The Weekly Take, Issue 55: Die Mannschaft’s New Generation Arrives

It has been a tough year for Germany’s national football team.

Knocked out in the first round of the World Cup. Relegated from the top tier of the Nations League. Embroiled in a racism controversy that triggered the international football retirement of Mesut Özil. Even the position of head coach Joachim Löw, once thought unassailable, has been at risk.

However, there may yet be light at the end of the tunnel for Die Mannschaft.

In a qualifying match for Euro 2020 against bitter rivals the Netherlands, Germany managed to gut out a 3-2 victory. Hoffenheim midfielder Nico Schulz scored the winning goal in the last minute of regulation time.

This was an important victory for Germany. Not only did they beat their arch-nemeses, but they did so as the underdogs. This Netherlands team has been resurgent ever since missing out on a spot at the 2018 World Cup and, led by players such as Memphis Depay, Frenkie de Jong, Matthijs de Ligt, and of course, superstar defender and team captain Virgil van Dijk, have re-established themselves as a genuine force in international football.

Another point of note about Germany’s win is the fact that none of their three goalscorers were part of the team that suffered an early World Cup exit last year. Besides Schulz, Leroy Sané and Serge Gnabry found the back of the net for Germany.

Löw’s decision to bring a premature end to the international careers of veterans Thomas Müller, Jérôme Boateng, and Mats Hummels signalled the beginning of a new era for Germany. Though the decision to permanently drop the Bayern Munich trio was initially viewed with skepticism by many, the move appears to have paid off.

This phasing out of the old guard has paved the way for these young rising stars to emerge as the backbone of what looks like a promising, up-and-coming German team.

Leroy Sané is beginning to emerge as a superstar before our very eyes. He has begun to prove that he may very well be the player around whom Germany should build their team of the future. The standout performer in Germany’s victory over the Oranje, Sané has been in the midst of a breakout season. His performances have made major contributions to Manchester City’s Premier League and Champions League title bids.

However, this team is not just about Sané. The likes of Thilo Kehrer, Gnabry, Niklas Süle, Antonio Rüdiger, and others will form a solid supporting cast, both for the present and in the years to come.

The success of Germany’s under-21 team also bodes well for the senior team’s future.

The under-21 team have not lost a match for almost one and a half years. The reigning European junior champions have a plethora of young talent at their disposal, many of whom will surely be called up to the senior team before too long. This is a team containing players such as Mahmoud Dahoud, Luca Waldschmidt, Levin Öztunalı, and Pascal Stenzel. All of these players have already begun making names for themselves at their respective clubs and eventually be part of a team that makes deep European Championship and World Cup runs.

This may initially sound like a strange thing to say, but the fact that these players have either never played in a World Cup or only made minor appearances in it could end up working in Germany’s favour.

This is because they did not have to bear the brunt of Germany’s failure in Russia last year. Such an occurrence would have been likely to leave a psychological mark on the players involved. This may have been one of the primary reasons behind Germany’s dismal Nations League campaign. Now that many of their main players are not burdened by the legacy of their doomed World Cup campaign, they should be able to play with a level of mental freedom which the players who played heavy minutes during the World Cup would not have.

After enduring a slump of more than a year, it looks as though Germany are ready to write the next chapter of their storied football history. While it’s too early to say that they will clinch their fifth World Cup title in 2022, such a scenario is definitely possible.

The Weekly Take, Issue 54: No Icardi, No Problem

The Derby della Madonnina is one of the most iconic matches in world football.

Inter Milan and AC Milan are two of the most storied clubs in the world. The two Milan clubs have combined for 36 Serie A titles, 12 Coppa Italia titles, and 10 Champions Leagues. Adding extra intrigue to their intense rivalry is the fact that they even play in the same stadium.

The latest match between the two, which took place this past matchday, ended in a 3-2 victory in favour of Inter. The win helped the Nerazzurri overtake their city rivals in the Serie A standings, moving into third.

Notably for Inter, the match was the team’s first high-profile one since a controversy involving Argentine centre-forward Mauro Icardi.

Icardi had been embroiled in a dispute over a possible contractual extension with Inter. This dispute boiled over around a month ago when Wanda Nara, Icardi’s wife and agent, launched a scathing critique against her husband’s teammates by claiming that they were not setting him up for success. Inter responded by stripping Icardi of the club captaincy, a position he had held since 2015. He has since been frozen out of the team and is now likely to be transferred in the coming offseason.

As Icardi was, and still is, the club’s leading goalscorer this season, it would not have come as a surprise if Inter had struggled in his absence. However, in spite of some initial struggles, the team has appeared to begin to gel.

