The Weekly Take, Issue 305: A Huge Chance Squandered?

If ever there was an opportunity for Arsenal to establish themselves as a genuine contender to win this season’s Champions League, the first leg of their quarterfinal fixture against Bayern Munich was exactly that. With their Bavarian opponents at their weakest point in more than a decade and struggling for form ahead of their trip to the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal had a clear chance to capitalize and take an important lead going into the second leg in Munich.

Instead, the Gunners came up short as they only managed a 2-2 draw. Arsenal actually got off to a strong start with Bukayo Saka opening the scoring in the 12th minute, only for Serge Gnabry to score against his former club six minutes later and bring the score to 1-1. Then, as he had so often done during his legendary 12-year stint at Arsenal’s North London arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur, Harry Kane put his name on the scoresheet - this time via a penalty earned by Leroy Sané. Substitute Leandro Trossard would later score Arsenal’s equalizer to ensure that Arsenal would not enter the second leg a goal behind.

For Arsenal, this result can’t be described as anything other than a blown chance. Having a home match against one of the pre-tournament favorites who happened to be in turmoil on and off the field just then while Arsenal themselves lead the Premier League heading into the home stretch as they edge closer to a first league title in 20 years should’ve been exactly what they needed to get the jump on Bayern ahead of the second leg.

Instead, for large portions of the match, Arsenal were clearly outplayed. Arsenal’s back five, goalkeeper David Raya included, were rather shaky for most of the match and could certainly have done more to prevent Gnabry from having the goalscoring opportunity of which he took full advantage. In addition, Saliba’s foul on Sané to concede the penalty capped off a sequence of poor defensive play, particularly from Brazilian centre-back Gabriel.

Up until Arsenal brought in some of their substitutes, things weren’t going so well on the offensive front either apart from Saka. Kai Havertz looked more like the player who consistently underwhelmed during his three years at Chelsea than the player he’s been this season - someone who’s having a “comeback” season in what’s been his best year since leaving Bayer Leverkusen in 2020. As for Gabriel Martinelli, Bayern’s defense had him in their pocket from opening kick-off until he was unsurprisingly yanked in the 65th minute.

The biggest positive that Arsenal can take from this match regards their strategic and tactical adjustments. Mikel Arteta easily outcoached his Bayern counterpart Thomas Tuchel (to be fair, that isn’t a difficult thing to do these days), bringing in Trossard and Gabriel Jesus at just the right times and ultimately ensuring that Arsenal would head to Germany on level footing. The two substitutes would go on to combine for Arsenal’s equalizing goal.

Spearheaded by Arteta who at one point was almost fired from his position, Arsenal’s turnaround over the past two seasons has been impressive indeed. However, Arsenal’s sub-par performance on the biggest stage when the moment arrived highlighted how far Arsenal still have to go to become bona fide Champions League title contenders. The only consolation for Arsenal is the fact that this is the first leg, allowing them to regroup and potentially beat Bayern at the Allianz Arena.

Based on their respective levels of play throughout this season, one would expect Arsenal to take the win in the second leg and advance to the Champions League semifinals for the first time since the 2008-09 season. However, the first leg clearly showed that while Arsenal are definitely capable of beating Bayern away, the real question is if they will have the mental wherewithal to do so as well. It also has to be mentioned that fatigue could play a role - unlike Arsenal, Bayern are already out of contention for their domestic league title and thus can afford to rotate their squad to keep their best players fresh for the second leg.

Of course, with the aggregate score still tied at 2-2, Arsenal can’t be written off by any means. However, should they lose to Bayern in the second leg and exit the Champions League at the quarterfinal stage, this first-leg draw will undoubtedly be regarded as a golden opportunity blown.

The Weekly Take, Issue 304: "Capitan Futuro" to "L'attuale Allenatore"

Not even three months ago, AS Roma’s season was in a clear downward spiral. The Giallorossi had slipped to ninth in the Serie A table having lost three of their past five matches. Over the six Serie A matches leading up to head coach José Mourinho’s firing on January 16, Roma had earned just five points. While there’s no doubt that Mourinho is one of the greatest to ever do it and is easily on the coaching Mount Rushmore, it was also obvious that “the game has passed him by” - he’s just not able to get it done at this level anymore.

Roma replaced Mourinho with Daniele De Rossi - a move clearly intended to appeal to the fans. A club legend who spent 18 years as a player for his hometown club, De Rossi was rather inexperienced in the dugout when he took over at the Stadio Olimpico. His only prior coaching stint had been a four-month gig at Serie B club SPAL between October 2022 and February 2023. To say that it did not go well would be an understatement - De Rossi was fired with SPAL in the relegation zone. With this in mind, there was understandably skepticism despite the element of sentimentality in play.

However, De Rossi has clearly banished that skepticism - in the 15 matches since he’s taken over, Roma have won 10 of which eight have been in the league. Arguably none have been more significant than this matchday’s Derby della Capitale 1-0 victory over Lazio. Gianluca Mancini scored the only goal of the match just before half-time to hand Lazio their fourth loss in their past six league matches. With the win, Roma close in on Juventus and Bologna in the chase for a top-four spot and a berth in next season’s Champions League.

All season long across various leagues, we’ve seen the importance of having the right person for the right club as the coach. Of course, there’s no example more obvious than Bayer Leverkusen, where Xabi Alonso is putting the finishing touches on what will surely go down as one of the, if not the single, greatest single-season coaching performances of all time. To potentially win the “Faux Treble” with an Invincibles league campaign - and with an underdog like Leverkusen to boot - is something that will undoubtedly rank among the greatest achievements in football history.

While not nearly at that same level, De Rossi has been the driving force of an impressive turnaround of his own. Mourinho’s preferred 3-5-2 formation was never really the right fit at Roma, considering the personnel at the club’s disposal. De Rossi, on the other hand, quickly moved to implement a 4-3-3 setup instead - a formation that evidently plays to Roma’s strengths. With this setup, Roma’s full-backs are given additional room for final-third play while simultaneously keeping a tight defensive line.

What’s more, De Rossi’s tactics have given players such as Paulo Dybala and Lorenzo Pellegrini more active roles on the attacking front - and this has translated into goals and wins. Dybala in particular looks like a player reborn; having been written off by many for quite some time, the Argentinian forward is now in his best form since his 2017-18 season at Juventus.

The flexibility that De Rossi has brought to Roma’s tactical approach has to be noted as well. Defensively, he’ll often have Roma pivot from four at the back to five, shoring up the backline with wingers often dropping deep. This is where Bryan Cristante, probably Roma’s most underrated player, comes in. The defensive midfielder’s versatility is exactly what Roma have needed when transitioning from defense to offense, sometimes taking on the role of a box-to-box central midfielder - and De Rossi has leveraged this versatility to great effect.

All of this being said, it’s still too early to say for sure if Daniele De Rossi is the real deal or if this is just the “new coach effect” in play with a regression to the mean on the horizon. That being said, things undoubtedly are on the upswing for AS Roma right now. Considering where Roma were when they hired De Rossi, a top-four finish - which now actually seems possible - would be an excellent result. 

The Weekly Take, Issue 303: DOS A CERO, MOFOS

First off, I’m fully aware that I’m not even trying to be professional or impartial with the title. That being said: I could not care less. As a Borussia Dortmund fan for more than 13 years, this was one of those “core memory” matches that almost never come around.

The Bundesliga’s latest edition of Der Klassiker saw a seemingly-impenetrable fortress finally go down. For the first time since 2014, Borussia Dortmund won an away league match against Bayern Munich. Die Schwarzgelbe’s 2-0 victory at the Allianz Arena snapped a nine-match losing streak at Bayern over which Dortmund had scored just eight goals against 37 conceded.

However, this time around things were completely different. When Karim Adeyemi—born and raised in Munich and who even spent time training in Bayern’s youth academy during his childhood—opened the scoring in the 10th minute, one could sense that this would not be any ordinary Klassiker. Though Bayern continued to push, they were never able to turn their possession advantage into genuinely meaningful goalscoring opportunities.

