Please enjoy this dribbling machine winger from Ajax

Hello friends, and welcome to a special edition Wednesday grab bag. This is a holiday week in the United States, and we will not be sending out a newsletter on Thursday or Friday. Enjoy your links and games to watch a couple days early. —KM

Mika Godts is a lot of fun

This newsletter is extremely pro-dribbly bois and I figured we’d highlight one who’s we haven’t before ahead of his game on Thursday so you can watch him if you haven’t had the pleasure.

19-year-old Belgian Mika Godts is having a breakout season for Ajax, and he scored the winner against PSV Eindhoven a few weeks ago. Shoutout to Brandon Liss at TFA who called him the next Eden Hazard while he was in Genk’s B team a couple years ago.

Godts had some impressive cameos last campaign, but he’s a key player this year, and he’s adding goals and assists to his tricks. Please enjoy this highlights comp.

Godts has provided some solid all-around attacking output for a winger across all competitions, but the Europa League has been where he’s really shined, racking up 4 goals and 3 assists in 529 minutes.

It’s too early into his career as a first choice player for Ajax to declare if Godts is a player that big Premier League teams should throw down a huge sum of money for, but most of them are probably watching closely. If he maintains these numbers through the rest of the season, I can’t imagine he’ll be at Ajax for very long.

Games we’re watching

As always, times and listings for your region can be found at LiveSoccerTV.

Real Sociedad vs. Ajax — If you’re American, ask your family to turn off the Lions game on Thursday to watch Europa League and let us know how that goes. Sociedad have disappointed in EL and need a win, while Ajax are having a great campaign.

Brighton vs. Southampton — I’d like it if the Premier League was on every Friday. Every game Brighton has played lately has been super close.

Borussia Dortmund vs. Bayern Munich — Der Klassiker might not have the shine it used to, but Dortmund still have the firepower to cause an upset.

Liverpool vs. Manchester City — I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to call this a title eliminator. If City get 0 points they’re done.

Fiorentina vs. Inter Milan — I don’t know if I’m buying the Viola being in this 7-way Serie A title race, but I’ll shut up if they win this one.

Villarreal vs. Girona — Two of the teams in La Liga’s extremely tight race for 4th. A pair of good attacks and mediocre defenses here, expect entertainment.

Stuff we’re reading

Ryan O’Hanlon at ESPN gets into how Chelsea got good again, but why he’s still not buying their transfer approach.

Josh Williams at Distance Covered on Mohamed Salah still being Liverpool’s most important player, and feeling irreplaceable.

Stefan Bienkowski at The Gegenpressing Newsletter asks if Bayern Munich are too reliant on Harry Kane.

Aidan Smith at Tactically Speaking thinks Real Madrid have left themselves too vulnerable on the counter by the way they’ve tried to fit Vini Jr. and Kylian Mbappe together.

Edin Halilović at Total Football Analysis breaks down how Mauricio Pochettino is changing the United States.

Sam White at Football Heritage wrote a history of the Wrexham-Chester rivalry, which might truly be history given the current trajectories of the clubs.

Jessy Parker Humphreys at The Cutback asks what Chelsea women will do at left back with a ton of good options and no perfect ones.

Jake Entwistle at Scouted digs into Tyler Dibling’s elite dribbling ability and asks a question about his dribble and carry OBV that we can answer. It is, indeed, excellent.

On a per-90 basis, he’s currently 2nd in the Premier League, just behind Manchester City’s Savio. Other players of similar output include: PSG’s Ousmane Dembele, Bayern Munich’s Michael Olise, AC Milan’s Rafael Leao, and some guy named Vini Jr.

Philip Buckingham and Seb Stafford-Bloor at The Athletic explain Baller League, because everything is #influencer content now.

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