Players such as Stefan de Vrij, Matías Vecino, Marcelo Brozović, and most notably of all, Lautaro Martínez, have all raised their level of play in recent weeks.

This was clearly evidenced in Inter’s derby victory over the Rossoneri. No single player necessarily stood out – it was clearly a team effort. Inter received important contributions from most of their key players. What is interesting, however, is the fact that such a performance might not have been produced had Icardi still been playing.

This team had been becoming over-reliant on the controversial Argentine before the incident regarding his contract blew up.

Prior to the dispute, Icardi had been Inter’s only player to have scored more than four league goals this season, with nine. On the offensive front, everything about Inter started and ended with Icardi. However, Icardi’s absence from the lineup had the effect of forcing Inter to play in a more team-oriented manner. This change has galvanized the team and really brought the superstar potential of Martínez to the forefront.

When he signed for Inter from Racing Club, Martínez was hyped as one who would become yet another elite striker to come out of Argentina. Despite this, he had mostly been limited to substitute appearances as Icardi led the frontline in the starting 11. That changed after Icardi was dropped. Since then, Martínez has begun to live up to the buzz around him with several very impressive performances and even scored one of Inter’s goals in the derby. At this point, even if Icardi were to make his way back into the good graces of the club, it is not a given that he would not be deemed expendable. Not only is Martínez arguably equally as good a player as Icardi, he also happens to be four years younger and clearly has a far higher ceiling than his disgruntled compatriot does.

Furthermore, Icardi’s absence has also rid the team of a major off-field distraction and a possible source of division within the locker room. Events like this do have an effect on team morale, and if results are anything to go by, Inter have handled it very well thus far.

Now, it’s not as though Icardi’s career will now fade into oblivion. He is still a talented centre-forward and clubs which could use an upgrade at the position, such as Real Madrid or Liverpool, should consider making a play for him in the coming off-season. The controversy around him means that he is also likely to be signed at a reduced price if he leaves, which now seems almost inevitable.

Nevertheless, Icardi’s removal from the Inter lineup clearly seems to have been the right move. It appears that for Inter Milan, this is an instance of “addition by subtraction”.

The Weekly Take, Issue 53: Still Clutch as Ever

Throughout his career as a footballer, Ole Gunnar Solskjær was known for his clutch play in high-pressure situations.

Of course, the most famous such example took place in Manchester United’s 1999 Champions League final victory over Bayern Munich. Having come on as a substitute in the 81st minute, Solskjær went on to score the title-winning goal in stoppage time. The victory meant that the Red Devils clinched the Treble that season, becoming only the fourth team to do so and the first from a major league.

Another classic Solskjær clutch play took place against Newcastle in 1998. Newcastle’s Rob Lee was closing in on the Manchester United goal and was about to score the Magpies’ game-winning goal. A Newcastle win would have dealt a significant blow to United’s title challenge. Then, just when it was least expected, Solskjær tore across the field, somehow made up an enormous distance deficit, and barrelled into Lee to prevent the goal. Although the Norwegian did receive a red card for the tackle, he made a big play in a high-pressure situation – something which, as I mentioned, would become a feature of his career.

It now appears that Solskjær’s “clutch gene” has carried over to the other side of the touchline. Ever since taking over as United’s head coach in December 2018, he has done an outstanding job.

This week, he had his best moment in the position thus far, as United scored a sensational Champions League upset victory over Paris Saint-Germain. United’s 3-1 victory made up for a 2-0 first-leg loss, with Marcus Rashford scoring the penalty that put them into the quarterfinals for the first time since 2014.

It’s impossible to understate how great Solskjær has been thus far.

Since Solskjær took over, United have won 14 out of 17 matches, and of the three they did not win, one was the first leg of the Champions League match against PSG, while another was a 0-0 draw against Liverpool. Over those 17 matches, United have scored 39 goals while conceding just 13.

Solskjær has also managed to revive the seasons of players who had been slumping badly prior to his appointment. The likes of Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, and Anthony Martial all seem to have received something of a second wind. Pogba has also rediscovered the superstar levels which he is capable of but not reached for some time now.

United truly had the deck stacked against them heading into the second leg against PSG. Key players such as Martial, Nemanja Matić, and Ander Herrera were all absent due to injuries. On top of that, Pogba was suspended after receiving a red card in the first leg. Add the facts that United were already trailing by two goals and that the second leg was to be played at PSG’s Parc des Princes, and one could easily see why most assumed that PSG would make short work of United.

