All posts by h716a5.icu

Leeds United moved five points clear of the relegation zone with a hard-fought point at Crystal Palace on Monday evening.

Jesse Marsch’s side were far from their best down at Selhurst Park but few teams have taken anything away from the Eagles on their own patch this season, including the likes of league leaders Manchester City (0-0), Arsenal (3-0 loss) and Spurs (3-0 loss).

It was a pretty disappointing display from the Yorkshire giants, making that point all the more valuable and not to mention the fact that Premier League safety is still firmly in their grasp.

The Whites mustered up only two shots on target, in comparison to Palace’s seven, also managing nine fewer shots inside the penalty area, so you could even argue that they were lucky to return north with a point.

Dan James, Jack Harrison and Raphinha all struggled to make their mark in the attack, though there was one shining light for the American head coach in skipper Liam Cooper, who was an absolute rock at the back.

As per SofaScore, he earned the highest rating of any outfield player for Leeds (7.6) and it’s easy to see why as he won absolutely everything up against their former transfer targets Jean-Philippe Mateta and Conor Gallagher, as well as Wilfried Zaha and co too.

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The 6 foot 2 colossus, 30, won a whopping nine of his 11 duels (81%), both in their air and on the ground, and also registered a match-high seven clearances, two tackles, one interception and one block.

It seems no one was getting past the Scotland international on the day and without his leader-like presence in the backline, the Premier League’s second-worst defence may well have crumbled from the Eagles’ pressure, particularly in the second half where they managed a 56% share of the ball.

Elsewhere, Cooper was among the most active players, registering the third-highest number of touches (69), which was more than Kalvin Phillips and any of Leeds’ attack, whilst one of his 34 accurate passes resulted in a key chance created – the same as James and Rodrigo, and more than Raphinha.

Yorkshire Evening Post reporter Graham Smyth was certainly left impressed by the skipper’s display as he wrote in his post-match ratings column: ‘Solid with few mistakes, lots of full-blooded defending and aerial battles.’

Whilst young goalkeeper Illan Meslier will take plenty of the plaudits for keeping out Palace’s seven attempts on goal, it was the colossal captain in front of him that helped thwart the home side to stop there being way more chances on the night.

As such, the £35k-per-week Cooper was Marsch’s big shining light down in south-east London.

AND in other news, Victor Orta could finally replace Pablo Hernandez in summer swoop for “gorgeous” 24 G/A “top talent”…

With Aston Villa recently confirming the appointment of Steven Gerrard as Dean Smith’s successor in the Villa Park dugout, attention has immediately turned to the business the 41-year-old manager could look to do in the January window, with one name having already cropped up on a number of occasions – that of Ryan Kent.

Indeed, upon Gerrard’s increasingly strong links with a move to Villa on Tuesday, Birmingham Live reported that the Rangers manager’s appointment could see him reignite Aston Villa’s 2019 interest in a move for the then-Liverpool winger – who was ultimately convinced of a permanent move to Ibrox by Gerrard.

A similar report by the Liverpool Echo also suggested that the 41-year-old could go on to realise Liverpool’s prediction that the winger would be making a return to the Premier League before too long – with this being the reason behind a 20% sell-on clause negotiated by the Reds upon his departure from Anfield.

The Sun have also jumped on the bandwagon of claiming that the former Liverpool captain could look to make a move for Kent in the January transfer window, going as far as to include the 25-year-old in a predicted Aston Villa lineup under the new leadership of Gerrard.

It is easy to see why so many outlets are suggesting that the new Villa boss could be plotting a move for the former England U20 international this winter, as Gerrard is clearly a huge fan of the forward – who flourished under the leadership of the 41-year-old at Ibrox.

Indeed, after scoring six goals and registering six assists over his 27 Scottish Premiership appearances during a loan spell in 2018/19, Gerrard fought off the likes of Leeds United and Villa to bring that season’s PFA Scotland Young Player of the Year back to Glasgow on a permanent basis the following summer, spending £7.5m on the winger.

