UCL Talking Points: Liverpool’s Woes, Mbappe’s Heroics, and Top Teams.

The second week of the 2025-26 UEFA Champions League group stage has concluded, and while the standings are only beginning to materialize, several key narratives are starting to emerge.

The reigning champions, Paris Saint-Germain, secured a victory against Barcelona on their home turf, while Arsenal and Real Madrid maintained perfect records to initiate their respective campaigns.

Liverpool, conversely, suffered a 1-0 setback against Galatasaray, whereas Julián Álvarez and Rasmus Højlund both found the net in triumphs for Atlético Madrid and Napoli.

Continue reading as ESPN’s experts Mark Ogden, Julien Laurens, Sam Tighe, and Gab Marcotti provide their insights on the second week’s action.

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What issues plague Liverpool? Considering their recent struggles and numerous errors, is this a situation that can be resolved quickly, or is a more comprehensive overhaul required?

Marcotti: It’s essential to be realistic; we anticipated challenges ahead. While they did achieve six consecutive victories – seven if you include the Carabao Cup, though perhaps it shouldn’t be factored in – the underlying issues were evident. The need for late goals to secure wins consistently indicates underlying problems. Performance quality is crucial, and it simply hasn’t been up to par.

There isn’t a straightforward, immediate solution for Liverpool, but time should prove beneficial. Crucially, key players like Alexis Mac Allister and Mohamed Salah haven’t performed as well as they did last season. It’s reasonable to expect them to improve. Alexander Isak should also improve with time; his difficulties are understandable, given his summer transition.

I believe they may have overextended themselves by adding five players who are ready to start to a team that had just won the title during the transfer window. This integration will take time, particularly considering the new full-backs, Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez, are so different in style from their predecessors. This explains why Arne Slot has experimented with Dominik Szoboszlai at right-back: Liverpool isn’t ready to accommodate two attacking full-backs just yet.

– Mourinho’s welcome shows how far Maresca needs to go at Chelsea
– Galatasaray taunt Liverpool after significant upset win
– Mbappé’s climb up the Champions League top scorers leaderboard

There’s also a prevalent misconception surrounding Florian Wirtz. It’s a significant transition from playing at Bayer Leverkusen, where the average attendance is 25,000 fans per game, to the intense spotlight at Liverpool. Complicating matters further, he’s being asked to play in the No. 10 role – a position he rarely occupied at Leverkusen, especially not with two wingers and a striker ahead of him. Effectively learning a new position on the fly hasn’t helped.

Will things improve? I anticipate they will in the long term, as Slot is a capable coach, and these players are talented. However, he needs to find the right balance, which, in my view, won’t be achieved with Wirtz in that position. He might need to start on the wing or potentially as a Roberto Firmino-esque center forward. (But then… where does Isak fit in? On the left? Perhaps: Slot will decide.) However, things could also deteriorate quickly because the biggest oversight during the summer was failing to bring in another central defender.

Virgil van Dijk is 34, while Ibrahima Konaté has only started more than 17 league games twice in his eight-year career (one of them was last season). They needed cover, given Liverpool’s congested schedule. The current options, including Joe Gomez (who also has injury issues), Giovanni Leoni (who is 18, started only 14 games last year for a relegated team, and is now out for the season), or Wataru Endo (who is undersized and a defensive midfielder), don’t provide adequate cover. They’re paying a steep price for whatever derailed the Marc Guéhi deal on the deadline day.

Tighe: Liverpool has secured numerous victories this season, often relying on late, somewhat desperate efforts, which is typically indicative of winning due to superior players, rather than systemic strength. This pattern is not necessarily sustainable. With the onset of losses, perspectives shift – what were once viewed as “Champions’ mentality” or “bailout wins” are now scrutinized more critically. Individual struggles of players like Konaté, Kerkez, and even Salah become significantly more concerning.

The delicate equilibrium between defense and attack has been disrupted, with full-backs operating outside their comfort zones, Wirtz struggling to make an impact, and Salah often marginalized on the periphery of games. While a 10/10 performance from Ryan Gravenberch in midfield can keep Liverpool afloat, any dip in his form puts the Reds in severe jeopardy.

Julien Laurens: Slot has bewildered me in the last couple of matches. Last season, Liverpool only had back-to-back losses once, and that was not until March. Now we are still only in September, they were well beaten by Crystal Palace and Galatasaray, and Slot’s starting XIs have made no sense. Whether seeing Wirtz as a false nine with Isak on his left at Selhurst Park, or Frimpong as a right winger with Szoboszlai at right back and Salah on the bench in Turkey, it was incomprehensible.

In both games, the Reds made mistakes, were exposed, unbalanced and inefficient in attack. Salah’s cameo off the bench was terrible (no shots in 30 minutes while chasing the game), and don’t get me started on Isak’s and Wirtz’s performances on Tuesday. Slot has a lot of work to integrate his new players (£500 million worth of them), find the right formula and get the team back on track.

