The Weekly Take, Issue 39: Poland’s Finest Reaches 50

Heading into a Champions League match against Benfica, Bayern Munich had been in the midst of an alarming slump. Their results had been so poor that recently-hired head coach Niko Kovač already found himself at risk of being fired.

However, the Bavarian team broke their slump in emphatic fashion, hammering the Portuguese club 5-1 and securing the first seed in their group.

Another notable fact about the game was that Robert Lewandowski’s first of two goals made him the seventh player in Champions League history to score 50 goals in Europe’s leading club football tournament.

What makes this feat even more impressive is that Lewandowski now has 51 goals in 77 Champions League games.

To put this into perspective, legendary strikers such as Samuel Eto’o, Filippo Inzaghi, Didier Drogba, and Thierry Henry have all played more Champions League games than the Polish legend (yes, we can call him a legend at this point), but none have scored as many goals.

Despite his obvious goalscoring prowess, Lewandowski has arguably become the most overlooked football superstar in today’s game.

When discussing who the best strikers in the world are, after the obvious picks of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, most would cite names such as Kylian Mbappé, Mohamed Salah, Luis Suárez, Harry Kane, and Neymar, among others.

One player who is frequently forgotten in these discussions is Lewandowski – a real shame considering all that he has accomplished and the true big-ticket star he really is.

As of the writing of this post, Lewandowski has played 650 career games for club and country, scoring 403 goals. Of these, 240 of them have come in high-leverage games, which I define as games in a major domestic league, the Champions League, or an international tournament.

To put this into perspective, when comparing these numbers to some of today’s other elite strikers of around the same age, Lewandowski’s numbers look even more impressive.

Sergio Agüero has played 688 games and scored 374 goals, of which 267 have been in high-leverage games.

Edinson Cavani has 379 in 652 games, with 158 being on the biggest stages.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has netted 242 in 496 games. Of these, 139 were scored in high-leverage games.

Luis Suárez has 436 in 685, with 225 in the most important games.

Only Suárez has more career goals, while only Agüero has scored more in high-leverage games. Furthermore, both have played more career games than Lewandowski.

Lewandowski has also been the Bundesliga’s top goalscorer three times over the last five seasons.

He is one of 24 players to have ever accomplished this feat in a major European league.

The others to have done so include names such as Gerd Müller, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Alfredo di Stefano, and Michel Platini. Thus, as I mentioned earlier, Lewandowski is already among the all-time greats.

His goals also translate to wins, as Lewandowski has helped his teams to seven league titles and three domestic cups.

As a pure finisher, there is arguably no better in the world today than the man from Warsaw. The clearest evidence of this was his legendary five-goal performance for Bayern Munich against Wolfsburg in 2015. In that match, Lewandowski came off the bench to score five goals in just nine minutes, an all-time record. To cap it off, his fifth goal was a spectacular bicycle kick from the edge of the penalty area.

But beyond all of this, one other thing is clear:

Robert Lewandowski is the greatest footballer to ever come out of Poland.

Through the years, Poland has produced some great players.

Zbigniew Boniek. Kazimierz Deyna. Grzegorz Lato. Jerzy Dudek. Łukasz Piszczek.

Lewandowski has surpassed every single one of them.

The player with the best case among those I just mentioned is Boniek, but Boniek was frequently on stacked teams throughout his career – he played for a Juve team containing Platini, Marco Tardelli, and Paolo Rossi, as well as a Poland team with Deyna and Lato.

That Poland team reached two World Cup semifinals. Just think what Lewandowski could have done with such teammates.

Maybe it’s the fact that his playstyle is not flashy. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s from Poland. Or, it could be the fact that he plays for Bayern Munich, a club often overlooked as well.

But right now, there seems to be no stopping the Bayern superstar.

The Weekly Take, Issue 38: A Harsh Reality Check

Any match between two of London’s three leading clubs will have some added spice heading into it, and the recent game between Tottenham and Chelsea was no different.

However, this particular London derby failed to live up to the pre-game hype. Tottenham swept Chelsea aside, winning 3-1. What’s more, the final scoreline did not reflect how one-sided the game truly was. Such was Tottenham’s superiority that they could easily have beaten a discombobulated, disjointed Chelsea team by at least four goals.