Kent proved worthy of this hefty fee almost immediately, scoring seven goals over 21 appearances in the curtailed 2019/20 Premiership campaign, as well as bagging a further goal and four assists over 12 fixtures in the Europa League, SFA Cup and Scottish League Cup.

However, it was undoubtedly over his 37 Premiership appearances during Rangers’ title-winning campaign last term that the £12.6m-rated man proved his ability as a top-level talent, scoring 10 goals, registering 11 assists and creating nine big chances for his teammates.

These returns saw the £18k-per-week forward earn a highly impressive seasonal SofaScore match rating of 7.23 – ranking the 25-year-old as the seventh-best performer in the top flight of Scottish Football.

As such, it is easy to see why Gerrard is such a fan of the Oldham-born attacker, with the Villa boss dubbing Kent as a “dangerous” player, as well as revealing how crucial a part of the Rangers side he believes the former Liverpool man to be.

During the winger’s recovery from a hamstring injury earlier this season, Gerrard claimed: “Missing a player of Ryan’s quality, with what he gives us on both sides of the game, is always going to have an effect. It’s always going to be a challenge for other people to step in because of his high quality and his standards.”

And, with Villa’s regular options on the wing, Emiliano Buendia, Bertrand Traore, Anwar El Ghazi and Leon Bailey having scored just three Premier League goals between them so far this season, as well as providing a total of just three assists, the argument can easily be made that Gerrard’s new side are in need of a fresh face out wide this January.

So, when taking into account Kent’s highly impressive returns north of the border, Gerrard’s obvious fondness of the winger and Villa’s lack of both goals and creativity from the wing, it would indeed seem highly advisable for the 41-year-old to do all he can to make the 25-year-old his first signing this winter, as the Englishman would appear to be exactly what Villa are missing at present.

In other news: Gregg Evans drops big 7-word claim that’ll surely excite Aston Villa fans

Yorkshire’s Andrew Gale starred against his own countrymen with a hard-earned 96, but ultimately he was powerless to prevent the England Performance Squad from sweeping to a comprehensive nine-wicket win

Cricinfo staff03-Dec-2009
ScorecardYorkshire’s Andrew Gale starred against his own countrymen with a hard-earned 96, but ultimately he was powerless to prevent the England Performance Squad from sweeping to a comprehensive nine-wicket win on the final day of their four-day fixture against Gauteng in Pretoria.Gale batted at No. 3 for Gauteng after being loaned to the team from the Performance Squad, and faced 242 deliveries after coming to the crease after nine balls of the second innings. He was eventually the ninth wicket to fall, unluckily run out as he sought to keep the strike with only the tail for company and his century within sight.Instead, it was another Yorkshireman, David Wainwright, who stole the limelight with his left-arm spin, returning outstanding figures of 5 for 28 in 15 overs. His first act was to break a burgeoning third-wicket stand of 82 between Gale and Dane Vilas, whom he trapped lbw for 52, and at 155 for 3, the spine of the innings had been broken.Wainwright followed up with the first-ball wicket of the captain, Shane Burger, and added four more in a seven-over spell, before his fellow Yorkshire spinner Adil Rashid swept up the tail. Left with a meagre target of 58, the EPP raced to victory in 10.2 overs, with Alastair Cook adding 46 for the first wicket with Stephen Moore, before Ian Bell claimed the winning runs.

