Loads of Leeds fans have been reflecting on the week’s Championship action, and they’re absolutely full of praise for club captain Liam Cooper.
Last season, Cooper was one of the primary scapegoats when things were going so poorly under Paul Heckingbottom.
The captain was a symbol of everything going wrong at the club, constantly struggling with injuries and failing to reach expectations.
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Since the arrival of Marcelo Bielsa though, perhaps only Kalvin Phillips can claim a bigger turnaround in fortunes than Cooper, who is now absolutely crucial to the Whites’ promotion push.
The 27 year-old, who of course assisted Phillips’ late equaliser at Middlesbrough last weekend, was in fine form once again on Wednesday evening as Leeds dominated Swansea City at Elland Road.
The Swans did get a late consolation goal from the spot after goals from Pontus Jansson and Jack Harrison gave the hosts a 2-0 lead, but this was a dominant performance from Bielsa’s side, particularly through the spine of the team.
Cooper won three aerial duels, made four interceptions and also completed 85 per cent of his passes, and you can find some of the best Twitter reactions down below…
Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane may currently be on the treatment table, but that hasn’t stopped transfer rumours circulating the footballing world over a potential exit this summer.According to Tuttosport, the England talisman is a top target for Serie A giants Juventus this summer with Mauricio Sarri’s side willing to pay £180m for his services.They claim that the Italian outfit are leading the chase for him with both Manchester clubs faltering this season.But this is something that former Spurs striker Gary Lineker struggles to believe as he claimed the papers “haven’t got a clue” on Twitter last night.He said:
Kane’s future has been speculated ever since he picked up a hamstring injury against Southampton on New Year’s Day.
The Telegraph ran a story suggesting that the north London club would struggle to keep hold of the 26-year-old should they fail to win silverware this season, and since then, their exit from the Champions League has been confirmed meaning they are not in any cup competitions.
Spurs also have to overturn a seven-point deficit to even challenge for the top four in the Premier League.
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Lineker may not have belief in Kane’s potential exit from Tottenham anytime soon, but if he’s to earn a better chance at clinching a trophy or two, then he’ll have to do exactly that as he enters his prime years.
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Shane Long has told Southampton’s official website what came as a “killer blow” to him.
The 82-cap Republic of Ireland international ended the 2018/19 campaign in fine form, scoring four goals in the last seven Premier League games including strikes against eventual Champions League winners Liverpool and also Wolves.
This term, Long has scored just once in the Premier League while also grabbing two assists.
It has also been reported that he is in talks with the Saints over a new two-year contract.
However, he couldn’t help but discuss that aforementioned “killer blow” which came after Mick McCarthy left him out of the squad for the European Championship qualifying match against Switzerland back in August.
What did he say?
Speaking to Southampton’s official website about that killer blow, Long said: “Obviously not being in the squad here, the manager of Ireland decided to pick players who were playing at club level and I was overlooked. I spoke to him about it, we kept it very civil, he told me his reasons and I accepted that.
“It was tough because I was really looking forward to it at the time and I needed that game time. I wanted something to clear my head because I wasn’t involved here, so that was a killer blow for me.
“I think it was the first squad since I’ve got into the Ireland team where I’ve been fit but not selected. It was tough for me to take – another body blow, as I say, but I’ve got over it.”
Has responded well
Ever since suffering what he describes as a “killer blow”, the former Reading, West Brom and Hull striker has done well to respond to that setback.
He has managed to break into Ralph Hasenhuttl’s starting XI alongside Danny Ings – who has an incredible 15 Premier League goals to his name this season – while also popping up with some vital contributions for his side.
Long managed to grab a huge assist for Ryan Bertrand’s goal in the win over Norwich in what was a relegation six-pointer at the time, while he then registered his second set-up of the Premier League campaign in a 2-1 win over Leicester, which helped the Saints to another three points.
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Let’s just hope, for Long’s sake, that McCarthy is taking note of his efforts.
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Rangers went head-to-head with Kilmarnock on Boxing Day in the penultimate game of 2020 for the title-chasing outfit.
Celtic consolidated their 5 point lead at the summit of the division with a 2-1 win away at St Mirren, while the Gers recorded a 1-0 victory against Killie.
