All posts by h716a5.icu

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West Ham fans have taken to Twitter in frustrated fashion following Monday evening’s FA Cup fifth round draw, in which their fourth-round conquerors AFC Wimbledon were drawn against Millwall.

Whilst you may wonder how that outcome affects the Hammers in any way, shape, or form, the Irons were incidentally knocked out of the competition by the League One strugglers on Saturday, in what was a shock 4-2 loss to a side sat bottom of their division.

West Ham and Millwall have one of the fiercest, most bitter rivalries in English football, and the pair are desperate to face each other having last gone toe-to-toe in the Championship back in 2012.

Who should replace Marko Arnautovic if he leaves West Ham? FFC’s James Jones has the answer! Check out the video below to find out…

If the Hammers had beaten Wimbledon, then they conceivably could have finally been able to face off against the Lions, so you can understand their frustration at missing out on what would have been a massive tie for both teams with a quarter-final place at stake.

Given the problems caused by Millwall fans at their last game against Everton however, as per the BBC, the police force would have breathed a huge sigh of relief at the Hammers’ failure to progress, but the club’s supporters weren’t too happy on Twitter…

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Manuel Lanzini should be ready to return for West Ham United next month.

Indeed, that is the opinion of Hammers boss Manuel Pellegrini, who spoke to reporters – as quoted by Football.London – on Monday ahead of the Premier League clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers on Tuesday night.

Lanzini has not played a single minute of football for West Ham this season, having suffered a serious knee injury in June.

The attacker – a 2016 arrival from Al Jazira Club – was due to travel to the 2018 World Cup with Argentina, but his knee injury ruled him out of the summer competition.

The 25-year-old is nearing a return, however, and West Ham’s official Twitter account posted an image of the South American in training on Monday.

As expected, the fans were delighted to see Lanzini back in full training gear, with his return huge for the club.

A number of West Ham supporters are still unhappy with their club’s FA Cup loss to AFC Wimbledon at the weekend, but Lanzini’s imminent return has certainly improved their mood.

A selection of the Twitter reaction can be seen below:

Pl>ymaker FC’s Matchday with Max caught up with Jamaica’s women’s team. See what happened when he met the history makers in the video below…

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Loads of West Brom fans have been running the rule over their FA Cup exit at the hands of Brighton, and they’re extremely impressed by debutant Morgan Rogers.

West Brom were knocked out of the FA Cup by Brighton on Wednesday night, and it’s safe to say fans weren’t too happy with Darren Moore.

The boss has taken stick for his substitutions and game management on several occasions this season, and the Baggies were forced to play extra time with just ten men as Hal Robson-Kanu picked up an injury after Moore had used all three substitutions.

Who are the best away fans in the Championship? Pl>ymaker FC’s Thogden gives his top 10 in the video below…

While the manager’s decisions have come under fire though, fans are pretty happy with the performance of the youngsters, as the likes of Rogers and Rekeem Harper shone in the Baggies’ rotated XI.

Harper looked exhausted by the final whistle, having started the match, but Rogers showed some serious promise in his short cameo, replacing Wes Hoolahan with ten minutes left in normal time.

The 16 year-old was unlucky not to grab a debut goal when he couldn’t quite get his head to a mis-hit shot, and his overall impact on the game was very positive.

Loads of fans have been discussing his performance, and you can find some of the best Twitter reactions down below…

On Monday, Liverpool touched down in Marbella for a four-day training camp.

The Reds are not involved in the fifth round of the FA Cup following their elimination, meaning that they are not back in action until February 19, when they will host Bayern Munich in the first leg of their last-16 Champions League clash.

A 31-man squad has been taken to the Andalusian coast, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain amongst those to have travelled.

Pl>ymaker FC’s Matchday with Max caught up with Jamaica’s women’s team. See what happened when he met the history makers in the video below…

The England international has not played for Liverpool since suffering a severe knee injury against Roma in the Champions League last April.

Oxlade-Chamberlain has stepped up his recovery in recent weeks, however, and it has been rumoured that the midfielder could return to first-team action next month.

Liverpool’s official Twitter account posted an image when the team had landed in Marbella and the former Arsenal man was fronting it.

As expected, that led to a whole host of Liverpool fans revealing that they simply cannot wait to see the 25-year-old back in action.

A selection of the Twitter reaction can be seen below:

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Arsenal have drawn French outfit Rennes in the last 16 of the Europa League. The two legs of the tie will be held on the 7th and 14th March, with the second fixture taking place at the Emirates Stadium.

Whilst the Gunners will be favourites to progress to the quarter finals, Unai Emery must recognise the genuine threat that the Ligue 1 side pose to ensure his side don’t stumble to an embarrassing exit from the competition.

