The European soccer weekend was full of highs and lows, ups and downs as per usual. Cristiano Ronaldo returned to Manchester United and looked great, Antoine Griezmann returned to Atletico Madrid and didn't. The Bundesliga's best team, Bayern Munich, humiliated their closest rivals, RB Leipzig, while Serie A's previous force, Juventus, looked woefully off-form and out of balance in their defeat to Napoli. Elsewhere, we saw fun from AS Roma (and Jose Mourinho), end-to-end drama for Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal got their first win of the season!
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It's Monday, and Gab Marcotti reacts to the biggest moments in the world of football in a special international-break edition of his musings.
Jump to: Ronaldo returns | Juve in trouble? | Real Madrid switch it up | Bayern's statement | Mourinho wild at Roma | Dortmund's issues | Silva key for Man City | Donnarumma's PSG debut | Spurs stutter | Inter's draw | Saul struggles for Chelsea | Griezmann's uneven Atletico return | Arsenal win! | Milan's "Plan C"
Ronaldo's (second) debut for Man United told us plenty we already knew... and maybe one thing we didn't
My colleague Julien Laurens and former France international Mickael Silvestre were watching Cristiano Ronaldo warm up ahead of Manchester United's game against Newcastle on Saturday, which marked his return to the Premier League. Silvestre, who spent five years with Ronaldo at Old Trafford, commented on how "nervous" he looked in the warm-up. And Ronaldo himself, after the game, confirmed just how nervous he felt in the moments preceding the game.
That was one new thing I learned: Ronaldo gets nervous, too, and maybe, at 36, he's comfortable enough with himself and his achievements to share the fact that he's human and suffers stage fright like the rest of us. Wrapped up in the ceaseless hype that follows him everywhere -- whether the goals, the Instagram, the thronging crowds, the abs, the "Siuuu!" or the smirk -- and having trod the big stage for the past 18 years, I wasn't sure anything made him nervous. It's nice to know that he also gets the butterflies.
Ronaldo, left, admitted his nerves before making his second debut for Man United, though it didn't show with a two-goal performance against a Newcastle side that offered little resistance. Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images
Other than that, I'm not sure there's much we learned from the 4-1 win over Newcastle. Ronaldo lined up at center-forward with Jadon Sancho and Mason Greenwood out wide, Bruno Fernandes in the hole and Paul Pogba in deep midfield. He drifted left on many occasions, he was a continuous aerial threat (though United didn't quite get as many crosses into the box as you imagine Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would have liked), he was sharp and alert in punishing a goalkeeping error on the first goal and his movement in dead ball situations was excellent.
He scored twice -- with a little help from Newcastle goalkeeper Freddie Woodman -- and, despite the prematch jitters, handled the pressure with aplomb. And he lifted the entire crowd to levels not seen at Old Trafford since they had a Scottish manager (no, not David Moyes, the other one).
play1:34 Was Cristiano Ronaldo nervous for his Old Trafford return?
Julien Laurens recalls his conversation with Mikael Silvestre when they were watching Cristiano Ronaldo warm up.
We knew all that, just as we knew that, yes, he's very fit and, when he can get up a head of steam, he's very fast too. Cristiano-Ronaldo-ran-20-2mph-scoring-second-Manchester-United-goal-against-Newcastle.html">English media were impressed that he clocked a maximum speed of 20.2 miles an hour (32.5 kmh) ahead of his second goal, but that wasn't exactly a surprise to anybody who has watched him. If you're a world-class athlete who takes care of his body, you don't suddenly lose your speed -- especially over longer distances -- as you hit your mid-30s. What you do lose, perhaps, is the quick acceleration over the first few meters and the stamina to pull off a few dozen high intensity sprints over 90 minutes.
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Newcastle sat so deep for much of the game that there was little reason or opportunity for Ronaldo to show off his wheels. In fact, Steve Bruce's de facto 7-2-1 formation meant that this game unfolded in a way that's likely to be very different from most of the matches Ronaldo will play this season. United had a ton of the ball as the opposition looked to counter, which suited Pogba, deployed in a two-man midfield, just fine.
Most weeks, you presume, it won't be like that. United won't have 65 percent possession and the opposition will play a higher line. The former raises the question of whether Pogba can be shoe-horned into a two-man midfield; the latter whether the front line can muster enough of a threat in terms of running in behind and stretching the opposition defence. We'll find out soon enough, as Saturday was never going to answer those questions.
One point in three games was no problem for Juventus six years ago, but this time, it's different
Juventus' 2-1 defeat at Napoli makes it one point from three games for the bianconeri. And if you were of a superstitious disposition (or a foolish disposition), you may conclude that it's not a big deal. After all, six seasons ago, with the very same Max Allegri on the bench, Juventus had an identical start before going on to win 26 of their final 28 games and the Serie A title.
