All posts by h716a5.icu

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Arsenal face the first true test of their credentials this season against Liverpool on Saturday.

The Gunners will travel to Anfield this weekend, and Unai Emery may have some big decisions to make in regards to his line-up for the match.

He has at least received some good news in the build-up to the game, as it has been confirmed that Mesut Ozil, along with Granit Xhaka, has returned to full training.

Is the Arsenal player in the video below the man Liverpool should fear most on Saturday?…

The former Germany international has not played since the Europa League final in June, and is not a popular figure at the Emirates Stadium. He has often received criticism from fans in the past for his performances.

However, not all of the north London outfit’s fans are against him. There are still some who believe he can do a job, and there are several supporters who have called for him to start against Liverpool this weekend.

They have been vocal on Twitter, and you can check out some of the best comments below.

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It has been a great start for Eddie Nketiah since moving on loan to Leeds for the duration of the 2019/20 campaign.

The 20-year-old scored on his debut for the Whites in the first round of the EFL Cup against Salford City, and he followed that up with his second goal for the Yorkshire club against Brentford. That ended up being the winner and the only strike of the match.

Could Gabriel Martinelli become Arsenal’s star striker in the not too distant future? Deluded Gooner thinks so in the video below…

So, that’s two in two appearances for the Elland Road outfit. And, even more impressively, he only started one of the two fixtures, coming off the bench to strike against the Bees.

Arsenal fans appear to have been keeping an eye on Nketiah’s development with the Championship side, and they believe that he should be starting for Marcelo Bielsa and co. They have taken to Twitter to share their opinions of the England U20 international. You can see some of the best comments below.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Speaking to Football Insider, Noel Whelan has given a damning statement on the future of Vurnon Anita who is still yet to leave Leeds this summer.

What’s he said?

Leeds have had a stellar start to the Championship this season and are unbeaten after their first five games.

However, Anita is nowhere to be seen in the side and understandably too.

Last term, he spent a period on loan with Willem II in the Netherlands but achieved a quite frankly terrible average rating of 6.18, per WhoScored.

His Leeds career has seemingly been on the ropes and with the European transfer window still open, there is a possibility he could be looking to move away on a permanent basis.

Talking to FI, Whelan issued his thoughts on the Dutchman, revealing the harsh realities facing him. He said:

“He’s played his last Leeds game.

“We have better players now, we just do. Anita needs to look elsewhere and move on. I’m sure he will be looking to do that.

“Bielsa has not seen enough from Anita to change his mind, and prefers the other senior players as well as the youngsters like Jamie Shackleton, Robbie Gotts and Leif Davis.

“Is Anita going to take over in midfield from Adam Forshaw or Kalvin Phillips, or a full-back from Stuart Dallas or Luke Ayling? No, he is not. There is no place for him.”

Anita has to go

Quite simply, for the good of his career, Anita must move away from Elland Road.

The versatile 30-year-old, who can play in midfield and defence, would be a decent squad member considering the lack of options the Whites have but he isn’t good enough to have any sort of positive impact.

In short, Whelan has hit the nail on the head with his assessment.

Anita hasn’t played under Marcelo Bielsa in league action and that doesn’t look likely to change, especially because of his performances in the last two seasons.

In 18 matches for Leeds throughout 2017/18, he completed just 79.9% of his passes which was combined by a lack of goal contributions.

At Willem II, he was even worse and in the same number of starts, 14, managed just 0.6 tackles per outing, according to WhoScored.

On that evidence, it makes in incredibly difficult to see how he’d get in ahead of players like Kalvin Phillips and Stuart Dallas.

The former is winning 3.8 tackles each match this season whilst Dallas is on 1.6. Thus, there is simply no room for Anita.

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Leeds witnessed a rather big clear out on Monday as the transfer window closed for clubs around Europe and lower down in the Football League.

One of the names to depart Elland Road was Vurnon Anita, a man who rarely played after signing for the club in 2017.

The Dutchman joined from Newcastle but leaves a free agent after he and Leeds came to an agreement to mutually terminate his contract.

It’s a move that is unlikely to have any sort of impact on Marcelo Bielsa’s side and that was evident in the reaction from supporters on Twitter.

There appeared to be a sense of relief in some responses as one said it was a transfer that should never have happened in the first place. Another noted his exit had to occur.

A further individual claimed he came with so much expectation and it was a shame that things didn’t work out.

