Man City humbled, Barca’s wake-up call, Amorim’s debut, more

What a weekend! We had drama up and down Europe’s top soccer leagues, so let’s review. Manchester City suffered the unthinkable — a fifth straight defeat in all competitions — as Ange Postecoglou and Tottenham cruised to a 4-0 win at the Etihad. Combined with Liverpool‘s win at Southampton, it means that Arne Slot’s side are now eight points clear heading into next weekend’s Liverpool-Man City clash at Anfield.

It’s Monday, and here is Gab Marcotti reacting to the biggest moments in the world of soccer.

Spurs hammer Man City, but Pep Guardiola strikes the right notes

Obviously, the headline is City losing their fifth straight in all competitions. Pep Guardiola had never lost four in a row until his previous game and, obviously, he’d never lost five in a row. It also marked three straight defeats in the league. Technically, it happened before — at Bayern in 2014-15 — but that was after they had already won the Bundesliga, which makes it the equivalent of “garbage time” in sports: nothing to play for, nothing at stake. Throw in the fact that he had signed a contract extension just a few days before — one that was supposed to dampen the anxiety over the future — and you can see how his postmatch words were going to matter.

“I never expected to lose three Premier League games in a row,” he said. “Now, we cannot deny the reality that sometimes happens in football. We cannot run away, we have to face it … the best way to break the position is to accept reality. People say, ‘You cannot be worse.’ Yes, you can be worse. It can happen.”

Managing — and being successful at — sides with the sort of talent Guardiola has had at Barcelona, Bayern and Manchester City involves a different skill set than working in midtable or lower down the pyramid. To paraphrase Mike Tyson, you very rarely get punched in the face and so your plan gets questioned less often. It also means you have fewer opportunities to pick up your team after a setback, which is also a basic managerial skill.

Guardiola has chosen to face this task with brutal honesty. Recognising that things can in fact get worse, starting with next weekend’s trip to Anfield to face league-leading Liverpool. Lose that, he says, and City’s title challenge is over.

To me, it sounds like he’s striking the right notes to motivate and focus his squad. Coaches who work with their guys day after day often know how to push right buttons. The fact is, though, he has rarely, if ever, had to push these sorts of buttons with his players, and what ought to be concerning is there is no one obvious weakness to fix.

Some of the defeats could have easily gone City’s way. Others saw them thoroughly outplayed. In some, they failed to turn in a 90-minute performance. In others they were poor throughout. In some (arguably most), they squandered chances at the attacking end. In others, like Saturday, they made a host of individual errors, mostly in transition.

You can point to Rodri‘s absence (plus that of Mateo Kovacic) and Erling Haaland‘s wayward finishing and yes, sorting out the former and having the latter live up to his (high) standard would paper over a lot of cracks. But there’s a deeper malaise at the back and a predictability on the ball. There are also a bunch of questions needing to be answered, starting with when Kevin De Bruyne (who made his return three weeks ago) will start getting significant playing time?

However, all this City talk shouldn’t overshadow Tottenham’s performance. It’s easy to forget that they went into the break on the back of a defeat (to Ipswich Town) and with many calling for Ange Postecoglou’s head. The vibes were all negative and they traveled to City without their first choice of centerback pairing of Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero, as well as Rodrigo Bentancur in midfield. But Ben Davies and Radu Dragusin marshalled the defence, while James Maddison recovered his playmaking mojo.

Tottenham still feel fragile — goodness what knows what will happen in their next game — but these are the sort of performances and occasions in which you get the proverbial shot in the arm. It’s up to you to take it.

Flick is right: Barca’s draw at Celta Vigo should be a wake-up call, and maybe dropping points is what they needed

You could look at the Celta vs. Barcelona highlights through blaugrana glasses and conclude everything is fine. They were 2-0 up late in the game and Raphinha had hit the post, though everything was fine until a couple silly mistakes cost them two goals. But then you’d be wrong.

Don’t take it from me, though; listen to Barca coach Hansi Flick, who said it was a “bad game, not just a bad final 10 minutes.” He’s right.

Barcelona were outplayed in the first half, taking the lead only because of an Óscar Mingueza misjudgment. They were very lucky not to have Gerard Martín sent off in the first half for two bookable offences. They doubled their lead thanks to an errant pass and a favourable bounce that allowed Robert Lewandowski to notch his 20th goal of the campaign. Yes, individual errors — whatever Jules Koundé was thinking and Hector Fort ending up on his backside trying to defend Hugo Álvarez — cost them two goals too, but throughout, Celta looked the better side.

Then there’s Lewandowski. He’s 36, and it’s time to be realistic: he does not need to play every game. If you want the best out of him, you need to manage his minutes. Between Dani Olmo, Pau Víctor and Ferran Torres (when he returns), you can find an alternative solution against the right opponents.

Ruben Amorim’s new-look Man United is pretty much what we expected

In other words, they looked like a team with only a couple of hours on the training pitch, tasked with learning not just a new system, but new concepts as well. We’ve talked about Amorim’s preferred 3-4-2-1 formation incessantly, and you were curious what personnel choices he’d make for the trip to Ipswich. It wasn’t what many expected — Noussair Mazraoui as right-sided centreback, Christian Eriksen in midfield, Marcus Rashford up front — but you assume there’s a logic to it.