Gary Kirsten has said he was not involved in the preparing the controversial document which encouraged cricketers to have sex before games

Cricinfo staff25-Sep-2009Gary Kirsten, India’s coach, has said he was not involved in the preparing a controversial document that encouraged cricketers to have sex before matches.He said it was drafted by the mental conditioning coach, Paddy Upton, and that he first read about it only two days ago when a newspaper published parts of it. Kirsten also said the document was not a part of team strategy, nor aimed at encouraging sexual activity, but was about providing information to the players.”My family and I have been deeply offended and hurt by the many allegations that I encouraged the Indian players to engage in sexual activity before a match,” Kirsten read out from a prepared statement at a press conference in Centurion. “I would like to state that I have never, and I repeat, never encouraged or told the team or any player to engage in any form of sexual activity. These allegations are absolutely not true and completely against my religious and moral beliefs.”The leaked article was compiled by Paddy Upton and provided information for the players on relationship between sexual activity and sports performance. I never wrote the article and read it for the first time two days ago. It has never been and never will be part of team strategy,” Kirsten said. “I have been deeply disturbed by these false allegations and wish to focus my attention on helping Team India have a successful Champions Trophy.”The Indian players had been handed a four-part document which looked at the country’s history, the cricketers’ diet, besides analysing the relation between sex and performance on the field.

West Ham fans no longer have to fear the worst after one of the most reliable sources around the London Stadium delivered an update on manager David Moyes and those links to Manchester United…

What’s the word?

Reports emerged over the weekend suggesting that the Red Devils hierarchy had asked Irons co-owner David Sullivan for permission to speak to the Scotsman after they axed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer following their 4-1 defeat at Watford on Saturday.

However, trustworthy insider ExWHUemployee has poured cold water on such claims in a recent post on ‘The West Ham Way’ Patreon website.

“There are reports emerging today that David Sullivan has turned down an approach from Manchester United to talk to David Moyes about the vacant manager post at Old Trafford. I can confirm that this is rubbish and no such approach has been made to the club.”

Going nowhere

It is easy to see why United would be keen on their former manager, even despite his disappointing spell at Old Trafford during the 2013/14 season, but he has arguably been the main man behind the Irons’ incredible transformation in recent times.

He was handed some of the severest pressure a manager could ever imagine in replacing Sir Alex Ferguson in the dugout for the very first time. You’d think that had that not happened, then he would surely be a front-runner for the vacancy right now.

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Not to mention his transformation of Jesse Lingard last season – he’s gone from nine goals and five assists in 16 appearances to warming the bench once more.

And the fact that he signed a length contract extension in the summer.

Despite, arguably, their worst performance of the season against Wolves this weekend, the Hammers still find themselves in the running for a top-four finish, having secured Europa League qualification last term – a competition they have since made the knockout stages in.

It was only around 18 months ago that they avoided relegation with one game to spare, so that shows you how much the 58-year-old has changed their fortunes in such a short space of time.

Losing Moyes would certainly be a devastating blow to their ever-improving fortunes. That said, it’s hard to envisage him wanting to leave considering he’s on a club rising on an upward trajectory, whereas United have gone from the most-feared team in the division to one that relegation favourites Watford can beat on their day.

All in all, these promising claim from Ex is sure to leave everyone around east London absolutely delighted, though it could be a matter of time before other teams come calling, given his impressive recent track record.

AND in other news, ExWHUemployee delivers major Jesse Lingard update that’ll leave West Ham fans buzzing…

A number of Queens Park Rangers fans were critical of Moses Odubajo’s performance in their 4-1 west London derby drubbing by Fulham on Saturday.

The R’s were level at 1-1 midway through the second half before the home side ran riot at Craven Cottage, consigning Mark Warburton’s men to a fourth defeat in their last six Championship matches.

Odubajo lined up at right wing-back for QPR but endured a difficult afternoon against the Cottagers. He was given a lowly five in West London Sport’s player ratings, with the verdict that he “had his hands full against the lively Kebano in second half”.

The statistics did not make for pleasant reading for the 28-year-old. As per SofaScore, he was QPR’s joint-lowest rated performer on the day alongside Seny Dieng, with the right-back losing out on seven of his 11 duels, being culpable of an error which led to a Fulham shot, playing only one accurate long ball out of four attempted and relinquishing possession 16 times, the second-most of anyone on the day.

QPR fans slam Odubajo

These R’s fans took to Twitter to hammer Odubajo’s performance, with one irate supporter even calling him a “fraud”.

