Manchester United winger Nani admits Barcelona’s passing game could cause his team trouble in the UEFA Champions League final.United will be looking to add to their English Premier League title when they take on Pep Guardiola’s team in the European decider at Wembley on May 28.
Nani said on Wednesday it was important for United to apply pressure and not allow Barcelona to settle into their possession game.
“It is a big problem because no-one likes to run behind the ball and try to get the ball all the time,” the Portuguese star said.
“It is very difficult when that happens but we must try to get the ball off them as quickly as possible because if we have the ball they cannot do the possession and we can get a goal if we have the ball.”
Sir Alex Ferguson’s team will need to stop the star-studded Barcelona team and Nani acknowledged the problems Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta would pose.
“I think Barcelona is a very talented team. They are special because of the way they play,” Nani said.
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“We don’t have a lot of teams that can play the same style. Of course, they have very good players, individual players.”
Both United and Barcelona will be looking to win their fourth European crowns.
Brazilian legend Ronaldo is to play one final match for his country before hanging up his boots.The 34-year-old will line up for the five-time World Cup winners in a friendly against Romania on Tuesday.
Ronaldo officially retired in February after a glittering 18-year career, but the Brazilian Football Confederation have decided to honour the striker by giving him the chance to appear in a farewell game.
Ronaldo’s team-mates were clearly delighted to have him back in the fold, and while they are planning to give him a good send-off, the players are equally determined to win the game.
“As I said, this game is a celebration but we obviously want to win,” AC Milan striker Robinho said.
“We know this will be a celebration for Ronaldo, who deserves all this, but for this celebration to be even better we need to score goals and win.”
Brazil’s head coach Mano Menezes has had mixed results since taking over from Dunga last year.
The match gives him a chance to prepare for the Copa America, a trophy which Brazil won in 2007 and will defend in Argentina next month.
And although the hosts are being tipped as Brazil’s main rivals, Menezes is taking the tournament one step at a time.
“Brazil cannot worry first about Argentina . We have to think first about Venezuela , Ecuador , Paraguay , which are the teams we will face in the qualifiers,” Menezes said.
“If we move ahead, and that is our objective and I think we have great chances of doing so, then we will worry about our rivals in the quarter-finals, then in the semi-finals and so on.”
“There is no point in worrying about the something that we still have not achieved – that is, thinking too much about Argentina and forgetting the others.”
Brazil coach Mano Menezes said his side were ‘too obvious’ going forward after their 0-0 draw against Venezuela in the Copa America.In their opening game of the tournament in Argentina, the defending champions were unable to find a way through a determined Venezuelan defence, and at times looked out of ideas.
They came close when Milan striker Alexandre Pato hit the crossbar, but Menezes conceded his side could have played better in a heated encounter.
“The result was bad, because we played better than Venezuela,” Menezes said.
“We had the control and the initiative of the match, but we lacked clarity in some choices, mainly to find players in the finishing moments.”
“We were too obvious. The ball got to the players who were wide, but they were too far away from Pato and the play could not flow. That is something we have to work on during the week.”
“It looks to me that the pitch hindered faster plays and plays of more quality. However, that is not our problem. We have to look over our performance and correct our problems.”
Lucas Leiva admits Brazil need to improve if they are to become South American champions for the ninth time.
The Liverpool midfielder thinks he and his team-mates controlled the match but knows they must step up when they resume their campaign against Paraguay on Saturday.
“We had control of the match for the most part, we did not let them create a lot of chances,” the 24-year-old said.
“We had the ball that the defender cleared off the line and Pato’s shot against the post. In the second half, we committed more mistakes.
“Now, we have to keep on working in the next matches to play with ball possession and create more chances.”
Venezuela were also fortunate not to concede a penalty in the first half, but coach Cesar Farias was pleased to see his side improve after the interval.
“The result is not just luck. Luck always helps but we have put in a lot of hours in training,” Farias said.
“Venezuela is drawing on many thousand hours for what it takes to be successful in football.”
There were no goals at all in Group B on Sunday, after Ecuador and Paraguay drew 0-0 in the other match.
With the Liverpool Daily Post reporting recently that Jay Spearing could well make a loan move to Wolves this season, it got me thinking about some of the imbalances still apparent in our squad. Although there hasn’t been any real news on his predicted departure, Christian Poulsen will also likely depart this summer if a club can be found for him.
