The European Leagues & Competitions Thread V2

[Blues Forever 1,232]

1 minute ago, killer1257 said:

If messi goes to PSG, I think they get a new TV deal

Gesendet von meinem VOG-L29 mit Tapatalk
 

Huge if though.

[Vesper 29,079]

Leon Goretzka exclusive: ‘I was able to swim against the current’

https://theathletic.com/2257523/2020/12/13/leon-goretzka-bayern-munich/

On February 17, Leon Goretzka got into his car, drove 13 miles north of Munich and went to hell.

Dachau, the blueprint for the concentration camps built by the Nazis to incarcerate political enemies and prisoners of war and to enable the industrialised killing of European Jews, is an eerie memorial site now. Goretzka had been there before, as a young boy during a family trip to Bavaria’s capital.

“I was 12, maybe 13, your classic know-it-all teenager too cool for school,” he recalls. “You think that you’ve seen it all before, in history books and TV documentaries. I remember looking at some photos and then walking through the courtyard and recognising those very same places. It suddenly felt very real, and it was overwhelming. I broke down and cried, right there and then. Now that I live in Munich, I wanted to go again.”

Dachau has had previous Bayern representatives go through its infamous “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work sets you free”) adorned gate, albeit in very different circumstances. Kurt Landauer, the Bayern president who led the club to their first German championship in 1932, was imprisoned there after the “Kristallnacht” pogrom in 1938 on account of being Jewish but was released after 33 days when someone realised he had been decorated as a soldier in the first world war. He subsequently fled to Switzerland and became president once more after 1945. His four siblings were all killed. Sixteen other Bayern members were inmates at Dachau as well, including Alfred Strauss, a lawyer, who was executed in May 1933.

After decades of silence, the German champions have belatedly recognised Landauer’s suffering and his legacy with a series of measures including the erection of a statue at their Saebener Strasse training ground and the naming of the square outside the Allianz Arena stadium. The club’s ultras regularly commemorate victims of Nazism in choreographies. In 2009, a delegation led by executive chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge went to Dachau on Kurt Landauer’s 125th birthday. But Goretzka was the first Bayern footballer to visit the memorial on a day off and post photos of the site. Why?

“My parents have made an effort to raise me that way, being aware of things that are going on or have happened in the past,” the 25-year-old says. “You can learn about the Holocaust in class, on social media, or by watching films. But nothing brings home the scale of these crimes like visiting a concentration camp.

“Being there makes you realise how recent this was, just a lifetime ago. There are still people alive today who have survived. I know how much it affected me. It should be mandatory for all school classes in Germany to go.”

Goretzka was born in Bochum in Germany’s post-industrial heartlands. Like many Ruhrpott natives, he has Polish ancestors on his father’s side, immigrants who worked in the coal mines and steel factories. In this proudly working-class mish-mash of cultures, “nationality is a question of being Schalke, Dortmund or Bochum,” he once said, making a stand against xenophobia in the stadium and in general. “Growing up, I never came across racism, I thought we had moved on as a society. But I was wrong. We can no longer talk about nipping it in the bud because it’s come back. We just have to fight harder as a consequence.”

The replies under his post about visiting Dachau were widely positive but the odd troll and Nazi sympathiser felt obliged to disseminate their hate as well. Goretzka says he would never recommend using social media, let alone as a vehicle for such sensitive topics, because of all the horrible abuse that can come with it. “Fritz Walter (1954 World Cup winner) once said that internationals are foreign ministers in shorts. I like that,” he says. “As players, we should use the attention we get to raise awareness for such topics.

“But you have to be built that way to do it on social media. Others might get more hurt than me. You can teach yourself how to deal with it, though. I always tell myself, ‘On what basis do these people talk about me? Do they know what’s really going on?’ If they don’t, why should I give one cent about their comments?”

Goretzka says he’s learned to develop a thick skin following the mass opprobrium that greeted the announcement of his impending end-of-contract move to Bayern from Schalke 04 in January 2018. “There was all this talk about me being greedy and ungrateful and so on, things that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Maybe as a fan, I would have felt the same way, having read newspapers making the same incendiary points for months on end. I can understand those reactions and deal with them accordingly, as long as it doesn’t go too far.”

By the time the season was finished, Goretzka had won many of his fiercest critics around again with a series of fine performances. He was given a warm send-off in Gelsenkirchen after five years in royal blue.

Goretzka could have also gone to Liverpool then as interest in the skilled box-to-box player had been strong on Merseyside. “They were a consideration, of course,” he says. “They’re a great club, and their development since Kloppo came has been amazing. We’re all a little proud of him winning the title. But I took a long time making my decision, and I was 100 per cent sure that Bayern was the right move for me.”

It’s turned out pretty well. There were signs that Goretzka would become more of a factor in the Joshua Kimmich-Thiago dominated midfield during last winter but the man long hailed as “the next Michael Ballack” truly came into his own at the end of last season, when Bayern won 21 games in a row to win a treble. Thiago’s departure and Kimmich’s injury have now bestowed extra levels of responsibility on him. “There’s a bit of a hole right now but it’s a challenge you need to meet,” he says, “I’m aware that I have to deliver.”

That he has. Both Bayern’s and Germany’s starting XIs are now inconceivable without his name on the teamsheet, which is quite a turnaround after a couple of years on the periphery. Despite everything, 2020 has been his year, hasn’t it? “I can understand why it looks like that to you,” he says. “But there had been spells before where I felt very settled and as if I had arrived, but unfortunately there were some setbacks, due to injuries. Things have gone well, despite all of the crazy and negative things that have happened. In a sporting sense, I was able to swim against the current.”