On the chalkboard

Whilst Rennes are currently undergoing an underwhelming domestic campaign, they should not be underestimated. They certainly pack a punch going forwards, and given that the Gunners’ rearguard is far from solid, Emery must take measures to ensure his side aren’t exposed.

Watch how to cross the road like a boss with freestyler Ben Nuttall in the video below…

In the likes of playmaker Clement Grenier, mercurial attacking midfielder Hatem Ben Arfa, rapid winger Ismaila Sarr and striker M’Baye Niang, Rennes have plenty of attacking talent with the capacity to hurt Arsenal.

Emery must mastermind a way of ensuring that his side aren’t undone by the opposition’s firepower.

A conservative approach

In order to address this concern, the Gunners must play a more conservative game in the first leg away from home. Keeping a clean sheet must be the priority in this fixture, with the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alex Iwobi posing a threat on the break.

Reverting to a flat three-man midfield might also be a smart, if cautious, move for this game. With Lucas Torreira, Granit Xhaka and Matteo Gundouzi forming a solid block ahead of the Arsenal backline, Emery’s side ought to be able to keep Rennes out.

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In yet another underwhelming Northwest derby, it had become clear by half-time that it was Liverpool’s match to lose after an already injury-hit Manchester United were forced to make three substitutions during the first 45 minutes and settle for Marcus Rashford leading the line despite suffering an obvious injury.

Any points missed would be dropped for Liverpool, especially in the context of the Premier League title race, and gained for a weakened United, but the visitors failed to take advantage of that opportunity in what transpired to be a disappointing ninety minutes for both teams.

But it could have all been very different for Liverpool had Jurgen Klopp reacted to events at half-time with the boldness, intelligence and astuteness required to win trophies through a daring substitution – swapping centre-back Joel Matip for playmaker Xherdan Shaqiri and accordingly pushing Fabinho back into defence.

Here’s why the switch-up would have won the game for Liverpool…

Fabinho at centre-half

With Rashford clearly unable to press from centre-forward as he played through an injury, Liverpool’s centre-backs were luxury to the most space on the pitch on Sunday.

Tellingly, Matip recorded the second-most touches of the ball of any Liverpool player but while he certainly wasn’t pedestrian with possession, aside from one marauding run into the opposition box his impact offensively was inevitably limited.

And considering United really weren’t offering much in attack by that stage of the game, the Cameroonian’s defensive qualities only became increasingly irrelevant.

Fabinho would have been the ideal candidate to serve a dual role alongside Virgil van Dijk – helping him stop counter-attacks before stepping into midfield to try and create an overload in deep-lying pockets, which in turn would have helped make space further forward.

Fabinho’s forward passing is probably the best and most consistent of any player at the club as well, so he would have been perfect for pushing balls through a packed midfield.

Giving McTominay problems

Without meaning to sound disrespectful, Scott McTominay was the obvious weak link in Manchester United’s starting XI. It ultimately ended up being a decent performance from the Red Devils academy product despite looking nervy in stages, but largely because nobody really tested him as the midfield anchor. By the full time whistle, he hadn’t made a single tackle.

More than any Liverpool player, Shaqiri was best-suited for the job  of troubling McTominay as a natural No.10. Yes, McTominay would have always dominated him in purely physical battles, but the Swiss has the guile and trickery to take advantage of the 22-year-old’s inexperience.

A few direct runs at McTominany would have made matters very interesting, especially if Shaqiri forced the towering midfielder into a booking. But McTominay was left largely unscathed by what’s supposed to be one of the most fearsome attacks in Europe, undertaking a relatively simple job of screening in front of an isolated Daniel Sturridge. Opportunity missed.

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Arsenal will be looking to make it back-to-back Premier League wins when they welcome Southampton to the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

And Mesut Ozil must start for the Gunners, despite the recent comments from the London club’s head coach Unai Emery about rotation.

What has Emery said?

Emery has revealed that Ozil will continue to be rotated in and out of the XI, suggesting that he will be on the bench against Southampton this weekend having started Thursday’s clash with BATE Borisov.

Ozil was in the Arsenal XI for just the second time in 2019 against BATE, and the German helped his team record a 3-0 win at the Emirates Stadium.

The 30-year-old could well find himself back on the bench in the Premier League on Sunday, but there simply has to be a spot in the team for the playmaker.

Much can be said about Ozil’s energy levels and willingness to go that extra mile, but he remains Arsenal’s most talented footballer.

And he has to feature against a Southampton team who will find it very difficult to see much of the ball during the 90 minutes.

