Man Utd legend Schmeichel slams Ten Hag decision in Man City loss: ‘I don’t get that’
Man Utd legend Peter Schmeichel has hit out at Erik ten Hag’s substitutions in their 3-1 loss to Man City in the Manchester derby on Sunday.
The Red Devils put in a good defensive display for a large chunk of the match after Marcus Rashford gave them something to hang onto with the opening goal after eight minutes.
But Man City eventually got the equaliser through Phil Foden 11 minutes after the interval before the England international grabbed a second on 80 minutes to nudge the Citizens in front.
Man Utd never looked likely to come back into it from there and Erling Haaland added a third for Man City in stoppage time to secure bragging rights at the Etihad Stadium.
And Schmeichel was confused as to why Man Utd boss Ten Hag took off Kobbie Mainoo, Jonny Evans and Rashford during the second half.
The Man Utd legend said on talkSPORT: “I thought as the game progressed that the team fell in a little too deep. For my liking, I would have pushed them up a little bit.
READ MORE: Man Utd and PSG favourites for ‘statement’ £94m signing ahead of Arsenal, Chelsea
“And also then, when you need to change the game and they have equalised and scored again, the substitutions that you make.
Related video: Ten Hag says gap between Man Utd and Man City 'not that big'. (Sports AlDente)
Manchester United faced a tough three to one defeat against
“You take all your pace out, you take your driving force out of midfield off? You take your best defender off?
“I don’t get that. Are they being rested for the next game? I really don’t get the substitutions.
“When you look what Pep’s doing, he is only taking off two players. Generally, he doesn’t substitute a lot.”
However, Man Utd boss Ten Hag – who is under increasing pressure over his job – explained after the match that he had to take the trio off as they were either carrying injuries or tired.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Ten Hag said: “Yeah. I had to take them both off.
“They fought to be part of this game but after 60 or 70 minutes we had to take them off and sub them, Jonny was playing the backline brilliantly, and Rashy was a threat, not only goalscoring.
“I think he had three or four moments where he could’ve scored, and he scored the first one; he could’ve scored even more.”
Ahead of consecutive home matches against Everton and Sheffield United, Ten Hag added: “We’re working on players returning, and I think players will return in the coming weeks, especially after the international break.
“Hopefully Jonny Evans and Marcus Rashford is not too bad, that they recover, and we can use them in the next game against Everton.”
Carragher addresses ‘elephant in the room’ with Arsenal star after post-match overcelebration rant
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher addressed the “elephant in the room” when chatting to an Arsenal star after Mikel Arteta’s side beat Sheffield United.
Arteta‘s team have consistently had their critics over the past couple of years amid claims they have overcelebrated after some of their victories.
After the final whistle, captain Martin Odegaard’s exchange with an Arsenal photographer infuriated some onlookers. The midfielder took the camera off him and got him to pose in front of the jubilant home supporters to capture the moment.
Carragher was not pleased with Odegaard’s antics as he should have “just gone down the tunnel”.
“Just get down the tunnel!” Carragher said post-match on Sky Sports.
“You’ve won a big game, you’ve got the three points, you’re back in the title race, just get down the tunnel. I’m being serious, honestly.”
READ MORE: Ranking the six Arsenal goals by how embarrassing they were for Sheffield United
Arsenal’s form dipped around the New Year but they are arguably the best team in the Premier League at the moment.
The Gunners have won seven Premier League games in a row and have scored at least four goals in five of these victories.
On Monday night, Arsenal hammered Sheffield United at Bramall Lane. The visitors led 5-0 at the break and went onto win 6-0 against the relegation strugglers.
Post-match, Carragher had a chat with Odegaard and they addressed the Liverpool legend’s comments on the photographer.
Carragher said: “Martin, it was a fantastic performance by yourself, a great win for the team, I just didn’t see the photographer on the pitch. Is he in the dressing room?”
This amused Odegaard, who replied: “I was waiting for you to say something. I was too scared to do it today. I went straight in today!”
Presenter Dave Jones then added: “We were all thinking it. That was the elephant in the room.”
READ MORE: Transfer gossip… Man Utd and PSG favourites for ‘statement’ £94m signing ahead of Arsenal, Chelsea
Odegaard was also insistent that Arsenal need to “keep the momentum going” as they look to beat Liverpool and Man City to win the Premier League title.
“We wanted to keep the momentum going,” Odegaard said. “We have had some good games in the league and we wanted to keep it up.