Bayern were eventually made to pay for that. Seven minutes from the end of regulation time, Norwegian right-back Julian Ryerson made it 2-0 to seal Dortmund’s victory. To add insult to injury, Harry Kane later had a goal which would have cut the deficit to 2-1 heading into stoppage time disallowed following a VAR review. And, to top it all off, in a post-match interview Bayern manager Thomas Tuchel, who will leave the club at the end of the season, outright admitted that his club which have won the league title every year since the 2012-13 season will be unable to defend their crown.

Following their loss, Bayern now trail runaway league leaders Bayer Leverkusen by 13 points with just seven matches to be played. Dortmund, on the other hand, strengthened their position in their pursuit of a Champions League spot, pulling three points clear of RB Leipzig who dropped crucial points following a goalless home draw against Mainz.

It’s almost impossible to understate just how big of a watershed moment this was for Dortmund. Over the past decade, even at times when Bayern looked vulnerable or Dortmund were on a hot streak, it was clear that Bayern lived rent-free in Dortmund’s head. With this hoodoo-breaking victory, Dortmund not only gained crucial ground in the case for the top four; even more importantly, from this point forth they’re likely to think “why can’t we beat Bayern?” It’s exactly this shift in mentality that’ll probably change their approach to future Bayern matches and - at long last after so many years - make them once again a formidable opponent for the Bavarian powerhouse.

We don’t even have to go all that far back. If we look at all Der Klassiker matchups prior to this one, Dortmund had not won any of the last 11 - including the most recent one when they were destroyed by a 4-0 scoreline at home. It was incredibly clear that Dortmund were playing with fear and a total lack of belief. There was no fight, no spirit - absolutely nothing that could engender even the slightest idea that Dortmund had even a sliver of what it would take to at least have a puncher’s chance against Bayern.

However, perhaps buoyed by Bayern’s struggles in the league this season, it was clear that in the most recent match, this was nothing like the Dortmund team that were taken apart at Signal Iduna Park back in November. They rightly perceived that Bayern were at their most vulnerable - and instead of cowering in the moment as has too often been the case, they stepped all the way up and, in perhaps their best single-match performance in years, claimed three points that could very well make the difference between qualifying for next season’s Champions League and dropping down into the Europa League instead.

Is it still too early to jump to conclusions about Borussia Dortmund? Without a doubt. That being said, this single match might have been the catalyst - the moment when everything changed. Having gotten over what appeared to be an insurmountable mental block, Dortmund have every reason to proceed with such a weight off their shoulders. And who knows - with Bayern struggling the way they are, do keep in mind that Dortmund are just seven points behind Bayern with seven matches to play - and more unlikely events have transpired before…

The Weekly Take, Issue 302: The Next One?

No country hypes (many might say "overhypes" is more accurate) its young football prospects like Brazil. Many over the years have lived up to the lofty tags bestowed upon them as teenagers; many others have wilted in the intense pressure-cooker that is the Brazilian football culture. The latest youngster to be regarded as "the next guy" is 17-year-old Palmeiras striker Endrick - and in a recent friendly match against England, he showed why he has received the level of hype that he has.

The standout fixture of the most recent set of international friendlies saw England host Brazil at Wembley Stadium. Both countries entered this match on completely different trajectories. Thanks to the emergence of Jude Bellingham as one of the best players on the planter coupled with the development of several others as well as the squad's increased cohesion since the 2022 World Cup, England entered the match as one of the favourites to win the upcoming Euro 2024 and as such, were generally expected to soundly beat their South American opponents.

Brazil, on the other hand, had been floundering ever since their disappointing World Cup campaign in Qatar. The Seleção are currently in sixth place in CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying for the 2026 tournament - a position which, had it not been for the expansion of international football's showpiece event to 48 teams, would have meant that Brazil would've been on pace to fail to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in the tournament's history.

Coming off the bench in the 71st minute to replace future Real Madrid teammate Rodrygo, Endrick seized his opportunity in just his third appearance for his country. Nine minutes after Endrick entered the match, Vinícius Júnior's shot was saved by Jordan Pickford - only for Endrick to be right there to finish off the follow-up for his first career international goal. Brazil would then hang on to claim a victory that, while being in a friendly match, would certainly do a great deal to boost the general vibes around the national team, especially given the fact that this was a win over one of the best international teams on the planet - and this on the Three Lions' home turf as well.

