The Weekly Take Issue 338: Not the Title Defense They'd Hoped For

Real Madrid had already gotten off to a slow start to their Champions League campaign even before their match against Premier League leaders Liverpool. Los Merengues’ title defense had not been going well following prior losses to Lille and AC Milan. For that reason, when Real headed to Anfield to face off against the Reds, it was perhaps their most important match thus far this season - and against a serious contender for the Champions League title, no less.

As things turned out, Real never even stood a chance. The final scoreline of 2-0 to Liverpool was somewhat flattering to Real - it could’ve, and likely should’ve, been larger. Despite dominating the match more or less right from opening kick-off, Liverpool didn’t open the scoring until early in the second half. Alexis Mac Allister played a one-two with Conor Bradley before advancing into Real’s penalty area, then firing a shot into the bottom corner of the net.

Following this, both teams traded penalty misses. Real first had a chance to equalize from the spot after Andy Robertson fouled Lucas Vázquez in the penalty area; however, Kylian Mbappé squandered Real’s opportunity, having his penalty saved by Liverpool goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher. Nine minutes later, Ferland Mendy conceded a penalty after his own foul on Liverpool winger Mohamed Salah, only for Salah to blow the ensuing spot-kick; his attempt wasn’t even close.

Liverpool continued to outplay their Spanish opponents in every facet of the game and to the surprise of absolutely nobody, scored their second goal in the 76th minute when Cody Gakpo found the net with a header off a cross sent in by Robertson.

Real’s loss - their third in five Champions League matches this season - leaves them in 24th place at the end of the fifth of eight league phase matchdays. In a scenario which would have seemed inconceivable when the season started, Real are in serious danger of failing to even qualify for the play-ins for a spot in the round of 16.

Real haven’t even been close to the force they were just last season when they won their second Champions League title in three seasons and also reclaimed their La Liga title after finishing ahead of arch-rivals Barcelona by 10 points. This season, however, it’s not just about Real’s struggles in continental play - domestically, while not far behind Barça right now, the obvious lowlight of Real’s 2024-25 La Liga campaign to date has to have been their crushing 4-0 home defeat against Barça. Of course, this leads to the question - just what’s going wrong at the Santiago Bernabéu?

A sizable amount of the blame has to be placed on Mbappé. The Frenchman arrived in the Spanish capital over the off-season following the expiry of his contract at PSG, having decided against activating its extension clause. Despite all the fanfare which his arrival at Real brought, Mbappé’s form has been inconsistent since the beginning of the season - a far cry from the level which had previously seen him establish himself as a perennial Ballon d’Or contender.

Real’s injury crisis can’t be overstated either. Among the players currently sidelined are Rodrygo, Aurélien Tchouaméni, and most notably of all, Vinícius Júnior. Would it have been the case that at least one of them would have made the difference against Liverpool? Not necessarily - but when the team sustains such major losses, it means that the entire setup has to be adjusted; against Liverpool, it was obvious that this wasn't what Real was comfortable with.

Speaking of Vinícius, the off-field drama surrounding him and thus Real has undoubtedly been an unwelcome distraction. After finding out in advance that the Brazilian winger would not win the Ballon d’Or, Real opted to boycott the ceremony in Paris - a decision that understandably invited sharp criticism from the football world in general. Real’s detractors have long derided them as the “golden child” of the powers that be; the fact that their refusal to attend the ceremony didn’t lead to any official response further intensified the backlash.

All things considered, while there’s more than enough time for Real Madrid to claw their way back into Champions League or La Liga contention, this definitely isn’t how they envisioned the first third of their season going. They’re not out of it by any means - but it will be a difficult road back.

The Weekly Take, Issue 337: Now in Uncharted Territory, the Situation Has Changed

Nottingham Forest’s hot start to the Premier League season had already been attracting much attention heading into their match against Arsenal. Prior to this matchday’s fixtures, Forest were fifth in the league and easily on pace for their best league finish since the 1994-95 campaign when they finished third. This was even more impressive given the fact that the Midlands club finished 17th - just one spot above relegation - last season.

However, Forest’s match against Arsenal proved that for all their improvement in such a short span of time, they still have some way to go yet. Forest succumbed to a one-sided 3-0 loss at the Emirates Stadium; the gap in quality was obvious from opening kick-off. Bukayo Saka opened the scoring for the Gunners in the 15th minute; seven minutes after the break, Thomas Partey extended Arsenal’s lead to 2-0. To cap things off, substitute Ethan Nwaneri scored the Gunners’ third with just four minutes of regulation time remaining. It was the 17-year-old’s first career league goal in only his eighth appearance.

Earlier this season, the hype around Forest began to grow after picking up an impressive 1-0 away win against Liverpool. This would soon be followed by a three-match winning streak which elevated Forest to third place after 10 matchdays. However, in hindsight all three of those wins were somewhat deceiving because of the teams against which they were - Crystal Palace, Leicester City, and West Ham United; all three teams are in danger of being relegated this season.

Thus far, a great deal of the credit surrounding Forest’s strong start to the season has gone to head coach Nuno Espírito Santo. However, it might be beginning to appear that this praise might have been premature. While he has indeed presided over a clear improvement at the City Ground, this is where the true test of his coaching skills will come - in the quest to get Forest into a UEFA Conference League or perhaps even Europa League qualification berth.

To be fair to him, this is something which Espírito Santo has done before. In 2018-19, he took Wolverhampton Wanderers to a Europa League spot by finishing seventh in the league in the season directly after Wolves were promoted from the Championship. However, he hasn’t been able to match that level since, with his last two seasons at Molineux Stadium ending in 13th- and 10th-place finishes respectively prior to a brief, ill-fated stint at Tottenham Hotspur, then barely avoiding relegation with Forest last season. Could he have rediscovered his touch? More needs to be seen before anything can be rightly said about that.

There’s no question that many of Forest’s players have evidently taken a step up from last season. The likes of Chris Wood, Ola Aina, and Murillo have all been playing the best football of their respective careers as of late. However, once again, the question has to be raised: very few members of this Forest team have ever been involved in a serious chase for qualification for continental play. It certainly isn’t out of the question that as the season progresses and the pressure increases, they might just end up folding under the spotlight.