Salah is being wasted at the moment, playing too far from the opposition’s box. Wirtz looks lost. Liverpool used to have strong build-up play with a flat back four and Trent Alexander-Arnold at the heart of it. Now that he’s not there and neither Frimpong nor Conor Bradley can seemingly do what he used to with the ball, the English champions are all over the place, and teams are exploiting it.

Ogden: Liverpool’s defense has been too open all season. The early signs were there in the Community Shield loss against Crystal Palace, the chaotic Premier League opener against Bournemouth, and relinquishing a two-goal lead against 10-man Newcastle United (before scoring a 97th-minute winner). The list continues.

I identify two key problems. Wirtz has disrupted the midfield’s equilibrium, with Liverpool essentially playing a 4-2-4 formation when he starts. He contributes little defensively, and frankly, Liverpool often appears to be playing with 10 men when he’s on the field. Last season’s strength was their relentless work rate and tenacity across the pitch, particularly in midfield. This season, Gravenberch and Mac Allister are being burdened with too much responsibility on their own.

The other critical issue is the players Liverpool have lost. While attention has focused on underperforming new signings, Alexander-Arnold’s absence has created a huge void, Luis Díaz’s (now at Bayern Munich) presence made a significant difference, and Diogo Jota’s tragic death has left Liverpool without a forward who consistently delivered crucial goals.

Perhaps Slot’s title win last season was due to a final push from Jurgen Klopp’s team, and the transition has fully begun.

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Considering Real Madrid’s ongoing development, how much is Kylian Mbappé’s contribution and goal record helping? Is his performance masking underlying problems that Xabi Alonso needs to address?

Marcotti: I am not sure that Mbappé’s goal-scoring ability really hides the underlying issues of the team. This was not the case last season, for example, when he scored over 40 goals. Of course, Real Madrid will beat most opponents simply because they have an extremely good goalkeeper and attacking players who can produce goals from nothing. However, I don’t think scoring many goals in Almaty, against an 18-year-old goalkeeper who is making only his second first-team start, tells us that Mbappé is really good.

Overall, Xabi Alonso’s issues remain. He is a coach who focuses on systems and has taken over a team that, throughout the Zinedine Zidane/Carlo Ancelotti era, was very successful by putting the players first — rather than the setup. And he must work within this framework.

Certainly, they addressed some issues over the summer—particularly the defense, though this wasn’t obvious against Atleti on Saturday. Gonzalo García might fill Joselu’s role as a “large, target center forward” when needed, and Arda Güler has developed as a player, with Franco Mastantuono contributing quality and youth. However, we shouldn’t forget what hindered them last year: a lack of creativity in midfield following the departure of Toni Kroos and Luka Modric, which remains a problem against stronger teams than Kairat Almaty.

Perhaps Güler is the answer, but then, where does Jude Bellingham fit in? Maybe Xabi’s strategies and tactics will reduce the need for a creative playmaker, but this will take time. Either way, we are not there yet.

Tighe: Mbappé’s early season numbers are impressive (13 goals by the end of September is pretty ridiculous) and he has looked completely unstoppable so far, but there are other improvements Alonso can point to. Los Blancos have limited their opponents to less than 1 xG in five of their first nine games. In LaLiga, they have allowed the fourth-fewest shots on target (22), and watching them, you can see pressure being applied after losing the ball to win it back high. This did not happen last season under Ancelotti.

That is not to say that they have suddenly become an excellent pressing team, but those spurts of energy—with Aurélien Tchouaméni dominating in the center—have been a factor in some solid performances that Mbappé has finished. The Atlético Madrid performance last weekend was concerning because it was their first major test and they failed, but just three goals conceded in the six previous league games suggests it is not all about King Kylian.

Laurens: Mbappé is totally carrying this team so far this season. Without him and his goals, there is no way that Madrid would have started the 2025-26 campaign so well in terms of results.

He has never started a season so well, scoring 14 goals in nine appearances for his club in all competitions. Mbappé has also scored in six consecutive games in all competitions for the Merengues — eight straight games if you include the two World Cup qualifiers he played for France in September.

He started brilliantly in 2018 while at PSG, but he was much younger and did not give the same impression of being unstoppable and unplayable at times. He comes on the pitch knowing that he will score. Only Mallorca has kept him quiet so far this season. While Alonso is struggling with his changes and we do not see much improvement in Madrid’s collective performances compared to last season, at least he knows that he has a goal-scorer who can win him games out of nothing.

Ogden: Without sounding too much like Roy Keane, Mbappé is scoring goals — and that is his job! All the big strikers have started this season incredibly, with Harry Kane scoring 20 goals in 14 games and Erling Haaland scoring 14 in 13 appearances — so Mbappé’s numbers (14 in 12) are what a forward of his caliber should be producing.

