Erik ten Hag has admitted he took a calculated gamble with his actions towards Manchester United’s players in order to raise disciplinary standards. There is a distinct sense that United are getting their act together once again and the main reason is down to how Ten Hag has not been afraid to crack down on behaviour in the dressing room — it has been clear for a long time that he is very much in charge. This point has been emphasised with the scathing assessment he made of the club’s transfer policy in an interview with a Dutch publication, published yesterday. Ten…
Author: t1006
Manchester United have introduced a ‘Ronaldo rule’ to ensure nobody inside the Old Trafford dressing room is paid significantly more than their team-mates. Salaries will be capped at £200,000 a week with goalkeeper David de Gea the first to be impacted. His £375,000-a-week deal runs out in the summer and the Spaniard has been given a far lower ‘take it or leave it’ offer that is in line with the contract signed by Bruno Fernandes last season. United’s new collective pay stance is a major sea change from the Ed Woodward era when the club were happy to break wage structures to bring…
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has discussed the impact of the World Cup on Ibrahima Konate and who will start against Wolves Jurgen Klopp admits it wasn’t perfect to push Ibrahima Konate back into action for Liverpool so soon after his World Cup disappointment with France. But the Reds boss is convinced the centre-back is in the right frame of mind to assume extra responsibility with Virgil van Dijk facing around a month on the sidelines following a hamstring injury. Konate suffered a miserable time on his comeback at Brentford on Monday, scoring an own goal for the home side’s opener and then outmuscled by…
Liverpool need Cody Gakpo to ideally hit the ground running and there’s stats which suggest having Andy Robertson at hand should help Over the previous five seasons, Liverpool relied heavily on their full-backs for creativity, and they set up goals at a near identical rate from each flank. Between 2017/18 and 2021/22, Trent Alexander-Arnold collected 60 assists while Andy Robertson provided just eight fewer. Yet this season, it has been no contest between the two. Alexander-Arnold finally earned his first assist of the campaign in Liverpool’s disappointing 3-1 defeat at Brentford, but his Scottish counterpart already has eight, at least two…
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has apparently been taking barber tips from Erling Haaland after sporting braids on the beach while on holiday. The AC Milan star is currently in Florida with his wife, Helena Seger, and their two sons Maximilian and Vincent and has abandoned his iconic ponytail. Instead, the Swede went with the bold choice of donning braids at the age of 41 while he still looks in shipshape condition. It comes just months after Manchester City ace Haaland sported the same look while on a beach holiday soon after his Etihad transfer was confirmed. Fans have drawn comparisons between the…
The England midfielder is set to get the chance to make a point with Manchester City Kalvin Phillips will get the chance to make a point as Manchester City’s attention turns to the domestic cups in the coming week. City manager Pep Guardiola criticised Phillips’ fitness, saying the England midfielder was overweight and not in good enough condition to train, after his return from the World Cup last month. Guardiola’s complaint, which attracted widespread headlines, compounded Phillips’ frustrating start at City following his summer move from Leeds. Prior to the World Cup, the 27-year-old had made just four substitute appearances, totalling 54 minutes, for…
Manchester City are currently without Ruben Dias and Aymeric Laporte, but are coping just fine without their previous first-choice centre-back pairing. Rewind to last season, and the thought of both Ruben Dias and Aymeric Laporte being injured would be a significant concern for Manchester City. City have had no shortage of centre-back issues in recent years, going from the low-point of needing Fernandinho to deputise for most of the 2019/20 season, to needing to sign Manuel Akanji in order to ensure Pep Guardiola has enough options at the back to account for fitness and form issues. When Akanji signed, it was largely to…
Todd Boehly spent over £270million in the summer and has so far failed to see positive reimbursements from his investment A quite remarkable transfer window for Chelsea this summer captivated the minds of many football fans across the globe. The most any English team had ever spent in one transfer window on new players, Chelsea’s £270million outlay fell just £35m short of the world record set by Real Madrid in 2019. Wesley Fofana, Kalidou Koulibaly, Marc Cucurella, Raheem Sterling. Those four alone represented just over £200m of transfer budget spent, and alongside the signings of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Cesare Casadei, Carney Chukwuemeka…
Premier League rivals Chelsea and Arsenal are going head-to-head for the signing of Ukrainian winger Mykhaylo Mudryk in the January window with the Blues having sent the wideman a strong message Chelsea have issued an ultimatum to Mykhaylo Mudryk that they will only move for him should he want a switch to Stamford Bridge as they attempt to beat Arsenal to his signature. The Gunners have been linked with a move for the Shakhtar Donetsk wideman for an extended period with Mikel Arteta keen to add to his attacking options in the January transfer window. Talks are ongoing between the two sides – Arsenal having already…
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has been told to stop ‘whinging’ about the tactics of other teams and to start getting tough with his own players. The Reds chief was angry at Brentford’s tactics during Monday night’s 3-1 defeat in west London, accusing the Bees of ‘stretching the rules’ during set-piece situations. He claimed Ibrahima Konate was fouled immediately before Bryan Mbuemo made it 3-1, insisting that VAR was ‘hiding’ during that controversial phase of play. The defeat left Liverpool still sitting sixth in the table, seven points behind Manchester United in fourth. And speaking about Klopp’s comments after the Brentford debacle,…
Manchester City closed the gap on Arsenal with a win at Chelsea but still lie five points behind the Premier League leaders John Stones reckons that Manchester City’s biggest danger in defending their Premier League title is…Manchester City. Pep Guardiola’s side moved to within five points of leaders Arsenal and pulled clear of third-placed Newcastle with an important 1-0 win at Chelsea. City bounced back from being held at home by a struggling Everton team to take advantage of the two teams they are sandwiched by in the table drawing with each other earlier in the week. However, a squad that has…
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was keen to praise one of his players in particular for their role in the 0-1 victory over Chelsea on Thursday night. City bounced back from a hugely disappointing first-half in West London to dictate play during the opening exchanges of the second-half, and ultimately take all three points through a single goal from Riyad Mahrez. The Algeria international combined well with fellow substitute Jack Grealish, to tap home at the back post and score the deciding goal in the fixture. While the aforementioned pair made the ultimate difference in the game, two other substitutes…