That being said, thus far Forest have easily outpaced every expectation of them and on the surface, even a top-10 finish would be well beyond what they might have expected at the beginning of the season. However, now that they’ve been somewhat established in this position for a while and with the race for qualification spots for next season’s European club tournaments being closer than it has ever been, Forest might want to reset their targets because they do have a realistic chance at them - but with these reset targets, performances like the one they just had against Arsenal certainly won’t cut it.

There are certainly opportunities to be had in the upcoming January transfer window; this arguably represents a key opportunity for Nottingham Forest if they’re to seriously contend for continental play next season. While Forest indeed seem like a completely different team to that of the two seasons since their Premier League return after more than two decades, there’s a chance for them to take the next step sooner rather than later - but can they prove that they can hang with the establishment?

The Weekly Take, Issue 336: Light at the End of the Tunnel?

The penultimate matchday of the 2024-25 UEFA Nations League group stage saw Italy knock Belgium out of the tournament by beating them 1-0. The Azzurri’s victory also ensured that they would be in the driver’s seat of Group A2 heading into the final matchday; a draw in their upcoming home match against France would clinch first place in the group and allow them to avoid a tougher quarterfinal match-up against another first-placed team.

A match that could realistically have swung either way was decided early on via Sandro Tonali’s goal in the 11th minute. The Newcastle midfielder took advantage of some horrendous defensive play by Belgium to score his first career goal in international play.

Italy certainly haven’t had the best run of form in international tournaments as of late. Their Euro 2020 victory now appears to be an obvious outlier; since then they’ve failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup, then have been knocked out of Euro 2024 in the round of 16. Even before all of this, Italy missed out on the 2018 World Cup as well.

By the time the 2026 World Cup in North America begins, it will have been 20 years since the last time Italy advanced beyond the group stage of a World Cup. However, if the signs they have shown thus far in this season’s Nations League are anything to go by, there may yet be signs of life in international football’s biggest fallen giant.

In this season’s Nations League, Italy certainly seem to have turned it around. Despite having been drawn into a difficult group containing France and Belgium, Italy have been majorly impressive thus far. After picking up a 3-1 upset win against France at the Parc des Princes during the opening matchday, Italy haven’t looked back - and a lot of this has to do with head coach Luciano Spalletti. After Italy crashed out of Euro 2024 against Switzerland, Spalletti retooled the team’s general strategy and direction.

Spalletti has begun to favour greater positional flexibility, making the team’s tactical setup much more versatile especially when compared to the years when predecessor Roberto Mancini is in charge. It’s this adaptability which served Italy well in their away victories over France and Belgium. This is especially noticeable when Italy are attacking; their setup allows certain players more opportunities to make key off-ball runs to catch opposing defenses off-guard. Spalletti has also utilized decoy plays, often making use of pass-and-move sequences and diagonal balls for these. Both were key parts of the Serie A title that Spalletti coached Napoli to; he’s now brought them into the national team to much effect.

But beyond the X’s and O’s, Spalletti appears to have instilled a degree of grit and heart within the team that wasn’t nearly as present before. Although it might not have been the most outstanding performance, Italy were able to gut it out in a way that they perhaps wouldn’t have been able to just a few months back - let alone a year or two ago. This was most clearly seen in the second half when Italy guarded their lead with a level of intensity that’s sorely been missing over the past decade-plus.

It’s also worth mentioning that several of the players who had previously been fringe selections but have now begun to play larger roles have certainly elevated this team. Players such as Mateo Retegui, Giacomo Raspadori, Alessandro Buongiorno, and Samuele Ricci have now become regular starters; this wasn’t the case until the Nations League began, and so far, they not only seem to have slotted in seamlessly, but are playing at a higher level than the players from whom they took their starting spots. More importantly, this appears to be sustainable and not a mere flash in the pan - for all we know, perhaps Italy might have done better at Euro 2024 if one or more of them had seen more playing time.

Of course, it’s way too soon to unequivocally declare that Italy are truly back. However, most of the signs right now are - after years of struggle with the exception of Euro 2020 - pointing in the right direction. While not the outright favourite by any means, they’re looking like a dark horse contender to take the Nations League title.

The Weekly Take, Issue 335: It Would Never Have Been That Easy

Although it was always going to be a tall order for Bayer Leverkusen to even come close to matching their historic achievements of last season, Die Werkself had nevertheless gotten off to a strong start in their return to the Champions League following their Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal triumphs in 2023-24. Leverkusen had started off their tournament with victories over Feyenoord and AC Milan as well as a draw against Brest; however, this most recent matchday was their toughest test to date as they headed to Anfield to play against Premier League leaders Liverpool.

As things turned out, however, Leverkusen ended up being completely outplayed and outclassed. They were steamrolled by their English opponents in a crushing 4-0 loss with all four goals coming in the second half. About midway through the half, Luis Díaz and Cody Gakpo both scored within a two-minute span to give the Reds a two-goal lead. Díaz added his second and Liverpool’s third with seven minutes remaining in regulation time after finishing off Mohamed Salah’s cross. The Colombian winger completed his hat-trick in stoppage time after taking advantage of a Darwin Núñez attempt which happened to be blocked in his direction.

Heading into this season, expectations were understandably sky-high at the BayArena after everything they achieved during their already legendary 2023-24 campaign. Leverkusen won the Bundesliga without losing any matches, becoming the first club to ever win Germany’s domestic league title with an Invincibles season. They also won the DFB-Pokal and made the final of the Europa League.

Adding another storyline to this match was the fact that Xabi Alonso had just missed out on the Ballon d’Or Coach of the Year award after having been beaten to the honour by Carlo Ancelotti of Real Madrid. It was an outcome which many decried given the fact that Alonso accomplished everything which he did with far fewer financial resources to work with in comparison to Ancelotti at Real. In addition, Leverkusen were not expected to finish the season with any silverware at all, let alone completely dominate the Bundesliga and remain undefeated throughout the entire campaign.

Instead, Leverkusen were shown the harsh truth that the Champions League represents a completely different level. Liverpool, a team seasoned by six consecutive seasons in the Champions League before missing out on last season’s, were ready for the occasion while Leverkusen clearly weren’t. In particular, Leverkusen produced next to nothing in the final third and never looked likely to get onto the scoresheet.

