All posts by h716a5.icu

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Despite being just 18-years-old and having scored just two senior goals in his career so far, Leeds United’s Jack Clarke sealed a £10m transfer to Tottenham Hotspur last week.

Such is the premium placed on promise – particularly homegrown prospects – players of Clarke’s potential are likely to be scouted further by Premier League clubs. It’s par for the course.

Naturally teams are intent on retaining their best players, and Leeds United have shrewdly secured Clarke’s services for another campaign by signing him on a season-long loan.

However, in many instances, the allure and the financial superiority of clubs in England’s top-flight proves too difficult to resist for both player and club.

Marcelo Bielsa’s emphasis meaningful youth integration last season was reflected in his selection policy, as Tyler Roberts established himself as a first team regular in the second half of the season, Clarke was often used as an impact substitute and Jamie Shackleton was sent on to replace Adam Forshaw in the semi-final of the Championship play-off clash with Derby County.

While Leeds will hope to avoid the poisoned chalice of becoming a stepping stone outfit, other talented youngsters in the Argentine’s squad could yet emulate Clarke’s path.

Shackleton, for example, is a fine example of a Leeds player who could pursue a similar avenue to Clarke. Having attained 21 appearances in the Championship last season, four of which were starts, one senses this coming campaign could prove pivotal in his progression.

Shackleton’s innate talent and promise are abundantly clear, and realistically, the 19-year-old has the best chance out of Leeds’ budding talents to secure a Premier League move in the future.

One of Shackleton’s greatest qualities is his versatility, and his refined technical ability enables the teenager to play at right-back or in central midfield. Despite being deployed sporadically for much of the Championship season, he amassed a couple of assists.

Most interestingly, in an age of ultra-specialised and forensically instructed players, Shackleton’s skill set stands out as being comparatively unique. The Leeds starlet is proficient in multiple areas of his game, and he approaches every on-field task with peerless vigour and intent.

A season of more significant and consistent involvement with Leeds would be of undeniable benefit to his development.

Similarly, Tyler Roberts is another promising Leeds prospect who could harbour ambitions of a return to the Premier League.  He made his top-flight debut for West Brom against Liverpool on the final day of the 2015-16 Premier League season, and unlike Clarke and Shackleton, Roberts is in rather a peculiar position.

Despite having only scored 14 goals in 77 senior appearances, the 20-year-old has already received six caps for Wales – with Giggs often favouring the youngster ahead of the experienced Sam Vokes when Gareth Bale is absent. While a goal tally of three goals in 28 league games is an underwhelming return, especially for a striker, the Welshman does demonstrate exciting potential.

Roberts is an intelligent forward who often utilises his sharp movement to run the channels effectively. He’s often quite a selfless striker, who looks to bring others into play, as evidenced by his six assists in the Championship last season.

As a technically competent forward who exhibits good speed, Roberts has the promise and the necessary attributes to become a good player. Presently, his goal return is his biggest hindrance to fulfilling his potential; but if he overcomes that obstacle, then he could develop into an excellent centre-forward.

As alluded to previously, youth integration is a commendable area of focus at Leeds United, and Bielsa’s squad includes several promising players, for whom this coming season could represent enormous importance to their progression.

Players such as Leif Davies and Tom Pearce who are caught on the periphery of the Whites’ first-team. While Davies and Pearce, as left-backs, are in direct competition with each other, it’s these players – young players with limited senior experience – that could become so crucial to Bielsa.

In the context of Clarke’s move to Tottenham, more attack-minded players like Ryan Edmondson and Robbie Gotts can take inspiration in the fact that a move to a Champions League finalist materialised after a solitary season of senior football. In an age of ludicrous inflation in the transfer market and considering the prospective insecurity that Brexit will bring, this could be the time for young players, especially homegrown players, to make their presence known.

[ad_pod ]Four years ago, a certain Argentine defender arrived at the Etihad from Spain, and managed to leave a big mark on the team.Nicolas Otamendi joined Manchester City exactly four years ago yesterday and the rest, as they say, is history.Since 2015, the now 31-year-old centre-back has had a pretty good career with the Citizens, to say the least.Watch Manchester City Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

He has played a total of 173 games, even managing to tally eight goals and four assists to his name.

Just last season, in 2018/19, he took part in 33 games for Pep Guardiola’s troops across all competitions as he played his part in their great domestic success, clinching four titles for their trophy cabinet.

