[ad_pod ]

Former Scotland and Rangers striker Ally McCoist believes Leeds have to go up automatically or risk missing out on a place in the Premier League.

Leeds are embroiled in a promotion race with Sheffield United and the Sky Sports pundit believes that the Whites may well fall short if they are forced to navigate their way into top-flight football via the play-offs.

What’s been said then?

Leeds are back in the driving seat with just five games to go in the Championship after Chris Wilder’s side drew with Birmingham on Wednesday night.

The Whites now have their fate in their own hands knowing that if they win every game until the end of the season they will be in the Premier League.

If Leeds are to drop into the play-offs they would have to drop points in their next five games and that could affect their mindset heading into the postseason matches.

McCoist believes that Leeds would struggle with the playoffs if they missed out on the top two.

Speaking on Sky Sports’ The Debate podcast (33:55) he said: “Momentum is a massive massive thing in any sport, particularly football. We know what momentum is like.

“We spoke about Villa. They are a team who clearly have momentum at this moment in time.

“If Leeds start going like that (wobbling) then it’s very very difficult to get back up there again.

“That’s why it’s so important for Leeds to clinch that automatic 2nd spot, because I think it will be extremely difficult to get up through the playoffs because other teams will have momentum on them.”

Can they win the playoffs?

If Leeds fail to claim a top two spot it may not be the end of the world despite what McCoist says.

Last season Fulham’s 23-game unbeaten run ended on the final day of the season to deny them a place in the top two ahead of Cardiff City.

Despite seemingly having the wind taken out of their sails, the London club were victorious at Wembley in the play-off final and clinched a place in the Premier League.

But, as McCoist has alluded to, Fulham’s opponents in the final last year may be the team Leeds have to worry about most.

Dean Smith’s side has turned into a different animal in the second half of the season and Leeds would have a huge task on their hands to topple Villa over two legs.

McCoist is correct in thinking that the play-offs will be a tough task for Marcelo Bielsa’s side, but if they can follow the example Fulham set last year they should have enough to seal promotion.

Unai Emery is set to axe a number of big earners this summer as he looks to rebuild his Arsenal side with a limited budget.

Arsenal boss Unai Emery will spare no prisoners this summer – with winger Danny Welbeck among the players due to be sacrificed, according to the Daily Mail.

The Spaniard will reportedly be handed a comparatively small budget of just £45million to compete with the mammoth spending of the ‘big six’ pack. Hardly inspiring stuff, really. However, Emery has been told he can reinvest a significant portion of the money raised from player sales.

Unsurprisingly, then, Emery is ready to offload a number of current starts to extend his market influence in an exodus of biblical proportions. Shkodran Mustafi is one player Arsenal fans will probably be happy to see at the top of the hitlist, while £350,000-a-week Mesut Ozil and £180,000-a-week Henrikh Mkhitaryan are due to be disposed of also.

No qualms from fans here, we are sure.

However, they may be a little more concerned with the departure of winger Danny Welbeck. The former Manchester United man sits on an estimated £80,000 a week and is set to be released at the end of his contract. The Englishman may not be the best player at the Emirates, nor the most reliable owed to a number of injuries, but he performs his job off the bench very well, and largely without complaint.

Players like this are not easy to come by.

Indeed, by allowing the England star to leave, Emery opens himself up to a whole new range of problems. He will need to find a relatively cheap player who possesses enough quality to take the team forwards but is also happy with spending extended periods of time on the bench. The individual must maintain themselves as well as Welbeck has despite a lack of action and be prepared to step in whenever necessary to cover. In essence, Emery needs the ultimate bench player – and that just is not an easy thing to find.

Arsenal fans, would you really be that happy with losing Danny Welbeck? Let us know in the comments below…

[ad_pod ]

Stewart Donald made a rather surprising admission in an interview this week, claiming he rejected an offer to buy Sunderland very recently.

The Black Cats have been on somewhat of a road to redemption since Donald took over last year, and while they haven’t run away with the league by any means, automatic promotion is still well on the cards.

Since the new boss’ arrival, the club have also shifted some of the deadwood like Didier Ndong and Papy Djilobodji, made a cup final and even redecorated at The Stadium of Light.

And now, he claims his efforts are being recognised by potential investors.

Pl>ymaker FC Exclusive: Jermaine Jenas reveals why Tyne-Wear is a more intense derby than anything London can offer – check out the video below….

What did he say?

“I had one (offer for the club), funnily enough, 10 days ago,” he told BBC Newcastle, as reported by Roker Report.

“Somebody said the first he had seen of us was in a bar in Mexico, in his hotel, where he had come down in the morning for breakfast and Sunderland ‘Til I Die was on.