But even more than that, this loss highlighted that Chelsea are still a long way from challenging for titles, whether domestically or in Europe. Although the appointment of Maurizio Sarri as head coach has somewhat improved the current situation at Stamford Bridge, the reality is that Sarri’s arrival at Chelsea has merely papered over the cracks at a team which is systemically and fundamentally flawed.

The first aspect which must be discussed is what Chelsea did during the previous off-season.

As has been the case in many of the last few transfer windows, Chelsea once again failed to improve their squad and overpaid for players. In terms of personnel, they are arguably even worse off than they were before the transfer window began.

While Jorginho has played fairly well for the Blues thus far, his transfer fee of ₤51.3 million was clearly an overpay on Chelsea’s part, especially considering the fact that his vastly superior teammate in midfield N’Golo Kanté was signed for ₤32 million.

Chelsea also inexplicably let Michy Batshuayi spend the season on loan at Valencia. Considering the fact that Chelsea now have only two strikers in their squad after Batshuayi’s departure, the move was a real head-scratcher.

Of course, one of the two elephants in the room has to be mentioned here: the departure of Thibaut Courtois.

Although Courtois had openly stated his intentions to leave Chelsea, the club only received ₤31.5 million and a season-long loan for Mateo Kovačić from Real Madrid. While Kovačić has had a good season thus far, this is in no way an adequate return for the Belgian superstar.

It gets even worse, though.

Shortly before Courtois left Chelsea, his replacement had already been signed: Kepa Arrizabalaga, whom Chelsea picked up from Athletic Bilbao for the record-breaking price of ₤72 million.

At the time of his signing, Kepa had only played in a major football league for two years, totalling 53 appearances for Bilbao. Kepa had also only earned one cap for Spain to that point.

Kepa is a solid goalkeeper, but he is certainly not deserving of the status of “world’s most expensive goalkeeper”. I can think of at least 10 goalkeepers, of which Courtois is one, who would or should command a higher transfer fee than the Basque shot-stopper.

The second elephant in the room is the transfer drama surrounding Eden Hazard.

There has been much speculation linking Chelsea’s best player with a move to Real Madrid. Although these transfer links have existed for a while now, they only strengthened after the winger’s spectacular World Cup campaign for Belgium, in which he helped them to third place and only finished behind Luka Modrić in the tournament MVP rankings.

It appears that the uncertainty surrounding Hazard has destabilized the locker room at Chelsea, as even though they started the season well, Chelsea seem to have lost some of their edge since, as could be seen in their loss to Spurs.

If Hazard leaves, his departure could prove to have a domino effect, causing even more players to leave and Chelsea to lose even more ground to rival teams.

Finally, with the exception of Kanté, this Chelsea team – Hazard included to some extent – seems to lack heart and fighting spirit compared to other leading teams.

Teams such as Liverpool, Manchester City, and Arsenal would certainly not have folded the way Chelsea did after falling behind against Spurs. This is a definite indictment on the team’s mentality – they just do not seem to want it badly enough. The Spurs match was especially egregious because it was a derby – the sort of match you would expect players to most desire a victory in.

Although Chelsea shuffled the deck during the off-season, it appears that they have only drawn a pair against their rivals’ full houses, flushes, and straights.

The Weekly Take, Issue 37: Hitting the Comeback Trail

What if I told you that just four months after the conclusion of the World Cup, the reigning world champions, despite fielding a team full of players that helped them win the title, would be easily defeated by a team which did not even qualify for the tournament?

To most, such a scenario would seem unthinkable; however, that is exactly what happened in a recent Nations League match.

This match saw the Netherlands, who failed to qualify for the World Cup in dramatic circumstances, beat France 2-0 with Georginio Wijnaldum and Memphis Depay getting onto the scoresheet for the Oranje.

It has been a remarkable turnaround for the Dutch team ever since their ill-fated World Cup qualifying campaign. They have recently been on a tear, as this victory over France came not long after a resounding 3-0 win over Germany in another Nations League game.

After missing out on Russia 2018 despite being the top-seeded team in their qualifying group, the Netherlands chose to embark on a major rebuilding period. This decision to rebuild appears to be bearing fruit.

