The first full weekend across Europe’s Big Five leagues produced plenty of worthy Team of the Week candidates, but this edition requires one small scheduling adjustment.
Real Madrid and Barcelona both played their postponed Matchday 1 games during the week, so those performances count here along with the normal weekend and Monday slate. That gives us two games to evaluate for each Spanish giant and, not coincidentally, puts four Madrid or Barcelona players into the team.
The formation is nominally a 4-3-3, although we are taking some liberties by listing Joshua Kimmich as a defender/midfielder. Team of the Week selections have survived worse positional crimes.
Player of the Week: Kylian Mbappé, Real Madrid
Nobody else was particularly close.
Because we are counting Real Madrid’s displaced Matchday 1 fixture, Mbappé played twice during the selection window and scored four goals.
He produced a hat trick Wednesday against Real Sociedad, turning a 1-1 halftime draw into a 4-1 Madrid victory. Mbappé restored the lead in the 60th minute and later completed the hat trick with a composed finish after Vinícius Jr. played him through.
Four days later he scored again against Málaga, meeting Alexander-Arnold’s cross with a volley to make it 3-0 before the first half was even finished.
The larger concern for the rest of Spain is how naturally Mourinho’s early version of Madrid appears suited to Mbappé.
Madrid does not need to dominate every possession through slow buildup. They can draw an opponent forward, regain possession and suddenly release Mbappé, Vinícius and Bellingham into space. Even when opponents defend deeper, Alexander-Arnold and Madrid’s midfielders provide enough passing quality to find the runs.
Mbappé scored four times this week, but the concerning part for everyone else is that very few of the goals looked particularly difficult for him.
Madrid keeps putting him in places where his speed and finishing are almost impossible to defend.
Three games into the season, Real Madrid has won all three.
Mbappé looks like he is just getting started.
Goalkeeper: Patrick Beach, Troyes
Troyes picked up an impressive 2-1 road win at Lorient, and Patrick Beach was a major reason they escaped with all three points.
The Australian goalkeeper faced five shots on target and saved four of them, including several difficult stops. The only goal he conceded came through a deflection that gave him little opportunity to react. Beach has now allowed only one goal through his first two Ligue 1 appearances after moving back to Europe.
There were not many dominant goalkeeping performances across the five leagues this week, but Beach made the saves his team actually needed in a tight road victory.
Defender/Midfielder: Joshua Kimmich, Bayern Munich
We are fudging Kimmich into the back line, but his performance against Stuttgart was too influential to leave out.
Bayern opened their Bundesliga season with a 5-1 win over a Stuttgart team that finished fourth last year. The final score makes it look comfortable from the start, but it wasn’t. Stuttgart pushed Bayern during the opening stages and equalized early in the second half before the champions pulled away.
Kimmich helped change that. He assisted Dayot Upamecano’s opening goal from a set piece, then created Michael Olise’s go-ahead goal only three minutes after Stuttgart had equalized.
More importantly, he controlled the middle as Bayern gradually took possession of the match. Kimmich remains one of those players whose value is better understood by watching where the game is being played than simply counting goals and assists. This week he provided both.
Defender: Eric Dier, Monaco
Marseille had 64 percent of the possession against Monaco and completed nearly 600 passes.
They also lost 2-0.
Eric Dier was a major reason all that possession produced so little. The veteran center back finished with 14 clearances, helped Monaco protect their penalty area and contributed the assist for Paris Brunner’s second goal with a long ball over the Marseille defense.
It was exactly the sort of defensive performance that possession statistics can obscure. Marseille moved the ball around Monaco for long stretches but rarely managed to turn that control into clean looks at goal.
Dier helped make sure of it.
Defender: Dayot Upamecano, Bayern Munich
Upamecano joins Kimmich after contributing at both ends of Bayern’s opening-day win.
The center back scored the first goal in the 21st minute, getting on the end of Kimmich’s delivery, and remained solid as Stuttgart made Bayern uncomfortable for portions of the first half.
The 5-1 final score slightly exaggerates how easy the afternoon was. Stuttgart eventually found an equalizer and had enough early success to test Bayern’s structure. Upamecano was one of the players who kept the match under control until the attack eventually took over.
A goal from a center back is nice. A goal combined with a good defensive performance against one of last season’s Champions League qualifiers is enough for the Team of the Week.
Defender: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Real Madrid
Trent’s transition to Real Madrid continues to look increasingly natural.
Against Málaga, he was essentially Madrid’s primary distributor from right back, repeatedly advancing the ball into dangerous areas while the midfield and front line moved around him. He also supplied the cross for Kylian Mbappé’s volley that made it 3-0 inside half an hour.
The underlying numbers reinforce what was obvious watching the game. Alexander-Arnold led Madrid in open-play expected threat created and progressive passes, functioning less like a conventional right back and more like an additional playmaker.
There will be tougher defensive tests than newly promoted Málaga, but Madrid did not sign Trent to spend 90 minutes standing next to the center backs. They signed him because he can change the geometry of an attack from deep positions.
