Erik ten Hag wants a new striker this summer and the French forward will need to do more to secure his place at the clubDid Manchester United’s late capitulation begin when Erik ten Hag took off Anthony Martial on 63 minutes? This may be a simplification, particularly as Bruno Fernandes also accompanied him, but until then those in red were coasting at 2-0 up with the forward providing a star turn.Twelve minutes in and United were given a glimmer of what they have missed from an enigmatic Frenchman bedevilled by injury: the sight of him dropping deep and bursting past defenders, a dazzling dribble splaying Sevilla and creating an opening for Antony. Continue reading...
Eddie Howe’s side have recaptured early season form but visitors struggle without Casemiro in their midfieldSome great mysteries endure, some just fade away. Does anybody talk about the Marie Celeste any more? The quest for El Dorado has run out of steam. Even, with all due respect to Visit Scotland, the Loch Ness Monster feels a busted flush. And Tottenham Hotspur are no longer fourth in the Premier League.For weeks, Spurs remained inexplicably in the Champions League qualification slots. They kept losing, kept being booed off, kept being embarrassed, and yet always they clung to fourth. It was one of the world’s great mysteries. Graham Hancock wrote the sort of book on the subject that enrages academic historians and archaeologists....
Sport gives us an opportunity to see people at the greatest moments of their lives, but also at their sometimes-tragic worstOne of sport’s many affirming beauties is its intimacy: we get to see people experience the most ecstatic and most mortifying moments of their lives, live. Yes, they’re seeking fulfilment and validation in the wrong places and yes, this is your super soaraway Joy of Six about to volunteer an unsolicited self-help tip but, immeasurably wise though The Awakened Family is – if you’re a parent or a person, read it – how many titles, belts or majors has Dr Shefali Tsabary won? Exactly. Continue reading...
Midfielder deserves football’s understanding for the kidnapping and threats that are damaging his life and careerIt is seven years since Paul Pogba joined Manchester United from Juventus for a then world-record fee of £89m. He was 23 and had already won four Serie A titles. He had been named young player of the tournament at the previous World Cup. He was a star on the rise, the sort of player who might conceivably drag United out of their post-Alex Ferguson slump.Pogba had apparently only one fault: he seemed a player out of time, a box-to-box midfielder in an age that had outgrown them. Midfields had split into two bands, and he didn’t quite have the tight technical ability to play...
Cody Gakpo, Darwin Núñez and Mohamed Salah all scored twice in Liverpool’s 7-0 humbling of rivals Manchester UnitedThere are few things harder in football management than the dismantling of one side and the construction of another. As Jürgen Klopp’s first Liverpool has aged, it’s been reasonable to ask whether he was equipped to build another. One game, even a record victory over Manchester United, is nowhere near enough to assert that a new Liverpool is being born, but it felt a lot closer at the final whistle than it had at kick-off.Cody Gakpo, Darwin Núñez and Mohamed Salah all scored twice but the goals were only part of it. The front three had a coherence and a zip that has...