The looming Old Firm derby, which is due to take place on Sunday afternoon, was naturally a key factor to consider for Steven Gerrard when choosing his starting XI.
After scoring his 11th goal of the season in a 3-0 win over Hibernian prior to Christmas, Jermain Defoe kept his place at the spearhead of the attack as Alfredo Morelos was left on the substitutes bench – a decision that prompted plenty of social media reaction.
The Colombian attacker’s absence was a key talking point amongst the Rangers fans, and many were keen to praise their manager for the decision.
Meanwhile, other fans seemed less enthused by the decision as one suggested that the striker is physically capable of playing two games in the space of just three days.
Finally, one fans expressed concern over the decision, suggesting that Gerrard could be making a big mistake if this is a sign that Morelos will be left out of the starting XI against Celtic this weekend.
However, it seems likely that the 23-year-old will be restored to the starting lineup after scoring the winning goal from the substitutes bench on Thursday.
Loads of West Brom fans took to Twitter on Monday evening to pin the blame on boss Darren Moore for the 1-1 draw with Brentford at the Hawthorns.
The Baggies should have been out of sight by half-time, but both Jay Rodriguez and Hal Robson-Kanu missed gilt-edged chances and the two sides went into the break at 0-0.
In the 77th minute youngster Harvey Barnes, who is on loan from Leicester, finally broke the deadlock for the home side with his eighth goal of the season, and it was then that many Baggies fans wanted to see Moore make a substitution to see the game out.
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The 44-year-old, who was only given the job on a permanent basis in the summer, used just the one sub in the whole game though as he brought Dwight Gayle off the bench at half-time for Robson-Kanu.
This meant that 32-year-old James Morrison played the whole 90 minutes in midfield, despite looking out on his feet in the last period of the match.
The Baggies then paid the price as Brentford substitute Lewis Macleod ghosted into the box to head past Sam Johnstone in injury time, securing a point on the road for the Bees.
The Yorkshire Evening Post’s chief football writer Phil Hay has said on Twitter that Leeds are hoping that forward Patrick Bamford is still being assessed following a knee injury that he sustained playing for the under-23s team last week.
This would be a major setback to a Leeds side that are flying high at the moment, and could be an injury that could curtail their momentum.
As Hay said, the club are hoping that the injury is not serious, but manager Marcelo Bielsa should be prepared for all possibilities if the injury proves to be long term.
While Bamford has primarily been used as a substitute this season for The Whites, he has certainly been part of Bielsa’s plans, playing a pivotal role when coming on for the final half hour of the match usually. Now the Argentinian boss will have to look at a way around that.
It is an injury like this that could stunt the momentum that Leeds have built so far this season. The Championship is all about momentum, and keeping hold of it as long as possible, and this will be something that Bielsa must manage well.
Leeds sit at the top of the Championship table with four wins and two draws from their opening six games this season, but face a tough test at Millwall this Saturday.
These are the trying tests that prove the worth of a manager, and if Bamford’s injury proves to be worse than Leeds expect, it’s down to Bielsa to manage through this situation.
Newcastle United were on the receiving end of an English Premier League thrashing on Saturday, losing 3-0 at home to Watford.
Marco Silva’s side humiliated the Magpies in their own backyard thanks to goals from Will Hughes and Andre Gray, with DeAndre Gray also netting an own goal.
It’s the fourth straight defeat in the top-flight for Rafa Benitez’s side, who will now be looking below them rather than above them in the league table.
Form like that is bad enough but the nature of Saturday’s loss was hard to take for supporters, who are growing tired with under-performing players like Joselu failing to get the job done.
A summer signing from Stoke City, the Spaniard has failed to impress since his move to St James’ Park and was so poor against Watford that some are saying he is one of the worst players they’ve ever seen wear the stripes of Newcastle.
Supporters took to Twitter to share their thoughts on his performance…
Manchester City target Bernardo Silva flew into Manchester airport last night, leading to odds on him becoming Pep Guardiola’s first summer signing being slashed, according to reports from the Manchester Evening News.
The 22-year-old arrived at Manchester Airport on a flight from Mallorca and is believed to have had a medical at the club’s academy on Friday morning ahead of his proposed move to City.