Maybe it’s not a coincidence. Goretzka used the enforced nine-week break owing to coronavirus in spring to bulk up, gaining a few kilos in muscle to come back quite literally stronger. “Nobody knew what was happening and we had a lot of time to think. I asked myself: what can I do to develop further as a human being? It was an opportunity to take stock, listen to the voice inside of you and redefine your goals.

“The extra muscle is only the most visible part of that. Not playing gave me a chance to do work on the body in a way you can’t do under normal circumstances, as you’d need two or three days to recover.”

The internet is full of memes contrasting his bulked-up frame with slimmer days at Schalke but he says that’s misleading. “I had spells when I was a bit heavier there as well, and I felt good about that, but the problem was that small injuries took away the focus on the big picture. You’re too busy putting out fires, there wasn’t time to attempt reaching the next level. Luckily, I was able to do that. It makes sense to recharge your batteries during breaks but I’m a firm believer that you get more power from working harder. And that’s the result right now.”

Goretzka’s muscularity was one of the factors in Bayern becoming a pressing machine, “the most difficult to play against in Europe,” as he puts it proudly. Chasing down opponents has always been part of his game, “but Hansi Flick’s biggest achievement has been to make everyone else feel the same way.”

“Players with great individual quality harangue the opposition relentlessly,” he adds, “that only works if everyone buys into it. And doing something that works well is fun as well.”

Goretzka also made a decision to put his extra time towards helping those affected by the pandemic. Together with Kimmich, he set up We Kick Corona to provide funds for charities and social institutions hit hard by the lack of donations during lockdown. The two Bayern players personally donated €500,000 each and phoned up dozens of contacts to collect north of €5.5 million that has so far been distributed among 570 recipients. “It was very important to us to explain that 100 per cent of all the money would go to those who need it and that we would choose each of the projects ourselves. People’s livelihoods were at stake and still are. It’s been very moving to see the feedback from those who were helped on the ground.”

Unfortunately, he will have his work cut out over the next few months. At a time when Germany’s COVID-19 case numbers are rising with unprecedented pace and Nazi insignia has appeared at lockdown protests, Goretzka’s impact off the pitch remains as vital as the one on it.

[Vesper 29,079]

2 hours ago, Blues Forever said:

Time to snatch several ligue 1 players lol.

20 best non PSG targets

DMF/CMF Eduardo Camavinga   
CMF    Houssem Aouar    
CF    Moussa Dembélé    
Winger/AMF    Jonathan Ikoné   
DMF/CB    Boubacar Kamara   
CF    Jonathan David   
CMF/DMF    Bruno Guimarães   
AMF/Winger    Rayan Cherki    
CB    Benoît Badiashile   
CMF    Jeff Reine-Adélaïde   
DMF    Boubakary Soumaré 
CB    Duje Caleta-Car
RB    Zeki Celik   
Winger    Jérémy Doku    
RB    Youcef Atal    
AMF    Lucas Paquetá    
CB/RB    Mohamed Simakan 
CB    Strahinja Pavlovic 
CB    Sven Botman    
GK    Predrag Rajkovic  

[OneMoSalah 8,797]

22 hours ago, Blue Armour said:

Games against Southampton, West Brom, the first fixture against Seville, United and Liverpool dont count. 

The team lineup was only shaping up then and the switch to 433 happened midway through the first Krasnodar fixture, which we won.

Bringing up the second Krasnodar is also unwarranted, because we played with a 3rd string squad for the match.

The only poor performance is against Everton., and that game is completely different from the rest of the examples you mentioned 

The change of shape helped a bit but still seen enough to know this team isn’t complete. Even more so after Everton and the game tonight.

Even then regardless those games were poor performances. 
 

23 hours ago, Jason said:

West Brom and Southampton were before we switched to 4-3-3. Same goes with the Liverpool game and that came in the 2nd game and we went down to 10 men. Sevilla and Man United came immediately after Lampard started to switch things for the better; we were found wanting offensively but we were defensively sound. And which Krasnodar game?

If you are gonna point out the games where we had imperfections, then you should probably point the games where we did well as well. Only fair, no? Inconsistency is still to be expected from us when we are still a work in progress but compared to last season, our consistency is less bad this time around, if that makes sense. Had we faced Atletico last season, I wouldn't have fancied our chances at all. But this time? I do. We aren't perfect yet but we are also in a better place right now (maybe things will change come February but that is another debate). 

Sure, we haven't won any of the big domestic games yet this season but at the same time, we have also lost only once and that was after we went down to 10 men. Similarly, Atletico have failed to beat Villarreal (4th), Real Madrid (3rd) in La Liga this season. They also got smashed 4-0 by Bayern and then failed to beat a Bayern B side. The only big side they have beaten this season is Barcelona but that is a hopeless Barcelona side that have lost to the likes of Getafe and Cadiz.

And who is writing Atletico off already? If anything, people already wrote us off immediately after the draw was made if you have seen the posts. If anything, there are people who are just feeling bullish about our chances. Atletico won't be easy to get past, that is true but the way people have been talking about them, you would think they are the European champions and/or have been dominating Europe for years. If you go look at their results and performances in recent seasons in Europe, they aren't actually all that impressive. There have been some good ones but there have also been bad ones. Again, they won't be easy to beat but they aren't unbeatable either. If we are in good form and have no major injury issues especially come then, we have a good chance of beating them over two legs.

(On a side note, can't believe I'm the one who is trying or the one who is being optimistic on here!)

Yes the second one. I know it was a dead rubber, for sure but you going to say that team couldnt have played better? That those players arent good enough to beat them?

Irrelevant mentioning Bayern, they are European Champions, we are not at that level. Villarreal and Real (struggling just now) maybe not the greatest opposition but still over 2 games in knockout competition, Atletico are very dangerous imo. Particularly more so after watching the Everton and Wolves games (on top of some of the earlier games this season) we have just lost and not only just lost but probably quite deservedly so. I have no doubts Atletico are better sides than both quite comfortably and will definite play in a similar manner also.

