The 2026-27 European season is officially back thanks to the return of the English Premier League this past weekend, which means Gab Marcotti is back with his weekly recap of the big moments across the sport. On Sunday, a new-look Liverpool with a new manager looked as vulnerable as they did in the last months of the Arne Slot era, with Newcastle rebounding nicely after a summer that saw many of their best players — and coach Eddie Howe — leave.
Elsewhere in England, Manchester City left it late at home to Bournemouth but roared back with two goals in the final five minutes to win, while the Michael Carrick era (as permanent manager) officially began with a 2-0 defeat away to Hull. In LaLiga, Jose Mourinho began his latest era at Real Madrid with a bruising, old-school win over Espanyol, and a heavily rotated Barcelona thumped Elche 5-0 with new signing Anthony Gordon looking brilliant on the left wing.
Oh, and we have talking points galore from the German Super Cup, Inter Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Tottenham and more. It’s Monday morning, so what better time for some musings? Let’s get into it.
– Dawson: Man United’s problems exposed by Hull City
– Lindop: Iraola has his work cut out at Liverpool
– Ogden: Arsenal want another title, but repeating won’t be easy
Late draw at Newcastle shows the long road ahead for Liverpool
Ogden questions whether Van Dijk should still be at Liverpool
Sure, Matthias Jaissle has jazzed things up in the few weeks he has been in charge and yes, St James’ Park is a tough place to go and, of course, Anthony Elanga is very fast. But let’s be real. If clubs are supposed to reflect their coaches, this Liverpool team looks nothing like Andoni Iraola.
His Bournemouth teams had a chemistry that was downright telepathic. It takes time to build that. They also played with an intensity and a front-footedness that this group of players simply don’t (yet) have. One of the more interesting things to track is how Iraola adjusts things to fit his players, because the simple reality is that Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak — to name two who underperformed Sunday and don’t seem suited to what he served up last season — aren’t going anywhere. (And Hugo Ekitike won’t be back until the new year.)
Liverpool were able to avoid defeat (unlike Manchester United and Tottenham) because Lewis Hall gave away a silly penalty deep in injury time (which Dominik Szoboszlai converted) and because Yoane Wissa, otherwise close to unplayable, squandered two clear chances. The point is one of the few positives they can take back to Anfield.
Iraola cited statistics afterward, like 36 touches in the Newcastle box and an xG — inflated by that penalty — that was twice the opposition’s. But you suspect, even as the words came out of his mouth, that he was far from happy with the performance.
As for Newcastle, to turn in a performance like this after losing Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes (as well as Eddie Howe) in the space of a summer is impressive. So too is Jaissle’s approach: We knew he was good from his time at Salzburg, but some feared he had lost his edge in his three seasons in the Saudi Pro League. The challenge now is to keep it going.
Does Iraola need to change Liverpool’s formation?
Jose Mourinho knows a big man comes in handy as Real Madrid open with a victory
Multiple big men, in fact. Indeed, this version of Real Madrid — Denzel Dumfries, Dean Huijsen, Ibrahima Konate, Jude Bellingham — is plenty brawny, and we saw it for Real Madrid’s opening LaLiga game of the season, a 2-1 win over Espanyol.
But it was the other big man, the least heralded of the summer’s six arrivals, who proved decisive, as Carlos Espi and his 6-foot-4 frame came on 11 minutes from time and bundled home the winner. It didn’t come through the air — in fact, he showed delicate feet and balance in the box — but his sheer presence had an impact.
It’s one of the immutable laws of the game. When you’re pushing for a winner, one way to do it is to have a big target up front to wreak havoc. Heck, even Pep Guardiola used to push Gerard Pique up front in his Barcelona days. No shame in it.
So it probably shouldn’t be a surprise that with Gonzalo Garcia moving to Fulham for €40M, Real Madrid secured Espi for €25M around the same time. He’s probably the least gifted attacker at Real Madrid, but he has something the others don’t have — size — and you can’t put a price on it.
