Few clubs enjoyed as consistent success as AS Monaco did during the second half of the 2020/21 season, winning 21 matches from the turn of the year, drawing three matches and losing two, taking 74 points from 36 matches — the highest total for a third-placed team in Ligue 1 since OGC Nice in 2016/17, when Leonardo Jardim’s Monaco clinched an improbable league title led by Bernardo Silva, Kylian Mbappé, Radamel Falcao and Thomas Lemar in attack.
The Ponderous Principlialtiy
Despite their exceptional form in 2021 — which also saw them lose to Paris Saint-Germain in the Coupe de France Final — Monaco finished third behind Lille and PSG, failing to seal an automatic berth to the UEFA Champions League group stage. Had Manchester United edged Villarreal on penalties in the Europa League Final — they lost 11-10 in Gdańsk — Monaco would already be bating their breath for their first Champions League match in three years, but instead, they’re on the verge of missing out on club football’s ultimate competition altogether.
Monaco kicked off their 2021-22 campaign with a 2-0 win against Sparta Prague — they would go on to win 5-1 on aggregate — they failed to handle the pressure of opening the new Ligue 1 season in a match against Nantes, who narrowly edged Toulouse in May’s relegation play-off to stay up by a slim thread. Gelson Martins opened the scoring early on, sneaking in behind ex-Manchester United fullback Fábio and connecting on Caio Henrique’s cross and placing it past Alban Lafont. However, Nantes equalized before halftime as Jean-Charles Castelletto deflected Moses Simon’s corner kick into the back of the net and held on for a shock 1-1 draw at Stade Louis II.
Their form worsened over the past week, as Lorient — who finished just two points above Nantes in 16th — took a 1-0 victory at home thanks to a penalty goal from Terem Moffi, who found himself hauled down in the box by new signing Ismail Jakobs and converted the spot kick early on. After heavily rotating against Lorient, with the likes of Strahinja Pavlović, Djibril Sidibé and Myron Boadu starting the match, Niko Kovač brought his A-list cast to the first leg of their Champions League qualifier against Shakhtar Donetsk. It wasn’t enough, as Pedrinho, who joined from Benfica this summer for €18 million, gave Shakhtar a 1-0 victory with a stunning individual goal. Despite having played just six official matches under new manager Roberto De Zerbi, the visitors looked the better side, and when they came under pressure during the latter parts of the match, they were saved by an impeccable 20-year-old goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin.
Monaco hosted Lens on Saturday and conceded first for the third straight match as Ignatius Ganago wrong-footed Serbian centre-back Strahinja Pavlović and slotted in the opener past Alexander Nübel. Nübel joined Bayern Munich on a free transfer from Schalke last summer but struggled to push Manuel Neuer for the starting spot before heading out to France on a two-year loan. The German youngster has earned the trust of Kovač, who has decided to ship out veteran Benjamin Lecomte on loan to Atlético Madrid, but he failed to reassure Monaco fans of his qualities and was found vulnerable at the near post. Monaco’s opponents were reduced to 10 men in the 60th minute as Cheick Doucouré dove into Krépin Diatta with both feet, but they failed to make the most out of their numerical advantage before Aleksandr Golovin received his marching orders after deciding to compensate for a heavy first touch by lunging into Simon Banza. Their fortunes took a turn for the worse after Caio Henrique slipped and coughed up the ball to Przemysław Frankowski, who calmly slotted it towards Banza who doubled their lead.
Kovac Could Be Out Of A Job
Kovač managed to complete a domestic treble in his first season at Bayern Munich, but the start of the 2019/20 campaign was not as kind for the Croatian, who saw his team lose to Borussia Dortmund in the 2019 DFL-Supercup, draw to Hertha Berlin, RB Leipzig and Augsburg, and fall to fourth place after a loss to Hoffenheim. The final straw came on November 2, 2019, as Eintracht Frankfurt manhandled Bayern to a 5-1 shellacking, forcing the club bosses to sack the Croatian manager — Hansi Flick would take the reins and lead the club to the treble just nine months later.
The pressure is mounting on the 49-year-old Berlin native, who has overseen a productive transfer window in which Ismail Jakobs, Alexander Nübel, Jean Lucas and Myron Boadu have all arrived. Failure to qualify for the Champions League combined with a lack of results at the domestic level — Monaco face Troyes, Marseille, Nice, Saint-Ètienne and Clermont Foot over the next month — could land him in hot water and in threat of losing his job just over a year after taking the position. If Kovač wants to avoid the same sophomore slump that he suffered in Bavaria, he needs to turn things around at the principality, and fast.
Schlotterbeck Is A Player To Watch
Germany claimed their third ever UEFA European Under-21 Championship on June 6, defeating Portugal 1-0 in the Final in Ljubljana via a goal from Lukas Nmecha. Despite having won the tournament twice since 2009 and having reached the final in the two prior competitions, the Germans were not as favoured as other squads such as France, Netherlands, England or Portugal — whose famed ‘class of 1999’ had won the 2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship as well as the 2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship. And yet, they won thanks to Stefan Kuntz’s well-oiled, disciplined unit featuring a steely centre-back pairing of Amos Pieper and Nico Schlotterbeck.