Also if our game plan is still gonna be giving it to Chilwell or James and letting them cross it Atletico will eat that up all day, if theres one thing they know how to do well it is defend from crosses. 

I didnt say they were unbeatable, I said dangerous and they will be wanting to play a team like us rather than some of the others they could have got because we are still a work in progress, with faults and not completely settled.

[NikkiCFC 8,063]

 

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Former Chelsea striker returns to training and aims to face old club again

https://www.chelsea-news.co/2020/12/former-chelsea-striker-returns-training-aims-face-old-club/

When Chelsea were drawn against Atletico Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League this week, many Chelsea fans automatically thought about a reunion with a former player.

Diego Costa spent three good seasons at Chelsea, and Blues fans have a real affection for the striker who became a cult hero.

Things didn’t end well though and the Spanish international fell out with Antonio Conte and headed back to La Liga to re-join Atletico Madrid.

Costa has been nursing a rare blood clot injury in his leg, but Marca are reporting that he aims to return now in time to face his former club in Europe.

Further to this, his club have tweeted a picture of Costa in training today simply saying ‘back.’ An image that will send chills down Chelsea spines.

It will be an emotional return for both parties though, Costa had a good time in London and scored many good and important goals.

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Dortmund's fall without Håland continues

https://yfl.koralast.com/player/html/pCn3sk97Y8wOH?popup=yes&autoplay=1

This game will be remembered for the just-turned-16yo  Youssoufa Moukoko's first topflight goal

Union Berlin are amazing at set piece goals, especially corner kicks

[NikkiCFC 8,063]

Schalke in 2020 

[NikkiCFC 8,063]

Bayer up against Bayern. Surely better game than Everton:Arsenal.

[NikkiCFC 8,063]

1:1

Alaba in midfield. 

[NikkiCFC 8,063]

Ronaldo 16 goals already... 

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Furious Atletico insist they will still consider banned Trippier for selection

https://theathletic.com/news/Kieran-trippier-atletico-madrid-ban/1UsxwMTx8eD1

A furious Atletico Madrid have insisted they will continue to consider Kieran Trippier for selection because the England international’s 10-week worldwide football ban for breaching Football Association betting rules has not been communicated to them, reports Dermot Corrigan. On Wednesday Trippier was banned for 10 weeks and fined £70,000 for breaching betting rules. His worldwide ban from all football and football-related activity will run until February 28. Atletico insist that the club has not been informed of this punishment, however, and The Athletic understands the Spanish side feel they should still be able to select Trippier, who has played in every single one of their La Liga and Champions League matches this season.

Why is Trippier banned?

An FA panel found that Trippier, 30, broke betting rules in July 2019, which is when he joined Atletico from Tottenham Hotspur.

Trippier denied the charges, first made in May, and had a personal hearing in October.

However, the FA said that four of seven alleged breaches had been proven with three others dismissed.

His worldwide ban from all football and football-related activity will run until February 28.

What was Atletico’s response?

Atletico maintain that the club were not informed of Trippier’s 10-week suspension before the FA published a statement revealing the punishment.

The Athletic understands that Atletico therefore consider Trippier available for selection throughout the period in which he is suspended.

It was also not lost on Atletico that Trippier will not miss any of England’s upcoming internationals, and that the Champions League match he is suspended for — the Round of 16 first leg clash with Chelsea on February 23 — is against an English team.

What happens next?

Trippier’s suspension was made effective worldwide from today (Wednesday 23 December) following an application to FIFA. That means Atletico will be at risk of sanctions should they select the defender.

The Athletic has contacted FIFA for comment.

Trippier can also decide to appeal, while Atletico could take the issue to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Which matches is he banned for?

The suspension means that Trippier is supposed to miss the first leg of Atletico Madrid’s Champions League clash with Chelsea, as well as a crunch La Liga clash with Sevilla on January 12.

However, Trippier, will be available for selection for the delayed EURO 2020 tournament. He is a regular in Gareth Southgate’s starting XI and captained his country against Wales in October.

 

Backstory

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Kieran Trippier exclusive: ‘When you look to the bench and see Simeone looking so passionate, it gives you a lift’

 

Oliver Kay

Nov 30, 2019

The England right-back reflects on his career playing under Howe, Dyche, Pochettino, Southgate and now Simeone...

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Sensible Transfers: Alaba and Schar to Real and Barca? Spanish clubs get creative

 

Dermot Corrigan

Tue

Spain's leading clubs are desperately short of money so free transfers and Premier League outcasts like Schar and Rudiger may be in demand

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‘One of us bites and the other kicks’: Suarez, Costa and the new look Atletico 

 

Dermot Corrigan

Oct 21

If there is only room for one centre-forward in most games, then Diego Simeone has been quite clear that Luis Suarez is his first choice

 

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Thomas Tuchel sacked by Paris Saint-Germain

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12172137/thomas-tuchel-sacked-by-paris-saint-germain

 

merry Christmas, wow

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Mauricio Pochettino 'set to become PSG manager' after Thomas Tuchel sacked

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/breaking-pochettino-tuchel-sacked-psg-19517435

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Sane may look like a tea drinker at Oktoberfest but the stats tell another story

https://theathletic.com/2276505/2020/12/22/sane-bayern-munich-substitute/

The sale of firecrackers has been banned in Germany this December but for Bayern Munich, 2020 still ended with two very big bangs.

First and foremost, Robert Lewandowski’s late, deflected strike gave them a 2-1 win at Bayer Leverkusen to demoralise all those who thought the tired champions were running out of steam. Their time-honoured capacity to dig out great results amid the depths of mediocre performances has always been rivalled by the ability to create juicy storylines, however, and Saturday was another case in point.