Out of the players who started the Netherlands’ last World Cup qualifying game against Sweden, only five did so against France: Jasper Cillessen, Virgil van Dijk, Daley Blind, Ryan Babel, and Wijnaldum. New faces such as Marten de Roon and Frenkie de Jong have been added to the team to great effect.

Former coach Dick Advocaat was also replaced, with Ronald Koeman one of the Netherlands’ all-time greats, taking over. Although Koeman had coached nine different clubs over 17 years, he had only ever won one major trophy: the 2008 Copa del Rey with Valencia. Hence, the appointment of Koeman was certainly a risky move.

As it turned out, however, this full-scale revamp could not have been timed better.

Although the Netherlands have won just four of their nine games played in 2018, three of them came against Germany, Portugal, and France. This is a team that has consistently played against high-level opponents, with games against Slovakia and Peru being the only exceptions.

The newcomers’ entry to the squad has certainly been of great benefit to the team.

Probably the most striking difference between the Dutch team of a year ago and now can be seen in its backline.

Vibrant, young defenders such as Matthijs de Ligt, Denzel Dumfries, and Kenny Tete have emerged as rising stars who will likely be mainstays of the Netherlands team for the foreseeable future.

But even more crucially, the team has also seen van Dijk emerge as the cornerstone of their defence and a true leader on the pitch. Despite having played just 24 games for the Netherlands, van Dijk has already become the team captain, and rightly so. His rock-solid defensive play sets the tone for the team’s overall mentality, whether for club or country. At club level, his arrival at Liverpool from Southampton turned the Reds’ shaky defence into one of the most solid in the Premier League. There is every chance that van Dijk will go on to become the next great Dutch defender.

The Netherlands are no slouches up front, either.

Led by the underrated Memphis Depay, this Dutch squad’s attack also packs quite a punch. The likes of Steven Bergwijn, Quincy Promes, and Babel, who has been in the midst of an impressive individual comeback of his own, have also contributed to the Netherlands’ Nations League success thus far, scoring several key goals along the way.

Koeman’s coaching also must not be overlooked.

Under Advocaat, the Netherlands clearly fell far below the heights they once reached and were evidently a step behind all of the top international teams. They often appeared limited and devoid of ideas on the pitch. However, Koeman has rejuvenated this team, infusing it with much more verve and vigour than it previously had.

The Netherlands is a proud footballing nation, having produced legendary names such as Johan Neeskens, Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Edwin van der Sar, Arjen Robben, and of course, Johan Cruyff. After a fallow period in which the Oranje missed both Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup, it appeared that this generation would never reach such levels.

However, after the events of the last few months, some fresh faces could perhaps be starting to write their own stories in that famous orange jersey.

The Weekly Take, Issue 36: It’s Not the Group of Death for Nothing

During the previous round of Champions League fixtures, the standout result was Red Star Belgrade’s 2-0 upset victory over Liverpool. This was a result that not many saw coming. However, overshadowed in the buzz over this upset was the fact that Napoli and Paris Saint-Germain drew 1-1, leading to this year’s toughest Champions League group becoming ever tighter.

As things stand, Group C of the Champions League sees all four teams separated by just two points after four matchdays. Napoli and Liverpool have six points, PSG five, and Red Star four. When the group stage draw was first made, many considered Groups A, B, and C to be the most difficult, but in the former two cases this has proven false, with Borussia Dortmund and Atlético Madrid pulling well clear of Monaco in Group A, and Barcelona and Inter Milan doing likewise to Tottenham in Group B.

To give you an idea of how difficult Group C is, I will first analyse each team in the group.

PSG entered the competition as one of, if not the outright, favourites to win it all and bring the Champions League trophy back to France for the first time since 1993. Not a whole lot more that hasn’t already been said about this team needs to be. PSG are absolutely loaded, boasting superstars such as Neymar, Kylian Mbappé, and Edinson Cavani, as well as a capable supporting cast including the likes of Thomas Meunier, Marco Verratti, and Adrien Rabiot. However, although PSG have won every single one of their league games thus far, the general weakness of Ligue 1 has meant that this domestic dominance has not carried over into the Champions League. This fact is evidenced by PSG’s underwhelming Champions League record of one win, two draws, and one loss. This team, tipped by many to go all the way, might just be sent packing in the group stage.

