All posts by n8rngtd.top

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Manuel Pellegrini wants to use his experience at Villarreal to help take West Ham United to the next level, per the club’s official website.

The Hammers lost 2-1 to Manchester United at the weekend but turned in a spirited performance at Old Trafford, with the Chilean clearly hoping to build on that display.

What’s the word?

During his spell at Villarreal, between 2004 and 2009, Pellegrini achieved qualification for European football in every single season.

The Hammers have performed admirably against a number of the top-six this term, beating Arsenal and United at home and drawing with Liverpool.

After their latest display, Pellegrini has revealed his hope that he can emulate his success in Spain in east London.

Speaking to the club’s official website, he said: “It’s my intention, at least. Maybe when I arrived [at Villarreal], I arrived to something different. It was 2004 and they were a very small team, but we were growing with a complete project with the club and, fortunately for us, we drew nil-nil four times with Manchester United [in the Champions League].

“We did very good work in that club and arrived in the semi-finals of the Champions League [in 2005/06].

“My intention is just to try to repeat here in West Ham what we did there and when we played like we did on Saturday, I think we can do it.

“Now, we must be consistent. When I started in Villarreal 15 years ago maybe the amount of money [paid for] big players was not so high, so now the big teams in this period have more advantage. In that moment we bought big players but now teams like Villarreal are not able to do it.

“Finally, the project and the style of football, I will try to do the same.”

Nowhere near

West Ham aren’t anywhere near Villarreal’s achievements.

The club qualified for the Champions League numerous times and, as Pellegrini said, reached the semi-finals.

West Ham cannot even qualify for the Europa League.

This is a club that simply cannot string wins together and these words are being said after yet another defeat.

Yes, West Ham played well, but if they are to take the step up, they need to be taking points from such encounters.

As it is, Pellegrini’s dream will remain just that.

Oh wow, Mohamed Salah!

While this is something we’ve gotten used to recently, but the Egyptian produced something entirely special on Sunday. Playing with a point to prove, he scored an absolute thunderbolt to seal the deal against a persistent Chelsea side.

Indeed, it was the Egyptian’s incredible contribution which helped Liverpool outclass their London rivals to keep the party going at Anfield. After a barren goal-scoring run, he’s yet again hit his best form. The Tottenham Hotspur result gave him his confidence back, as the Egyptian netted a beautiful goal against Southampton before terrorizing Chelsea.

He was all over the place on Sunday, threatening with his clever moves inside through the right, dribbling past players at will and being an absolute menace. Not only did Salah score that incredible effort, but his contribution was much wider than that.

He also created four chances, had three shots on target and completed four dribbles (stats via Fotmob).

It almost felt as if that terrible racist jibe had given him more urgency to prove his point. Unfortunately for those fans, they might’ve woken up the goal-scoring beast inside him. He seems hungry as ever to contribute and is holding no prisoners in his mission.

Salah’s lethality has peaked once again. He’s moving quickly, going past opposition at will and isn’t afraid of taking his chances anymore. With Liverpool in dire need of a hero to sail them into achieving history, their Egyptian King has his weapons ready to thwart whoever stands in their way.

Liverpool fans, do you think Salah will win the golden boot again this season? Join the discussion by commenting below…

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Sunderland fans have been left drooling over the performance of Jimmy Dunne.

The Black Cats beat Doncaster Rovers 2-0 on Friday, moving to within two points of Barnsley in second-place, with Dunne playing at centre-back.

Dunne even provided an assist in the victory, which has left the Black Cats in a fine position to win promotion to the Championship this season.

Sunderland are now third, two points behind Barnsley, but they have a game in hand on the second-placed Tykes.

Dunne, just 21, has won two caps for the Republic of Ireland Under-21s and joined the club on loan from Burnley in January.

Since then, he has played 11 times in League One and has never been on the losing side, even scoring in the 1-1 draw with Oxford United in February.

And fans were in awe of his no-nonsense display on Friday as the Black Cats edge closer to the second-tier.

