The Football Thread

[manishbombee]

The Cristiano effect: Pogba wants to stay at Manchester United | Marca

 

Upon Cristiano Ronaldo's return to Manchester United, everything has changed at the club, the fans are more energised and the players are too, and this is very much true for Paul Pogba, who is now understood to want to stay at Old Trafford.

Pogba has enjoyed a blistering attacking start to the season, contributing seven assists, although rumours of a desired Manchester United departure have flared throughout the summer.

[manishbombee]

PSG | Champions League: Pochettino: I didn't think it was possible for PSG to sign Messi | Marca

 

Mauricio Pochettino has admitted that he did not expect Paris Saint-Germain to complete the signing of Lionel Messi this summer.

The 34-year-old was informed by Barcelona that they could not afford to keep him, even if he took a 50 percent pay cut, and that opened the door for him to make the move to the Parc des Princes.

[manishbombee]

Bruges 1-1 PSG: Top scorer Herrera eclipses Messi, Neymar and Mbappe by netting fourth this season | Daily Mail Online

 

Bruges 1-1 PSG: All-star front three of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe fail to shine as top scorer Ander Herrera sweeps home fourth of the season before Hans Vanaken nets deserved equaliser for hosts

 

Lionel Messi failed to provide Paris St-Germain with any sparkle as the Ligue 1 team's potent attacking trio lacked inspiration in a disappointing 1-1 draw at Club Bruges in their Champions League opener on Wednesday.

Making his first start for the French team, the Argentine forward hit the woodwork but was otherwise far from his brilliant best alongside the hugely disappointing Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, who set up Ander Herrera for PSG's first-half opener before being replaced injured after the break.

[manishbombee]

Kylian Mbappe to stay with PSG; no €200m offer from Real Madrid - Leonardo (espn.com)

Kylian Mbappe to stay with PSG; no €200m offer from Real Madrid - Leonardo

Paris Saint-Germain sporting director Leonardo has said he expects Kylian Mbappe to stay beyond this season and denied that the club received a final deadline-day offer worth €200 million from Real Madrid for the forward.

PSG begin their Champions League campaign on Wednesday as they travel to Group A opponents Club Brugge, where Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar could make their European debut as a trio.

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[manishbombee]

Real Madrid's Carlo Ancelotti backs Karim Benzema for Ballon d'Or (espn.com)

Real Madrid's Carlo Ancelotti backs Karim Benzema for Ballon d'Or

Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti has backed Karim Benzema to be a Ballon d'Or contender this year after an extraordinary start to the LaLiga season which has seen the forward contribute eight goals and seven assists in just six games.

Benzema's fine form continued in Real Madrid's 6-1 win over Mallorca on Wednesday, as he scored twice -- and provided Marco Asensio with two more -- to help put the team top of the table.

It follows a stellar 2020-21 in which he scored 23 league goals before returning to the France team for Euro 2020, where he found the net four times in as many games.

[01freeuser]

I'm sad seeing the current Barcelona perform like this.

[manishbombee]

Barcelona: FC Barcelona: More than a club or not a club at all? It's time to choose | Marca

What's happening at Barcelona isn't only about football, it's about so much more. It's about management, legal and social structure, economics and, above all, governance. Barcelona have to decide what they want to be in the future.

Barcelona's 'mes que un club' slogan has nothing to do with the current reality. Their season ticket holders don't have shares, and they have no links to the club. The board members don't assume responsibility of obligation regarding the club's debt.

Legally, Barcelona are an association, a company. They have outdated bylaws and the way they run is outdated in modern football. The sport is now an industry, but Barcelona haven't kept up. They sign off on big decisions around player renewals and transfers without any consultation, and that doesn't work.

Is it time to move away from the 'mes que un club' idea? Some people have long predicted that the club couldn't keep competing on level terms with teams with greater resources and less financial suffering.

What if the Barcelona Foundation had a 50/60 percent share in the club? It wouldn't allow the club to fall into the wrong hands, and would allow some control over governance. This would allow them to find members who are committed to the club, but are too often forgotten at the moment.

Currently, only around 10,000 of the 200,000 members have a say and a vote. This isn't even considering the presidential election campaigns built on words and promises that are inconsistent, vague, and often misleading. It's unacceptable for a candidate to stand for election without guarantees. They should have to have guarantees before standing.

