Month: January 2021

Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl has challenged his side to beat FA Cup holders Arsenal twice in four days.

The two sides clash in the fourth round of the cup on Saturday at St Mary’s Stadium and meet again at the same venue in the Premier League next Tuesday.

The Saints are bidding to improve on last season’s 11th-placed top-flight finish, but Hasenhuttl said he will not be prioritising either game.

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FEATURE: Five teams who should probably f*** the FA Cup off

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“I’d prefer winning both to be honest, if it’s possible we’ll do it, but I know it’s tough,” the 53-year-old Austrian said.

“Yes, we have the chance to I think. On our day we can beat any team in the league, we’ve shown this, especially at home.

“I think this is the goal we have. Yes, tough like always, but not impossible.”

Hasenhuttl, without nine injured players in midweek, blended youth with experience when making seven changes for his side’s 2-0 third-round win against Shrewsbury.

If Southampton beat Arsenal on Saturday and progress to the fifth round, they will play six matches in 19 days, but Hasenhuttl is not about to sacrifice the cup.

“It’s a busy time now with a lot of games coming up. We have an FA Cup week, if you want, two games in a week in the cup,” he said.

“It’s a new challenge and in this competition we want to go as far as possible.”

Danny Ings has provided the Saints with a major boost as he is available again after recovering from a hamstring strain and coronavirus.

But eight players remain unavailable, the latest casualty being midfielder Will Smallbone, who has been ruled out for six months with anterior cruciate ligament damage.

Jannik Vestergaard (knee), Oriol Romeu (calf), Moussa Djenepo, Michael Obafemi (both thigh), Nathan Redmond (hip), Nathan Tella and Mohammed Salisu (both muscle strains) are all nursing injuries.

Hasenhuttl said he could not recall having so many injuries at the same time in his managerial career.

“I cannot remember, no,” he said. “But I also cannot remember that we ever had such a situation like we have at the moment with massive games in the short term.

“Less recovery options here, we cannot use any facilities indoors. No pre-season at all. I had never such a situation. This is the reason why I can also not remember having so many problems with injuries.”

Graeme Souness predicted that Divock Origi would miss as the Liverpool striker had the Reds’ biggest chance of the match in their 1-0 defeat to Burnley.

Origi was handed a rare Premier League start against the Clarets as Jurgen Klopp decided to leave Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino on the bench on Thursday night.

The Belgium international found himself through on goal in the first half with only the keeper to beat but his shot cannoned back off the crossbar.

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OPINION: Liverpool in danger of slip, sliding away as Anfield is breached

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It was the best chance of the match for Liverpool, who found it hard to break Burnley down, before Ashley Barnes won and converted a penalty in the 83rd-minute.

That goal ended the Reds’ unbeaten home league run stretching back to April 2017 and Souness thinks anyone else would’ve scored Origi’s chance.

“Anyone but him really,” Souness said on Sky Sports. “I know he’s got some important goals for Liverpool but I said to you ‘he’s not going to score here’.

“His first and second touches are great, has time to open his body up and he’s missed it.

“You can say six inches lower or six inches left but it isn’t, it doesn’t hit the back of the net. It’s a bad miss.”

Meanwhile, Clarets boss Sean Dyche took less pleasure from ending Liverpool’s long unbeaten run than he did from moving seven clear of the bottom three on 19 points.

“I think the last one is most important, to gain the points we have done after a really tricky start and get back to winning games I am really pleased with that side of things,” he said.

“Physically we are always thought of of being strong and I think we were, we were strong in the way we held our team shape.

“We don’t work with the ball as much as other teams, particularly at these type of grounds, so you have to work well as a team without the ball.

“The main thing which is pleasing is the mentality, we did keep probing, we did keep asking questions.

“We do believe in the fact we can create and I think Barnesy was excellent the way he turned in the box – and it is a penalty.

“If we were due one it is a good place to get one.”

 

Jamie Carragher thinks the “title is slipping away” from Liverpool after they lost 1-0 to Burnley in the Premier League on Thursday night.

Ashley Barnes’s 83rd-minute penalty was his 100th senior club career goal and he became the first Burnley player to score an away league goal since October 3.

For Liverpool, whose 68-match unbeaten run at home was brought to an end, their goal drought now stretches to seven hours and 18 minutes.

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OPINION: Liverpool in danger of slip, sliding away as Anfield is breached

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And Carragher felt that Mo Salah, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold were all nowhere “near their best” against the Clarets.