Take a look at the best of the reaction below!

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It is rare for a player to speak so candidly on a failed move but so strongly does the disappointment still burn within Wilfried Zaha on his difficult time at Manchester United that he has returned to it often, revealing much.

At the start of this season the Crystal Palace wide-man offered a frank account to Shortlist of his miserable two years in the north-west, describing it as ‘a hell’ endured without any support. He has also spoken elsewhere of the depression this drawn-out mismatch caused and been generally critical of the thirteen time Premier League champions for not giving him a fair chance to succeed.

When weighing up the evidence it’s hard not to accept that the 26-year-old flyer has a series of points.

What fascinates about Zaha’s time at Old Trafford is that so little of his torment derived from footballing matters. Granted he was afforded just two league appearances which barely allowed him time to assimilate his team-mate’s names never mind their movement. Furthermore, for a teenager burdened with huge pressures to perform and justify his fee, those 180 minutes amounts to a criminally scant opportunity.

Yet even so, much of Zaha’s woes derived from misgivings off the pitch rather than anything that occurred on it, with rumours soon doing the rounds that the extravagantly gifted winger had an attitude problem which partly explained his lack of first team action.

These whispers it transpired were entirely erroneous and considering that Zaha was a 19-year-old fish out of water surely it was beholden on the club to publicly dispel them? They didn’t. Soon after came another salacious piece of tittle-tattle with many believing that the reason David Moyes was so reluctant to trial his expensive talent was because Zaha had reportedly slept with the manager’s daughter. Again, this was nothing more than a mischief-making untruth, with the Ivorian later insisting he had never even met the girl in question.

The broader circumstances also hardly helped. In January 2013, with retirement looming for Sir Alex Ferguson, he paid £10m for a player who was routinely tearing apart Championship defences as he sought to freshen up an ageing squad for his successor. It then made perfect sense for Zaha to be immediately loaned back to Palace as they chased promotion.

What this ultimately meant however is that the winger arrived in Manchester to a club thrown into disarray and that situation only worsened as United lurched from one crisis to another. First Moyes hopelessly flailed and then Louis Van Gaal struggled to steady the ship and in their plights they perhaps understandably looked more and more to the familiar coupled with their own signings.

This then was hardly the best environment for a youngster with the weight of the world on his shoulders to find his feet.

If that in some way excuses all concerned and suggests that Zaha’s doomed stint at Old Trafford equates to bad timing it shouldn’t. The bottom line is that Manchester United had in their possession an explosive and direct attacker who has since gone on to win Crystal Palace’s Player of the Year award three years running. They played him twice before prematurely giving up on him and signing Angel Di Maria and Anthony Martial to replace him at a combined cost of over £100m.

United may well marvel now at Zaha’s exploits and think what could have been but they have nobody other than themselves to blame.

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According to The Daily Mail, Garry Monk has become the leading candidate for the West Brom job next season with James Shan only set to be in charge until the end of the current campaign.

What’s the word?

Although the managerial debacle that faced West Brom has been put to bed for the time being, it won’t be long before it becomes the centre of everyone’s attention at the Hawthorns again.

In March, Darren Moore was dismissed from his position, before the club then failed to land two targets in Slavisa Jokanovic and Alex Neil.

It didn’t ever seem like the Baggies board had a proper plan in place, and as such, caretaker boss Shan was given the reins.

However, he’s done an impressive job so far, negotiating choppy waters to steady the ship, winning six out of his nine games in charge.

But Birmingham manager Monk could be about to make a controversial switch from their Midlands rivals, per The Daily Mail. He has been revealed as the leading candidate to take over permanently, regardless of whether Albion achieve promotion.

Not a long term answer

West Brom need managerial stability. In recent years they’ve had plenty of short term appointments, which never seem to end well.

Monk is a fantastic manager at Championship level but the 40-year-old doesn’t stick around for too long. He’s never been at a club for longer than a season, departing Swansea, Middlesbrough and Leeds in pretty quick time.

