All posts by h716a5.icu

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It is still hard to comprehend exactly how Borussia Dortmund didn’t lift the Bundesliga title last term. At the half-way point, they led Bayern Munich by six points, and when that gap went to seven with 14 games to play, it all looked a little too easy for Die Schwarzgelben. In the end, though, the inevitable happened: the Bavarian juggernaut went on a 14-game unbeaten run to end the campaign, whilst BVB crumbled under the pressure. Once all was said and done, it was just not to be for Lucien Favre and co. This time around, however, will be a very different story.

Whilst watching the two sides last season, one of the main differences between the squads was the levels of experience. In Bayern’s, there were players such as Mats Hummels, David Alaba, Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben and Robert Lewandowski, men who have been around the block more than once and know all about what it takes to win.

Dortmund, meanwhile, were led by standout performances such as those from 20-year-old Achraf Hakimi and 19-year-old Jadon Sancho. The only player aged 30 years or more to make 10 or more appearances was Lukasz Piszczek. In fact, the Poland international was only one of three players over 29 in the whole squad.

Of course, that has not changed during the off-season, but the Dortmund men have learnt a valuable lesson: the pain of defeat. This in itself is almost as important during a career as the victories.

They have also been clever in the transfer market and did all of their business very quickly. Nico Schulz, who performed well enough with Hoffenheim last season to earn a Germany call-up, joined in defence, whilst Thorgan Hazard and Julian Brandt were brought in to boost an attack that already did so fantastically last time around – Götze, Reus, Paco Alcacer and Sancho racked up 88 goals and assists in the league between them.

BVB’s pre-season form is another strong indication of improvement. They have won every single warm-up match, including a 3-2 victory against Champions League-winners Liverpool. They then followed that up with a 2-0 triumph against Bayern in the German Super Cup on Saturday, which will be another psychological boost for Die Schwarzgelben.

Above all, though, there is a confidence coming from the top that it is their time. Comments from the club’s managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke show just that. In an interview with German outlet Zeit, he spoke about why last season’s performance has given the club a “platform” to take the next step. Whilst last term the title challenge came as a bit of a surprise, the goal ahead of the new campaign is simple: win the Bundesliga.

As it stands, Bayern are still the champions and, after having been so for the past seven seasons, there are still remnants of that aura of invincibility about them. But the times are changing in Germany. The Bavarians are not the force they once were, and Dortmund are ready to step up and take their place at the very top.

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Manchester City have started the new 2019/20 Premier League season with a bang.

But despite an incredible opening day clash against West Ham United, which ended with five goals in the net of the Hammers, the Citizens have dropped points in their second match.

The game against Spurs was impressive by Pep Guardiola’s troops but not enough to claim all three points on the day.

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Still, if there was a player one could pick out from the crowd for Manchester City so far, it would most likely be Raheem Sterling.

The young forward has already netted four goals in just two appearances in the new campaign and he doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon.

But now, he has taken to Instagram to share a brilliant throwback photo with none other than Usain Bolt.

And interestingly enough, the talented forward mentions Bolt as one of his first idols from his youth.

It seems that the two are good friends and Sterling also mentioned that they should definitely get a new picture together since this one is rather old, and just a bit blurry.

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A rampant Nottingham Forest side retained the Brian Clough Trophy as well as securing their place in the Carabao Cup third round with a 3-0 victory over rivals Derby.

Albert Adomah was arguably the star, scoring the opener from a Rafa Mir flick-on before turning provider for their second, picking out Joe Lolley with a pinpoint cross.

Phillip Cocu’s night then got even worse a little over ten minutes from time when his defender Curtis Davies attempted a clearance that hit substitute Joao Carvalho and powerfully rebounded into the goal past Ben Hamer.

Forest boss Sabri Lamouchi rotated his side slightly by giving starts to fringe players such as John Bostock and youngsters like Brennan Johnson whilst Lolley, Joe Worrall, and Matty Cash also began the match.

Wolves loanee Mir was handed his first start for the club having featured in short cameo spells in four of their five Championship matches this season, but his showing last night was far from inspiring in the minds of some Forest supporters.

One fan believed the Reds were in trouble if Lewis Grabban got injured whilst a further member of the City Ground crowd claimed the 6 foot 3 forward had a ‘mare,’ comparing him to a young Daryl Murphy.

Mir has assisted two goals this season but is yet to get on the scoresheet.