It is probably going too far to suggest that he is currently carrying Madrid or masking their problems, although I accept that Juls will always stand up for his guy. Basically, Alonso has had to work without his best midfielder (Bellingham) and deal with injuries to Alexander-Arnold and Dani Carvajal’s return from a long absence. We shouldn’t forget Modric’s departure to AC Milan.

Alonso is averaging 2.6 points per game, which is better than Ancelotti or Zidane managed—so, aside from the Atleti defeat, things aren’t that bad. However, it certainly helps when your superstar forward is doing what he is expected to do.

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Given Julián Álvarez’s recent dominance against Eintracht Frankfurt, should he be considered among the elite center forwards? Although he was ranked No. 7 in the FC 100 this summer, has he proven that he deserves a higher ranking?

Marcotti: He is definitely elite, and I say this as someone who has not been a particular admirer in the past. However, it is difficult to ignore his technical ability.

Should he be ranked higher than 7th in the world? Let’s consider the options: Mbappé, Kane, Haaland—I would place all of them above him. Then there is a group including Victor Osimhen, Isak, Lautaro Martínez, and Álvarez (and perhaps Serhou Guirassy, based on his goal record).

So, yes, I would say that 7 is about right (Note that I have not mentioned Cristiano Ronaldo…)

Tighe: Álvarez is exactly the type of forward I admire—multifaceted, hardworking, and versatile. He is incredibly talented and currently in excellent form, so the “No. 7 in the world” ranking seems a bit low. However, looking at the names ranked above him, I am not convinced that I would shift him above any of them except for Martínez—partly because I do not necessarily consider Martínez a striker in the traditional sense.

Álvarez is certainly proving his ability as a full-fledged No. 9, but to surpass talents like Haaland, Robert Lewandowski, and Isak? I need to see more from the Argentine. He is on the verge of achieving something special, though…

Laurens: Although he is not to everyone’s taste (hello, Stewart Robson and Gab!), he is quite a player! Watching him dismantle the Frankfurt defense on Tuesday was a pleasure. Real Madrid could not cope with him last weekend, and neither could Rayo Vallecano a few days earlier, making it a week in which he scored six goals in three games. His movement, intelligence, stamina, technical ability, and understanding of the game make him a fascinating player, even if he plays for a Diego Simeone team. He can play in any forward position if you build the team to make the most of his strengths.

I enjoy watching him play, wherever he is and whoever he is facing.

Ogden: No, he is not in the same category as Mbappé, Kane, and Haaland, and I would not choose him over Salah or Isak. Álvarez never had to carry the goal-scoring responsibility at Manchester City because he had Haaland alongside him, and he is playing slightly away from the spotlight with Atlético.

They are a top club that always competes in the Champions League, but the expectations in an Atleti shirt are not comparable to those at Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, or Liverpool. He is a technically gifted forward who will always score goals, but he needs to be the main player at a top club before we can start comparing him to the best forwards.

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Paris Saint-Germain rallied to win 2-1 at Barcelona in the marquee matchup of Week 2. What did this game reveal about these two teams, who are considered favorites (along with Arsenal) to win it all this year?

Marcotti: Barcelona’s defense has a significant weakness where Iñigo Martínez would normally play. It is quite surprising that they would lose him and choose to spend their limited funds on additional attacking players (Marcus Rashford, Roony Bardghji, etc.) rather than bolster the defense. Pau Cubarsí is excellent, although he mistimed his tackle for the opening goal, and he is still only 18. So, are they really going to rely on a combination of Cubarsi and either Eric García, Andreas Christensen, or Ronald Araújo for the remainder of the season?

Defending in space with a high line is not easy; not everyone is capable of it, and even skilled defenders struggle to adapt. However, it’s not overly complex, and they do not necessarily need to stick with players who are already familiar with the system.

As for PSG, I was highly impressed, once again, with Luis Enrique. We can all list the absentees, but it is the way that the young players stepped up and performed their roles. Ibrahim Mbaye is 17, and Senny Mayulu is 19. They have made 18 league starts between them, mostly against weaker Ligue 1 teams, which is certainly not comparable to facing Barcelona in the Champions League. PSG remains composed and unfazed (in addition to their quality), which is crucial. Credit to Lucho, again.

Ogden: This match revealed two key insights. First, Barça remains unchanged from last season—strong offensively but defensively lacking. Second, PSG demonstrated that they are more than just their starting eleven. Despite missing Ousmane Dembélé, Désiré Doué, Marquinhos, and João Neves, they still went to Barcelona and defeated a team considered a favorite to win the Champions League this season.

Barcelona will not win the competition unless they improve their defense. This game was their first significant test since the semifinal second leg loss against Inter Milan last season, and they ended the game in exactly the same way: