Monday, November 1st, 2021
Fans celebrate “super Tommy Tuchel”
Zlatan’s hunger for goals exacerbates Mourinho’s crisis
Is Thomas Tuchel following his German coaching colleague Jürgen Klopp? The successful coach won the Champions League in 2019 with Liverpool FC and the championship a year later. Tuchel, once successor to Klopp in Dortmund, has already done part one with Chelsea. And in the league, the Blues expanded their lead thanks to the mistakes of the competition.
Master dreams: First the Champions League triumph, now the Premier League title? Coach Thomas Tuchel’s successful streak with Chelsea continues. With the 3-0 win at Newcastle United, the Blues extended their lead at the top of the table, because the two pursuers FC Liverpool (2-2 against Brighton & Hove Albion) and Manchester City (0-2 against Crystal Palace) failed. Chelsea are now three points ahead of Liverpool and five ahead of Man City. The fans have already started their song about “super Tommy Tuchel”, which the coach doesn’t even want to hear: “If that’s the case, then of course it’s great.” Tuchel and Chelsea, that is definitely a unique success story. As a reminder: when the former Mainz and Dortmund Bundesliga coach took over as coach at Stamford Bridge in January of this year, the club was in tenth place. In the end he won the Champions League and was fourth in the table.
Crisis I: Even after the release of coach Ronald Koeman, the financially stricken FC Barcelona continues to decline. Under interim coach Sergi Barjuan, the Catalans did not get more than 1-1 against Deportivo Alaves and are now eight points behind arch-rivals Real Madrid, who won 2-1 at Elche with Toni Kroos in the starting line-up. In addition to the recent sporting setback, there were concerns at Barça about the Argentine striker Sergi Aguero, who was replaced with chest pain before the break and examined in the hospital. The hopes of the Barça fans now rest on club legend Xavi taking over the coaching job and leading the club out of the serious crisis.
Crisis II: The former serial champion Juventus Turin is only mediocre in Italy. After the 1: 2 against Sassuolo on Wednesday, there was now the next defeat with the 1: 2 at Hellas Verona. Juve, who let superstar Cristiano Ronaldo move to Manchester before the season, won only four of their eleven league games. The return campaign by coach Massimiliano Allegri, who won the championship five times with the record champions between 2015 and 2019, is not paying off. A replacement is currently rather unlikely, Allegri had signed a well-paid four-year contract before the season. Incidentally, Giovanni Simeone scored both goals against Verona. The 26-year-old is the son of Diego Simeone, who has successfully coached the Spanish champions Atlético Madrid since 2011.
Age does not protect against gates: The Swede Zlatan Ibrahimovic celebrated his 400th league goal. In the top match between AS Roma and AC Milan, the 40-year-old scored the opening goal for the guests and also took out the penalty, which Frank Kessie converted. In the end, Milan won 2-1 against the team of start coach José Mourinho. Together with SSC Napoli, Milan is sovereignly at the top of the table in Serie A in Italy. Mourinho’s crash with Rome is picking up speed. With only 19 points, they have already lost touch with the top.
Worries: There is a question mark behind the use of superstar Lionel Messi in the Champions League guest appearance of Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday at RB Leipzig. The substitution in the 2-1 win against champions OSC Lille was, according to coach Mauricio Pochettino, a “precautionary measure”. He hopes it’s “not a big deal”. Anyway, Messi has not yet really arrived in Paris. In five league games, the six-time world footballer has neither scored nor made a template. In the past few weeks, criticism of PSG’s style of play has grown, even though the club confidently leads the table in Ligue 1 and is group first in the premier class. “We don’t want to wait six years to play well,” said sporting director Leonardo, who backed coach Pochettino. In Leipzig, striker Kylian Mbappé is available again after the infection has cured.
Winless: The upcoming opponents of Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and VfL Wolfsburg in the Champions League all remained without a win at the weekend. Benfica Lisbon had to be content with a 1-1 draw at GD Estoril Praia before the guest appearance in Munich on Tuesday and lost the top of the table to FC Porto. Ajax Amsterdam, which had humiliated BVB 4-0 a good two weeks ago, had to cope with a 0-0 at Heracle Almelo before seeing them again on Wednesday in Dortmund. The record champions remain the front runners in the honor division ahead of Mario Götzes PSV Eindhoven. This also applies to Austria’s champions RB Salzburg, who played 2-2 at SV Ried, but confidently leads the table with eleven wins from 13 games. The club will be visiting VfL Wolfsburg on Tuesday.