In what has become a very rare occurrence, Alonso got his tactical setup completely wrong. Alonso tried to outwit his Liverpool counterpart Arne Slot by deviating from his usual 3-4-2-1 formation, instead going with a 3-5-2 and pairing Victor Boniface and Florian Wirtz up front with the latter in the unfamiliar role of the false nine. It was a sharp reminder to the man from the Basque Country that though it’s more or less been smooth sailing throughout his coaching career to date, errors like that at this level - this is Alonso’s first season in the dugout for a Champions League campaign - can and will be punished.

Leverkusen’s players in general also appeared overmatched and out of their depths. In particular, the likes of Edmond Tapsoba, Jonathan Tah, and even Boniface and veteran midfielder Granit Xhaka were absolutely no match for their counterparts on the Reds. The gap between the two teams was clearly on display; their opposing matchups clearly exhibited their far greater Champions League experience to its maximum effect.

Of course, this result doesn’t spell the end of Leverkusen’s Champions League road by any means. They’re still in a reasonably strong position - they will almost certainly finish in the top 24 where they will have a chance to play for a round of 16 berth; they even have a puncher’s chance of bouncing back, making the top eight, and thereby earning a bye into the last 16. However, the events that just transpired at Anfield show that despite how far they’ve already come, in some ways Leverkusen remain a work in progress.

While in general, Bayer Leverkusen appear primed to back up the success they had last season with another solid campaign, there are nonetheless signs that they might be starting to struggle under the weight of arguably inflated expectations. That being said, if they can clinch qualification for next season’s Champions League while also making this season’s Champions League quarter-finals - certainly a realistic outcome - they can nevertheless consider this season a positive one.

The Weekly Take, Issue 334: Sometimes, the Quick Fix Works

To say that Napoli’s Serie A title defense last season was a feeble one would certainly be an understatement. The season before, the Campanian club won the Scudetto for the first time in 33 years by a massive 16-point margin over league runners-up Inter Milan. After such a dominant league campaign in 2022-23, Napoli appeared primed to run it back and make a serious push for back-to-back Serie A titles.

However, Napoli’s 2023-24 season could not have been more different. Before the season began, head coach Luciano Spalletti left his position to accept the then-vacant job at the helm of the Italian national team. Rudi Garcia took over; however, results were underwhelming and Garcia was fired in November 2023. Garcia was replaced by Walter Mazzarri who made no improvements whatsoever; he too was dismissed in short order. Francesco Calzona took over for the Tuscan.

Napoli didn’t even come close to replicating the success of the season prior. So dismal was their play that home matches which ended in their players being booed off the field started to become commonplace as the end of the season approached. When it was all over, Napoli finished just 10th in the league with just 53 points, missing out on a Champions League spot by a whopping 15 points. Napoli finished in their lowest league placement since the 2008-09 season when they were 12th.

Unsurprisingly, Napoli overhauled just about everything this past off-season. A major pickup came in the dugout when they landed Antonio Conte as Calzona’s replacement. A four-time Serie A champion over the course of his coaching career, Conte was widely expected to bring stability to Stadio Diego Armando Maradona following the chaos of the prior season.

In the transfer window, Napoli spent heavily yet prudently. Instead of going all-in on a top-tier superstar, Napoli shelled out more than €150 million over six players including Scott McTominay, Alessandro Buongiorno, and Romelu Lukaku who’d be tasked with matching the goalscoring output of former star striker Victor Osimhen whose frayed relationship with the club led to his loan stint at Galatasaray. Napoli also picked up Leonardo Spinazzola on a free transfer from Roma.

All these changes have clearly worked - Napoli have already built a healthy lead on top of Serie A and have just extended it with a 2-0 victory over AC Milan. Lukaku opened the scoring in the fifth minute before Khvicha Kvaratskhelia clinched all three points with Napoli’s second goal shortly before half-time.

Turnarounds like what has been happening at Napoli don’t come around all too often. Perhaps the most important thing that has to be pointed out regarding their hot start has to be how they finessed the transfer market. In Lukaku and McTominay, Napoli picked up two players who were still capable of being high-level starters but whose stock happened to be low at the time. Landing centre-back Buongiorno for €35 million was also a very savvy acquisition; Buongiorno was fresh off a breakout season for his hometown club Torino in which he emerged as the club’s best player. At 25, he still likely has his absolute peak ahead of him as well.

The hiring of Conte has turned out to be a masterstroke. As was the case with Lukaku and McTominay, Conte’s stock was at an all-time low after having left Tottenham Hotspur in controversial circumstances in March 2023. Conte had not returned to the touchline since. Once again, Napoli understood exactly what Conte brought to the table and made the move that’s likely been the primary catalyst behind their return to the top of the league.

Speaking after Napoli’s victory over Milan, Conte claimed that Napoli’s main target this season was to secure a return to continental tournament play in 2025-26. However, it’s already obvious that this was far too modest an objective. This revamped Napoli team is genuinely very impressive - and it appears to be sustainable as well. This isn’t a team being carried by the brilliance of one or two elite players. It’s a well-rounded unit that right now might be the most underrated team there is.

Not many would have expected Napoli to right the ship as quickly as they did. However, unlike what a lot of other clubs in their position might’ve done, Napoli figured out what they needed to do and made all the right moves instead of any reckless, ill-advised ones. There’s no reason why they can’t go on to make it two Serie A titles in three seasons.

The Weekly Take, Issue 333: #ŞahinOut

First off, I would like to speak for myself as a Borussia Dortmund fan. Die Schwarzgelbe's most recent Champions League match against Real Madrid, especially in the second half, was one of the most abject and inept displays I have ever seen from the club in my 14 years as a Dortmund fan.

Despite carrying a 2-0 lead into half-time of their away match against Real in the third Champions League matchday of the league phase, Dortmund capitulated after the break, giving up five goals, including a second-half Vinícius Júnior hat-trick, to lose 5-2. Dortmund's first-half goals scored by Donyell Malen and Jamie Bynoe-Gittens unexpectedly put them in a commanding position heading into the break - but after it, Dortmund did what they've done for so much of this season, effectively rolling over and surrendering as soon as Real netted their first goal via Antonio Rüdiger in the 60th minute.

