Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has admitted that Steven Gerrard is making good progress in his bid to return to fitness, but has not put a date on the midfielder’s potential return.
The England international has had a torrid time with injuries this year, with an ankle infection his current ailment.
Despite admitting that Gerrard was moving in the right direction, the Scottish coach is unsure when he will be able to select his captain again.
“Steven is progressing brilliantly,” he told the club’s official website.
“There is nothing that’s been a disappointment other than he’s not been available for selection.
“He’ll be available as and when he’s over what he’s got but everything’s going really well. We couldn’t ask for more or any greater news from him.
“No. When he’s ready,” he stated when asked if he knew when Gerrard would play again.
One piece of positive news for The Reds however is the return to fitness of Jamie Carragher, and Dalglish has confirmed that the veteran defender should make himself available for selection this weekend.
“Carra is training. He’s got rid of his calf injury so he’s fit and available for selection,” he concluded.
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Liverpool face a tough two weeks, with an away fixture against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday next for the Merseysiders.
It has become clear that the Champions League dictates what is deemed a successful season for any major club in Europe. The manner in which managers are moved on due to failure to meet minimum requirements of European qualification has caused a number of teams to lose stability and face the prospect of starting the rebuilding process all over again. Yes, it brings financial security, especially for English teams who receive more in income than their European counterparts, but a year or two away from the glamour and lights of club football’s elite competition could be a huge silver lining during a perceived period of darkness.
It has become a much bigger trend in recent seasons for big clubs on the continent to miss out on the Champions League: AC Milan travelled to Fratton Park in 2008 in the Uefa Cup—a tie from a parallel universe only a few years earlier—while the giants of German football Bayern Munich also experienced a year in unfamiliar territory in Uefa’s second competition . It seemed unlikely that anything of that nature would spill over into the Premier League because the strength of the top four seemed too much for others over the course of 38 games, and that the ‘traditional’ top four would remain intact for many years to come. We’ve seen Manchester City and their millions completely blow apart that theory, as well as Tottenham who have experienced a similar step up but with far less financial resources. Of course, some of this is also due to the trouble Liverpool were in under previous owners Hicks and Gillett.
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Interestingly, Juventus remain the only unbeaten side in all the major leagues in Europe. The Turin side currently sit in second place in Serie A and have been aided in their good form this season without the burden of European competition. Juventus have also dispelled the myth that teams not competing in Europe will be unable to attract big names or hold onto their own stars. The club signed midfielder Arturo Vidal from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer, as well as adding veteran midfielder Andrea Pirlo to their ranks. The latter, despite a relatively poor season last year for Milan, has been a central figure in his new club’s good form this season. Similarly, PSG and their new-found riches had no problem attracting top talent last summer, bringing in players such as Kevin Gameiro from FC Lorient and £40million Javier Pastore from Palermo. A signal of intent? Absolutely. The Paris side, despite a number of blips this season, are sitting at the top of the French league.
Chelsea’s Andre Villas-Boas continues to see the vultures circling above as any wrong move could certainly spell the end for his time at Chelsea. And for what exactly? Apparent failure to qualify for the Champions League next season? What if the club do finish fourth but get knocked out in qualifying due to the nature of the set-up for the final round of qualifiers? If Chelsea have spent big up until that point—and I’m sure they have a number of high-priced targets in mind—then will they sack AVB in that instance despite the signings made for his philosophy? The point is, Chelsea, like many big teams in Europe, could do with a period of readjustment and time away from the limelight of the Champions League. Juventus are making good use of their time out of Europe, Spurs are flying high like no one thought they would, and AC Milan have acquired new talents—a number of which are big names in European football—and won their first Serie A title since 2004 last season and continue to remain at the top of the league table.
Of course, the financial aspect of failing to qualify for the Champions League is significant, especially with the Financial Fair Play coming into effect soon. But this is not a view based on the financial side of the game, it’s one solely looking at the football side. A good run domestically without the pressures of competing on a Tuesday or Wednesday night abroad can set up the foundations for a number of successful years to follow. Bayern’s failure to qualify in 2007/08 proved to be the tonic needed to allow the club to reshape the squad and complete a successful double winning season that year. Without the allure of the Champions League, the Bavarian side were still able to acquire Franck Ribery from Marseille as well as adding significant firepower to their attack in the form of Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose.
