Month: November 2017

Due to a vast number of injuries to first-team regulars, Gareth Southgate’s England squad had a youthful and experimental feel to it for the recent friendlies against top sides Germany and Brazil. The lack of international experience certainly didn’t show on the pitch though, with the Three Lions holding both Germany and Brazil – the top two sides in the world – to creditable draws at Wembley. Southgate awarded six players their first England cap across the two nights, with five of these being players that have featured for the Under-21 side over the course of the past few...

Whilst there wouldn’t have been many that were looking forward to a third international break in just ten weeks, one man who certainly benefitted from the latest England action is Jordan Pickford. Awarded his full national debut by Gareth Southgate as a result of a late injury sustained by Jack Butland, the Everton goalkeeper was a stand-out performer as England played out a very uncharacteristically entertaining 0-0 draw against the reigning world champions Germany last Friday. A performance of such stature would no doubt have pleased the 23-year-old after a thoroughly testing start to his Everton career since his £30 million...

Manchester City, Chelsea, and Tottenham would love to resume from where they had left off, before the international break, while Manchester United should be looking out for some help from its hospital bed. Premier League and fixture congestion begin now and managers have to pick players with the future in mind. Some help would, of course, do. Antonio Valencia – Manchester United Antonio Valencia got himself rid of the No.7 shirt, citing psychological reasons. Maybe it was too heavy for him. Maybe he was not ready. Now, he is the first choice captain of Manchester United and he couldn’t...

After starting his Manchester United career like a runaway train, Romelu Lukaku has fallen back down to Earth quickly with a barren record of no goals in his previous four top-flight appearances. It’s a stark contrast to how he started the year, scoring seven in his first seven league games – including his debut double against West Ham – and he will want to bring his dry spell to an end. Whilst his lack of end product has no doubt frustrated United fans, with Jose Mourinho’s side only winning once in their previous four matches in which Lukaku hasn’t...

Chelsea returned to winning ways with a narrow victory over top-six rivals Manchester United. It was important that the team earned a positive result after the disastrous performance against Roma in the Champions League. Antonio Conte made a few tactical changes to the team and they worked wonders, which once again showed how he valuable he can be in big matches. The main story was that the decision to drop David Luiz, but there was a change in midfield that piqued this writer’s interest from a Draft Fantasy perspective. Tiemoue Bakayoko was starting in a more advanced role and...

Liverpool delivered one of their best performances of the season against West Ham United at the weekend. Their pressing was back to near its best and the movement of the attackers caused all sorts of problems. They scored four goals, but it could have been more on another day and supporters will enter the international break with an increased level of optimism about the rest of the season. Sadio Mane returned to the starting eleven and his influence was clear to everybody watching. Liverpool are a much better team when he is on the pitch and they were a...

It wasn’t the most surprising piece of breaking news in the world but Monday signalled the end of Slaven Bilic’s reign at the helm of West Ham after a turbulent beginning to their 2017-18 campaign. The Hammers have just two wins next to their name after the opening 11 games of the Premier League season, leaving them precariously placed just a single point outside of the relegation spots. It seems that the bell has been tolling for Bilic almost since the beginning of the season, where his side went four league matches without scoring or picking up a point,...

One of the more surprising stories to surface from the Premier League’s weekend football was that Chelsea defender David Luiz has seemingly fallen out of favour with manager Antonio Conte at Stamford Bridge. The Brazilian defender – re-signed by Conte for £34 million in 2016 – was left out of the starting eleven for the 1-0 victory over Manchester United on Sunday, with Andreas Christensen preferred. Yet, even further than that, the central defender was omitted from the substitutes bench. Reports of a rift between the player and manager could spell uncertainty for his Chelsea career once the domestic football returns...