All posts by h79snht.top

Despite dominating the majority of the game against West Ham on Monday evening, at times it looked liked Manchester United would never make the breakthrough.

That was until Jose Mourinho made the move to bring on Marcus Rashford in place of the faltering Jesse Lingard in the 58th minute.

Rashford’s presence immediately sparked Manchester United into life and made the difference in finally breaking a dogged West Ham defence down.

The teenager hasn’t bedded himself into Mourinho’s side in the way he might have hoped after last season’s starring role, but the weekend’s FA Cup clash against Reading is the perfect opportunity for him to get back into the team and prove to everyone he deserves a spot ahead of others in the Red Devils’ squad.

Here are THREE reasons why Rashford must return against Reading…

Off the ball movement

What Rashford offered most coming off the bench at West Ham was his off the ball movement that dragged players out of position and allowed his team-mates to move into positions to really create danger.

His pace is frightening for most defences in the Premier League, never mind that of Reading’s in the Championship.

If unleashed in the FA Cup on the wide pitch at Old Trafford and he could run riot, especially with the confidence-boosting performance at the London Stadium behind him.

Isolating full-backs

Rashford’s ability to stretch defences comes from the way he can isolate full-backs and take them on one-on-one. We saw that at the London Stadium and an opportunity from the start against Reading could prove fruitful.

That was the instruction from Mourinho on Monday night and he followed it to great effect, assisting Juan Mata’s vital opener just minutes after coming off the bench.

United have often been missing that kind of wing-play recently, often opting to cut inside and try to force the issue through the middle. Rashford gives them a different dimension and different option, taking his man to the touchline and either bursting past him or delivering a cross.

He hasn’t started since November

Rashford hasn’t had the chance to impact a game from the start since the 1-1 draw at home to Arsenal in December.

He has had made nine substitute appearances since then, but it’s time for him to get his chance and a home game against lower league opposition would be the perfect time.

Mourinho has shown he will give players an opportunity who impress – Henrikh Mkhitaryan a case in point – so after Monday’s starring role, Rashford deserves to finally come back into the first-team.

The youngster put together a string of good performances earlier in the season, scoring four goals in six appearances across August and September, and if Mourinho can tap into that again it will only be a massive positive for the Red Devils.

After picking up three consecutive wins against Burnley, Hull City and Swansea City in December, West Ham supporters would have hoped that their side had turned a corner following a disappointing start to the season.

However, they have followed up those three straight victories with three losses on the bounce, scoring no goals in the process.

A crushing 5-0 defeat against Manchester City at the London Stadium in the third round of the FA Cup last week was preceded by 2-0 and 1-0 Premier League reverses against Manchester United and Leicester City respectively.

With key midfielder Dimitri Payet reportedly saying that he doesn’t want to play for the club, Slaven Bilic will need some of his other key players to raise their game when the Irons host 17th-placed Crystal Palace – and former manager Sam Allardyce – on Saturday as the Hammers look to get back to winning ways.

Here are THREE West Ham players that must step up vs Crystal Palace…

Winston Reid

The New Zealand international has been a talismanic player for West Ham ever since he joined them in 2010, and he needs to put in a big performance against the Eagles this weekend following some poor defensive displays by the Irons in recent matches.

The Hammers backline suffered a blow when Cheikhou Kouyate jetted off to the African Cup of Nations with Senegal, which has left a gap in Slaven Bilic’s three-man defence. Reid must be the leader at the heart of the defence and deal with the physical threat of Palace striker Christian Benteke.

Michail Antonio

With the Hammers’ strikers failing to fire this season, Antonio is the club’s top goalscorer in the Premier League with eight goals and has often shown that he can be a match-winner at this level.

After failing to net in their last three matches across all competitions, Slaven Bilic will be looking for his winger to provide a goal threat when Crystal Palace visit the London Stadium – making those runs to the back post that have proved so successful this term.

Andy Carroll

As we mentioned previously, West Ham have struggled for goals from their strikers this season, and they need a big performance from Carroll against Crystal Palace on Saturday.

The 28-year-old has scored two goals since returning from a knee injury that kept him on the sidelined for multiple months, the second of those coming in the Irons’ last win – a 4-1 triumph against Swansea on Boxing Day.

In what is sure to be a physical battle against Eagles centre-back Scott Dann, Slaven Bilic will be looking for his talisman to hold the ball up and come out on top.