With both Poulsen and Spearing seemingly out the door, it will leave Kenny Dalglish with only one realistic holding midfielder in Lucas Leiva . Although there is now tremendous faith in Lucas after his stellar season last campaign, I still think it would be unwise to go an entire season relying on one player to continue in the holding role.
For sure, it could be argued there is no need for another as the Brazilian showed last year he has tremendous fitness levels which saw him play in nearly every match for the Reds. On top of this, there is less matches to play next season with the Reds not being in Europe, so it seems logical that Lucas could cope well on his own.
I would draw the line though at those who think the Reds could go without a recognised holding midfielder at all in some matches this season. Some fans who have suggested their first choice eleven next season have proffered a central midfield trio of Aquilani, Gerrard and Adam, and although I admit this looks very exciting on paper, the likelihood of such a formation working in reality is negligible. For one thing, you would be asking Adam to play as the most withdrawn of the midfield trio, and one thing we know about the Scot last season is that he can’t tackle. His foul count and his reckless lunge on Gareth Bale is testament to that.
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In addition, when considering Lucas, you have to consider that he has had a long summer with Brazil at the Copa America and after having only a short break from football he may not be as fresh or fit as he was last season. His form may dip or he could pick up an injury; it is something you really shouldn’t take a risk on by not having a backup option.
It is one of the reasons why I have been advocating for us to buy a strong physical defensive midfielder like Yann M’Vila or Blaise Matuidi . (The Reds have actually been linked with Lee Cattermole for £10million but I am hoping this is nothing more than a rumour).
If finances dictate however that the priority for signings lies elsewhere, such as left back and centre half, the Reds may have to look in house unless either Spearing or Poulsen stay. The most logical choice would of course be Conor Coady .
The youngster has impressed in pre-season already, after scoring against Guangdong, and the fact he has already featured in many squads under Dalglish at the back end of last season, suggest King Kenny maybe keen to give him a chance in the first team.
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The most likely scenario would be that he features in a few League Cup ties next season, but with FSG and Kenny keen to ensure that exciting youngsters have an opportunity to progress to first team level, I feel Conor may have the talent to step up if he is called upon. What do you think?
Read more of David Tully’s articles at Live4Liverpool
Corinthians have confirmed they will be unable to sign Manchester City’s Carlos Tevez before the Brazilian transfer window closes.The Sao Paulo-based club have pulled out of negotiations to sign Argentina striker Tevez, with the clubs unable to finalise the deal before Brazil’s transfer deadline of Wednesday 20 July.
Despite City manager Roberto Mancini claiming on Monday that a fee had been agreed for the 27-year-old, a formal statement attributed to Corinthians director of football Edu Gasper confirmed the transfer has fallen through.
Corinthians are hopeful of renewing negotiations in January.
“The director of Sport Club Corinthians Paulista comes forward officially to communicate the impossibility of the signing of Argentinian forward Carlos Tevez,” the statement read.
“While recognising Manchester City’s efforts and those of everyone involved, there’s no more time for the signing to be finalised, considering that the window to sign players from abroad ends on Wednesday, July 20.”
“We are aware of the dream our fans had of having this player at Corinthians again and we look forward to him being with us in the near future.”
A major issue in negotiations is believed to have been the structure of the fee – Corinthians had hoped the reported fee of 40 million euros could be paid in instalments, but this condition was rejected by City.
It is not yet known if the collapse of the Tevez deal will prevent City from continuing their pursuit of Atletico Madrid forward Sergio Aguero.
Tevez, who requested a transfer as he seeks to move closer to his daughters in Argentina, remains under contract at City until 2014.
He captained the team last season, finishing as the club’s leading goalscorer.
It’s been an exciting summer in the red half of Merseyside with Kenny Dalglish flexing his financial muscles. Over £100 million has been spent since John W. Henry bought the club in October 2010. A January splurge by Dalglish for forwards Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez was followed by another spree, which saw Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam and Stewart Downing all move to Anfield. It’s been a remarkable upturn in fortunes for Liverpool who look a completely different side to the one that started the 2010/11 campaign under Roy Hodgson. Money has been spent on young and exciting players boasting Premier League experience. Whether they can all gel and take Liverpool back to the summit of the Premier League is uncertain but under King Kenny you’d be foolish to bet against them.