Another supporter stated that the 22-year-old was the only negative from last night as he is wasting too many chances.

You can read more of the reaction below:

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[ad_pod ]Juventus have announced their squad for the group stages of the Champions League and the exclusion of a familiar face has saddened some Liverpool fans.Emre Can is the man to miss out, and there is some sympathy for him from the Anfield faithful despite the German international moving to Turin after rejecting a new contract with the Reds.A natural reaction could be to make fun out of the midfielder, but fans are choosing not to be vindictive and instead feel sorry for Can, who had clearly looked to join the Italian champions to further his career and opportunities in such competitions.The Old Lady have failed to balance their squad efficiently over summer, and have now been left with seven first-team centre-midfielders – including Can – which could be the reason behind why he has had to miss out.Some fans have used the opportunity to show their appreciation for the player, acknowledging the fact that he may have been poorly advised in his decision to leave.Here are some of their responses to the news on Twitter.

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Former footballer Tony Cascarino believes Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling could be a future winner of the Ballon d’Or award.

Sterling has started this season in fine fashion, opening his goalscoring account in the Community Shield, before starting City’s latest defence of the Premier League title with a hat-trick against West Ham United – and was on target while on international duty for England this weekend with his strike against Bulgaria.

Speaking on TalkSPORT, Cascarino believes that Sterling’s stock is firmly on the rise, with the 24-year-old cementing his place as one of the best players in the world – and could be in contention for the accolade should he achieve further success at City.

He said: “I would definitely argue he’s in the top five players in the world.

“What excites me about Sterling is the improvement. The improvement has been dramatic.

“If you were to put him on the market tomorrow, Manchester City wouldn’t take £150m for him.

“If he continues to improve, he’ll become the first or second [best player in the world] and probably win the Ballon d’Or along the way.

“If he wins the Champions League with Manchester City and plays a big part in that, and he scores a lot of goals over the course of the season, he’ll have a great chance of winning it.”

Sterling is certainly seeing a marked improvement in front of goal – with his current tally of six goals in five games for Manchester City leaving him well-placed to reach last season’s total of 25 in all competitions.

And after the duopoly of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo came to an end following Luka Modric’s triumph in 2018, perhaps Sterling will be one of those to challenge in the near future as its usual, ageing recipients enter the twilights of their careers.

Manchester City fans, can you see Sterling becoming a future Ballon d’Or winner? How many goals can he get this season? Let us know by joining the discussion below!

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The race for the Premier League title and the battle to avoid the drop can often be a hit-and-miss spectacle. Some years you can get incredible epics, and others you can get damp squibs. But the top-four race? Oh boy is that a different beast altogether. The bid to secure Champions League football is guaranteed excitement, and regularly offers up a tantalising climax.

The way things ended last season, and how the summer transfer window shaped up, this campaign’s battle to finish fourth is likely to be just as jaw-dropping as years gone by. Below is a look at how things have fared over the past decade, and it should hand clubs outside the proverbial ‘big six’ a bit of encouragement. Get yourselves strapped in ladies and gentlemen, we’re in for a bumpy ride.

From Peter Crouch’s dramatic late goal at Manchester City to hand Tottenham Champions League football in May 2010, to the Lilywhites edging out north London rivals Arsenal last season, it really has been quite the decade for fourth-placed finishes. The points tally needed has never dropped lower than 66 points, and it hasn’t gone higher than 79 points in these last ten campaigns.

It has generally ebbed and flowed around the 70-75 points region, but two campaigns in particular threw up some very intriguing extremes. Take a look below:

Snapshot: 2013/2014 – Arsenal finish fourth with 79 points

This season may forever be remembered for Steven Gerrard’s slip at Anfield that handed the title initiative to City. But it is also the year in which it took the highest number of points over the past decade to just finish fourth. To put Arsenal’s haul of 79 points into perspective, the north London club would have won the Premier League in both the 1996/1997 and 1997/1998 campaigns.

Why did it take such a tally to simply finish fourth? All the clubs that finished in the top four – City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal – all had a legitimate chance of winning the title at some point in the season, and were racking up victories left, right and centre against everyone below them. In the end, the Gunners finished a sizeable seven points ahead of fifth-placed Everton after claiming an impressive 24 victories in total.

