Football (Soccer) News
Tactical anarchy reigned supreme on a night of chaotic, bewildering, thrilling drama played out amid freezing conditions.
Not that the on-pitch temperature ever seemed to drop below boiling point as a renascent Leeds led three times yet departed with their seven‑match unbeaten run at an end and Yorkshire hearts broken by Harvey Barnes’s stoppage -time winner.
Continue reading...Even with Aston Villa enjoying their best season for years, Unai Emery cannot get one over Oliver Glasner. The Crystal Palace manager has been struggling with a threadbare squad that still has not recorded a victory for several weeks but stretched his unbeaten record against Emery to seven matches after a game which both sides felt they could have won.
A late Victor Lindelöf header that struck a post was the closest anyone came in the end as neither Adam Wharton nor Morgan Rogers could quite inspire their sides to victory in front of the England manager, Thomas Tuchel, watching on in the stands. But despite losing Emiliano Martínez to injury at half-time, it was Villa who ended the evening more frustrated as they missed an opportunity to move into second place in the table despite bombarding the Palace goal in the final 10 minutes.
Continue reading...Benjamin Sesko scores twice in Darren Fletcher’s first game as United manager, but a fine finish from Jaidon Anthony earns Burnley a draw
They’re about to discuss Mainoo on Sky, so here’s my take. He’s got incredible ability in tight spaces, but needs to get better and finding the ball – too much of too many games passed him by – stronger, faster, and better at passing it forward. That said, United’s dreadfulness made his continuing omission completely unjustifiable, and I’m sure he’ll now get a chance in the three-man midfield he needs to thrive. If, in a year, he’s got a young, physical six behind him, the best creator in world football ahead of him, and he’s still not making it happen, we can wonder if, perhaps, he’s not quite good enough, despite his strengths. But not until then.
There are plenty of other matches tonight, just underway. Niall McVeigh has you covered.
Continue reading...Riqui Puig is about the closest thing MLS has to an irreplaceable player. And with training camp starting in a couple of weeks, the Galaxy have precious little time to try to replace him.
Mason was appointed in June on three-year contract
West Brom 18th in the Championship after latest loss
West Brom have sacked Ryan Mason as their head coach after a stoppage-time defeat at Leicester on Monday left the club 18th in the Championship. It was the team’s 10th away defeat in a row and ended the 34-year-old’s tenure after seven months.
Mason was appointed on a three-year deal after holding a variety of roles at Tottenham, including interim manager and assistant to Ange Postecoglou. West Brom said two members of Mason’s staff, Nigel Gibbs and Sam Pooley, had also left.
Continue reading...Bradley was introduced Monday as the club's first-team coach and appears ready for the challenge.
Wicky is the fifth permanent head coach in team history
Swiss arrives after stints with Chicago and Young Boys
Sporting Kansas City named Raphaël Wicky as the fifth permanent head coach in franchise history on Monday.
Wicky, 48, coached the Chicago Fire from 2020-21 before managing BSC Young Boys in his native Switzerland from 2022-24. He signed a contract through the 2027-28 MLS season with an option for the 2028-29 campaign.
Continue reading...Ruben Amorim has been sacked by Manchester United after 14 months as their head coach. He leaves Old Trafford after a power struggle with the hierarchy over transfer policy, with Amorim demanding his colleagues in the recruitment department 'do their job' after Sunday’s draw at Leeds. We take a look back at his turbulent reign, which featured a few fleeting highs but some miserable lows.
Continue reading...Win over Cremonese was only made possible after a late injury led to match-winner’s inclusion as a substitute
The man who breathed life into Fiorentina’s survival bid was not meant to be playing at all. Moise Kean returned to training on Saturday after almost a week away attending to a private family matter. The club’s manager, Paolo Vanoli, did not intend to name him in the matchday squad to face Cremonese one day later, but had his hand forced by a late injury to Edin Dzeko.
“I have to tell the truth because that’s how I am – I’m a sincere person,” said Vanoli on Sunday. “When [Kean] came back I told him ‘Moise, out of respect for the group, I’m not even going to put you on the bench’.”
