It’s Monday. Gab Marcotti reacts to the biggest moments in the world of football.
So much for the notion that Manchester City are slowly winding down, what with the 115 charges, Pep Guardiola and Kevin De Bruyne in the final year of their contracts and the ownership having long ago accomplished what they set out to achieve. It might still be the case, but they remain head and shoulders the pick of the Premier League, judging from what we saw on opening day at Stamford Bridge.
City started without Julián Álvarez (off to Atletico Madrid), Rodri (unavailable), Phil Foden, Kyle Walker, John Stones, Jack Grealish and Nathan Aké (all on the bench) and still picked up where they left off last season, winning 2-0. Mateo Kovacic did his best Rodri impression, Erling Haaland bullied his way beyond Marc Cucurella to the first goal and they cruised through through the game with a sense of purpose and control.
It’s a cliche, but it’s true: time and work matter. Pep and these players have been doing it together for a long time, there’s a synchronicity and a chemistry to what they do which has a multiplier effect on their players (who, of course, are already pretty darn good of their own accord).
It’s the opposite of where Chelsea are right now. There’s the obvious fact that this was Enzo Maresca’s first league game in charge, that he hasn’t had the time to work with many of these player and that their summer has been disrupted by the twin clouds of PSR and their giant squad (and the knock-on effects, like the Raheem Sterling situation around his omission from the squad). There’s the age and inexperience of this Chelsea side and yeah, the fact that to a man, most of these guys are considerably worse than their counterparts in the City crew.
City looked a class apart, but there were also a few positives for Chelsea to take, such as the performances of Romeo Lavia and Levi Colwill and the fact that at a goal down, they did have chances to equalize (Nico Jackson’s close finish and the Enzo Fernández header). And yeah, while Kovacic’s goal was well-taken, Robert Sánchez didn’t exactly cover himself in glory either and individual mistakes can happen. (The good news for Maresca is that if he thinks this is Sanchez’s level, he’s got a bunch of other keepers to choose from.)
The question is how Maresca is going to take this team forward. There’s a Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) piece to this — they may already be facing a points deduction and if they don’t trim the squad effectively to improve the bottom line, they could face another one — but put that to one side for now, because that’s a club issue, not a Maresca issue. Focus on how the pieces he does have — and wants to count on — will fit.
Against City, Maresca did the logical thing of playing (give or take) his best 11 available players. One obvious thing that stood out is that Christopher Nkunku and Cole Palmer were out on the wing, with Enzo Fernandez in the attacking midfield role. Both Nkunku and Palmer, versatile as they may be, are more effective when they come into central areas. As for Fernandez, using him as a No. 10 means losing his passing from deep and his late runs (indeed, he had a rough game).
Another is that, for now at least, Chelsea’s build-up play looks unimaginative. They had nearly half the possession against City (which isn’t bad) but a lot of it was sterile. Maybe Lavia can grow as a passer and become a deep-lying playmaker, but right now, there’s very little creativity in the middle of the park. Having spent more than $300 million on the trio of Fernandez, Lavia and Moisés Caicedo, it makes sense they should play. But then what do you do with the pieces ahead of them?
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Frank Leboeuf: It’s over for Raheem Sterling at Chelsea
Frank Leboeuf says Raheem Sterling’s best days are behind him and believes his days at Chelsea are over after being omitted in the squad vs. Manchester City.
Whatever it is, it likely won’t be what Maresca did so successfully at Leicester, where he had a both a deep-lying playmaker and genuine wingers. It’s going to be a different scheme. Then again, if you’re going to hire someone on the back of what he achieved elsewhere, wouldn’t you try to lay the conditions for him to do the same in his new job?
Maresca’s challenge is pretty much unique — even more so than that faced by his predecessor, Mauricio Pochettino, who at least had plenty more experience and clout when he was in charge. And that’s before you get into the club’s many off-the-pitch PSR/squad size related issues — all of which, by the way, are of their own making.
Mallorca frustrate Real Madrid in Mbappé’s debut as Ancelotti calls for ‘balance’ from his left-leaning team
Real Madrid fielded the same XI that beat Atalanta in the UEFA Super Cup, which means Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior and Rodrygo were all on the pitch at the same time, with Jude Bellingham on the left side of midfield. It’s a way of shoehorning your best players into the lineup, which ideally is what a coach is supposed to do. But it’s also a really difficult thing to do and it requires chemistry, especially when the pieces don’t really fit naturally.
Vinícius started the game on the left wing. Kylian Mbappé, who played on the left wing most of his career, started in the middle and drifted to the left. Rodrygo started on the right, but strayed to the left early and often (scoring a great goal in the process). Bellingham, who played in attacking midfield last year, was on the left of a midfield three.