As a result, there’s no guarantee he stay for the long haul at Albion, particularly if they went up and were to fail in the Premier League.

Was Darren Moore’s sacking unfair? The Pl>ymaker FC squad name which Championship bosses should have gone instead in the video below…

If West Brom achieve promotion then they’ll likely need someone who’s previously done well in the top-flight. Meanwhile, if they fail to go up, then Monk would only represent a short term fix.

Shan has offered stability in his short term in charge of the club so far and there isn’t too much to suggest that Monk would do a better job.

Although he was able to resolve Birmingham’s problems before a points deduction, his potential appointment would show a distinct lack of ambition from the hierarchy at the Hawthorns. They must look elsewhere.

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Pablo Hernandez is one of the most adored talents at Leeds United but his dwindling form is a telling sign that Marcelo Bielsa needs to sign a player to replace him in the starting XI this summer.

The Chalkboard

Now, before the vultures come swooping, it’s pertinent to note that Hernandez still has a key role to play at Leeds.

However, at 34-years-old he cannot be relied upon to consistently inject the creative magic into Leeds’s midfield on a consistent basis. The club have often been dependent on his guile and vision to unlock their opponents and it’s generally become accepted that a good game for Hernandez is synonymous with a good game for Leeds.

His return of 12 goals and 12 assists this season underlines his importance to the club’s attacking endeavours, but the fact 10 of those assists arrived before the turn of the year is telling.

Game-changing performances against Millwall and Reading amongst other fine displays in 2019 cannot be forgotten but his consistency has diminished due to an unhealthy reliance on his quality.

Against Derby County he looked sluggish and overly determined to impress, and his mediocre showing underlined Marcelo Bielsa’s need to invest in a new playmaker this summer.

A player to keep Hernandez out of the team

Regardless of whether the club reach the Premier League, Bielsa must focus on signing a midfield wizard to immediately step into the starting XI.

This is not a case of simply dethroning the king and casting him aside. Hernandez’s quality will still be needed but he’s destined to burnout if he is expected to start as regularly as he has this season in the next campaign.

After all, the Leeds fans would rather see a razor-sharp Hernandez start 15 games than a lethargic one start 40.

Signing an adequate replacement will be an unenviable task for Victor Orta and the rest of the recruitment team, such is the scale of the Spaniard’s popularity on the terraces at Elland Road, but it’s a challenge which should be handled with the highest attention to detail; they are seismic and silky boots to fill and anything less than that could have regressive consequences for the club.

On his day the diminutive orchestrator is better than anyone in the division but Bielsa must now maximise the regularity of those days with a ruthless decision to sign a replacement.

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Former Premier League star Danny Mills has urged Mauricio Pochettino to drop Eric Dier for Tottenham Hotspur’s Champions League semi-final second leg against Ajax, per Football Insider.

What’s he said?

Spurs know they need to win in Amsterdam to have any chance of reaching the final in Madrid, where Liverpool lie in wait, having lost the first leg 1-0.

And the former Manchester City and England full-back believes that Spurs need more pace than Dier offers in the centre of the pitch as they attempt to overturn a one-goal deficit.

Speaking ahead of the clash in the Dutch capital, he said: “You need energy and legs in the midfield area.

“It’s a shame Harry Winks is not available. I look at Eric Dier and he’s a little bit too slow.

“Wanyama is stronger and a bit more physical, although neither of them are particularly quick. But I would probably go with Wanyama as he is a bit more reliable and solid.

“Dier looked a bit reckless against Bournemouth at the weekend, and Pochettino can’t really trust him at the moment. Wanyama is a safer option.”

Mills nails it

Dier absolutely can’t be trusted in a game of this magnitude.

He looked out of his depth against Bournemouth at the weekend, picking up a yellow card, almost conceding a penalty and coming close to getting himself sent off. If he had been, Spurs could conceivably have ended the game with eight men, with both Heung-Min Son and Juan Foyth also dismissed.