What we’ve seen from Liverpool this season, however, is conflicting to the notion that a year away from European commitments will bring a successful domestic campaign. The Anfield club are currently sitting in seventh place in a distinctly poor Premier League year for most of the top clubs. Despite money being spent over the past 12 months, they have been unable to translate their ambitions for the season into results on the pitch, and face the prospect of another year away from Europe’s top competition unless they improve. The bright side to this, again, is that they would be allowed another year in which to continue the rebuilding process and free of potentially damaging trips away in Europe.
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In spite of the view that the Champions League is a competition based on good fortune as well as good performances, there are less than a handful of teams now who are genuinely able to win the competition. Barcelona and Real Madrid hold such a high and consistent standing in La Liga that they can afford to put much more into European competition, where teams from other leagues are constantly worrying about those around them domestically. Maybe a successful period of transition doesn’t simply come to the fore, as teams like Arsenal hope it would. The team have been in the same standing for almost 10 years and it’s becoming stale more than anything. They have little hope of winning the Champions League and, due to European commitments, have little hope of sustaining a strong enough challenge on the league title. Again, without concern for the financial side of it, perhaps a year away from the Champions League would be best suited to teams who are similarly in a never-ending cycle of transition.
Litex Lovech signed off on their victorious Bulgarian A-League campaign against Kaliakra on Friday, while Garra Dembele added to his haul.Having already clinched their fourth domestic title, Lovech were content to ride out a goal-less draw at home to Kaliakra, taking their tally for the season to 75 points from 30 points.
They finish three points clear of Levski Sofia, who ended their season on a high with a 3-0 thrashing of FK Montana.
Veselin Minev (31) and Hristo Yovov (66) scored either side of Dembele, whose goal in the 64th minute took the Malian striker’s haul for the season to an impressive 27 goals.
CSKA Sofia, who had already wrapped up third place on the table and the second Europa League spot, defeated relegation-bound Akademik Sofia 3-1.
Akademik’s hopes of securing a relegation play-off were dashed when Vidima-Rakovski defeated Pirin Blagoevgrad 2-1 to finish 14th on the table.
In other results, Lokomotiv Plovdiv held on to fourth place with a come-from -behind 2-1 win at Chernomorets Burgas.
Lokomotiv Sofia pipped Slavia Sofia 1-0, Cherno More Varna defeated Beroe Stara Zagora 1-0 and Minyor Pernik thumped bottom-place Sliven 2000 3-0.
Reigning champions Spain and fellow European powerhouse France have been drawn together in qualifying for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.Following Saturday’s preliminary draw in Rio de Janeiro, the two heavyweights will be joined in UEFA Group I by Belarus, Georgia and Finland.
Fierce local rivals Croatia and Serbia were placed together in Group A, along with Belgium, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Macedonia.
The Netherlands, beaten 1-0 by Spain in the 2010 final, will be up against Turkey, Hungary, Romania, Estonia and Andorra.
Three-time winners Germany were drawn in Group C, together with Sweden, the Republic of Ireland, Austria, the Faroe Islands and Kazakhstan.
Four-time champions Italy will face Denmark, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Armenia and Malta.
England’s biggest obstacle could be their Euro 2012 qualifying rivals Montenegro, as well as Ukraine and Poland, with Moldova and San Marino making up Group H.
In the third round of Asian qualifying, Australia must tackle Saudi Arabia, Oman and Thailand.
Of the confederation heavyweights, Asian Cup winners Japan have arguably the toughest assignment, drawn against Uzbekistan, Syria and North Korea.
The top two in each of the five third-round groups will progress to form two fourth-round groups.
The teams finishing first and second in the fourth round groups reach the finals automatically, while the third-placed team in each group then meet in a playoff.
The winner of the Asian playoff will contest an intercontinental playoff against the fifth-place team in South American qualifying.
There was no draw for South American qualifying, with all CONMEBOL teams to play one another, except Brazil, who qualify automatically as hosts.
In North America, Central America and Caribbean qualifying, a second round of group-stage qualifying will determine the right to face the seeded nations, including the United States and Mexico.
The top two in each of the CONCACAF third-round groups will then contest a six-team fourth round group.
The top three in the fourth round will qualify automatically, with the fourth-placed team entering an intercontinental playoff against the winner of Oceania.
That is likely to be New Zealand, who will be play Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea in Group B of Oceania’s second round.
In Group A, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Tahiti will be joined by a round-one winner.
