Author: index

STERLING UNDERWHELMING THIS SEASON?

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Manchester City star Raheem Sterling had been underwhelming this term? Well many would agree, when compared to his stellar 2018/2019 season. Bringing in some facts, while the performances in both terms can seem wildly apart, Sterling’s individual contribution is 0.46 goals per 90 this season compared to 0.52 last season.


Looking at his stats for assists, he had a better 2019. This term it has dropped to 0.04 from 0.28 per 90. This might seem like a huge drop but then the assist metric also depends on if the other party converts the opportunity. For example, there were some games (like against Spurs) that his passes would have led to goals. So, assists should be tied to the team conversion rateespecially when the player keeps creating big chances. Sterling has the most touches in opposition penalty area with 7.6 per 90, showing how focused he is on being a threat.
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Why is Guardiola Unhappy with Raheem Sterling?

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About three decades ago, Paul Ince, a former player of West Ham United and Manchester United was photographed wearing a Manchester United, much before leaving Upton Park for Old Trafford.

Something similar happened with Raheem Sterling last week. He was photographed with a Real Madrid shirt over his right shoulder and Manchester City shirt over his left shoulder on the cover page of Spain’s biggest selling sports newspaper. But unlike Ince’s case, it was not an accident. It was managed by his representatives and he even added some words with his image.

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UMTITI RUBBISHES PSG AND NEYMAR LINK

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Barcelona defender Samuel Umtiti has rubbished reports that he would have moved to Paris St Germain had the Neymar deal happened. There were lots of rumours that the Frenchman would exit the Spanish side as part of a swap deal for Neymar.

While the Brazilian’s future still remains uncertain at PSG, he seems resolved to stay at the club at least for the first half of the season. Umtiti said there was never any deal which involved him being a makeweight so Neymar could return to the Nou Camp despite his recent struggled.

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Sterling Guarantees a Move Abroad after Manchester City

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Raheem Sterling plans on playing abroad at a certain point in his career. However, he roots for a country which has a language that is easy to learn and good weather. The winger from England is happy with his position at Manchester City after they won the FA Cup, League Cup, and the Premier League in this season. However, he is already looking for a future move. The twenty-four-year-old says that he always had a preference of testing himself in some other league and has a fascination of some place which is a little warmer than that of north-western England.

He says that when he looks at Manchester City now, he loves it. According to him, this is one of the best clubs across the world and he is in the team for the long haul. However, no one knows what is going to happen in the future. He says he is young and he loves every minute of his association with the club. He goes on to say that ever since he had been a kind, he has always dreamt of playing abroad. It is going to be nice to be done with the draining and then go home, sit in the garden, and have some dinner. He prefers a place with a temperature of 17-18 degree centigrade all the time.

The former star of Liverpool had been asked if he is going to rule out the move to Germany. However, it is some other issue which would keep him from making a shift to Bundesliga. This was the problem of language. He says that it sounds too difficult and Spanish on the other appears to be attractive to him. Moreover, he has accepted the fact that it is difficult to be good friends with teammates at City.

Unai Emery Admits Europa League Struggles for Arsenal

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Unai Emery has admitted that Arsenal are finding it difficult to cope with the stressful schedule of the Europa League. The Gunners manager made this admission just ahead of the match against Rennes in the last 16 of the competition. There was a strong likelihood of Arsenal being knocked out of this competition for the 2018-19 season after losing the first leg with a 3-1 score. Unai Emery sounded positive just ahead of the match, it was not a surprise that Arsenal ended up getting a remarkable comeback to progress in the tournament. The Gunners were able to come up with a 3-0 victory at home to make it to the quarter-finals with a 4-3 aggregate victory over the French team.

The Europa League has been criticised a lot for the sheer number of matches that teams have to play in order to teach the latter stages of the competition. This is largely down to the vast number of games that take part in the competition. However, winning the Europa League has a greater incentive than ever before the winners qualify directly to the Champions League next season. Since Arsenal’s ability to finish in the top four is questionable due to the strong challenge from Manchester United, the Gunners will be placing more emphasis on the second-tier European competition.
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SUAREZ AND MESSI REIGN IN EUROPE

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Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez have been lethal so far this season as they sit atop the goal scoring charts in the Spanish La Liga. The duo also have the most lethal partnership in Europe’s top five leagues with 31 goals between them.

