Last week’s Loan Report was perhaps the least eventful in the history of the weekly catch-up but, seven days on, we come with better news and, most importantly, GOALS!
Headliners
Patrick Bamford netted his third goal of the season for Middlesbrough on Saturday as he helped Aitor Karanka’s team to a 3-0 victory away to Rotherham United. It was the England Under-21 international who opened the scoring with a nifty turn and strike that found the bottom corner.
He was the only one of four Chelsea loanees to actually feature in the match Rotherham’s John Swift left as unused substitutes, whilst neither Kenneth Omeruo or Jamal Blackman were in the visitors’matchday squad.
Over at Stoke a few minutes later on Saturday, Victor Moses was putting the finishing touches on his first goal for the Potters as he opened the scoring in their home clash against West Ham. It wasn’t a classic and might well go down as the scrappiest #loanwatch goal of all time, but hey, they call count.
[gfycat data_id=”TerrificScholarlyIberianemeraldlizard”]
Moses’ afternoon would however be soured by a lack of defensive discipline that saw him switch off and allow Stewart Downing to ghost in and secure the equaliser that saw the match finish 2-2.
Meanwhile over in Germany, Thorgan Hazard also scored his third goal of the season in midweek as Borussia Mönchengladbach overcame Lucas Piazon’s Eintracht Frankfurt in the German Cup. The younger Hazard opened the scoring early with a very well taken goal and played 86 minutes of their eventual 2-1 win, with Piazon not involved whatsoever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8jiA44X6jg
England
Rounding up the rest of England means beginning once more with Ryan Bertrand, who has been a very important part of a Southampton team which has now won ten of their last eleven games. He was rested for their 3-2 League Cup victory at Stoke (for whom Moses was also rested) but back in the team for another very reliable and dependable outing on Saturday as Ronald Koeman’s side went second in the table with a 1-0 win at Hull.
Christian Atsu was an unused substitute for Everton against Swansea as his disappointing stay on Merseyside shows little sign of improving and the same goes for Nathaniel Chalobah at Burnley. Despite the Clarets not having won at all this season they still refuse to give their talented Chelsea loanee a start and instead he was limited to just ten minutes at the end of their mauling by Arsenal this weekend.
Germany
Following his goalscoring exploits on Wednesday, Hazard was back on the bench as Gladbach hosted Hoffenheim in a clash of two of the last three unbeaten teams in the Bundesliga on Sunday. He got ten minutes as his team won 3-1.
Oriol Romeu was substituted midway through the second half of Stuttgart’s embarrassing 0-4 reverse at home to Kevin De Bruyne’s Wolfsburg whilst Piazon once again stayed on the bench for the duration of Frankfurt’s defeat at Hannover.
Tomas Kalas wasn’t even considered for Köln’s cup win at Duisburg nor their league fixture at home to Freiburg Sunday. Last weekend he was afforded time off and chose to go back to his old stomping ground in Arnhem to take in a Vitesse fixture. He’d be more than welcome back there in January if the opportunity arose…
Netherlands
…not least because Peter Bosz’s side continue to struggle defensively. They lost 3-1 at Utrecht on Sunday in a match that had perhaps as little Chelsea influence as any Vitesse fixture in the past two years has had. Bertrand Traore was the sole loanee to start – and he only played an hour – as Wallace missed the match with a broken hand and Josh McEachran continues to suffer ankle issues.
They did at least beat Dordrecht in midweek cup action but the Utrecht performance was a disappointing return to the negative side of things after a recent impressive run.
Stipe Perica served the final two matches of his suspension for NAC Breda this week and will be back in contention from now on.
France
Bastia beat Auxerre 3-1 in French Cup action this week, a fixture that allowed Joao Rodriguez to play some thirty minutes from the bench in the second half. It was his biggest involvement to date and the Colombian certainly caught the eye, although not enough to force his way into Claude Makelele’s starting line-up for the weekend’s league fixture against Guingamp. Bastia lost 1-0, Rodriguez played the final ten minutes.
It was still more playing time than Matej Delač saw at Arles-Avignon though; the Croatian has lost his starting job to Naby Yattara. That’s not good.
Italy
Fernando Torres played 78 minutes for Milan at Cagliari in midweek but did about as much as Marco van Ginkel, who watched the full match from the bench. The same setup was in place as they hosted Palermo on Sunday and once again, Van Ginkel didn’t get to play. Palermo won 2-0.
Marko Marin is still awaiting his Serie A debut after remaining an unused substitute for a pair of league fixtures this week.
Spain
Mario Pašalić was included in the Elche starting line-up for the first time since late August and helped Elche to a 2-1 win over Espanyol, playing 82 minutes as well as he’s played all season.
Gael Kakuta will be in Monday night action for Rayo Vallecano vs Eibar and you can keep up to date with how he fares on Twitter by following @chelseayouth. The same goes for Uli Dávila as Tenerife travel to Zaragoza at the same time.
Greece
Islam Feruz started for OFI Crete in midweek as they beat Xanthi 1-0 in the Greek Cup but he was withdrawn at half time in favour of eventual goalscorer Mayron George. He was back on the bench on Sunday for the trip to Panthrakikos Komotini and stayed there for the duration of their goalless draw.
Chile
Cristian Cuevas is not close to impacting upon Universidad de Chile’s first team squad and therefore he will only be mentioned in this report going forward if he appears in any form.