Recapping matchday four: Are Madrid in crisis?

Matchday 4 of the 2024-25 UEFA Champions League is in the books and the 36-team table is starting to take shape.

Shock losses for Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain have set alarm bells ringing, while Viktor Gyökeres‘ three-goal performance against Manchester City has made the entire football world sit up and take notice.

ESPN writers Gab Marcotti, Mark Ogden and Julien Laurens reflect on some of the burning questions after four rounds.

Are Real Madrid in crisis, and what does Carlo Ancelotti need to do to get this team firing again?

Ogden: Madrid are absolutely in crisis. Back-to-back defeats shouldn’t be a big deal, just something that goes with the territory, but this is Real Madrid, where no defeat is acceptable. And when you are hammered 4-0 at home by Barcelona and then lose again in the next game, against a fellow European heavyweight in AC Milan, things have gotten really bad.

There are mitigating factors, such as the retirement of Toni Kroos, Dani Carvajal‘s season-long injury, Jude Bellingham having to tone down his attacking game to accommodate Kylian Mbappé, and Mbappé himself, who is nowhere near the player Madrid expected him to be. Mbappé’s best position is wide left, but the same applies to Vinícius Júnior, so how do you solve that problem?

It’s a tough one for Ancelotti, who will know that his job will be on the line if Madrid don’t emerge from their slump quickly. Ancelotti has said before that his number-one job is keeping the club president happy — and Florentino Perez won’t be happy right now.

Marcotti: It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Real Madrid are a team made with Panini stickers, and that it would be a challenge to make the pieces fit together. We’ve said all along that the team was unbalanced and Ancelotti would need to somehow make it work. He hasn’t been able to (yet) and, while they have more firepower than anyone and that can paper over a lot of cracks, at some point it catches up to you (especially when Thibaut Courtois isn’t between the sticks).

Their possession game hasn’t been great and obviously Kroos is a huge loss (as is the fact that Luka Modric is now literally the oldest player in the history of the club and obviously can’t give you as many minutes as in the past). Solutions? I’d imagine you’d have to turn to the transfer window in January.

Short-term I think you have to accept that neither Vinícius nor Mbappé will work off the ball, so pressing and winning possession high isn’t going to happen. That means you need to control games and hopefully not just end up with a bunch of sterile possession. You can try giving more playing duties to Eduardo Camavinga, or possibly try to get Bellingham to go back to his original spot in midfield. At least that way you’d have some sort of a base. And maybe you can think of a hybrid back three with Aurélien Tchouaméni dropping in there in certain situations, allowing the full-backs to push up (but, again… do you want Ferland Mendy pushing up? I’m not sure).

The only other alternative is seeing if you can get Bellingham to play some sort of center-forward role with Mbappé around him. But that would mean Vinícius in left midfield, which isn’t ideal either if he’s not going to help his full-back. The ugly truth is that this is a collection of star individuals, not a team. Somebody needs to make a sacrifice. And even that may not be enough.

Laurens: “‘Allo Toni? It’s Carlo. Please come back, this is a mess! I need you, we need you. I beg you!”

This is what Real Madrid have to do right now. Get on the phone to Kroos and convince him to come out of retirement to sort the unbalance and add some technical leadership to the midfield. Ancelotti, Perez, sporting director Juni Calafat, Antonio Rüdiger, the tea lady, the Bernabéu cleaner, the Ciudad Deportiva groundsman — I don’t care who, but someone needs to make the call and get Kroos to come back. The team is in crisis and while the Germany legend returning would not solve all the problems, at least the team would be better structured and have more control on the ball.

Then there is the small matter of the forward line. Mbappé is not a No. 9 and will never be a proper one. But he can still do a job there if the team around him is set up right. Leave the left side to Vinícius, get Bellingham higher up closer to Mbappé, Federico Valverde on the right, and give more responsibilities to Camavinga at the heart of midfield.

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What is going wrong at Manchester City?

The “ESPN FC” crew try to make sense of Man City’s recent slump after they lost their third game in a row to Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League.

Has Gyökeres proved this season that he can deliver on the biggest occasions and deserves a major move? Or is this just a flash in the pan?

Ogden: He isn’t a flash in the pan. Gyökeres scored 43 goals in 50 games for Sporting CP last season having made the leap from Coventry City in the Championship to the Portuguese top-flight, and he is continuing to prove himself as a formidable centre-forward this season.

The big question is whether he can do it at a higher level than the Portuguese Primeira Liga. A Champions League hat trick against Manchester City is an emphatic way to silence his naysayers, but there is no doubt that Gyökeres has enjoyed a meteoric rise. Three years ago, Brighton & Hove Albion let him go for just £1 million to Coventry after unproductive loan spells at St. Pauli, Swansea City and Coventry, who nonetheless saw enough in him to sign the Sweden international permanently. To be nowhere at 23, but a sensation at 26 is remarkable, but my view is that he is the real deal. He is quick, strong, great in the air and a powerful finisher; Sporting will do well to keep him.

Marcotti: He’s obviously not a flash in the pan, because he’s done it for a while. Then again, Gyökeres being really good would mean that Brighton — a club known for their skill in spotting and nurturing talent — got it badly wrong because he was on their books for five years between the age of 19 and 24 and he never played.