The next best partnership comes with Kylian Mbappe and Edinson Cavani as they have plundered 25 goals between them for Paris St. Germain in the French Ligue 1.
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Huddersfield gaining momentum at the right time

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Huddersfield might have remained in the bottom portion of the Premier League standings for majority of the ongoing season, but their head coach David Wagner is of the opinion that they have played much better than what the numbers suggest.

According to Wagner, the case with Huddersfield is that they have put in decent efforts in most of the games, but they have not managed to translate their efforts into goals due to which they have not earned as many points as they should have, but talking purely about the level of performance, it’s not been too low.
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Besiktas president explains reason behind Fabri sale

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Besiktas president FikrerOrman has revealed that the club had no option but to sell Fabri to Fulham as he had just one year left on his contract. The 30-year-old was the Black Eagles’ first-choice goalkeeper over the past two seasons but they nevertheless decided on his sale with the fear of losing him on a free next summer.

Speaking to reporters, Ormansaid: “Fabri had a year left on his contract so we needed to send the player to the Premier League or we’d have come out empty next summer.” Fulham are said to have paid around £5m for the former Deportivo graduate and the shot-stopper is now expected to compete with Marcus Bettinelli for the number one role, considering former number one David Button has made his way to Brighton & Hove Albion.
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USA Beat Honduras To Save WC Hopes

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The U.S. men’s national team didn’t play well but got the job done on Tuesday in Honduras, bagging a 1-1 draw in the World Cup qualifiers, thank to Bobby Wood’s late goal. The Americans avoided disaster and greatly boosted their chances of qualifying for Russia 2018 just when it looked like their cup lives would be coming to an end.

 

The job was done by Woods as he came off the bench for the second half and put the ball away. And he did just that with an attentive finish late in the game. It wasn’t pretty, but it never was going to be down in San Pedro Sula in a hot, hostile environment. If the U.S. makes the World Cup, this is the goal many will remember as key to qualification.

The U.S. is still in the top three in the hexagonal with two games to go against the two “easiest” teams in Panama and Trinidad and Tobago. It won’t come easy, but Tuesday’s result could mean that the USA vs. Panama game on October 6 is the decider. A win at home would all but assure the U.S. finishes inside the top four, meaning at worst the team will have a two-game playoff to make the World Cup. If the team’s health to make the World Cup was OK entering this one, it’s been upgraded to good after this result.

Every team goes through ups and downs, and though fans expected four points from these last two matches and only got one, things are still good. The Costa Rica match was an upset and disappointing, but don’t take too much away from what you saw from the U.S. at Honduras. It was played in the high 90s in one of the most hostile places in CONCACAF.

It’s not a delightful trip to head to San Pedro Sula, and it was always going to be a scrappy game with a few big moments when on the road. And the U.S. took advantage of the big moment and got what it needed.

CRESSWELL PRAISES TEAMMATE HERNANDEZ

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West Ham United man Aaron Cresswell has praised the exploits of his teammates Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez even as they lose to Southampton in the Premier League.


The Irons were set to get a point in their second game against the Saints following their 4-0 loss to Manchester United.

However, things broke down at the end as the referee awarded the hosts a stoppage time penalty. Southampton converted the opportunity to claim all points from the 3-2 thriller.

Hernandez struggled to touch the ball in the first game against Man United but he scored two crucial goals against Southampton. Marko Arnautovic was sent off in the fixture but the east London side could have still gotten a share of the spoils before the stoppage time goal.

It is mixed feeling at the London stadium as Winston Reid picks up a serious injury – yet another potential long term layoff for SlavenBilic’s men. Reid agreed to a new six year deal but he could not celebrate it as much. He was stretchered off at St Mary’s and Angelo Ogbonna called in as replacement. Continue reading CRESSWELL PRAISES TEAMMATE HERNANDEZ →