That’s a lot of congestion on one side. You can make it work — of course you can — but it’s going to take time, and it’s not easy to find the right chemistry, especially in a congested season. That’s the balance coach Carlo Ancelotti talked about after the game, as much as the “defensive balance” (though the two are obviously linked). It won’t matter against many teams because Madrid have far better players, but then you get games like Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Mallorca. It’s not about the result — Mallorca keeper Dominik Greif made at least two huge saves (but then so did Thibaut Courtois) and the home side’s goal came after a set-piece brain fart — as much as it is about the performance.
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Luis Garcia points to ‘lack of intensity’ from Real Madrid in 2nd half
Luis Garcia explains why Real Madrid had to settle for a draw against Mallorca in Kylian Mbappé’s LaLiga debut.
There are obviously other talking points from the game — Ancelotti making substitutions too late, Ferland Mendy getting himself foolishly sent off — but the core issue is this: how do these pieces fit together? The alternative, when Eduardo Camavinga is fit, might be sacrificing Rodrygo for a genuine right-sided player (Brahim Díaz or Fede Valverde) or perhaps shifting to a 4-3-1-2 set-up, like last year.
Leverkusen stardust wins them German Super Cup, but Stuttgart’s performance shows Hoeness is for real
Patrik Schick’s late, late equalizer sent the German Super Cup to penalties, which Bayer Leverkusen won, because that’s what they do — even when they had to play nearly an hour down to 10 men after Martin Terrier’s red card. There’s a stat from last season that says Leverkusen scored 25 goals in all competitions after the 86th minute. I have no idea if it’s the sort of thing the analytics folk take seriously, but it sounds impressive, and numbers like that feed belief, which matters to the players on the pitch.
The German Super Cup isn’t a “glorified friendly” like last week’s Community Shield, where the champions (Man City) sent out a team stuffed with McAtees and O’Reillys. It matters, and both teams went for it. The difference going into it is that Leverkusen hung on to all their big guns in the summer (including the biggest of all, manager Xabi Alonso) whereas Stuttgart was pillaged by rival clubs, losing defensive mainstays Hiroki Ito and Waldemar Anton, plus top scorer Serhou Guirassy.
And yet Stuttgart more than held their own, hitting the woodwork on three occasions and coming close to putting Leverkusen away. That says a lot about Sebastian Hoeness, the young manager who (like Alonso) chose to stay put, despite enticing offers from bigger, wealthier clubs (none more so than Bayern, whom he turned down). The fact that Hoeness — despite the summer departures — hit the ground running in the Super Cup says even more.
Quick hits
TEN — Arsenal pick up where they left off last season: It turned out to be a fairly routine 2-0 win, (though it could have taken a different turn if not for a superb David Raya save from Jakob Strand Larsen, and what struck you about the Gunners’ home win was how calm they looked — even as they had to wait for Bukayo Saka’s late second half effort to put there game to bed. There’s a maturity about this side which bodes well.
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How ‘special’ Bukayo Saka inspired Arsenal past Wolves
Luis Miguel Echegaray reacts to Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Wolves in their opening game of the Premier League.
NINE — Kimmich back in midfield for Bayern in cup romp, but will he stay there? The ridiculousness of having one of your top two or three players pinball between midfield and right-back may well continue this season, and Joshua Kimmich can blame his own versatility for that. The 4-0 win away to second-tier Ulm in the DFB-Pokal may not be much of a bellwether, but if Kompany sticks to the 4-2-3-1 formation, we saw you’d imagine a Kimmich-João Palhinha (with the occasional Aleksandar Pavlovic start mixed in) in the middle.
EIGHT — Gravenberch auditions for defensive midfield role as Liverpool come alive in the second half on Arne Slot’s debut: The good news for Slot is that his era begins with 2-0 away win vs. Ipswich. The not-so-good news is he needs to figure out what happened in a first half that saw Liverpool manage just three shots with a cumulative xG of 0.11 against a newly promoted opponent. The transition from Klopp to Slot was supposed to be more seamless than this. That said, Ryan Gravenberch’s audition for the pivot role went OK; they’d still be better off with Martín Zubimendi there, but if he doesn’t materialise it’s not the end of the world.
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Can Zirkzee be a reliable goal scorer for Manchester United?
Julien Laurens discusses Joshua Zirkee’s impact for Manchester United after his debut goal.
SEVEN — La Masia to the rescue (again) for decimated Barcelona as Flick tries to make his mark: We might as well withhold judgement on new boss Hansi Flick given that Barcelona — between injuries (Ronald Araújo, Frenkie De Jong, Gavi), mysterious late omissions (Ilkay Gündogan), missing registrations for financial reasons (Dani Olmo) and post-Olympic holidays (Fermín López) — were down half a team. That’s how they ended up playing two kids, Marc Casadó and Marc Bernal, in their first ever LaLiga start. Bernal is 17, just like Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsí, who also started. Valencia were the better team in the first half, but Barca came back strong in the second