Mourinho has spoken to Vinícius about ’emotional control’
Beyond that, I thought the first iteration of Mourinho’s Real Madrid in 13 years looked like what they are: gifted, but with little chemistry, in part because they haven’t been together very long.
The defending on Alex Calatrava’s goal was absurdly bad and would have made Mourinho’s blood boil. Vinicius Jr. and Kylian Mbappe ghosted in and out of the game, but Mourinho knows all too well: that’s how they roll. Neither Bernardo Silva nor Fede Valverde can do the Aurelien Tchouameni job in front of the back four but, again, that’s not a surprise.
How will these pieces fit together when everyone is fit? Can you add Yan Diomande to the front three and carry Bellingham, who looked sharp, despite having been back in training for only 10 days or so? Can Arda Guler play his way into the lineup?
All things Mourinho needs to figure out. It’s not his first rodeo…
Defeat at Hull brings the challenge facing Michael Carrick, Man United into focus
The United manager said the right thing after Man United’s 2-0 setback against the newly promoted (and heavily favored to go straight back down) Hull City on Saturday: “It’s a huge disappointment — no more, no less — but it doesn’t change the direction in which we’re going.”
Stay positive, acknowledge that you got punched in the face and move on, hoping you can figure out how to get better. And man, this team needs to get better.
Nicol believes Hull City deserved all three points vs. Man United
If you’re going to blame the 4-2-3-1 formation Carrick chose, you need two guys in front of the back four who can cover ground, quickly, and snuff out counterattacks. Mobility isn’t a strong suit for Youri Tielemans or Andrey Santos. (The less said about Kobbie Mainoo, who came off the bench, the better.) They’re not bad players — they just have different skills, which, you suppose, is why United are after Carlos Baleba. It’s probably not a coincidence that both were substituted after United got carved up time and again on the counter.
Matheus Cunha got the nod up front, and you hope it’s because Benjamin Sesko is coming off (another) injury because at some point, given his age and transfer fee, Carrick really should be building the attack around him. At the back, set piece defending was suboptimal.
There’s plenty for Carrick to work on and the legitimate concern is that with Champions League football, he’s going to have less time to work. That’s not something Baleba can fix on his own.
Quick hits
10. Barcelona enjoy a smooth start, even without a traditional No. 9: And while we’re at it, they won 5-0 without Pedri, Rodri, Jules Kounde, Pau Cubarsi and Dani Olmo in the starting lineup. Grade on a curve because it’s Elche? Sure, but this domination can’t be ignored and it underscores how seamlessly Hansi Flick — chasing his third LaLiga title in three years — finds solutions. We saw Raphinha through the middle just ahead of Fermin Lopez, with Karim Adeyemi and Lamine Yamal starting wide and often making a beeline for the goal.
When you play with the sort of “verticality” Barca can offer — even with 19-year-old Marc Bernal and a subdued Gavi in front of the back four — you can get away without a traditional center forward. Especially when you have a guy such as Raphinha, clearly fit and raring to go after injury robbed him of a legitimate shot at the World Cup.
Moreno ‘disappointed’ by Lamine Yamal’s reaction to Barcelona substitution
9. Swiss Army knife Nathaniel Brown lifts Bayern to victory over Borussia Dortmund in Super Cup: He has played left back, right back and now No.10, but Brown wasn’t the obvious choice to most to replace Jamal Musiala in the hole in the German Super Cup. But with Lennart Karl and Serge Gnabry also out, he was picked ahead of Ismael Saibari for the role and showed he can do that too, opening the scoring and impressing, particularly in the first half, as Bayern ran out 2-1 winners. It’s further evidence that we sometimes focus on labeling players by position, rather than looking at what they actually do on the pitch. Brown’s rangy running is obviously different than what the others offer, but it can be just as effective.