As reported by The Sun, Liverpool are ready to make an offer to take Joe Hart to Anfield as their number 1 goalkeeper this summer.

What’s the story?

With Manchester City ready to let Joe Hart leave the club later this year when he returns from his loan at Torino in Serie A, he’ll be one of the hottest goalkeeper properties in Europe.

One man certainly a fan, according to The Sun, is Jurgen Klopp. The Liverpool manager is eager bring Joe Hart to the club and make him his main man between the sticks at Anfield.

The Sun also say Hart is keen to return to the Premier League and is also seeking Champions League football.

There are potential barriers though with Hart’s weekly wage and the fact City would prefer not to sell to a Premier League rival, according to the paper.

Perfect sense

A lot has been said about Joe Hart over the last 18 months. A few high profile errors have coloured people’s opinion of him and there are some who reckon he might not have what it takes to either play for England or one of Europe’s elite clubs.

Hart has been one of Torino’s better players this season. He’s put in a number of fine performances this season with displays against Roma, Empoli and Crotone helping to win points.

A return home would bring a lot of media attention and speculation but if he can get back to making excellent saves again, that would soon die down.

With the future of Loris Karius and Simon Mignolet fairly uncertain given the patchy form of both, perhaps a move to Liverpool would be beneficial to all parties. Joe Hart can prove he still has what it takes and Liverpool get a fine international goalkeeper on their hands.

[ad_pod id=’Shoot-Xmas-Survey’ align=’left’]

[ad_pod id=’playwire’ align=’center’]

Just as Frank Lampard’s retirement precipitated a whole host questions about the former Chelsea midfielder’s role in English football in relation to that of Steven Gerrard, it’s hard to talk about Cristiano Ronaldo without mentioning Lionel Messi.

For one thing, the two are in a class of their own. Former US Presidents often become unlikely pals, and that’s down to the simple fact that there really aren’t that many people in the world who have done the job. They can bond over it. Messi is really the only point of reference that Ronaldo can have – even greats like Maradona and Pele may be in the same bracket in terms of their footballing ability, but didn’t have to put up with the internet, social media. Literally everything that Ronaldo says or does sets hundreds of football news sites flocking to cover it as a story.

And while it’s impossible not to talk about Ronaldo and Messi, it’s often impossible to talk about them, too. When either player comes up with a few goals or even a last minute winner, they often don’t get the coverage that lesser players would get. There is no bias or anything like that, it’s simply because we take it as a given. Of course Ronaldo got that goal, now what’s next? If Messi dribbles around three players and scores, why write about it? He does it so often, we’d never write about anything else.

[ad_pod id=’now-tv’ align=’centre’]

But maybe what we should be writing about is what Ronaldo means to football, rather than the individual contributions he makes on a weekly basis.

The narrative is often placed in a black and white context. You’re either pro Messi or pro Ronaldo. There’s a dark and a light, a good and a bad. It’s borne out of the Pep Guardiola Jose Mourinho rivalry during their Clasico years: Ronaldo’s power and pace, champion of the Mourinho Madrid, and Messi, class and poise, champion of the Guardiola Blaugrana.

The reality is that football is in a position it probably never will be in again: two once-in-a-generation players playing for the two biggest clubs and competing on a national and European stage. At the next World Cup, Ronaldo will enter it as European champion, Messi as the last beaten finalist and reigning player of the tournament (if anyone can be such a thing.) You shouldn’t really pick and choose in such a situation – you should really just savour it.

But there is one thing that the narrative brings that should be used in a positive way: that while Messi is natural talent, Ronaldo is the product of hard work.

That’s unfair on Messi. He’s not just a prodigy who happened to turn into a maestro. There’s no way you can paint him as a fraud or as someone who is just lucky to be where he is. In many ways he’s a freak, but footballing talent is never enough by itself, and if Messi doesn’t look like he works hard, then you’re the fool and the fraud, not the four-time Ballon d’Or winner.

Yet if it’s unfair on Messi, it still relays a wonderful message from the Ronaldo side. No one, not even Cristiano Ronaldo gets anywhere without hard work. Not even Lionel Messi (though that does break the narrative somewhat.)

Messi and Ronaldo are two of a kind, and there’s really no need to choose. But there’s also no need to completely hold them up on a pedestal either – not any more than their achievements deserve, anyway.

Neither player is a ‘natural talent’ because no top talent is natural – not in the freakish ‘I’m so good I don’t need to train’ kind of way. Both players are the product of hard work and hard yards. And if there’s one day on which everyone should reflect on the fact that hard work will always make your ‘natural talent’ much more refined and useful it’s Ronaldo’s birthday.

