This was the final weekend before European soccer goes on hold until after the World Cup, and it certainly delivered plenty for us to talk and think about over the coming weeks. There were big wins for Juventus, Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool. There were concerns for Man City and Milan to dissect during the break, too, but the biggest event of all was arguably Sunday night’s seismic remarks by Cristiano Ronaldo about his unhappiness at Manchester United.
It’s Monday, and Gab Marcotti reacts to the biggest moments in the world of football.
Ronaldo’s words give both him and Man United a chance to move on
It’s Monday, and we really should be talking about Alejandro Garnacho‘s last-ditch winner for Manchester United against Fulham and how they’ve lost just once since Oct. 2. But of course, it’s all overshadowed by Cristiano Ronaldo‘s bombshell interview in which he said he felt disrespected by coach Erik ten Hag and therefore “doesn’t respect” the United manager.
It’s easy to get emotional, and to be sure, right now everybody is vilifying Ronaldo. Any player who comes out so explicitly against his manager and the folks running his club is unlikely to ever play for the club again, barring some improbable 180-degree turn. And while Ronaldo isn’t “any player,” the rules apply to him as well. Especially since — let’s face it — he doesn’t come at this from a position of strength.
United and Ronaldo’s agent spent last summer trying to get him a move. Not because he wasn’t productive — lest we forget, he was the third-highest scorer in the Premier League last season — but because the club recognized they were embarking on a long rebuild process and that Ronaldo simply doesn’t fit the style of football Ten Hag played at Ajax. And at age 37, with a year left on his massive contract, it made little sense for him to stick around.
The move never materialised mainly because the clubs who could afford Ronaldo didn’t want him at anything near his current salary (or didn’t want him at all), Ronaldo wasn’t prepared to take a sufficient pay cut and United weren’t willing to take a financial hit to let him go (something they could have done by waiving the transfer fee or simply paying part of the wages owed to him in 2022-23).
We don’t know exactly what the holdup was and where the blame lies for the fact that he stayed at Old Trafford, but it’s evident that both the club and Ronaldo’s agent, Jorge Mendes (as well as Ronaldo himself), are all responsible for the fact that no deal was struck. (Ten Hag is pretty blameless in that regard, despite repeatedly saying that Ronaldo was never going to be a problem and talking about how he wanted him to stay: He was a newly installed manager, he had very little clout at that time and was in no position to make demands of anyone.)
That’s the obvious starting point here, and why nobody should be wholly surprised that things turned out the way they did. Disappointed, sure. Surprised, no. Least of all Mendes, Ronaldo’s longtime agent, who is having a nightmarish few months.
Juventus are on the upswing thanks to youth — but don’t get carried away
Juve’s 3-0 win over Lazio made it six consecutive Serie A victories and six straight clean sheets, which has lifted them into third place. That’s the good news. But before we proclaim that Max Allegri has been vindicated and that mainstream opinion was wrong in calling for his job, let’s take a breather, shall we?
First, if we’re taking trends, let’s remember that there were two Champions League defeats mixed into the six league wins. And one of those was against Benfica, when they were battered for 75 minutes. Second, while Juve were impressive against Lazio, they were a whole lot less impressive in the two previous wins, against Inter and Verona (when they lost the expected goals, or xG, battle in both).
Third, while the team gets praised to high heaven for having the stingiest defence in Serie A, it’s worth noting that the six goals they’ve given up coincide had an xG conceded figure of 13.94, and numbers have a way of regressing to the mean. Fourth, none of this changes the basic fact that Allegri himself said he needed his front six of Dusan Vlahovic, Federico Chiesa, Angel Di Maria, Paul Pogba, Leandro Paredes and Adrien Rabiot to be competitive. Rabiot has been exceptional, but Vlahovic has missed the past four wins. The other four started zero games between them during their winning run.
All of which tells you that whatever plan Allegri had, this isn’t it. In fact, Juve’s recent success has been driven by youngsters (Nicolo’ Fagioli, Fabio Miretti, Moise Kean) and guys who, in his view, were meant to be squad players. This suggests maybe Allegri is better when he works with what he has and encourages his players, rather than moaning about the guys who aren’t there.
Man City get undone by Brentford; is that a reason to worry?
Bayern Munich roll on as Musiala shines again, Choupo-Moting scores again
