#also they are a great example of how to not be a Frank Lampard about managerial career

[protect-daniel-james]

With all this talk about Ipswich Town, I remembered yet another rare pair.

Michael Carrick & Kieran McKenna.

[longeyelashedtragedy]

Frank James Lampard OBE 👀

ougughgh, you whipped out the order of the british empire? 🫡 😳 maybe i was wrong to judge them teaboos back in the superwholock days (that's a JOKE)

@protect-daniel-james i'll respond here but i might use your ask to post some more Photos cause i'm not sure how to pick just one photo of the Long Eyelashed Tragedy

favorite thing about them: uhhh...so much? he gets me right in the FEELS, man. he tells on himself constantly and seems to be completely unaware. sadboi footballer with pretty dead eyes who loves to Read and took a little notebook with him on the team bus. the intersection of having it easy/privileged childhood & traumatic things that shouldn't have happened--i relate. exhilarating to watch his old performances and he seems like he'd be fun to have a conversation with. fascinating to analyze, this all feels sort of reductive...i'm very Fond of him and some of it is hard to put into words, but i feel very "what's not to love?" about him lol. and he has such a Narrative. he's very easy to write about though it probably doesn't turn out well at all (sounds great and deep in my head though)

also i find a lot of footballers hot but don't really experience significant attraction to them but he is an exception you know what i'm just going to end this here

least favorite thing about them: he lost weight after everton BOO HISS

favorite line: omg, frank james lampard OBE is funny because he's often so intelligent and articulate and then just whips out the WEIRDEST/most cringe thing out of nowhere. some examples:

-his "fight" with klopp on the touchline

THIS wtfery:

these BANGERS:

this classic example of childhood trauma "too old when you're young and too young when you're old" (what some ppl would call "entitled male athlete" but like..i know better than that lol). it's also just patently RIDICULOUS he was like 36...bolding is mine for the classic lines

But it was while on a night out in Manchester during pre-season that the ex-West Hamer star showed his new American team-mates exactly how ex-Premier League stars like to party.

Columbus Crew centre-back Josh Williams was with NYCFC at the time and he told the story to the Athletic.

...“This place is packed, multiple levels. And as soon as we walk in, you could see everybody recognise Frank. And it’s just me, my teammate and Frank and all the energy is just on him.

"He picks up a bottle, this huge bottle of Grey Goose, picks it up, opens it, just starts downing it. Passes it to me and goes, ‘Boys, we’re not putting this down until it’s fucking gone.’”

The trio passed the bottle around three times when the rest of NYCFC showed up.

After about an hour in the club, Lampard approached Williams and asked him about 'that game you Americans play where you throw the little balls — he’s talking about beer pong.'

ok let's see...

brotp: random one but i recently learned that he and ian wright are friends? and i just love that so much both as a gooner and a person. wrighty complements him well and is very...respectful lol. if we consider lamperry to be only one-sided romantic, then definitely lamperry

notp: franko x steven gerrard...there's only One situation in which i've enjoyed that ship (and it was an au). it does nothing for me normally, and i personally don't find stevie g attractive, so! again, it's like an "ew get it away from me" notp, it's just not my vibe.

otp: i mean...lamperry requited. franko x cousin jamie jamie jamie ....maybe someday they can give romeo and juliet their happy ending. and of course, frank and mason...i just really like this ship so much and it keeps my brain so entertained...even though it's not "healthy" and doesn't end well. these ships are all SO good!!!

random headcanon: oh gosh idk...i don't think i have any "headcanons" because everything he says and does in public just kind of tracks. bet he's done coke lol. idk

unpopular opinion: HOO BOY!!! here we go!!! i am aware that i have a wooby nature, but i actually like that about myself. i'd rather approach someone--anyone with softness and then tone it down when i decide they're a dick, than be uncharitable for no reason. that's my way and that's how it's gonna be! so that said...franko gets accusations of "arrogance" and i...i don't see it at all. it might come from his disingenous press conferences at chelsea and everton, but i see that as a man who has horrid self-esteem, was used to being treated by media and fans like a Starboy, and once he started doing badly, had no idea how to handle professional failure--not one single idea. remember on "diary of a ceo" over the summer when he said his first chelsea sacking was the first time he's ever failed professionally? that's insane. Like, imagine making it to age FORTY-TWO and not having a legitimate school or career disaster. that's insane to me. so he just put up a front and got cranky and defensive and funky about where he placed the blame (and to be honest--he has not done a good job as a manager, but he also wound up in some pretty dismal positions. taking chelsea caretaker manager was really shooting himself in the foot because that season just needed to be put out of its misery lol). i'm not saying he's a bastion of humility, or some misunderstood coaching genius, but i don't see him as any more or less arrogant than someone else. idk--i see a weird level of contempt for him that doesn't really feel deserved? he's just a sad sack. sort of a hubris tale in a sense, but also a tale of a man who is still stuck as a kid in some ways...i need to stop before i write a really bad dissertation lol

uh that said...

song i associate with them:

finally a footballer i can give a good answer to this for!!!

name me a better combination than me x lamps x pink floyd x this summer! comfortably numb, shine on you crazy diamond (all of it, but particularly sections vi-ix), wish you were here...

(i know this sounds basic...i know there are more i'm not remembering)

"money" in some ways because i listened to it while writing "visited upon the sons" (it hit me afterward that the fic and the song are structured in the same way...the chicken or the egg?)

from the oooold first days of the lampardverse:

behind blue eyes/a well respected man

also! wouldn't it be nice kind of reminds me of him and cousin jamie loool

favorite picture of them:

dude idk! i really love looking at photos of him! this is granit levels of difficulty...i Cannot choose so let's go with this sad sack from the blessed everton days:

[ummadum]

Why José Mourinho is problematic

I’m not a fan of José Mourinho and whilst I can come around to his tactics, I really doubt I will ever like him as a person.

Football is a very misogynistic, homophobic, racist and generally disrespectful place where people, especially powerful people, are not held accountable for their actions and words. This post is an accumulation of some of the very worrying things Jose has said and done over the years, that he has never acknowledged nor apologised for. I think that it’s important to keep these things in mind especially now, because the “José is a great person” idea is on the rise again. Whilst someone like Sergè, who also said some really disrespectful things, but someone who apologised for them and was willing to learn from his mistake, has his mistakes constantly brought up again, we are ignoring and burying all the things that are really wrong with our manager. 

And if the club have asked Sergé to acknowledge and apologise for his statements (the right move), then we should do the same with Mourinho, who was much older when he said those things and had and has a lot more power and reach. 

Homophobic

In 2012, as Real Madrid manager, Mourinho was caught on camera using “marocones” (which means faggot in English) to refer to the referees pre champion league match agains CSKA Moscow. 

This is a link to the video [x]  it’s about 20 seconds in.

The European Gay and Lesbian Sports Federation (EGLSF) released a statement [x] calling for action, which includes this:

Louise Englefield, Co-president of the EGLSF, an organisation representing over 17,000 lesbian gay bisexual and trans (LGBT) athletes across Europe, said: “Homophobia is unacceptable from anyone in football, much less from one of the game’s most senior figures. We are deeply disappointed that Mr Mourinho is casually using homophobic terms of abuse in his workplace. It is especially sad that these comments have been made during the International Football v Homophobia campaign week. This is a time during which the European football community should be joining forces to tackle discrimination and prejudice against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people . As long-standing partners of the FARE network, we call on UEFA to take action and impose appropriate sanctions.”

And yet nothing ever happened, no apology, no acknowledgment and no sanctions.

Racist

Josés stance on racism is an interesting one, because he has publicly stated that he is opposed to direct racism, yet does apparently not believe that there is an underlying structural racism problem in the world and in football.

About coaching opportiunities for black coaches

In 2014, when questioned whether football needs a Rooney rule, which in the NFL ensures that ethnic minority candidates are adequately represented in the interview process for head coaching positions, he said this: 

When asked if he felt football was doing enough to bring in black managers and whether he felt a quota should be introduced, Mourinho said: “There is no racism in football. If you are good, you are good. If you are good, you get the job.” “If you are good, you prove that you deserve the job. Football is not stupid to close the doors to top people. If you are top, you are top.” [x]

At the moment of publication of this article, only two of 92 clubs in the top four divisions in English football had a black manager. And only four black managers have ever worked in the premier league. 

His statement warranted this lengthy response from the then FIFA Vice-President Jeffrey Webb. [x] Who points to a much larger problem of lack of enthnic people in power in football in general.

About Hair

“I want to push the young players on my team to have a proper haircut, not the Rastafarian or the others they have.”

I don't have the exact source but it’s mentioned in multiple “best of José quotes articles [x]  [x]

Misogyny

Dr. Carniero

The most obvious place to start talking about Mourinho and his issues with misogyny is his treatment of Dr. Eva Carneiro who was the Chelsea first team doctor from 2009 until september 2015. During the first Game of the 15/16 season against Swansea Dr. Carneiro and chief physiotherapist Jon Fearn were called into the pitch by the referee to attend to Eden Hazard who had gone down. It was towards the end of the match and Chelsea had already had Courtois sent off and were therefore down to 9 men. Under the laws of the game, the medical staff is only allowed on the pitch if the referee summons them and once they have been summoned it's their duty to attend to the player. Mourinho took an issue with both of them rushing onto the field, because it left his team temporarily with 8 outfield players and so he allegedly called Dr. Carniero “filha da puta” which translates to “daughter of a bitch/whore”. He says he didn’t use the female version, but that he said “filho da puta”  and that “swearing is a part of football”. This then led to a lot of discourse about whether it was actually abusive language towards a woman or not. 

The more damning thing happened later in the press conference. 

“I wasn't happy with my medical staff because even if you are a medical doctor or secretary on the bench, you have to understand the game.If you go to the pitch to assist a player, then you must be sure that a player has a serious problem. I was sure that Eden didn't have a serious problem. He had a knock and was very tired.My medical department left me with eight fit outfield players in a counter attack after a set piece and we were worried we didn't have enough players left.”

“You have to understand the game”, especially when aimed at a woman already comes with enough negative and misogynistic connotations. And there was no lack of “understanding of the game” in this instance, it was their duty to attend to the player according to the rules. Maybe he should have had a word with Eden Hazard about not feigning injuries instead.

But this is not where this ends. Following this incidence, Fearn (a Man) was removed from first team matches and Dr. Carniero was removed from all first team duties such as training sessions, matches and even entering the team hotel. And as Duncan Castles, one of Josés mouthpieces in the british press then reported: 

Mourinho is said to have held reservations about Carneiro’s role within the first-team squad since at least last year. While there is no question about her professional abilities, the Portuguese coach was concerned that the dressing room dynamic was affected by the presence of a female. According to a source, some players had expressed misgivings to the coaching staff about the set-up, arguing that it forced them to alter their usual behavior in a team environment.  [x]

The same women that had worked with Chelsea's first team for 6 years and under 4 different managers just suddenly became a problem with Josés arrival. Maybe there were some players that complained about her, but José should have told them to get over it. Sadly, I can’t link you to the original source of these quotes because the website does not exist anymore but here are some more articles referring to the same quotes. [x] [x]

Her dismissal went to court and she and Chelsea ended up settling the case. 

