Man United’s Ashworth mess, Barcelona slip again: Marcotti recaps the weekend

We’re inching closer to Christmas, and that makes sense, as the European soccer weekend gave us plenty this weekend. We got another Manchester United home defeat — this time to Nottingham Forest — and the exit of sporting director Dan Ashworth in the aftermath. Barcelona let more points slip from a winning position, taking a 2-0 lead at Celta Vigo and turning it into a 2-2 draw that pulled Real Madrid to within two points of them at the top of LaLiga with a game in hand.

Elsewhere in Europe, another ugly performance by Juventus is putting pressure on manager Thiago Motta, Jamie Gittens lifted Borussia Dortmund to another impressive result, and Antoine Griezmann turned in another performance for the ages as Atletico Madrid rallied from 3-1 down against Sevilla to win 4-3.

So, let’s get to it. As is now custom, this is the first batch of Gab Marcotti’s reactions to the most memorable moments of the weekend, with more to follow after “The Gab & Juls Show.”

Dan Ashworth’s departure — and how it unfolded — should worry Man United fans more than the home defeat to Nottingham Forest

Neither is good, of course, but to some degree, you can live with Saturday’s performance against Nottingham Forest, even if it ended in a 3-2 home defeat.

The visitors had three shots on target and scored three goals, each of them coming off pretty ham-fisted individual mistakes: Lisandro Martínez allowing himself to be rag-dolled for the opener, whatever André Onana was doing for the second goal, and Martinez misjudging Chris Wood‘s header for the third. Individual errors happen. Neither is a bad player; they’re guys who had bad games, and that can happen.

United weren’t great at the other end, but they scored two, notched 1.60 xG off 17 shots and hit the woodwork. On another day, this is a win. Not so the departure, after just five months, of Ashworth, the sporting director.

Now, it’s not as if Ashworth is some savant, even though Jim Ratcliffe — charged with running the club after buying a 27.7% stake through his deal with the majority owners, the Glazers — described him as “clearly one of the top sporting directors in the world.” Nor is it that Ashworth leaving suddenly leaves United without anyone capable of handling contracts, identifying talent and making signings. Heck, they have a whole gaggle of guys to do that, from chief executive Omar Berrada to technical director Jason Wilcox, to director of recruitment Christopher Vivell, to Ratcliffe’s longtime Ineos sidekick, Dave Brailsford.

Rather, it’s a question of judgment and belief in the guy calling the shots (at least on the sporting side; let us never forget the Glazers control the money, which means they control the club), which is Ratcliffe himself.

LaLiga may be a stretch, but the Europa League isn’t, and Athletic Club are for real: As I see it, they showed it more in the 2-0 win over Villarreal on Sunday than the midweek win over Real Madrid. The latter is a more prestigious win, of course, but only Real Madrid and Barcelona had beaten Villarreal this season, they’re a direct competitor in the battle for the top four and in Álex Baena, they have arguably the league MVP. (Chill, Barca fans: I said “arguably” because Raphinha has a strong case too.) Ernesto Valverde’s crew showed patience and control and thoroughly deserved their 2-0 win, their fifth on the bounce in all competitions. The narrative is that after winning the Copa del Rey last year, the goal for 2024-25 is to win the Europa League rather than make a push in LaLiga where, let’s face it, the top two are out of sight. The bookies have them as third favourites right now, behind Tottenham and Manchester U United. You can certainly make a case that they want it more.

Griezmann cues Atletico’s wild comeback, keeping their winning streak intact and title hopes alive: An hour into the game, it looked like one of those days for Atletico Madrid. Three-one down at home to Sevilla (who had basically scored three goals on three shots, two of them marked by individual blunders) and a sense that this wasn’t their day. But then, as it sometimes does, the Metropolitano turned into a cauldron, Diego Simeone chucked in Ángel Correa and Alexander Sorloth off the bench, and Antoine Griezmann reminded us of how special he is. Griezmann bagged two goals — including the winner, deep in injury time — and they stormed back to win, 4-3. Atleti often deliver false dawns, but it’s now eight wins in a row and suddenly they’re three points off the top with a game in hand. Is it going to be a three-way race in LaLiga this year? We should be so lucky.

STILL TO COME: Gab’s quick hits on Arsenal and Napoli, to follow after “The Gab & Juls Show.”