Winning the newly-coined “Christmas championship” — finishing the calendar year at the top of the table — was somewhat overshadowed by Leroy Sane’s 36 minutes on the pitch. The 24-year-old had been brought on for an injured Kingsley Coman after half an hour but was then taken off again with just over 20 minutes left.

It’s rare to see a substitute withdrawn for non-injury-related reasons and even rarer to see it happen at Bayern, where having a strong bench full of replacements ready to make an immediate impact has long been an article of faith. For a player who had already been repeatedly called out by his manager for not doing enough work defensively, getting pulled so quickly marked his arrival at the next tier level: Sane was officially put on high alert that his output isn’t sufficient.

At least, that’s how it looked. Coming on and off again is routinely described as “Hochststrafe” in Germany, probably best translated as capital punishment: the metaphorical killing of a player.

Coach Hansi Flick would have known that his move would be seen as a humiliation for Sane and offered an alternative explanation. The former Manchester City winger wasn’t being punished, the 55-year-old insisted, but was taken off for merely pragmatic reasons. “I wanted to put on (Jamal) Musiala,” Flick said. “That left few players to take off: (Thomas) Muller, (Serge) Gnabry and Sane. Thomas is irreplaceable. Serge improved immensely in the second half. That only left Leroy as an option. It’s about the team being successful. Individuals have to take a back seat. He’ll get over it.”

Flick was obviously careful to project plausible deniability in terms of his decision being designed to expose the player’s insufficiency. He’s certainly not known for throwing his charges under the bus.

But, even so, his explanation spoke volumes about Sane’s relative position in the squad. Musiala, a 17-year-old academy graduate, was seen as a more promising vector to increase Bayern’s attacking prowess when they were struggling for inspiration, and Gnabry as more dependable. Put crudely, Sane is currently the anti-Muller, low on effort and presence, unable to have a sustained positive influence. In other words: very much replaceable. Consequently, he is yet to play the full 90 minutes in any of his 11 starts for Bayern since his summer move from City.

The next day, executive chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge also drew an unflattering comparison with the club’s talismanic leader. “Leroy has been blessed with unbelievable talent but he hasn’t absorbed Bayern DNA,” he told Sport1. “(Unlike) Thomas Muller, (who was) yesterday’s hero for me. He isn’t blessed with the same talent as Leroy but he ran up and down (tirelessly). Leroy needs to work on that. That’s his task. He needs to adapt his character to that of his team.”

There are, of course, some mitigating factors. After coming back from an ACL injury, Sane is yet to re-find his swagger and confidence on the ball. He’s often looked hesitant, opting for the safer or simply wrong option. In short, he plays like a man feeling his way back to just being a top-level footballer rather than a world-beater at this stage.

But in a way, Sane’s biggest misfortune might have been to come to Munich at the wrong time, a decade or so too late. Up until Jupp Heynckes installed a Jurgen Klopp-inspired pressing game in 2012-13, the idea that forwards had to work just as hard to win the ball back as those behind them had been anathema to Bavarian sensibilities.

Bayern were famous for their “hero football”, a game based on defensive solidity, with attacking midfielders of the big-ego-playmaker/auxiliary-striker variant, the odd dashing maverick winger, and classic centre-forwards. There was little collective movement, let alone a concerted effort to engage the opposition deep in their own half.

Sane, best when he can run at the opposition from an inside right position, would have been indulged as a great individualist, just as Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben had been before Heynckes managed to drum a stronger work ethos into both of them.

This year, it was the side’s relentless pressing game that lifted them above the competition in the Champions League, which is why Sane’s seemingly more relaxed approach to tracking back and chasing the ball sticks out like a tea drinker at Oktoberfest.

It’s not as if this apparent slackness has been offset by stellar attacking numbers, either. Three goals and three assists are the bare minimum expected of him, and the underlying stats are just as underwhelming.

Smarterscout is a site which gives detailed analytics on players all over the world, producing a score between zero and 99 in a variety of categories — a bit like the player ratings in the FIFA video games but powered by real data and advanced analytics.

Sane’s ratings of 28 for xG from shot creation and 12 for xG from ball progression indicate he’s not having a particularly fruitful season when it comes to helping make scoring opportunities for his team, or moving them upfield.

Off the ball though, the picture isn’t quite as clear-cut as it seems.

It is true that Sane’s defending intensity, defined by the smarterscout model as “the number of times a player is the most relevant defender out of possession”, is extremely low. But so are the figures for the supposedly more hard-working Gnabry and Coman.

Sane almost never disrupts opposition moves through tackling, fouling, blocking or clearing but then again, he is somehow much more effective than his peers at forcing turnovers and limiting opponents’ ball possessions.

What’s more, the fbref.com numbers show him as a far more energetic presser than commonly appreciated.

He’s the top Bayern forward when it comes to defensive pressures in the defensive and attacking thirds (3.51 and 7.89 per 90 minutes), and only marginally behind Muller for pressures in the middle third (8.07). Maybe he’s simply not being seen as such, possibly due to his ethereal demeanour and reluctance to make close contact with opponents. The perception of the problem is a little worse than the reality.

That, in turn, might explain why he continues to enjoy the backing of his team. Muller went straight over to console him after the final whistle at the weekend. “I told him that he should take away a sense of motivation, not frustration,” he said. “It’s a tough one. But he works hard on making it happen. I’m not worried about him. It won’t take long before we’ll hear very different things about him.”

Sane seems to think so as well. He admitted to not having been able to perform to the best of his abilities but felt that “things will change.” They will have to if he’s to become the star Bayern thought they had bought six months ago.