This whole thing ties into the larger issue of misogyny in football, this is an interesting article about how 2/3 s of the women in football face sexist discrimination. [x]

Montse Benitez

Rafael Benitez’ wife Montse Benitez made a joke, in 2015, about Rafa cleaning up Josés messes because Rafa just got the Real Madrid Job and she said “we tidy up his messes”, but afterwards added that it was understandable because there are only so many top clubs out there. 

The first part of his response is very much ok:

“The lady is a bit confused, with all respect. The only club where her husband [directly] replaced me was at Inter Milan, where in six months he destroyed the best team in Europe at the time.”

The second part however wasn’t:

“And for her to think about me and to speak about me, I think she needs to occupy her time — and if she takes care of her husband’s diet, she will have less time to speak about me.”

He told her to get back into the kitchen and that is such a backwards thing to say to women.  [x]

Generally Women 

In 2013, whilst complaining about Arsenal players complaining to the officials he said

“ you know they like to cry” and then added “Football is for men, or for women with fantastic attitude.”

José mourinho used being a woman as an insult to emasculate Arsenal players. Which is incredibly sexist. 

His post match tirade also includes some lovely xenophobia for good measure, which is a bit hypocritical coming from José. (I want to remind all Spurs fans that there was massive outrage after the United match, when similar criticism was aimed at Lamela)

"You know, they like to cry," Mourinho said. "That's tradition. But I prefer to say, and I was telling it to the fourth official, that English people – Frank Lampard, for example – would never provoke a situation like that. "Players from other countries, especially some countries, have that in their blood. So, if there is contact or an opponent is aggressive, they don't keep going. But this is English football. Foreign players are bringing lots of good things. They come here because they are talented. But I prefer English blood in football. English blood in this situation is: 'Come on, let's go.' Mikel's tackle is hard and aggressive but football is for men or for women with fantastic attitude. It's true."

[x]

Generally problematic things he has said

Him calling Wenger a voyeur is not included but he did end up actually apologising for that. 

2006: "Sometimes you see beautiful people with no brains. Sometimes you have ugly people who are intelligent, like scientists," [x]

Me being a scientist probably makes me even more annoyed with this statement, but honestly can we get rid of this stupid idea.

 2005: “Ricardo Carvalho seems to have problems understanding things, maybe he should have an IQ test, or go to a mental hospital or something.” [x] 

Statements against him that he took to court

A journalist for spanish newspaper Marca wrote about José during his time at chelsea:

“the type of person who would flee after knocking someone down"

A letter from Mourinho's lawyers then read:

"In our eyes this phrase is... degrading and was used in a manner which was completely unnecessary in the critique."

Chelsea also took action against a former Barcelona director after he posted the following on twitter during a match against Manchester City.

"It's lamentable the psychopath celebrating goals as if he was a player." 

[x]

Which is utterly ironic when taking all the things he has said about others into account.

A lot of these quotes are older, but judging from his recent choice of words, the constant emasculation of his players also shown in a documentary meant to make him look good, he might not be saying these things publicly anymore but the subtext and undertones still remain, therefore not really making it look like he has learned from his past mistakes and has become a better person in the slightest. Also, these quotes are just the tip of the iceberg of what kind of a human being José Mourinho really is. He is an incredibly manipulative individual that chooses all of his words, especially those to the press, really carefully and if these quotes are things that he chose to say deliberately, then I’m worried about what other opinions he has that he does not voice to the public. But if someone treats him like he does others he has an issue with it.

He can be an interesting individual to watch and his amount of arrogance can be fairly entertaining, but his general lack of respect for his players and staff shouldn't be overlooked especially in a world which is trying to move towards the future. And a footballing world at least saying that they are trying to remove discrimination from the game. 

I don’t want him to be sacked, but I would really like to remind people of the kind of person he is and for him to acknowledge these statements and apologise for it. But because this is football and Agueros actions with the lines-woman were dismissed because he is “a good person” I doubt that that will ever happen. 

[rockinjoeco]

Chelsea Turbulence

In my first blog post, I will be talking about my beloved Chelsea football club and reviewing our season so far, including the bad run of form (including the Southampton defeat yesterday) that’s seen us lose 5 out of our last 7 league games, four of which were worryingly against teams in the bottom half of the premier League.

This inconsistency of ours is very reminiscent to Chelsea before Abramovich. There were times when we would get an amazing result, and then a disastrous result the next. For example, in December 2001, we won at Manchester United 3-0, a wonderful result considering the comprehensive nature of the win and that Man United were champions back then and the favourites for the title back then. However, a few days later, that 3-0 win at Old Trafford was followed up by a 1-0 home defeat to Charlton Athletic. For me this season, it’s easy for me to be in despair as a Chelsea fan as losing 5 out of 7 league games is relegation form, but what is important to remember is that we were on a transfer ban, therefore meaning we couldn’t buy anyone, including a replacement for our star player Eden Hazard, who departed for Real Madrid last summer, so at the start of the season, I would’ve just been happy to avoid relegation! Christian Pulisic finally being available to play for us has helped us though, even if he doesn’t fully compensate the departure of Hazard. Hiring Frank Lampard as our new manager, replacing Juventus-bound Maurizio Sarri, gave me some joy as seeing a Chelsea legend returning as our manager was always going to be good to see, but also seeing our former academy coach returning as assistant manager of the whole team rather than just managing academy players meant that our youth players will finally get a chance in the first team. I know we are a big club and therefore us Chelsea fans will be very demanding, but Lampard himself know how competitive we should be and while there’s no doubt that many of our young players have talent, it will take them time for them to become players of the highest standard.

Before the Man City game last month, we were in the top 4 by 9 points, and now after our bad run of form, we’re only 4th by 3 points. As disappointing as this collapse of ours has been, Chelsea have already exceeded expectations this season, playing great football and our youth players like fikayo tomori, Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham have performed well this season, with the latter getting 11 goals in the league. For years, us Chelsea fans have been crying out for our manager to start giving our youth players chances in the first team, and it shouldn’t have to take a transfer ban for that to happen. It still pains me to see how we let the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku and Mohamed Salah go and then become excellent players elsewhere. Previous managers have been too hasty with our youngsters and that’s why we haven’t seen an academy graduate become a first team regular with us since John Terry. Yes, Maurizio Sarri have Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Callum Hudson-Odoi a run of games in the first team last season, particularly in the Europa league, but he was under pressure to do so. Prior to the start of last season, Ruben Loftus-Cheek said he didn’t want to be loaned out again, which Sarri had planned to do. Loftus-cheek said he wanted to be part of the Chelsea team or be sold to another club where he will play regular first team football. Therefore, Sarri has to keep him and make him part of the squad. In January 2019, Hudson-Odoi had been interesting Bayern Munich, and as he wasn’t getting into our first team and having seen how well Jadon Sancho had been doing in the bundesliga, Hudson-Odoi wanted to leave Chelsea and join Bayern. Knowing Hudson-Odoi’s potential, Sarri didn’t want to lose him and therefore had to give him a run of games in the first team. Both Loftus-Cheek and Hudson-Odoi impressed when they played in the first team and gave a positive indication of what they can bring to our team. The impressive form of tomori, Mount and Abraham has finally vindicated our loan system which had been criticised for a long time. Would the trio of youngsters have made the impact that they have made if they came straight from the academy without being loaned out? Possibly not. Roman Abramovich has invested a lot of money into our academy and the loan system was invented to give our younger players the chance to regular first team football at a competitive level. Previous manager have abused that system and used it to profit from our younger players by eventually selling them rather than actually developing them so they can eventually play for Chelsea one day.

Even when we were on a great run and won 6 league games in a row, defence was an issue for us. Defence was an issue for us last season too. Kurt Zouma and Andreas Christensen don’t seem to have developed as much as we had hoped for a few years ago. It was a bad injury back in 2016 that has stifled Zouma’s development when his style of play was reminiscent to Marcel Desailly and it looked like he could be our main centre back for the next decade. It’s never nice seeing bad injuries on footballers, particularly promising young players. As well as Tomori has done this season, he still has a lot to learn and unfortunately has a tendency to make silly mistakes that unnecessarily gift chances to the opposition. There are times when we have won games that we should’ve won more comfortably but then unnecessarily gift the other time a chance to get back into the game and make things more difficult for ourselves. I actually believe the biggest loss this season has been Gary Cahill. Even though he’s not as good as he was a few years ago, his experience could’ve helped tomori’s development while also covering for the absence of Antonio Rüdiger, who we have really missed when he’s been out injured.

Thankfully we can finally be allowed to buy new players in January, and the first half of this season has helped us have a better idea of where to improve. I think we do need a world class winger who can always make something out of nowhere just like Hazard did. I think if we look at those home defeats against West Ham, Bournemouth and Southampton, we didn’t have someone who is world class to create chances that could’ve got us back in the game. Not only could we not have gotten a goal in those game, we didn’t create enough clear chances to do so. Callum Hudson-Odoi struggled against Southampton yesterday, and it looked like it will take him time to become a world class winger. Willian has done well this season, but I don’t think he’s as world class as Hazard was and for me, he’s more of a squad player who can do a job when someone’s out injured or can make something happen from the bench. Christian Pulisic has also done well for us, although it’s taken him time to make his mark on the team, but I don’t think he’s consistent yet, bearing in mind he’s still a young player. Jadon Sancho would be my first choice. He’s done excellently with Dortmund and England, knows Hudson-Odoi and Tammy Abraham through the England under 21s and knows Pulisic from their time with Dortmund. We’ve also been linked with Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha, who is an excellent player and can make something happen out of nowhere like Hazard did, but I think the £80m asking price is probably too much money for him as he’s 27 years old, whereas approximately £120m for 19-year-old Jadon sancho would arguably present better value for money.

Left back is another key position we have to improve on. Azpilicueta’s ability has unfortunately declined this season, having been a wonderful servant for us and can play anywhere in our back four, Émerson just doesn’t look like he’s good enough to be a starter for us and Marcos Alonso is more of a wing back than a left back, so when he’s been playing as a full back, he looks like he’s being played out of position. Ben Chilwell would be my first choice as left-back, who’s done so well with Leicester this season, and I hope a deal can be done with Leicester next month. If we have to wait till the summer to get him, I’d be happy with that, as I can’t think of any alternative targets for the left back position. The jury is still out on the centre back position, because I’m yet to see if Rüdiger and Tomori can pair up together in that position. It would be nice to see Nathan Aké back, who we shouldn’t had sold in the first place. Ake can also play as a left back too, which would be useful if we can’t get Chilwell in January. AC Milan’s Alessio Romagnoli would be good for us too, with many regarding him as the next Alessandro Nesta. There’s also been talk about Frank Lampard wanting you replace our goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga. I personally have no problem with Kepa, I know he is still only 25 which is a young age for a goalkeeper. The thing I don’t get, however, is that when we signed him in August 2018, the club came out and said we’ve been tracking this goalkeeper for the last few years, but his contract was about to expire six months prior to us signing him for over £70m, so if we knew that Kepa was the man we wanted to replace Thibaut Courtois, who had been vocal about wanting to return to madrid to be with his family, why didn’t we make a move for Kepa then? It seemed unnecessary to buy him for a record fee in the summer after he had just signing a new contract with Athletic Bilbao six months earlier.

We should sell Olivier Giroud in January as he doesn’t seem to fit in with Lampard’s style of play, and I think a new back-up striker is needed, and it’s so difficult to buy squad players as every great player wants to play regular first team football, and even warming the bench for a big club like Chelsea may not seem an attractive prospect for them. We’ve been linked with Moussa Dembélé and Timo Werner, who could be good players for us, but would they want to just be deputies to Tammy Abraham? Possibly not, but I think Abraham himself needs some serious competition as he’s only got 1 goal in his last 6 league games and that competition could help him up his game.

We need to be patient with our young players as this season is a transitional season for us and it’s a big learning curb for them. We also have to remember that Frank Lampard, while he’s a club legend, is a young manager and has shown great potential as a manager when he was at Derby last season. I know many will argue that maybe we should’ve gone for a more experienced manager, but there weren’t many managers who we could’ve attracted with a transfer ban, and the transfer ban actually was a blessing in disguise for Lampard as it buys him time. What I found interesting was upon being appointed, Lampard said he didn’t want any special treatment from the board. We know how ruthless Chelsea’s board is, as you’d expect from any big club, and Lampard knows that whatever decisions the boardroom will make as it will always be whatever decision is best for the club. We have exceeded expectations this season, but being a big club that we are, we must always seek to improve so we can start winning titles again in the future.

[torentialtribute]

Max Verstappen, park the insults and show Lewis Hamilton some respect

Maybe Max Verstappen Now you know what greatness defines on a motorcycle race track. He arrived at speed in his rearview mirror at the Hungaroring, a second faster per circuit over the last 19 laps. It was on stage above him. It leads the championship again with an unstoppable margin.

In all likelihood, Verstappen will ever be where Lewis Hamilton is now, but for the moment a little respect is due. Certainly more respect than the young man showed in the run-up to Hamilton's last, remarkable Grand Prix victory.

& # 39; Lewis has won many championships, but that is not great, & # 39; said Verstappen. & # 39; He is undoubtedly one of the best, but to say the best of his generation – maybe it's Fernando Alonso? He could have won seven, eight world titles had been on the right team. & # 39; Well, he could certainly have won a few more.

Max Verstappen (left) must park the insults and Lewis Hamilton a show a little more respect

He could have won the drivers' championship in 2007 when he finished one point behind Kimi Raikkonen, level in second place with his McLaren teammate, a young man from Stevenage in his first F1 season. Alonso was so ready for that internal fight that he left the team, and Hamilton won the championship in a McLaren the following season. Verstappen made it sound like he was lucky.

So do it. If it's that easy, do it. Hamilton did that in 2008 because McLaren did not win the constructors' championship that year. It went to Ferrari, meaning it was the best driver, but not in the best car. That is a rare achievement. Michael Schumacher never did it, nor did Ayrton Senna.

Three drivers have achieved this in the past 33 seasons, and none this century. So if Verstappen implies that the Hamilton & # 39; s cars make him great, he should be reminded why he gets them.

One day Verstappen will be where Hamilton is now. He is a brilliant, exciting talent who will have a choice of teams. And this is because it has been worthy of prov. His performances for Red Bull have shown the great talent on the inside. If Hamilton was tired of the competition and retired, Mercedes would immediately focus on Verstappen as his replacement.

He has proven to be capable of inferior machines and that is how a driver ends up with a good one. What is strange is that this argument must even be strengthened. Verstappen's father, Jos, was an F1 driver. Max was the youngest in F1 history. He is steeped in sport. He knows how it works.

Hamilton hunted the Dutchman Verstappen to win the Hungarian Grand Prix of Sunday

Maybe this was just a bad timing. The world waits head-to-head for a Hamilton-Verstappen. That should only happen a few days after some rather outspoken remarks, and that Hamilton should triumph so dramatically would only increase the feeling of a given lesson.

Hamilton has the best car, yes. Which means he has to win. And the tactical decision of James Vowles, Mercedes' main strategist, was nothing short of brilliant. Hamilton left would not have replaced the tires in Hungary for the second time.

The pit stop left him 19 seconds behind on Verstappen with 20 laps to go. "I didn't think this was a genius, no," Hamilton said later.

But when Verstappen speaks greatness, this is important. Vowles could not have made that change with another driver and guaranteed that result. Few drivers throughout history.

The progress of Verstappen was initially blocked by slower cars, but once he was through that part of the field, Red Bull felt he had more than enough to get home.

Hamilton now has the best car, but he Not when he won the driver champions in 2008

That Hamilton pursued him second, second, round by lap, proves that greatness is not only bestowed by in sit a cockpit and sweep a switch.

It is courage, technical skill, the mind to execute strategy, all the attributes that distinguish Hamilton from the day he started the sport.

Verstappen too. Whether Hamilton was aware of the earlier comments, he was generous in the win. Asked to mark his season so far, he gave himself a high eight, and when Verstappen didn't play with the same question, he gave his rival to nine or high nine for his most recent races.

be fooled. He knows what is coming and who is coming for him. But for now, Hamilton is the biggest racing driver of this generation. Respect is due.

IT IS NOT AN ERROR IF HARRY IS NOT A GRAVE

No doubt if Harry Maguire does not appear at £ 80 million defender in Manchester United The debt of Ed Woodward again.

But what should he do then? If United had paid a little less than the best money, had offered a cent below the best wage, Maguire would have gone to Manchester City.

So Woodward secured a player who, according to rights, should not have signed for Manchester United. Just like he did with Alexis Sanchez, Romelu Lukaku, Paul Pogba, Fred – all very expensive recruits who have not yet been ignored.

Woodward is said to be not good at his work. At the moment, he seems pretty successful with the only weapon he has. It is the players who are underperforming.

Ed Woodward will shoulder the blame if Harry Magurie is not a hit, but it will not be all his fault

DRINKING WATER IS AT THE END

Danny Drinking Water played not a minute at Chelsea under Maurizio Sarri. He could suffer the same fate this season, with Frank Lampard disconcerted. Drinking water (below) remained at home when Chelsea traveled to Germany this week – but again there is little interest in this window.

In the past, moving to an elite club had a safety net. The chance and the money were of course great attractions, but association with a Champions League club was considered sufficient to secure the next lucrative move, even if the first one failed.

Drinking water, however, seems bewildered. He does not play, so he cannot catch the eye, but his wages would repel any club outside the elite. Once excluded from the team, an elite club is increasingly becoming a dead end. Vincent Janssen, formerly from Tottenham, arrived in Mexico; Manchester City is struggling to give Eliakim Mangala away; and how long was Daniel Sturridge looking for a new direction in Liverpool?

It is more and more reason to look beyond the zeros before the jump is made.

Danny Drinking water appears to be stranded with Frank Lampard not under the impression and no clubs interested

In 2008, Liverpool Liverpool became the Liverpool European cultural city – & # 39; which was a surprise to the mayor of Florence & # 39 ;, as Jimmy Tarbuck had.

Similar thoughts could greet the revelation that the European City of Sport for 2019 is Coventry, where the football team is so well fed that they have started their League A program with a home game against Southend fully played elsewhere . Birmingham, that must be me.

It is assumed that cities apply for European recognition. How one of the managers of Coventry had the gall to write that letter is the real mystery.

SHE IS GOOD, BUT SUPER CUP TOO MUCH, TOO SOON

There were 22 references used in Ligue 1 last in France season and the busiest pair, Antony Gautier and Benoit Bastien, each took 21 competitions in hands.

Another two played 40 games between them, a group of six took 19 games, another five 18, three referred to 17, and The 21st most recalled official game, Jeremy Stinat, took control of 12 teams

None of these officials will refer to the UEFA & # 39; s Super Cup next week. For that role, UEFA has chosen an official who played two games in Ligue 1 last season, and none before – but because Stephanie Frappart is a woman and a pioneer, this decision was made almost without comment. Just as it would be if UEFA gave the job to, for example, Premier League official Andy Madley – Robert's older brother – who also referred to two top flying competitions in 2018-19.

Let's clarify one thing immediately. Women can organize men's competitions. Many have and very successful. The presence of a female assistant referee at the Premier League match is no longer a problem. Nobody makes grim old jokes about not knowing the offside rule anymore – not even if the Cameroonian team clearly didn't know during the Women's World Cup this summer. The game has evolved. Experience at elite level? That is another matter.

Stephanie Frappart is a good referee, but she should not be in charge of the UEFA Super Cup

It is unusual to have a referee, male or female, with two games of elite men's football experience who is responsible for a European final. Frappart (below) is clearly an exceptional official because she has remained on the Ligue 1 list this season, the first woman to make that move.

She is also a very experienced referee in the women's game and recently took charge of the World Cup Final in Lyon. Yet this is a definitive prestige between Liverpool and Chelsea, which is handled by a referee whose experience with what is comparable to a comparable standard, certainly physically, amounts to two games.

. Given the difference in speed of the game and the players, the background of Frappart in women's football is comparable to that of Madley in competitions outside the Premier League. However, he would not be eligible for the UEFA Super Cup performance, regardless of how many championship matches he had collected.

An undisputed sports convention is that elite judges, referees or referrals must gain experience in elite competitions. When Madley took charge of Cardiff's match against Watford last December, Neil Warnock Andre Marriner held a well-off position as fourth official, leaving the match in the hands of a & # 39; trainee & # 39 ;. This week in Edgbaston, The wisdom of having the least experienced ICC referee, Joel Wilson, who mentions one of Cricket's greatest occasions, has been relentlessly exposed.

Andy Madley has similar top flight experience as Frappart, but he would & # 39 ; is considered

And UEFA seems to have attached importance to experience in the past. The Super Cup final of last season was settled by the Polish Szymon Marciniak whose c.v. including 23 Champions League matches, 18 Europa League matches, nine World Cup matches and seven European championship matches. He was the referee when Juventus Barcelona played in the quarterfinals of the Champions League 2017; he took the lead over Germany against Sweden at the World Cup in Russia.

He was not a rookie and under no additional pressure as an appointment in the left field.

Frappart & two matches in Ligue 1 last year, resulting in an average of 4.5 yellow cards per game, the highest total of an official in that season. Were her competitions particularly lawless? Did she not take nonsense or did she compensate too much? Her bosses must be happy because she is back, but also to get one of only three UEFA club finals this season is not a logical next step. Frappart was a good referee at the Women's World Cup and there is no reason to believe that she will not be back in Istanbul next week. Yet, as Madley was with Cardiff, she is new. And if Madley had received the call from UEFA, it would certainly not have succeeded without comment.

AT LEAST PREMIER LEAGUE IS A TWO-HORSE RACE

Some neutrals seem a bit despondent after seeing the Community Shield, thinking that the title race will be played again between Manchester City and Liverpool. Maybe so, but is that so bad?

These are two excellent teams that have even breathed life into what can be a dying season opener. And there is no guarantee that competition will not come from elsewhere.

Tottenham has improved and was already on the point of contention; maybe Manchester United also gets a song from their new acquisitions. Meanwhile, on Saturday, Celtic opened their campaign with a 7-0 win over St Johnstone, which ended comfortably at the mid-table last season. Now that is daunting.

CRICKET DOES NOT NEED MP'S ADVICE

ECB President Colin Graves and Chief Executive Tom Harrison are questioned by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee on how they intend to build on the success of the Cricket World Cup. Expect the usual guff over free-to-air television from bandwagon jumpers such as President Damian Collins.

Undoubtedly, the committee will have a long list of clever ideas about how the ECB will compensate for the huge investment shortage if they are forced to reject Sky.