Now, he has taken to Twitter to celebrate this great moment.

So far in the new 2019/20 Premier League campaign, the Argentine defender has played one full game for the Citizens.

But he also participated in the Community Shield clash against Liverpool that also ended in a success for Pep Guardiola’s men.

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Surely it can’t just be us who find the unnecessary blue neon background lighting a little annoying. We just want to know what colour it is for goodness sake.

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Many Barcelona fans don’t really seem to like Ernesto Valverde all that much. In fact, they don’t like him at all, and their latest social media activity is probably proof enough.It all happened when Tribuna released their newest coach power ranking and compiled a list of 20 best managers in Europe.Blaugrana’s coach found his way onto the list as he was ranked 12th among some other high-profile coaches.Watch Spanish Football Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

And lots of Barcelona fans were quick to jump to social media and Twitter to voice their disappointment over the final results and also give their own opinions on where exactly should Valverde rank.

Of course, the fact that some of the coaches, who they believed were much better than Valverde, were ranked below him seemed to bother them a lot.

Some even think that the Ant should not even be near the top 20 and they made sure their voices were heard.

You can see some of their reactions in the collection of tweets below.

Check them out…

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

Over the weekend, Sheffield Wednesday finally appointed Steve Bruce’s successor with Garry Monk taking the reins at Hillsborough.

Bruce departed for Newcastle United back in the middle of July with Lee Bullen being named caretaker boss for the third time.

The Owls started the season well but have since slipped to three defeats in four games and could use the wealth of experience that Monk possesses at Championship level after managing Leeds United, Middlesborough and most recently Birmingham City.

His system and way of playing could bring an opportunity for several players that have struggled to make an impact in south Yorkshire, none more so than Sam Winnall.

Watch Sheffield Wednesday Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

On the Chalkboard

Monk’s preferred formation is 4-4-2, per Transfermarkt, and it is one he frequently played at Birmingham last season, which means there’s potentially a spot available to partner Steven Fletcher in the attack.

Maybe it is Winnall’s time to shine at long last.

At 5 foot 9, he offers a differing presence to Fletcher, who stands two inches taller and is likely to be the target man under Monk.

Che Adams is the same height as the 28-year-old, and he partnered Lukas Jutkiewicz upfront at Birmingham so that certainly can be mirrored here – that duo garnered 36 goals in this very league last season.

Winnall joined Wednesday in January 2017 but has scored just four times in 28 appearances, per Transfermarkt.

In the following season he was loaned out to Derby County and ever since then he has struggled to cement a spot in the starting lineup, playing just eight matches last campaign.

His record in the division is actually pretty good, scoring one in every three games, having netted 21 goals in 63 career appearances.

Winnall just needs a run in the side with a manager that can give him some confidence – Monk’s previous case studies, namely Adams and Chris Wood, show signs of that.

The latter frontman had a career year in the 40-year-old’s first and only season in charge at Leeds, scoring 30 goals in 48 appearances while Adams contributed 22 goals to Birmingham’s campaign last season.

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International breaks are usually the time when football fans go crazy.

There’s no club football on the telly and international football seldom commands the same level of interest as domestic football until a big tournament swings around?

And while this may or may not be true for everyone, Barcelona couldn’t be happier that the break arrived when it did, and all for one simple reason: injuries.

Currently, their whole attacking trident of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Ousmane Dembele are out sidelined by various injuries and the Blaugrana have been without their star forwards for the majority of the first three games they’ve played.

Messi is yet to make his 2019/20 debut, Suarez played one half of the first game and the young Frenchman only featured in the curtain-raiser against Athletic Bilbao, after which he headed straight for the stands and has remained there ever since.

But the international break, as annoying as it gets for fans of club football, is now a true blessing in disguise because it means those injured players won’t miss any action and have extra time to recover.

Of course, one has to consider the “FIFA virus” that usually takes at least a couple of victims during the break.

And Ernesto Valverde, of all people, will feel extremely lucky because he can use this time, until 14 September when Barcelona welcomes Valencia to the Camp Nou, to figure out how to organise his squad with some of their returning stars.

Barcelona are hoping that Messi returns after the break, but as much as the return of the wizard will be a huge boost for the squad, it may also cause Valverde a headache or two.