Steve Bruce also splashed the cash this summer bringing in nine new players during pre-season. The most exciting of all is young Connor Wickham signed for £13 million from Ipswich Town. Touted as the future of England’s front line the 18-year-old shows that the Wearsiders have ambition. They looked set for at least a 7th place finish last season only to fall down the table dramatically after the sale of Darren Bent. But the money gained from his and Henderson’s sale have been spent wisely with John O’Shea and Wes Brown being brought in from Manchester United to add experience to a leaky backline. Seb Larsson, David Vaughan and Craig Gardner are shrewd buys from relegated Birmingham City and Blackpooland will offer flair, goals and plenty of graft in the midfield.
With both teams fielding a hoard of new signings this has the makings of a very exciting season opener. Jordan Henderson making his Anfield debut against his boyhood club adds a little extra spice and I think he and his side will come out on top against the Black Cats.
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Verdict: 2-1
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Stoke manager Tony Pulis has revealed that his side failed in attempt to sign Scott Parker on transfer deadline day.
The England international opted to move from relegated West Ham to Tottenham in a £5 million move last week, but the White Hart Lane outfit were not the midfielder’s only choice.
“We did have a go for Parker. It was something we were trying to do for a few weeks,” Pulis admitted to The Sentinel.
“But we realised that if he could, he wanted to stay in London. That was a big part of it with him. I felt there were certain areas of the team we can improve and have to improve and that was one of them.
“I enquired about him and kept in touch with Sam Allardyce to find out what the situation was. But Sam said Parker would prefer to stay in London because he’d got three boys in school there,” the Britannia boss concluded.
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Stoke did manage to confirm the signings of Peter Crouch, Wilson Palacios and Cameron Jerome before the window closed however, and all three are in line to feature for the Midlands club against Liverpool on Saturday.
The war of words between Joey Barton and Karl Henry has continued, with the Wolves man defending himself against claims that he is out to injure fellow players.
The pair clashed in QPR’s 3-0 win over Wolves at Molineux on Saturday, with Barton labelling Henry as a ‘Sunday League player’ and claiming Mick McCarthy must have ‘been on drugs’ when he decided to sign the midfielder.
The FA will not take action against Barton, and Henry has retorted and defended himself against the claims.
“Joey Barton was telling everyone he is on 80 grand a week as usual. That is him. He always does that during the game. Always. He riles a few people up when he says those things and tells everybody how great he is,” Henry told The Guardian.
“It is just embarrassing really. If that is what he wants to do, he can carry on doing it but that is why a lot of people dislike him. He has tried to reinvent his image but it is probably the same old story.
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“I know we had our battle last season. I don’t want to keep going over it. But [on Saturday] they were winning the match. There was no need for him to keep going on the way he does,” he concluded.
Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard has revealed that he feared that he would never play again, and that the last six months have been the hardest of his career.
The England international has just recovered from a groin injury that has kept him on the sidelines since March, making a scoring return to the Anfield starting line-up on Saturday against Manchester United.
Given the nature of the injury, Gerrard has stated that at times he wondered if he was facing retirement.
“When I got the injury, I knew it was going to be a serious one, something I wasn’t used to – and I’ll admit I was down, as low as I’ve ever been as a footballer,” he told Mirror Football.
“I think it’s only natural that you have doubts. Different things cross your mind from time to time.
“I was fighting to get fit, just to get out on the pitch. I was trying to put my body on the line, but it wasn’t the real me and I wasn’t the player I want to be,” he continued.
The operation that followed was necessary, and was a long time in the offing according to Gerrard.
“Before the operation, I’d been getting niggles and having injections to play. Basically I knew I wasn’t right.
“I was missing training sessions and coming in the day before a game trying to get that last session in, or having injections to play the next day.
“You can only do that for a certain amount of time before your body gives in, and mine gave in. My groin packed in on me and when it happened I was down and I was low.
“It probably wasn’t until I got off the crutches that I started being really positive again. I could see I was progressing day by day, and when that happens your positivity creeps back in. Without a doubt, the last six months have been the hardest of my career,” he concluded.