Understandably, all the buzz following the match was about Endrick. Set to sign for Real in July following a transfer fee of €60 million which was agreed upon all the way back in December 2022, the 17-year-old from Brasília took the hype around him to a new level. Having recently been ranked second behind Barcelona wonderkid Lamine Yamal in Goal.com's NXGN list of the most promising young talents in world football, Endrick proved that even at his age, he's more than ready and able to step up when the moment calls for it - a rare quality even among seasoned veterans.

Of course, although early signs are tantalizing, it's too early to say for sure if Endrick will go on to fulfill his immense potential. However, if he even comes close to doing so, Brazil might have their next superstar who could be the cornerstone of a team that could potentially bring in that elusive sixth World Cup. Over all these years in which Brazil have been spearheaded by Neymar, it has never worked out. As talented as he was at his peak, I have always said that a team led by Neymar or any player in his mold will never win anything - and this has been borne out time and again. In fact, Brazil have usually played better without Neymar than with him.

However, Endrick does not project to be such a player. Should he become Brazil's best player at his peak, his playstyle would be much more conducive to winning. Considering the fact that Vinícius Júnior and Rodrygo are still both 23, Brazil might very well have found their starting attacking trio for the next half-decade and beyond. With the old guard such as Neymar, Casemiro, and Danilo on their way out, Brazil are sorely in need of a roster that will bridge the gap to the next generation of potential World Cup contenders. With this in mind, we might have just seen the first steps of a fresh start - and one which for all we know, might end up in ultimate glory.

The Weekly Take, Issue 301: Fumbling Again When It Counted Most

The second leg of the Champions League round of 16 fixture between Atlético Madrid and Inter Milan saw Inter start with a 1-0 lead heading into their away leg. When Federico Dimarco scored for the Nerazzurri in the 33rd minute to put Inter two goals ahead on aggregate, it seemed as though it would be smooth sailing for the club currently leading Serie A by an enormous margin and almost certain to claim the Scudetto for the first time since the 2020-21 season.

However, things would soon unravel for Inter. Two minutes after Dimarco seemingly made Inter's lead safe, Atlético halved the aggregate deficit via a goal scored by Antoine Griezmann. Later, with just three minutes left in regulation time, Memphis Depay scored the goal that put Atlético a goal ahead on the evening - and more crucially, tied the aggregate scoreline.

Extra time failed to yield any further goals, so the match ended in a penalty shootout. Following back-to-back misses by Inter duo Alexis Sánchez and Davy Klaassen, it was up to Argentinian centre-forward Lautaro Martínez to sink the penalty that would keep Inter's Champions League hopes alive. Inter's star striker who has been having a career-best season and leads the Serie A scoring race by a sizeable gap stepped forth - and did not even come close with his effort from the spot, sending Atlético through to the quarterfinals for the third time over the past five seasons.

Think of all the sports clichés that exist about delivering in clutch moments - "to have that dog in him", "to have ice in his veins", or more simply, "to be him". Whatever the metaphor may be, Martínez embodies its exact opposite. Again and again he has come up short when the moment demanded that he step up. In the 2020 Europa League final against Sevilla, Martínez turned in a dismal performance and at times looked completely lost on the pitch - and this in a match which Inter were widely expected to comfortably win.

Some initially brushed off this Europa League final loss, citing Martínez's relative youth - he was just about to turn 23 at the time - as well as the fact that this was his first significant European final, and one in a pandemic-interrupted season at that. However, the reality was that what we saw from Martínez then was just a taste of what was to come.

In Argentina's first match of the 2022 World Cup, the Albiceleste faced off against underdogs Saudi Arabia with Martínez starting at centre-forward. Martínez had an absolute disasterclass against the Middle Easterners, being caught offside on countless occasions, squandering multiple promising attacking thrusts, and ultimately being the chief culprit behind Argentina's shocking 2-1 loss. Following the match, Martínez was promptly benched in favour of Manchester City striker Julián Álvarez. At this point, it should come as no surprise that Argentina would go on to win the tournament with Álvarez starting and Martínez largely riding the pine.