As was already said, this isn't about football anymore, nor is it about signings, salaries, nor love for the club. Surely, some players feel love for the shirt, though not all play for that reason. It's a commendable profession and it's understandable if a young man finds the pressure of being labelled a 'god' difficult. Lionel Messi was one of those who didn't feel that pressure, but he's now gone and his exit has seen revenue decrease.

If Barcelona don't remedy their issues, in. Five years they'll only be remembered in videos and stories. If they want to get back among the elite, they have to protect their roots by designing a club that does just that. They need to remember their values, their history, but allow themselves to compete as one of the world's most famous clubs.

 

MORE in MARCA

[amazingguy25]

Barcelona died when they let Messi go.  Though he is indeed aging.  Still, their spirit is gone.  

[boompanot1]

Tomorrow is a classic. Liverpool vs Manchester. GO REDS! YNWA

[manishbombee]

Ralf Rangnick to take charge of first Manchester United match on Sunday | Manchester United | The Guardian

Ralf Rangnick will take charge of his first match as Manchester United’s interim manager when Crystal Palace visit on Sunday after the paperwork regarding the German’s employment was completed on Thursday.

Rangnick has been granted a work visa and is expected to be in the stands on Thursday when United host Arsenal for an 8.15pm kick-off in Michael Carrick’s third and final game as the caretaker manager.

United have dropped to 10th place, 15 points behind the leaders, Chelsea, and six points from a Champions League berth with a game in hand.

Rangnick’s brief will be to stabilise the team and aim for a top-four finish before he ends his tenure at the end of the season and starts a consultancy role.

“I’ll try to make the most of it,” Carrick told MUTV of Thursday’s game. “But actually it’s about the players, the team and getting the right result.”

[manishbombee]

Barcelona are different under Xavi, but can he beat Bayern Munich? (espn.com)

A month or so ago, I was talking to someone who's managed in the Champions League. He'd broken into coaching right around the turn of the decade, so naturally our conversation eventually took a turn toward Pep Guardiola's Barcelona, whose players were winning every loose ball, match and trophy in sight -- and ruining soccer in the process, according to this coach.

Now, it wasn't Barca's fault; they were as brilliant to him as they were to you and me. It all peaked in 2011. Barcelona averaged an absurd 72% of possession en route to winning LaLiga that year, and then suffocated Manchester United, 3-1, in the Champions League final. "We were beaten -- there is no other way to address the situation -- by the best team,'' Sir Alex Ferguson said after the match. ''I expected us to do better, but at the end of the day, we were beaten by the better team. They are the best team we have ever played -- they are at the peak in this cycle of their team."

However, he went on. ''Great teams go in cycles and the cycle they are in at the moment is the best in Europe, there's no question of that. How long it lasts, whether they can replace that team at another point ... they certainly have the philosophy.

Can you find players like Xavi and Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi all the time? Probably not. But they are enjoying the moment that they have just now.''

This is what was driving the coach mad: Rather than recognizing that Barcelona's never-before-seen style of pass-heavy dominance was likely the result of a never-to-be-seen-again combination of talent and coaching, the rest of Europe had, he felt, decided that the way to win soccer games was to copy Barcelona. In a sense, he was right. The style that eventually won out in the post-Pep-at-Barca years wasn't pass-pass-pass, but rather a much more physical, fast-paced, transition-based game that focused on dominating territory rather than the ball.

In other words: the way that Bayern Munich, Barcelona's opponents in the Champions League on Wednesday, play.

It's only the fifth game of Xavi's tenure as manager of the club he grew up playing for -- and it's by far his biggest. Win and they're through to the last-16. Anything other than three points, and they'll be relying on Dynamo Kyiv to get a result against Benfica to keep them alive. If anyone seems likely to attempt to recreate the lost glory of the tiki-taka times, it's the guy who was at the center of it all.

But is that what he's actually doing? And can it work against Bayern Munich?

Again, Xavi has coached four matches at Barcelona. Split out four-game samples from any coach, and you'll be able to find a quartet of matches that allow you to convince yourself Jose Mourinho is a disciple of Jurgen Klopp, or that Marcelo Bielsa wants his teams to play like Sean Dyche's do. A lot of random crap can happen over four games, and a lot of it is dependent on what the other team does, too.