“He liked the programme and he was interested in a football club, ‘any chance we’re for sale?’

“It’s a huge, huge club. So it’s always going to attract interest and then when you throw Netflix on the top of it and you show the passion of the place, then I think anybody that wants a football club would look at Sunderland.

“Then of course because we’re turning round and we’ve got some momentum, that makes us even more attractive.”

Music to the ears

Donald is pretty spot on with his analysis here. The Neftlix documentary showed off exactly how passionate the fans on Wearside are, and any potential investor with a true love of football will be able to relate to that.

The club are also in a good position financially for the first time in years, and of course have the riches of a cup final at Wembley and potential promotion to look forward to.

Even if the club does not secure promotion this season, there is no question they are back on the rise and headed in the right direction, and Donald knows it.

It would be very surprising to see him sell up for any amount, but this is certainly good news for fans in terms of attracting more investment in the future.

It’s safe to say Liverpool until recently haven’t had the best of transfer strategies.

For every Luis Suarez and James Milner that has succeeded at the club, there’s an Andy Carroll and Stewart Downing that has failed to make the grade and been a dark stain on the transfer history of Liverpool.

But since Jurgen Klopp’s arrival at Merseyside, the flow of bad transfers seems to have stopped for the most part. Out of the 13 players the German has brought to the club, none of them can really be labelled as total flops at the club.

FSG must be in awe of the genius transfer strategy that Jurgen Klopp has adopted as he’s saved them a lot of money by signing all the right players for low prices, and future sales could certainly make the club a healthy profit.

Although Ragnar Klavan and Lorius Karius have been infamous signings in the history of Liverpool, the duo still had good patches at their time at the club and contributed to the long-term success of where the Reds are now. The two players also cost the club a combined fee of £10 million, or about one-sixth of what Chelsea paid for Alvaro Morata.

Indeed, getting players for cheap is something Klopp and the transfer committee have been excellent at. Mohamed Salah signed for a reported fee of £34 million, whilst his wing partner Sadio Mane was signed for a similar price.

Andy Robertson, who was signed for just £10 million after Hull City were relegated down to the Championship, has developed into one of the best fullbacks in the Premier League and proven to be another transfer success story with Klopp.

Although some signings have been underwhelming so far, such as Naby Keita and Marko Grujic, these are players who will grow the longer the stay at the club and continue their development at Liverpool.

Klopp’s use of the transfer market and ability to spot cheap signings where other teams would not have is something that clubs in the Premier League should be adopting in their strategies for picking up players.

The German’s use of signing talent from relegated teams, in particular, is something that clubs have been undervaluing in this era of football transfers, but with the likes of Georginio Wijnaldum, Xherdan Shaqiri and the aforementioned Robertson all coming in for cheap and making a considerable impact at Liverpool, this might be something that changes this summer.

Liverpool fans, who has been your favourite signing in the Klopp era? Let us know!

[ad_pod ]

Speaking to the BBC’s FA Cup semi-final highlights programme on BBC 1 at 11pm on Sunday night, Martin Keown gave his verdict on Wolves’ extra time defeat to Watford at Wembley, picking out some of the key points from their loss.

What did he say?

Keown first touched on two major reasons for why Wolves lost the game, assessing that Nuno Santo didn’t do enough to get Ruben Neves involved after he was closely monitored by Roberto Pereyra whilst also criticising their wing-backs. Talking to the BBC, he said:

“It was interesting because Wolves didn’t seem to worry about that Pereyra situation. They weren’t getting their wing-backs forward in quite the same way that they normally do. To go 2-0 up at that point, I think that’s when the mistakes were made.”

The mistake the former Arsenal man picked up on was to bring on Ryan Bennett for Neves with four minutes of regulation time to go. He also focused on Conor Coady’s involvement in Gerard Deulofeu’s winning goal.

“If you saw, Bennett was standing on the sideline there at 2-1 for an age and perhaps it was the wrong player to come on at that particular time. All credit to Watford because they showed the quality, Coady gets a bit drawn to the ball and there’s no substitute for pace. Deulofeu’s pace there for that goal was truly outstanding.”

Is he right?

The BBC pundit’s view of the game is absolutely spot on and highlights some of the major flaws in Santo’s management. His substitutes late on in the game invited pressure on the Wolves backline and provided evidence of the lack of plan B they possess.

Matt Doherty may have scored the opening goal of the game but his threat was largely nullified, the same can be said for the opposite wing-back, Jonny.

Taking Neves off, meanwhile, was probably the worst thing they could have done. Although the Portuguese international didn’t have the greatest of games his calming presence would have been particularly beneficial in the closing moments.

