Sport
Scott McTominay says Manchester United players “have to fight like dogs”
Manchester United midfielder Scott McTominay sends message to club’s supporters ahead of Saturday’s huge game at Fulham....Click Here To Continue Reading>>
Scott McTominay has said that the Manchester United players are absolutely determined to turn around their season for the club’s suffering supporters.
The Red Devils have lost eight of their opening 15 matches of the 2023-24 campaign, including their last two at home to Manchester City and Newcastle United in the Premier League and EFL Cup respectively.
Man United will be back in action against Fulham on Saturday afternoon before heading to Denmark next week for a key Champions League clash with Copenhagen, and McTominay has said that his side “have to win” both fixtures, with head coach Erik ten Hag currently under pressure.
“We have to win. That’s always the thought process. Obviously, my thoughts are with the fans at the minute because we’re not playing well and it’s difficult for them – they pay their hard-earned money every week to come and watch us and the least we can do is play well and win football matches,” he told MUTV.
“It’s not quite happening at the moment, sometimes that’s football. I feel like, for us in that dressing room, we have to stay tight and keep a clear head, and we can’t get too emotional with everything that surrounds us. We’ve got to block it all out.
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“You saw last night (Newcastle match) it was a difficult game in every aspect, in terms of the result. But the fans are always there and are always behind us. I feel like the players feel that whenever we go back inside the dressing room – the anger is towards ourselves and also the anger is towards not pleasing the fans and giving them what they want.
“I can assure the fans that’s probably the most important thing in the players’ heads, we want to do it for the people who travel home and away and watch every single game and support us.
“Forget about all the people who don’t care about us and write stupid things in the media and try to divide us and all the other things. That’s not important to us at the moment. Everyone has to come together and, when the next game comes, we have to fight like dogs, that’s the way it’s got to be.
“Everyone knows that we’re not in our best period at the minute,” he conceded. “We have to stick together, that’s the most important thing. We have another game coming up and potentially, in a week’s time, the picture could be a little bit different – win in the Champions League and wins in the league.
“Obviously, the fans will hear the generic response of ‘we’ve got to stick together’ but it’s true. Everyone wants this football club to succeed and we have to pull together and try to be as good with each other as possible, in the dressing room, to get those results going our way.
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“I feel like we’ve got more than enough talent in the changing room to do that and whenever you look at the boys who are playing, but obviously something isn’t quite clicking. That’s up to the manager and the players to fix that and I’m 100% confident that we will.
“Of course, there’s more that goes into it when you’re not playing well and you’re not doing so well. I know the fans don’t want to hear that, they want to see results and performances and I think they want to see the players smiling and happy.
“It’s not quite happening at the moment, but I’m 100% sure that the manager can put that into practice and it can come off. I’m sure of that.
“I’m repeating myself quite a bit, but that’s the main thing in football – there is always another game when you can put it right. We could go and play well at Fulham, win in Copenhagen and you’ve got another game after. So things can change quickly.
“That’s the way it is as a football player. If we can have three wins going into the international break then we can come back and begin to kick on from there.”
McTominay was an unused substitute against Newcastle on Wednesday but has been an important player in recent weeks, and he is expected to come back into the side against Fulham.
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...Click Here To Continue Reading>>
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard was back to his best during the 2-1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League on Saturday.
The Gunners made it three league wins on the bounce after beating Wolves at the Emirates Stadium. Bukayo Saka opened the scoring in the sixth minute.
A wonderful bit of team play contributed to Odegaard doubling the lead in the 13th minute.
Arsenal should have been out of sight with the chances in the final third, but they had a nervy finish in the end after Matheus Cunha scored, four minutes from time.
A defensive mishap from Oleksandr Zinchenko paved the way for the goal, but the Gunners managed to hang on for a well-deserved victory over Gary O’Neil’s side.
In our view, Odegaard was clearly the man of the match with one of his best performances of the season.
The Norwegian was inconsistent with his form earlier this campaign, but he appears to be finding his feet at the right time for the Gunners in their title pursuit.