This was a very good example.
Midfielder: Vitinha, Paris Saint-Germain
PSG was headed toward a disappointing 2-0 loss at Lille before Vitinha dragged them back into the match.
He scored from outside the box in the 91st minute to give PSG hope, then delivered the cross for Marquinhos’ equalizer four minutes later.
Those decisive moments came at the end of another match where Vitinha served as the center of PSG’s possession game. Even when Lille’s compact defensive setup frustrated the champions, Vitinha continued looking for ways to advance the ball rather than merely accumulating harmless passes.
PSG did not play particularly well.
Vitinha did.
Midfielder: Pedri, Barcelona
Pedri does not have the statistical line of several midfielders who missed this team, but watching Barcelona over their two matches this week makes it difficult to leave him out.
Against Athletic Club on Thursday, Pedri completed 52 of 54 passes and assisted Raphinha’s opening goal in Barcelona’s 2-0 win. He followed that with another excellent performance Monday against Rayo Vallecano as Barcelona controlled 69 percent of the possession and generated 26 shots in a 5-2 victory.
Pedri is increasingly the player who determines how quickly Barcelona wants to play. He can accelerate an attack with a vertical pass, recycle possession when the opening disappears or drift into a different pocket to give the buildup another outlet.
There were more productive midfielders this week.
There were not many who controlled two games as consistently.
Midfielder: Jude Bellingham, Real Madrid
Counting Madrid’s postponed Matchday 1 game makes Bellingham an easy selection.
He created two goals in the 4-1 win over Real Sociedad, including the assist for Mbappé to restore Madrid’s lead after halftime and another for Vinícius Jr. during the decisive second-half stretch.
Then he scored one himself against Málaga.
Bellingham opened the scoring with an outstanding individual effort in the 19th minute and nearly added another later, hitting the post. Madrid had the game effectively over within half an hour.
The interesting part of Bellingham’s role under José Mourinho is how many different ways he can influence a match. He can drop into midfield and help progress possession, press aggressively when Madrid loses the ball and then suddenly appear alongside the forwards in the penalty area.
Two assists followed by a goal makes the production obvious this week. The movement behind that production was just as impressive.
Forward: Bruno Fernandes, Manchester United
Manchester United’s season was threatening to get uncomfortable very quickly when Ipswich took the lead at Old Trafford.
Then Bruno Fernandes took over.
The United captain scored the equalizer shortly before halftime and completed a hat trick during a dominant second half as United recovered to win 5-2. He finished with eight shots and was involved throughout the attacking phase rather than simply showing up to finish three chances.
One of the goals came from the penalty spot and Ipswich is not exactly an elite opponent, which keeps Fernandes out of the Player of the Week spot.
Still, game state matters.
United entered the match under pressure after losing at Hull and then fell behind at home to a newly promoted team. Fernandes was the player who prevented the afternoon from becoming considerably uglier.
Forward: Raphinha, Barcelona
Three goals across two games is a pretty convincing Team of the Week application.
Raphinha opened the scoring against Athletic Club on Thursday, finishing a chance created by Pedri to put Barcelona ahead in what remained a competitive game until late.
On Monday he was even better.
Rayo Vallecano surprisingly took the lead after 12 minutes, but Raphinha answered seven minutes later and then scored again in the second half after Rayo had pulled back within a goal. Barcelona eventually won 5-2.
Raphinha already has five league goals through Barcelona’s first three matches.
There are more naturally gifted dribblers and more aesthetically pleasing attackers scattered around Barcelona’s roster, but Raphinha has developed into an extremely efficient player. His movement consistently puts him in dangerous areas and, when Barcelona needs somebody to turn possession into an actual goal, he keeps being the one who does it.
Striker: Erling Haaland, Manchester City
Sometimes there is no complicated tactical explanation required.
Erling Haaland got two good opportunities against Crystal Palace and scored twice.
His first came from a header to give Manchester City the lead in the 17th minute. His second arrived late, with Haaland running onto Phil Foden’s pass and finishing with his left foot to complete a 4-1 road victory.
Palace is also a significantly more difficult opponent than several of the teams that surrendered big scoring performances elsewhere this week.
Haaland’s game will always generate strange debates because there can be stretches where he barely touches the ball. But the purpose of his movement is not to accumulate touches. It is to occupy center backs, stretch the defensive line and eventually arrive in a place where one pass creates a shot.
Against Palace, City found him twice.
That was enough.
Team of the Week
GK: Patrick Beach, Troyes
D/M: Joshua Kimmich, Bayern Munich; Eric Dier, Monaco; Dayot Upamecano, Bayern Munich; Trent Alexander-Arnold, Real Madrid
M: Vitinha, Paris Saint-Germain; Pedri, Barcelona; Jude Bellingham, Real Madrid
FW: Bruno Fernandes, Manchester United; Raphinha, Barcelona; Erling Haaland, Manchester City
Player of the Week: Kylian Mbappé, Real Madrid