The Weekly Take, Issue 43: The FIGC’s Own Goal

Sometimes, things happen in the world of sports that go beyond the game itself.

Regrettably, such an incident took place in the recent Serie A game between Inter Milan and Napoli.

The match finished 1-0 to Inter, with Lautaro Martínez scoring the only goal of the game in stoppage time.

However, to focus on that aspect of the game would both be incredibly offensive and miss the broader point.

Throughout the match, many Inter fans directed racist insults at Napoli player Kalidou Koulibaly. Koulibaly later responded by sarcastically applauding referee Paolo Mazzoleni, who refused to stop the game despite the requests of various Napoli players, as well as Napoli coach Carlo Ancelotti. However, not only was Mazzoleni unmoved, but he even handed out a second yellow card to Koulibaly for his response.

This was not the only major flashpoint to take place during this explosive clash.

Before the game, there had been clashes between Inter and Napoli fans outside the stadium. This violence led to the death of one Inter fan. Four Napoli fans were also stabbed.

Incredibly, despite the shocking scenes that took place both before and during the game, Italian Football Federation (FIGC) president Gabriele Gravina refused to suspend Serie A action until further notice. The only punishment given was a two-game suspension of fan attendance against Inter Milan, to be followed by a partial closure of the San Siro for the subsequent home game.

By refusing to take a stronger stance regarding such issues, the FIGC has shown blatant disregard for the welfare of players of colour, as well as that of those affected by fan violence.

Time and again, the FIGC has failed to take a hard enough line against such important issues.

In January 2018, the FIGC did not punish Cagliari when their fans directed racist chants towards Juventus midfielder Blaise Matuidi. The league’s disciplinary record claimed that there was no evidence that Matuidi was the victim of the offensive remarks, despite the fact that Matuidi openly stated that he had the racist volleys targeted at him. Cagliari’s club authorities also apologized to Matuidi for their fans’ actions. Despite being presented with this array of evidence, however, the FIGC did not take any action.

In 2014, the FIGC was once again involved in a racism controversy. Then-FIGC president Carlo Tavecchio received a six-month suspension from UEFA after making offensive comments about African players, whom he believed were stealing roster spots from Italian players.

While racism is certainly present everywhere in the world, the fact that it was the country’s highest football authority who made such remarks highlights the shocking state that Italian football has reached.

The FIGC has also failed to adequately address fan violence.

During last season’s Champions League semifinal between Liverpool and Roma, Liverpool fan Sean Cox was assaulted by Roma fans. Although Cox has not fully recovered from his injuries sustained in the attack to this day, not once did the FIGC do anything to address the issue, nor did they even release a statement condemning the assault.

If we go back even further, once again to 2014, before that year’s Coppa Italia final between Napoli and Fiorentina, a fan tossed smoke bombs at and shot a group of Napoli fans, severely injuring some of them and casting a pall over Napoli’s eventual victory.

To this point, the FIGC has only paid mere lip service to these issues. In the wake of the incidents surrounding the Inter-Napoli match, Gravina claimed that the association would make it easier for referees to halt games in similar instances of offensive epithets launched by fans and also claimed that the incidents would not ruin Italian football.

However, Gravina may have said all the right things, but what have he and his association actually done?

Fan misconduct, whether in the form of racism, violence, or anything else has blighted Italian football for decades. While other countries have experienced similar issues, they have generally made efforts to deal with them; Italy has not.

Although I am understandably sceptical that they will do so, I implore the FIGC to take stock of where Italian football is right now, consider the social problems damaging it, and work towards dealing with these problems and thus prove that the country’s football scene is not beyond saving.

The Weekly Take, Issue 42: An Expected Departure

The seemingly inevitable has now happened.

After Manchester United’s 3-1 loss to arch-rivals Liverpool, José Mourinho was fired as the Red Devils’ coach after just over two years in the position.

To say that Mourinho’s time as United coach was turbulent is an understatement.

Mourinho was known to have had personal issues with a number of United players, including Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial, Alexis Sánchez, and Andreas Pereira. He also clashed with vice-chairman Ed Woodward over the money he was allocated for the purpose of signing players.

It cannot be said that Mourinho’s stint as United coach was a complete failure, especially given the fact that the squad he had at his disposal was not flooded with the sheer amount of talent that the likes of Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, or Barcelona had. Second place in the Premier League last season can be considered a success, considering that they finished ahead of arguably more fancied teams such as Chelsea and Tottenham. However, it must also be noted that in his first season at United, Mourinho’s team only finished sixth in the league, only qualifying for the Champions League by winning the much less prestigious and competitive Europa League.

Although Mourinho’s time at the helm of United didn’t go the way many a United fan had hoped, the reality is that this Manchester United team was never the right fit for the Portuguese coach.

Consider all the other teams which experienced much success under Mourinho. What did all of them have in common?

Every one of them was built around an elite playmaking central midfielder – a player who was equally adept at playing the number 8 or 10 roles.

Mourinho had Deco on his roster at Porto, Frank Lampard at Chelsea, Wesley Sneijder at Inter Milan, and Mesut Özil and Luka Modrić at Real Madrid.

United do not have a player of such calibre in that position. Juan Mata currently occupies that role, but, while a solid player, is nowhere near the levels of the five players just mentioned.

Mourinho has also always favoured a defense-first approach. Once again, his personnel at other clubs allowed him to do that with ease, but not so at United.

He had Paulo Ferreira, Jorge Costa, and Ricardo Carvalho at Porto. At Chelsea, he had John Terry, as well as Ferreira and Carvalho again. His Inter Milan team had Javier Zanetti, Maicon, and Iván Cordoba. Then, when he coached Real Madrid, he had Sergio Ramos and Marcelo on his roster.

United’s current backline is led by Luke Shaw and Victor Lindelöf. That’s simply not going to cut it at the highest level.

To put it simply: this Manchester United team was not set up to favour a coach like Mourinho.

Furthermore, as Mourinho has pointed out, the team has clearly been hampered by the lack of signings made. Over the previous off-season, United made three signings, all of whom have mostly been limited to the bench. Diogo Dalot, Fred, and Lee Grant have combined for just 14 starts and five substitute appearances this season. United stood still while their rivals moved ahead and strengthened their teams by making key signings.

Of course, José Mourinho himself must shoulder a good deal of the blame. Publicly airing his personal problems with his players was a horrible look, and it clearly destabilized the team. To make matters worse, three of the players he fell out with – Pogba, Sánchez, and Martial – are arguably three of United’s four best players. A coach of Mourinho’s calibre and experience ought to know that a team’s best players often have to be dealt with differently. However, Mourinho clearly failed to get the memo, as far as his interactions with his players are concerned. This played a major role in the club’s making the decision to fire him.

No one should cast any doubt on Mourinho’s coaching skill. With two Champions Leagues, eight league titles, four domestic cups, two doubles, and a treble, he is, in my opinion, the greatest coach in football history.

Despite his track record, though, his United stint never came close to the heights he once hit, proving that no matter how great the coach, if the coach doesn’t fit the club well, success will be difficult to come by.

The Weekly Take, Issue 41: Who’s Taking Ol’ Big Ears Home?

The Champions League group stage has now ended, and we now know the identities of each of the teams that have advanced to the round of 16. Among these teams, there will be some who have a strong case to win it all, some who are fringe contenders, and a handful of others who have absolutely no chance and will almost certainly be knocked out in the next round.

I will begin by picking out the seven teams who certainly will not win the Champions League: Tottenham, Porto, Schalke, Ajax, Lyon, Roma, and Manchester United.

Even if the draw for the round of 16 is favourable to any of these teams, their ceiling is the quarterfinals. None of them are even remotely near the requisite amount of talent and quality required to win the biggest prize in European club football.

In the group stage, these seven teams cumulatively averaged just 10.6 points and a goal difference of +3.4. These figures drop to 9.7 points and +2.5 respectively after excluding Porto, who are an outlier because they topped by far the weakest group in the tournament – a group containing relative lightweights Schalke, Galatasaray, and Lokomotiv Moscow.

None of the teams I just mentioned were a top-seeded team in their group, and understandably so. Porto have the highest UEFA club coefficient of the seven teams I believe have no shot; however, their coefficient of 86 only placed them ninth overall among all of this season’s Champions League participants.

Now, we will take a look at the teams I consider to be fringe contenders; they are Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, and Real Madrid.

Yes, Real Madrid.

Although I consider the current Real squad the greatest dynasty in football history, this season has not gone well for Los Merengues. The defending champions lost both group-stage games against CSKA Moscow, who finished bottom of their group. Santiago Solari’s team are also struggling in La Liga. After 15 league games, Real are fourth, five points behind leaders and arch-rivals Barcelona. This is largely due to the fact that they have already lost five league games. Thus, I cannot say that Real are among the favourites to win it all; it will be difficult for them to win an astonishing fourth consecutive Champions League title.

