Managers

For the second time this season, PSG manager Thomas Tuchel had to deal with drama after a Kylian Mbappé substitution — this time during his team’s 5-0 victory against Montpellier on Saturday.

Sometimes you just really don’t want to be substituted out of a match. The level of soccer doesn’t matter — whether it’s youth, college or professional — but the best thing to do is wish your oncoming teammate success and then get cozy on the bench. But Mbappé seems to have his own style.

Since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, Manchester United has looked like a completely different club. On the pitch as well as in the board room it has looked like a club without a plan. The Red Devils are enduring their worst campaign since the Premier League came into existence in 1992. There is a lack of long-term vision and at the moment the club is a shell of its former self and mired in mediocrity. 

Shrewsbury Town has created one of the biggest talking points in Liverpool’s seemingly golden season. The Reds were handed a surprise 2-2 draw in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Sunday. Now they will have to partake in a replay, but it seems Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp isn’t too interested in the FA Cup.

The Quique Setién era at Barcelona began with a 1-0 victory over 10-man Granada at the Camp Nou on Sunday evening. The game’s lone goal was a beautifully constructed move that finished with Arturo Vidal backheeling the ball into the path of Lionel Messi for his 14th goal of the LaLiga season.

Despite forgetting his appropriate coaching certificates in the United States and Mexico, Jürgen Klinsmann had his license renewed in time to be on the bench for Hertha Berlin’s massive clash against Bayern Munich at the Olympiastadion on Sunday. After watching Bayern run rampant in the second half of a 4-0 victory, the former USMNT manager probably wishes that the German Football Association had made a clerical example of him.

Norwich City has ventured into the transfer market this month in a bid to boost its chances of Premier League survival. Manager Daniel Farke has brought in Ondrej Duda from Hertha Berlin and Hoffenheim's Lukas Rupp in hopes they will be able to help turn around the fortunes of the struggling Canaries.

Duda arrives on a loan until the end of the season, while Rupp was purchased outright for $570,000. Their signings continue the trend of Farke scouting the German leagues he knows so well; the two represent his 11th and 12th additions from Germany since his 2017 arrival.

After signing a largely ceremonial “contract for life” with Barcelona back in 2017, it’s certainly not surprising to see Andrés Iniesta stroll up to the club’s training sessions whenever he damn well pleases. However, the timing of Monday’s visit is another awkward moment in what’s been a tumultuous five-day period for the LaLiga leaders.

Look who dropped by for today's workout!

Ernesto Valverde is now a dead man walking as Barcelona manager after it became public knowledge on Sunday that the club had sounded out both Xavi and Ronald Koeman to replace the Spaniard following the team’s dramatic late defeat to Atlético Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup. 

Although the Super Cup is a meaningless competition that was only expanded and staged in Saudi Arabia this year for the purposes of making money, the defeat continues Valverde’s worrying history of cocking up with glory at hand — especially when compared to Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane.