All posts by n8rngtd.top

Patrick Bamford didn’t have the best of evenings against Preston on Tuesday.

The striker squandered chance after chance at Deepdale as he hit all six of his attempts off target.

In the end, he was dragged off in the 76th minute, and to make things even worse, the man who he’s competing with for a starting spot scored with his only shot.

He and Eddie Nketiah have been vying for the role upfront in Marcelo Bielsa’s starting XI and after going eight games without finding the back of the net, he’s under colossal pressure.

Watch Leeds United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

As a result, seeing Nketiah score and become the hero again won’t have delighted him too much, certainly in terms of his potential game time.

Below are the scenes immediately after the 20-year-old headed home an equaliser, an image that will leave Bamford with incredibly mixed emotions – particularly as the strike was so important.

Guess how Bamford felt after this goal and seeing the celebration.

Of course, he’s going to be happy that his team has just equalised, but you can only imagine how he was truly feeling after the match.

The former Middlesbrough man was being slated by a number of Leeds fans on Twitter while his teammates will have been full of praise and euphoria for Nketiah.

Bamford will certainly be feeling a little different than most of his teammates after their visit to Deepdale.

Robert Snodgrass has shared a message of appreciation of West Ham fans, and his kind words have been reciprocated by many of the London Stadium faithful.

The former Scotland player earned only his second start in the league on Saturday, and he repaid his manager’s faith with a well taken first-half goal from central midfield.

Watch West Ham United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

After a slow start to his Hammers career – which saw him loaned to Aston Villa – the 32-year-old has really turned things around and impressed so much against the Blades that the decision to take him off was greeted with booing from the home crowd.

He is certainly a bit of a fan favourite for some, and if he can continue performing as he did – almost coming close to a winner, too – then he could have a successful season.

Snodgrass took the opportunity post-match to voice the privileged feeling he gets from being able to play for the Hammers, describing it as a “magical club with magical support”.

Many supporters have appreciated his words and responded with similar well-meaning messages, and here is what some have been saying.

Leeds United fans on Twitter have been naming their price for Kalvin Phillips after rumours emerged that Manchester United were interested in the midfielder.

Of course, there were some ridiculous valuations from some supporters who quite clearly don’t want to see the Yorkshire Pirlo depart the club anytime soon.

Watch Leeds United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

One Twitter user said that he’s worth at least £300m, while another quoted a price of over £600m with an extra £29,000.83 tacked onto the end for good measure.

Away from the ridiculous claims, we saw some more realistic valuations of what United fans would want for the midfielder.

One fan stated that he’d want at least £45m for Phillips, which isn’t too outrageous when you consider there were reports in the summer that the Red Devils were willing to pay £50m for John McGinn.

Others were more reserved in their valuations, stating that they’d be willing to let him go for around £15-£20m.

Whether or not Phillips leaves the Elland Road outfit remains to be seen, but if he does the Whites will certainly want a hefty fee for him.

Here’s what the Elland Road faithful have been saying on Twitter…

Liverpool may have narrowly progressed in the Carabao Cup but it hasn’t taken fans long to forget about the elation of a penalty shootout victory.

The Carabao Cup quarter-final draw was made on Thursday and it has left some supporters dissatisfied, with rivals Manchester United and Manchester City both getting relatively easy draws, on paper at least.

Watch Liverpool Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

The Reds travel to Aston Villa whereas their title competitors get a trip to League One Oxford United, with the Red Devils hosting League Two Colchester United, who have knocked out Crystal Palace and Tottenham previously.

Man City, in particular, have had kind draws in recent times and benefited from that on their road to Carabao Cup success last term.

Some Liverpool fans feel it is unfair, with others knowing that it is an all too predictable outcome, though they should do well to remember that the Citizens lost to League One Wigan in the FA Cup in the same season they won the league with 100 points, so shocks are possible.

Here is how some of the Anfield faithful have been reacting to the cup draw…

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

For the most part of this season, Southampton have seemed to be plodding along, going through the motions with little urgency in regards to some unspectacular results.

The campaign started with a 3-0 defeat at Burnley, and the Saints have never really caught the eye at any point – even their first Premier League win of the season came against a Brighton side who had ten men for the last hour of the game.

Additionally, things have seemed up in the air tactically, with Ralph Hasenhuttl deploying six different systems in the first ten league games – on that particular basis, it is no wonder why the players don’t really look like they know what to do.

However, the 9-0 embarrassment at the hands of Leicester seems to have given everyone at the club a kick up the backside, with a reaction being seen in the narrow 2-1 defeat to Manchester City last time out.

Having said that, the next six games are truly a crucial period in Southampton’s season – a moment of truth, if you like.

Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham, Leicester and Chelsea have come and gone, and now the Saints face Everton, Watford, Norwich, West Ham and Newcastle over the next month and a half – they also come up against an out-of-sorts Arsenal side.

These games will be the real determiner of where Southampton, and Hasenhuttl, are at.

It will be a chance for supporters to see just how good their side and their manager is, up against opponents who they must be taking some points off if they want to stay in the division.

Additionally, there is no reason for the former RB Leipzig man to be so defensive in these games either.

Eight times this season we have seen the Austrian line up with either a five-man backline, or a three-man defence with wing-backs in formations that only allows for two forwards when couple with a central midfield trio of Oriol Romeu, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and James Ward-Prowse.

That’s fine, if you’re playing Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham.

It is not fine, however, if you’re up against Norwich and Newcastle.

Hasenhuttl’s mindset will be laid out bare over these next six weeks – will the 52-year-old simply carrying on going into games hoping not to lose, or will he finally set the side up to ruthlessly attack and take the game to the opposition?

Of course, nothing is set in stone until May when the final whistle sounds in the 38th game.

Although, a huge part of that final outcome will rest on the next six games.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…

Real Madrid finally seem to be turning a corner in the ongoing 2019/20 season.

Even though the start has been far from perfect, Los Blancos are starting to look like themselves again. And there’s no better proof of that than their most recent outings in La Liga.

Zinedine Zidane’s men have been on a rampage as of late, scoring a total of 16 goals in their last four league bouts and 15 in the last three.

By all standards, those are quite impressive figures already.

Watch Spanish Football Videos With StreamFootball.tv Below

Many players have certainly stepped up their efforts to make this happen, but one man’s red-hot form stands out from the rest – Karim Benzema’s.

The now 31-year-old Frenchman has been the leader of this team since the very beginning and one of the only ones to keep his output and contribution consistently high despite the team’s struggles.

For that reason, he is La Liga’s top scorer with a total of nine goals under his belt, and he has even assisted a further three as well.

But his impressive numbers don’t really stop there as he is definitely not all about the final product.

Benzema has also registered 4.1 shots per game and combined that with 1.5 key passes per game, which suggests he is highly involved in their chance creation along with his prolific goalscoring.

This has warranted him getting five Man of the Match awards so far with an average rating of 7.78 according to WhoScored’s rating system, which is the highest of all Real Madrid players in the current campaign.

His imperious form has also made Benzema crucial to Zidane’s system and simply irreplaceable in the starting lineup.

With that being said, the Frenchman is the third most-used player at Real Madrid at the moment, with a tally of 1305 minutes under his belt so far.

And seeing how he is consistently good, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that Zidane will keep playing him for as long as he can sustain this output.

To make things even better, Benzema has recently become Real Madrid’s fifth-best goal-scorer in La Liga, edging out Ferenc Puskas in the process.

No one will probably make the Galacticos forget about Cristiano Ronaldo but “big Benz” is definitely easing the pain and doing it brilliantly.

Let’s see for how long can he keep this red-hot form up.

Crystal Palace fans have taken to Twitter to react after they heard that Jordan Ayew had scored the winning goal for Ghana in their Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Sao Tome.

Ayew netted the only goal of the game to ensure that Ghana went above South Africa into first place in group C of the qualifying stage, and the former Swansea man’s strike is just the latest in a string of goals scored by the 28-year-old this season.

The Eagles No.9 has scored four Premier League goals in 12 games this term, netting against Manchester United and Arsenal, as well as the winning goal against his former side Aston Villa and a late winner away to West Ham.

As a result of his fine form, he has become somewhat of a fan favourite at Selhurst Park since his £2.5m summer move, hence the vast array of reaction to his winning goal for Ghana.

One supporter said that the Ghanaian is “at it again”, whereas another made the bold statement that Ayew is ‘currently the world’s best player’.

Let’s take a look at some more of the Twitter reaction…

According to the Daily Mail via Man City Superbia, manager Pep Guardiola has awarded every travelling fan to September’s away game to Shakhtar Donetsk a hospitality package for the return game. 

The Sky Blues ran rampant in Ukraine that night, with goals from Riyad Mahrez, Ilkay Gundogan and Gabriel Jesus getting City off to a flying start in their Champions League group.

However, from the fans perspective, it was one arduous journey to make – with a credible travelling support of 114 flying all the way out to Ukraine on a Tuesday night to watch their team put on a dominant performance.

While some football fans may laugh at those numbers and perceive them as small, the logistics of the trip have to be taken into account – especially when you consider the politics – with the country currently at war with neighbours Russia.

Realising this, and making an enormous gesture, Guardiola personally sent free hospitality tickets to all the travelling fans for the return leg at the Etihad.

Here’s how the supporters reacted to a brilliant piece of news.

One is Britain’s most famous soldier. One has the grizzly voice of a drill sergeant. And the other once strangled James McArthur on the touchline like a military operation gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Indeed, Sean Dyche, Nigel Pearson and Ant Middleton are very much kindred spirits; Macho-men of the modern age.

So what better way to highlight the surprising similarities between the three than play a good old game of Whose Line Is It Anyway? And what better time to do so than almost immediately after Pearson has been announced as the new Watford manager, seeking to lift them away from relegation bother.

The rules of engagement, to paraphrase an SAS term, are pretty simple. We deliver you one macho quote, and you have to decide who actually said it – the Burnley boss, the Hornets gaffer or the only actual hardman amongst the pack, Ant Middleton.

It may sound simple enough but we guarantee it’s a lot harder than you think. And just in case you aren’t too sure about who you’re dealing with, here’s the lowdown on each of them…

Sean Dyche – Most famous for unexpectedly taking Burnley to the Europa League through the power of 4-4-2 and centre-backs who know how to defend the box properly. A relentless organiser who has the gruff voice to match. Basically a more likeable, more modest Sam Allardyce.

Nigel Pearson – Recently crowned Watford boss but perhaps best known for taking Leicester to the Premier League and then pulling off a great escape to keep them up that ultimately became the catalyst for their miraculous title win the season after. Some claim he’s a great manager who deserves far more credit, but – to be completely frank – he’s also a bit of a strange bloke, as some of these comments will attest to.

Ant Middleton – Looks a bit like a pint-sized David Gandy with a very bushy beard. Rose to stardom as the lead instructor on Channel 4’s hit show SAS: Who Dares Wins and has since become something of a TV personality, his last offering being an in-the-wilderness interview with former One Direction star Liam Payne. He’s certainly seen a thing or two

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Darren Bent has suggested that Conor Hourihane can feel hard done by that he hasn’t had more game time at Aston Villa this season, as reported by Football Insider.

What did he say?

Hourihane has struggled for consistent minutes this season, which is largely down to the level of competition in Villa’s midfield.

The Republic of Ireland international has made just five Premier League starts this season, coming off the bench three times, though he has still managed to amass two goals and two assists.

[ad_pod ]

Speaking to Football Insider, Bent admitted his sympathy for Hourihane’s situation: “He has been hard done by but I think really, I like Douglas Luiz, I like the three in there of Douglas Luiz, Jack Grealish and John McGinn – when you play them that’s a hard three to crack.

“He can count himself unlucky but all he can keep doing is do exactly what he did against Newcastle, which is make an impact and make a difference. Scoring one and making one, he can’t do any more than that.

“He did the right thing, he reminded Dean Smith that he’s still there, that he’s still going to put a shift in and that shows the attitude and character of himself.”

Things could improve

The 28-year-old can definitely feel hard done by regarding his lack of starts, especially due to the return he can boast despite the limitations.

However, there are now signs that things could be set to improve for him, after the performance against Newcastle that Bent mentioned, where the Irishman managed to get a goal and assist.

Jack Grealish’s move to the left-wing should help him to get more minutes moving forward, as it frees up another place in the midfield alongside Luiz and McGinn.

It would be very harsh for him to be dropped against Manchester United, considering his performance in the victory over the Magpies, so this really is a chance for him to kick on and put the frustrations of relative early-season obscurity behind him.

In other news, an Aston Villa talisman has been praised for more than his talent.