Next, we come to Napoli. This is a team that had to retool during the off-season after losing Jorginho and, more crucially, head coach Maurizio Sarri, both to Chelsea.

With Sarri at the helm, Napoli had overachieved during the past three seasons. They twice finished second in Serie A, and, despite consistently underperforming in European competition, were always seen as a dangerous team. Now, with legendary coach Carlo Ancelotti in charge, Napoli could be in line for their best season in a long time, despite the departure of Gonzalo Higuaín.

Liverpool also cannot be overlooked. Much like Napoli, the Reds overachieved last season by reaching the Champions League final, largely thanks to the goalscoring prowess of superstar striker Mohamed Salah and the coaching genius of Jürgen Klopp. Liverpool also spent heavily over the off-season, bringing in Naby Keїta, Fabinho, Alisson, and Xherdan Shaqiri for a combined sum of over ₤168 million. Players such as Georginio Wijnaldum and Joe Gomez have also excelled, taking their levels of play to new heights. The heavy spending and player development have both borne fruit, at least in the Premier League, with Liverpool still unbeaten and only trailing Manchester City by two points. However, their Champions League campaign hit a snag after the shock loss to Red Star.

Speaking of Red Star, despite being regarded as by far the weakest team in the group before the tournament began, they have proven that they are not to be taken lightly. Players such as Lorenzo Ebecilio, Marko Marin, and Marko Gobeljić are better than most people think, and their draw against Napoli and victory over Liverpool have put them in a position in which they could potentially defy the odds and top their group.

Groups of Death usually feature nail-biting, nerve-wracking action, but not in the wildest dreams of most fans did they anticipate that Group C would be quite this tight. When all is said and done, at least one team, and perhaps two, expected to progress further in this year’s Champions League will not. This bloodbath of a group is far from over, and the last two matchdays will be utterly crucial.

I leave you with one final thought: with two Champions League matchdays to go, Red Star Belgrade could conceivably finish top of the group, while PSG could finish bottom and even miss entry into the Europa League.

Let that sink in.

The Weekly Take, Issue 35: Don’t Forget About ‘Dre

When looking at the current Arsenal squad, it is evident that the best player and only genuine superstar on it is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. As a player, he is head and shoulders above the rest of his teammates, and it isn’t even close.

However, every star player needs a supporting cast.

So, just who is the second-best player on the Gunners?

Mesut Özil is not the force he once was; neither is Petr Čech. Henrikh Mkhitaryan is a solid player, but he has never quite reached the level I’m speaking of. Granit Xhaka is maddeningly inconsistent.

However, I believe that Arsenal’s best player after Aubameyang is a player often overlooked for various reasons, but while not quite elite, is one of the most important pieces of this Arsenal team.

I am speaking about Alexandre Lacazette.

Not too long ago, Lacazette, who was then playing for Lyon, was perennially linked with a transfer to one of the world’s leading football clubs, such as Real Madrid, Manchester United, and Paris Saint-Germain.  However, in a surprising turn of events, it was Arsenal who ended up signing the highly sought-after Frenchman for €53 million.

This past week, he again reminded those other clubs what they missed out on when he scored Arsenal’s equaliser in a 1-1 draw against Liverpool.

This was an impressive result for the north London club because they went into the game against the Merseysiders as the clear underdogs.

Lacazette and his contributions to Arsenal often get overlooked for several reasons: he is not as good a player as strike partner Aubameyang, his playstyle isn’t as eye-catching as those of Özil or Mkhitaryan, and he doesn’t have the sheer inner fire of the likes of Xhaka or Aaron Ramsey.

The centre-forward’s lack of recognition extends internally as well as externally.

This is reflected in the fact that despite being among Arsenal’s most consistent performers throughout the 2017-18 season, netting 14 league goals in 32 games, Lacazette was not named the club’s Player of the Month even once.

Yet in spite of all this, Lacazette has been a terrific fit on this team.

Lacazette’s willingness to track back, press, and play solid defence makes his style of play a good accompaniment to the spectacular, explosive game of Aubameyang. Furthermore, on offence, he brings solid dribbling skills and the ability to finish with either foot to the table.

