Phil Foden is a valuable set-piece deputy, Mike Jackson’s Clarets keep on moving, plus a defence of the retiring refereesSteven Gerrard prefers to vary his attacking shape to keep opponents guessing and has switched from using a midfield diamond to 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3 in his first six months in charge at Aston Villa. The manager was in full agreement that his team looked better once Danny Ings came on as a substitute to join Ollie Watkins as split strikers, with Philippe Coutinho then playing between them, as a false 9 or as the attacking tip of a diamond depending on your interpretation. Both strikers scored in the victory that relegated Norwich and were also instrumental when Villa went on a...
Brazil forward knows all about last chances and his winner against Chelsea was proof of his deep reserves of spirit It was the last trial. The last chance. After countless rebuffs and rejections, a 12-hour bus journey to Belo Horizonte for an open training session with America’s under-17 side awaited him. If he failed to make the grade then not only would he have no real future in football, but he also had no way of getting home. A one-way ticket was all Richarlison de Andrade could afford. No safety net. No second chances.Perhaps in a parallel timeline, Richarlison does not impress the America scouts that morning. Perhaps he turns an ankle and is forced to limp to the sidelines,...
The club are due to move to a new stadium but hopes of avoiding relegation rest on three games at their old fortressThe average English adult in the 1890s was about four inches shorter than today, and perhaps nowhere is this more evident that when trying to navigate one’s way around Goodison Park.The ceilings are low, the doorways and gangways narrow, the seating evidently designed with the more compact late-Victorian posterior in mind. Continue reading...
The visitors tried everything to derail Liverpool but it was only enough for an hour’s respite against Jürgen Klopp’s teamWith eight minutes to go in a petty and ill-tempered Merseyside derby, Michael Keane received a pass in his own penalty area. Normally Keane is a pretty decent ball-playing centre-half, with the ability to advance out of defence and spring quick attacks. But then, very little about his afternoon had been normal.Keane’s sole job here was to destroy: to clear crosses and then boot the ball as far away as possible. He completed three passes all afternoon. And so as Dele Alli rolled the ball casually towards him you could see a certain horror rising in him, the flustered panic of...
While the red half of Merseyside has flourished under Jürgen Klopp, the blue side have lost their direction in recent yearsFor Evertonians, perhaps the most upsetting aspect of the past week has been the number of Liverpool fans and former players reflecting on what a shame it would be if they got relegated. “I would be sad and I’m sure there’s a lot of other Liverpool fans who’d feel the same,” Ian Rush said on Friday. Jürgen Klopp used his press conference to lament Everton’s plight, admitting he would miss the derby if they ended up in the Championship next season.In a way, the outpouring of lament is its own sly little twist of the knife. Turns out Everton could...