After just four games of the season, the title is already a two-horse race between Manchester United and Manchester City with the rest battling for the minor places. Manchester City are seemingly better than Barcelona, Chelsea are too slow to challenge for the title, Liverpool are still in crisis, as are Arsenal. Steve Bruce is heading for the sack. Sergio Aguero is the greatest import the world has ever seen. These are just a few of the over-exaggerations that have dominated the media coverage of the opening few weeks of the season.
In the world of rolling updates and 24-hour news, some degree of media hyperactivity is to be expected. However, it seems that the media frenzy around football is reaching new heights with each week that passes, and the media hyperbole is now starting to border on the ridiculous.
Media hyperbole has amped up coverage of every aspect of the game in recent weeks, from completely writing off Chelsea, despite their reasonable start to the season, and going into overdrive in stating that Manchester City and Manchester United are clear title favourites. In their quest to bring us something new and exciting every week, the media have created a particularly fierce culture of hype, where everything is now bordering on being an over-exaggeration.
Teams flit from being praised one week, to torn down the next. The new look Liverpool side were held up almost immediately as genuine title contenders, only to be heavily criticised and plunged back into crisis after their defeat to Stoke. Players are hailed as the next great thing, or the best player we have ever seen, only to be slammed when they fail to live up to these heights again. The media hyperbole runs right through the game, and it is not just clubs and players that are affected, as it infiltrates every aspect of the game from exaggerated transfer sagas to criticism of managers, as the media bays for blood in the Premier League managerial sack race, hyping up and adding fuel to the fire.
It seems that the media has lost all degree of balance, or even just sense in its coverage and analysis and simply can no longer resist analysing through hyperbolic terms. The use of ridiculous headlines, and powerful imagery, might be necessary to grab our attention in this media saturated world, but the exaggerated nature of the coverage now means that we are starting to lose all sight of context within the game.
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Take Chelsea, strong contenders at the top of the league for the last few years, and no doubt likely to challenge once again this year. However after only four games the media seems to have written them off, quick to criticise Andre Villas-Boas, and describe Chelsea’s team as aging and slow.
They have also been quick to jump on the Man City bandwagon and get completely carried away with their start to the season. Just this week stories have emerged suggesting that City will be the ones to topple Barcelona, before they have even kicked a ball in Champions League football. The worst part to all this media hype, though, is that it will be quick to reverse and state exactly the opposite by this time next week. If Chelsea are to win at United this weekend, then no doubt the media will be quick to reinstate them back into the title race. The nature of the hyperbole will change once again, but the coverage will still remain overexaggerated in its nature.
In the saturated media world we now live in, it appears that the media believes they need to be bigger and better to grab our attention. Sure, extreme exaggeration can be used to make a point, and add colour or humour, but when it is used so often and is bordering on the ridiculous almost every time, it starts to get frustrating. Everything is subsequently blown out of total proportions, every new story needs an exaggerated angle, some sort of controversy, however minor, must be picked apart to the minutest detail, even things like tackling or the quest for respect in football seem to get completely over-exaggerated, and coverage loses all sense of perspective.
The media has seemingly lost all sense of proportion. No title race is won in August or even September, so their writing off of Chelsea and heralding of Manchester City is simply ridiculous. After five games last season, they heralded Chelsea as the champions and called the title race as good as over, and look how that turned out. No doubt, if the tables are turned later in the season they will be quick to change their tune. Yes City and United have looked good so far, but they don’t deserve the exaggerated praise that pundits, analysists, and journalists alike have gone too. It’s fine adding a bit of colour to your piece, but it appears as if the level of media hyperbole we are subject to week in week out is starting to cross the line.
What are your thoughts on the way the media covers football? Let me know by commenting below or following me on Twitter @LaurenRutter for more comment and debate.
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It hasn’t been a great 24hrs for Arsene Wenger as not only was he forced to sell Samir Nasri, but has seen Jack Wilshere suffer an injury setback that will see the playmaker ruled out for weeks. The French manager is under no illusion about the significance of tonight’s game against Udinese and the importance for the club to be competing in the Champions League.
Elsewhere in the papers Adebayor’s move to Spurs looks to be sealed; Newcastle accused of two illegal approaches, while Pallister believes the current United youth must match the golden generation.