“We always want to strong, especially when you come to places like this. It can be tricky if you don’t start well. Today we did and we didn’t stop from there.”
He added: “Every game is crucial now. You see the quality in this league at the top of the table, it’s a good fight and the quality is there.
“Every game is important. It’s another important game and another three points we want to get and hopefully we can do that.”
Ten Hag subs see Man Utd in bottom half of impact table as you-know-who leads the way
Erik ten Hag got it in the neck for his substitutes in the Manchester derby, but how does he compare to other Premier League managers in terms of the impact of his changes?
We’ve ranked the bosses according to goal contributions from their subs, with the goals scored in brackets.
22) David Moyes (West Ham) – 2 goal contributions (1 goal)
Total subs: 75
Only Pep Guardiola of the managers to have been in charge for the whole season have made fewer substitutions, but even so, that’s an embarrassing impact. He’s below both Sheffield United managers.
21) Nuno Espirito Santo (Nottingham Forest) – 2 (1)
Total subs: 37
Forest have only scored 9 goals in the ten games he’s been in charge for. Should have conceded one fewer as well, but let’s not go into that.
20) Paul Heckingbottom (Sheffield United) – 3 (2)
Total subs: 54
Not great, but as a percentage of the 11 goals they scored under him it’s not so bad. Scoring 11 goals in 14 games is bad though, as is conceding 39.
19) Chris Wilder (Sheffield United) – 4 (1)
Total subs: 52
Not a bad return in 12 games. Oli McBurnie is responsible for half the contributions.
18) Roy Hodgson (Crystal Palace) – 6 (1)Related video: Ten Hag says gap between Man Utd and Man City 'not that big'. (Sports AlDente)
Manchester United faced a tough three to one defeat against
Total subs: 71
Jean-Philippe Mateta had more goal contributions in 212 minutes from the bench (5) under Hodgson than in 1200 minutes when starting (4).
17) Steve Cooper (Nottingham Forest) – 6 (3)
Total subs: 75
An average of 4.4 subs per game couldn’t save him from the chop.
16) Vincent Kompany (Burnley) – 6 (4)
Total subs: 122
Chelsea loanee David Datro Fofana doubled the tally in his first two appearances, providing an assist against Manchester City before scoring a brace to snatch an unlikely points against Fulham. Burnley have scored one goal in the four games since, conceding 13. As Roy Keane says, Kompany and his team have been “dreadful”.
15) Thomas Frank (Brentford) – 7 (3)
Total subs: 117
For some reason we assumed these were all thanks to Yoane Wissa, but he’s scored just one of them.
14) Rob Edwards (Luton) – 7 (6)
Total subs: 107
Two goals each for Jacob Brown and Elijah Adebayo, for a team that’s claimed one point fewer than Arsenal from losing positions this season.
13) Mauricio Pochettino (Chelsea) – 8 (4)
Total subs: 100
Not at all surprising given Chelsea are 18th in the ‘second-half table’. His subs against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final were memorably awful, certainly in comparison to Klopp’s kids.
12) Erik ten Hag (Manchester United) – 8 (5)
Total subs: 110
Scott McTomoninay has scored four of those goals from the bench, and also one of the assists. Not hugely surprising that neither Sofyan Amrabat or Omari Forson contributed a goal as substitutes in the Manchester derby. That decision alone was a sackable offence.
11) Sean Dyche (Everton) – 8 (6)
Total subs: 77
That’s a big chunk of their 29 goals, made more remarkable by traditionalist Dyche making under three subs per game.
10) Andoni Iraola (Bournemouth) – 9 (6)
Total subs: 116
Two goals for Luis Sinisterra, who’s been introduced from the bench 12 times this season.
9) Ange Postecoglou (Tottenham) – 10 (4)
Total subs: 113
Five contributions for Brennan Johnson from the bench, who got two assists as a sub last time out in the comeback win over Crystal Palace.
8) Pep Guardiola (Manchester City) – 10 (4)
Total subs: 74
He’s never been a great one for subs, and averages just 2.7 per game this season. Kevin De Bruyne has three of the ten contributions, with a goal and an assist coming in his first appearance in five months, to turn the game against Newcastle on its head.
7) Gary O’Neil (Wolves) – 11 (9)
Total subs: 102
If you don’t remember Pablo Sarabia’s touch and volley against Tottenham we’re no longer friends. He also grabbed an assist in the three minutes he was on the pitch to win that game.
6) Marco Silva (Fulham) – 14 (6)
Total subs: 118
36 per cent of Fulham’s goals this season have been scored or assisted by substitutes. That’s absurd.