However, the one thing that a manager truly has control over is who is on the field, and the biggest thing Xavi has changed so far is perhaps unsurprising: He's no longer playing the gigantic, immobile Dutch striker who was pretty clearly acquired by Barcelona only because he'd played for former manager Ronald Koeman with the Dutch national team.

Pre-Xavi, Luuk De Jong played 34 percent of the available minutes in the Champions League and LaLiga. With Xavi on the sideline, he's featured just two percent of the time. Only Sergino Dest has seen a bigger drop-off in playing time -- 73% to 26% -- but that's only because he was out injured. Dest played every minute in Saturday's 1-0 loss to Real Betis. Elsewhere at the back, two Spanish youngsters, Oscar Mingueza and Eric Garcia, have both slipped out of the picture a little bit: the former dropping from 48% of the minutes to 30%, the latter from 69% to 50%.

Like every other Barcelona manager since Ernesto Valverde, Xavi also hasn't been particularly interested in finding significant minutes for the most expensive player in club history, Philippe Coutinho. The Brazilian has actually played slightly less frequently under Xavi this far -- 24%, compared to 30% -- than he did earlier in the season.

On the other end of the spectrum, the biggest beneficiaries have been a trio of teenagers and a 26-year-old French center-back.

Gavi, who still isn't old enough to buy cigarettes in New York, has been on the field for 80% of Xavi's minutes as manager, a figure that would be even higher if he didn't suffer a head injury on Saturday. His comparatively ancient midfield partner, 19-year-old Nico Gonzalez, has jumped from a 37% minute share to 88%. Another 19-year-old, the Moroccan winger Abdessamad Ezzalzouli, must be loving the Xavi era, given that he's featured 72% of the time after only playing 2% of the minutes before. Clement Lenglet, meanwhile, has taken some of the playing time away from Mingueza and Garcia, going from 26% to 47% of the minutes.

We'll see if this same pattern continues, but at least so far there certainly is a pattern: experience at the back, wild and unpredictable youth everywhere else.

 

 

[manishbombee]

Omicron: As COVID-19 cases surge, European nations tighten restriction measures (premiumtimesng.com)

"Germany also announced that from December 28, restrictions would return, and this would potentially ban private gatherings of 10 people and close nightclubs with football matches being played behind closed doors, according to the BBC."

"Meanwhile, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had ruled out any new restrictions for England before Christmas. Football authorities in the country recently also said they would not suspend the leagues just as some clubs were hit by the virus."

 

[manishbombee]

Guillou targets more success with PWNFT (tiebreakertimes.com.ph)

New stars were born out of the Philippine Women’s National Football Team’s successful campaign in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2022, which yielded a ticket into the FIFA World Cup 2023. One of them, Katrina Guillou, made a big impression considering it was her first time to represent the Philippines at any level.

“I’m just overwhelmed with joy with how our country — it’s the first time qualifying and again it’s first time beating Thailand in the game, a big one against Indonesia, going into extra time and then the penalty shootout against Chinese Taipei,” said the University of North Carolina Wilmington alumna.

“I think the team was really resilient, and in the tournament, we’ve proved that. And now we’re going to once again prove ourselves on a bigger stage, including the three smaller tournaments, I would say, leading up to it. I’m excited.”

Despite being one of the newcomers to the program, it is safe to say that Guillou successfully hit the ground running. An eye-opening debut against Thailand and a fantastic goal versus Indonesia excited many supporters to her potential in future matches especially since expectations shall be higher from this point onwards.

“I know Alen has mentioned it before but this is my first competition with the team around me, so I think I’m still growing, getting used to everyone — of course these things take time,” said the 5-foot-2 midfielder.

“So, all of us together, I’m sure we can just keep on growing and proving how far we can still go.”

With so many competitions lined up this year – the AFF Women’s Championship, SEA Games, and Asian Games, – it is hoped that Guillou can be able to participate in all of them considering the difficulties in air travel amidst COVID-19 restrictions and club commitments.

[RadeonNitro]

Azkals

[Andy Lau]

Manchester United