Anita played just 22 times for the Whites in all competitions but ultimately never really stamped down a place.

He spent last season on loan at Willem II.

Here’s the best of the reaction.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Speaking on talkSPORT, Sam Matterface has revealed Manchester United “need” someone like Declan Rice in their team.

What did he say?

The West Ham midfielder enjoyed an impressive campaign last season in the holding midfield role, and Matterface has insisted United could do with someone of the 20-year-old’s qualities.

He said: “I think that’s what they (United) need, I think they need someone in that position. At the moment they’re playing (Paul) Pogba a little bit deeper because (Nemanja) Matic’s legs have gone and can’t get around the pitch as much as he did before, (Scott) McTominay’s playing alongside Pogba as a result of that.

Watch Manchester United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

“I think ideally, and they did this in the game against Southampton, they pushed Pogba into a No 10 position when they were chasing the game.”

The long-term solution

Whilst Scott McTominay continues to improve with each passing game, there is no doubt Rice would represent an upgrade on the Scotland international. The Hammers man averages a ridiculously impressive 3.5 tackles and 2.3 interceptions per game this season, comfortably bettering the numbers of 1.5 and 1.8 for McTominay.

The 20-year-old shows a sense of maturity that belies his tender age, and in a position that requires a real perception of the game, Rice has taken to it like a duck to water.

If United were to sign him, then he could sit back and protect the back-four, and allow flair players like Pogba to really do their damage going forward. He could quite comfortably establish himself as part of the United midfield for more than a decade, given that he will not turn 21 until January.

Buying him from a fellow Premier League side may be tricky, but it could well turn out to be a masterstroke if they manage to pull it off.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Real Madrid and injuries are really an interesting love story this summer. Just as they thought they’d already had enough of them of late and the bad luck is ending, a new one pops out of nowhere. Los Blancos have now officially confirmed that Luka Modric has joined the squad on the sidelines. This means that a certain 21-year-old could get a much bigger role in the upcoming fixtures.

On the chalkboard

It’s really difficult to keep track of all of Real Madrid’s injuries this summer. Currently, however, they have five players out of commission and have now added their Croatian midfielder to that unlucky group of people as their sixth injury.

Watch Spanish Football Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

Naturally, all injuries are bad news and all hurt but they don’t hurt equally, and this one will definitely hurt bad. Real Madrid are bound to miss their Ballon d’Or winner on the pitch but even more so when we take into account that the Galacticos only really have three natural centre-midfielders in the squad and Modric was actually one of them.

That means that Zinedine Zidane might be forced to completely reshuffle the cards and reorganise the squad to find a solution. That, or he could simply give the 21-year-old Federico Valverde a chance.

A risk worth taking

It’s rather safe to say that so far, Valverde has had quite a supporting role at Real Madrid. The young midfielder was brought up from Castilla last summer and has so far featured in a total of 26 games for the Galacticos with no goals or assists to his name.

But there is quality there, hidden beneath the inexperience and youth. Valverde tallied three goals and an assist for the Castilla team before joining up with the senior squad and has also registered 25 games with Deportivo de la Coruna while spending time there on a loan deal.

Last season, he also averaged 0.6 key passes and 0.8 dribbles per game in a total of just 652 minutes he was given in La Liga but even though we can’t really compare that to Modric, Valverde is definitely on the right path.

This becomes more evident when we check out his slightly better defensive statistics: 0.8 tackles and 1.3 interceptions per game in La Liga in 2018/19 is not a bad average to have considering how little defending Real Madrid usually have to do.

Naturally, thinking he would come in and instantly outshine Modric would be crazy but maybe the time has come for Zidane put some trust into the youngsters, especially the ones hailing from Castilla.

And who knows, maybe Valverde repays it with good performances.

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Liverpool extended their 100% start to the Premier League season to five games with a 3-1 victory over Newcastle at Anfield, coming from behind to take all three points. [via Sky Sports]

The Reds’ hopes of a first home clean sheet of the season lasted just seven minutes as Jetro Willems cut inside from the left wing before firing a shot past Adrian in the Liverpool goal. [via Sky Sports]

Sadio Mane drew the home side level just before the half-hour mark when he curled a fine shot into the top corner of the Newcastle net and the Senegal man doubled his tally shortly before half-time, netting after the ball rebounded off visitors’ goalkeeper Martin Dubravka. [via Sky Sports]

Liverpool wrapped up the points on 72 minutes when Mohamed Salah finished with aplomb past Dubravka to make it 3-1 and cement the Reds’ position at the top of the Premier League for at least another week. [via Sky Sports]

Following their goalscoring contributions against the Magpies, Mane now has six goals for the season and Salah is up to four, although they weren’t the only Liverpool forwards to have a telling impact on proceedings at Anfield.

