Centre-forward’s sensational performance seemed to step outside Old Trafford’s doom-laden tides of the past weekMoney won’t make you happy. Money won’t solve all your problems. But it certainly helps. Or at least, it does when that weekly debit comes in exchange for talent on the Cristiano Ronaldo scale.Ronaldo was sensational here, producing a performance that seemed to step outside the doom-laden tides of the last week, most notably in a startling finish for Manchester United’s opening goal. Continue reading...
Press, discipline and fluency were woefully lacking against Liverpool, with inadequacies of Solskjær and Ronaldo exposedWhat have Ole Gunnar Solskjær and Alan Partridge got in common?Both need help constructing a press. Continue reading...
The relentless Brazilian’s 300th game for Liverpool contrasted sharply with Cristiano Ronaldo’s for Manchester UnitedPerhaps it was fitting that milestones were brought up in trademark fashion. Cristiano Ronaldo completed a triple century of Manchester United appearances as the comic-book hero, comeback king and matchwinner against Atalanta. A day earlier, Roberto Firmino joined Liverpool’s 300 club with a relentless display of scurrying.Diego Simeone’s famously industrious Atlético Madrid met a man who shares their ethos. Liverpool secured one of their finest victories under Jürgen Klopp. “I am pretty sure he was the player who ran the most against Atlético, 100% the attacking player who ran the most,” said a grinning Klopp. “It says a lot.” Continue reading...
Manchester United’s win over Atalanta was made up of magnificent moments but this was a gruelling watch for home fansWith nine minutes to play on a thrilling, increasingly wild night at Old Trafford Cristiano Ronaldo made one of those half-runs, the run that isn’t quite the run, then stretched his stride as he picked up the flight of the ball from Luke Shaw’s boot on the left flank.This is one of the things Ronaldo does so well, the algebra of flight, speed, timing, gravity, contact, the millions of equations and muscle‑mnemonics that go into making these moments work. Continue reading...
Owners’ style has long been to make the past fund the present but for all the spending on players oddities are creeping in“It’s a write-off.”“A write-off of what?” Continue reading...