PSG, who were also among the pre-tournament favourites to win it all, also clearly showed their frailties in the group stage. Although they were drawn in the tournament’s “Group of Death” alongside Liverpool and Napoli, it doesn’t change the fact that the Paris club were almost knocked out of the tournament in the first round. Despite boasting a star-laden roster containing the likes of Edinson Cavani, Neymar, Ángel Di María, and Kylian Mbappé, they laboured to a 3-2-1 group stage record. Furthermore, PSG are perennial underachievers on European football’s biggest stage – over the last six seasons, they have been knocked out in the quarterfinals four times and round of 16 twice. While on paper, PSG are arguably the world’s most talented team, the reality is that their odds to win the Champions League are not particularly good.

Dortmund topped Group A and recorded an impressive 4-0 victory over Atlético Madrid along the way. They also have a comfortable lead in the Bundesliga. Unfortunately for Die Schwarzgelbe, the major knock on them is the fact that they do not have a genuine superstar on their roster, and this severely limits their ceiling. However, given how impressive they have been in the Bundesliga and Champions League, if any team with a relative lack of star power can overcome the odds and make a deep run, it could very well be Dortmund. Nevertheless, they certainly cannot be placed among the favourites because they don’t have that one guy who is likely to “lead them to the promised land”.

Finally, we come to Dortmund’s Bundesliga rivals Bayern. This has been a difficult season for the five-time champions. Bayern’s stuttering league form has left them third in the Bundesliga, nine points behind leaders Dortmund. This inconsistent form almost cost coach Niko Kovač his job. Despite finishing first in Group E, Kovač’s team were never really all that convincing in a group that also included Ajax, Benfica, and AEK Athens – three team whom Bayern should have finished ahead of by more than they did. That being said, Bayern have been known to consistently deliver results in the Champions League. Since 2010, they have advanced to the semifinals of the tournament in all but two seasons. Couple that with the considerable amount of talent running through the squad, and you have a team that, though they might not necessarily win it all, will definitely be a tough out.

This leaves us with the five teams which I believe have a genuine chance to win the Champions League: Atlético Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool, Manchester City, and Juventus.

After four seasons of deep Champions League runs including runner-up finishes in 2014 and 2016, Atlético were knocked out of last season’s Champions League group stage in stunning fashion, finishing behind Roma and Chelsea. This season, however, notwithstanding their thrashing at the hands of Dortmund, Atlético have looked extremely impressive throughout the tournament. Led by Antoine Griezmann, who is capably supported by the likes of Jan Oblak, Filipe Luís, Saúl Ñiguez, Thomas Lemar, and Diego Godín, Atlético have the personnel, coaching, and team chemistry to potentially get over the hump and win the Champions League for the first time in club history.

As was expected, Barcelona topped a group containing Tottenham, Inter Milan, and PSV Eindhoven with absolutely no problems at all. What could be ominous for the teams that they will face in future rounds is the fact that Lionel Messi was shockingly snubbed from the top three in the Ballon d’Or rankings. It is likely that the Barça superstar took this slight personally and will use the rest of the La Liga and Champions League season as his “revenge tour”. Given the fact that Messi’s supporting cast of Ivan Rakitić, Luis Suárez, Jordi Alba, Philippe Coutinho, and others have also been in terrific form this season, the Blaugrana will not be easy to stop.

Having lost in last season’s final, Liverpool cannot be overlooked as title contenders. What is notable is that the Reds no longer live and die by the goals of Mohamed Salah. This season, players such as Georginio Wijnaldum, Sadio Mané, and Joe Gomez have clearly stepped up their level of play. Beyond that, Liverpool made some excellent off-season signings. Xherdan Shaqiri, Alisson, Naby Keїta, and Fabinho have all proved to fit seamlessly into this Liverpool team. Although they started the Champions League slowly, only advancing to the round of 16 with a 2-3-1 record, expect them to only get better as the tournament progresses.

The next team to be looked at is Manchester City. Although their play this season has somewhat gone under the radar, they definitely have a chance to win the Champions League. Players such as Bernardo Silva, Raheem Sterling, Aymeric Laporte, and of course, Sergio Agüero have all been firing on all cylinders. The major question mark hanging over this team, however, is the fact that none of them have even been to the Champions League final, let alone won it all. Despite this, City are so star-laden and richly talented that it should not be any trouble for them to make another deep Champions League run.