British parliamentarians are known for their sharp minds, that is why Brexit has such a breeze to solve. What is special is why someone is totally in favor of appearing before DCMS committees, given that Dominic Cummings (below) has said so well that during a referendum campaign they are full of fake news research, and now one of the most powerful is men in the country as prime minister's advisor.

Given that England has won the World Cup, it can certainly be said that Graves and Harrison have fulfilled their duties in recent years with considerably more success than the parliament.

Dominic Cummings instructed the DCMS committee to investigate false stories

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Gareth Bale: Could Real Madrid man have 'David Beckham effect' in China?

Ryan Giggs saw first-hand how David Beckham was worshipped in East Asia when they toured countries such as China and Japan during their playing days at Manchester United. So when Giggs compared the hero's welcome Gareth Bale received in China with Wales last year to the fanfare which Beckham inspired in the Far East, he was speaking from a position of authority. "It's the same when Becks came into the team. He took the limelight away from me," Giggs said at the 2018 China Cup, where he was managing Wales. "Gareth would have been out here in the Far East plenty of times with Real Madrid. "Huge teams like United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich - the players are used to the adulation they get, especially in this part of the world, because footballers are treated like gods." Bale 'very close' to leaving Real Madrid for China Bale mania hits China Why did Real Madrid fall out of love with Bale? Beckham remains a global icon of the game and his marketability owes much to his popularity in Asia, which rose to stratospheric levels when he represented England at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, and grew even greater after he joined Real Madrid a year later. ADVERTISEMENT Bale's then world record move to the Spanish giants in 2013 had a similar effect on his profile, evident as he was mobbed at Nanning Airport before last year's China Cup and then cheered wildly by the home fans even as he scored a hat-trick during Wales' thumping win over the hosts. Now the Welshman is "very close" to joining Jiangsu Suning in the Chinese Super League on a three-year deal. If such a transfer were to materialise, Bale would represent the league's highest-profile acquisition yet - as Beckham's 2007 move to LA Galaxy was for Major League Soccer. So how could Bale's potential move to China affect his own future, the perception of Chinese football and Wales' international prospects? Gareth Bale arrives for China Cup with Wales An historic moment for Chinese football? When Beckham joined LA Galaxy in 2007, MLS commissioner Don Garber proclaimed it "one of the most important moments for soccer in this country and perhaps the history of professional sport". Such hyperbole could have been a burden but Beckham's legacy included back-to-back MLS Cups for the Galaxy, a rise in the league's average attendances and a spike in interest in the MLS thanks to his celebrity status. Beckham certainly helped boost the profile of the MLS and, while other players may have been more influential on the field, his time at the Galaxy can justifiably be considered a watershed moment for domestic football in the United States. Players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Andrea Pirlo and Frank Lampard followed Beckham to the MLS, and Chinese Super League bosses would hope Bale could have a similar impact on their competition. The league's highest-profile recruits so far have included the likes of Carlos Tevez, Didier Drogba and Hulk, earning some of the highest salaries in the world during their various stays in China. But Bale would dwarf all his predecessors, both in status and earning power. Having just turned 30, he is not at his peak but young enough to prosper at the top level for a few years, and his success with Real Madrid has enhanced his global marketability. That is why Jiangsu Suning are reportedly prepared to make Bale the first footballer to earn £1m a week. They are among the wealthiest of China's supremely rich clubs and, as their current foreign players are Brazilian midfielder Alex Teixeira and Italy internationals Eder and Gabriel Paletta, Jiangsu could be in the market for a bona fide marquee signing. Bale's time at the China Cup demonstrated his mass appeal in the country and, when he was asked about the prospect of moving to China, the Welshman did not rule anything out. "Whenever I come to China we always have such an amazing reception from the Chinese fans," Bale said at the time. "It's a great country with great people. I'm sure that if I ever did come I'll be looked after very well." David Beckham met Gareth Bale on Real Madrid's tour of the United States in 2017 Beginning of the end, or could Bale and Wales prosper? Some worry that a footballer's move to a league less prestigious than its European counterparts represents the beginning of the end of a career, holding out in the twilight years for one last big contract. That has traditionally been the case for most foreign signings in the Chinese Super League, though that trend appears to be changing. Brazil midfielder Oscar, for example, left Chelsea for Shanghai SIPG when he was 25, while his countryman, ex-Tottenham midfielder Paulinho, moved to Barcelona from Guangzhou Evergrande in 2017, albeit returning to the Chinese club a year later. Those two career paths would suggest the Chinese Super League is more than the lucrative retirement home it might once have been. Wales may also take encouragement from Marek Hamsik, Napoli's all-time leading goalscorer who joined Dalian Yifang earlier this year but remains as influential as ever as Slovakia's captain. The 31-year-old midfielder is his country's record cap holder and goalscorer and, when Slovakia faced Wales in a Euro 2020 qualifier in March, there were no indications that his move to China had diminished his ability. Beckham is another who continued his international career after leaving European club football, winning 19 of his 115 England caps after making his LA Galaxy debut aged 32. One contributing factor to Beckham's prolonged England career was the fact he had two loan spells at AC Milan during his five years at LA Galaxy. The dates of the MLS season overlapped with European leagues in a way which allowed Beckham to play for both clubs over the course of a year, even if it angered some Galaxy fans who questioned his commitment to the club. In theory, Bale could do something similar. The Chinese Super League runs between March and December, creating a potential window of opportunity to play in Europe during the winter. So if Bale felt he needed to be playing at the highest level to keep himself sharp for Wales, could this be a way of doing so in Europe while still accumulating great wealth in China? Like Beckham, that could be in Milan. Bale's purported suitors in China, Jiangsu Suning, are owned by Suning Group, which owns the majority of shares in Inter Milan. Bale's agent, Jonathan Barnett, has dismissed the suggestion of a permanent transfer to Inter this summer but, should a move to China materialise, a subsequent loan to the San Siro might not be beyond the realms of possibility. For the time being Barnett remains coy about the Wales forward's potential destinations, though he has told BBC Sport Wales he is "working on a few things" given Bale's increasingly likely departure from Real Madrid. There may be some who have reservations about a move to China but, as Beckham and others have shown, exploring new footballing worlds may not be a harbinger of the end but the dawn of a new era.   SOURCE:https://www.bbc.com/ Read the full article

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Match Preview – Liverpool vs Chelsea

Liverpool and Chelsea meet in the first all-English UEFA Super Cup in Istanbul on Wednesday.

The match pits last season’s Champions League winners (Liverpool) against last season’s Europa League winners (Chelsea). Liverpool started their Premier League campaign with a 4-1 win over Norwich on Friday evening before Chelsea lost 4-0 at Manchester United on Sunday.

What changes will both sides make and how will they approach the game? We look at the key points around the blockbuster clash in Istanbul…

Will Liverpool rotate?

Last season’s success has meant a busy start to the season for Liverpool.

Having played in the Community Shield, the Reds then opened the Premier League season on Friday Night Football against Norwich. Their trip to Istanbul is followed by a Premier League match at Southampton at 3pm on Saturday.

Jurgen Klopp named the same starting XI for the clash against Norwich as he did against Manchester City in the Community Shield, but will he make changes and potentially prioritise the Premier League?

There will definitely be a change in goal as Alisson is out with a thigh injury, meaning summer signing Adrian will make his first start.

Adrian is set to start for Liverpool due to Alisson’s injury

The 32-year-old probably did not expect to be thrust into first-team action so quickly after joining from West Ham, as perhaps shown by his beaming smile as he came on as a substitute against Norwich.

Joel Matip, Xherdan Shaqiri, James Milner and Naby Keita could be in contention to start while Sadio Mane might be pushing for a place after coming on as a substitute against Norwich, having returned late from the Africa Cup of Nations.

If Mane returns, that means Divock Origi – scorer of the second goal in last season’s Champions League final and one of the top performers against Norwich – is likely to drop to the bench.

This will be the 11th European meeting between Liverpool and Chelsea. The previous 10 were all in the Champions League, with Chelsea wining three, Liverpool two, and five draws. Only one game was won by a margin of more than one goal.

Gary Neville has called Origi the “perfect” fourth striker for Liverpool and the Belgian says there is a “hunger” for more success this season.

“We have a very talented group and there is good energy around the place and we still have a lot to play for,” Origi told Sky Sports. “We are very hungry, and personally I am as well. I want to help this team however I can to help it reach its full potential.”

Istanbul holds fond memories for Liverpool after their memorable Champions League victory in 2005.

They have also fared well against English sides in Europe in recent years, having gone unbeaten against Premier League teams in six matches since a 3-1 defeat to Chelsea in the Champions League quarter-final in 2009.

New signing Andy Lonergan has been included in the squad, but Dejan Lovren, who could be set to join Roma, misses out due to illness.

0:37

Divock Origi says his instinct told him to stay at Liverpool when he was deciding his future at the end of last season

Divock Origi says his instinct told him to stay at Liverpool when he was deciding his future at the end of last season

Klopp was full of praise for new Chelsea manager Frank Lampard ahead of the game, and is looking forward to an ‘interesting’ game.

He said: “I think Frank showed last year with Derby that he’s a very, very, very good manager because he changed Derby pretty much overnight. I didn’t know Derby too well but what I heard about it and when I saw them playing last year, especially against United if you want, it was: ‘What a game!’

“So, proper football, really high intensity, all that stuff, it’s all there, what you need. Good defending [and] high defending, so it will be a challenge. It will be a really interesting game and for us a proper job to do.

“But it’s a final, both deserve to be there and both, for sure, want to win it desperately and I think that’s a big part of the game plan as well because you have to be lively, but you have to be calm as well. All these things, we have to see who can do them better.”

Will Chelsea bounce back?

“A reality check” was how Lampard described Chelsea’s 4-0 defeat to Manchester United on Sunday.

Chelsea had chances to score – hitting the woodwork twice – but were undone on the counter-attack in the second half, leading to questions about Lampard’s team selection and approach.

Former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said Lampard’s side were “too soft” and “not aggressive” enough while Paul Merson suggested the pressure is now on.

0:19

Chelsea arrived in Istanbul in the early hours of Tuesday morning ahead of their UEFA Super Cup showdown

Chelsea arrived in Istanbul in the early hours of Tuesday morning ahead of their UEFA Super Cup showdown

“It was the way they capitulated at the end which was worrying,” said Merse on The Debate.

“It’s a big game on Wednesday and a massive game on Sunday [against Leicester, live on Sky Sports]. People will be watching and starting to ask questions like ‘what’s Brendan Rodgers doing at Leicester and why isn’t he at Chelsea’. This becomes a big game.”

Lampard has played in two European Super Cups with Chelsea and was on the losing side on both occasions in 2012 and 2013. He says it is a competition the club is “desperate” to win.

“We need to be absolutely ready. It’s a cup that the club desperately wants to win.

“Every player in there needs to be aware of the importance of the game to this club and we have to give everything, because it’s going to be tough. It’s going to be tough, but we cannot walk off the pitch and think “oh, we could’ve done that” or “we missed that opportunity” or “we weren’t quite ready” or make any excuses for ourselves.

Chelsea vs Leicester

August 18, 2019, 4:00pm

Live on

“This final means a lot to the club, it’s another trophy and I know how much it means having lost two finals. It would be nice for me personally to start with a trophy but more importantly is it would show to the players that they are capable of competing against a team like Liverpool.”