The Portuguese star has scored 11 goals and made 10 assists for his team-mates during AS Monaco’s title winning campaign and impressive Champion League run under Leonardo Jardim this season, making him one of the hottest young properties in European football.
But Manchester United have also been linked with Silva of late, so with his Man City move seemingly close to completion, should Jose Mourinho’s side look to hijack the deal at the final hour? Think Willian ditching Spurs for Chelsea, or even United muscling in on Dimitar Berbatov.
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We may only be in November but it is fair to say that the race for the Scottish Premiership has been all but won as Glasgow Celtic currently sit ten points clear at the top of the table with a game in a hand over nearest challengers, Aberdeen.
It looks as if Celtic are now set to secure a sixth consecutive Scottish top flight title, which will also be a first league title for Brendan Rodgers since he took charge of the club back in May
Such a title haul is impressive but let’s not forget this has been, in the main, a one horse race what with arch rivals Glasgow Rangers having had to work their way back up the league ladder after being demoted back in 2012. What has been disappointing from neutrals’ points of view is the fact that Rangers have failed to push Celtic on a domestic front since their big comeback.
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Perhaps after promotion from the Championship last season that was going to be too much of an ask for Rangers this time around, but many will hope that once the blue half of Glasgow acclimatises to life in the Premiership they can then turn the competition into a two-horse race once again.
With domestic matters all but wrapped up, the focus now turns to Europe and this is where Rodgers will really be judged. When the draw for the Champions League group stages were made you always felt that Celtic were going to have an uphill task to make the Round of 16, what with them being paired with both Barcelona and Manchester City. And with them sitting bottom of the group after four matches, fears have been justified.
Life in the competition got off to the worst start possible as they went to Barcelona and were handed their worst ever European defeat when Lionel Messi and co ran riot in a 7-0 win at the Nou Camp. How different it could have been though had Moussa Dembele scored a first half penalty with the score at only 1-0 to the home side.
With Dembele seeing his penalty saved, Celtic went on to capitulate after the break in what was an embarrassing night for them, and one that highlighted the gulf in quality between the two sides. The hope after this game for Rodgers would have been that defeat to the Catalan giants would be the low point and it would only be up from there.
And you would have to say that their next performance was a massive improvement. They played out a stunning six-goal thriller with Manchester City, but after going ahead three times they then had to make do with as share of the points, but at least they were off the mark and their memories of Barcelona could be somewhat banished.
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In fairness to Celtic, though, these opening two games were somewhat free hits. The key was how many points they could pick up in the pair of encounters with the group’s fourth side, German outfit Borussia Monchengladbach.
If Celtic were to have any realistic hope of reaching the knock-outs then they needed a maximum six-point haul from these two matches, unfortunately they picked up just one and are now clinging onto competition participation for dear life. Even Europa League entry for Celtic looks unlikely
And I guess the overriding issue for Celtic is no matter how much they dominate at home the fact that they are not being tested week in week out means they are more often than not exposed when going up against some of Europe’s biggest names.
Add the fact that the squad seems to regress in terms of quality over time and it makes the challenge of competing at Champions League level very difficult. Credit must go to the club for reaching the group stages this season after a long period of exile but they have struggled to really establish a foothold in this season’s competition.
On the balance of things, a more than probable league title and participation in Europe’s top club competition will still be deemed a successful first season for Rodgers. In a job where sometimes even winning the Scottish League is not enough, as the sacking of Ronny Deila proved, Celtic not only have to win, but win in style.
With no real challenge this campaign bar four feisty Old Firm matches, then many would have looked at Europe as the chance for a real test, but when the test results come back they will show that Celtic have failed at the very highest level.
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The Italian's appointment was met by scepticism by some, while Adam Lallana had no idea who he was, but he is now the hottest manager on the market
On the evening of October 22, 2022, Roberto De Zerbi was a man under pressure. He had only been Brighton boss for just over a month, but he had yet to win a game in the Premier League. A 3-1 loss at Manchester City represented a third defeat in his first five outings.