Roberto Firmino started the game on the substitutes’ bench as Divock Origi came into the starting line-up in his place but the 27-year-old was summoned in place of the Belgium striker in the 37th minute after an injury to the latter. [via Sky Sports]

Firmino’s sumptuous through ball to Mane set up the Senegal man for his second goal to put Liverpool in front just three minutes after the substitution. [via Sky Sports]

The Brazil forward added his second assist of the day with a deft backheel to Salah for his goal, the fourth time this season that Firmino has set up a goal for a team-mate. [via Sky Sports]

He ended the game with four key passes, second only to Trent Alexander-Arnold, and also won both aerial duels that he contested in addition to winning one tackle. [via WhoScored.com]

This Is Anfield writer Karl Matchett sung the praises of Firmino after the game, saying that he provided “lofted passes, backheels aplenty, lots of his usual vision and selflessness and some brilliant through passes”.

For the Liverpool Echo, Ian Doyle described the 27-year-old’s assist for Salah’s goal as “a thing of absolute beauty” and said that he was “excellent throughout”.

Mane and Salah were the men on the scoresheet for Liverpool, but Firmino deserves just as much recognition for the two magnificent assists that he provided for his attacking colleagues.

Liverpool fans, how good do you think Firmino was after coming on against Newcastle? Give us your views in the comments section below!

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Sheyi Ojo has started well in his loan spell at Rangers and a brilliant strike against Feyenoord in the Europa League has caught the attention of Liverpool fans.

He pounced on a loose ball around 30 yards from goal before taking the ball forward and unleashing a drive into the top corner, which proved to be the matchwinner.

It was his fifth goal in 12 games, with four assists also in that period, and the quality of the goal has led to a positive response from some fans.

He is now 22, so it will take a few more impressive performances like last night if he is to work his way into Jurgen Klopp’s plans, but if he proves himself capable of playing in the Europa League then he should have a good future ahead of him.

Watch Liverpool Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

Whether he makes it at Liverpool or not, fans are still pleased to see an academy product doing well, and have praised his strike as a result, as the reactions below show.

[ad_pod ]There were plenty of positives to take from Aston Villa’s 3-1 win away at Brighton on Wednesday evening.Not only did the Villans beat fellow Premier League opposition in the Carabao Cup, but Matt Targett returned from injury against the Seagulls.The left-back had picked up a problem in Villa’s previous Carabao Cup match against Crewe Alexandria, and on Wednesday he made his return to the first team.Watch Aston Villa Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

The defender took to Twitter to share his thoughts after returning to the pitch.

The full-back proclaimed that it was great to be back playing for the Midlands outfit.

Targett has to be hoping that this performance can kickstart his career at Villa Park. Away from struggling with injuries he’s also been the second choice in his position, as Dean Smith has opted to use Neil Taylor in all of their Premier League games so far this term.

Based off of the responses to his tweet the former Southampton man made a good account of himself against Brighton as a number of supporters called for him to be placed in the starting lineup sooner rather than later.

Plenty of Liverpool fans have been left disappointed by the start of summer signing Sepp van den Berg.

The Anfield faithful could be forgiven for thinking they may have another Dutch superstar on their hands in van den Berg.

Indeed, the Reds have two Netherlands internationals at the heart of everything they do in Georginio Wijnaldum and Virgil van Dijk, and young prospect Ki-Jana Hoever has impressed when given the chance.

So, when they swooped up 17 year-old van den Berg for just £1.3m this summer, he was sure to become the latest member of Merseyside’s Dutch contingent to wow fans at Anfield, right? Well, not so much…

After featuring 22 times for PEC Zwolle’s senior side, he has been resigned to youth team football with Liverpool, and featured in the UEFA Youth League win over Red Bull Salzburg on Wednesday.

Although the Reds won, Klopp’s summer signing disappointed fans with his performance, scoring an own goal and enduring a really shocking first-half display, before improving somewhat after the break.

Take a look at some of the best Twitter reactions down below…