Lukaku and Barkley owe Koeman a lot, Wilshere’s Bournemouth loan has proved a damp squib and Mignolet finally proving a positive game-changer for LiverpoolThe focus so often fixes upon Wilfried Zaha at Crystal Palace but over their seven-game revival under Sam Allardyce, they have posed as much threat from the opposite flank. Andros Townsend had rather grumbled through his first seven months at Selhurst Park, unhappy to be operating from the left and only offering flashes of his quality. The past seven weeks have been more reflective of a winger with 13 England caps. “Against Arsenal, Andros shut down three Arsenal players on his own, one after the other,” Allardyce said. “He ran from the right side to the left,...
Sunderland do not want to sack the manager but they may be forced to rethink should further anger build during the remaining two home games from critics who have not taken to his tactics, selections or downbeat demeanourThis time four years ago David Moyes was about to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United but today he is struggling to restore his tattered reputation at Sunderland where a significant proportion of supporters want him sacked.It has been quite a fall from grace for the former Everton, United and Real Sociedad manager who endured chants of “We want Moyes out” from all corners of an unusually hostile Stadium of Light during Sunderland’s 2-2 draw with West Ham United on Saturday. There...
Zlatan Ibrahimovic makes chances out of nothing which covers up his team’s lack of creativity, but Mourinho could help his striker with braver team selectionThroughout Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s long, varied career across eight different clubs in six separate countries, his teams have consistently benefited from his genius while also suffering from so-called Ibra-dependence. The Swede is so consistently brilliant, and conjures up moments of magic from seemingly unthreatening situations, that his teams become reliant on him to a staggering extent.Manchester United’s dependence is hardly an overnight development considering his sensational first Premier League campaign – he has now scored 17 and assisted five of Manchester United’s 46 goals – but his opener against Sunderland was a perfect demonstration of how he...
If David Moyes makes a habit of such joke-threats, can the men on the receiving end of them please step forward and speak out. Don’t all rush at once …Couldn’t this whole silly misunderstanding with David Moyes be cleared up if all the male reporters he’d threatened joshingly to slap came forward to contextualise the experience? I mean, honestly. HONESTLY. How are we possibly to make a judgment about the incident’s acceptability or otherwise with a sample size of one? To be more specific: one woman. Related: Sunderland ‘fully support’ Moyes after he told reporter she ‘might get a slap’ Related: David Squires on … Mourinho, Moyes and post-match interviews Related: Behaviour of David Moyes shows old-fashioned sexism is still...
Comments by the Sunderland manager to Vicki Sparks of the BBC highlights that there still resides an attitude of contempt for women in football under the shiny new politically correct facade, despite claims to the contraryDavid Moyes hardly covered himself in glory in the aftermath of his side’s goalless home draw with Burnley last month. No sooner had Sunderland’s manager told the BBC’s Vicki Sparks that she might be in peril of “a slap” than he was informing journalists that he had dropped Didier Ndong, his Gabon midfielder and the club’s record £13.5m signing, because he wanted more “Britishness” in midfield.Fifty is supposed to be the “new 30” but the 53-year-old appeared a dinosaur, seemingly stuck in the 1950s and...