With the game then going to extra time after Troy Deeney’s penalty, Wolves didn’t have enough attacking threat on the pitch to win the tie themselves.

يرى أنطونيو كونتي المدير الفني لـ إنتر ميلان أن فريقه سيطر على شاختار دونيستك في المباراة التي جمعت الفريقين، بمنافسات دوري أبطال أوروبا.

وتعادل إنتر ميلان سلبيًا أمام شاختار، خارج أرضه، ضمن منافسات الجولة الثانية لدور المجموعات بدوري أبطال أوروبا.

وقال كونتي لشبكة “سكاي سبورت”: “أعتقد أن هناك جوانب إيجابية في هذه المباراة، لقد لعبنا بكثافة مناسبة، مع الالتزام الصحيح، كفريق كبير”.

وأضاف: “سيطرنا ولم نكن محظوظين، كانت لدينا بعض الفرص للتسجيل، وقدمنا ​​مباراة جيدة للغاية في الشوطين”.

وتابع كونتي: “لا تنسوا أن شاختار يتمتع بصفات فنية مهمة، نحن آسفون لأننا نستحق الفوز بالمباراة، نحن نسير على الطريق الصحيح، والعقلية جيدة”.

وواصل الإيطالي: “لقد كنا معًا لمدة عام، واكتسب الرجال المعرفة واكتسبوا الثقة بالنفس، نضغط في كل جزء من الملعب، محاولين أخذ الكرة من خصومنا”.

اقرأ أيضًا.. مدرب مونشنجلادباخ: افتقرنا للحظ أمام ريال مدريد.. وشاختار حقق ما لم نفعله

وأردف: “في ظروف أخرى، يمكن للمرء أن يجلس وينتظر ليسجل، اليوم حدث الشيء المعاكس وهذا تغيير، الشيء نفسه حدث ضد بوروسيا، وهي مباراة ذات كثافة عالية”.

وأكد كونتي: “في ظل وجهة النظر هذه، لا يمكنني أن أكون غير راضٍ، لم نتلق أي شيء، إنها المباراة الثانية على التوالي التي لا نسمح فيها باستقبال أي هدف، هذه المباراة هي دليل على العمل الجيد الذي نقوم به، وكذلك مع الجهاز الفني”.

وأكمل: “في الوقت نفسه نشعر بالأسف لأنه سنحت لنا بعض الفرص لتسجيل الأهداف وعليك الفوز بهذه المباريات، حقيقة لا يمكنني إلقاء اللوم على اللاعبين”.

واسترسل كونتي: “لا تنس أن هذه كانت رابع مباراة خلال عشرة أيام، أنا لا أبحث عن أعذار لكننا بدأنا هذه الدورة من المباريات مع 6 لاعبين أصيبوا بكورونا، بالإضافة إلى المصابين، مما يعني أنه كان علينا الاستغناء عن ثمانية لاعبين”.

فاز إنتر على شاختار 5-0 في الدوري الأوروبي في أغسطس ولكن هذه المرة كانت مباراة مختلفة، وعلّق كونتي على فوز شاختار أمام ريال مدريد (3-2) في الجولة الأولى.

وتابع: “شاهدت المباراة التي فازوا بها ضد ريال مدريد الأسبوع الماضي وفعلوا نفس الشيء الذي فعلوه اليوم، لعبوا بنظام 6-3-1 لكنهم تمكنوا من تسجيل ثلاثة أهداف والفوز”.

وأكد كونتي: “صنعنا العديد من الفرص الليلة في الدوري الأوروبي [الموسم الماضي]، واستغلنا معظم الفرص التي صنعناها، وهذا هو الفرق”.

وأتم: “شاختار يملك لاعبين أقوياء في الهجمات المرتدة، وأنا سعيد لأننا صنعنا العديد من الفرص دون أن نستقبل أي هدف، هذه هي الطريقة الصحيحة، نواصل العمل الجاد ونأمل أن تأتي النتائج أيضًا”.

Amid their title challenge and one of the best seasons ever produced by an English side, there have been some valid complaints regarding Liverpool’s attacking style solely being pegged on their fantastic front-three.

Considering their quality and the form all three showed last season, they are expected to take the ball forward and create for themselves, as the Reds’ midfielders are normally too cautious to move forward.

‘Workmanlike’ is a term often bandied about when talking about the Reds.

However, the solution to eradicate the midfield’s creative block has finally been found.

Naby Keita, who was brought onto be that driving factor in Liverpool’s midfield, is successfully acting as their fourth attacker. The industrial midfielder’s finally come good for the Reds, showcasing his stunning ability at the best time possible, months after his £54m arrival from Germany.