How has Ozil performed this season?

Nineteen matches – four goals and two assists. The fact that Ozil has only registered one Premier League assist this season is quite incredible when considering his talent.

There’s good news for fans of City, Liverpool, Spurs and United in the video below…

However, in fairness to the former Real Madrid attacker, who Transfermarkt value at £31.5million, it is clear that he does not have the trust of Emery as he simply does not work hard enough.

The Gunners will absolutely dominate the ball against the Saints, though, and they will not need every single player to be a workhouse.

On the contrary, it is in these type of games where players of Ozil’s quality are extremely important.

The 6 foot ace is intelligent enough to know that he has not been at his best this season, but it makes little sense to leave the German out of Arsenal’s home fixtures against the lesser clubs in the division, with respect to Southampton of course.

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Brendan Rodgers’ return to the Premier League is almost certainly good news for Leicester City supporters and a boon too for the media.

The 46-year-old has a proven track record of rejuvenating clubs while his emphasis on player development could easily take the Foxes fine crop of young talent to the next level. As for the press he is – in a nutshell – not Claude Puel. Indeed he is the very antithesis of the French charisma vacuum.

There is a third group too who will be happy at this week’s surprise development, that saw Rodgers suddenly depart Glasgow with a third treble-winning season in sight. Prominent among us are those who find the Northern Irishman’s excruciating over-sincerity, manic mannerisms, and staggering delusions of grandeur to be so similar to David Brent as to be considered comedy gold. Look at his expression, haha. Have you heard what the clown has claimed now, haha. They’ll be chuffed at and grateful for the new material.

I used to wish I was in this group and with his untimely restoration to the English back pages and Super Sunday cameras I’m envious again now because it would make my life a whole lot easier if I found the botoxed buffoon in any way, shape or form hilarious. Alas I don’t. Alas I am firmly ensconced in the other constituency, the one labelled as ‘the rest of us’.

The rest of us are not jumping for joy at Rodgers being back. The rest of us recoiled at the news, our hearts sinking down through our legs and into our trainers, and that’s because the rest of us regard him to be, by some considerable distance the most conceited, hypocritical, and intensely annoying manager to ever inhabit a technical area.

If Brendan Rodgers was made of chocolate he absolutely wouldn’t eat himself, as the saying goes. Because then the world would be deprived of a chocolate Brendan Rodgers. Also it would stain his blindingly white teeth. He is a man so vainglorious that he has a large portrait of himself in his living room, and yes I’m aware it was bought to aid a local charity but nobody made him hang it there. Just like nobody makes him attend sunbed sessions so frequently that David Dickinson is in danger of asking for his face back.

He is – to my knowledge – the only manager to have his own signature celebration, an act as self-absorbed from a man in his position as to defy belief. It began at Liverpool with his side on a title charge and by default stealing some of his limelight and it is all too easy to imagine Rodgers at home practising the raised arm and pursed lips when first conceived, as his glamorous other half critiqued from the sofa. “Fit babe, but now try it with the other jacket”.

Ah Liverpool and his time on Merseyside, where do we start with that? Here’s where we start, by pointing out that recently the nation has been debating why so many neutrals are desperate for the Reds to fall short once again in their pursuit of a Premier League crown. The zealousness of their fans has been offered up as a primary reason with the fear that we’ll never hear the end of it. Klopp too has been suggested and, perhaps, to an extent there is the fact that Liverpool have never won this incarnation of the league and we’re nowhere near ready yet to relinquish that priceless bit of banter.

What shouldn’t be forgotten however is that the main reason Liverpool are so unpopular at present is because we all remember too well how interminably insufferable Rodgers was in 2013/14. How vomit-inducingly pious he was, regarding a very big club with a very good team challenging for a major honour as if it was a cause as worthy as the civil rights movement. Each and every week it was ‘Liverpool football club’, ‘we don’t do that at Liverpool football club’, ‘this football club…’, ‘we’re a family at Liverpool football club’. His constant aggrandisement of LFC amounted to a cheap peddling of folklores that were not his to peddle but unsurprisingly the masses gobbled it up all the same.

You never hear the real greats of Liverpool – let’s say Kenny Dalglish – speak like this because it was they who made the club great in the first place. For them it would just be boasting. Rodgers though, for the briefest of successful times that ended in failure, rode on their coat-tails shamelessly, all the while raising his arm and pursing his lips, trying to look ten years younger.

He is a man who lectures endlessly about the importance of virtue who once reneged on a gentleman’s agreement with Swansea not to sign their players and later mocked Southampton for their lack of ambition after raiding them for their best talent. He is a man who speaks constantly of character who fully deserves this character assassination.