Against Wolves, he had 97 touches with 77 passes at an accuracy of 89 per cent. He had no defensive work to do, but was brilliant with his attacking display.
Odegaard managed six key passes and created three big chances for Gabriel Jesus, Leandro Trossard and Eddie Nketiah respectively, but they failed to extend the lead.
The Gunners should have been out of sight with at least a five-goal margin, but they were made to work hard for the victory after a late consolation strike from Cunha.
The win over Wolves has seen the club extend their lead at the top of the table to four points.
Stats from Transfermarkt.com & Sofascore.com
Twenty-year-old Serbian sixth seed Hamad Medjedovic is crowned the Next Gen ATP Finals champion with a captivating victory over Arthur Fils in Sunday’s final.
Twenty-year-old Serbian sixth seed Hamad Medjedovic was crowned the Next Gen ATP Finals champion with a captivating victory over Arthur Fils in Sunday’s final.
Emulating the feats of his compatriot Novak Djokovic in November’s ATP Finals, Medjedovic brought home another trophy to Serbia with a 3–4[6], 4–1, 4–2, 3–4 [9], 4–1 victory in just after two hours.
Medjedovic’s success caps off a stellar breakthrough year for the 2003-born protege, who reached the first round of Wimbledon and the French Open for the first time in 2023 and came close to breaking into the top 100, getting as high as world number 102 in October....Click Here To Continue Reading>>
“I can’t believe I have won this title, but it’s going to give me a lot of confidence for 2024. Arthur is an amazing player; he’s Top 40 for a reason, so I’m really happy,” Medjedovic said on the court.
“It was tough after the first set. I changed my clothes and recovered and started to play good again. I didn’t play good when I had match points in the fourth set. I wasn’t relaxed, I was very stiff. Thank God I recovered and I was just trying to stay relaxed as much as I could and I managed to do it in the end.”
2023 ATP Finals Champion: Novak Djokovic 🇷🇸2023 Next Gen ATP Finals Champion: Hamad Medjedovic 🇷🇸Learning from the best 👀 pic.twitter.com/ie284rcZ3M— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) December 2, 2023
Making a name for himself throughout the tournament with his blistering serves, the Serbian fired 19 aces past Fils throughout the contest and won 88% of points behind his first serve in total.
Medjedovic also kept his mistakes to a minimum, only producing nine unforced errors and 32 winners, as well as saving all four break points he faced against his French foe.
The 20-year-old recovered from a couple of early unforced errors in the fourth-set tie-breaker to bring up two match points, although he failed to take either of them as Fils took the contest to the distance.
However, an inopportune unforced error from Fils on break point allowed Medjedovic to establish an early two-game lead in the fifth set, and the Serbian quintessentially confirmed his champion status with an ace on match point.
Alongside his Next Gen supremacy, Medjedovic also took home three Challenger level titles in the 2023 season, as well as getting to the semi-finals of the Astana Open and Swiss Open on the ATP Tour.
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Sports Mole rounds up all of the latest injury and suspension news ahead of Sunday’s La Liga clash between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.
Barcelona will be aiming to return to winning ways in La Liga when they host Atletico Madrid on Sunday night.
Xavi’s side are currently fourth in the table, level on points (31) with third-placed Atletico ahead of this weekend’s huge fixture, and here Sports Mole rounds up the team news....Click Here To Continue Reading>>
© Reuters
BARCELONA
Out: Gavi (knee), Marc-Andre ter Stegen (back)
Doubtful: None
Sports Mole’s predicted XI: Pena; Araujo, Kounde, I Martinez, Cancelo; Pedri, Gundogan, De Jong; Raphinha, Lewandowski, Felix
ATLETICO MADRID
Out: Pablo Barrios (knee), Thomas Lemar (Achilles), Vitolo (knee)
Doubtful: None
Sports Mole’s predicted XI: Oblak; Gimenez, Witsel, Hermoso; Molina, De Paul, Saul, Koke, Riquelme; Morata, Griezmann
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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