Fast forward half a year later and Inter are in the Champions League final against Manchester City. Although Martínez didn't play quite as poorly as he did in the matches already mentioned, he was nonetheless at a level far below that of which he's capable - but this time around, escaped the bulk of the criticism after Romelu Lukaku's astonishing error prevented Inter from equalizing and sending the match to extra time.

Following this latest clutch-time failure, it's now safe to say that Martínez belongs in the same category as Lukaku - that of a "flat-track bully" who falters when the lights are brightest and the pressure is highest. Despite his impressive goalscoring record, there is a reason nobody fears Martínez the way they might Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappé, or Mohamed Salah, among others. Martínez is clearly a player who shrinks under the spotlight - and for a club like Inter, that's simply not good enough if they are to make frequent deep Champions League runs instead of leaving last season as an outlier.

Is it possible that Lautaro Martínez will end up turning things around? Well, at 26, there's still time for him to rewrite the narrative of his career thus far. However, based on everything we've seen from him thus far, the prospects of such don't look promising at all.

The Weekly Take, Issue 300: The Ultimate Club Tournament

I've decided to mark this blog's 300th post with something that I've been thinking of for quite some time now. This is my take on one of the most common football questions: "what is the greatest club football team of all time?"

I've selected 16 single-season teams to be placed in a hypothetical "Ultimate Champions of Champions" tournament with the only stipulations being that 1) multiple iterations of essentially the same team cannot be used and 2) each season can only be represented once.

Without further ado, let's meet our contenders.

Real Madrid 1960

Manchester United 1968

Ajax 1972

Bayern Munich 1974

Liverpool 1984

AC Milan 1990

Barcelona 1992

Juventus 1998

Arsenal 2002

AC Milan 2007

Manchester United 2008

Barcelona 2009

Chelsea 2010

Bayern Munich 2013

Real Madrid 2017

Manchester City 2023

I'll now divide the 16 teams into four pots according to era so that each of the four round-robin groups has a blend of teams from various generations.

As per Random.org, these were the results of the draw:

Group A: Real 60, Milan 90, United 08, Real 17

Group B: United 68, Juve 98, Arsenal 02, City 23

Group C: Bayern 74, Barça 92, Barça 09, Chelsea 10

Group D: Ajax 72, Liverpool 84, Milan 07, Bayern 13

Let's now look at how I believe each group would play out. All matches will be deemed to be played on neutral territory.

Group A:

Real 60 / Milan 90

United 08 / Real 17

Real 60 / United 08

Milan 90 / Real 17

Real 60 / Real 17

Milan 90 / United 08

1) Milan 90

2) Real 17

3) United 08

4) Real 60

Group B:

United 68 / Juve 98

Arsenal 02 / City 23

United 68 / Arsenal 02

Juve 98 / City 23

United 68 / City 23

Juve 98 / Arsenal 02

1) City 23

2) United 68

3) Juve 98

4) Arsenal 02

Group C:

Bayern 74 / Barça 92

Barça 09 / Chelsea 10

Bayern 74 / Barça 09

Barça 92 / Chelsea 10

Bayern 74 / Chelsea 10

Barça 92 / Barça 09

1) Barça 09

2) Barça 92

3) Chelsea 10

4) Bayern 74

Group D:

Ajax 72 / Liverpool 84

Milan 07 / Bayern 13

Ajax 72 / Milan 07

Liverpool 84 / Bayern 13

Ajax 72 / Bayern 13

Liverpool 84 / Milan 07

1) Ajax 72 (head-to-head)

2) Milan 07

3) Bayern 13

4) Liverpool 84

Some big group-stage casualties - none bigger than United 08 and Bayern 13 who ended up in the two toughest groups. United 68, meanwhile, took advantage of what was on paper a much more open group and even managed a draw in the derby match against City 23.

As might be expected, a lot of the older teams simply don't hold up anymore when plugged into a more modern metagame. That being said, shoutout to Ajax 72 and Milan 90 - I fully believe their playstyles and tactics would be just as effective today as they were during their glory days.