Vinícius scored Real's equalizer just two minutes later before a trio of late goals from the 83rd minute to stoppage time - one by Lucas Vázquez, two by Vinícius - finished Dortmund off and ensured that this rematch of last season's Champions League final would have the same outcome.

While there's certainly much blame to be passed around in the wake of Dortmund's loss, one person in particular deserves the bulk of it - and anyone who has been following what has been going on at Signal Iduna Park this season knows exactly who that person is.

There is a reason almost the entire fanbase hated the off-season hire of Nuri Şahin who has since proven that he's completely out of his depth coaching Dortmund. The sooner he's fired, the better off Dortmund will be. Including me, basically the entire fanbase ran out of patience weeks ago - and this latest disasterclass is further evidence of that. Şahin made a series of tactical errors that cost Dortmund the victory - and some of these errors were the type which even an ordinary fan sitting on the couch could easily have pointed out.

The most notable of these errors was his decision to substitute English winger Bynoe-Gittens in the 55th minute, bringing in centre-back Waldemar Anton. While it's understandable that Şahin wanted to prioritize protecting the 2-0 lead which Dortmund already had, Şahin could scarcely have made a worse substitution. For one thing, Bynoe-Gittens had been Dortmund's best player up to that point and if at any point Dortmund would need to switch from defense back to offense, Bynoe-Gittens would've likely been the key player to make that happen.

In addition, Anton is a centre-back. At the very least, Şahin could've brought in a full-back to ensure that Dortmund's tactical setup was minimally compromised. It thus came as little surprise that just seven minutes after the substitution, Real scored two goals to tie it at 2-2. Obviously, the only thing that Şahin was thinking was "bring in a defender to shore up the defense and protect the lead" without even giving himself a split-second to think of what the best way to do so would've been.

Şahin also substituted Norwegian right-back Julian Ryerson and replaced him with central midfielder Emre Can. Playing out of position, Can was woefully unprepared to guard Vinícius - and it clearly showed in Vinícius' second and Real's fourth goal when he offered next to no resistance in letting the Brazilian winger stride past him and subsequently run all the way down the pitch for an uncontested solo goal.

Despite being a club icon as a player who spent ten and a half seasons at Dortmund including five and a half as a starter, there was a reason that the fans were apprehensive about Şahin's hiring - and they have been proven right. Şahin's utter incompetence hits new depths nearly every week. Even just two months into the season, Şahin has already done so much damage to Dortmund's season that they already find themselves playing catch-up in the race for a top-four Bundesliga finish and a spot in next season's Champions League.

Quite frankly, even much-maligned former Borussia Dortmund head coaches Peter Stöger and Peter Bosz look like tactical geniuses in comparison to Nuri Şahin - let alone their successors Lucien Favre and Edin Terzić. If Şahin isn't canned by the start of the mid-season break, Dortmund are highly unlikely to come away from this season with anything of note apart from misery and underachievement.

The Weekly Take, Issue 332: Already a One-Season Wonder?

Last season, VfB Stuttgart came out of absolutely nowhere to finish second in the Bundesliga and even finished ahead of Bayern Munich who had won the previous 11 league titles in a row. It was Stuttgart's best league finish since clinching the Meisterschale back in the 2006-07 in one of the most memorable endings to a Bundesliga season of all time. Additionally, Stuttgart finished with 73 points to set a new club record. Stuttgart's 2023-24 season was a remarkable turnaround from their prior campaign when they only avoided relegation to the 2. Bundesliga by beating Hamburg SV over a two-legged playoff.

By far the biggest off-season story surrounding Stuttgart was the departure of star striker Serhou Guirassy to Borussia Dortmund. Die Schwarzgelbe brought the Guinean to Signal Iduna Park for the astonishingly low transfer fee of just €17.5 million. The season before, Guirassy had a breakout campaign, spearheading Stuttgart's rise to second place in the Bundesliga by netting 28 league goals, accounting for more than a third of every league goal scored by a Stuttgart player.

Following Guirassy's departure, Stuttgart have unsurprisingly gotten off to a slow start this season - a point driven home by their capitulation in a 4-0 away loss against Bayern Munich. Stuttgart never looked for a moment as though they even had a chance and were evidently outclassed right from opening kick-off. Somewhat surprisingly, it took Bayern until the second half to make it onto the scoresheet, but they never looked back as soon as they did. Harry Kane scored a second-half hat-trick to seal the victory for Bayern and keep them in first place in the league. Substitute Kingsley Coman then finished things off with Bayern's fourth goal in the 89th minute.

With this loss, Stuttgart are now ninth in the league; their chances of finishing in the top four and qualifying for next season's Champions League are certainly not the best at the moment. Many of Stuttgart's sequences of play in this match summed up how their season has gone thus far. It seemed as though every time Stuttgart would be on the brink of putting something together, they'd inevitably have a misplay and blow a possible chance for a goalscoring opportunity.

To make matters worse, as soon as Kane scored Bayern's first goal in the 57th minute, Stuttgart just flat-out collapsed. That goal seemed to have drained Stuttgart of whatever fighting spirit they might have previously had - something that shows a stark and alarming contrast when compared to this same Stuttgart team from last season. The Stuttgart side of the 2023-24 Bundesliga campaign would definitely not have mentally checked out after going a goal behind but instead have fought tooth and nail to get an equalizer. That was just about the exact opposite of what Stuttgart showed in their collapse at the Allianz Arena.

Of course, much of Stuttgart's drop-off can indeed be attributed to Guirassy's departure from MHPArena. While Deniz Undav and new signing Ermedin Demirović have been pulling their weight up front, neither are at the level at which they can truly step in for an elite player like Guirassy. Though Undav does have four league goals thus far, two of them came in Stuttgart's 5-1 thrashing of Dortmund - a result which had many people thinking that Stuttgart were once again legit and a serious threat to make the top four.

However, there's a case to be made that Guirassy was the best player in the entire league last season. Though Undav and Demirović aren't scrubs by any means, there were times last season when Guirassy all but put the rest of the Stuttgart team on his back, dragging the team to wins that they'd never have had a serious chance of getting without him.

Finally, Stuttgart have been extremely inconsistent so far this season. Their performance against Bayern could not have been more opposite to their mauling of Dortmund a month ago. Stuttgart can't seem to string good performances together - and as a result, they've already lost early ground in the chase for a Champions League berth.