“Get out my club Moses Odubajo you fraud”

Credit: @g97467221

“Terminate Odubajo’s contract immediately”

Credit: @connorosully

“Shocking performance, wave bye bye to the top 6 with Dieng, Gray and Odubajo all playing every weekend”

Credit: @TgamingGr

“Odubajo and Kakay both not up to the mark at right wing back…. need to tweak in Jan window”

Credit: @raghurambala

“Odubajo was awful.”

Credit: @HenryLPalmetto

“Firstly the ref is more shocking than normal but, Dieng- would be dropped if we had any sort of decent back up, Odubajo- offers nothing going either way, De Wijs & Dickie- very hit and miss, Johansen- shocking since signing permanently. And we wonder why we can’t stop conceding!!”

Credit: @mattstyles86

Matabeleland Tuskers beat Masvingo outfit Southern Rocks by an innings and 87 runs at the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo

Cricinfo staff07-Jan-2010Matabeleland Tuskers beat Masvingo outfit Southern Rocks by an innings and 87 runs at the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, in their first Logan Cup match of 2010.Gavin Ewing, the Tuskers’ new captain, won the toss and elected to field and a poor batting effort from the Rocks led to them collapsing for 149 in 56.5 overs. Alester Maregwede top scored for the visitors with 42. Captain Steve Tikolo made 33 while fellow countryman Thomas Odoyo and opener Tendai Marichi contributed 21 and 10 respectively.Fast bowler Christopher Mpofu performed for Tuskers, claiming 3 for 31 in 14 overs while Keegan Meth took 3 for 14. Debutant Gerald Aliseni made an impression by taking 2 for 29 while star spinner John Nyumbu and Tawanda Mupariwa claimed one each.Charles Coventry batted superbly in Tuskers’ first innings, proving during his unbeaten 100 why he is among the best in Zimbabwe. Other Tuskers batsmen who impressed were Gregory Strydom (87), Dion Ebrahim (82), Ewing (71), and Sean Williams (71) as Tuskers piled up 456 for 5 before the declaration.Rocks started their second innings on the third day and were dismissed for 220 when they needed 307 to make Tuskers bat again. There was a notable performance from Tendai Machiri, who scored 79, and Tikolo contributed 61. Rocks missed the services of batsman Eric Chauluka who was injured while fielding in the Tuskers innings.Zimbabwe A spinner Nyumbu continued his good form from the first half of the season, claiming 4 for 29, while Mpofu took 2 for 50. Meth, Mupariwa and Strydom claimed onewicket each.Tuskers coach Robin Brown was happy with the performance of his team.”We had a good start and I only hope that this is the beginning of good things to come this half of the season,” he said.

A number of Liverpool supporters are desperate for the Reds to sign Barcelona youngster Gavi following his impressive performances for Spain in recent days.

The La Liga giants may be in disarray at the moment, but they do at least have some special young players in their ranks. Pedri is one of the best emerging talents in the world and the same applies to attacking midfielder Gavi, who is enjoying a meteoric rise in the game.

[freshpress-quiz id=“375258″]

The 17-year-old only has seven first team appearances to his name for Barca, but he is already making a name for himself at senior international level.

Gavi, who has been linked with a move to Liverpool, won his first two caps for his country during the current international break, impressing in the UEFA Nations League and helping them finish as runners-up.

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Liverpool fans react to Gavi display

The teenager made an impression in Spain’s 2-1 final defeat to France on Sunday night and these Reds fans took to Twitter to talk up a move to Anfield for the “special” teenage starlet.

“Gavi has a £42million release clause? Honestly we would never do it but if we do it’s gonna be like how Dortmund did with Bellingham”

Credit: @KazzyLFC

“The kid is special man, can’t let him rot in this dead Barca side”

Credit: @KazzyLFC

“Right let’s have Gavi then @LFC”

Credit: @craiggreen111

“Sign Gavi now whilst they are skint @John_W_Henry”

Credit: @RyanWatsonLFC

“Gavi is generational”

Credit: @TheTaaERA

“Gavi is 17 years old and is running rings around Paul Pogba”

Credit: @LFCShajid

In other news, some Liverpool fans have reacted to a fresh transfer report. Read more here.