Now for the quarterfinals:

Milan 90 vs United 68

City 23 vs Real 17

Barça 09 vs Milan 07

Barça 92 vs Ajax 72

Milan 90 vs United 68

With all due respect to the Red Devils' first-ever European champion side, this would be a blowout. The Rossoneri's 1990 iteration would keep United's iconic "Holy Trinity" attacking core of Bobby Charlton, Denis Law, and George Best firmly in check. Milan's backline featured legends such as Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini, and Alessandro Costacurta - more than enough to keep United's attacking threat at bay.

On the other end of the pitch, United would simply have no answer for Milan's attack. Spearheaded by Marco van Basten and supported by fellow Dutchmen Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard - arguably the original "regista" - Arrigo Sacchi's team would likely make short work of the finest team to come out of England throughout the 60s.

City 23 vs Real 17

Although the prospect of such is tantalizing to say the least, this match would be so much more than a gunslingers' duel between Erling Haaland and Cristiano Ronaldo. With intriguing individual matchups all over the pitch, markedly different tactical approaches, and a slew of all-timers on each team, this is the standout fixture of the four quarterfinal matches.

It was a close call indeed, but ultimately I went with Real 17 because during the years of their Champions League three-peat, Los Merengues were quite simply on another level during knockout rounds when the pressure was at its highest. In a similar scenario and with the skill gap being relatively small, it's this factor which for me swung it in Real's favour.

Barça 09 vs Milan 07

You might be wondering why I went with the upset here. Well, there were two key factors which led me to pick the second of Carlo Ancelotti's two Champions League-winning Milan teams over the Treble-winning Barça side helmed by Pep Guardiola. The first is the setup. Milan played a variant on the standard 4-3-3 in which Clarence Seedorf and Kaká would start as a number 10 tandem but could move deeper or head out wide as necessary. It's this flexibility which makes it a hard counter to Barça 09's iconic tiki-taka.

Additionally, to me there is no better manager when it comes to adapting to opponents' strategies than Carlo Ancelotti. In fact, Ancelotti got the better of Guardiola in the 2022 Champions League semifinals with Real Madrid against Manchester City despite heading into the fixture as a slight underdog. With both those points in mind, I've picked Milan 07.

Barça 92 vs Ajax 72

The original goes up against the "cover version". The "Dream Team" of Barça 92 has a tactical profile that can be directly traced back to the "Total Football" of Ajax's teams from the 70s. Thus in away, this can almost be regarded as a "mirror match".

All things considered, I would take Ajax 72. In its era, this was a team stacked to an almost unfathomable degree. The sheer star power provided by Johan Cruyff, Johan Neeskens, Ruud Krol, and others would be just too overwhelming even for the Blaugrana's 1992 roster that was so dominant in its own right.

Now we'll move on to the semifinals.

Milan 90 vs Real 17

Milan 07 vs Ajax 72

Milan 90 vs Real 17

Both these teams met in the group stage; that match finished in a draw. This time around, in a single-elimination knockout match, I would take Real to win it and advance to the final. As mentioned before, the Real Madrid team of that era seem to step it up a notch in knockout match situations.

Not only that - while absolutely true that in the quarterfinals, Milan 90 easily handled United 68's prolific front three, Real 17 take it to another level. Yes, they might have been able to cope with Real's own front three of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Gareth Bale - but that doesn't account for the support they'd receive from the likes of Toni Kroos and Luka Modrić. Ultimately, under this kind of pressure, I would have to go with Real 17.

Milan 07 vs Ajax 72

As was the case in the quarterfinals, the strategic match-up favours Milan, since Barça 09's tiki-taka playstyle was simply the evolution of the 70s Ajax "Total Football" concept. The only difference between that match and this one is that Barça in 2009 had more star power than did Ajax 1972, thus tilting the scale further in the Rossoneri's favour.

While I wouldn't say that this would be a one-sided match, I do think that it would nevertheless be relatively clear that Milan would emerge victorious. With all due respect to Johan Cruyff and the crew, there's nothing they can do about being hard-countered like this.