“I’ll give my life to make the supporters proud of their club,” he insisted on being unveiled as Leicester’s new boss. Bloody hell, just hours in and he’s off already, talking himself up and uttering corny rejected lines from Game Of Thrones. Some will find this amusing. Some will delight in him. To the rest of us his next departure already can’t come soon enough.

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Tyler Roberts has been one the surprise packages of the season at Leeds United. Not only has the 20-year-old shocked supporters with the standard of his performances, but he has thrived away from his customary centre-forward position in the enganche role which has largely been occupied by Samu Saiz and Pablo Hernandez.

Yet more reason for the media to salivate over the Argentine, as if any more were necessary.

A pair of assists were provided for Patrick Bamford against West Brom last Friday, with a delicate flick of the boot providing the killer ball to put Leeds 2-0 up shortly before the break and a bulldozing dribble through the heart of the Baggies defence preceding the killer third.

In a season which has hosted Roberts’ rise to prominence alongside the likes of Jack Clarke and Jamie Shackleton, eulogisers have naturally hailed Bielsa’s influence in their collective development.

But this trend is far from surprising given Bielsa’s history in the game. A handful of talents in the Premier League played under the Leeds boss during the formative stages of their careers, and we’re here to show how exposure to his widely-celebrated philosophy can ultimately lay some vital foundations needed for a big future in the game.

Aymeric Laporte

Manchester City’s majestic central defender hailed Bielsa during an interview with The Times earlier this season.

“Without him, I might not be where I am today. It was Bielsa who gave me my first steps in the [Spanish] top flight, and so I owe him a lot. I’m very grateful to him and very aware of exactly what he did for me.”

It takes genuine bravery for a manager to trust in a ball-playing central defender at an age when they are bound to make glaring errors. Bielsa, though, as Laporte has stated, is “not cut from the usual cloth.”

The Athletic Bilbao prodigy was playing 90 minutes in La Liga on a semi-regular basis aged just 18, starting 14 times in the 2012/13 season, but his exposure to elite standard football at such a tentative age clearly served him well.

Bielsa will look at Laporte’s development with immense pride. The 24-year-old has grown into a complete defender, and his performances will undoubtedly play a defining role in the extent of City’s success this season.

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Michy Batshuayi

Bielsa’s time at Marseille happened to coincide with the arrival of one of Belgium’s brightest young talents. Batshuayi’s maiden campaign in France was representative of his overall promise at that age, with a return of nine goals to show from just six starts in Ligue 1.

Admittedly, Bielsa was a little reluctant to fully blood Batshuayi into the starting XI with Andre-Pierre Gignac offering experience at the spearhead of the attack.

But the summer acquisition did come off the bench a further 20 times to supplement his opportunities from the start, and Bielsa’s handling of the complete forward provided him with the platform to thrive in the following season, with 23 goals and 10 assists eventually convincing Chelsea to sign him the following summer.

A player who combines power with technique and neat interplay, the fruits of Bielsa’s labour clearly rubbed off on the Crystal Palace loanee.

Mario Lemina

Lemina is one of the most outspoken admirers of his former manager, per So Foot.

“The first year with Elie Baup was complicated but the next one with Marcelo Bielsa was magnificent. We discovered another OM, more spectacular. With the coach, I learned a lot. It’s really interesting to work under him. When he left, it was a shock for me and that’s what made me want to go.”

The Gabon international is yet to fulfil what is no doubt a huge level of potential, but it’s clear from his quotes that he felt happy and well-educated under Bielsa.

Perhaps a reunion with his former boss could be on the cards if Leeds win promotion to the Premier League.

Is Roberts the next success story?

The aforementioned players are examples of some of the brightest young talents who were privileged enough to play under Bielsa during the early stages of their careers.

It’s clear to see from their career paths that exposure to his methods, philosophy and captivating personality can contribute to a huge future in the game.

For Roberts, a strong contender for Leeds’ breakthrough talent of the season, he has been fortunate to receive the same education.

The Wales international is in esteemed company, but the signs are there to suggest he may not be completely out of his depth in a bracket alongside the likes of Batshuayi and Lemina in four years’ time.

Another Bielsa success story could be in the making.

Josh McEachran. Gael Kakuta. Lucas Piazon. Charly Musonda. These are names that are written into the history of Chelsea Football Club, and all for the wrong reasons. Whilst the Blues have been celebrating silverware and breaking records over the last 15 years, many of the players at the club have been living through a very different fate. 

