Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Hugo Lloris pulled off a magnificent quadruple save for France in their 2-2 friendly draw with Iceland on Thursday night, and Spurs fans on Twitter were quick to react.
It has been a tough season for the north London outfit’s skipper after he was convicted with drink-driving, while he has come under scrutiny for some of his performances for his club – including his decision-making which saw Barcelona score in the second minute of their Champions League tie at Wembley.
However, the 31-year-old looked to be back to his best for Les Bleus on Thursday, including a series of four saves in quick succession to deny the visitors in Guingamp.
Tottenham supporters took to social media to give their thoughts on their stopper’s display, and while one said “and some fans want him dropped”, another described him as “still the best”.
Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…
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Barcelona are crying for a fresh addition to midfield, and Paul Pogba’s dramatic fall-out with Jose Mourinho could path the way for the move.
What’s the word?
Pogba and Mourinho’s falling out has been well documented, seeing the French World Cup winner stripped of the armband and told he’d never captain Manchester United again.
While at the Camp Nou, key figures are said to have spoken on their desire to see the former most expensive player in the world leave Old Trafford for a second time and join them at the Catalan club.
The likes of Samuel Umtiti and Ousmane Dembele are claimed to be joined by Gerard Pique and Lionel Messi in believing the reigning La Liga champions would be better off with the physicality the 25-year-old posses.
Could it happen?
It’s unlikely Barcelona would be able to make a move even if they wanted to due to the club’s current financial shortcomings, with their huge wage bill making up for 66% of all expenditure.
Some outgoings, though, and United may be able to cash in on a player not best viewed by the manager, allowing for a potential return to summer target Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.
The Lazio star had a stellar 2017/18 season and was touted as a potential Red Devils recruit, with reports of a £80million deal being rejected.
An average season so far, though, could see the price come down or the door open wider.
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Loads of Rangers fans have been reacting to the latest transfer news, as the club have rewarded Glenn Middleton’s promising form with a brand new contract.
Rangers brought in a whopping 14 new signings under Steven Gerrard this summer, but it’s a signing from Graeme Murty’s reign that has perhaps proved to be the biggest success story.
Middleton has gone from strength to strength under Gerrard, and his competition with Ryan Kent for that left wing spot has made both players better.
The 18 year-old has now signed a new deal that will keep him at the club until 2023, and fans couldn’t be happier.
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Fans are loving Kent’s performances as well, but there’s something about Middleton in particular that just gets you off your seat every time he touches the ball.
The 18 year-old, dubbed “the Glasgow Messi” by some fans, has one Premiership goal this season, and his positive and direct wing play is terrifying for opposition defenders.
Gerrard has made plenty of smart moves in his short tenure so far, but this might just be his best.
You can find some of the best Twitter reactions down below…
On Saturday, Liverpool made easy work of Cardiff, overcoming the Bluebirds 4-1 at Anfield. However, one moment that the fans may have missed was Roberto Firmino’s no-look backheel nutmeg, a moment which has got them all off their seats and applauding now they’ve seen the video.
Bobby Firmino is a superbly talented player. He has grown into his role at Anfield as the club’s number nine and if he keeps going the way he is then it won’t be long until he helps his side towards some sort of silverware. Jurgen Klopp obviously rates him very highly and he provides a much different option up front to your more conventional strikers like Daniel Sturridge and Dominic Solanke at the club.
The next step for Firmino will probably have to be adding more goals. Whilst that sounds strange considering he plays as a lone striker for the Reds, the way he plays is very selfless in that he drops deep and pulls wide to create space in the middle for Mo Salah and Sadio Mane to cut in and find. If he can carry on in doing his role and helping to create chances and score more goals, considering he only bagged 15 goals in the Premier League last season, then he’ll be a complete Liverpool forward.
You can read The Kopites’ thoughts on Firmino’s outrageous nutmeg here:
The Kopites love Firmino and will be keen to see more pieces of skill like this from the Brazilian.
According to the London Evening Standard, Arsenal have ruled out offering Aaron Ramsey a new contract.
The midfielder was initially given fresh terms, but after failing to reach an agreement, the contract was withdrawn.
Now, it seems inevitable that Ramsey will leave the Emirates on a free transfer at the end of the season.
If that becomes the case there is likely to be a scramble for the Wales international’s signature.
Liverpool have been linked to Ramsey numerous times since his contract dispute came to light.
Jurgen Klopp already has plenty of midfield options at his disposal, including Jordan Henderson, Georginio Wjnaldum, James Milner, Naby Keita, Fabinho and Adam Lallana.
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If Ramsey moved to Anfield, it would make the competition for a starting spot even fiercer.
For the first time in years, Liverpool are genuine title contenders, but would the addition of the Arsenal midfielder get into the team.
We asked you for your opinion, and while 42% believe that Ramsey would fit into the lineup, more than half of the fans polled think that the experienced league star would struggle.
Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino spoke about potential burnout for Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen and hinted he may choose to rest the duo in his Crystal Palace pre-match press conference on Thursday, but what did his comments really mean?
What did he say?