Deputy PM backs call to release Hillsborough files -Mirror
Arsenal suffer fresh blow with Wilshere injury relapse –Guardian
Adebayor deal on as Spurs give way – Independent
Newcastle accused of illegal approach for two players – Guardian
Liverpool make £8m offer for Coates – Guardian
‘United youth must match golden generation’ –Daily Telegraph
Lukaku admits he always planned to walk in idol Drogba’s big boots – Daily Mail
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Arsenal were FORCED to sell Nasri claims Wenger – Mirror
Rangers Toon into Barton and prepare to bring Hammer down on Parker – Daily Mail
You may have seen both Gary Neville and Paul Scholes speaking about the England set-up in the last few days and how they both believe from their experience that fear of failure and players not wanting to play for their country anymore is what is costing England in major tournaments.
It is hard to disagree with these statements. Our lacklustre performance against Switzerland in June was another example of game where it looked liked half the team were already on holiday and very few of them showed any passion or looked like they really cared. It is a regular occurrence with players representing our country.
Jens Lehmann claimed back in 2007 that England lack a winning mentality saying: ‘We are always successful, not always winning but somewhere near success or winning, and that is what England are lacking. The pressure in England is so big. The media lifts up players as world-class who are probably not. They have to live up it and sometimes the pressure seems to be too big.’ Four years on and nothing has changed. After the recent failure in qualifying for the 2008 European Championship and another dismal showing at the 2010 World Cup, something needs to change.
The English media are a part of the problem of course with their intense scrutiny of every player that features for England putting pressure on them to perform but isn’t this just part of being a professional footballer? Every week their performances for their club’s are reviewed and criticised but it seems for England the players are more worried about making a mistake. However was Wayne Rooney’s abject showing at the recent World Cup down to him being afraid of making mistakes, I don’t believe so.
The press are not completely to blame as it looks to me that some players only seem to only care about England if it will benefit their future career and not about the success of the country at international level. For England most players are only playing for themselves and not for the team. But it sadly it works as winning a senior England cap adds millions to your price tag, just look at Jordan Henderson with his £16m move to Liverpool. This individuality is costing us on the field and was confirmed by Gary Neville who said players ‘worry about what the next headline is going to say and whether it is going to affect their status’.
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Paul Scholes also said similar to Neville with regards to players using the national side as a stepping stone: ‘There are individuals who are after personal glory. I always felt when I first started with England that players-especially players at clubs like your Aston Villas- try to use England as a way to get a top club.’
However I feel it is more than a bit incongruous that a player who retired from international football in 2004 at the peak of his career can come out and say that he feels players who play for England only think about themselves and about not the team. Cheers for that Paul but was your early retirement not a decision made to benefit your career as we all know it hindered the progress of the international side. I understand what he is saying but by retiring when he did is Scholes not just as selfish as the players he is talking about?
Ben Foster’s early retirement from international football despite him being the side’s 2nd choice goalkeeper also shows the current disregard players currently have towards the England set-up. They feel that it is not worth their reputation and unless they can use it to their advantage they instead focus on their club careers. It is a very sad state of affairs.
I agree with Gary Neville, regarding the lack of camaraderie as the players who go up against each other weekly in the Premier League are suddenly expected to be team mates. If the team were to build a better team spirit then maybe we would be more successful. Look at the World Champions Spain whose success is built around an amazing team spirit where all the players work for each other as part of a team. You don’t see their players retiring early because they cannot be bothered with the media attention or because of fear of failure.
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We’ve heard all of the many excuses that are given for our failure on the pitch but instead of talking about them why not actually try to sort them out. These attacks on the current England set-up by two former players need to be listened to by the FA and something needs to be done to change the current situation.
If the FA continue to do nothing surely England will never live up to their over-hyped billing as the fourth best international team in the world.
Let me know your thoughts and follow me on twitter @aidanmccartney for more interesting football debate!
Real Madrid all but guaranteed their progress to the UEFA Champions League semi-finals with a 4-0 thrashing of Tottenham at the Bernabeu.A brace from Emmanuel Adebayor and second half goals from Angel di Maria and Cristiano Ronaldo punished an outclassed Spurs side, who played most of Tuesday’s match with 10 men.
Spurs’ striker Peter Crouch was sent off after a quarter of an hour, immediately putting his side on the back foot.
Tottenham pair Gareth Bale and William Gallas were fit to start after being under injury clouds during the week, but the loss of winger Aaron Lennon due to illness in the warm-up also did not help the visitors.
Real Madrid trio Ronaldo, Marcelo and di Maria, who were all in doubt for the game, started for the hosts.