As for the game itself, Bayern, driven by the irrepressible Michael Olise, dominated the first half and could have notched more than the two they did score. There was a dip after the break and Dortmund pulled one back through Fabio Silva late, while Maximilian Beier missed a sitter.
8. Francesco Pio Esposito starts season with a bang for Inter Milan: Esposito scored one (a neat back-heel flick) and assisted another in Inter’s 4-1 opening-day win over newly promoted Monza. (You could give him half an assist for the hold-up play on the opener, Hakan Calhanoglou’s howitzer.) The 21-year-old has come out of the gates quickly and what strikes you, in addition to his size and technical ability, is the ferocity and intensity of his play. It’s hard to see him being a substitute this season, but more likely forming part of a foursome rotating in and out of Inter’s two attacking spots with Lautaro Martinez, Marcus Thuram and Ange-Yoan Bonny.
If deployed correctly, that can be a real strength for coach Cristian Chivu this season. Inter still looked well behind in terms of fitness and it wasn’t as comfortable a victory as the scoreline suggests, with plenty of ring rust at the back, from Manuel Akanji getting rolled for the opener to Josep Martinez’s wayward distribution as goalkeeper to Alessandro Bastoni’s errant passing. It’s an obvious area for improvement.
7. Ruben Amorim is a brave man: Unlike some leagues, Serie A is notoriously risk-averse when it comes to giving youngsters a chance, so the fact that Amorim would hand 19-year-old attacking midfielder Alphadjo Cisse (a guy with just two Italy Under-20 caps under his belt) his debut in the opener, is significant. Sure, Rafael Leao remains frozen out as they desperately try to find him a new club elsewhere in Europe and Christian Pulisic isn’t fully fit (but was nevertheless on the bench), but he had two other options like Alexis Saelemakers and Diego Moreira, both of whom were good enough to be at the World Cup with Belgium. Cisse responded with a goal and plenty of verve, filling one of the “number 10” slots in Amorim’s trademark 3-4-2-1 formation.
Like at Manchester United, Amorim marches to the beat of his own drum, for better or worse. Milan are obviously a work in progress, but they fully deserved their 2-1 win away to Torino. As for Leao, maybe there really is no way back at Milan, but surely there are big clubs he can help.
6. Don’t let a late comeback fool you, as Man City looked better: Better relative to the horror show against Arsenal, that is, which means there’s still a way to go. They were wobbly at the back, the Marc Guehi trick isn’t going to work every week in midfield and Erling Haaland didn’t have his finishing boots on (maybe it’s the new haircut?) in attack.
But the 2-1 win over Bournemouth was deserved and you can see how they’ll get better. Those are very good defenders; they won’t have a collective off day like this one. Ayyoub Bouaddi is still just 18, but he’ll contribute in midfield once he arrives from Lille. And Haaland? Well… his record speaks for itself. The question is whether this all happens quickly enough to compete with Arsenal. Oh, and why Rayan Cherki (instrumental in both goals, once again) can’t crack the starting lineup?
Nicol: Title challengers win games like Man City did vs. Bournemouth
5. Juventus get three points, but Luciano Spalletti’s words are concerning… It’s not a great sign when your coach says this — “if he’s hardly scored the past two seasons there obviously must be a reason” — about your new center forward. Spalletti was talking about Randal Kolo Muani, and it’s true that he managed just one goal for Spurs in 30 league appearances last year. But maybe it wasn’t the most confidence-building thing to say, especially after a game in which he squandered several chances. And especially when your club has spent up to €50M to bring him back (€4M loan fee, plus a €34M obligation to make transfer permanent if Juve qualify for Europe, plus up to €12M in bonuses.)
On the pitch, Gleison Bremer’s header gave Juve the three points against newly promoted Frosinone. They probably should have scored more — Kolo Muani wasn’t the only one missing chances — but reality right now is that this team is incomplete. Expect more ins and outs before the close of the transfer window. Oh, and Douglas Luiz got — and wasted — another chance to start. Not sure we need to see him again.