He wasn’t the top dog when he joined Manchester United. His dedication took him from a show pony on the wing to a striker who knew exactly where the goal was.

And if you can’t talk about Ronaldo without Messi, then there’s good reason: since Ronaldo moved to Real Madrid in 2009, both men have scored 273 La Liga goals (at the time of writing, before the weekend’s fixtures.)

There’s value in hard work, you see.

[ad_pod id=’Shoot-Xmas-Survey’ align=’left’]

[ad_pod id=’playwire’ align=’center’]

There may have been concerns ahead of the season that Zlatan Ibrahimovic would not have been able to cope with the season’s demands at the age of 35, but he has proved any doubters wrong.The former Sweden international is entering the final few years of his playing career, and at this stage, most players’ game time begins to dwindle.After joining United on a free transfer last summer following a four-year spell at Paris Saint-Germain, Ibrahimovic has proven to manager Jose Mourinho that he is an important member of the team.The ex-Juventus and Barcelona striker has scored 23 goals in 36 appearances in all competitions.[ad_pod id=’now-tv’ align=’centre’]He showed how is pivotal to United’s attack when he came off the bench on Sunday to score the winner in an FA Cup fifth-round clash against Blackburn Rovers.Not only can he be clinical in front of goal, Ibrahimovic has proven his fitness.

As OptaJoe’s tweet above shows, no other player in the Premier League has featured in as many games as Ibrahimovic this season.

It is not yet known how long the striker will continue playing at the top level for, but there is an option for him to extend his one-year deal at United by 12 months.

[ad_pod id=’Shoot-Xmas-Survey’ align=’left’]

[ad_pod id=’playwire’ align=’center’]

Arsenal midfielder Santi Cazorla has reportedly been ruled out for the rest of the season, and supporters are not happy.

The Spaniard has been on the treatment table since October with a troublesome ankle injury.

The club have gone through various treatments and operations in a bid to fix the problem, but it has taken plenty of time to find the root of the issue.

According to The Mirror, Cazorla will not play again this season and is focusing on being fit for the start of the 2017-18 campaign in August.

[ad_pod id=’now-tv’ align=’centre’]

After undergoing surgery in January, the midfielder was expected to return to the pitch within two months, but it has taken longer than manager Arsene Wenger anticipated.

Cazorla has made just 11 appearances this season – eight in the Premier League and three in the Champions League.

Fans have given their reaction to the injury setback on Twitter, with some criticising the medical staff at Arsenal.

[ad_pod id=’Shoot-Xmas-Survey’ align=’left’]

[ad_pod id=’playwire’ align=’center’]

N’Golo Kante is on course to win consecutive Premier League titles with different teams. He is not only going to be taking a medal home from each campaign, he will have been the MVP in each team and is one of the reasons why the Blues are always favourites in the latest Chelsea odds. Signed from Caen in 2015, Kante has leapt from normality to superstardom.

Regardless of his undoubted influence on two contrasting, yet equally impressive, teams, people are keen to criticise. Naturally some praise has gone a little over the top, but the number of critics of Kante continues to rise. Whether this is the natural response of people wanting to shoot down someone who is almost universally liked and respected it’s hard to tell, but it is a phenomenon that seems to be growing.

The majority of these criticisms stem from his technical ability. Which, in part, is fair. His passing range is not like Paul Pogba’s or Xabi Alonso’s and he can be wayward with even some simple balls at times. Then again, this is why Chelsea have Cesc Fabregas and Leicester had Danny Drinkwater. Kante is no expert technician, which is not his role, so to use this as means of demeaning his brilliance is dubious.

His ball-playing ability, however, has notably improved during this season at Chelsea. As Antonio Conte would surely tell you right away, Kante’s passing is not why he is in the side, though. He will never be a player to slide inch-perfect through balls and score 10 goals a season, but Fabregas will never be a player to register five or six tackles and interceptions per match -but that does not make him any less of a player.

Another common criticism of Kante is that he only succeeds because of the system. He thrives in counter-attacking teams and is less effective when the opposition have men behind the ball, this is a fact. It is almost irrelevant, though. For a start, he has shown the nous to adapt his role between Leicester and Chelsea and, even when the opponents are sitting deep, he is an excellent player to have covering space at the base of the midfield.