The one surprise — for me, anyway — was Amad Diallo. Not that he played at wingback, but that he played an inverted role on the right, which is where he operated under Erik Ten Hag. You would have thought that based on his work at Sporting CP, he’d prefer at least one naturally footed player wide to generate crosses, but then again, he started Rashford up front, so maybe that was less of a priority.

He’s making decisions not just on quality and characteristics, but availability and fitness too. And the fact that he had made no fewer than four changes by the 69th minute gave the game an air of open auditions. And, as often happens in these situations — a bit like when you have a new boss — you can tend to play within yourself, minimising mistakes. Maybe that’s why United, having taken an early lead, looked relatively passive against a feisty and well-organised Ipswich who might even have gone on to win if not for Andre Onana’s two saves from Liam Delap.

We’ll hear the “give him time to work” mantra over and over again, but the reality is that Amorim doesn’t have time: he has 8 games in 25 games starting Thursday in the Europa League. And what he’s trying to do — introduce a radically different style and formation with a group of players assembled to play a different way — is extremely difficult.

Sunday was merely a reminder of that, and it came as no surprise.

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Quick hits

6. A bit of Salah, a bit of a gift and Liverpool are eight points clear at the top: Sometimes you wonder if it’s the difference between good teams and bad ones. Liverpool weren’t great against Southampton, but were somehow gifted three goals. Their opponents gave the ball away for Dominik Szoboszlai‘s opener, keeper Alex McCarthy took the weirdest of angles on Mohamed Salah for the second, and defender Yukinari Sugiwara handed Liverpool a penalty that Salah converted. It doesn’t mean they were lucky necessarily — though a Caoiminh Kelleher incident with Adam Armstrong could have been a penalty — as the numbers don’t lie: 27 shots to 7, 3.15 to 1.28 xG, five big chances missed. Rather, it suggests that when you’re not at your best, if you just stick to basic execution and limit errors (and have better players, one of them named Salah) you’ll win. That’s a big part of the reason they’re eight points clear at the top and can make it 11 next weekend if they beat Man City at Anfield.

5. Rumors of Leverkusen’s demise might be exaggerated: You might remember how, before the recent international break, Bayer Leverkusen had gone five games without a win, prompting angry outbursts from skipper Grant Xhaka. Twenty minutes into this weekend’s home game with Heidenheim, they were 2-0 down thanks to Piero Hincapié getting pick-pocketed and Mathias Honsak slipping between Jonathan Tah and Grant Xhaka (resident veteran leaders) as if they weren’t there. Then came the sort of reaction to show that yes, this is a proper team. Leverkusen tallied five goals, three of them from stand-in center forward Patrik Schick, and the opposition were swept away. Coaches often talk about wanting to see their team react in adversity. Well, Xabi Alonso got exactly that.

4. Martin Odegaard is irreplaceable for Arsenal (at least until Ethan Nwaneri is ready): They’re just a different side when the Norway international starts, as we saw in the 3-0 demolition of Nottingham Forest. You get the best out of Bukayo Saka when Odegaard is on the pitch, and it’s no coincidence that Arsenal’s humdrum run of form, which saw them eventually become overly defensive and offensively unimaginative, came largely while he was out. It’s not just that he’s better than whoever replaces him when he’s out; it’s that he’s different. (The same can probably be said for Kai Havertz, who sat out for Gabriel Jesus in this game. The difference is that when Odegaard’s on the pitch, against many opponents, you’ll notice Havertz’s absence less.)

3. Atletico come from behind as Simeone makes it 700: It took a while (it never helps when you go a goal down early at home) but Atletico Madrid did enough to turn it around against Alaves, winning 2-1. The luxury of being able to bring on two credible strikers (Alexander Sorloth, Giuliano Simeone) at half-time certainly helps Diego Simeone, who celebrated his 700th game as Atletico Madrid boss. It’s worth reflecting on this because tenures of this sort are exceedingly rare in the modern game. Arsene Wenger (1,235 matches at Arsenal) and Sir Alex Ferguson (1,500 at Manchester United) were very much outliers.

2. It’s a statement win from Dortmund, but can Sahin build on it? After the lows and grumpiness prebreak, they storm back with a 4-0 home win over Freiburg, who were actually ahead of them in the table. The first half was actually pretty tight — no, Nuri Sahin hasn’t solved the defensive issues — but Dortmund took their chances (even without Serhou Guirassy) and Freiburg didn’t. At 2-0 up, Freiburg had a man sent off and it was lights out (though kudos to the rejuvenated Julian Brandt for his free kick). There are still a bunch of unavailable stars and you still can’t trust this team, but the win relieves pressure and some of the second-stringers have shown they can play a little. That’s not insignificant.

1. “I would have booed us too” is disarming honesty from Fonseca after scoreless Juventus draw: Say this for Milan boss Paulo Fonseca: he doesn’t hide. After Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Juventus, not only did he say that he would have joined in the abuse at the final whistle if he was a Milan fan, but he went even further: “It was one of the most boring games I’ve been involved in. Nobody taking risks, too slow in the build-up, too much respect for the opposition shown.” That’s great, but he’s the manager. Isn’t it his job to ensure this doesn’t happen? Juve boss Thiago Motta, on the other hand, was happy with a point and you can’t blame him given the number of injured players. Still, seeing Juventus play without a center forward (Dusan Vlahovic and Arkadiusz Milik are out, Timothy Weah only played the last six minutes) was rather depressing.