Yet somehow, against all the odds, Solskjær led United to an improbable victory. Despite having much less possession and far fewer goalscoring chances, United came in with just the right strategy to neutralize the threats posed by the likes of Marco Verratti, Kylian Mbappé, and, sweetest of all, former United player Ángel Di María. The Argentine had recently trash-talked his former club, so it was especially pleasing for United to get their revenge in this way.

Solskjær has been able to do something that even legendary coaches such as Louis van Gaal and José Mourinho could not. He has once again turned United into a powerhouse of world football. They actually look like genuine contenders to win the Champions League – something they have not been since the 2011-12 season.

It doesn’t always work out when a retired player returns to coach his former team. The likes of Filippo Inzaghi, Clarence Seedorf, and more recently, Santiago Solari are all evidence of this.

However, this is clearly not the case with Solskjær. Although he has only been at the helm of Manchester United for a short time, he has already done great things.

United’s numerous fans have good reason to be optimistic, because with Ole Gunnar Solskjær in the dugout, this team’s future is brighter than it has been for a very long time.

The Weekly Take, Issue 52: The CR7 Effect

Every great football dynasty has a singular moment which ends up being the beginning of the end of their time at the top.

For example, after the legendary Inter Milan team of 1962-67 lost the European Cup final to Celtic, the “Grande Inter” era came to an abrupt halt. Over the next 20 years, Inter only won four titles and finished in the top two of Serie A just three times.

It became evident that Liverpool’s two-decade run of sustained excellence, yielding title after title including four European Cups, was over after a crushing 5-1 loss against Coventry in December 1992. The Reds have not been the same since.

AC Milan were the dominant team of the early to mid-2000s, reaching three Champions League finals between 2003 and 2007 and winning two. However, they suffered a shock loss to Arsenal in the 2008 Champions League’s round of 16 and were subsequently displaced from world football’s top table in short order.

Real Madrid have hit such a watershed moment.

Real’s 1-0 loss to Barcelona in a La Liga El Clásico match underscored this fact: the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus brought about the end of the current Real Madrid dynasty.

The numbers are revealing. Real are currently on pace to average 70 points in La Liga this season. They have not ended the season with that low a total since 2006, three years before Ronaldo’s arrival at the Santiago Bernabéu.

Real’s goalscoring output, or lack thereof, is even more damning.

At their current pace, Real are on track to score 63 league goals this season. This would be their lowest total since 2000. What makes this even worse is the fact that Real’s lowest league goal total in the Ronaldo era was 94.

But it’s not just about the raw numbers. There’s a reason why Cristiano Ronaldo won four Ballon d’Or titles during his time at Real, and why Real won four Champions League titles during the Ronaldo era.

Just Ronaldo’s presence on the field tipped the balance in Real’s favour. Such was the threat he posed and the fear he placed in opponents that it was almost as though Real were playing 12 against 11 when Ronaldo was playing.

It’s not as if Los Merengues didn’t try to rebuild in the wake of the Portuguese superstar’s departure. They signed Thibaut Courtois from Chelsea, who was fresh off winning the Golden Glove at the World Cup. Unfortunately for Real, Courtois has not kept up the form that earned him the honour. Real Madrid have conceded 31 league goals this season, putting them level with 14th-placed Leganés in this statistic.

Real were also banking on reigning Ballon d’Or winner Luka Modrić to assume the superstar mantle that the Portuguese legend left behind. However, they failed to take something very important into account: Modrić’s age. The Croatian is 33 years old. For players other than goalkeepers and defenders, this is usually around the age when a player’s performance begins to “fall off a cliff”. It is almost certain that last season was Modrić’s last as an elite player.

Real’s immense dependence on Ronaldo during his nine years there has clearly been shown this season. The signings of Courtois and Álvaro Odriozola, a coaching change which installed Santiago Solari at the helm, and the institution of a more team-based strategy do not seem to have improved the situation at the club. Ronaldo’s long shadow still dominates the landscape at the Bernabéu.

However, in this coming off-season, there is one thing Real can do to mitigate the situation. Real need to sign Eden Hazard from Chelsea. As I’ve written about before, Hazard is currently wasting his prime years on a dysfunctional team which has completely failed to build around his tremendous talent. While Hazard might not be at the level of a prime Ronaldo, he is nevertheless good enough to be the player who leads Real back to the top.

It is never easy to replace a player like Cristiano Ronaldo. Although Real started the season strongly, it was inevitable that at some point, they would face significant struggles. However, no one could have predicted that it would have been quite this bad in the Spanish capital.