Umar Gul and Mohammad Aamer, Pakistan’s newest pace sensation, can be expected to give a few nervous moments to oppostion batsmen

Cricinfo staff01-Jun-2009Pakistan’s bowling attack for the ICC World Twenty20 could provide some anxious moments to opposition batsmen with the addition of the country’s newest fast bowling sensation Mohammad Aamer to its pace battery. The attack already includes Umar Gul, the leading wicket-taker at the last World Twenty20.Gul said he wanted to do better than last time and would attack the batsmen right from the first ball. “We have a balanced attack and if we bowl to a tight line and length, then we can get teams out or restrict them to gettable totals.”Gul said he preferred bowling first change since more swing could be obtained. “It’s the ideal time to not only stop the flow of runs but to take wickets. We came so close to winning the title in 2007 but it was bad luck. This time round we want to finish it without a blemish. The title, nothing less, is the aim.”Aamer, a 17-year old left-arm fast bowler from Rawalpindi, has said he wants to emulate his idol Wasim Akram’s success in the 1992 World Cup when he plays in the World Twenty20.”I want fairytale success, and will do my best for it,” Aamer said.Aamer, a protégé of Akram who had called for his selection to the national side in July last year, was born only two weeks after Akram’s feats at the 1992 World Cup but said he had watched videos of his idol and that attracted him to cricket. “I was never interested in joining the army. I was attracted by cricket and by Wasim Akram,” he said. In his maiden first-class season, Aamer took 56 wickets in 10 matches for Rawalpindi. He also picked up 15 wickets in List A games and was picked for the Bangladesh tour which was postponed. Along with Mohammad Talha, Aamer is regarded as Pakistan’s latest pace sensation.Shakil Shaikh, the official who spotted Aamer, said his swing and pace was handy. “Aamer’s strong point is that he can judge a batsman after a few deliveries and then plan his deliveries,” Shaikh said.Akram has tipped him to be a revelation in the World Twenty20. “I have watched him more than once and he’s impressive with over 140kmh speed and can swing the ball both ways.”

The batsman was ruled out of England’s opening World Twenty20 match against Netherlands with a recurrence of the Achilles injury

Cricinfo staff05-Jun-2009Kevin Pietersen was ruled out of England’s opening ICC World Twenty20 match against Netherlands with a recurrence of the Achilles injury that forced him to miss the one-day series against West Indies.After appearing in both warm-ups against Scotland and West Indies he experienced further pain on Friday and the decision was taken to assess the injury ahead of the game against Pakistan on Sunday. The ECB said he will have scans and an injection before a decision is taken on his future participation.”Kevin had been making excellent progress with the management of his right Achilles injury and had shown substantial improvement,” said the England chief medical officer Nick Peirce. “However today he has experienced a degree of pain which medical assessments have suggested may be related to some aggravation from his lower back.”In order to continue maximising his recovery for the remainder of the tournament and the summer ahead, he will undergo a scan and an injection today to help determine any contribution from his lower back and to provide both short term and long term benefit.”Provided this injection has the expected result Kevin may well be available for selection for England’s match against Pakistan on Sunday. He will continue to be assessed and receive treatment over the next 48 hours before a decision is made on his availability for Sunday’s match.”After missing the three one-dayers against West Indies Pietersen said he was making good progress in his recovery and that the only element he had to be careful with was his street-running. He looked in good form during the practice games as he hit an unbeaten 53 against Scotland to see England home.Although the England management will be keen to ensure Pietersen can play a part in the tournament they will be able to replace him if the injury proves too serious. They have already had to replace Andrew Flintoff from the original squad with Adil Rashid coming into the party.