We kick off this week’s Loan Report with two goals that take our fledgling season’s tally to three. Mario Pašalić got things off and running in the Champions League a fortnight ago and, on Friday night, Vitesse came to the party for the first time in 2015-16.
Headliners
Hosting Roda in their first home match of the new campaign, Peter Bosz’s side finally found their groove after a problematic few weeks which saw them eliminated from the Europa League. They ran out resounding 3-0 winners with Lewis Baker and Nathan each grabbing their first goals in yellow and black. Baker opened the scoring with a penalty in first-half stoppage time whilst Nathan capped things with a lively cameo from the bench and a lovely curling effort late on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFKq-PkchWU
Izzy Brown completed a hard-working ninety minutes on the right side of the attack whilst Danilo Pantic was an unused substitute. Dominic Solanke is still awaiting paperwork clearance before he can debut but there can be no doubt about how much Vitesse will rely on him this season after they released Uros Djurdjevic this week, leaving them with just Solanke and Abiola Dauda as recognised strikers in the squad.
England
Things have gotten off to a generally slow start in the Premier League, although the number did increase by one this past week as Nathan Aké joined Watford for the season. He was signed too late on Friday to be able to feature on Saturday against West Brom, but Marco van Ginkel did start again for Stoke away to Tottenham. He was beaten by Eric Dier from a corner for Tottenham’s opening goal and lasted an hour before being replaced by Mark Hughes.
Patrick Bamford made his top-flight bow with ten minutes from the bench in Crystal Palace’s defeat to Arsenal, whilst Christian Atsu and Bournemouth travel to Liverpool on Monday night; you can keep abreast of any involvement on Twitter by following @chelseayouth.
Tomas Kalas was impressive for Middlesbrough in a 3-0 hammering of Bolton in the Championship, whilst Alex Davey and Jordan Houghton each started a pair of matches for their respective League One sides this week. Davey shone for Peterborough in home wins over Crawley and Colchester, whilst Houghton did similar in a victory at Plymouth and a draw at Port Vale.
Germany
The Bundesliga’s big kick-off saw Andreas Christensen thrown in at the deep end on his Borussia Mönchengladbach debut; starting alongside 20 year-old Marvin Schulz away to Borussia Dortmund. It didn’t exactly go to plan as Dortmund tore them to shreds, racking up an emphatic 4-0 win, but Christensen will clearly learn from the experience and be all the stronger for it.
Netherlands
Todd Kane made his NEC Nijmegen debut as a substitute in a midweek victory against Excelsior, and saw a little more time on the pitch on Sunday in a 3-0 reverse away to Heracles.
France
Mario Pašalić was an unused substitute for Monaco in their goalless draw on Friday night against Lille, with the forthcoming Champions League Qualifier against Valencia perhaps in mind.
Italy
The Italian season got underway with the early stages of the Coppa Italia, with Wallace on the bench for Serie A newcomers Carpi as an unused substitute against Livorno. Stipe Perica wasn’t involved for Udinese, however, and there have been stories that he is set for a return to the Netherlands after encountering several problems since his move to Udine in January.
Belgium
Sint-Truiden travelled to defending league champions KAA Gent on Sunday with a trio of young Blues amongst their number. Victorien Angban started whilst Cristian Cuevas came on in the second half to make his debut for the club, as did Joao Rodriguez a little later on. Rodriguez had a good chance to steal a point in stoppage time but Gent prevailed to win 1-0.
Portugal
Uli Dávila played the last five minutes of Vitória FC’s 2-2 draw with Boavista, kicking off his second spell with the club.
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Matej Delač and FK Sarajevo suffered a surprise 1-0 home defeat at the hands of Zrinjski Mostar on Friday night.
Turkey
Kenneth Omeruo made his Kasimpasa debut away to Gaziantepspor and helped his new club to an impressive 3-0 win to kick off the Turkish season.