And they opened the scoring inside five minutes as Adebayor scored his first European goal for the club.
He was given too much space to squeeze his header past the man on the post from a Ronaldo corner.
It went from bad to worse for the visitors in the 15th minute when Crouch saw red for a second rash challenge in the space of seven minutes.
Bale provided Spurs with some life down the left hand side and on the half hour mark he rifled a shot into the side netting.
But 12 minutes into the second half Adebayor completed his brace when he was again given too much space inside the area.
Ronaldo played his corner short into the feet of Marcelo and the Brazilian left-back crossed for Adebayor to brilliantly head home.
The dangerous striker was denied his hat-trick soon after when Gomes tipped another one of his headers over the bar.
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Madrid’s dominance deserved a third goal and they got one through di Maria in the 72nd minute.
The Argentine midfielder was given too much space and time on the edge of the area and he delivered the knockout blow with a rocket into the top corner.
If Spurs had any hope of getting back into the tie it disappeared minutes before the end when Gomes failed to keep out a Ronaldo volley.
Bolton Wanderers midfielder Tamir Cohen paid an emotional tribute to his late father after scoring a late winner against Arsenal on Sunday.Israel international Cohen came off the bench to make it 2-1 to Bolton in the 90th minute at the Reebok Stadium.
Cohen then removed his playing shirt to reveal a T-shirt carrying an image of his father, a former Liverpool player who died last December after a motorcycle accident.
When the substitute entered the contest, he was more interested in preserving a point than making himself the match-winner.
“I came on to protect the 1-1,” Cohen said.
“I am very happy to score this goal – it’s been a very emotional season for me. I am happy we won and collected another three points.”
“It means a lot to me after this season. But I do my best for the team and for myself.”
On-loan striker Daniel Sturridge, scorer of the first goal, felt the team owed a performance to their supporters following the disappointment of their 5-0 FA Cup semi-final defeat against Stoke City last week.
“We are delighted to come out and work as hard as we can in front of these fantastic fans,” Sturridge said.
“After last week’s result we wanted to come here and show we had the passion.”
“I think a lot of the fans were unhappy with the performance last week, so we just wanted to come out here and work as hard as we could to try to prove to them that last week was just one bad day.”
“We did this for the fans today and that’s the main thing.”
Even though Preston slipped to a 2-1 defeat at Bramall Lane, it would be fair to say that Preston gave their best performance since Westley took charge as manager just over a month ago. At a place where only two teams have won all seaon, we were only seven minutes from escaping with what would have been a very valuable point. We even went 1-0 up after Thorsten Stuckmann saved Ched Evans’ weak penalty and Graham Cummins scored his first goal for the club with a magnificent header in the 38th minute to spark mad scenes in the away end. However Evans was to make amends by first equalising just before half time and then settling the contest with a volley with time running out.
It was also a very different Preston team than what people have been used to seeing over the years. Many a time I have bemoaned how players haven’t got stuck in and have let players run at us, but at Sheffield United, the home of one of the most attacking teams in the league and we stopped them from playing. Even Adam Barton, someone who has rarely made a challenge in his entire career, was disrupting play and causing United problems. From a Preston perspective it was great to see our team standing up to the opposition and not letting them walk all over us. It is also ironic how Sheffield United fans were quick to lambast Preston for the way we played and the Mirror reported that our style of football was more suited to rugby league than it was to football
Personally I take this criticism with a pinch of salt; people say now that they lost a lot of respect for us since Westley took over and turned us into a very physical team who aren’t afraid to get in the faces of the opposition (and the ref in some cases). But it was being the ‘nice’ guys that were one of the reasons why we were relegated. Too often teams just walked all over us and took an easy 3 points which is probably why fans liked us because they saw us as an easy 3 points. It is no coincidence that Davies’ play off teams also had a similar physical side to what Westley is instilling in the players at the moment and if Westley had similar success to Davies then I will be very happy. If we can keep on improving between now and the end of the season then perhaps the play offs aren’t out of reach just yet, but how ironic that it is Westley’s former club Stevenage who currently hold 6th place. What the situation will be when Westley returns to Stevenage on Easter Monday in 12 games time remains to be seen and I’m sure Westley himself will be aware of the irony if Preston can indeed pip Stevenage to the final play off spot before the end of the season.
By Preston North End blogger Sean Marshall. You can read more of his work on his personal blog.
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