Could it have been possible that VfB Stuttgart caught lightning in a bottle for one season and rode it all the way through? Early signs this season show that it very well could've been the case. While there's still more than enough time for Stuttgart to turn it around, their backs are already against the wall not even a quarter of the way into the 2024-25 season.

The Weekly Take, Issue 331: Don Andrés Calls Time on a Generational Career

One of the greatest to ever step onto a football pitch has called it a career after a legendary 23-year career. At a recent press conference, Andrés Iniesta announced his retirement following a career which included the following titles: four Champions Leagues, nine La Liga titles, six Copa del Rey titles, two European Championships, and of course, the 2010 World Cup in which the man from Fuentealbilla scored the only goal to land Spain’s only world title to date.

Iniesta’s story actually begins almost two years before he made his professional debut with Barcelona B in 2001. Back in 1999, Iniesta led his Barça under-15 team to victory in the Nike Premier Cup, a tournament for the junior divisions of competing football clubs. Iniesta scored the winning goal in the final and was named player of the tournament. After the final, Pep Guardiola, who was then playing for Barça and years later would coach Iniesta at Camp Nou, remarked to teammate and then-rising star Xavi that Iniesta would someday surpass them both. Guardiola’s words turned out to be prescient indeed.

It actually took Iniesta a while to become a regular in Barça’s starting line-up. Despite debuting for the Catalan powerhouse in the 2002-03 season when he was just 18, it wasn’t until the 2006-07 campaign - his fifth season at the club - when he would establish himself as a fixture within the starting 11. This also meant that Iniesta was on the bench as the Blaugrana beat Arsenal in the 2005-06 Champions League final; however, the absolute peak of his career - one at a level which very few footballers in history have ever reached - was just on the horizon.

Iniesta played a vital role in Spain’s 2008 European Championship victory - La Furia Roja’s first continental title in 44 years. Almost a year later, Iniesta scored the equalizing goal in stoppage time of the second leg of Barça’s controversial Champions League semifinal against Chelsea. While to this day, the circumstances of Barça’s victory continue to rankle with many due to the highly questionable officiating throughout the match, it can’t be denied that Iniesta did indeed step up and deliver when his team needed him most. Barça would go on to beat Manchester United in the final to clinch their and Iniesta’s second Champions League in four seasons.

The next year saw Iniesta’s ascension to the level of undeniable all-time great. Against the Netherlands in the 2010 World Cup final, Iniesta scored the only goal of the match deep into extra time to bring the World Cup title to Spain for the first and so far only time. To this day, it’s also a commonly held viewpoint that Iniesta ought to have won the Ballon d’Or in 2010 over his Barça teammate Lionel Messi.

Two more Champions League titles followed in 2011 and 2015 as well as a back-to-back European Championship title with Spain in 2012. By the time Iniesta concluded his 16-year stint at Barça in 2018 when he left for J1 League club Vissel Kobe, he was regarded as Spain’s greatest footballer of all time and arguably the best player to have never won the Ballon d’Or.

There’s absolutely no question that Barça’s and Spain’s dynasties don’t happen without Iniesta. While Messi was filling up the nets and collecting bucketloads of individual honours and Xavi was lauded as the embodiment of Guardiola’s tiki-taka strategy itself, Iniesta served as the conduit between the two other pillars of Barça’s glory days. He was the pinnacle of the archetypal “midfield maestro” - on so many occasions he’d be the one behind it all, the one tying it all together and making it work, whether for club or country.

Such was the regard that Iniesta is held in that even Barça’s arch-rivals Real Madrid took to social media to release a statement honoring Iniesta’s legendary career. This was an almost unfathomable move; only a true legend like Iniesta could’ve prompted anything like that.

Andrés Iniesta has had an almost incomparable career. While he’s Spain’s most decorated footballer with 35 titles, even that massive number on its own seems almost dismissive of the true magnitude of his achievements. There’s a very strong case to be made that Iniesta is one of the 10 greatest players of all time as well as the best central midfielder to ever do it. Surely, the statue in front of Camp Nou will be coming any day now.

The Weekly Take, Issue 330: Not the Start They Were Expecting

Having lost their opening Champions League match by a 3-1 scoreline against Liverpool, AC Milan faced an even more difficult task in their second match of the league phase: an away match against reigning Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen. Despite the expansion of the league phase to an eight-matchday Swiss bracket, it would nevertheless be very difficult for Milan to advance to the round of 16 if they were to open their campaign with two straight losses.

That, however, is exactly what happened. The Rossoneri succumbed to a 1-0 defeat following Victor Boniface’s goal in the 51st minute. Earlier in the match, Boniface actually did put the ball in the net; however, a VAR review showed that Leverkusen wing-back Jeremie Frimpong had been offside before sending in the cross which Nigerian striker Boniface had ostensibly finished off.

With seven minutes remaining in regulation time, French left-back Théo Hernandez came close to scoring Milan’s equalizer but saw his deflected shot from outside the penalty area strike the goalpost. That was as good as it got for Milan; they now face an arduous road to the last 16.

This past off-season, Milan embarked on a large-scale overhaul of their squad. They spent a total of €74 million on six players, brought in three more on loan deals, and added another on a free transfer. On the flipside, a laundry list of players departed the red half of the San Siro - though apart from veteran centre-forward Olivier Giroud, none of the players who left were regular starters. In addition, after almost five full seasons as Milan’s head coach, Stefano Pioli left for Saudi Arabia and was replaced by Paulo Fonseca.

In the 2022-23 season, Milan made it to the Champions League semifinals for the first time since winning it all back in the 2006-07 season. Despite losing to city rivals Inter to miss out on a spot in the final, Milan seemed to have something they could build off. Having won Serie A the season before and thus reclaiming the league title for the first time in 11 years, Milan seemed to be moving in the right direction.

However, last season was instead a step backwards. Inter cruised to a runaway league title victory, leaving Milan in their dust; though Milan finished second in the league, they were a whopping 19 points behind Inter. On the continental front, Milan couldn’t make it out of the Champions League group stage with Paris Saint-Germain beating them to the second qualifying spot from Group F on head-to-head goal difference. Milan would go on to drop into the Europa League where they would lose to Roma in the quarterfinals - the same Roma team which finished 12 points behind Milan in the league.