Pieper and Schlotterbeck enjoyed a reunion on August 14 when Arminia Bielefeld hosted Freiburg and grinded out a stalemate on the opening matchday of the Bundesliga season. However, whilst Pieper’s Arminia were restrained to a 1-1 draw against SpVgg Greuther Fürth, who are enjoying their second ever Bundesliga campaign and first since 2012/13, Freiburg sent shockwaves throughout German football by defeating Borussia Dortmund 2-1 at home. Vincenzo Grifo sent a packed Dreisamstadion into a frenzy by curling in a free-kick past Gregor Kobel in the sixth minute, before doubling their lead with a sensational counterattack. Dortmund did manage to halve the deficit shortly after as Yannik Keitel’s botched clearance deflected a cross from Felix Passlack into his own net.
Nevertheless, Marco Rose’s side were unable to find an equalizer thanks to a superb backs-to-the-wall performance from Schlotterbeck, who, alongside ex-Real Madrid Castilla defender Philipp Lienhart, kept a star-studded attack of Erling Haaland, Donyell Malen and Marco Reus quiet. Schlotterbeck was well-positioned to sweep up the danger, block shots, head away danger and intercept passes, and had the pace and power to control Haaland’s explosive movements.
Schlotterbeck joined Freiburg in 2017 and made his professional debut on March 9, 2019, but was unable to consolidate a starting spot under Christian Streich before heading out on loan to Union Berlin. With just two years left on his contract, he could be the next player to secure a big-money move after impressing for the Breisgau-Brasilianer, following in the footsteps of Çağlar Söyüncü, Robin Koch, Maximilian Philipp and Luca Waldschmidt. However, after losing midfield linchpin Baptiste Santamaria to Rennes, Streich will be desperate to keep hold of his 21-year-old center back for another season in the Black Forest.
Giostra
The Italian word “giostra” refers to a carousel or a merry-go-ground, either in literal or metaphorical terms. There have been plenty of giostre in Serie A this summer, mainly in the coaching sphere: only Atalanta, Bologna, Milan, Udinese and newly promoted Salernitana and Venezia have not changed their manager within the past 12 months. There was another ‘giostra’ at the goalkeeper level; Juan Musso left Udinese to join Atalanta for a fee of €20 million, forcing Pierluigi Gollini to move to Tottenham on loan and prompting Udinese to bring in Marco Silvestri from Hellas Verona as his replacement; Hellas Verona then picked up Lorenzo Montipò from Benevento, whilst Alberto Paleari headed from Genoa to Benevento to replace Montipò.
The latest ‘giostra’ in Serie A has come at the other end of the pitch. After leading Inter Milan to their first Scudetto in 11 years, Romelu Lukaku joined Chelsea for a club record fee of £97.5 million, leaving a gaping void in the Nerazzurri’s attack. It seemed that Atalanta would become the third party in this domino effect, with Duván Zapata being linked to a move to Inter and Tammy Abraham tipped as his replacement. Instead, Roma have effectively taken La Dea’s place in the equation; Edin Džeko has joined Inter on a two-year contract, whilst Abraham has become the latest English player to test his luck abroad, joining Roma for a reported fee of £34 million.
Perfect Starts
After scoring in a friendly match against Dynamo Kyiv — becoming one of the few players to score for their new club before being actually announced as a new signing — Džeko opened the scoring for the defending Scudetto champions in a 4-0 drubbing of Genoa. Shortly after, Lukaku broke the deadlock in his Chelsea return in a comfortable 2-0 win over Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. The pressure, naturally, landed on Abraham to follow up with an impressive debut in Roma’s Serie A opener. He failed to disappoint and made an instant impact, latching onto a pass from fellow new signing Matías Viña before being brought down by Fiorentina goalkeeper Bartłomiej Drągowski outside the box. The Polish goalkeeper promptly received his marching orders, and Abraham soon made backup Pietro Terracciano pay.
Tammy’s Time?
Capitalizing on a botched back pass from Dušan Vlahović, Abraham cut inside and held off Lorenzo Venuti before sliding a pass towards Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who made no mistake with the finish. However, Fiorentina picked up a lifeline and threatened on goal after Nicolò Zaniolo bundled over Nicolás González in the 52nd minute and received his second booking. Fresh off signing a one-year contract extension until 2023, Nikola Milenković levelled the scoring with a stellar finish to cap off Erick Pulgar’s dipping cross, but the deadlock would last for just four minutes.
Hanging in between Fiorentina’s defenders and patiently waiting for Mkhitaryan’s through ball, Abraham made his trademark run on the last shoulder of the defence and slotted a cross towards Jordan Veretout at the far post, who calmly tucked home the go-ahead goal. The Giallorossi doubled their lead thanks to a piece of lovely individual work from Eldor Shomurodov, who shook free of Euro 2020 winner Gaetano Castrovilli and slid in a pass towards Veretout, who completed his brace.
The 23-year-old Cobham product exhibited a turn of pace, work-rate, mobility, hold-up play and unselfishness that was often missing from Džeko. If José Mourinho wants to lead Roma back to European football’s ultimate club competition after three years, he’ll need to continue to get the best out of Tammy and allow him to flourish in a new league. He couldn’t have asked for a better start, which saw the English forward register two assists, come close to scoring a header only to be cruelly denied by the post, and walk off to a standing ovation from the Stadio Olimpico. Starved of opportunities under Thomas Tuchel, Abraham’s unexpected arrival in the Italian capital may be just what he needed in order to break through and reach his lofty potential.
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