With Sunday’s clash against Leicester in mind, what team will Lampard pick against Liverpool?

He opted to go with Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham in attacking positions against Manchester United while N’Golo Kante, who recently returned from injury, came off the bench in the second half.

Chelsea could also be boosted by the return of Willian and Antonio Rudiger, who have travelled with the squad after missing the trip to Old Trafford with injuries.

Who’s the referee?

The Super Cup will be the first major UEFA men’s match to be officiated by a female referee.

Stephanie Frappart, the 25-year-old Frenchwoman, will lead out a team of predominantly female officials. She will be accompanied by Manuela Nicolosi of France and Michelle O’Neal from the Republic of Ireland who will be the assistant referees for the match. They also took charge of the women’s World Cup final on July 7.

Stephanie Frappart will be the first female referee to take charge of a major UEFA men’s match

“I’m very happy, and it was really a surprise,” said Frappart. “I didn’t expect to be given the Super Cup assignment – it’s a great honour for me, and for female referees as well. I hope it serves as an example to female referees, and to any young girls who may aspire to be a referee.”

How to follow the Super Cup

You can follow all of the action from the European Super Cup on the Sky Sports app and skysports.com with our dedicated live blog, which will feature the best build-up, commentary and reaction.

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FREE TO PLAY: £2m jackpot if £2m Players Enter

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Laurent Koscielny 'very hurt' by Arsenal row - Olivier Giroud

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/laurent-koscielny-very-hurt-by-arsenal-row-olivier-giroud/

Laurent Koscielny 'very hurt' by Arsenal row - Olivier Giroud

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Koscielny ‘very hurt’ by Arsenal conflict – Giroud

Arsenal captain Laurent Koscielny is “very hurt” by his conflict with the club, his friend and former team-mate Olivier Giroud has told the BBC.

Koscielny has refused to travel on the pre-season tour of the USA after the Gunners rejected his transfer request, and is facing disciplinary proceedings.

The 33-year-old French defender has been criticised, but Giroud said: “You cannot make a judgement when you don’t have all the clues. I’m pretty sure we don’t know everything in this situation.”

The Chelsea and France striker, who played for Arsenal between 2012 and 2018, added: “I hope both sides will find the best agreement.”

Koscielny joined Arsenal from Lorient for about £10m in 2010 and has made 353 appearances for the Premier League club, leading the side intermittently before being appointed permanent captain a year ago.

An Achilles injury ruled him out of France’s triumphant 2018 World Cup campaign, but the centre-back returned in December and helped the Gunners reach the Europa League final, which they lost to Giroud’s Chelsea.

Before that match in Baku, Arsenal were in talks with Koscielny over a new contract.

However, it is understood the defender was unhappy with their offer – and that, along with growing discontent over the way his playing schedule was managed and the direction he felt the team and club were going, led Koscielny to ask for a move.

Arsenal rejected his plea and also deny the Frenchman’s assertion there was some form of agreement in place allowing him to be released for free this summer.

Fans sign letter urging Arsenal change

Gunners boss Unai Emery was pleased with Koscielny’s performance last season and still sees him playing a key role, so would only consider sanctioning his exit if a suitable offer arrived, which has not yet happened.

Koscielny is training in London while the club consider his punishment for refusing to tour.

“Lolo is a good friend of mine,” said Giroud in an exclusive interview. “I’ve known him now for 10, 11 years. We played together in the second division [in France, at Tours].

“He’s been playing for Arsenal for nine years; he’s been the skipper for so many years – very respectful, very professional, always the best example for the young players.

“The club gave him the opportunity to play at Arsenal, and it was a big, big opportunity for him to show his quality in the Premier League. I think he has always been grateful about that and respectful to the club. I don’t understand how we have got to this situation.

“I feel very sad for him because he’s a great person and the media wants to give a bad image of him.

“I’m not at the club, I don’t know what really happened – but one thing for sure is Lolo is very hurt by what’s happening and he’s an emotional person.”

‘I can understand the Arsenal fans’

Laurent Koscielny and Olivier Giroud played for opposite sides in the 2019 Europa League final

Giroud’s five-and-a-half-year spell at Emirates Stadium came to an end when he was sold to Chelsea after Arsenal signed Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in January 2018.

The 32-year-old has won the FA Cup and Europa League with the Blues, as well as helping the side reach last season’s Carabao Cup final.

“I didn’t want to leave,” Giroud said.

“I spoke with the boss – at this time, Arsene [Wenger] – and I told him: ‘Look, gaffer, I need some game time to play at the World Cup, that’s massive for me.’

“At the end of the day, we won it, so it was very important for me to leave.

“It was tough for me, but it was amazing to sign for a club like Chelsea. It was like an improvement for me because – OK, it’s Manchester City now – but Chelsea have been the best club in England over the past 10 years.

“It was a new challenge with big motivation, big targets.”

After 19 consecutive seasons in the Champions League, Arsenal face a third year in the Europa League and are operating with a restricted budget in the transfer market as a result.

On Monday, a group of 16 prominent supporters’ groups and bloggers signed a letter calling on Gunners owner Stan Kroenke to “reinvigorate” the club.

Giroud expressed sympathy – “I can understand the fans” – and said there is perhaps a difference in mindset between his previous and current employers.

“With Arsenal it was difficult to fight for the title. We were always fighting for the Champions League places,” he said. “I won a few FA Cups and Community Shields. When you can’t win the league, winning the FA Cup is quite nice, so I’ve got amazing memories.

“Chelsea is a club where you have maybe more expectations, higher expectations. They were winning more titles these past 10 years and obviously Arsenal wants to come back to the ‘Invincibles’ days, but it’s not easy.

“I’m not going to say we are doing things better at Chelsea. We just try to be as competitive as we can, to step up and win more trophies.”

When asked if it could be a mentality issue, Giroud replied: “Maybe.

“In football, for me, it’s two-thirds of the quality you need to have. I’ve seen so many talented players – but without mental strength they can’t step up and get out of their comfort zone. Mental strength is massive in football and sport in general.”

‘We can compete for title despite transfer ban’

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Chelsea need to be ‘competitive straight away’ – Giroud

This summer, Chelsea triggered an option to extend Giroud’s stay at Stamford Bridge by 12 months and, despite the club being banned from signing players for two transfer windows, the France international is confident they can compete for honours under new boss Frank Lampard.

“He’s a proper Chelsea legend,” Giroud added. “As a player, he was an example for the young players and the fans. He loves the badge and the club, so I think he is the right person.

“He’s coming with big energy and we are working very hard, and in a good way.

“I think he’s got the squad to compete in the different competitions this year.

“Many young players sometimes have to go on loan to get some game time. This transfer ban gives them an opportunity to play more, show their qualities and – honestly, trust me – we’ve got plenty of young, talented players at Chelsea.

“The Champions League is very tough. We’ve got a talented squad, but it’s quite young. Everybody knows the Champions League is a lot about experience.

“We’re going to fight in every competition – but the main target will be to compete with City and Liverpool for the Premier League title.”

Players delighted with Lampard – Giroud

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[dannyboyk2000]

Ross Barkley: Could He Turn Out to be Chelsea’s Next Frank Lampard?

After an injury-riddled career during his time at Everton, and at the start of his Chelsea career, Ross Barkley has finally found his place in this current Chelsea midfield 3 under new boss Maurizio Sarri- rotating with Kovačić. He has started this new season well. So can he push on now to become Chelsea’s next Frank Lampard-esque player?

Ross Barkley started his career at Everton in 2010, and at the start of his career, had two loan moves to Sheffield United in 2012 and Leeds in 2014. At Sheffield United, he made 13 appearances and scored 4 goals. At Leeds, he made only 4 appearances, scoring 0 goals. But during his time at Everton, he made 150 appearances and scored 21 goals over 8 seasons at Everton. He then made the £15 million move to Chelsea in January 2018 where he originally struggled to gain game time under Antonio Conte. However, at the start of this season, he has been competing with on-loan Real Madrid midfielder Mateo Kovačić, to fill the last of the remaining 3 positions in Sarri’s midfield with Kante and Jorginho. And so far this season has made 7 appearances for Chelsea, 4 being as a sub and scored 1 goal so far. Overall in his whole career to date, Barkley has scored 26 goals, gaining 19 assists so far in his club career.

So can he step up to be the next Frank Lampard? Are there similarities between their style of play, or are they 2 completely different players?

Unsurprisingly, Ross Barkley’s ‘Idol’ is Frank Lampard as he admitted in an interview before the season started.  He also stated in that interview that he would like to emulate Frank Lampard’s stat of being able to score 20 goals in a  single season as an attacking midfielder like Frank Lampard did most seasons for Chelsea. And someone who sees great potential in Ross Barkley is his current manager Maurizio Sarri, who after Chelsea’s most recent Premier League win against Southampton before the International break claimed that Ross Barkley was on his way to becoming a ‘great player’, after he scored and assisted Hazard.

Similarities and Differences between Barkley’s and Lampard’s styles of play

One major similarity between Barkley’s and Lampard’s style of play that both are box-to-box midfielders who attack but also help back on the defensive side of the game. Another similarity is that both like to try their luck from long range and shoot a lot outside the box. However, one major difference between the pair is that Lampard had been brilliant at taking corners, free kicks, and penalties, whereas Barkley isn’t at the same level. This is partly because he doesn’t have chances to take corners, free kicks or penalties for Chelsea in games, because for example, Eden Hazard is the main penalty taker, and Willian is the main corner taker usually. So he can’t demonstrate those skills, whereas Lampard was usually the main corner taker, free kick taker and penalty taker for Chelsea.

So what does Ross Barkley need to do to become Chelsea’s next Frank Lampard?

The most obvious target that Ross Barkley needs to achieve to become the next Frank Lampard is to win silverware. Frank Lampard during his time at Chelsea has won 3 Premier League titles,  4 FA Cups, 2 League Cups, 2 FA Community Shields, 1 UEFA Champions League title, and finally 1 UEFA Europa League. He has also won many individual awards including Chelsea’s player of the year on 3 occasions. On the Other hand, in Barkley’s career so far, he has won 1 FA Cup with Chelsea last season and that’s it for major silverware. But individually he has won Everton’s young player of the season once. So Barkley has a long way to go in terms of winning Silverware to even be named in the same bracket as Frank Lampard.

The second target that Ross Barkley has to accomplish to become the next Frank Lampard is by stepping up and performing on the International Stage in big competitions like the World Cup and the Euros like Frank Lampard did. Lampard in total made 106 appearances for England, scoring 29 goals for his Country. The only downside about Lampard’s international career was that he won nothing. Whereas Barkley has already won the UEFA European Under-17 Championship in 2010 for England under 17’s. And so far has made 23 appearances for his country, scoring 2 goals. Furthermore, Barkley has already won more for his Country than what Lampard did and Barkley still has a long time in his England career to go, whereas Lampard is now a manager and retired a long time ago from international football.

The third target that Ross Barkley needs to obtain to be mentioned in the same bracket as Frank Lampard is that he needs to score many more goals for Chelsea in the Premier League and be involved in a lot of Chelsea goals by gaining a lot of assists, just like Frank Lampard did. Frank Lampard scored 211 goals for Chelsea- becoming the clubs all-time top goalscorer. He also obtained 102 assists in his time in the Premier League. These stats show that Barkley has a lot to do to be near the same level as Frank Lampard.