Continue reading...The head coach (or manager?) fired cryptic shots at his bosses, then was fired himself.
Discontent at Manchester United these days is only ever deferred. Ruben Amorim’s departure from the club on Monday was long anticipated and came, in the end, with a weary sigh. He had made a half-hearted protest about the recruitment structure after Sunday’s draw at Leeds, but it felt even at the time like barely more than a gesture. And so another manager, the seventh since Sir Alex Ferguson left in 2013, falls victim to the United meat-grinder.
Everybody at United, fundamentally, is unhappy. And not unhappy in the sense that Alex Ferguson used to be unhappy, when the club was essentially fuelled by his volcanic rages, but enervated, frustrated by the realisation that this is not how things used to be, that this was once the biggest football club in the country and now they keep failing to get the win they need to lift them to fifth.
Continue reading...Nuno lets a golden opportunity slip, Viktor Gyökeres does everything but score and Benjamin Sesko struggles again
Calum McFarlane’s unexpected battle with Pep Guardiola brought back memories of the 2021 League Cup final, when Ryan Mason, Tottenham’s 29-year-old interim coach, faced the significant task of trying to outsmart one of the greatest managers in the game’s history. For Mason there was the added baggage of Spurs’ 13-year trophy drought; for McFarlane, making his senior management debut, it was Chelsea’s astonishingly bad recent record against Manchester City. Four and a half years have passed since Chelsea last beat Guardiola’s side, when Thomas Tuchel’s team triumphed in the Champions League final, and a draw on Sunday took that winless run to 12 matches. But Enzo Fernández’s injury-time equaliser, combining with the midweek upheaval at Stamford Bridge, made it a triumphant point, something Enzo Maresca didn’t achieve against City during his tenure. Taha Hashim
Match report: Manchester City 1-1 Chelsea
Match report: Fulham 2-2 Liverpool
Match report: Bournemouth 2-3 Arsenal
Match report: Leeds 1-1 Manchester United
Match report: Tottenham 1-1 Sunderland
Continue reading...Match at MKM Stadium called off due to safety concerns
Visitors insist they ‘were ready and willing to play’
Watford have criticised the decision to call off their Championship match at Hull 18 minutes before kick-off on Sunday – and have claimed they did not agree to the postponement.
The referee, Anthony Backhouse, called the game off due to safety concerns over areas surrounding the pitch while the players were already warming up. The MKM Stadium clash was one of three second-tier fixtures to fall by the wayside due to frozen pitches, while 14 games across Leagues One and Two were also postponed.
Continue reading...Striker steps in for injured Mbappé in 5-1 victory
Paris Saint-Germain beat city rivals Paris FC 2-1
Gonzalo García bagged a hat-trick to lead Real Madrid to a 5-1 victory over Real Betis at the Bernabéu on Sunday, cutting Barcelona’s La Liga lead back to four points.
The 21-year-old forward, who scored four goals at last summer’s Club World Cup, stepped up in the absence of La Liga’s top scorer, Kylian Mbappé, sidelined by a knee injury. García was left unmarked at the far post to head in Rodrygo’s precise cross for a deserved 20th-minute lead.
Continue reading...City’s title chances suffered another blow when Enzo Fernandez scored a deserved injury-time equaliser for Chelsea
11 min Cherki is fouled 25 yards from goal by James. He and Foden are over the ball…
7 min It’s been a comfortable start for Chelsea, with City playing at a relatively slow pace. Their shape is interesting: it’s ostensibly 4-1-4-1 but Reijnders is playing very narrow, so they almost have three central midfielders, Cherki to the right and Nico O’Reilly, the left-back, taking care of business on the other side.
Continue reading...Eddie Howe describes January as “season defining” for his side and Newcastle’s manager looked suitably delighted to kick it off by collecting three points as Crystal Palace’s winless run continued.
Yet snapshots of a beaming Howe allied with the bald statistics do not quite tell the story of an often chaotic meeting of the Carabao Cup and FA Cup holders. By the 78th minute, when a corner was dropped for Malick Thiaw to poke the ball past Dean Henderson, the disappointment writ large across Oliver Glasner’s face suggested the Crystal Palace manager knew the game was up.
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