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Gareth Crooks, who had a very brief loan spell with Manchester United in addition to his legendary career with Tottenham Hotspur absolutely bashed United’s style in his BBC column today: “What a yawn. The only decent thing to come out of Manchester United’s performance this weekend was Chris Smalling.”
“Manager Louis van Gaal must be working extremely hard in training to get a team full of such wonderful attacking flair to look so dull.”
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Manchester United could have gone top of the table had they found the wherewithal to score a second goal at King Power Stadium this past weekend. Instead, they reside in third place, exactly in line with their odds of winning the league title outright.
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Arsenal is enduring a massive injury crisis right now, and it’s inspired some media members to rip Manager Arsene Wenger.
Those critics include am Arsenal legend, Sky pundit Thierry Henry. A story in the Daily Mail today calls out Thierry Henry has criticized former manager’s Arsene Wenger’s decision not to rest Arsenal forward Alexis Sanchez before he went off with a hamstring injury in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Norwich City.
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You’d think that buying tickets to your favourite NBA game would be easy, right? Not always. Sometimes, it can seem like every game in town is always sold out. The popularity of tickets depends on who your team is playing, whether it’s the beginning of the season or clinch time, and even how well the team has been playing lately.
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Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal explained why he shifted to a 3-5-2 formation when his team visited King Power Stadium yesterday. Van Gaal went with a back three, and Ashley Young out wide as a way to counter the Leicester City counter-attack. Van Gaal used this formation for the first time since January specifically for this game, as a way to try and slow down Jamie Vardy.
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Tottenham Hotspur currently reside in fifth place following today’s goalless draw with Chelsea. They’re in the thick of it regarding the race for a top four spot and a Champions League berth. Some pundits believe they are in the title race right now. You can certainly make a case for that, but I still think it’s going to take one or two more roster tweaks to get them there.
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As the January transfer window continues to draw ever so closer, transfer talk heats up. Liverpool have found their leader in Jurgen Klopp, now it’s time for him, and the rest of management rebuild the club into players suited to Klopp’s system. A big reason for Brendan Rodgers’ failings and his ultimate sacking, was that he had a few bad transfer windows.
Then there is of course the issue with the so-called Liverpool transfer committee that we’ve heard so much about in recent years.
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“The French have a saying, it’s the fate of glass to break.”
That’s how M says goodbye to his MI6 cohorts upon telling them that the 00 program has been extinguished. Given the glass like fragility of University of Illinois athletics, perhaps the path of least resistance makes sense. It went official this morning- UI gave interim head football coach Bill Cubit a two year contract extension.
It’s a stable, pragmatic and understandable decision. It’s also underwhelming and uninspiring.
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Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy scored at 24′ versus Manchester United to make history today. That’s 11 consecutive games with a goal for Vardy; breaking the record previously held by Man United legend and current ESPN pundit Ruud van Nistelroy. His goal put the Foxes up 1-0, and Bastian Schweinsteiger later equalized for United on the stroke of halftime.
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It certainly bothers Northwestern Coach Pat Fitzgerald that Stanford, a team NU beat 16-6 in the season opener, is ranked so much higher than his team is in the latest College Football Playoff ranking. To his point, NU did dominate that game, in a fashion that is not truly conveyed but the 16-6 final score. Both Stanford and NU are two loss teams so I would say that Fitzgerald is on fleek with this argument.
“I don’t know who’s watching, (but there’s) a team ranked X spots ahead of us who we beat, I don’t get it,” Pat Fitzgerald said about the College Football Playoff Committee rankings.
“Maybe they’ll get it right,” he said obviously referring to Stanford, but not using the name Stanford, who at #9, are ranked 7 spots ahead of Northwestern, who are #16 in the latest set of rankings.
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Nelson Muntz once told Ned Flanders, after his trademark haw-haw, “your position has been usurped.”
The Simpsons grade school bully then added “that’s right, I know what usurp means.” The quotes certainly apply to the Chicago Bears starting running back situation where Jeremy Langford has usurped Matt Forte. The rookie from Michigan State, a mid-round pick that didn’t enter the league with extremely high expectations, is now the guy.
Of course, it helps that Jay Cutler is having arguably the best year of his career, and has emerged as a favorite to win the NFL Comeback Player of the Year.
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The Golden Age of Michigan State athletics continues as Tom Izzo achieved his 500th career win tonight over Boston College, by a resounding margin 99-68. As Tom Izzo further cemented his legacy, his star player had another career night. Denzel Valentine recorded his second career triple double as he finished with 29 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. His 29 points matched a career-high.
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