Snapshot: 2015/2016 – Manchester City finish fourth with 66 points

The year of Leicester City, the Foxes’ miraculous title win that will go down in the history books as one of the most unexpected and stunning sporting achievements. Claudio Ranieri’s side’s improbable triumph was largely due to their brilliance, but it certainly helped that the rest of the chasing pack almost had an aversion to wanting to seize their opportunities. The 66 points that City needed to finish fourth – the lowest of the past decade – came about from all the traditional big sides struggling at the same time.

None of the ‘big six’ had a consistently good run of form, and the fact that Liverpool, who finished in eighth, were just six points off the final Champions League spot underlined the inconsistency of the top teams. City finished above arch-rivals United on goal difference, while Southampton were desperately unlucky in their efforts to break the Premier League monopoly as they ended up in sixth – just three points off fourth.

Verdict

Since Liverpool amassed 76 points in the 2016/2017 campaign, the last two seasons have seen a decline in the points needed to finish fourth. Last year, Spurs managed 71 points, but lost an incredible 13 games.

Whilst Liverpool and City continue to storm away at the top, the gap between the other Premier League sides is shrinking. Already this season we have seen United beaten by Crystal Palace. Spurs have lost to Newcastle. Chelsea have drawn to Sheffield United. And Arsenal can’t seem to win the big games once more.

The rest of the big six look vulnerable in a way they haven’t really been in many a year. Transfer turmoil, managerial changes and off-the-pitch issues have all played their part in reducing the gap between the regular top-four contenders and the chasing pack. All that should mean the likes of Everton, Leicester, West Ham and Wolves stand a better chance of upsetting the apple cart.

The average points needed to finish fourth over the past decade stands at 72 – 71.7 points to be exact.

But as the so-called ‘smaller’ teams continue to get better, and the bridge to the top gets reduced, that number should diminish over the coming years.

Only on three occasions did we see the number fall below 70 points over the past decade. The way things are panning out this season, this year could be the fourth time in 11 years.

And that spells very good news for managers hoping to spring a Leicester-esque surprise.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Off the Bench series, which places in-game managerial decisions and squad selections under FFC’s microscope.

Aston Villa’s poor run in the Premier League continued on Monday night as they were held to a goalless draw by a ten-man West Ham United.

Snapshot

The critical moment in the match came in the 67th minute when Hammers left-back Arthur Masuaku picked up his second yellow card of the game thus duly receiving his marching orders from referee Mike Dean.

Whether it was deserved or not is another story to tell, but after a couple of glances, it did look rather harsh on the 25-year-old.

At this stage, West Ham had been well on top without looking particularly threatening, recording 59.4% possession as well as just one shot on target.

With the visitors losing a man, you could say the game was there for the taking.

Off the Bench

Just a minute before the crucial incident, Dean Smith had brought on Ahmed Elmohamady in place of Jota, who had a particularly poor game all round, recording a rating of just 6.11 while also being dispossessed five times, per WhoScored.

The Egyptian was actually the man felled by Masuaku in what was his first contribution to the match.

But then the Villa boss made a huge blunder by not capitalising on their man advantage – his next substitution came some 14 minutes later – replacing defensive midfielder Marvelous Nakamba with a similar player in Douglas Luiz.

A truly bizarre move.

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As soon as the Congo international headed down the tunnel, striker Keinan Davis should have been stripped and ready to go, but instead, he was brought on in a mark of desperation with just five minutes remaining – like he was ever going to have an impact in such a short space of time.

The burly forward would have added a new dimension to Villa’s attack as his mere 33 minutes of Premier League action this season has seen him win three aerial duels, which is more than the zero Wesley managed in this game.

By leaving it too late, Smith squandered the chance to take full advantage and ultimately his decision, or lack of, contributed towards the drab stalemate at Villa Park.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Loan Watch series, which takes a closer look at those players who are aiming to galvanise their careers away from the spotlight of their parent club.

Rangers have a mini injury crisis on the wings with Ryan Kent joining Jordan Jones on the treatment table.

And that shortage of personnel has been heightened by Jake Hastie hitting the ground running after a loan move to Rotherham United.

A left winger, Hastie has scored three goals in three games already, including the equaliser against Sunderland at the weekend.

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Warne has been delighted with his summer acquisition, calling him a “menace” after his performance against the Black Cats.

Hastie arrived at Rangers from Motherwell on a free transfer this summer after he shot to prominence in the second half of last season.

He scored six goals in just 12 league appearances in Scotland’s top flight last term. His form earned him a nomination for Young Player of the Year though he was, ironically, pipped to the award by Rangers’ Kent.