Indeed, for all of Chelsea’s success on the pitch at Stamford Bridge, they’ve had markedly less success on the training pitches at Cobham – at least in the traditional sense. Featuring in five consecutive FA Youth Cup finals is a testament to the strength of the Chelsea academy, but the Blues’ failure to promote any young talent into the first team during that time indicates that it’s a system with a broken cog.

Josh McEachran made first appearance for Chelsea in the Premier League during the 2010-11 season, but in the 2015-16 season, he moved to Brentford after 5 separate loan spells. Gael Kakuta played a solitary game for the Blues in the 2009-10 Premier League season, and he’s subsequently spent time at 10 separate clubs since, either on loan or permanent moves. He left Chelsea in 2015 on a free transfer. Lucas Piazon had shades of Kaka about him when he moved to Stamford Bridge in 2011, but after just 1 Premier League game for the Blues in the years since, he’s best known for his impressive two-year stint at Fulham now. Charly Musonda is more of a contemporary failure for the Blues, with his failed loan to Celtic last season indicative of Chelsea’s mismanagement of their most talented young players.

On their own, Chelsea’s inability to harness this talent is bad enough, but when combined and added to the likes Nathaniel Chalobah, Ryan Bertrand and Bertrand Traore – three players that were sold on for pennies after Chelsea signed big money replacements – the problem becomes an epidemic, and so far, Chelsea haven’t been able to find a cure.

That’s a real problem for a number of reasons. Firstly, and most notably, it reduces the overall quality on the field for Chelsea. Some of Europe’s most talented men have graced the pitch at Stamford Bridge only to be moved on prematurely, like Kevin De Bruyne and Mohammed Salah, and that’s left the Blues in a worse position long-term. It’s also bad for the fans of the club. You only have to watch Chelsea once to see how popular homegrown talent is, given the constant chances of ‘Ruben!’ whenever midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek enters the fray at Stamford Bridge. Homegrown talent has an immediate affinity with a club’s fanbase, and their lack of utilisation at Stamford Bridge has been a consistent point of contention between the fans and the club at Stamford Bridge in recent years. There’s also the club identity argument. If a player has grown up at a club, he’s inherently got a better connection with it, and that can help make them a better player as a result. Take John Terry, for example. He had incredible natural talent, but it was his love for Chelsea that took him to the next level.

There’s no doubt, then, that Chelsea are worse off for their lack of youth development, and that’s only come to the fore more prominently this week owing to a recent report surrounding Jadon Sancho. Sancho has emerged as one of Europe’s brightest young talents this season after ditching Man City for Borussia Dortmund, and now the Independent are reporting that Man Utd are considering an £80 million move for him. That’s a stunning sum of money, and it serves as further proof that Chelsea simply cannot afford to not utilise their youth talent. Not only is it costing them players on the field, but, evidently, it’s costing them big money, too.

Now, of course, Chelsea have made big money from their youth academy over the years, but nobody has come close to the £80 million fee associated with Sancho – and so it’s clear that Chelsea are missing a trick. Not only is the Englishman impressing on the field, but he’s now potentially going to make a big impact off of it, too.

This is particularly poignant at present given the situation surrounding Callum Hudson-Odoi. Linked with a move to Bayern Munich in January, he’s hardly featured since that point, with the German giants still expected to return for him in the summer. And, with only a year left on his contract at Stamford Bridge, the Englishman could well be able to force an exit for Chelsea for a cut-price fee.

This isn’t only a Chelsea problem, it’s important to recognise that. Man Utd, the team linked with Sancho this time around, have their own issues, and they’ve got a ton of under-utilised talent that should get a chance. From Tahith Chong to Mason Greenwood. the Red Devils face a similar set of issues if they don’t make use of the academy. But the difference between the two clubs is that Man Utd have a history of focusing on youth, and even during their recent struggles, players like Marcus Rashford have made the jump. And that’s, significantly, without the use of the loan system.

This has never been a more pressing issue for Chelsea. They’ve been able to manage the consequences of their rejection of youth for years with minimal impact, yet now it’s not only costing them talent; it’s also costing them money. It’s at this point that the Chelsea brass cannot, and surely will not, allow it to continue.

Hudson-Odoi, too, is only at the surface of the problem. From Mason Mount to Reece James to Dujon Sterling, there are dozens of young players at Stamford Bridge that could prove to be worth their weight in gold. And if Chelsea don’t utilise them, somebody else will, and as in the case of Sancho, they will reap the rewards instead.

Chelsea fans – what is the solution to this problem? Will Hudson-Odoi leave? Do the Blues just need a complete restructure? Let us know below…

–  Take a look at the rest of our Trending Transfer coverage on Man Utd’s interest in Jadon Sancho by clicking here –