The Loan Report: September 26 – October 2

Posted By on October 2, 2016

We’ve had a flurry of goals in every single week of the Loan Report season so far, and the past seven days proved no exception to that, with four more to bring you this time around. Let’s dive right in with birthday boy Tammy Abraham.

Headliners

The prolific young forward celebrates turning 19 today (Sunday) and did so by scoring his 11th goal of the campaign in all competitions at home to Nottingham Forest on Saturday. He followed that by assisting the winning goal; not a bad way to crown a week in which he was also named the PFA Fans’ Player of the Month for September and received his first England Under-21 call-up.

He was one of three loanees to score in weekend Football League action in England, with Christian Atsu and Charlie Colkett also chipping in with decisive goals for their respective clubs. Atsu, in his first start for Newcastle, scored the only goal of the game away to Izzy Brown’s Rotherham with a ferocious left-footed finish cutting inside from the right.

Brown himself played well but was unable to help the Millers mount a comeback.

Colkett, meanwhile, made his first start for Bristol Rovers away to Northampton, who were guarding a nine-month unbeaten home run at Sixfields Stadium. The 20 year-old made short work of dismantling that particular run, assisting the second of Rovers’ three goals before scoring a stoppage-time winner to lift Darrell Clarke’s boys to 7th.

Fellow Blue Jake Clarke-Salter was an unused substitute but did make his senior professional debut for the Gas in their midweek defeat at Sheffield United, and was very impressive in doing so.

Last, but by no means least, is Lewis Baker. His pinpoint-accurate free-kick against Groningen for Vitesse on Saturday night was his fourth goal in as many games and his fifth in nine outings for the season, and helped to ensure a much-needed 2-1 win.

As usual, he was pretty central to everything good Henk Fraser’s team did. Team-mates Nathan and Matt Miazga came off the bench in the closing stages as time-wasting substitutes.

England

Patrick Bamford was an unused substitute for Burnley against Arsenal, Kenedy and Nathan Aké were both unused substitutes as Watford and Bournemouth played out a 2-2 draw whilst Loic Remy is still absent through injury at Crystal Palace.

Kasey Palmer played 76 minutes for Huddersfield in midweek as they too beat Brown’s Rotherham but then returned to the bench – where he was unused – as Town beat Ipswich 1-0 on Saturday to stay top of the Championship.

Tomas Kalas missed both of Fulham’s fixtures this week through injury but Lucas Piazon did start against both Nottingham Forest and QPR. They’re clearly missing Kalas though, earning just a point from the double-header, compared to just one defeat in eight with the Czech centre-back in the team.

Good news this week came in the form of reports that Alex Kiwomya doesn’t require surgery on his dislocated shoulder and should be able to return to non-contact training in the near future. Crewe have struggled in his absence – they’ve not won since he got hurt – and will be hoping to get him back as soon as possible.

One of those matches was against Jamal Blackman’s Wycombe, who beat them 5-1 in their midweek head-to-head. Blackman was frustrated not to have kept a clean sheet in the emphatic win but made amends for that by shutting out Exeter City on Saturday in a 1-0 win for his fourth blank of his spell at Adams Park.

Jordan Houghton’s Doncaster Rovers stayed second after a draw against in-form Carlisle and a win away to Portsmouth; he completed both matches as per usual and became the first loanee this season to top 1000 minutes played.

Alex Davey came off the bench twice for Crawley this week in matches against Colchester and Blackpool, but Mitchell Beeney remains absent.

Dion Conroy played the last half an hour of Aldershot’s impressive 1-0 win at York City, but Nathan Baxter and the Met Police suffered two 1-0 defeat at Enfield and Needham Market this week.

Spain

It’s been a frustrating week down at Granada, where manager Paco Jemez was sacked after a less-than-auspicious start to the season. Jeremie Boga and Victorien Angban were both omitted from their squad for the home game against newly-promoted Leganes in his absence and a 1-0 home defeat will have done little to allay the storm brewing at the club. The next fortnight promises to be key with regards to their development between now and January.

Charly Musonda was back on the Betis bench for the trip to Real Sociedad despite a match-winning assist last week, and he got his customary twenty minutes to try to help them out of a hole they’d dug themselves into. One or two bright moments saw him on a different wavelength to his team-mates, Betis lost 1-0, and Gus Poyet remains under some pressure.

Italy

Juan Cuadrado played the second half of Juventus’ 4-0 stroll at Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League, before then getting his first 90 minutes of the season in a 3-0 win at Empoli in Serie A on Sunday morning.

Mario Pašalić was absent from Milan’s squad for their defeat of Sassuolo.

Germany

Andreas Christensen faced the might of Barcelona in midweek Champions League action and held his own pretty well despite the eventual 2-1 defeat.

His Sunday Bundesliga outing against Schalke went badly to the tune of a heavy 4-0 defeat. Baba Rahman played the last four minutes from the bench, having played ten in the same situation during Thursday’s Europa League win over Red Bull Salzburg.

Michael Hector was an unused substitute for Eintracht Frankfurt away to Freiburg.

Netherlands

Bertrand Traore remains a fixture in the Ajax team, lining up on the right of a front three in order to accommodate the highly-rated Kasper Dolberg in the centre-forward’s role. He played a useful 90 minutes in an unconvincing 1-0 win over Standard Liege in the Europa League in midweek and did the same as a late comeback helped them to a 3-2 win over Utrecht in the Eredivisie on Sunday, although he’ll look back with regret at missing this last-minute sitter.

https://twitter.com/VitesseCFC/status/782557242465878016

Danilo Pantic, though, was sent off for picking up two yellow cards in Excelsior’s 3-0 defeat at Go Ahead Eagles on Saturday night.

Belgium

Royal Excel Mouscron restored Matej Delač to the starting position in goal for their trip to Eupen this weekend and were rewarded with a handsome 4-1 win. They’ve won both matches in which the Croatian has started and should hopefully stick with him ahead of the hapless Vagner going forward.

Islam Feruz was an unused substitute, as was Cristian Cuevas as STVV drew 2-2 with Oostende on Friday.

Turkey

Kenneth Omeruo started for Alanyaspor at home to Istanbul BB but it was a forgettable experience all round as they suffered a 5-0 home defeat.

Brazil

Having not featured whatsoever for more than a month, it came as a surprise to see Wallace starting for Gremio away to Cruzeiro on Saturday night. He played the duration of their 1-0 defeat.

Colombia

The same can’t be said of Joao Rodriguez, unfortunately, as his absence against Cerro Porteno in the Copa Sudamericana on Friday continued a six-week long stretch without featuring for the first team.