The Euro Preview: Real Madrid eye January market, AC Milan hit restart button
Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan need to ponder what moves they could make during the January transfer window in order to finish strong.
La Liga
With Barcelona on top of the Spanish Liga standings, rivals Real Madrid have to come up with a Plan B as they struggle to keep pace. For a club with spending power, Real coach Zinedine Zidane said he’s open to using the transfer market to make some changes.
Real face Athletic on the road Saturday, while Barca host Celta Vigo the same day. Following their 1-1 draw against Barcelona, second-place Valencia, who are four points behind, visit Getafe in the hope that they can make up ground.
Los Blancos have stumbled both domestically and in the Champions League, and their depth has been an issue since the start of the season. The departures of players like Alvaro Morata, James Rodriguez and Pepe haven’t helped, while even Cristiano Ronaldo said that younger players brought in to replace them have not stepped up in recent months.
Asked during a news conference Monday about the upcoming January transfer window, Zidane said “anything could happen” in the coming months. There’s even been talk that Inter Milan striker Mauro Icardi could land at Real this winter and give Zidane a strong striker to help pair up with Ronaldo and Karim Benzema. Gareth Bale could also return to Liga action as soon as this weekend, another sign that bodes well for a team very much in need of more attacking options. Bale played in Real’s 2-2 Copa del Rey draw on Tuesday against second-division side Fuenlabrada.
“I am very happy with my squad, I don’t want it to change, I don’t want anyone to leave,” Zidane said. “But in football anything can happen. There are other people [at the club] apart from me when it comes to deciding things, and we can talk. When the market opens we will talk, but maybe nothing changes. For sure nobody is going to leave. We know we are able to sign in January, that is all.”
Bundesliga
While Bayern Munich continue to dominate in Germany, the fortunes of Borussia Dortmund lay in the balance. After a strong start, the team have struggled this fall both domestically and in the Champions League. They now find themselves in fifth place in the standings and eight points behind first-place Bayern. They risk misses out on a spot in Europe altogether next season if it doesn’t do anything to stem the losing.
Dortmund visit sixth-place Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday in a must-win game, while Bayern Munich face off at the same time against mid-table side Hanover 96 at home.
Last Saturday’s epic 4-4 Revierderby draw against Schalke 04 (which saw Dortmund squander a 4-0 lead), was yet another example of how Borussia need to do something this winter to change things around. The sale of Ousmane Dembele to Barcelona clearly hurt, but there are other players coach Peter Bosz could lure to BVB during the January transfer window, including German international Julian Draxer, currently at PSG.
“It is hard to analyze and to cope with that,” Bosz, whose squad have only taken two points from their last six Bundesliga matches, told Borussia Dortmund’s website. “You feel nothing but disappointment. When you lead 4-0 at the break, that cannot be allowed to happen.”
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Serie A
While the biggest match this weekend between Napoli and Juventus takes place Friday in Naples to give the sides an extra day ahead of next week’s decisive Champions League group games, AC Milan will be licking their wounds under new manager Gennaro Gattuso. The former AC Milan and Italy midfielder was hired this past Monday to replace Vincenzo Montella following the team’s scoreless draw the previous day at home against Torino.
There was a lot of hope and hype surrounding the Rossoneri this summer after they spent £210 million during the transfer period to rebuild their roster. They now have a roster loaded with individual stars unable to play as a team. it will be Gattuso’s task to turn around the fortunes of a club that now languishes in seventh place and again facing the real possibility of not qualifying for next year’s Champions League.
AC Milan have only won two of their last nine Serie A matches and have as many losses (with six) as they do victories. They have been defeated so far this season by Lazio, AS Roma, Inter Milan, Juventus and Napoli, the top five teams in the standings. The club’s management hope to turn things around starting Sunday when they face last-place (and winless in 14 straight games!) Benevento. The easy opponent aside, Gattuso’s pragmatic, no-nonsense approach to the game is widely seen as the thing that can shake up the dressing room and get the most out of the players.
“I think this team can do a lot more,” Gattuso said during a news conference Turesday. “We need to become a team, we have to go onto the field as a group … we need a battlefield spirit but there is talent. I think it’s pointless to keep talking about Gattuso as a player. The spirit and never-say-die attitude has stayed with me. I never want to lose even playing table football against my son, that’s always there.”
Despite the public well wishes from the club (and running contrary to reports that Chelse boss Antonio Conte or the currently unemployed former Bayern Munich manager Carlo Ancelotti will be brought in time for next season), the big-spending club will need to regroup and hope Gattuso, despite his limited coaching experience at this level, can grab enough wins to remain relevant in the standings.