re the Juve boss is not a good look; nor is failing to refer to Cesc by name, as if you don’t know who he is.
If you’re going to pull stuff like that, make sure you don’t get your backside handed to you. Which is exactly what Como, led by the magnificent Nico Paz, did to him. The knives are already out for Tudor (they face Real Madrid in the Champions League this midweek) and some of this is definitely of his own making.
This helped clarify a lot of questions I had.