Veracity Soccer Roundup: Barça’s title hopes diminish, Prem champs Liverpool fall to City
Europe’s top leagues are winding down and we’re entering the crucial stage when teams must rack up meaningful points to stay alive. With the Bundesliga ending last week, all eyes are on Spain’s La Liga and England’s Premier League.
This week we saw many teams underperform while others have maintained their unbeaten runs since the restart. However, as the hot topic of the transfer window is now in the picture, will those clubs’ rosters look the same once the offseason begins? Let’s unpack all that with this week’s edition of the Veracity Soccer Roundup.
Messi scores his 700th for club and country as Barcelona continues to slip away from La Liga’s top spot
Since La Liga’s restart, Barcelona has noticeably struggled and their key signings aren’t producing nearly as well as expected. Barcelona has four wins and three draws and sits in second place, four points behind Real Madrid with four games remaining.
The results in these seven games do not fully capture the decline in Barcelona’s skill level over the course of the season. No losses and four shutouts: I’m sure any manager would take that in any season. However, given the amount of money Barcelona has investing towards seemingly big time, young players, you tend to question those players’ impact when Barcelona struggles against mid to low table sides.
Of the 10 plus high-profile signings Barcelona has made over the last two seasons, only three of them started in their midweek 2–2 draw against third place Atletico Madrid. It seems as if their back line is the only part of their team that is remotely stable at the moment. They started Riqui Puig over Arthur Melo, who was just traded to Juventus, and they can’t seem to figure out what to do with Antoine Griezmann.
Griezmann has only started four of the games since the restart and has only scored one goal. Underwhelming for someone who is earning €120 million. Barcelona has rotated forwards Martin Braithwaite, Ansu Fati, and Arturo Vidal between the starting left forward spot. Braithwaite and Vidal are also two highly priced players; however, it seems that Ansu Fati, a product of their youth academy, has been the most reliable out of all of them. Across the outlook of their personnel, Barcelona needs a serious boost in overall consistency to remain among the ranks of the world’s best clubs.
Liverpool downed by City 4–0 in historic Premier League loss
The first stop on Liverpool’s championship title victory run was of course a matchup against second place Manchester City. They were supposed to keep their unbeaten stretch alive even though it didn’t matter, but the opportunity for payback against the 2019 champions was going to pan out great. At least that’s what they had planned.
Liverpool’s 4–0 loss at the Etihad marked the fifth consecutive game of a scoreless road streak. It also ties the league’s biggest ever defeat suffered by a team who had already clinched the title.
The loss sparked many questions and concerns regarding Liverpool’s quick turnaround in performance. However, coach Jürgen Klopp saw no problems with his players’ approach to the match. “I saw a brilliant attitude. I saw fight. We didn’t behave like somebody who became champions a week ago,” Klopp told the BBC following the loss. The game also had many questioning why City dropped the ball so many times this season when they showed that they could be superior to the league champs.
On Sunday, Liverpool did make up for Wednesday’s catastrophe with a 2–0 home win against Aston Villa. They will still look to end the away scoring drought on June 8 against Brighton.
Leroy Sané, Miralem Pjanić, and Jadon Sancho headline the biggest transfer deals and rumors of the week
Although delayed, this season’s FIFA transfer window still feels like any other, and there are even bigger names being thrown into the conversation this time around.
Sané’s transfer to Bayern Munich was no surprise. His contract at Man City had been set to expire at the season’s end and he most likely would’ve been traded during last season’s summer transfer window if he wasn’t seriously injured. The German winger suffered knee ligament damage in a Community Shield match victory over Liverpool last August. Sané returned to action on July 22 in a 5–0 win over Burnley and will compete with Kingsley Coman for the left wing position.
Among other moves this week was the trade that will send Barcelona’s Arthur Melo to Juventus in exchange for Miralem Pjanić at the end of the season. The deal was a like-for-like swap between starting defensive midfielders. Arthur was valued at €72 million and Pjanić at €60m.
Along with highly priced moves, transfer rumors are just as big of an aspect of a transfer window. Not sure why, about 80 percent of them never seem to come to fruition. However, Borussia Dortmund winger Jadon Sancho is once again entering the transfer talks. The 20 year-old English winger scored 12 goals in the Bundesliga this season but seems to once again be a main target for top Premier League clubs. With Chelsea and Manchester United among the leaders, Sancho and United reportedly have agreed on a five-year £140,000-a-week deal with Dortmund’s transfer fee being the missing piece.
For you American soccer followers, another Bundesliga youngster seems to be eyeing a move to the Premier League. USMNT midfielder Weston McKennie is set to leave Schalke 04 this summer and Prem sides, Everton and Newcastle United seem the most likely destinations. Also, current Newcastle and former Atlanta United midfielder Miguel Almirón is drawing attention from Atletico Madrid.
Arsenal, Man City, Man United, and Chelsea advance to FA Cup semis
Midweek FA Cup action saw no major upsets as four of the Premier League’s top seven teams are on their way to the tournament’s semifinals. Only the Chelsea-Leicester City game was the round’s only tossup which saw Chelsea pull off a narrow victory on the road.
Here are the quarterfinal results:
Norwich City v Manchester United: 1–2
Sheffield United v Arsenal: 1–2
Leicester City v Chelsea: 0–1
Newcastle United v Manchester City: 0–2
The semifinal matchups are set for July 18 and 19 where Arsenal will host Man City and Chelsea will take on Man United.
