Gabriele MarcottiOct 20, 2025, 08:14 AM ETCloseGabriele Marcotti is a senior soccer writer for ESPN.com. Read his archive here and follow him on Twitter: @Marcotti.Follow on X
play2:25Laurens: Isak has been disappointing for LiverpoolJulien Laurens believes Alexander Isak has been “disappointing” since his move to Liverpool from Newcastle.
play1:13Harry Kane reacts to Bayern’s win over DortmundEngland captain Harry Kane has revealed he enjoys dropping into midfield alongside his striker duties.
play1:48Moreno: Barcelona will have to be better to win El ClasicoAle Moreno tells Kay Murray why he was unimpressed with Barcelona, despite their late winner over Girona in LaLiga.
play1:04Nicol: Arsenal’s defence gives them the title advantageSteve Nicol says Arsenal’s solid defensive performances mean they don’t always have to be a huge threat going forward.
play1:36How did Jude Bellingham perform on his Real Madrid return?Luis Garcia analyse Jude Bellingham’s return to the Real Madrid side in their 1-0 victory over Getafe.
play2:10Are Man City too reliant on Haaland to win the Premier League?Steve Nicol reacts to Manchester City’s 2-0 win over Everton in the Premier League.
play2:38Is Dyche the best candidate to replace Postecoglou at Forest?Sam Tighe debates who could replace Ange Postecoglou at Nottingham Forest.
Manchester United probably haven’t turned the corner, while Liverpool probably do need to start worrying…
Rafael Leão to the rescue, and Milan go top of Serie A, but somebody needs to have a word with Santi Gimenez
Will Man United’s victory over Liverpool kick-start a winning run? (1:32)Gab Marcotti and Julien Laurens react to Manchester United’s 2-1 win over Liverpool. (1:32)
Laurens: Isak has been disappointing for LiverpoolJulien Laurens believes Alexander Isak has been “disappointing” since his move to Liverpool from Newcastle.
Julien Laurens believes Alexander Isak has been “disappointing” since his move to Liverpool from Newcastle.
Harry Kane reacts to Bayern’s win over DortmundEngland captain Harry Kane has revealed he enjoys dropping into midfield alongside his striker duties.
England captain Harry Kane has revealed he enjoys dropping into midfield alongside his striker duties.
Moreno: Barcelona will have to be better to win El ClasicoAle Moreno tells Kay Murray why he was unimpressed with Barcelona, despite their late winner over Girona in LaLiga.
Ale Moreno tells Kay Murray why he was unimpressed with Barcelona, despite their late winner over Girona in LaLiga.
Nicol: Arsenal’s defence gives them the title advantageSteve Nicol says Arsenal’s solid defensive performances mean they don’t always have to be a huge threat going forward.
Steve Nicol says Arsenal’s solid defensive performances mean they don’t always have to be a huge threat going forward.
How did Jude Bellingham perform on his Real Madrid return?Luis Garcia analyse Jude Bellingham’s return to the Real Madrid side in their 1-0 victory over Getafe.
Luis Garcia analyse Jude Bellingham’s return to the Real Madrid side in their 1-0 victory over Getafe.
Are Man City too reliant on Haaland to win the Premier League?Steve Nicol reacts to Manchester City’s 2-0 win over Everton in the Premier League.
Is Dyche the best candidate to replace Postecoglou at Forest?Sam Tighe debates who could replace Ange Postecoglou at Nottingham Forest.
play1:37Nicol: There’s no way Liverpool can expect to win the leagueSteve Nicol slams Liverpool’s performance in Man United loss and questions their title credentials
Bayern Munich lucky but deserving in Der Klassiker win
Ronald Araújo, the improbable hero, should serve as a wake-up call for Barcelona
In LaLiga, both Barcelona and Real Madrid picked up dramatic late wins, with Madrid’s victory at Getafe pushing them back to the top of the table. In the German Bundesliga, Bayern Munich eased past rivals Borussia Dortmund 2-1 in the first Klassikerof the season, a result in which Harry Kane scored (again) and the Bavarians were a little fortunate to emerge victorious. Elsewhere, we had talking points galore around Milan, Juventus, Tottenham, Chelsea, Marseille and much more.
Nicol: There’s no way Liverpool can expect to win the leagueSteve Nicol slams Liverpool’s performance in Man United loss and questions their title credentials
Nicol: There’s no way Liverpool can expect to win the league
Steve Nicol slams Liverpool’s performance in Man United loss and questions their title credentials
Credit Ruben Amorim for thinking outside the box. Dropping your pricey center forward (Benjamin Sesko), bringing back the most derided (sometimes unfairly) United center back since Phil Jones (Harry Maguire) and starting 33-year-old Casemiro after his 180 minutes in Korea and Japan with Brazil were certainly counterintuitive.