Watch Spanish Football Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

One key thing he absolutely has to figure out before those games is how to put Antoine Griezmann and Messi in the same lineup so that he gets the best from both without one limiting the other.

The little Argentine doesn’t need much instruction, granted, but his freedom does affect other players around him. Messi operates with a license to practically go anywhere he wants on the pitch and he has, in every sense of the word, warranted such freedom. But we’ve all seen how that affected players, such as Philippe Coutinho, who never got to express themselves because their roles were maybe more unfamiliar or even limiting at Barcelona.

It would be a catastrophe if Griezmann ended up going down a similar path, especially considering how expensive he was to bring in. Valverde will absolutely have to find an optimal system in which Messi and Griezmann can co-exist so that both players’ strengths are emphasised and utilised.

Maybe it sounds simple. After all, they are two world-class players when everything is said and done but Griezmann, just like Messi, enjoyed a certain dose of freedom at Atletico Madrid and was their main man throughout all those years he spent in the capital.

Now it will be up to Valverde to make sure he remains as successful at Barcelona as he was under the stern hands of Diego Simeone prior to his big-money move to Catalonia. The first three games Barcelona played were packed with mixed results. After all, Blaugrana registered a win, a draw and a defeat but there’s one key thing to note about those matches: they were all played without Messi.

Whatever tactics we saw on the pitch back then can effectively be thrown out of the window because once Messi returns, they will undoubtedly look far, far different. Usually, of course, that means a change for the good but Valverde’s goal should be to minimise that “Messidependencia” as much as possible.

The Argentine is, after all, already taking strides in his 30s and won’t be here in the squad forever, as much as everyone would love him to be.

It remains to be seen what kind of a change in tactics the return of the little magician will stimulate and how exactly Valverde will make sure he and Griezmann complement each other on the pitch next time out.

With their start to the new 2019/20 season as shaky as they come, there won’t be much room for error or improvisation.

Let’s see what card he plays next.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

According to Chelsea legend Pat Nevin, one critical decision made pre-game by Frank Lampard is what contributed to Wolves’ demise.

What’s he said?

Wolves were emphatically beaten by Chelsea at Molineux on Saturday afternoon as the visitors recorded a 5-2 victory.

Tammy Abraham netted a hat-trick to move to the top of the individual goalscoring charts, tied with no other than Sergio Aguero.

Chelsea boss Lampard slightly tweaked his system for the match as Antonio Rudiger was deemed fit enough to play the first 45 minutes of his season.

Watch Wolverhampton Wanderers Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

The two-time Blues Player of the Year believes the change was the reason behind them cruising to all three points – speaking to Chelsea’s official website, he said:

“I bet a few people were surprised by the scoreline at Molineux at the weekend. I know I was for starters. Wolves are a tidy team, they have a well-organised defensive system that is generally drilled to perfection and they were arguably the favourites going into the game.

“The change of system [by Frank Lampard] against Wolves was in retrospect a masterstroke and one that would have surprised his opposite number, Nuno Espirito Santo.

“When you prepare for one system and a totally different one walks out, you must decide whether or not you should change.

“The home team rarely does in that situation and Wolves paid the price for not adapting.”

Least of Wolves’ worries

Whether or not the Portuguese boss should have ‘adapted’ upon hearing Chelsea’s team news is probably the least of their problems.

It’s not as if they put out personnel that was hugely unexpected – Rudiger was declared “fit to play” for this match, so that shouldn’t have been a shock and it was well-documented that Emerson Palmieri would be absent too through injury.

Had Wolves undergone similar preparations for this match and had someone of Willy Boly’s calibre in defence then it could have been a different game.

The 28-year-old was serving his one-game suspension and is their highest-rated player this season at 7.36, per WhoScored.

Santo very rarely changed his side last season, utilising a core squad of 19 players on their way to a seventh-place finish, so why would he chop and change based on a different formation from their opposition?

Nonsense.

[ad_pod ]It’s great to see real passion from fans, but football-inspired tattoos can bring about mixed opinions.For Liverpool fans, last season’s Champions League final will be a game they never forget, but one supporter went the extra yard to make sure he’s reminded of the Reds’ 2-0 win over Tottenham on a daily basis.Indeed, he’s had Alisson Becker holding the Champions League trophy tattooed on him, and the Brazillian goalkeeper was seemingly very impressed by the artwork.