It was feared that all of Graham Potter's excellent work on the south coast was in serious danger of being undone, with the team having dropped from fourth to ninth following his departure to Chelsea. Maybe Graeme Souness had been right when he claimed that De Zerbi "doesn't know our game".
Yet those that actually do know the game could see that the Italian's daring tactical approach was starting to take root at Brighton.
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'His impact in England will be massive'
City may have triumphed that evening at the Etihad, but something very strange had happened: the reigning English champions had lost the battle for the ball. Brighton had restricted their hosts to just 48 percent possession.
"They propose a type of game we're not used to," Pep Guardiola admitted afterwards, before boldly predicting, "De Zerbi's impact in England will be massive." Guardiola has a tendency to lavish meaningless praise on opponents but, on this occasion, he meant every word. And he's been proven right, too.
Just seven months after his arrival in England was greeted with almost widespread scepticism, De Zerbi is being hailed as a tactical genius who has managed to marry the best principles of Pep's possession play with Jurgen Klopp's controlled counter-pressing chaos.
Not that he's allowing the praise to go to his head. "I've been coaching for 10 years and I've learned to live in this world," he told the last month. "Now that the results are smiling at us, compliments and nice words abound. But it's important to know how to decipher them.
"I don't want to change anything, just do what I'm capable of: leaving my imprint on the team. Here, I think I have succeeded in a short time, but the credit goes to the players."
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'Almost father-son relationship with players'
The Brighton squad wasn't against his appointment. But that was mainly because they had never heard of De Zerbi, as Adam Lallana is now "embarrassed" to admit. The former Liverpool midfielder has claimed, though, that he was the first Brighton player to understand what exactly Potter's replacement was trying to do, and thus played a key role in his team-mates embracing the new approach.
"Even if he doesn't speak English well, and I don't speak Italian, we understood each other just by looking at each other," Lallana told the . "It was hard for us at the beginning, because Potter had left us while we were fourth in the table: we were all sad and not at all players like change. But I knew we had to go on, that we had to move on, also because there were immediately important games to play.
"And I remember how De Zerbi immediately wanted to get things across to the group, how he wanted everything to change quickly, and convey the passion and love he has for football. It took a little bit of time, but I think we still adapted very, very quickly, with an open mind and a willingness to hear what he had to say.
"We started to see that things worked his way because of the way he is as a person, the almost father-son relationship he creates with the players. I remember telling him to let me know what he wanted, that I was ready to explain to the team-mates why they had to follow him. And I did it: I explained that it would be difficult at the beginning, but that we would see the results and we would be successful."
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Few better footballing sides in Europe
He wasn't wrong. Brighton narrowly missed out on a place in the FA Cup final, losing on penalties to Manchester United in the last four, while ahead of Thursday's game against the same opposition, they sit eighth in the Premier League table, with games in hand over all of their rivals for a fifth-placed finish.
What's most impressive about Brighton's results, though, is how they are being achieved. There are few better footballing sides in Europe right now, let alone England.
While he still occasionally dabbles with Potter's three-man defence, De Zerbi has successfully implemented his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation, which he uses to put opponents in a most uncomfortable position. If they choose to sit back, Brighton will dominate possession and pick teams apart with some of the remaining principles of Potter-ball. If they elect to press, though, Brighton will pass through them, as swiftly and directly as possible.
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'Launching the ball is the equivalent of gambling'
Obviously, such a daring strategy requires the utmost quality and composure from each and every single player entrusted with possession of the ball. It feels like a high-risk tactic. There are those that frown upon building from the back and instead espouse knocking it long when required.
De Zerbi, though, sees things very differently. "To me, launching the ball upfield and trying to win the second ball is the equivalent of gambling," he once told , "and since I don't like to bet, I prefer to train a team to bring the ball carefully out of defence."
As he now freely admits himself, this Brighton side best exemplifies his footballing philosophy, the one with which he enjoys "the most harmony". He rather humbly puts that down to the foundations put in place by his predecessor Potter and the intelligence of his players, but Lallana has been astounded by just how quickly "he managed to get so many guys to play in such a specific way".
"I think that's what makes him so incredible," the Englishman said. "He got a group of 25 players to follow him, to always stay focused, and to embrace his idea of football."