If you were really cynical, you might suggest that at this stage, he might as well throw everything at the wall and see what sticks (except for ditching the 3-4-2-1, of course), but that would be unfair. His changes don’t mean he out-coached Arne Slot — just that he gave his team the best possible chance to get the best possible result. Which is exactly what a coach should do.
– Reaction: Man United’s statement win plunges Liverpool into crisis – Slot admits ‘challenge’ in turning Liverpool around – Ogden: Should Liverpool drop Isak, Salah, or both?
Slot also said his team created “an unbelievable” amount of chances. It was certainly many. Cody Gakpo scored once, hit the woodwork three times and missed a sitter at the end, while Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak also squandered big chances.
Beyond that, it rarely felt as if Liverpool were in control: opportunities came via opponent errors or individual skill, because they simply have far better players, and too often they weren’t put away. Slot evidently recognises this — witness the dropping of Florian Wirtz — but it’s still not clear how all his pieces will fit together.
Dominik Szoboszlai in the No. 10 hole is a smoother option, but obviously you want Wirtz somewhere in the XI. The same goes for Isak: his summer travails have slowed him down, but you don’t pay a record fee for a back-up striker even though they looked better with Hugo Ekitike.
Then there’s Salah. He got a massive new deal at the end of last season, has had a slow start in 2025-26, and there’s the Africa Cup of Nations coming up in January. He’s not where he was last season offensively or defensively: do you start managing his minutes with a view to getting the best version of Salah in the spring?
There are plenty of questions for Slot to figure out. Still, probably not as many as Amorim despite United taking all three points.
Yeah, it’s classic “sometimes, both things can be true” kind of stuff. Borussia Dortmund were set up in a park-the-bus 5-3-2 formation, with Julian Brandt on the bench, for their visit to Bayern Munich, and it was pretty evident the plan was to minimize damage while hoping to nick something at the other end.
Harry Kane gave Bayern the lead, Michael Olise hit the post, and Dortmund mustered a total of zero shots of any kind while seeing just 26% of the ball. Dortmund defender Nico Schlotterbeck bemoaned his team’s “lack of guts in the first half” after the game.
And so Bayern remain perfect — that’s 11 wins in 11 games across all competitions — even without the injured Jamal Musiala and you suspect, against most opponents, the only way they’re going to lose is if they beat themselves.
Shout out to Kane, too. Nineteen goals in 11 games tells its own story, but the way he adapted to moving into the hole behind Nico Jackson (where his passing can be decisive) in recent outings is just as impressive.
As for Dortmund, it’s easy to slaughter manager Niko Kovac because his plan didn’t work. On the other hand, such is the gulf between these two sides right now, you can’t blame for something wacky and had it not been for Bellingham’s screw-up, it might even have worked.
Moreno: Barcelona will have to be better to win El Clasico
But, of course, this being Barca, don’t hold your breath. The fact that the Uruguayan center back whom nobody seems to like, and whom they tried every which way to move out had to come on as an emergency center forward to score the winner against Girona, who are dead-last in the table, ought to prompt a comprehensive top-to-bottom review of where they are and where they’re going.
Almost as irresponsible as the execution of his high line — not the high line itself, mind — by Pau Cubarsí and Eric García. After Pedri’s brilliant opener, Girona could have scored three or four, such were Barca’s limitations. And all of this while more and more pressure gets heaped on Cubarsi and Lamine Yamal: yes they’re great, but they’re also developing. You can’t just lean on them (and Pedri) to paper over your many cracks.
Hey, maybe they won’t change a jot and they’ll win the Clasico next weekend. Heck, maybe they’ll win LaLiga again, possibly the Champions League too, and maybe the folks in charge will take it as evidence of their brilliance. If that happens, most likely they’ll be wrong. It will be the brilliance of individuals that carries them; at this stage, the choices made at the top are simply weighing them down.
Let’s start with the ugly. Four minutes from time, the game deadlocked at 1-1, Fabiano Parisi grazed Santi Gimenez’ cheek in the penalty area and the Mexican striker went down clutching his face as if the Fiorentina defender had sprayed him with acid. Referee Livio Marinelli — correctly — waves play on, VAR Rosario Abisso sends him to review and Marinelli changes his mind, awarding the penalty. Leao, who had previously scored a worldie, puts it away, Milan win 2-1 and go top.
I’m all for playing on the edge, pushing the envelope and trying to win fouls. But on this occasion, Gimenez was an embarrassment (not for the first time, either, in my view) and the VAR intervention felt like it was straight from the muppet show. Fiorentina feel cheated because, well, they were. The match officials may have been in good faith; Gimenez did not appear to be.