Well, according to quotes reported by The Independent, the Argentine manager said of his attacking midfield pair:
“We will see on Saturday, it was a tough game against PSV in the Champions League. Then they are going to move to the national team I think. It will be tough to play two games.
“That is why we need to care and send them really fresh. That is why we are thinking if they are going to play or not against Palace.”
What did his comments really mean?
Having both been on the sidelines because of injury in recent weeks, Pochettino certainly won’t want to risk the duo suffering setbacks that could keep them out of action again.
Both players are likely to feature heavily for their countries during the international break, while Spurs also face Chelsea, Inter Milan and Arsenal in the space of eight days when they return to action later this month.
The 45-year-old will want Alli and Eriksen fit and 100% ready for those huge fixtures, and resting them against Palace could be the answer.
The absence of the duo at Selhurst Park could mean that Moussa Sissoko takes up a key role in the midfield with Mousa Dembele, Eric Dier and Victor Wanyama also all potentially missing out, and he could play alongside Harry Winks in a 4-2-3-1 system.
Meanwhile, Pochettino’s words are probably another plea to Daniel Levy ahead of the January transfer window that the north London outfit need more squad depth if they are to achieve their goals.
According to The Sun, Everton are planning to swoop for Chris Smalling when his current contract with Manchester United expires at the end of the season.
What’s the word?
Smalling’s deal at Old Trafford only has a matter of months left to run, and as yet an agreement upon new terms for the defender does not appear close.
The Red Devils are thought to have the option of a 12-month extension, but may not take it up, or may only do so in order to receive a transfer fee in return for the 31-cap England man.
Check out Playmaker FC’s Tom Skinner’s unfiltered take on Wayne Rooney’s England legacy in the video above…
Whether the Toffees could land the 28-year-old on a free transfer or not, they would still be better off avoiding signing the defender.
Far from progressive
In spite of all his elite level experience, which includes winning the Premier League title twice under the reign of Sir Alex Ferguson, Smalling is not the most reliable of centre-backs. Now, in what ought to be his prime years, he has instead lost his place in Gareth Southgate’s England squad and does not always even make Jose Mourinho’s starting XI for United.
Although he could do a decent job at Goodison Park, Everton’s ambitions as a club are to break into the top six in England. Marco Silva must therefore be focusing on acquiring players who are of an improving standard. Smalling, for his part, has peaked.
Considering the quality of Everton’s recent defensive additions such as Lucas Digne and Yerry Mina, Smalling would not represent a continuation of such smart and progressive business by the Merseyside outfit, and he would likely just be another disappointing addition for the Toffees such as Davy Klaassen and Sandro Ramirez before him.
What do you think, Everton fans – would Smalling be a wise buy?
According to a recent report from The Northern Echo, Dwight Gayle could be set for a permanent move to West Brom this summer. The 28-year-old is currently on loan at the Championship outfit from Premier League side Newcastle United after struggling with the Magpies in the top-flight last term, while his fine start to life at the Hawthorns has prompted speculation about a permanent move to the Midlands club.
And Gayle himself is reportedly keen on making that move permanent come the end of the season, but Dean Smith’s Aston Villa must themselves seek to register an interest and thus beat their Midlands rivals to the £9 million-rated perennial Championship goal-scorer (as per Transfermarkt) in the summer.
The Breakdown
Ultimately, Darren Moore’s Baggies were seen to have pulled off quite the coup in luring Gayle to the Hawthorns during the summer, what with the Englishman one of the most prolific Championship goal-scorers in the last few years.
Be it the 13 goals in 29 appearances he netted for Peterborough United back in the 2012/13 season, or indeed the 23 goals for Newcastle in their run to the Championship title in the 2016/17 campaign, it’s clear that there are few better forwards at second tier level than Gayle.
And he has again proven that this time round with a staggering nine goals in just 14 appearances for Moore’s side, which is why it’s hardly surprising that he’s keen on a permanent move to the Hawthorns – but Villa must seek to beat the Baggies to his signature.
It has been a testing season for the Villans so far given they sit 11th in the Championship table and are onto their second manager of the campaign following Smith’s appointment to replace Steve Bruce, with the former given the brief of going one better than the latter and leading the club back to the Premier League.
That looks set to be a tough task this time round, and it could get even tougher next season given talisman Tammy Abraham, their top-scorer so far this term with five goals, is only on loan until the end of the current campaign.
And while Jonathan Kodjia is clearly a very accomplished Championship player, the other options besides those two don’t inspire a great deal of confidence – Villa may have scored 27 goals already this term but, without Abraham, goals look set to be something of a problem.
And that is why a move for Gayle ahead of West Brom makes complete sense – he knows where the goal is at Championship level, and at the age of 28, he’s very much in his prime now and could be the man to fire the Villans back to the top-flight.
Yes, West Brom will obviously be firm favourites for his signature, but were Smith’s Villa to fail in their quest for promotion this term, they simply must seek to rival and beat the Baggies to his signature come the summer.
Diving and playacting has unfortunately become part of the modern game, and it was something that irked Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp on Wednesday night.
The German coach believed that plenty of Paris Saint-Germain players went to ground too easily and also took far too long to rise to their feet during the Champions League encounter at Parc des Princes.