Carragher told Sky Sports: “I can’t remember a time when this Liverpool team have been so out of form. The front three and the full-backs – all five of them – don’t feel anywhere near their best. It’s not just that they’re not scoring, it’s the general play as well. You saw with Salah, three or four times he just ran into defenders.

“Liverpool supporters will be massively frustrated. This team has brought the title back but the best Liverpool teams have brought that standard year in year out.

“Jurgen Klopp has defended the players but at this moment it looks like the title is slipping away, it will be really difficult. They’ve been so poor, it’s hard to believe what has happened to Liverpool. So many players out of form at the same time.”

 

And after the match, Klopp admitted that player confidence is an issue as a seven-hour goal drought contributed to the loss.

“Confidence is a small flower and obviously someone has stamped on it, and now at this moment we have to find a new one and we will. But for tonight it was not enough,” said Klopp.

“It’s not the luckiest period of our lives but it would be a bit cheap to put it only on that, that we don’t have enough luck.

“I think our problem is the decision-making at the moment and the decisions are based on the information I give and also the mood you are in and how confident you are to do it in really small spaces.

“That’s the reason we didn’t score in these moments. It is not cool to mention it but we won games with lesser possession but we didn’t win because we didn’t score in these situations.

“How is it possible we lose that game? But we lost it, we made even that happen. It is our fault and that means my fault.”

 

Everton are challenging Parma for the signing of Bayern Munich striker Joshua Zirkzee, according to reports.

The forward initially joined Munich from Dutch side Feyenoord in 2017. He spent the first couple of years in Germany as part of their reserve team and he scored a hat-trick in his debut for Bayern Munich II.

Zirkzee has scored six goals for their reserve side from over 30 appearances. He made his senior debut for the German giants in November 2019 against Tottenham in the Champions League.

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F365 FEATURES: Keeper stats highlight Lloris and Pope form, Patricio concern…

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Just days later, he scored in his Bundesliga debut shortly after coming off the bench against Freiburg. He went onto make 12 appearances last season and he scored four goals. The 19-year-old has played four times so far this term.

Speaking on his Here We Go podcast, Fabrizio Romano has revealed that Everton and Parma are both interested in Zirkzee:

“Talking about strikers, now I want to update because Everton fans are texting me every day about Zirkzee from Bayern Munich.

“Parma are still trying, but Everton are interested, so interested.

“I know that Everton are denying this move, just because they can try to do something like find an opportunity for this guy, so there is nothing completed yet and they want to be 100 percent sure on Zirkzee.

“So at the moment, there is nothing completed. But Everton and Parma are in the race for Zirkzee. We have to see the decision of the player, because the key will be the player.

“More than Bayern Munich, more than an agreement with the club, the problem will be finding an agreement with the player because he wants to think to his future, so pay attention to Everton and Parma.”

(Credit to PWTorch.com for the quotes)

In the new 2010 WrestleMania XXVI Almanac magazine, WWE superstar Shawn Michaels says he has regrets about his WrestleMania 14 match with Stone Cold Steve Austin. At the time, Michaels’ back was in terrible shape and his career was thought to be over. He was also an emotional wreck and admits he was not an easy guy to get along with in the WWE locker room. When asked if he has any regrets in his career, Michael said:

“The one I always come back to is my match against Steve Austin at WrestleMania 14. I just wasn’t in a great place physically or emotionally. That one could have been so much more. Steve didn’t get me at my best. And that’s unfortunate, because it was the last time I got to work with him. Steve went on to such great things afterward, and I had an opportunity to make that match so much more.”

Michaels also looks back at his matches with Bret Hart during the mid-90’s and thinks the two legends could have accomplished a lot more together if not for their personal differences:

“I will say that I wish I had been in a better place in my life with Bret. Our matches were phenomenal, but I shudder to think what he and I could have accomplished had we gotten along.”

Michaels also named his classic ladder match with Razor Ramon from WrestleMania as high on his list of all-time great WrestleMania matches:

“Over the years, the ladder itself has become the central figure of that particular stipulation, but in our situation, it served as a backdrop for something much bigger. We were two guys claiming rightful ownership of those titles, and the ladder was just there as a way for us to prove who was the best. Now, the ladder is the primary element, and these matches are often about what the contestants can do with it.”

No “Money in the Bank” At WM26, Flair & Hogan’s In-Ring TNA Debuts Confirmed (*Spoilers*)