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The lost Ballon d’Or: A case for Zlatan, the leader of a revived AC Milan

https://theathletic.com/2270185/2020/12/22/ball-dor-zlatan-ibrahimovic-milan/

With the Ballon d’Or cancelled this year due to COVID-19, The Athletic is running a series on who could — and should — have won this year.

As a bit of festive fun, we will publish nominations by our writers over the next week to help you decide.

Please vote in the poll at the end and leave a comment if you feel we have missed anyone out…

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“For goodness sake,” Massimo Ambrosini exclaims in disbelief. Maybe it’s the cold but the waiter appears to be trembling as he brings him and Zlatan Ibrahimovic a coffee to enjoy outside the clubhouse at Milanello. “The stress you make people feel,” Ambrosini laughs.

Zlatan tries to put the waiter at ease as he lays his tray down on the table. “Relax,” he says. But the Swede’s old team-mate is still taken aback by the scene. “You keep the waiters under tension too,” Ambrosini observes with incredulity. “Is he always on your case?” the former midfielder asks the waiter. Zlatan turns serious. “When you work, you work right? After, you can joke around. You’re working at the moment, aren’t you?” Ambrosini all of a sudden finds himself put on the spot. The pundit is there to interview him for Sky Italia. “I understand that,” he says, but Zlatan cuts his old friend short and playfully admonishes him. “Focus then.”

Without skipping a beat, Zlatan then glances up from his steaming coffee and, by raising his eyebrows, motions for Ambrosini to look over from where they’re sitting. It’s unclear who has caught the striker’s attention. Is it the waiter again? A member of the ground staff at AC Milan’s training ground? “Look at him studying me,” Zlatan says. “He wants to know what Ibra’s like, eh?”

There’s a lot to unpack here. Rather than the ego, the thing to focus on is the example. “Show us the way and we’ll follow you” is how he sees his role at Milan. Evidently, his team-mates aren’t the only ones who look up to him. Everybody does.

As much as some people have this opinion of Zlatan as a parody of himself, the bravado is authentic. It is not an act and while there’s a temptation to disregard it as nothing more than hot air rising from his coffee cup, it actually serves a purpose. Zlatan’s charisma is powerful because it is founded in culture and he has brought a winning culture back to Milan.

As we approach the one-year anniversary of his return to Europe, Zlatan’s candidacy for this award is strong because it’s hard to think of anyone having as transformative an effect on a club as he’s had on Milan in 2020. As we detailed in our long read in September, Zlatan is by no means the only reason behind the change in fortunes at the seven-time European Cup winners. It is reductive to ascribe it exclusively to him. You have a perfect storm of analytics, scouting, process, execution and environment. Zlatan has acted as an accelerator. The team went into the winter break last year on the back of a stinging 5-0 defeat to Atalanta. Milan were in the bottom half of the table. Twelve months later they are top and unbeaten in the league since March, the longest streak in Europe’s top five divisions and the best record at the club since Fabio Capello’s “Invincibles” at the start of the 1990s.

How many other players on the continent can say they have helped to facilitate this kind of improvement over the calendar year?

Zlatan has helped the youngest team in Serie A to grow up, find an edge, raise standards, become more accountable and ambitious and deliver on its potential. He is not all talk. One of the universal truths about this game is you play how you train and Zlatan trains harder than ever. “Talent is not enough,” he told Ambrosini. “It’s about sacrifice. The work you put in. The discipline. All the little details that make the difference. If I’m still here, if I’ve won what I’ve won, there’s a reason.” As with the waiter bringing him coffee, Zlatan’s presence and example keep everyone on their toes. “Do I put pressure on the team? Yes. Do I accept a misplaced pass? No. Do I ask a lot of them? Yes. If you don’t train well, do I say something? Yes.”

Looking back, it does not feel like a coincidence that Manchester United’s best season since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement came when Zlatan was around. United finished second that year with the former Juventus and Inter Milan striker showing, even in his mid-thirties, that English football wasn’t too fast and furious for him. Zlatan ended up with 28 goals in 46 games before blowing out his knee and memories of the severity of that anterior cruciate ligament tear make what he is doing now all the more remarkable.

It’s fair to assume that sustaining an injury as bad as that would have convinced 99 per cent of players to call it quits at his age. Instead, it persuaded Zlatan to “start from zero”. He brings his hands up to his face and makes the gesture of taking off a mask. “My ego fell away.” He wanted to see if he could still cut it at all. “After two years (with LA Galaxy in MLS), I felt alive. It was then that I said: ‘Let’s go back to Europe’.”

Mino Raiola, his agent, kept chiding him: “It’s too easy to retire in America.” So, at 38, he accepted the risk that came with moving back to one of the most exacting leagues in the world. Zlatan walked into a delicate situation in which everyone projected the expectation on him that Milan needed a saviour. It could have gone badly wrong and he knew that. His family did not travel with him and he claims the uncertainty around whether he could hack it or not is why he initially only wanted a six-month contract.

But Zlatan has not looked old. He does not look past it. He has decided the Derby della Madonnina against Inter and clinched a precious win at Napoli’s San Paolo (which was renamed three days later as the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona). He has catalysed Milan into a contender again. They are top of the table and despite being injured for the last four games, he is still top of the scoring charts, already in double figures. Zlatan’s goal ratio in this season’s Serie A is one every 53 minutes, the best record in Europe’s top five leagues.

“It’s eat or be eaten and I chose to eat,” Zlatan said. The hunger he continues to show together with the holistic impact he has made at Milan makes Zlatan my nominee for this award. “If the Ballon d’Or were voted for by the public, I know Zlatan would have won it eight times,” Raiola told Tuttosport the other week. Now’s your chance to prove him right.