Klopp expressed his frustration to reporters after the match, which ended in a 2-1 defeat for Liverpool.
Neymar and Thiago Silva were among the players guilty of over-exaggerating fouls, while Marco Verratti was lucky not to receive a red card for a high foot on Joe Gomez.
Klopp was not alone in his criticism of the PSG stars, as plenty of Liverpool fans took to Reddit to blast their antics.
Comment from discussion Klopp: “You act like you die then you get up again you should get a yellow card.”.Comment from discussion Klopp: “You act like you die then you get up again you should get a yellow card.”.Comment from discussion Klopp: “You act like you die then you get up again you should get a yellow card.”.Comment from discussion Klopp: “You act like you die then you get up again you should get a yellow card.”.Comment from discussion Klopp: “You act like you die then you get up again you should get a yellow card.”.Comment from discussion Klopp: “You act like you die then you get up again you should get a yellow card.”.Comment from discussion Klopp: “You act like you die then you get up again you should get a yellow card.”.Comment from discussion Klopp: “You act like you die then you get up again you should get a yellow card.”.
The Merseyside outfit now sit third in Group C, but they can still qualify for the last 16 with a 1-0 win over Napoli at Anfield.
However, if the Italian outfit score, Liverpool will need to win by two clear goals to progress.
Such is the disillusionment towards world football’s governing bodies that the Nations League was met with first bemusement and then scepticism when UEFA announced its inception for the start of the 2018/19 season.
Had those money-grabbing big thinkers found a way of making international football even more tedious? Was the strange structure of the competition specifically designed to make football lovers apathetic by their own confusion? Did any of the motives include a genuine interest in improving the experience of the everyday fan?
To some extent, that initial fear of the unknown was inevitable. But fast forward a few months and, for England fans at least, the Nations League has brought almost excitement the summer’s World Cup. Intriguing, sometimes thrilling, encounters against top quality international sides, a vehicle for genuine growth that will better prepare the Three Lions for future tournaments, and non-summer international games that felt truly significant. Such incidents have been exceptionally rare down the years.
Soccer Football – UEFA Nations League – League A – Group 4 – England v Croatia – Wembley Stadium, London, Britain – November 18, 2018 England’s Jesse Lingard celebrates scoring their first goal Action Images via Reuters/John Sibley
And England’s finish to the Group Stage, pulling off a late comeback against Croatia through Jesse Lingard and Harry Kane to qualify for the final four, was symptomatic of a tournament that has completely changed the wider perceptions of itself in an incredibly short space of time.
Of course, the experiences of each country have varied significantly and England’s ranks amongst the most enjoyable, but every nation has been given something valuable to take away from the tournament – and every neutral has been privy to a wealth of competitive, engaging encounters between sides of similar ability.
When Jamie Carragher described England’s 3-2 win over Spain as having the quality and atmosphere of a Champions League night, even one of the Three Lions’ greatest victories on foreign soil for many years couldn’t mask the dismay. There was certainly some snobbery about the reaction, perhaps because England fans for so long have understandably made criticism of international football their default setting. How could it compare to the Champions League, the most illustrious competition in the world?
And yet, in terms of competitiveness, there isn’t a competition quite like the Nations League. It remains to be seen how the subsequent edition will pan out now relegation and promotion has shuffled the teams around, but certainly at the point of origin every group included three or four countries of almost perfectly equal stature, and the complexion of the groups themselves meant that everything was still to play for until the final whistle of the last game. You can’t say the same thing about Champions League groups, which nearly always contain a designated whipping boy and guaranteed first-placer.
In fact, the statistics from the group stages of the Nations League compared to last season’s Champions League proper are incredibly telling. 51% of all Nations League wins were decided by one goal, whereas just 24% were decided by three or more; in the Champions League though, a greater proportion of wins were sealed by a margin of three or more than just the one. Likewise, although there were comparatively more scoreless draws in the Nations League, the percentage of goals in the final 15 minutes was pretty much identical in both competitions.
The Champions League provided more goals per game last season, and inevitably the quality of football will be much greater than what international teams can produce for a variety of reasons. But the key here, for the experience of the spectator, is the level of competitiveness – very few Nations League games were dead rubbers and the flurry of late goals obliges viewers to keep watching until the final whistle.
In the Champions League, though, opponents proved to be much further apart on a lot more occasions and while the quality is still there, the intensity and unpredictability isn’t necessarily.
Check out the video below to see how Brazil fans reacted to being asked how Cristiano Ronaldo would peform for them in a hilarious prank by Playmaker FC…
Thus, it becomes a question of what we watch football for; are we here for all the tricks and flicks produced by mega-millionaires made all the easier to pull off by playing considerably inferior sides, or are we here for games that may not always be pretty but nearly always mean something, fought between two teams that could both realistically win, lose or draw?
To some extent that comes down to personal preference. But if you were to place a succession of Nations League and Champions League fixtures on a roulette wheel, the former being black and the latter being red, which is more likely to deliver an exciting, enjoyable and close-fought game? Despite the initial scepticism, the Nations League is at the very least giving the Champions League a good run for its money.