1. It's still too early to panic about Liverpool
One of two things was going to happen eventually: Liverpool were going to start playing better and continue winning or continue playing poorly and start dropping points. One-goal losses on the road to Chelsea and Crystal Palace – even to Galatasaray – are understandable. Falling to Manchester United at home does not come with the same amount of leniency. Even then, Cody Gakpo should have had a hat trick and could have scored five. Part of this can simply be attributed to bad breaks and misfortune.
Integrating so many new players is a factor too. Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz have one goal and one assist – both by Isak – between them across all competitions. That will change at some point. Very rarely does a team find itself with such lofty expectations in a transition season, which is what makes this so difficult to analyze. Maybe they are the fourth or fifth best team in England. Maybe this will be as bad as it gets and they go on to win the title. Nobody should be jumping to any conclusions this early.
2. Nottingham Forest challenged the definition of insanity and lost
Ange Postecoglou never showed any indication he was willing to change how his team plays in the Premier League. He nearly got Tottenham relegated because of it. Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis looked at that and decided Postecoglou was the man to take over a team coming off an extraordinary season with a playing style that goes against everything he believes in. It didn't make any sense, especially when the expectation was for results to improve immediately.
Postecoglou’s reign lasted a whole eight games. Forest didn't win any of them. He was fired Saturday with the team in 18th place. Forest couldn't afford to allow their awful form to go on much longer, and it was better to cut ties now than hold out hope things will get better. Postecoglou has one of the most clearly defined identities of any manager. You know exactly what you're getting, and none of it made sense at Forest. They did the same thing and expected different results. What they got was the opposite, also known as exactly what you would expect.
3. The end of a golden U.S. soccer era is inching closer
In the summers of 2014 and 2015, the U.S. men’s and women’s national teams delivered perhaps their best collective showing at consecutive World Cups. The men lost to a Belgian team full of superstars in extra time. A year later, the women beat Japan 5-2 in the final. The teams have failed to win a single knockout stage game at three of the four World Cups since. The men didn’t even make it in 2018.
A member of each of those teams – Atlanta United’s Brad Guzan and Angel City’s Christen Press – announced they are retiring at the end of their season. Guzan’s final game was Saturday while Press played her last home game Sunday. Together, they represented the U.S. 219 times. It would have been way more had Guzan not been competing with Tim Howard. With Guzan and Press signing off, Alejandro Bedoya, Morgan Gautrat, Alyssa Naeher and Sydeny Leroux are really the only key players left from those teams, and the list just keeps getting shorter.
4. The USMNT has found something with the back three
The U.S. men's national team ended the October international break with a 2-1 victory over Australia, snapping the Socceroos’ seven-game winning streak. Mauricio Pochettino once again utilized a back three, starting Mark McKenzie and Miles Robinson alongside Chris Richards. The sloppy opener the U.S. conceded came from a combination of individual errors rather than a breakdown of the defensive system. It was a positive end to an extremely important and productive camp.
From a tactical standpoint, using a back three makes total sense. It gives a team that will need to absorb pressure an extra defender and allows the U.S. to best utilize the skill of its attack-minded outside backs. It also gives those outside backs more freedom to get into the final third, which is extremely important for a team that struggles to break down opponents. There is enough data at this point to commit to using this system at the World Cup. The rest of the games between now and then should be dedicated to getting as comfortable as possible with it.
5. Decision Day became the Day of Missed Opportunities
Four Western Conference teams entered Major League Soccer’s Decision Day with a chance to secure one of the two remaining playoff spots. Half of them failed to win. All the Vancouver Whitecaps needed to finish atop the West was a draw. They were down a man and a goal within 17 minutes, found a way to equalize and ultimately lost 2-1. The Portland Timbers needed a point to avoid the play-in game. They were beaten 4-0 at home.
For a brief moment, it looked like the Colorado Rapids were going to sneak into the postseason when Real Salt Lake kept the door open by blowing their lead in the 88th minute. Colorado’s lead lasted all of four minutes though, leaving three teams with 41 points and giving RSL the final spot. Then there was Orlando City, which conceded four goals to an already-eliminated team and went from the No. 7 seed to traveling for the play-in game. The Chicago Fire also failed to beat an eliminated team, which wound up dropping them from sixth to eighth. Whether you like the play-in game or not, it certainly adds another layer of drama to the regular season finale.