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Messi’s fading influence in the biggest games shows he’s now part of the problem

https://theathletic.com/2208486/2020/11/22/lionel-messi-barcelona/

“I’m tired of always being the problem for everything in the club,” said Lionel Messi at Barcelona Airport on Wednesday evening on his return from international duty with Argentina.

His comments came after first tax inspectors had entered his private plane for a half-hour conversation on landing, and then reporters in the terminal quizzed him about recent critical quotes from Antoine Griezmann’s former agent.

Barca club captain Messi did not speak at all after last night’s 1-0 La Liga defeat at Atletico Madrid. It left his team 10th in the table at the final whistle, nine points behind new joint-leaders Atletico. The latest limp performance from Ronald Koeman’s disjointed side was not all Messi’s fault — and the 33-year-old definitely would not like the focus of this article being on him — as so many other issues at Barca were again shown up by another disappointing defeat in a big game.

Koeman’s side were comprehensively outplayed by Diego Simeone’s newly attack-minded team, who deserved to win by more than just Yannick Carrasco’s well-taken strike just before half-time. Goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen was caught out for that goal, and Barca had worrying problems in defence, midfield and attack over the 90 minutes. To make matters worse, Gerard Pique limped off the pitch in tears with an injury. Tests carried out today have shown he has a grade 3 sprain in the internal lateral ligament and partial injury to the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.

Still, Barca’s No 10 was often a peripheral figure in the game, not really involved for long periods. His best chance came at 0-0, when he was found in space deep inside the Atletico area by Jordi Alba’s precise pass, but took too many touches and in the end Jan Oblak saved easily.

There were moments in the second half when he seemed too tired, either physically or mentally, to even run after Atletico players who were enjoying their rare domination of a game against Barca. He was still generally involved in his team’s best moments, the few chances they did create, but without any success. One right-foot cross arrived invitingly on Clement Lenglet’s head eight yards out, but Oblak was able to save. Another cross was flicked goalward by Griezmann, again without troubling the rojiblanco goalkeeper. He thought he had space to shoot late on from the edge of the box, but Stefan Savic rushed out quickly to block.

The most worrying moment for Atletico was when Messi won a free kick 25 yards out, just to the right of centre, in the ideal position for the left-footer to take. Simeone’s players were so concerned that both Savic and centre-back partner Jose Gimenez were booked for protesting the decision to whistle for a foul.

But Messi’s weak effort clipped Gimenez’s head in the wall, and drifted wide. This brought a focus on his poor recent record from free kicks — just one scored from the last 48 taken in all competitions in a blaugrana shirt.

In one of Messi’s recent outbursts during the summer, he did make one very valid point. Barca’s directors have, for some years now, been “juggling problems and plugging holes” and the squad’s competitive level has dropped alarmingly. Since arriving last summer, Koeman has tried to take some of the creative burden away, for instance by giving Philippe Coutinho a central role in his plans. But his team-mates still always look for Messi to save them whenever the team runs into any trouble, even though he is no longer capable of saving them on his own. It has happened without success in each La Liga game they have dropped points this season, namely the draws with Sevilla and Alaves, and the defeats by Getafe and Real Madrid.

Once behind at the Wanda last night, it seemed like everyone on both teams thought Barca’s only chance really was either a moment of magic from Messi, or a set piece, or both combined. They ended the game with basically no midfield at all as a panicked Koeman kept throwing on more forwards. That led to a situation with 88 minutes gone and his team 1-0 down, Messi was back in his own half taking the ball off his defence to start moves, which Atletico dealt with comfortably.

Messi did not duck responsibility on the pitch, he was just not able to inject any life back into his team. Afterwards though he and all Barca’s senior players again shunned the post-match interview on Spanish TV, avoiding having to explain what had happened to the team’s fans. It was the same after the Clasico defeat in October, when new arrival Sergio Dest was put up to speak, forcing the interviewer to have to translate the then 19-year-old Netherlands-born US international’s thoughts on the game.

At the Wanda the player who spoke was 17-year-old midfielder Pedri. Like Dest had, the kid did a creditable job in a difficult situation, but that he was put in the position at all spoke to a big problem when Messi is the team’s leader, and neither he nor they are playing as well as expected.

Pedri stuck to the idea that his team had played well but Atletico always defended in numbers and were hard to break down. That was not really the case, as Simeone’s side have clearly evolved their game and almost matched Barca for possession over the game. They are much more confident in coming out to play, as until this year their main worry throughout the game was keeping their defensive shield in place over the full 90 minutes as they knew Messi would have instantly spotted any slight chink whenever it appeared.

That is exactly what happened when the teams last met at the Wanda, in December 2019. Atletico matched Barca for most of the game, had the better of the chances, but the game was still goalless. Then with four minutes remaining, Messi pounced on one misplaced pass, ran from halfway, swapping passes with Luis Suarez, and curled in the game’s only goal from the edge of the box.

That night Simeone could only applaud from the sideline, as his fellow Argentine had once again broken his heart. It moved Messi to 26 goals in 26 La Liga games against Atletico over his career, and took El Cholo to 17 La Liga games against Barca without even one victory. A day later Messi won his record sixth Ballon d’Or, but so much has happened since.

There have been some good days from Messi, such as the Champions League last-16 victory over Napoli, and even just before the international break he came off the bench to inspire a 5-2 La Liga victory over Real Betis. But in the biggest games over the last 12 months he has failed to have an impact — including two Clasico defeats by Real Madrid and the 8-2 against Bayern Munich in the Champions League. Away from the Nou Camp, even against “smaller” teams, Messi has not been very influential. Five of his six goals for Barca in 2020-21 have been penalties. He is still an excellent player, but he is not close to what he once was.