Many players who move from a weaker league to one of the four major leagues initially struggle to adapt, while some never do. This has clearly not been the case for Lacazette, who has had no trouble adjusting to the higher level of play in the Premier League.

Lacazette has also been overlooked in his international football career.

Although he first played for France in 2013, Lacazette has just 16 caps for his country and has never played in a major tournament.

Lacazette has had to stay behind and watch as strikers who he is clearly better than, such as Olivier Giroud, André-Pierre Gignac, and Nabil Fekir were selected to represent Les Bleus in tournament play.

Giroud and Fekir were all part of France’s victorious 2018 World Cup squad – an honour which I believe Lacazette was extremely unfortunate to have missed out on.

The selection of Lacazette’s former Arsenal teammate Giroud was all the more surprising given the fact that Lacazette was clearly superior to Giroud throughout the 2017-18 season. In fact, Lacazette and Aubameyang’s arrivals at the Emirates Stadium made Giroud so expendable to Arsenal that he was shipped out to Chelsea during the January transfer window.

Lacazette’s form this season will be one of the key elements of how successful Arsenal will be during the current campaign. Much to the pleasure of Gunners fans, he is off to a strong start, with five league goals in 11 games.

Only time will tell if Lacazette ends up becoming the Dennis Bergkamp to Aubameyang’s Thierry Henry. So far, the two have combined seamlessly. On the other hand, there is still a possibility that he could flame out and prove that last season was just a flash in the pan.

But for now, as his solid play up front continues, Alexandre Lacazette does not deserve to be as underrated as he is.

The Weekly Take, Issue 34: The Sleeping Ruhr Giant Reawakens

This is the post that I have been hoping to make since the beginning of the season, though I never believed I would be doing so.

As a Borussia Dortmund fan since 2011, I was pessimistic about my beloved Schwarzgelbe’s chances of success heading into the season. In the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich looked like an unstoppable juggernaut which would roll to yet another league title, while in the Champions League, Dortmund were drawn into a tough group, as they were forced to play against Atlético Madrid and Monaco – two teams which I would not have been surprised to see Dortmund lose both group games to.

Yet, after approximately two months of the season, Lucien Favre’s team are top of the Bundesliga, and even more impressively, recorded a 4-0 Champions League victory over Atlético to remain top of the group.

This season is looking far more promising for Dortmund than last season, when they were only fourth in the league and were knocked out in the group stage of the Champions League, then the Europa League’s round of 16.

So just how were they able to improve so rapidly?

The most obvious factor has to be their off-season acquisitions. After the departure of superstar striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to Arsenal in January, Dortmund struggled because they had no replacement ready to step in for the Gabonese ace.

However, that is no longer the case.

On August 28, 2018, Borussia Dortmund brought in Spanish striker Paco Alcácer on loan from Barcelona. Alcácer had been languishing on Barcelona’s bench, but almost immediately upon his arrival at Signal Iduna Park, he began to put the football world on notice.

The Valencian has been absolutely sensational thus far this season. At the moment, he is the Bundesliga’s joint-top scorer with seven goals, equal with Luka Jović of Eintracht Frankfurt. Alcácer even managed to score a hattrick as a substitute, leading Dortmund to a 4-3 win over Augsburg in doing so.

Two of Dortmund’s other signings have also made understated but important contributions.

Midfield duo Thomas Delaney and Axel Witsel, who arrived at Dortmund from Werder Bremen and Tianjin Quanjian respectively, have fit perfectly into Favre’s system and tactics. Although both signings went somewhat under the radar, particularly that of Delaney, when Dortmund play, the impact of both players can clearly be seen.

The appointment of Favre as coach has also been crucial.

Lucien Favre is one of the most underrated football coaches. In four years at the helm of Borussia Mönchengladbach between 2011 and 2015, he led Die Fohlen to two top-four finishes in that span, a feat they had not achieved since finishing fourth and third respectively in 1986 and 1987.

He also led Nice to third place in Ligue 1, their highest league finish in years.

Neither Gladbach nor Nice were expected to play at the level that they did under Favre, thus proving the former Switzerland international’s credentials as an excellent coach.

Dortmund’s young talent has also begun to blossom.

