If you've not heard, the new version of Pro Evo is ruddy great. We reviewed PES 2017 here and went through exactly why this is one of the greatest football games ever made. And yesterday we played out our first hour in the game (since it's official release) live on our YouTube channel. After checking out the Arsenal team we took on Inter, before seeing how we could do in the Champions League using the mighty West Glamorgan City, aka Swansea. Can you name the club from their PES 2017 name? Have a look to see how we did and gauge some of the lovely new animations and gameplay in PES 2017. And check back to our YouTube channel soon...
Manchester United kicked off their Europa League campaign with a 1-0 defeat at Feyenoord on Thursday evening, but the club’s players have attempted to stress how important the competition is to them. The allure of Europe’s second-most important multi-national club competition has proved irresistible to many players over the years and, post-match, United’s players seemed possibly overwhelmed by the momentous nature of their mission. When quizzed on the significance of the Europa League, Jose Mourinho’s men seemed unable to conjure the words to express their emotions. “Sure, I guess that’d be all right [if Manchester United were to win the Europa League],” Jesse Lingard toldFFT. “I don’t tend to do that much on Thursday evenings anyway. There’s really nothing on...
1. Can Deeney and Ighalo punish United’s defensive wobble? Granted, they were faced with one of the league’s most hypnotic big-game performances in recent memory, but what was especially striking about Manchester United’s derby loss last weekend was how bizarrely un-Mourinhothe entire thing was. In stark contrast to their coach’s trademarks, United were poorly organised, lacked defensive shape and showed little appetite for the battle. The chief culprits here were the men in midfield – not least the free-wandering Paul Pogba – but not far behind them was the centre-back pairing of Eric Bailly and Daley Blind, previously unimpeachable but exposed during those opening 40 minutes for exactly what they were: an unfamiliar, unnatural, and comparatively low-pedigree defensive pairing. No...
So distorted has the football calendar now become that the introduction of Friday Night Football is not the revolutionary step it oncewould have been – today's viewer, after all, is hardly short of options on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Manchester United's hosting of Southampton on August 19 began another chapter in the scheduling of the national game, as well as offering another resounding poke in the eye of those who still hold 3pm on a Saturday afternoon as the most sacred time of the week. Compared to the furore that heralded the arrival of top-flight football on a Monday night back in 1992, there has been barely a whimper of discontent from either fans, players or managers as...
In some ways, Antonio Conte could be forgiven for feeling a bit jealous of Jurgen Klopp ahead of their duel on Friday night. The Italian spent the summer looking for dynamic midfielders who could provide dangerous runs beyond the striker – a key component of the Juventus side he led to three straight Serie A titles from 2012 to 2014 – but Chelsea only landed one such player in N’Golo Kante. By contrast, Klopp now possesses one of the quickest and slickest midfield quintets around. Nobody needs to tell Conte of the advantages these midfielders can bring. His Juve lined up in a 3-5-2 in which two box-to-box midfielders – generally Claudio Marchisio and Arturo Vidal – continually sprinted into...