The other few targets that Ross Barkley needs to merit, in order to be mentioned in the same bracket as Frank Lampard includes; being a captain for Chelsea and showing leadership qualities on the field as Lampard did for Chelsea. He also needs to be a little more lucky with injuries and hope that they won’t be a constant recurrence, as that could hinder his dream of being like his idol.

To Sum Up…

Ross Barkley has a lot to do. However many Chelsea fans see the next Frank Lampard to be Mason Mount who is on loan at Derby County being coached by Frank Lampard himself. Many Chelsea fans see many similarities in young Mason Mount to how Frank Lampard was as a young player. So Chelsea fans hope that Mason Mount, under the guidance of Lampard can improve his game and be the next Frank Lampard type player for Chelsea in the future.

By Danyal Khan (for Sportstalkline.com)

[sportsandideas]

A Mental Game: On Happiness, or Does it Matter Who Wins? [A rescue job from 2010]

[Here’s something I wrote over eight years ago in anticipation of the 2010 World Cup; many of the names have changed, but the story is (basically) the same...]

(photo from: The Daily Echo)

Originally posted MAY 3, 2010

Re-posted July of 2018

Why do we care?  Why will hundreds of millions of fans watch the World Cup this summer and hinge their lives around game results?  Why does it matter whether the millionaire players, coaches, and owners of Inter Milan beat the millionaire players, coaches, and owners of Bayern Munich in the Champions League final?  Why does anybody, no matter how few, bother going to watch FC Dallas play?

Presumably at some level most soccer fans invest ourselves in what, after all, is twenty-two men or women in short pants chasing a ball because we enjoy it.  Somehow the game makes us happy.  But why?

As it happens, studying happiness is hot right now in the social sciences.  Psychologists have realized they spent way too long focused primarily on pathology and dysfunction, failing to learn about the other side of human experience.  Economists have realized that people are as motivated by irrational emotions as they are by rational cost-benefit analyses.  And soccer, it seems to me, can be a pretty interesting place to apply some of their ideas.

The explosion of scholarly interest in happiness does not, unfortunately, make for easy answers.  Happiness is tough to define and measure.  Most research tends to operate with the assumption that it’s best to just trust people and simply ask: On a scale of __ to __, how happy are you?  The problem is that when the question is that blunt and superficial, most people say they are happy.  It misses the proverbial ‘masses who lead lives of quiet desperation.’  It misses those FC Dallas fans.

The alternative is to try and measure the things scholars think associate with happiness.  Though those things include a wide range of characteristics from autonomy to environmental mastery, in my read of the literature they boil down to that old Freudian formulation: what matters is a combination of ‘love and work’, people and purpose.  We tend to be happiest when we balance engaging social relationships with a sense that what we do matters, be that a job, raising a family, contributing to a community, or maybe even supporting a team.

But focusing just on people and purpose also fails to tell the whole story because it doesn’t address the classic social science problem of causality—do good social networks and success in one’s endeavors cause happiness, or are happy people more likely to have good social networks and succeed?  In fact, it turns out that statistically, when dealing with large data sets, the single best predictor of happiness is something we don’t have much control over: personality.  Optimists with a sunny disposition are happier than pessimists ridden by anxiety almost regardless of the circumstances of their lives.  A sanguine Aussie will consistently out-happy a dour Englishman no matter their relative fortunes in South Africa this summer.

While this may not be revolutionary stuff, the science of happiness does highlight some ways that our fandom can lead us astray.  One recent PR company survey, for example, found that 93 percent of England fans would “give up food for a week to see England win.”  This makes news because it seems to say something about how much the game matters to people—because it seems to say how happy it would make them to see their team win.  But they are wrong.

Predicting Happiness

Say hypothetically I want to predict how happy English football fans will be one year from today.  And say I have to make that predication for two potential scenarios: 1) England wins the 2010 World Cup; 2) England is knocked out of the World Cup by Argentina in a game where Carlos Tevez scores with a balled fist, Wayne Rooney gets dismissed on a second yellow for diving in the box, and Diego Maradona celebrates by belly sliding across Frank Lampard’s bow wearing a t-shirt saying ‘the Queen can stuff it.’  Here’s my prediction: in either case, English fans will be exactly as happy as they are today.

(photo from Reuters UK)

My prediction is based on a famous study in the science of happiness that evaluated the ‘real life’ equivalents of that English soccer dream/nightmare: in 1978 a group of psychologists compared two groups at the extremes of what we imagine to define our well-being—people had won the lottery, and people who had been paralyzed for life.  Immediately after their respective fateful events, there reported dramatic differences in their emotions—the lottery winners were ecstatic, the paraplegics were devastated.  Of course.

But over time a funny thing happened: they adapted.  The lottery winners started to realize that they still couldn’t afford everything they wanted, that they couldn’t trust people who had been good friends, that money changes but does not eliminate the stresses of everyday life.  Those who had been paralyzed came to realize that they could still engage in fulfilling relationships, that it could be rewarding to make little bits of progress in dealing with new challenges, that their physical limitations changed but did not eliminate the meaning of their lives.  After six months or a year, each group (along with a control group who had experienced no dramatic life events) expected to be back to the exact same level of happiness they’d reported before fate intervened. Extending the results of that study to virtually any life events, Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert (of Stumbling on Happiness fame) goes so far as to say “If it happened over three months ago, with a few exceptions, it has no impact on our happiness.”*[see end note]

Granted, objective events and circumstances do make a difference in the short-term; the night of England’s World Cup win/loss will undoubtedly be an alcohol-lubricated orgy of joy/woe.  And great games do offer aesthetic pleasures, along with the types of emotional highs (and lows) that constitute the immeasurable part of human experience.  But even in the short term an interesting range of variables mediate between events, between the win or the loss, and our emotional response.

The Social Relativity of Happiness

One key mediator between events and happiness is our relative perspective on what could have been—what academics call “counterfactuals.”  While competitive sports are alluring precisely because they delineate clear winners and losers, feelings of ‘success’ are relative to our expectations and our imaginations.

A famous research example here drew on the Barcelona Olympics to compare the emotional responses of silver and bronze medal winners.  As Victoria Husted Medvec and colleagues reported in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, objective raters consistently found bronze medal winners to be happier than silver medal winners.  In a follow-up study with amateur athletes they confirmed that this inversion of objective results was because people were thinking about what could have been: the bronze medal winners were comparing themselves to those who came in fourth, while the silver medal winners were comparing themselves to those who won it all.

In soccer terms, this suggests that fans’ happiness at the World Cup depends less on where they finish and more on where people think their team could have finished.  Subjective perceptions of what could have been matter more than objective results.  In fact, I’d hypothesize that on average English fans would be happier with a second round exit than a loss in the final—because they wouldn’t have to torment themselves with how close they came to winning it all.

(photo from Sky News)

This subjectivity of fans’ emotional reactions is further compounded by that other key variable in our happiness equation: people.  Both in the short term and in the long term we tend to be happier when we are engaged in healthy relating with others.  One relevant study here was done by María-Angeles Ruiz-Belda and colleagues in Spain, who video-taped soccer fans watching televised games from the World Cup and from La Liga.  The best predictor of whether or not the fans seemed happy during the game had nothing to do with goals being scored or favorable results; what mattered was the presence of other people.  Although Ruiz-Belda and colleagues use these findings to question the relationship between smiling and emotional experience, from a soccer perspective the results suggest that the full glory of the game only happens when shared.

The social essence of happy fandom also shows up in theoretical efforts to explain our irrational attachments to our teams.  Why do we identify with players we don’t know and franchises that use us for our money?  Probably the most common theoretical explanation is called the BIRG effect: Basking In Reflected Glory.  The idea is that we unconsciously use teams to orient our social identities in a way that tells us something about whether we are good or bad: when the US was up 2-0 at the half against Brazil in last summer’s Confederations Cup I was irrationally happy because of a vague sense that the score line reflected well on me.  When the US proceeded to lose 3-2 I was irrationally miserable because of a vague sense that I myself, sitting dazed in front of a pub TV 10,000 miles from the actual game, had failed.  But while BIRGing makes some sense I’ve never accepted it to be the full story—there are too many people willing to stick with their teams through too many lean years  (think again about the English and the World Cup) to make BIRGing the only thing that matters.

So I was pleased recently to stumble across some scholarship from a psychologist named Daniel Wann who has offered Team Identification-Social Psychological Health Model as a complement to the BIRG effect.  Ok, the name is not as catchy, but the idea fits with everything else I know about happiness: Wann has good evidence that fandom facilitates happiness because it offers us the types of real, imagined, temporary, and enduring connections to others that our human nature craves.

Ultimately, as many others have noted, where else other than the sports arena can grown men cry, hug, sing, and dance in a way that enhances both their masculinity and their social networks?  Where else can people of all stripes engage in loud, desperate, eccentric yet culturally endorsed expressions of our full emotional range?  We often think soccer makes us happy when our team wins, but the evidence suggests it actually makes us happy by offering rare opportunities—real or perceived—to connect amidst the penetrating anomie of modern life.  So, if the science of happiness is right, the England fan screaming ‘God Save the Queen’ with arms around mates after a second round loss may actually end up happier than the fan sitting alone on a tropical island watching Rio Ferdinand raise the Jules Rimet trophy. Or at least, if that isn’t any consolation, know that a year later winning or losing probably won’t make one bit of difference.  Right?

*Note: Oddly, one of the exceptions to Gilbert’s claim may be soccer related: in their recent book Soccernomics Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski present some provocative data suggesting that hosting a World Cup does increase happiness in a country even several years after the event—though they also find that hosting other major games does not influence national happiness.  They present further data suggesting that the idea of losing in major competitions as a cause of fan suicide is a myth—in fact, they argue, sports events tend to bring people together in a way that prevents suicide.  So while the whole picture is certainly a bit more complicated than I’m making out, the basic argument holds—major events by themselves don’t matter as much as we expect them to over the long term.

[As a more meta note: Back in 2009 and 2010, mostly in anticipation of the World Cup in South Africa, I did a lot of blogging for a great soccer web-site: pitchinvasion.net. For most of a year I wrote a weekly 2000-3000 word something using a broad soccer and social science lens, and while that level of extracurricular activity wasn’t sustainable it was probably the most fun I’ve had writing. Turns out, like many great blogs without a corporate media sponsor, the whole thing wasn’t sustainable – the site has now been dormant for a few years, and largely hijacked by gambling bots. When I first started this Tumblr I did a few posts linking back to pitchinvasion.net, but the site is now in such bad shape that I don’t think that’s a good idea anymore. So I occasionally insert a few posts here in hopes they are worth saving and with nothing really to lose…]

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Number 10s come in all shapes sizes and methods in Premier League

ESPN spent a day behind the scenes at Everton to find out why they are the “people’s club.”

Just in case you’d managed to forget about him, former Tottenham and Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood emerged from the shadows this week to provide his views on youth football in a television debate show. One of his complaints, among many others, was that too many youth footballers in England consider themselves No. 10s.

This was a particularly peculiar complaint considering one of English football’s failings over the past few decades is the inability to produce talented, creative, gifted No. 10s capable of roaming between the lines. Incidentally, Sherwood has previously said that players “call themselves No. 10s” only “because they don’t score enough goals.”