Well, it's not a big deal, but not for the reasons stated above that, like most historical reasons, are irrelevant. (Why we think events that took place years ago, with different players and different circumstances, should impact the present is beyond me.)
Rather, it's not a big deal -- or not as big a deal -- because of the way we got to these results.
play1:18 What is wrong with Juventus right now?
Gab Marcotti examines Juventus' winless start in Serie A after a 2-1 defeat at Napoli.
Things don't just happen in a vacuum. It's not a question of excuses; it's a question of explanations. Juventus were awful and deserved to lose to Empoli. In the opener, and in this game against Napoli, they paid a price for individual errors: Wojciech Szczesny was the villain in both, Moise Kean played a big part in the latter game. When an ordinarily reliable player makes such extreme, craven mistakes, you chalk it up to happenstance and move on.
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You imagine that's how Allegri is viewing it, which doesn't change the fact that Juve didn't play particularly well either -- especially in midfield, which remains a problem area. The many absentees (Federico Chiesa, Paulo Dybala, Alex Sandro, Danilo, etc) are mitigating factors, as is, I guess, the fact that it takes some time to adjust to Cristiano Ronaldo's departure. But the dysfunction in the middle of the park is very real right now, and fixing it has to be priority number one.
Beyond that, now that Ronaldo is gone, the road ahead is pretty clear. Juve need to reload through youth and keep improving the players they have. That means Chiesa, Dejan Kulusevski, Matthijs De Ligt and Manuel Locatelli... hopefully it will mean Kean, Weston McKennie and Rodrigo Bentancur too. If it means another year without competing for Serie A, so be it.
A word on Napoli, too. They also had some significant absentees, but the difference is that this group is deep and resilient: witness the way they weren't fazed by Kostas Manolas' blunder that led to Alvaro Morata's opening goal. If they can harness the immense upside of Victor Osimhen, not let Lorenzo Insigne's contract be a distraction and channel what Luciano Spalletti might call their "inner Koulibalys," they'll compete for the Serie A title. Maybe more, too.
Real Madrid switch it up and roll to big win
play1:43 Is Vinicius Jr. now one of the best wingers in the world?
Alejandro Moreno examines Vinicius Jr.'s rise at Real Madrid after another goal in a 5-2 win vs. Celta Vigo.
The interesting thing about Real Madrid's 5-2 victory over Celta Vigo -- other than the fact that the craven defensive blunders haven't gone away -- was the way manager Carlo Ancelotti set them up, perhaps in an attempt to get the best out of Eden Hazard.
In many ways, it looked more like a 4-4-2, with Vinicius down the left, Hazard joining Karim Benzema up front and Fede Valverde on the right. Of course, this isn't table-football and players do move around: Valverde wasn't exactly a wide midfielder and Vinicius played higher up the pitch.
But the interesting aspect is Hazard. He wasn't on the right wing for much of the game, but instead buzzed around Benzema and, often, joined Vinicius (and left-back Miguel) out on the left flank. It's an asymmetrical set-up that might yet coax some more consistent performances from Hazard. Many Real Madrid fans view him as a bust, but the reality is he has a huge contract and the club are on the hook for him for another three years, so you might as well find a way to make it work.
Beyond that, Vinicius -- so often criticised for his poor finishing -- was as cool as the other side of the pillow (RIP, Stuart Scott) in slotting his goal home and continues to grow, while Eduardo Camavinga made his debut and scored: plenty to come from the teenager. Oh, and Benzema got a hat-trick of goals and recorded an assist, confirming once again he may well be the best 9 and the best 10 on this team. (But that last bit isn't really news...)
Bayern win over Leipzig makes yet another statement...
... and that statement is that they don't need to be at their best to go and whip the backside of the team that finished second to them last season. Bayern's 4-1 victory over Leipzig was deserved, and it was perhaps especially important for Julian Nagelsmann on his homecoming to the side he coached last year.
The early goal -- a Robert Lewandowski penalty -- set them on their way, but what was striking was how they remained cool and waited for the counter, even as they suffered against Jesse Marsch's press in midfield on occasion. They did enough to limit Leipzig offensively -- their lone goal was an out-of-the-blue long-range strike by Konrad Laimer -- and then made them pay in transition.
Jamal Musiala was, again, close to unplayable at times after coming on at half-time. He scored one and had a hand in the other two while playing with the calm of a veteran. He even coaxed a five-star performance out of Leroy Sane (who has blown hot and cold of late) on the opposite wing. On a day when Bayern's midfield partnership of Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka were subdued by their own standards, the transition game and the back line more than picked up the slack. And that bodes well for the future.
Source: espn.co.uk