The shot-stopper has become a cult hero fairly quickly due to his cheeky laugh, devilish good looks and beer-loving antics, and has taken another step by giving his seal of approval to the ink.

Fair play to the supporter, it’s a very detailed image, but you have to wonder what his plans are if Liverpool win a few more Champions League titles.

Watch Liverpool Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

Unsurprisingly, he received a little bit of stick for the tattoo, but that won’t bother him too much after his hero showed appreciation for the gesture.

Here’s hoping Alisson never leaves Liverpool for one of their rivals or does anything to change the fans’ view of him – tattoo removals don’t come cheap.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

In an exclusive interview with Football FanCast, John Hartson claimed that Dominic Calvert-Lewin could be the answer to Everton’s problems in attack.

The Toffees have struggled on the goal-scoring front so far in the Premier League with five goals in six games, and much of that is due to the rotation of the 22-year-old and Moise Kean, according to the Welshman.

Calvert-Lewin has one goal so far in the league – a towering header against Bournemouth – but he struck twice against Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday – a sign that his confidence may be beginning to grow.

Hartson has suggested what Marco Silva needs to do to get the best out of the 6ft 2 striker.

Speaking exclusively to FFC, he said: “He needs to play all the time. It’s very difficult being in and out of the team all the time. There’s chopping and changing.

“Get him in the side, make him a focal point, tell him to master the art of playing between the 18-yard box, he doesn’t really need to be running down the channels doing this and that.

“Just be a number nine, get Moise Kean to play off him, get the ball into them, work on the training ground as a partnership, and get something going.”

The method put forward by the former Arsenal striker is one Silva hasn’t implemented yet this season, instead preferring a lone striker to fit into a 4-2-3-1 system. But Hartson’s suggestion could be a suitable solution.

His point about the striker playing regularly is key. After his goal against the Cherries, Calvert-Lewin was left on the bench for the following game against Sheffield United.

Watch Everton Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

That means neither he nor his teammates are able to find a rhythm or a run of form, and goals dry up as a consequence.

On the rare occasion Kean started for Juventus last season, he often found his best form as part of a two, scoring four goals in five starts alongside a strike partner.

With Calvert-Lewin strong in the air and able to hold up play, he could be able to use Kean’s pace in a way which exploits the opposition.

As a result, Silva’s side would have more variety in attack, and with more support for the front two they could be more likely to get amongst the goals.

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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…

This is it Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. A home game against a side languishing in 17th in League One, and in a competition often derided as the Mickey Mouse Cup. If ever there was a perfect opportunity for the Norwegian to fully invest in his promises of a youth revival, then Wednesday night certainly represents it.

The third-round of the Carabao Cup should see Manchester United field a whole host of youngsters, and the game arguably comes at a great time. The Red Devils’ limp and disappointing defeat to West Ham on Saturday caused big questions to be asked. Just what does the future hold for the side? Well, on Wednesday night, Solskjaer has a great chance to give the Old Trafford faithful a more positive glimpse of what the next few years could entail.

As ever with the cup competitions, Sergio Romero is likely to take over goalkeeping duties from David de Gea. In front of him, three out of the back four could become integral parts of United’s long-term future.

Axel Tuanzebe impressed enormously whilst on loan at Aston Villa last season, averaging 3.2 tackles and 3.8 clearances per game, and should get the nod against Rochdale. And, despite the controversy surrounding his conversation with Ed Woodward in the stands on Saturday afternoon, Phil Jones could be given a chance at centre-back.

Watch Manchester United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

At right-back, Diogo Dalot should replace Aaron Wan-Bissaka, whilst the opposite flank could see a rare opportunity for Brandon Williams. Marcos Rojo has twice come close to leaving the Red Devils in recent summers, and it remains baffling the Argentine started against FC Astana in the Europa League last Thursday. Surely Solskjaer would be better off giving a chance to a 19-year-old academy product instead?

In midfield, the club have confirmed Paul Pogba is back from injury, and ahead of the Premier League clash against Arsenal next Monday, he may be given some minutes to work up his fitness in mid-week.

Further forward, the exciting trio of Mason Greenwood, Tahith Chong and Angel Gomes should all be given the chance to shine once more; they were arguably the highlights of a rather uninspiring 1-0 win over Astana.

And, whilst it may not appease some United fans, Jesse Lingard looks set to play – if he needed a game to get his form back, then there is arguably none better than on Wednesday.