By Gareth McKnight
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New Aston Villa boss Alex McLeish has lashed out against the “super clubs” who are able to take any players they like from other clubs, given the financial backing and power behind them. McCleish’s comments came about after five of England’s starting eleven against Wales on Tuesday were former Villa players, and with the exception of Gary Cahill, now all play for the ‘super clubs’ who have the financial muscle to lure players away. The likes of Ashely Young who recently signed for Manchester United, Steward Dowining of Liverpool, and both Gareth Barry and James Milner of Manchester City all lined up to face Wales at Wembley, and the Scot insists that these departures emphasise how difficult it is for the other clubs to compete in the long run. According to McLeish, these ‘super’ clubs “are on another planet”.
The Villa boss was keen to reaffirm that the club were not a ‘selling club’, but that fans needed to be realistic in these ‘modern times’. McLeish aim then, is to continue to produce talent at Villa Park that is good enough to break in to the national team. Villa currently boast young English talent in the likes of Marc Albrighton, Ciaran Clark, and Barry Bannan, and while McLeish concedes that ultimately a ‘super club’ may come in and buy them, it is important for the club to continue to produce such talent. Although McLeish’s comments do hold some substance, and it is without question going to be difficult for the ‘smaller clubs’ to compete alongside the likes of Chelsea, United, City and Liverpool, there are one or two exceptions to the generalizations been made, in that a ‘rich’ or wealthy club does not necessarily entail any ‘superiority’, and as we saw with Tottenham two seasons ago, clubs without this kind of financial backing can still break in to the top four of the Premier League.
In the 2009-10 season, Tottenham secured Champions League football for the following season, having pipped big-spending Manchester City to fourth place in the final games of the season. This was the campaign in which City had brought in the likes of Gareth Barry, Roque Santa Cruz, Kolo Toure, Joleon Lescott, Emmanuel Adebayor, and Carlos Tevez in a bid to break in to the top four, while the only players of note that Spurs brought in were Peter Crouch, Niko Kranjcar and Younes Kaboul Spurs finished the season three points clear of City, and enjoyed a successful run in the Champions League the following year before losing to Real Madrid in the quarter-finals.
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City’s solution the following year was to invest heavily once more, and this time it was to pay off as Spurs struggled to mount challenges on both a European and domestic front, and finished the season in fifth. Spurs’ qualification for the Champions League went some way in showing that money did not guarantee success, especially not immediately anyway. Spurs have also shown us that you do not have to let players leave to the ‘super clubs’ if you really don’t want to. Cheslea were in pursuit of Luka Modric for the majority of the summer transfer window, however both Redknapp and chairman Daniel Levy remained adamant that the Croatian would not be leaving White Hart Lane at any price.
McLeish’s suggestion that money or financial backing entails ‘superiority’ is also contradicted somewhat by the lack of success at Anfield in recent years. Liverpool have always had the funding to bring in new talent, though those players brought in were often not of a high enough quality, and the management in place was also deemed to be substandard for a club of Liverpool’s stature. While the club was generally considered a ‘top-four side’ for a number of years, Liverpool have failed to qualify for the Champions League since 2009 and have finished seventh and sixth in their last two Premier League campaigns. Kenny Dalglish has spent heavily since taking over in January, and for the first time in three seasons this Liverpool side look as though they could be a force to be reckoned with. However, while Dalglish has brought in players of quality, both Benitez and in particular, Roy Hodgson, brought in names that simply weren’t good enough to compete with the top four.
McLeish makes a valid point in that those ‘smaller clubs’ who lack any real financial support or backing will generally struggle to compete with the big-spenders of Chelsea, United, City and Liverpool. However, Harry Redknapp has shown that a top-four challenge can be mounted with the right kind of players, and that quality players do not have to cost the thirty or forty million pounds that these clubs are willing to fork out. Redknapp, and particularly Levy, have shown that key players do not have to be sold. Keeping a player against their will is always a risk, however if they are of as great importance to the club as Modric is to Spurs, it is perhaps a risk worth taking. It seems McLeish could probably learn a thing or two from Levy and Redknapp, and his assumption that money entails ‘superiority’ is not always the case. Good management and the right players is also fundamental to a clubs success and while heavy funding will certainly make things easier, it does not guarantee success nor the ‘untouchable’ status that McLeish has placed on these clubs. Tony Fernandes completed his takeover of Queens Park Rangers back in August and despite a reported net worth of £250m, McLeish will surely fancy his chances when the two sides meet this season.
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Agree or disagree? Do Premier League clubs have ‘no chance’ up against the “super clubs”? Let me know your thoughts either below or @sixthofficial on Twitter!