4. Ferran Torres to the rescue for Paris Saint-Germain: The fee raised eyebrows (€55M for a 26-year-old with one year left on his contract who won’t be a starter is a lot, any way you slice it) but maybe Luis Enrique has been proven right once more. PSG looked sluggish in the first half against Rennes — just one shot on target, several defensive wobbles — and went into the break two goals down.
So the PSG coach did the sort of thing you can do when you’re extremely confident and a two-time European champion. He took off Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Ousmane Dembele, sent on newcomer Mika Godts and Torres … Torres delivered with a proper center forward’s header, and a perfectly timed run to collect and bury the assist from Fabian Ruiz (another World Cup winning sub) as PSG drew 2-2.
3. Quality off the bench (and a little shove) rescue Max Allegri’s Napoli:I don’t want to be too mean, but yeah, Allegri kinda picked up where he left off at Milan last year, at least in terms of performance. Sixty-two minutes into the away trip to Genoa, and Napoli’s xG was 0.09. Rasmus Hojlund started at center forward and was replaced by Lorenzo Lucca: combined, they had zero shots and one touch in the opposition box.
Look at the scoreline (2-0 to Napoli) and the scorers (substitutes Kevin De Bruyne and Antonio Vergara) and you might conclude Allegri’s changes won it for them. You’d be wrong. De Bruyne’s strike, eight minutes from time, could easily have been disallowed for a shove on Johan Vazquez. (He went down way too easily, but it was the typical incident we’ve seen punished with an attacking foul, time after time, which is why Genoa were so incensed.) Vergara’s goal was shepherded into the net by Sebastian Otoa, who couldn’t sort out his feet. Give Allegri time to work, sure, but this can’t be the standard if they want to compete for the title in their centenary season.
2. Atletico Madrid draw as Julian Alvarez plays the villain: He was booed when his name was announced over the stadium PA, he was booed when he came on as a substitute, he was booed after the game when he wandered down the tunnel by himself as his teammates saluted the fans. (At least he didn’t step on the Atleti scarf that someone threw down at his feet.) He only has himself to blame. There are ways to engineer a move, he and his agents chose the wrong one. Atleti continue to insist he’s going nowhere, Barcelona — whose coach, Hansi Flick, is represented by the same agency as Alvarez — are reportedly looking elsewhere. We’ll see how this ends, but I, for one, hope he doesn’t get his way. Atleti fans deserve better. And while Barca fans may have wanted him, deep down they probably know that a guy like that isn’t worth the trouble, because in a couple years they could be on the receiving end.
Alvarez was a nonfactor in the 2-2 draw with Villarreal. They started brightly, took the lead and then gave up two penalties, one of them — which also saw Robin Le Normand sent off — somewhat harsh. Then Alex Baena set up Giuliano Simeone for the equalizer which, all told, was well-deserved. Usual tale: plenty of grit, but with Ademola Lookman as your center forward (Alexander Sorloth was injured), it’s much tougher to do what Diego Simeone wants you to do.
1. Roberto de Zerbi is right that Tottenham aren’t ready (and boy, did they get battered): You appreciate honesty, I guess, and De Zerbi had it in droves after the 3-0 defeat (it would have been four if Igor Thiago had converted his penalty) when he said they were unprepared and lacked “soul.” It’s hard to pinpoint which area of the pitch was worst for Spurs — probably midfield, where Lucas Bergvall, Conor Gallagher and Sandro Tonali (the latter two don’t have the World Cup as an excuse) were badly overrun.
You don’t want to freak out just yet. Spurs are still active in the transfer window — Savinho is reportedly on his way, as well as Omar Marmoush — and the injury list, inherited from last season, is still a mile long. But seven of the XI who were out there didn’t go to the World Cup (and the other four who did go were eliminated early). What’s the excuse for their performance? De Zerbi needs to kick it up several notches and transfers alone — at least not the ones he’s linked with — are going to do it.
Source: www.espn.com