But a cursory glance across the Premier League reveals a huge variety of players fielded in the No. 10 role so far this season — from those who never score to those who can’t stop scoring. Below are five players who play very different No. 10 roles.

The driving midfielder: Steven Davis, Southampton

There’s a type of No. 10 that is unquestionably a midfielder rather than a forward. Southampton’s Steven Davis, for example, has enjoyed an excellent start to the campaign playing at the top of the Saints’ midfield trio, leading by example while wearing the captain’s armband. He scored an early winner at Selhurst Park last weekend.

Davis is more of a box-to-box player, a runner who provides his teammates with positive balls into the final third and dynamic off-the-ball movement to prompt quick passing combinations.

That Selhurst Park winner, though, was very much the exception to the rule. While a useful midfielder and a perennially underrated footballer, Davis’ end product is sorely lacking, and his goal-scoring return of 10 goals in 172 Premier League appearances for Southampton is somewhat pitiful, even when considering he’s usually been fielded in a deeper starting position.

In this role, Davis is a very British type of No. 10, a driving midfielder pushed into a more advanced position. He doesn’t boast genuine creativity, he’s not wonderfully gifted in possession, but his energy and attacking intent mean he’s arguably more suited to this advanced role despite the fact that his goal-scoring and assisting figures will never be impressive.

Mesut Ozil prefers to set up his teammates for goals rather than attack and finish himself.

The outright assister: Mesut Ozil, Arsenal

Manager Arsene Wenger’s switch to a 3-4-3 system means Ozil has generally been fielded as more of an inside-right in recent months, but for the vast majority of his Arsenal career the German has been fielded as Arsenal’s No. 10 in a 4-2-3-1 system.

From that position, Ozil’s role is almost solely about the simple concept of playing the final pass, having ghosted into unnoticed positions between the lines. Ozil doesn’t generally contribute much in deeper positions — he doesn’t drift into midfield to dictate play, nor is he particularly impressive in terms of his goal scoring. Ozil is solely about assists.

In that respect, Ozil is — sometimes — unbeatable. He has been the leading assister in Bundesliga, La Liga, Premier League and Champions League campaigns, and few other players are so overwhelmingly selfless in the final third, eternally looking to feed teammates rather than shoot. He’s a very Arsenal player.

Yet this also remains one of Ozil’s shortcomings. When Ozil was fielded behind Olivier Giroud, a player who likes to hold up possession and wait for runners to sprint past him, Arsenal often lacked penetrative runs in the final third, depending upon movement from wide or Aaron Ramsey’s bursts from deeper.

The midfielder-forward hybrid: Dele Alli, Tottenham Hotspur

Dele Alli grew up considering himself a midfielder. He idolised Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, the two obvious choices considering Alli’s position and age, and immediately impressed at Tottenham in 2015 with driving midfield runs and trickery in tight spaces.

Yet the more Alli plays, the less he seems to be a midfielder. He boasts a superb relationship with Harry Kane, and often isn’t merely just playing off Kane but is making runs past him — even when Spurs are knocking the ball around in defence. Alli has become a “final third” player, and he hit 18 goals last season, an incredible tally for someone not considered a proper striker.

No one entirely knows what to make of Alli. “In the box, he looks like a striker, and outside the box, he plays like a midfielder,” says Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino.

Alli himself says he’s “a cross between Gerrard and Yaya Toure,” although that raises further questions considering both have been deployed as their side’s deepest, and most advanced, midfielders at various stages in their careers. Alli is the Gerrard of 2009 rather than 2014, and the Toure of 2014 rather than 2009.

Alli is therefore the purest No. 10 on this list — not quite a midfielder, not quite a forward, he encapsulates the original point of the role.

Joshua King developed a touch for finishing last year in his second season with Bournemouth.

The second striker: Joshua King, Bournemouth

Very few people predicted King’s stunning run of form for Bournemouth last season. He scored 16 goals, having managed six the previous campaign, and before that he managed an underwhelming total of just five in 64 games throughout his spell with Blackburn Rovers. But suddenly the Norwegian seemed like a good all-round forward — powerful, pacey, ruthless.

King has been deployed in a number of roles by manager Eddie Howe — sometimes wide-left, sometimes up front. But in recent weeks King has been fielded as a No. 10 behind Jermain Defoe. In a world where lots of players who like playing deeper have been pushed forward to become the main centre-forward, King is very much the opposite.

“The manager knows my favourite position is the No. 9,” King said last year. “I think I showed that last season as well, but we have so many good strikers. When he asks me to play No. 10, it is not like I am angry or anything, because I just want to help the team. If the manager thinks I am helping by playing as a 10, then that’s what he wants and what he believes in.”

But it’s clear King very much considers himself a centre-forward. Therefore, Howe is effectively playing a strike partnership, with King and Defoe upfront.

The defensive forward: Shinji Okazaki, Leicester City

In one sense Okazaki is another King — a centre-forward fielded behind a quick striker, roaming the channels and firing powerful shots toward goal. But the Japanese forward is very different.

After all, Okazaki isn’t a great goal threat. Even when Leicester won the league with him a regular in the side, he managed just five goals all season. Last season he managed just three. Admittedly, Okazaki has started this season with two goals in four league appearances, but his finishing is frequently unconvincing — even when he scores, the ball seems to scruffily bobble over the line.

Okazaki, in truth, isn’t really a forward at all in this system. Yes, he’s Jamie Vardy’s closest support — but Okazaki’s most noticeable contributions are when the opposition are in control of possession. He presses and harries to start the defensive pressure, effectively acting as a third central midfielder to prevent Leicester being overrun in that zone.

His introduction shortly after half-time in the midweek Carabao Cup victory over Liverpool completely transformed Leicester, and he’s essentially the man who makes this system work properly. By far the least glamourous type of player fielded in the No. 10 role, Okazaki has nevertheless essentially created his own type of No. 10, based not around assisting or scoring, but pressing.

Michael Cox is the editor of zonalmarking.net and a contributor to ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @Zonal_Marking.

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Jurgen Klopp needs Liverpool to be miserly again if they are to compete for major honours

Liverpool's UEFA Super Cup victory should not blind them … Jurgen Klopp must feel miserable again for his team to compete for major awards

Liverpool defeated Chelsea on penalties in the UEFA Super Cup after a 2-2 draw

Sadio Mane scored twice while Oliver Giroud and Jorginho scored the game

Jurgen Klopp & # 39; s team won

By Dominic King for MailOnline

Published: 22:57 BST , August 14, 2019 Updated: 22:58 BST, August 14, 2019

There is an underlying theme for Jurgen Klopp & # 39; s words this summer. In his quest to bring Liverpool to the fore, he has kept repeating a core sentence: let's be the team that nobody wants to face.

From Bradford to Boston, South Bend to the shores of Lake Geneva there is no ambiguity in the Klopp mantra – he knows that the only way Liverpool will again challenge the greatest honor is through their to recreate stingy ways from last season.

For all the attention on their front three, Liverpool went the distance with Manchester City and became champion of Europe because they had the best defense. Every time they needed a clean slate, they got one; Klopp coined the expression & # 39; mentality monsters & # 39; because they defended with their lives.

Think about it: the extraordinary escapology against Barcelona in half final became possible because they closed Lionel Messi and Company; they took the trophy in Madrid because they built a wall against which Tottenham & # 39; s frustrated attackers could only hit their heads.

Back in another European final, you wondered what has changed in the last 75 days. Liverpool & # 39; s only clean slate in seven preseason-friendly games was against League One neighbors Tranmere and that porous form has continued since the real company started.

You can deny friendly departments as irrelevant, but Klopp is a perfectionist, every bit as much as his great rival Pep Guardiola. His style of play is complicated and Liverpool only becomes powerful if every cog is perfectly aligned.

For long parts of a hidden and uncomfortable night, everything had got out of hand. Chelsea ran amok along Liverpool's right flank, especially in the first 45 minutes, and if they could easily have stopped the game, capitalize with Christian Pulisic in wide open spaces.

Frank Lampard had set up his team perfectly. They pressed high and N & # 39; Golo Kante was excellent, a mocking and raging vermin. Don't be afraid of Lampard in management – he sold everyone a pre-match dummy, suggesting that Kante would not be fit. He was not only fit. He was the Man of the competition.

You had to sympathize with what you saw from your team

Would Klopp have been the same? Not so much. Every time the TV camera & # 39; s saw him, he was either in deep conversation with his assistants Pep Lijnders and Peter Kraweitz or was open-mouthed about how easily Chelsea danced through it.

Joe Gomez, who started the Community Shield and moved Premier League-opener against Norwich alongside van Dijk to full-back, but he did not get protection against Mohamed Salah and was often left exposed. It was no surprise that Chelsea opened the score after exploiting that channel.

However, there were other problems. Joel Matip, for example, had a terrible time with his distribution, setting the tone for his display when he gave the first ball directly to Chelsea from the kick-off. He looked nervous and settled only after the break when Sadio Mane equalized.

Anxiety is an important point. This was the first major match Liverpool played without Alisson between the posts since the 2018 final of the Champions League and, for those who watch them regularly, they seemed 10 percent less than what they should be.

criticism of Adrian, who came to the rescue of his team in the 32nd minute with a huge save at the feet of Mateo Kovacic, who had pushed Pedro's thunderous ride 10 minutes earlier.

But right away, you can see the differences: it is the small things, such as the fact that he will be six meters deeper than the Brazilian or pick up the ball when it returns (Alisson always uses his feet to to keep the time) or kick long out of his hands.

Alisson, you know, would not have done the reckless challenge that had allowed Tammy Abraham to win Chelsea an extra time. He naturally redeemed himself in the shootout with Abraham's decisive stop, but it would be ridiculous to say that Liverpool has a substitute.

Alisson is not only a powerful physical presence, but he also settles nerves. For a long time Liverpool looked like they were living on the mind and Van Dijk was so frustrated that he constantly moaned and gestured to the people around him, reminding them that norms had disappeared.

He knows – as Klopp does – that this is not the way of Liverpool. The trophy is to be enjoyed, but it should not be blind to them. If this continues, everyone wants to play against them soon – and that is exactly what Klopp does not want.

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How Solskjaer tactically outwitted Frank Lampard’s Chelsea in Manchester United’s 4-0 masterclass 

Manchester United started their Premier League campaign with a 4-0 win Chelsea That revealed a lot about how both teams will set up this coming season.

United was relentless and benefited from fundamental structural flaws in the way Chelsea was set up by Frank Lampard . Ole Gunnar Solskjaer also made crucial decisions to ensure the victory.

Sportsmail made a tactical breakdown of the game and took a look at where it was won and lost.

Manchester United made a stormy start to the Premier League and defeated Chelsea 4-0

Chelsea & midfield wasteland

This game was won and lost in the transition and Frank Lampard's structure really struggled to deal with how Manchester United countered.

Each goal involved a counter attack. The first, which came about because Kurt Zouma split at Marcus Rashford, began to win the ball back in midfield by United and Zouma left one on one with the striker.

The defensive structure of Chelsea fell completely to pieces when United attacked them in the middle.

There was so much room for United when Chelsea lost the ball in the middle lost to the park

Kurt Zouma was completely isolated with Rashford because Chelsea could not resist the break

[1 9459011] It led to Zouma Rashford fouling in the box and giving away the penalty for the opening goal

The other three relied on Chelsea lost high on the field and United went with speed through Paul Pogba, Rashford and their other players.