Hastie had been restricted to just one appearance this season for the Scottish giants, though, so a loan move was always going to be an option to continue his development.

Hastie only has 84 senior appearances in his career and at the age of 21, he needs a large volume of games to iron out the inconsistencies in his play.

Of course, it looks like a poor decision to send him out due to the club’s injuries, but he needs regular football and staying at Rotherham makes all the sense in the world.

He has outscored Jones and Scott Arfield so far this season; if he keeps this up, he could be given his opportunity next term.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

Wolves’ start to the current Premier League campaign has been nothing short of abysmal as the west Midlands club sit second bottom after six matches.

This weekend they will face Watford, who are the only team below them in the table so come five o’clock on Saturday they could well be the side holding up the rest of the league.

That’s quite the contrast to last season where the club recorded their best-ever finish in the Premier League era with seventh place.

Part of their problems could be attributed to them competing in the Europa League this season after having to play six qualification games before they had even reached that number domestically.

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But there’s only so far that excuse will carry as it has the potential to leave the club in a precarious situation even though we are just entering October.

Another one of their troubles has been further up the pitch in attack as Nuno’s men have only managed to net seven goals which rank them as the fourth-worst in the Premier League.

It is becoming increasingly clear that they lack real depth despite adding Patrick Cutrone for £16m in the summer, but they did also let two attack-minded players depart the club on loan, which is looking more and more baffling each week.

Raul Jimenez has played over 40 times this calendar year so quite rightly he looks exhausted while Diogo Jota only got off the mark on Sunday with his first of the season.

Therefore, letting Ivan Cavaleiro and Helder Costa leave Molineux this summer could result in the manager becoming a victim of his own downfall.

Are Wolves set to become the new Man City? Find out why in the video below…

There are a few times this season they could have used a different threat up top, like against Crystal Palace – they may have salvaged a point in the end, but the game was there for the taking in the first half as Wolves recorded seven shots to the home side’s one.

Cavaleiro has been one of Fulham’s key players this season having scored three and assisted three in eight league matches, per WhoScored, while Costa’s loan spell at Leeds United just hasn’t been worth it, coming off the bench in all of his eight appearances, also per WhoScored.

He may well have been better off staying in the west Midlands.

Between them both last season they racked up just 22 starts, though, they managed four goals and three assists.

Ultimately, the Portuguese boss could have done with the extra options as they face the added burden of Europa League and Carabao Cup matches on top of the Premier League every single week.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more… 

When it was confirmed that Liam Cooper would miss up to six weeks of action, there were understandable concerns from supporters.

The Scot, newly capped by his country, has been an imperious figure under Marcelo Bielsa.

He was named in the PFA Team of the Year last season and has since gone onto miss just one game in the Championship this season. He’s also been handed a new deal at Elland Road.

The club captain obviously has a huge influence but the bitter blow of losing him is sure to be felt hard.

However, they can help overcome it by possibly changing systems.

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On the chalkboard

In his pre-match press conference ahead of the trip to Millwall, Marcelo Bielsa named five possible options to play in the centre of defence beside Ben White – Gaetano Berardi, Kalvin Phillips, Leif Davis, Pascal Struijk and Olly Casey.

Another option could be Luke Ayling too, someone who hasn’t played in that role for ten months, but can deputise if necessary.

Berardi seems the most likely choice after replacing Cooper last Tuesday and appearing comfortable but they could make up for their skipper’s absence by moving to a three-man defence, particularly on Saturday.

This is because it could present them more cover and also give them a helping hand against the colossal Matt Smith.

He has won over nine aerial duels per game this term and will pose a large threat, in more ways than one, to Leeds’ defence.

Why are Leeds fans the best in the country? Find out in the video below…

Playing three central defenders and having one to sweep Smith and mark him tightly would be a good idea and it might help make the Whites more compact when defending deep – that’s if they find themselves in a situation where that’s required.

Berardi has already looked confident in a back three and that was seen when he kept a clean sheet and also scored against Salford. He also played in that system during Leeds’ 2-2 draw with Stoke in the Carabao Cup.

This defensive line could involve White, Berardi and also Phillips. The last two names played next to each other in those two League cup outings.

Bielsa operated with this formation last term and it worked significantly as Leeds failed to lose when utilising a three-man defence.

With Cooper missing, this should at least be thought about as an option for the Argentine.

It has worked in the past and could well work again if they need more cover now a key figure is absent.