After his inspired contribution against Southampton, where he scored his first Premier League goal to save Liverpool from misery, Keita weaved his magic in the Champions League. With another goal, he made it two in two and, if he wins his club either of those competitions, his transfer fee will look an absolute steal.

However, more than just the goals, it’s his overall contribution which made Liverpool pay big bucks for him.

Keita’s brought that unique factor no other Liverpool midfielder is capable of. Unlike Jordan Henderson and Fabinho, who like to sit back and dictate things, he’s more encouraged to go forward. Keita’s link-up play is superb, as he’s now been unshackled by Klopp, allowing him to wander into promising positions and fill the box with his tricky presence.

He gave a great example of his talent against FC Porto, making 60+ passes, 6 tackles, 10 recoveries and 3 successful dribbles (stats via Fotmob). The Guinean international’s sparked up his game after properly understanding Jurgen Klopp’s system.

He’s now showcasing the perfect blend of steel and creativity to help Liverpool plough through stubborn opponents, while also silencing those who mocked him.

Liverpool fans, are you impressed by Keita’s rise in form? Join the discussion by commenting below…

[ad_pod ]

Loads of Celtic fans have been revelling in the aftermath of Sunday’s Old Firm, and they absolute adore Scott Brown’s post-game comments.

Odsonne Edouard was once again the hero on Sunday and Brown was once again the centre of attention.

Edouard, who now has four goals in five derbies against the Gers, buried a lovely finish to put his side in front before Alfredo Morelos was sent off for an incident involving Brown.

Former Wigan & Fulham man, Jimmy Bullard recently showed that he’s still got it! Check out the video below…

The Colombian lashed out at the Hoops skipper and was promptly given his marching orders, and it was not until the 63rd minute that the visitors registered a shot on target, as Ryan Kent levelled the scores with their first effort on goal.

James Forrest then continued his excellent season, pouncing on a mistake from James Tavernier and making no mistake in front of goal.

There was then more controversy after the game, as Brown’s decision to celebrate near the Rangers fans sparked a small brawl.

Andy Halliday was sent off as a result, and Brown told Sky Sports after the game: “He came up to congratulate me.”

Those six words were followed by a cheeky little smile, and Celtic fans are absolutely loving it.

You can find some of the best Twitter reactions down below…

[ad_pod ]

Everton fans on Twitter have slammed Sam Allardyce and made a mockery of his opinion after he claimed that they are still in need of a striker that will get ’15-20 goals a season’.

The former Toffees boss was speaking to talkSPORT about his former club, after he watched them record a stunning 4-0 victory over Manchester United at Goodison Park.

In this era of ‘big 6’ dominance, has finishing 7th become as good as winning a trophy? The Pl>ymaker FC squad have their say in the video below…

Marco Silva certainly could do with an out-and-out goalscorer up top, as he has seen his side struggle to break down teams at times this season despite some good performances – the 2-0 loss to Fulham in between wins over Arsenal and United is a great example of that.

However, they do have a number of players on double figures for goals this season, with Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson both finding the back of the net 13 times so far in the current campaign.

To make Allardyce’s comments even less well-received by Everton fans is the fact that he spent huge amounts of the likes of Theo Walcott and Cenk Tosun whilst at the club, the obvious question being why he didn’t address the issue during his time at Goodison Park.

Let’s see what the Toffees fans having been saying about the former England boss on Twitter…

[ad_pod ]

Loads of Sunderland fans have been saying the same thing after Roy Keane appeared on Sky Sports on Wednesday – we want him back!

Keane was a member of Sky Sports’ pundit team for the Manchester derby on Wednesday, and the Irishman reminded everyone exactly how entertaining he is.

The 47 year-old was visibly bemused by both the sheer gulf in class between the two Manchester clubs as well his fellow pundits’ verdicts on the situation at Old Trafford.

Pl>ymaker FC Exclusive: Jermaine Jenas reveals why Tyne-Wear is a more intense derby than anything London can offer – check out the video below….

And amongst all the eye-rolling and scathing comments, Sunderland fans were reminded of his days in charge at the Stadium of Light.

Between 2006 and 2008, Keane won 42 out of 100 games in charge, winning the Championship title in 2006-07 and earning himself the league’s manager of the year award.

His no-nonsense approach to man-management was a breathe of fresh air in a modern football world where players are often allowed to do as they please, and fans are missing his leadership.

That is not to say they are unhappy with the fantastic revival job Jack Ross is doing, but the Twitter reactions down below are clearly missing Keane more than they love Ross…