Milan got off to a slow start in this season’s Serie A, failing to win any of their first three matches. Shortly after that was their Champions League opener which they lost to Liverpool. Although it seemed as though last season’s Serie A runners-up had turned the corner following a Derby della Madonnina victory against Inter Milan, this latest result evidently proves that Milan are unlikely to have what it takes to make a deep run in this season’s Champions League.

Even at this early stage of his tenure in the Milan dugout, Fonseca is already under serious pressure; it wouldn’t be all that surprising if he were to be fired before the end of the season. Although the derby victory did buy the Portuguese coach a little more time, Fonseca has thus far struggled to understand what’s working and what isn’t with this Milan team.

Milan’s new signings haven’t made the impact the club would’ve hoped for. This could very well be a case of “too many changes all at once” - they haven’t really had much time to gel, and this could have affected their performance up to now. Though there’s every chance this could change as the season progresses, none of Milan’s signings were any which most might have expected to move the needle in any significant way.

Though it’s still early in the season, AC Milan already do look rather shaky. Domestically, a resurgent Napoli and Juventus have already gotten the jump on them. In the Champions League, they already have plenty of ground to make up. There’s still time to turn it around - but things don’t look promising at all.

The Weekly Take, Issue 329: A Sudden End to a Legendary Career

In June 2011, Real Madrid paid RC Lens €4 million to sign an 18-year-old centre-back who had shown signs of promise, though he wasn’t necessarily most people’s immediate answer to the question of who at the time was a superstar in the making. More than 13 years later, Raphaël Varane retires as a World Cup champion from 2018 as well as the proud owner of four Champions League and three La Liga titles with Real Madrid. The Frenchman has sealed his place as one of the greatest centre-backs of all time.

Although Varane didn’t become a regular starter at the Santiago Bernabéu until the 2014-15 season, his fourth in the Spanish capital, the youngster from Lille had shown obvious potential during his relatively limited minutes before then - so much so that in the final of the 2013-14 Champions League final against city rivals Atlético Madrid, Varane was selected as part of the starting line-up.

Once Varane became a fixture in Real’s starting 11, he ended up becoming a key part of what many (myself included) regard as the greatest team in the history of club football. From the 2015-16 to the 2017-18 seasons, Real became the first team in the modern era to clinch a Champions League three-peat; Varane was a cornerstone of the club’s success, especially in the 2017-18 season when he ascended to the status of the world’s best defender. Following Real’s third consecutive continental title - the first by any team since Bayern Munich achieved the feat from the 1973-74 to 1975-76 season - Varane was selected as part of the Champions League Team of the Season as well as the FIFA FIFPro World11.

Varane’s breakout season didn’t stop there. That summer in Russia, Varane was a key part of the France squad that won the second World Cup title in the country’s history. He was a veritable brick wall at the back, starting all seven of Les Bleus’ matches, stepping in as captain against Denmark, and crucially denying Eden Hazard a goal in France’s semifinal victory over Belgium. Varane even scored one of France’s two goals in their 2-0 quarterfinal win against Uruguay. For his efforts, Varane was deservedly selected as part of the 2018 World Cup team of the tournament.

Varane’s achievements for his national team didn’t stop there. He was a key contributor in France’s 2020-21 UEFA Nations League victory. Varane would later go on to be a starter in all but one match of France’s 2022 World Cup campaign as they fell just short of becoming the first team in 60 years to win back-to-back World Cups titles, losing to Argentina 4-2 in one of the single most iconic football matches of all time. That being said, Varane’s performances were a key reason why France were able to stave off the “defending champion’s curse”, avoid an underwhelming World Cup title defense, and make it all the way to the final.

In between the Nations League victory and World Cup runner-up finish, Varane ended his decade-long stint at Real where by then he had cemented his status as a club legend. For the shockingly low transfer fee of €40 million, Manchester United secured Varane’s services - a massive get for a club that had just finished second in the Premier League and were gearing up for a serious title push.

However, things began to fall apart at Old Trafford on and off the pitch throughout Varane’s three-year stint at United - quite literally, in the latter case. Varane himself had his time at United consistently interrupted by injuries, though he did play a part in United’s memorable 2023-24 FA Cup victory which they clinched with a remarkable upset victory in the final over cross-town rivals and Premier League juggernaut Manchester City.

Varane left United for Serie A club Como in the 2024 off-season; however, a severe knee injury almost right as his time in Lombardy began brought an abrupt end to a legendary career at just 31 years old. Varane confirmed his retirement via an Instagram post in September 2024.

Despite having to bow out the way he did, Raphaël Varane is undoubtedly the greatest defender to ever come out of France and an easy pick for the Mount Rushmore of centre-backs; his name deserves to be mentioned alongside the likes of Franz Beckenbauer, Carles Puyol, and Alessandro Nesta, among other all-time greats.

The Weekly Take, Issue 328: A Possible Dark Horse Contender?

Featuring an all-new Swiss bracket, the UEFA Champions League is once again up and running. The standout fixture of the tournament’s first matchday of the 2024-25 season was the match which saw Manchester City host Inter Milan.

Despite heading into the match as the obvious underdogs, Inter defied the odds with an impressive performance, holding City to a goalless draw. Inter’s defense did an outstanding job in keeping probably the world’s best player in Erling Haaland largely quiet throughout the match. While City did attempt 22 shots, not many of them were genuine high-quality goalscoring opportunities.

In the closing minutes of regulation time through the entirety of stoppage time, City had a flurry of chances to score the winning goal, but Inter held firm to prevent City from filling the net and ensure that one of the pre-tournament favourites would begin their Champions League campaign with dropped points.

Although Inter won last season’s Serie A title by a massive 19-point margin, the Nerazzurri failed to rise to the occasion in the Champions League. Inter only qualified for the round of 16 as the second-placed team from Group D - a group which on paper they ought to have topped. They then proceeded to lose to Atlético Madrid in the last 16 via a penalty shootout. Given Atlético’s struggles last season, this was a fixture in which Inter once again ought to have come out on top.