Jadon Sancho, Manuel Akanji, Christian Pulisic, Abdou Diallo, Mahmoud Dahoud, and Jacob Bruun Larsen have all been key contributors for Dortmund thus far this season. All six are between the ages of 18 and 23.

Thus, this team is not only set up well for this season, but for the future as well. If most of their young core stays together, Alcácer signs a permanent deal as is expected, and their veterans such as Marco Reus, Mario Götze, and Łukasz Piszczek continue to provide stability and guidance for Dortmund’s young stars, this could go on to be Dortmund’s strongest team since the Jürgen Klopp era.

Dortmund look like a contender to not only win their first Bundesliga title since 2012, but also make a deep Champions League run. Though it is unlikely that the Ruhr club will go on to win the biggest prize in European club football, this team has been defying expectations throughout this season, so who’s to say?

Borussia Dortmund are a club known for their extremely passionate fanbase. During home games, the “Yellow Wall” is truly a sight to behold. Now, after some difficult years, these fans, myself included, have once again been granted the privilege of witnessing their team perform at an elite level.

The Weekly Take, Issue 33: Barça’s Pyrrhic Victory

Every team would like to win every match, but sometimes, a victory can feel more like a loss.

In a highly-anticipated clash between two teams entering the match first and second in La Liga, Barcelona defeated Sevilla 4-2. Barcelona’s superior star power helped the Catalan club take control of the match and earn a comfortable victory, with Philippe Coutinho, Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez, and Ivan Rakitić making their way onto the scoresheet. This win also put Barça back on top of the league, just one week after surrendering it to Sevilla.

However, the result was not the main talking point of the game.

In the 26th minute, Messi had to be substituted after breaking his arm following a collision with Sevilla midfielder Franco Vázquez. The injury to the Barça legend could potentially alter the course of the season, for he is expected to be out of action for three weeks.

This means that Messi will miss two Champions League matches against Inter Milan, and, most crucially, the upcoming El Clásico match against Real Madrid. Although Real are currently mired in a slump, El Clásico is exactly the sort of match that would fire up Los Merengues and see them produce a performance at a level we have not seen from them for a while now.

There is a term which I would like to bring up now; that term is “Pyrrhic victory”.

According to Dictionary.com, a Pyrrhic victory is “a victory or goal achieved at too great a cost”.

It must be kept in mind that Barça only lead now second-placed Sevilla by one point, and Real by four. Thus, if Barça go on to lose El Clásico – a distinct possibility considering that they will be without their ace - their lead over Real would be cut to just one, and the Blaugrana would probably also surrender their position as La Liga leaders.

This is not the first time that some of Barça’s victories came back to bite them. In fact, such a scenario occurred just last season.

Throughout the season, Barcelona really went all out to win La Liga and the Copa del Rey. However, their domestic exertions ultimately ended up costing them in Europe when they were knocked out of the Champions League by Roma, as the Serie A team pulled off a comeback for the ages to send a gassed Barça out of the tournament.

Despite the fact that Barcelona went on to win a league and cup double, the disappointing end to their Champions League campaign caused most around the club to regard Barça’s 2017-18 season as a failure. In fact, there was even speculation that coach Ernesto Valverde would be fired, solely because of their loss in the Champions League.

Had Barça taken a more measured approach to the league and domestic cup, it is certainly possible that they would have gone on to win the Champions League. While victories build confidence within a team, when a team goes too hard in less important matches, they risk running their players into the ground, risking injury, or causing fatigue. This would then lead to underperformance in the matches that matter most.

Now, with not only Messi, but also Samuel Umtiti and Thomas Vermaelen injured, Barça’s season hangs in a precarious position. Not only is their La Liga lead at risk, but now there is also a chance that they might only qualify from their Champions League group as the second-placed team, which would likely give them a round of 16 match against a title contender. That in turn could lead to an early exit for the second consecutive year.

At the beginning of the season, Messi openly declared that Barcelona’s primary focus this season would be to win the Champions League. Right now, it’s still far too early for Barça to panic – after all, they still have the La Liga lead and are still among the favourites to land the Champions League title – but one thing is clear: if Barcelona are to bring the European title to Camp Nou for the sixth time in the club’s history, they have to change the way they approach La Liga and the Copa del Rey. Their current strategy appears to be unsustainable.