Finally, we come to Juventus. Much like Liverpool, don’t be fooled by their relatively pedestrian group-stage record of 4-0-2. Obviously, Juve’s off-season was dominated by the acquisition of Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid, but the signings of João Cancelo and Leonardo Bonucci have also been key to their success this season. Another factor that may aid the Bianconeri’s push for a first Champions League title since 1996 is their massive Serie A lead. They are 15-1-0 right now and will almost certainly pick up yet another Scudetto. Hence, Juve are more able than most other teams to emphasize Champions League play.

Of course, there will be many more twists and turns as the Champions League continues. Surely, at least one of the teams I just named as being among the contenders will suffer a shock upset, and there will almost certainly be an underdog run by a team that nobody expects to do so.

But for now, as I see it, this is how it stands.

The Weekly Take, Issue 40: Another Defensive Masterpiece

The latest edition of the Derby d’Italia finished with the result many expected – a Juventus victory. Mario Mandžukić scored the only goal of the game to sink Inter Milan and extend Juve’s Serie A lead to a massive 11 points.

However, the real stars of the match were Juve’s back four, who collectively produced an outstanding defensive performance, completely neutralising the threat posed by the likes of Mauro Icardi and Ivan Perišić. João Cancelo, Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini, and Mattia De Sciglio simply would not allow themselves to be beaten by a scrappy Nerazzurri.

Cancelo played arguably his best game for Juventus since signing for the Bianconeri this past off-season. The Portuguese right-back tormented his former club throughout the match with two interceptions and successful tackles apiece, while also helping out on offense by setting up Mandžukić’s goal.

Having returned to Juve after spending a year at AC Milan, Bonucci has shown that he hasn’t missed a beat, and his performance this game was no exception. His steady defensive play and superior technical ability for a centre-back shone through in this game, and indeed, has done so all season long. Bonucci’s centre-back partnership with Chiellini clearly helped set the tone for Juve’s victory.

Chiellini was the clear man of the match. In a previous post, I already wrote about Giorgio Chiellini’s defensive excellence, so I won’t go into too much detail here. Nevertheless, the Pisa-born defender was in top form. Thanks to his efforts, goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny was largely untroubled throughout the match. Chiellini also caused trouble at the other end, posing an aerial threat and coming close to scoring with some headers. The 34-year-old once again defied his age, looking like a man a decade younger.

Deputising for the injured Alex Sandro, De Sciglio was clearly unfazed by the magnitude of the occasion. Despite playing in just his fourth league game of the season, the former AC Milan left-back was composed and assured until the final whistle. His defensive play on Kwadwo Asamoah and Perišić was especially impressive.

Although the majority of the headlines regarding Juve this season have been about Cristiano Ronaldo, the five-time World Player of the Year has not had as much impact on Juve’s success as have his teammates at the back.

The four defenders who played against Inter, as well as Alex Sandro and backups Medhi Benatia and Andrea Barzagli, have all been absolutely terrific this season.

This Juve defense has established itself as arguably the finest in world football. Over 20 Serie A and Champions League games thus far this season, Juventus have conceded just 10 goals – the lowest figure by any team from one of the four major leagues.

Although it may not be as glamorous as offense, defense is half the game. A solid defense will set the foundation for the rest of the team to take off.

Every backline wants to develop something of an “aura” around them; a general expectation that there is no striker alive that they can’t stop. The current Juventus defense are well on their way to doing so.

Club legends Chiellini and Bonucci have already developed such a reputation, while Cancelo, Alex Sandro, and others have certainly contributed to this formidable defense.

They may not hog the headlines the way that Ronaldo, Mandžukić, and Paulo Dybala do, but without them, Juve would not even be close to the team they are now.

Unlike many other teams, Juve clearly put much emphasis on and take much pride in their defense, and it clearly shows.

It should not come as a surprise that Juventus have taken a defense-first approach; after all, this is a club that has had some of the greatest defenders of all time on its roster, such as Fabio Cannavaro, Claudio Gentile, Jürgen Kohler, Paolo Montero, Lilian Thuram, Gianluca Zambrotta, and many others.

Juventus will almost certainly win Serie A for the eighth consecutive season and remain among the favourites to clinch their third Champions League title.

While the exploits of their attacking trio will go a long way in helping them achieve this target, this team’s success begins and ends with their remarkable defense – one which no striker on the planet will look forward to facing.