And now, the final:

Real 17 vs Milan 07

This wasn't a difficult decision at all. Real Madrid 2017 clear AC Milan 2007 in just about every department. Defense? Attack? Tactics? Level of play under pressure? Star power? This team is too loaded, too skilled, and too clutch to go down at this point.

Now that we have our tournament champ, let's take a look at their credentials.

La Liga and Champions League double. Second year of a Champions League three-peat. Won the league with 93 points and 106 goals. Had reigning Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo on the roster as well as a slew of all-time greats like Gareth Bale, Casemiro, Raphaël Varane, Karim Benzema, Toni Kroos, Sergio Ramos, and Luka Modrić. Coached by Zinedine Zidane who even in his abrupt coaching career established himself as a legend on the other side of the touchlines as well. And already lauded by some experts as the greatest team ever.

At this point, I believe it's safe for me to say it:

Real Madrid 2017 is the greatest club football team of all time.

The Weekly Take, Issue 299: He Is That Dude

The latest edition of the Manchester derby more or less went according to the script. After a shaky start which saw them fall a goal behind, Manchester City came storming back in the second half to register a 3-1 win over arch-rivals Manchester United and in doing so, keep pace with Premier League leaders Liverpool: the victory ensured that City remained just one point behind Liverpool. This derby win was a crucial step in the Citizens' quest to win an unprecedented fourth consecutive league title.

Early on, it seemed as though an upset could have been in the cards. Contrary to almost everyone's expectations, Marcus Rashford scored a spectacular goal in the eighth minute to put United one goal ahead. One would have expected City to have headed into the half-time break level, but Erling Haaland somehow managed to miss a tap-in which he would almost always have finished off. After the break, however, the skill gap between the two Manchester clubs truly began to evidence itself. Phil Foden scored a stunner of his own to tie the match before going on to score his and City's second in the 80th minute. Haaland would then atone for his earlier error by scoring City's third goal in stoppage time and sealing all three points.

When we look back at this match in years to come, we might end up pinpointing this as the day when Foden truly arrived as an elite player. In addition to his two goals, Foden dominated throughout. He was the focal point of City's attacking thrust right from opening kick-off, attempting nine of City's 27 shots and kickstarting multiple City attacks that could easily have resulted in goals.

In a team containing the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland, and Rodri, Foden's contributions have often been somewhat overlooked - after all, up until recently he had never been regarded as being quite on that level. However, his performance in the Manchester derby should have put an end to any questions remaining on this matter. Foden is in the midst of a breakout season and might very well be making the toughest leap of all - that from "merely" a top-tier player to a genuine superstar. This match sent a message loud and clear: "I am him". To top it off, as a hometown kid, it's incredibly fitting that he showed out like this in a derby match.

What makes things even more exciting for City is the fact that Foden is still just 23. He's likely around four to five years from hitting his absolute prime - and on his current trajectory, who knows how high his ceiling could end up being. On top of all of that, it bears noting that Foden came through City's academy team. He wasn't one of the countless big-money signings with which City have built their squad - proving that the blue half of Manchester is definitely as capable of developing in-house talent as any other club out there.

On that note, Foden could not have entered the main City squad at a more opportune time - the Pep Guardiola era at Manchester City. All throughout his legendary coaching career, Guardiola has always favoured players of Foden's archetype - and it's exactly this which has been one of the key reasons why Foden's development has been accelerated especially over the past two seasons, potentially ending up a key piece in back-to-back Champions League titles.

Foden's emergence also has implications on the international stage. At this point he ought to be a lock to start for England. As part of an attacking core that already contains Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham, a peak or near-peak Foden could end up being the missing piece who gets the Three Lions over the hump at the 2026 World Cup in North America. Not only that - with Euro 2024 on the horizon and England likely being second favourites behind France, Foden's continued rise could be exactly what they need to claim the continental title for the first time in their history.

It would be somewhat ironic if in spite of all the money they've spent to bring players to the Etihad Stadium, Manchester City's actual "next guy" was there all along from day one. Yet, that's precisely what Phil Foden is becoming before our eyes. Even if not many predicted this would happen at first, it can't be denied anymore.