There’s probably some prejudice against him because there’s a whole history of big, strong center-forward types who score a ton of goals in the Portuguese league and don’t exactly set the world on fire elsewhere (see Mehdi Taremi, Darwin Núñez, Carlos Vinícius… heck even Simon Banza scored 21 last year). Last year, he scored three goals from open play in the Europa League, this year he has three from open play in the Champions League. With Sweden, he has 10 in 24. He’s a serviceable striker, sure, but I think teams are going to be reluctant to pay Erling Haaland-type money, given he’s already 26 and is still rough around the edges.

Laurens: 66 goals in 66 games in all competitions for Sporting is not a fluke. But the Champions League is the best arena to judge him and his hat trick against Manchester City on Tuesday (albeit including two penalties), and five goals in four games (one against Lille and one against Sturm Graz) shows he can do it there too.

He is a proper finisher, clinical in front of goal, strong physically, and can run in behind too. Is he ready for the Premier League, the best and toughest league in the world? Probably yes. He will need to step up though as the Portuguese league is too easy for him. He needs to work on his link-up play and become a more complete all-round striker, but at 26, he has plenty of time for that.

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How Hansi Flick has silenced his critics at Barcelona

Jurgen Klinsmann joins “ESPN FC” to give his thoughts on Hansi Flick’s fantastic start at Barcelona.

Are Barcelona a force again on the European stage while their biggest rivals Real Madrid are in crisis mode?

Ogden: Barcelona are probably the best team in Europe right now, but it’s still only early November and the best teams tend to come good at the business end of the season. Hansi Flick has done better than anyone would have expected, especially with so many young players and the injuries that hit his squad. And don’t forget, Ilkay Gündogan jumped ship for a return to Manchester City late in the transfer window. Maybe Barça are just on the crest of a wave right now — Raphinha certainly is — but I would still back Madrid, City and Liverpool against Barcelona in the knockout stages. Let’s not overlook the fact that two of Barcelona’s wins have been against Young Boys and Red Star Belgrade, so not the toughest tests.

Marcotti: I mean, they were in the quarterfinals last year and beat Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg before self-destructing at home. So, I wouldn’t say “again”. Flick has done really well, but — before we get too excited — two of their four wins have come against Red Star and Young Boys. Another was against Bayern, sure, in a game that could have gone the other way. They play high-risk, high-reward football and it works for them. I think — and we saw at the weekend against Espanyol as well — they need to add a dimension to their game now that the injured guys (Frenkie de Jong, Gavi, Andreas Christensen, Ronald Araújo) are either back or coming back. I don’t think they can sustain this intensity or this style of play without doing that.

Laurens: Absolutely Barcelona are a force, but there is a “but” as well. They are because they have the best front three in Europe (along with Liverpool) in Lamine Yamal, Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha. They have great variety and depth in the midfield positions with Marc Casadó, Pedri, Fermín López, Dani Olmo, Gavi and De Jong. They have a clear identity, great momentum and confidence too, while more injured players are going to come back soon. They play the offside trap better than anyone and have already caught opponents 108 times offside so far this season.

However, the “but” is that they play a very risky brand of football with their all-attacking style and super-high defensive line. Red Star took advantage of it to score and make it 1-1 on Wednesday and, once teams have worked them out, they will concede many more chances, especially against good sides. Bayern got demolished but threatened massively in the first half. Real Madrid also had their moments too, despite their heavy Clasico defeat.

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Nicol: Leverkusen win best Liverpool performance ‘by far’

Steve Nicol loves what he saw from Liverpool’s dismantling of Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Champions League.

Now at the halfway stage of the league phase, what do you like — or dislike — the most about the new format?

Ogden: I’d be surprised if any of the big teams miss out on qualification — even PSG, who are stuck beneath the trapdoor right now — but the best element of the new format is the opportunity it has given to the likes of Brest, Aston Villa and Celtic to give themselves a chance of a place in the knockout stages. The old group stage made it tough for outliers to qualify, especially if they had two big clubs in the group, but every team knows they have chances to win games now and many of the less fancied teams have worked that out and started strongly. Celtic, for instance, have struggled to compete in the group stage in recent seasons, but they have now won two and drawn one and have a great chance of qualifying. That’s what we want: surprises and new stories.

Marcotti: I think it’s been great. Just this midweek we’ve had Manchester City, Real Madrid, Arsenal, PSG and Bayer Leverkusen all losing. Oh, and RB Leipzig have lost four in four, which is hilarious. We’ve seen some great goals and some good games. To me, that’s just as important in this phase of the competition, especially given two thirds of the teams are going to advance. And, by the way, we have Sporting, AS Monaco and Brest in the top five and VfB Stuttgart, Leipzig, Bologna, Girona and, yes, PSG currently missing out on the next round. So much for all that nonsense about big leagues and big teams dominating.

Laurens: Apart from my beloved PSG’s results so far in the competition, I’m loving everything about this new format. We are halfway through this league phase, and we have seen big games every week, big teams struggling, small teams excelling. Some big stars haven’t been good, some more unknown players are emerging. There has been late drama and controversy. Now, the second part will start to make things even more interesting and properly tense as every point will now really count. We will start looking at all the different scenarios on who needs what to do what. It will be fun!