For a still large number of blaugrana fans or pundits, even pointing out that Messi is now a long way from his peak, remains heresy. Messi has done so much for the team over the last 15 years, and also everyone knows how sensitive and difficult a personality he is, that any criticism is still taboo. It also opens you up to accusations that you are taking the side of (now former) club president Josep Maria Bartomeu. Which nobody now wants to be on.

All the candidates running to replace Bartomeu have so far said that they want to sit down with Messi and his father Jorge and make sure he does not leave the club when his contract ends next June. This despite knowing that the club has huge financial problems, and the Messis are unlikely to lower their massive wage demands. None of them appear to want to face the reality the team’s talisman is fading, and they all stick to the idea that if they just surround him with a better structure then he can keep winning them trophies.

It remains impossible for most of the blaugrana community to even contemplate a future without Messi in the team. However it now feels like Barca are going through the post-Messi slump we all knew was coming, except he is still the central figure in the team. Something had been bending for quite a while, and was broken last summer, and even Bartomeu’s exit has not put things back right. The president’s departure has just taken away one of the excuses that Messi – and other senior figures in the dressing room – used when anything went wrong.

All this is not to say, obviously, that Barcelona would have beaten Atletico on Saturday evening had Messi been allowed to join Manchester City last summer. And it was unfair that he was met with such a harsh welcome after a long flight back home from South America last week.

But it is difficult not to think that he is now a big part of the problem at the Catalan club.

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More possession, fewer fouls: How Atletico’s ‘dogs of war’ refined their game

https://theathletic.com/2251973/2020/12/11/diego-simeone-atletico-madrid-analysis/

History suggests that Atletico Madrid should probably start popping the champagne already.

Diego Simeone’s side currently sit top of La Liga with 26 points from their first 10 games, the best record of any team across Europe’s top five leagues. Only twice in their entire club history have Atletico made such a fast start to a season. Both times they went on to win the Spanish title — they had 26 in 1995-96, when Simeone was a player, and then 27 from a possible 30 in 2013-14 when El Cholo was manager.

Meanwhile, rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona are having historically poor seasons by their standards. Barca are a full 12 points behind Atletico already, having lost four of their first 10 games, including a 1-0 reverse at the Wanda Metropolitano last month. Real have also been woefully inconsistent so far, losing at home to Cadiz and Alaves, leaving Zinedine Zidane’s team six points behind Simeone’s lot with one game extra played.

Atletico have basically dominated every game they have played so far domestically. They have not been behind at any point and have conceded just two goals in 900 minutes of La Liga play. These came against Granada and Osasuna late in games when Atletico were already 5-0 and 2-0 ahead respectively.

Tight defence from a Simeone side is no great shock, even if those numbers are more outstanding than usual. However, a bigger surprise might be that Atletico have scored 21 league goals so far: more than either Barca or Madrid have managed. That is evidence of a startling change in the team’s approach, as a source close to the Atletico dressing room tells The Athletic.

“We were always a team that defended well but teams attacked us a lot. We were all close to our penalty area. The goalkeeper had to do a lot of work,” says the source. “We managed to hold on but often suffering a lot. This season is a bit different. We are better in attack, with Luis Suarez and Joao Felix and Yannick Carrasco, so we do not have to spend so much time defending and suffering.”

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A look at the numbers over the first three months of the current campaign, and especially a comparison with the stats from previous years, shows the evolution in how Simeone’s team are playing.

Atletico have averaged 54.2 per cent possession during their 10 games so far, ranking them seventh among all the top-flight teams. They sit fourth of the 20 teams for pass completion, with 84.4 per cent. These are perhaps surprisingly high numbers for a side who, among many neutrals, still have a reputation for defensive and long-ball football.

The statistics also call into question the widely held idea of Atletico as “dogs of war”. They sit in the bottom half of the table in three defensive categories — fouls per game (13th on 13.1), tackles (12th with 14) and aerial battles won (15th with 14.8).

There is a big difference here, even with last season. Over the 38 games of 2019-20, Atletico made more tackles than any other team (17.3 per 90 minutes), and were sixth of the 20 teams in aerial battles won (22.7) and 10th in fouls per game (13.5).

Meanwhile, Atletico’s numbers when on the ball also suggest a big progression in their game, even over the last few months. Last term, Simeone’s team had an average of 48.9 per cent possession, 10th of all teams, and a 78.8 per cent pass-completion rate (ninth). So this season, their share of possession has risen by 5.3 per cent and 5.6 per cent more passes have been completed over their 10 games so far.

Going further back to when Atletico last won the Spanish title, the contrast with the numbers from the current campaign is even more striking. In 2013-14, Atletico averaged 49.1 per cent possession (10th in La Liga) and had a pass completion rate of 77 per cent (ninth). They again topped the table for tackles made (24.1 per game) while being perhaps surprisingly just 11th in fouls committed (13.7) and eighth in aerials won (17.7).

Still, the trend is undeniable — Simeone’s side have been evolving into more of a ball-playing team, moving away from the reactive style he focused on during his first years in charge. Further evidence is that Atletico scored 10 goals from counter-attacks in 2013-14, while in 48 Liga games since the start of last season, they have not scored even one.

Indeed, this is not the first time that people both inside and outside the club have spoken about Atletico trying to play a more “attractive” style of football (even if Simeone himself is unlikely to use exactly those words). In previous seasons, these attempts have not always gone so well. Generally, the team have had problems through the autumn and returned to focusing on what they know best when the business end of the season came around.

Even last year, their standout performances came against Liverpool in the Champions League. Those two games were not unlike the “backs to the wall” defending of past victories over teams like Barcelona and Bayern Munich during the heyday of Diego Godin, Gabi Fernandez and co.

At the Wanda against Jurgen Klopp’s side, they won 1-0 with 27.4 per cent of the ball and a 68 per cent pass completion rate. At Anfield, Atletico had 28.8 per cent possession over the 120 minutes, with 59 per cent of passes completed.