However, if Inter’s match against the reigning Premier League champions is anything to go by, this season could very well be completely different. Inter’s performance against City proved that last season’s Serie A champions are not to be overlooked in continental play as well as domestically. Simone Inzaghi’s team entered the Etihad Stadium with a clear game plan in mind and executed it to great effect.

To say that Inter “understood the assignment” would be accurate. Inter knew that if they were to attempt to straight-up outplay City and go blow-for-blow with them, they’d likely be soundly defeated. With this in mind, Inter knew that their best chance would arise by absorbing the pressure that City would apply, then striking on the counter-attack.

That being said, Inter certainly didn’t fall into the trap that many teams set up to attack on the break do - that of playing overly passively. Inter were proactive and created several viable chances to score. In fact, there’s an argument to be made that Inter came closer to finishing the match with the win than City did. In the second half, veteran midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan got on the end of a cross sent in by Denzel Dumfries; however, the Armenian failed to convert his shot from just outside the six-yard box. That was quite possibly the best chance that either team had to find the back of the net.

Despite a slower-than-expected start to their Serie A campaign, Inter seem to have built on their dominant league triumph from last season. They had an under-the-radar yet highly productive off-season transfer window, bringing nine players to the blue half of the San Siro and spending just a touch over €60 million to do so. Opting not to go all-in on a splashy signing who might not have panned out, Inter instead wisely opted for balance and depth - and this has paid off. This was highlighted by the performances of new arrivals Carlos Augusto and Mehdi Taremi against City - perhaps their best in an Inter jersey to date.

What has to be encouraging for Inter is the fact that despite the early-season slump of superstar striker Lautaro Martínez, Inter’s supporting cast have stepped up. Players such as Nicolò Barella, Marcus Thuram, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, and Francesco Acerbi have been in excellent form through the early portion of the season. Once Inter’s Argentinean ace breaks out of his slump, Inter will turn into a serious force - and perhaps a sleeper contender to go all the way in the Champions League.

Though their overall results so far might not seem to bear it out, the outlook at Inter Milan certainly has to be positive right now. Their match against Manchester City proved that they do have, at the very least, a puncher’s chance against the consensus top-tier, elite teams. They did make it to the final only two seasons ago - if everything breaks right, something similar might just be coming.

The Weekly Take, Issue 327: Another Difficult Season Lies Ahead

 Heading into the first North London derby of the Premier League season, Tottenham Hotspur had endured a slow start to their campaign with just one win from their first three matches. Tottenham had dropped points against Leicester City and Newcastle United prior to the clash against arch-rivals Arsenal. The derby itself only made things worse, showing how far they have to go if they are to mount a serious challenge for a top-four finish for just the second time in six seasons.

Despite attempting more than twice the number of shots as Arsenal did and having almost two-thirds of the possession, Tottenham succumbed to a 1-0 loss on home turf. Brazilian centre-back Gabriel Magalhães scored the Gunners’ winning goal in the 64th minute. The result ensured that Arsenal would keep pace with league leaders Manchester City. As for Tottenham, on the other hand, their second straight loss saw them slip five points behind fourth place and the last Champions League spot after just four matchdays.

This match could have been said to be a microcosm of Tottenham’s last few seasons. Even when it seemed as though Tottenham appeared to be turning the corner, the reality was the exact opposite. It seemed as though Tottenham were in control of the majority of the match; however, it was actually the case - and hardly surprising - that Arsenal were outplaying them the whole time.

First and foremost, on the surface this current Tottenham squad almost certainly doesn’t have the personnel to finish in the top four. Despite spending over £100 million in the off-season transfer window, Tottenham somehow managed to make no signings which moved the needle in any significant way. To make matters worse, almost all of that money was spent on two players: Archie Gray and Dominic Solanke. Neither of them should ever have required Tottenham to bring out such hefty transfer fees to sign them.

Tottenham once again fumbled the transfer window. Last season, they could easily have made better use of the windfall they received following the departure of club legend Harry Kane to Bayern Munich. While they did use the money to overhaul the squad, one does wonder if what they did was “too much too soon”. Bringing in 11 new players including five starters as well as a new coach in Ange Postecoglou did raise eyebrows - and while they got off to a hot start, in due time it became clear that many of these signings were a case of “just because they can doesn’t mean they should”. The team never quite gelled as they should have; the pieces didn’t quite fit in the way Tottenham would’ve hoped - a major reason why they again missed out on Champions League qualification.

Even more damningly for Tottenham, this match exposed their general lack of heart and grit. Taking a closer look at the corner kick from which Arsenal’s goal came, it could be seen that Tottenham’s players shied away from the ball and allowed Gabriel enough room to put his header into the net. This more or less summed up Tottenham under Postecoglou thus far: as smooth and appealing as their play might look on the surface, in reality basically nothing has improved, especially in crucial game-changing situations such as that.

Last season, Tottenham lost the lead to emerge with a draw or loss in an alarmingly large number of matches. They’ve brought that with them into the new season - though they never led against Newcastle, they did concede the winning goal in the 78th minute after having pulled level around 20 minutes before. Just like they did against Arsenal, Tottenham had the vast majority of the possession and shots against the Magpies but couldn’t turn that into a win. The way things are going, such outcomes are almost expected at this point.

Postecoglou’s time in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium could start being called into question before too long. After the initial boost which so often comes with hiring a new coach, the reality of where Tottenham stand under him has now become evident; he might just get the axe before too long.

“Lads, it’s Tottenham” isn’t a meme for nothing. For years they have been labeled as an unserious club - and given their achievements (or lack thereof), it’s difficult to argue against the tag being a deserved one. The outlook isn’t promising to say the least.

The Weekly Take, Issue 326: There's No New Era on the Horizon

Despite appearing to be one of the most stacked teams in the history of international football, the Belgium team that spanned the period from the 2014 World Cup to the 2022 World Cup will undoubtedly go down as one of the biggest underachievers to ever show up on the international scene. Across three World Cups and two European Championships, Belgium only made it to the semifinals once - in the 2018 World Cup when they lost to France.

If the opening match of this season's UEFA Nations League is anything to go by, Belgium's next generation doesn't seem as though it will even come close to the level of its illustrious yet underperforming predecessor. This was underscored by Belgium's tame 2-0 loss at the hands of France. Randal Kolo Muani opened the scoring just before the half-hour mark to put Les Bleus a goal ahead. In the 57th minute, Ousmane Dembélé scored France's second to make the victory safe.