To add to that argument, does it work to the detriment of every player who has a favoured system? Does the fact Andres Iniesta is wonderful at Barcelona but would not be as effective in a Tony Pulis team mean he is not as good a player? No, of course it doesn’t.

In fact, Kante is not a beneficiary of the system, he enables it. As team-mates have mentioned at Leicester and Chelsea, his incredible engine and reading of the game allows them to play with a midfield two. He is such a freak of nature that he allows his team to play a certain shape. Chelsea’s 3-4-3 and Leicester’s 4-4-2 would not be as universally functional without Kante.

It has become a cringeworthy cliché by now, but Kante really does do the work of two players in the middle third. His pressing, ability to quickly turn the ball over and acceleration enable the fast transitions that have epitomised the successes for Claudio Ranieri and Antonio Conte’s sides. Chelsea’s first goal at West Ham just last week was the perfect example of Kante’s importance to the side, he does not only break up the opposition’s play, he wins the ball in such advanced areas that he is often the initiator.

Swathes of people are guilty of judging Kante on aspects of the game he is not in the team to produce. While the Frenchman is playing this well in this Chelsea setup he is undoubtedly the best midfielder in the world at what he does. He is not a Claude Makelele replica, he is unique and he continues to astonish week after week. Kante is playing in a way no one else does to the same effect.

The flexibility he gives his managers tactically, his importance to two successful teams and remarkable ascent to the top of English football make him the most significant Premier League arrival in years. I have never witnessed a player like N’golo Kante, he might not be the ‘best’ in the world, but he is the most influential.

[ad_pod id=’playwire’ align=’center’]

On Monday, Sheffield Wednesday manager Carlos Carvalhal was charged with improper conduct by the FA following the match against Aston Villa at Villa Park on Saturday.

The charge comes in relation to the sending off of defender Vincent Sasso, with the Portuguese manager sent to the stands because of his reaction to the dismissal.

Carvalhal, who has until March 16 to answer the charge, saw his team lose 2-0 against Steve Bruce’s side and they have now won just one of their last five fixtures as they look to secure a place in the play-offs at the end of the season.

If found guilty, the 51-year-old could face a three-match touchline ban which could further dent his side’s top six hopes.

When the news was released on Monday, it’s fair to say that Wednesday supporters were less than impressed, with many suggesting that the FA should take a look at the standard of refereeing instead.

Here are just some of the reactions from Owls fans to the news that Carvalhal had been charged…

West Ham United extended their winless run to five matches following a 3-2 home defeat by Premier League champions Leicester City at the London Stadium on Saturday – another result which shows how they have struggled to adapt to their new home.

The loss to the Foxes means that the Irons have lost their last three top flight matches, and with a number of his stars out of form – and having lost Pedro Obiang, Winston Reid and Michail Antonio to injury – Hammers boss Slaven

Bilic has some big decisions to make in the coming weeks as he looks to end a disappointing campaign on a high.

One of those choices could come between the sticks, where Darren Randolph has been a regular starter since November after previous number one Adrian was dropped for making a series of errors.

However, the Republic of Ireland international has been far from impressive in recent weeks, and perhaps should have done better with Riyad Mahrez’s opener for Leicester at the weekend.

During their sequence without picking up all three points, the 29-year-old hasn’t picked up a single clean sheet, while he has conceded an average of 2.2 goals per game.

With a record of two saves per game, it means that the stopper has made 0.91 saves per goal conceded over the course of the last five fixtures.

One stat that he does impress is the fact that he has a 100% claim success in recent weeks, but Slaven Bilic will perhaps be less impressed with his 64% accuracy with his distribution.

While it may seem harsh on Randolph in some quarters, his manager has shown that he isn’t afraid to make big or controversial decisions – as he did when he dropped Adrian earlier in the season – and another one could be on the cards here.

In-form Tottenham Hotspur star Dele Alli scored the first of his side’s three goals in the opening 45 minutes against Watford at White Hart Lane, and it was a stunning strike.

Spurs knew that they needed to take all three points in order to keep themselves in the title race and maintain the pressure on the leaders Chelsea before the visit of the Hornets, and they certainly were well on their way to doing that at the interval.

The 20-year-old received the ball from Heung-min Son ust outside the corner of the penalty area, before unleashing an unstoppable curling effort into the far corner.

Tottenham supporters were quick to have their say on Alli’s brilliant goal – which was his 16th Premier League goal of an extraordinary season – and some believe he is already the best English midfielder since Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction to the goal…