In La Liga last season, Atletico also tended to sit back more when playing “bigger” rivals. Real Madrid had 65 per cent possession as they won 1-0 in last February’s “El Derbi” at the Bernabeu and Atletico completed just 74 per cent of their passes in what was their most recent defeat in La Liga. When Barca won 1-0 at the Wanda in December 2019, Atletico had just 34 per cent of the ball.

However, that also seems to have changed, even in the biggest games. During their 1-0 victory over Ronald Koeman’s Barcelona last month, Simeone’s side upped that to 45.9 per cent over the 90 minutes. That figure was also affected by the team sitting back a little bit more after going in front just before half-time. Before taking the lead, Atletico had actually had more of the ball than Barca and until the final stages of the game, it was around 50-50, something completely unheard of in modern times or perhaps ever.

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So what has changed? The most obvious answer is that last summer, Atletico signed Luis Suarez from Barcelona.

Suarez’s arrival triggered plenty of jokes about the mayhem that he and Diego Costa could cause if played together — with Costa himself joining the fun by talking about “one of us biting and the other kicking” after they had both scored in the 6-1 win over Granada in Atletico’s first game of 2020-21. The reality has been Simeone has only once paired the fearsome duo together: against Celta Vigo in October. Instead, Suarez is clear first-choice centre-forward, with Costa as cover (when he is fit). Joao Felix or Angel Correa are fielded as a mobile and creative partner, who can go about keeping the ball and building the play.

The arrival of Suarez has also forced a more substantial tactical development onto Atletico. There is no point in the whole team sitting deep near their penalty area and firing a long ball forward for the Uruguayan, not so mobile any more at 33, to run onto, so Atletico have had to move up the pitch. The departure of Thomas Partey to Arsenal last summer also means that Koke is now being fielded most often in his favoured central playmaking role. This is helping the team hold possession longer and build more moves. There is also a bigger focus on pressing high in the opposition half rather than Atletico sitting back and being happy to defend the edge of their penalty box.

The other big tactical change has been Mario Hermoso coming into the team on the left side of defence. Hermoso’s best position is on the left of three centre-backs but he is also comfortable as an orthodox left-back in a four-man defence. This means the team can play both systems within the same game while also bringing the ball out from the back. The Real Madrid academy graduate is making 69.8 passes per 90 minutes so far in La Liga, more than any other centre-half in the division — second is Gerard Pique, third is Sergio Ramos.

Lots of other Atletico players are thriving in this new approach. Yannick Carrasco has been outstanding in a hybrid role on the left wing, using his natural athleticism and newfound work rate to help Hermoso at the back and also get forward to provide match-winning contributions against Valencia and Barcelona in La Liga, and at Red Bull Salzburg in the Champions League in midweek.

On the other side of the pitch, Kieran Trippier is benefitting from the change of system. The England international is also helped by having the energetic and versatile Marcos Llorente now settled into a right-midfield role. The pair have built an excellent partnership and combined very well for both Atletico’s goals in last week’s 2-0 win over Valladolid, which consolidated their place atop the La Liga standings.

All over the pitch, Atletico now have excellent partnerships and relationships, while players who had seemed peripheral, such as Hermoso, Carrasco and Correa, are now key to the team. Twelve months ago, there were doubts — including inside the dressing room — whether the players signed to replace the old core of Godin, Gabi, Antoine Griezmann et al were really up to the standard. The new leadership core within the squad of Koke, Saul, goalkeeper Jan Oblak are now happy with how things are going.

“Last season, the players finished the season thinking Cholo had to attack more,” says the source close to the dressing room. “It is not that they were critical of Simeone within the team but they felt themselves they would prefer not to spend so much time defending. Wanting that is one thing but then you sign a forward like Suarez and Joao Felix is much better this year. They now have this extra ability to win games that they used to draw.”

Whether this message was communicated in some way to Simeone or whether the canny Argentinian realised what had to be done, the results are clear. Suarez was snapped up when he was no longer wanted by Barcelona and now the current team are playing in a system and tactical approach that suits their characteristics.

“Simeone can see very clearly what he wants to do, given the characteristics of the players he has now, especially those who have arrived more recently,” former Atletico midfielder Gabi said recently on Spanish radio show El Larguero. “Suarez fixes the opposition centre-halves and Joao has more freedom to come between the lines and have more contact with the ball. Now they are dominating games more, they have more ways to play. Sending out the players he has now (just) to defend would be craziness.”

The record books might say that every time Atletico have started a La Liga season this well, they ended it winning the title but the club’s history is also filled with examples of the team getting into excellent positions only to find embarrassing ways to mess things up.

“There is optimism, especially with the bad moment of Madrid and Barca,” says the dressing room source. “But the players also know that this is Atletico. They can go on a good run but also go on runs when they find it harder to win games, when teams can make problems for them — as happened at Huesca (when they drew 0-0 in September). They are cautious because of that and they know that things can change at Barca and Madrid.”

So it is probably too early yet to take the champagne off ice. The 1-0 win over Barcelona late last month was a real statement of intent and seemed extra meaningful — the first time Simeone had managed Atletico to a league victory over Barca — but everyone knows that Cadiz and Getafe have also taken three points against Koeman’s side recently.

While El Cholo has had some memorable derby wins over Madrid during his nine seasons in charge, Zinedine Zidane has an excellent head-to-head record against Simeone in La Liga, where Atletico’s last win against the neighbours was back in February 2016.

Ending that record too by winning at the Alfredo Di Stefano Stadium on Saturday evening would put Simeone’s side into a commanding position in the 2020-21 title race. Were they to achieve the victory in style — by dominating Madrid in territory and possession — that would really be something special and confirm that things really have changed at Atletico.