At no point during the course of the match did Belgium seriously appear to even be somewhat likely to win. Despite having the bulk of the possession, Belgium did almost nothing of note with it. It was a generally lacklustre performance that proved that once the previous generation's players have all retired from international play, Belgium will almost certainly slip even further back - perhaps all the way back to the irrelevance they had found themselves in prior to the emergence of the so-called "Golden Generation" who never came close to living up to that moniker.

Just one look at Belgium's roster against France tells the story. Outside of legendary midfielder and captain Kevin De Bruyne, there's absolutely no one who particularly moves the needle in any way. Not even one member of Belgium's squad outside De Bruyne is even on the level of someone like Romelu Lukaku or Axel Witsel, let alone all-time greats like Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois, or Vincent Kompany. Belgium weren't even playing against France's strongest starting 11 - Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappé started on the bench - and yet were nonetheless taken apart.

At one point, it seemed as though there would be an almost never-ending stream of promising talent coming out of Belgium and that the true impact of the generation before would be to set up Belgium's future by putting the country on the international football map. While they certainly did the latter, it has turned out that the next crop of emerging talent isn't anything particularly impressive to speak of. Against France, the performances of players such as Loïs Openda, Jérémy Doku, and Dodi Lukébakio were all extremely unimpressive to say the least. Indeed, it's not likely that even one of Belgium's current players under the age of 30 would have been able to be a starter had they played in the previous era and been part of the 2018 World Cup squad.

In a post-match interview, De Bruyne lambasted the rest of his teammates as well as head coach Domenico Tedesco's tactical approach. The Manchester City player claimed that the rest of the team showed next to no effort whatsoever - so much so that he tore into them at half-time, though his words then ended up having no effect whatsoever. De Bruyne essentially implied that at this point, most of Belgium's players aren't even taking matches as seriously as they ought to be - a clearly worrying sign for things to come.

De Bruyne also implied that from a tactical standpoint, Tedesco's approach is costing them potential wins by stripping the team of all cohesion, leaving a disconnect between defense and attack. While all of this may seem excessive at first, it has to be kept in mind that these are the frustrations of a decade finally surfacing all at once - first with the previous generation's underachievement when they ought to have been perennial title contenders and now with the current squad having fallen off as far as they had.

In spite of their failure to step up on the biggest stages, Belgium did at the very least have a capable squad for the best part of a decade. This doesn't appear to be the case anymore - they look disjointed, discombobulated, and outright unimpressive. It's safe to say that Belgium's new generation doesn't offer any hope that they'll be back at the top table of international football any time soon.

The Weekly Take, Issue 325: As Though He Never Left

As the 2024-25 Premier League season started, many understandably expected a drop-off from Liverpool following the departure of Jürgen Klopp. The German departed Anfield in the off-season after having coached the Reds over a legendary nine-year stint in which he helmed Liverpool to a Champions League title in 2019 as well as a Premier League title in 2020 while, for the majority of his tenure, ensuring that the Reds were Manchester City’s closest challengers on the domestic front. Under Klopp, Liverpool had experienced their most successful era in more than three decades.

As such, when Arne Slot took over, to say that the former Feyenoord head coach had a tough act to follow would have been a colossal understatement. However, though it’s still early in the season, Slot has so far appeared to have picked up from right where Klopp left off - and evidence of this could be seen in their dominant 3-0 victory over arch-rivals Manchester United.

Liverpool and United had been through sharply contrasting off-seasons. Liverpool struggled to land any players at all while United, now under new ownership, spent heavily to bring in a slew of newcomers to Old Trafford. However, the way Liverpool showed up to United’s own turf and absolutely decimated them, it certainly didn’t look that way at all.

Luis Díaz scored a late first-half brace with both goals coming within a seven-minute span. After the break, Mohamed Salah made it 3-0 in the 56th minute, notching his 12th career league goal against the Red Devils and thus extending his all-time record for league goals scored against Manchester United.

There have been countless cases in which a new coach who takes over from a legend ends up unable to live up to the predecessor’s reputation, collapses under the pressure, presides over a period of struggle, and is ultimately fired in short order. So far, though, Slot seems to have avoided this - he’s taken to Liverpool seamlessly and instead, even seems to be benefiting from the “new coach boost” which in the cases of those who replace a club legend who’s just left, often doesn’t apply.

Slot came to Merseyside after a highly impressive three-year tenure at Feyenoord. Prior to arriving at Liverpool, he had coached the Rotterdam club to the Eredivisie title in the 2022-23 season and won the Rinus Michels award as the league’s best coach in two of his three seasons. That said, some apprehension was understandable on the part of Liverpool fans as Slot had never coached in a major European league before - and now he’d be thrown into the fire as he would be replacing Klopp.

Instead, Slot has been thriving so far. Perhaps the main driver of Slot’s early success in the Anfield dugout lies in the fact that the Dutchman hasn’t strayed too far from Klopp’s tactical blueprint. In this way, perhaps Liverpool’s relative failure, the signing of Federico Chiesa notwithstanding, has turned out to be something of a blessing in disguise because it has allowed Slot to generally stick to what has been working, not change too much, and thus not overcomplicate matters from a strategic standpoint.

Something which Liverpool will likely benefit from during Slot’s time in the position will be his development of young players. Slot’s first coaching post was as a youth coach at PEC Zwolle; he has continued to carry the mentality of one until today. At Feyenoord, Slot was known for placing great emphasis on the club’s youth academy with several of its alumni getting plenty of game time under his watch. With this in mind, the timing of his entry at Liverpool couldn’t have been better due to the fact that Liverpool’s youth academy have produced several very promising youngsters in recent years; don’t be surprised if many of them get a notable bump in minutes played under Slot.

Although it was never going to be easy to replace Jürgen Klopp, Arne Slot appeared to be someone who checked all the boxes - and so far, Liverpool’s on-field product has backed that up. While there’s no doubt that things will get tougher in certain ways as the season progresses, there are nonetheless lots of green flags up - at least for now. If any team can possibly end City’s stranglehold on the Premier League title, it’ll likely be Liverpool.