What an advert for the Championship.
Fulham faced Charlton Athletic in what proved to be an entertaining London derby. Lee Bowyer made a few changes to his Charlton side following the close defeat to Swansea City on Wednesday.
It saw Charlton revert to a back three set-up – 3-4-2-1/3-5-2, with Macauley Bonne starting as the main no.9.
Fulham started the match with their expected 4-1-4-1 shape with winger Ivan Cavaleiro returning to the starting XI.
Juventus won their first game of this season’s Champions League with a comfortable 3-0 victory against Bayer Leverkusen in matchday 2 of the group stages.
Juventus started Juan Cuadrado as a makeshift right-back and although playing the expected 4-3-1-2 shape, started Federico Bernadeschi in behind Gonzalo Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo, instead of Aaron Ramsey who will probably start in Saturday’s clash with in form Inter Milan.
Leverkusen set-up in what seemed like a 4-2-3-1 shape, with Kai Havertz and Kevin Volland wide of centre-forward Lucas Alario. Right-back Mitchell Weiser had space to get forward.
Kevin De Bruyne was excellent in Manchester City’s 8-0 thrashing of Watford. It was one of the great Premier League performances in recent times. And once again the crossing ability stood out in De Bruyne’s game.
Thomas Tuchel’s Paris Saint-Germain emphatically defeated Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid 3-0 in the opening round of the 2018-19 Champions League group stages.
Both sides set up in 4-3-3 shapes, with PSG’s being the more flexible. The home side, wearing their away colours (make of that what you will), started without all of their usual front line; Kylian Mbappe, Edinson Cavani and Neymar, whilst Real were without captain Sergio Ramos and started James Rodriguez on the right of their midfield three.
Borussia Dortmund’s 0-0 draw with FC Barcelona on the opening day of this season’s Champions League was a rather odd game. This was due to it being one sided during the second-half, but not because both teams were trying to outwit each other. But because both sides looked to play out from the back and attack through combinations, with neither having much luck.
In their first four games of the 2019-20 season, Wolves have three draws and one defeat to their name. Yet this is by no means a disaster considering the overall strength of the opposing sides (Leicester City, Manchester United, Burnley and Everton) and with the loss coming in the shape of a tight 3-2 defeat to Everton displaying what Wolves are good at going forward.
To add, Wolves have been making strides in Europe, defeating the likes of Crusaders and Torino to reach the group stages of the Europa League; a deserved reward for their efforts last season.
And amidst all of this, Wolves have been playing with a neat tactical experiment in playing winger-by-trade Adama Traoré as a right wing-back.
Two league games into the season, and Manchester United have had a mixed start. One win and one draw with good patches in both games rather than assuring dominance in either.
In these good patches, what has been interesting to watch is Marcus Rashford’s and Anthony Martial’s involvement in attacks and in particular their movement – specifically their swapping of positions.