What was remarkable, however, was that once United had the ball back from Chelsea, they met very little resistance

This was due to the way Lampard had set up his team. There was a huge gap in the middle of the park when Chelsea advanced and United exploited it when they won the ball.

Zouma held a day to the first game of Frank Lampard in charge of Chelsea to forget

There was a huge opening in the middle of the field when United fell into the counterattack against Chelsea

For example for the second, when Rashford picked up the ball after Tammy Abraham had lost it, he had three players supporting four United men

expanding the space to move to the middle gave others time to participate in the attack, allowing them to load the box when Rashford & # 39; s first pass sent Lingard too wide. Andreas Pereira also had time to take the field and play in the cross.

The fourth was comparable. Pogba was in his own third when he collected the ball and behind the center line when Martial played a one-two with him. Yet there was no resistance until he played in Daniel James, who overcame a bad first touch to score.

Lampard played 4-2-3-1, but Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic were not enough of a shield in front of the defense, especially with looting Cesar Azpilicueta and Emerson.

United & # 39; s Fourth cam through a rapid counterattack on the field met little resistance

He tore Daniel James, who had freedom of the right wing and joined the counterattack

Structural shift of Solskjaer

While United & # 39; s opener came up against the game but momentum swung in their favor, Solskjaer & # 39; s best moment came out of the game by acknowledging that it momentum had turned against his side.

During opening hours, Rashford had remained high on the field and had left his full back to deal with any Chelsea attacks. Probably this was to allow direct balls from the back to the front to launch counters.

But Chelsea was at the top and the defenders needed a hand. So Solskjaer asked both to invade and defend. United switched to 4-4-1-1 when Chelsea had the ball and had a rigid form. That prevented Chelsea from creating a lot.

During the first hour of the game, Rashford stayed left ahead and didn't help Luke Shaw, leaving Cesar Azpilicueta (circled) free to turn right fall and double

Rashford (circled) followed brilliantly when Solskjaer asked him to give more structure

It also meant that United & # 39; s counters came across the length of the field due to players moving forward with the ball on their feet instead of passing. And it worked for three of their four goals.

It was the best approach. Solskjaer deserves praise for recognizing the problem, making the defensive change and coming up with a way to use it to improve his attack.

United ended with an organized 4- 4-1 -1 to make itself harder to break down

Zouma's defensive misery

It's easy to forget that Kurt Zouma is on a Stoke side who was banned from the Premier League two seasons ago

Lampard apparently decided that he will be in his group of three central defenders this season, along with Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger. And although he had a good season with the previous Everton campaign, there might be a quality gap there.

Zouma was stupid when he gave the penalty away, although he felt he had to do something to stop Rashford, but that was not the only warning signal.

In the sixth minute he played the ball directly to an oncoming attacker when passing to Christensen, although United could not convert from the left side of the box.

Individual errors are not a good sign at that early stage and it only got worse from there.

Kurt Zouma made mistakes during the game. Early on he lost the passing ball at the back

[1945909]

Only a poor finish from Anthony Martial stopped United taking an early lead as a result

Quality gap can harm Chelsea

There were good moments for Chelsea, And they do have players on the sidelines due to injuries, but they have been undermined by a lack of individual quality at crucial points.

They have lost their main player – Eden Hazard – and sold others this summer. A starting line-up with two great players in Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham reflected that.

Mount and Abraham have a lot of potential, but they must be remembered that they practiced their trade in the championship last season. They are probably not yet at the level of a Chelsea.

Mason Mount is a promising player but needs patience as the Premier League

a good chance, same for Tammy Abraham, who lost a good chance early in the Sunday game

That raised its ugly head when Abraham hit the post front doors.

It would be unfair to hammer them too much at this stage. But while Chelsea, in the words of Graeme Souness, & # 39; beautiful and tidy & # 39; they might not have the chance this season to turn their game into something of value for the other purpose.

That is where individual talent comes in.

Martial has his moment

A problem The United States had in recent seasons that managers have consistently drawn players to solve areas that are not necessarily problem positions.

Anthony Martial shone with relative consistency since he came to Monaco. But during that time he had to deal with competition for a central striking berth of Radamel Falcao, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Romelu Lukaku and Rashford.

The worst moment before that was probably when he handed over his hand number to Ibrahimovic on the arrival of the Swede. That is not your vote of confidence from his manager.

Anthony Martial is back as United & # 39; s No. 9 and looks forward to getting a good chance in that role

Rashford is still there, but the selection on the opening day suggests that Martial gets his chance – and a decent one – in role no. 9

The Frenchman has scored 49 goals since he arrived – more than anyone in a United-shirt.

Sunday has shown that he has that clinical touch and turns in a cross despite the fact that he is wrong. Solskjaer must stay with him now.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had a perfect start to the season, but Frank Lampard had a nightmare

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Number 10s come in all shapes sizes and methods in Premier League

ESPN spent a day behind the scenes at Everton to find out why they are the “people’s club.”

Just in case you’d managed to forget about him, former Tottenham and Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood emerged from the shadows this week to provide his views on youth football in a television debate show. One of his complaints, among many others, was that too many youth footballers in England consider themselves No. 10s.

This was a particularly peculiar complaint considering one of English football’s failings over the past few decades is the inability to produce talented, creative, gifted No. 10s capable of roaming between the lines. Incidentally, Sherwood has previously said that players “call themselves No. 10s” only “because they don’t score enough goals.”

But a cursory glance across the Premier League reveals a huge variety of players fielded in the No. 10 role so far this season — from those who never score to those who can’t stop scoring. Below are five players who play very different No. 10 roles.

The driving midfielder: Steven Davis, Southampton

There’s a type of No. 10 that is unquestionably a midfielder rather than a forward. Southampton’s Steven Davis, for example, has enjoyed an excellent start to the campaign playing at the top of the Saints’ midfield trio, leading by example while wearing the captain’s armband. He scored an early winner at Selhurst Park last weekend.

Davis is more of a box-to-box player, a runner who provides his teammates with positive balls into the final third and dynamic off-the-ball movement to prompt quick passing combinations.

That Selhurst Park winner, though, was very much the exception to the rule. While a useful midfielder and a perennially underrated footballer, Davis’ end product is sorely lacking, and his goal-scoring return of 10 goals in 172 Premier League appearances for Southampton is somewhat pitiful, even when considering he’s usually been fielded in a deeper starting position.

In this role, Davis is a very British type of No. 10, a driving midfielder pushed into a more advanced position. He doesn’t boast genuine creativity, he’s not wonderfully gifted in possession, but his energy and attacking intent mean he’s arguably more suited to this advanced role despite the fact that his goal-scoring and assisting figures will never be impressive.

Mesut Ozil prefers to set up his teammates for goals rather than attack and finish himself.

The outright assister: Mesut Ozil, Arsenal

Manager Arsene Wenger’s switch to a 3-4-3 system means Ozil has generally been fielded as more of an inside-right in recent months, but for the vast majority of his Arsenal career the German has been fielded as Arsenal’s No. 10 in a 4-2-3-1 system.

From that position, Ozil’s role is almost solely about the simple concept of playing the final pass, having ghosted into unnoticed positions between the lines. Ozil doesn’t generally contribute much in deeper positions — he doesn’t drift into midfield to dictate play, nor is he particularly impressive in terms of his goal scoring. Ozil is solely about assists.

In that respect, Ozil is — sometimes — unbeatable. He has been the leading assister in Bundesliga, La Liga, Premier League and Champions League campaigns, and few other players are so overwhelmingly selfless in the final third, eternally looking to feed teammates rather than shoot. He’s a very Arsenal player.

Yet this also remains one of Ozil’s shortcomings. When Ozil was fielded behind Olivier Giroud, a player who likes to hold up possession and wait for runners to sprint past him, Arsenal often lacked penetrative runs in the final third, depending upon movement from wide or Aaron Ramsey’s bursts from deeper.

The midfielder-forward hybrid: Dele Alli, Tottenham Hotspur

Dele Alli grew up considering himself a midfielder. He idolised Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, the two obvious choices considering Alli’s position and age, and immediately impressed at Tottenham in 2015 with driving midfield runs and trickery in tight spaces.

Yet the more Alli plays, the less he seems to be a midfielder. He boasts a superb relationship with Harry Kane, and often isn’t merely just playing off Kane but is making runs past him — even when Spurs are knocking the ball around in defence. Alli has become a “final third” player, and he hit 18 goals last season, an incredible tally for someone not considered a proper striker.

No one entirely knows what to make of Alli. “In the box, he looks like a striker, and outside the box, he plays like a midfielder,” says Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino.

Alli himself says he’s “a cross between Gerrard and Yaya Toure,” although that raises further questions considering both have been deployed as their side’s deepest, and most advanced, midfielders at various stages in their careers. Alli is the Gerrard of 2009 rather than 2014, and the Toure of 2014 rather than 2009.

Alli is therefore the purest No. 10 on this list — not quite a midfielder, not quite a forward, he encapsulates the original point of the role.

Joshua King developed a touch for finishing last year in his second season with Bournemouth.

The second striker: Joshua King, Bournemouth

Very few people predicted King’s stunning run of form for Bournemouth last season. He scored 16 goals, having managed six the previous campaign, and before that he managed an underwhelming total of just five in 64 games throughout his spell with Blackburn Rovers. But suddenly the Norwegian seemed like a good all-round forward — powerful, pacey, ruthless.

King has been deployed in a number of roles by manager Eddie Howe — sometimes wide-left, sometimes up front. But in recent weeks King has been fielded as a No. 10 behind Jermain Defoe. In a world where lots of players who like playing deeper have been pushed forward to become the main centre-forward, King is very much the opposite.

“The manager knows my favourite position is the No. 9,” King said last year. “I think I showed that last season as well, but we have so many good strikers. When he asks me to play No. 10, it is not like I am angry or anything, because I just want to help the team. If the manager thinks I am helping by playing as a 10, then that’s what he wants and what he believes in.”

But it’s clear King very much considers himself a centre-forward. Therefore, Howe is effectively playing a strike partnership, with King and Defoe upfront.

The defensive forward: Shinji Okazaki, Leicester City

In one sense Okazaki is another King — a centre-forward fielded behind a quick striker, roaming the channels and firing powerful shots toward goal. But the Japanese forward is very different.

After all, Okazaki isn’t a great goal threat. Even when Leicester won the league with him a regular in the side, he managed just five goals all season. Last season he managed just three. Admittedly, Okazaki has started this season with two goals in four league appearances, but his finishing is frequently unconvincing — even when he scores, the ball seems to scruffily bobble over the line.

Okazaki, in truth, isn’t really a forward at all in this system. Yes, he’s Jamie Vardy’s closest support — but Okazaki’s most noticeable contributions are when the opposition are in control of possession. He presses and harries to start the defensive pressure, effectively acting as a third central midfielder to prevent Leicester being overrun in that zone.

His introduction shortly after half-time in the midweek Carabao Cup victory over Liverpool completely transformed Leicester, and he’s essentially the man who makes this system work properly. By far the least glamourous type of player fielded in the No. 10 role, Okazaki has nevertheless essentially created his own type of No. 10, based not around assisting or scoring, but pressing.

Michael Cox is the editor of zonalmarking.net and a contributor to ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @Zonal_Marking.

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