Victor Wanyama, when it comes to tactical discipline, isn’t really much better but he is a stronger, safer option, Mills is absolutely right.

The fact of the matter, at the end of the day, is that the keys are held by Moussa Sissoko and Son Heung-Min; if the Frenchman can dominate the middle of the pitch as he did in the first leg, and if Son can finish his chances, Spurs have every chance.

But, before the game even kicks off, dropping Dier, who is valued at £36million by Transfermarkt, would be a great place to start.

It was a disappointing end to the season for Leeds United, failing to win promotion despite having looked nailed on to make a return to the Premier League at one point.

Against Derby County in the second leg of their play-off clash, Marcelo Bielsa’s side were outclassed, finding themselves on the receiving end of a Frank Lampard masterclass.

And once they have put that behind them, you can expect the inquest to begin, with Bielsa, his players and the club all needing to shoulder the blame for their collapse in the Sky Bet Championship.

With that in mind, here’s a couple of factors that arguably played a part in Leeds’ failure to win Premier League promotion.

Poor tactical decisions and performances against lower clubs 

At one point in the season it looked as though Leeds and Norwich were going to battle it out all the way until the final day of the campaign, and then Leeds suddenly loss to Birmingham City before they then started to change their tactics and approach to games. A 1-2 defeat to Wigan only worsened things, and it was at that point where they were destined for the play-offs.

Changing their approach against the lower positioned clubs certainly didn’t do Leeds’ players any favours, and ultimately gave them the final blow to their season. Bielsa will certainly look to keep consistency within his squad next term to ensure that the same decline doesn’t happen again.

Lack of an outfield signing in January 

Was it really wise to sign only Kiko Casilla during the January transfer window?

By the end of the normal season, most of the players looked as though they had been run into the ground, which may have also been the cause to the changing in tactics. It is unclear as to why the club didn’t do more to sign another player who could have given the squad a second wind towards the end.

Who knows, one outfield signing and we might have seen Leeds promoted.

The look provoked a response from his Spurs teammate Kyle Walker-Peters.

Whilst it was the comment which got fellow England player Jadon Sancho laughing.

What both of these comments suggest is that Alli has built up a good relationship with both of them during his at Spurs and with the England squad respectively.

Sancho is a new addition to the England team, only making his debut earlier in the season but he and Alli are of similar age (23 and 19) and have made a strong connection with each other.

This must be great for Sancho as it shows he has integrated into the squad well and has formed a friendship with someone like the former MK Dons star, who has been in the England squad for four years and will be a crucial part of any future success the Three Lions have, is a positive step forward.

Alli and Walker-Peters have been with each other at Spurs since 2015 and over that time Alli has had more first-team action.

Walker-Peters, 22, is third choice right-back at Spurs, but he is talented and was named Man of the Match on his Premier League debut for Spurs against Newcastle United on the opening day of last season.

Since then Walker-Peters has made 19 appearances for Spurs and is firmly behind Kieran Trippier and Serge Aurier in the pecking order.

His friendship with Alli, though, appears to be healthy and he will be hoping his teammate can do the business and win the Champions League on the 1st of June.

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Leeds United fans on Twitter have been incredibly smug after Derby County lost in the playoff final against Aston Villa.

The Whites and the Rams have been enthralled in a rivalry all season long, but it is Leeds who have had the last laugh.

The spygate saga sparked the animosity between the two clubs, but that has been ramped up massively in the last few weeks due to the playoff semi-final matches and post-match celebrations.

Whites fans creatively invented a new song to mock Frank Lampard after winning the first leg 1-0, but that was turned on its head after the Derby players sang it back at them after knocking the Yorkshire club out after the playoffs.

There seems to be no end in sight to this rivalry, and it seems that the clubs will remain enemies for years to come.

United fans on Twitter were relishing the fact that the east Midlands club had lost at Wembley and took to social media to share their thoughts.

Here’s what the Elland Road faithful have been saying…