5) Eddie Howe (Newcastle) – 15 (9)
Total subs: 101
Eight different goalscoring substitutes for Newcastle.
4) Unai Emery (Aston Villa) – 16 (7)
Total subs: 107
A testament to strength in depth Emery now has at his disposal, with Leon Bailey contributing to six goals from the bench, with Moussa Diaby and Youri Tielemans notching a couple of assists each. Incredible that Aston Villa can at any point afford for any of those three players not to be starting.
© Provided by Football365
Unai Emery celebrates Aston Villa’s win over Arsenal.
3) Roberto De Zerbi (Brighton) – 18 (12)
Total subs: 128
He’s only seven substitutions short of his full allocation for the 27 games Brighton have played.
2) Mikel Arteta (Arsenal) – 20 (11)
Total subs: 107
Three goals apiece for Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard, and four assists in 126 minutes from the bench for forgotten man Fabio Vieira.
1) Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool) – 22 (11)
Total subs: 119
Not hugely surprising given the quality and depth of their forwards, but it’s still a lot, and scoring ten goals after the 90th minute is ridiculous and unfair.
Harry Kane defended against the ‘amused’ while Arsenal tipped to win title by 0.1 points
Jason Burt of the Daily Telegraph is not amused by anybody laughing at the (very funny) Harry Kane Curse, while Arsenal are only going to lose 1.4 more games.
Sorry, Jason Burt of the Daily Telegraph, but it is inherently funny that Harry Kane has joined a trophy juggernaut that has now got stuck on a cursed autobahn. And to not understand that amusement is to not just misunderstand football fans but to misunderstand human nature. He doesn’t even use the word ‘schadenfreude’, FFS.
Burt sets off on a po-faced defence of Kane as if anybody is actually criticising Kane.
England captain is being mocked for the plight of his new club whose 11-year Bundesliga monopoly is about to end – but it is not his fault
Oh Jason. Nobody thinks it’s his fault; they just think it’s funny. And that’s because it really is.
Rival fans were at it again at the weekend. Social media was alive with images of the Kicker-Torjägerkanone, the trophy which is awarded for being the top-scorer in the Bundesliga.
How funny, they said, as if it was the first time it had been noticed, that the prize for scoring the most goals in the German league this season is a trophy in the shape of a cannon.
It is pretty funny. Particularly to Arsenal fans. Are we really suggesting that Arsenal fans should not be amused by a trophy-less Kane lifting nothing other than a cannon at the end of the season? Relax, Jason. Breathe, Mr Burt. It’s genuinely funny.
There are those delighting in Kane’s predicament. How amusing, showing just how sad they are, that the England captain finally left Tottenham to win something, joining the club that is always guaranteed to win something – only for them to fail to win something.
Oh come on. Surely anybody typing those words would immediately realise it was highly amusing and find another idea for a column. The delivery needs some work but it’s a great joke.
Without understanding what Kane has done to deserve such spite and such a desire to depict him as a figure of fun – and he is emphatically not that in Germany where they are in awe of his impact – it is also a complete misreading of the season he is having.
It really is a mystery why fans of Arsenal in particular might be amused by this tale. Bring in Scooby-Doo, Miss Marple and somebody more culturally relevant from a Scandi drama to solve this tricksy tale.
And most importantly, there is nobody who ‘misreads’ the kind of season Kane is having. Nobody in the world thinks Kane is having a poor season; it’s funny largely because he is having a brilliant season. The Harry Kane Curse narrative loses its power if Kane had scored 12 goals; the closer he edges towards 40 the funnier it becomes.
READ: Harry Kane tops list of top 10 Premier League players who has won f*** all
Burt is not being dense with this column. It’s worse; he’s being entirely humourless. It’s like the concept of being amused by the failings of others has never occurred to him.
Or it has but he calls it ‘tall poppy syndrome’, or ‘the urge to criticise successful people’. Which might make sense if Kane was actually successful by the measures he has set himself. Will Kane think his season has been a success if he is the Bundesliga top scorer but wins nothing? Will he balls. He might as well have stayed at Tottenham and saved himself the upheaval.
It is another sign that Kane has undoubtedly been unlucky. Maybe his career-long trophy drought is going to continue for another frustrating season beyond yet another personal goal-scoring award. But no one can point the finger of blame at him. The truth is every team would want him.
Well they would if he wasn’t cursed, Jason.
Arsenal backed by boffins and brainiacs
To give you a little glance behind the curtain, we received an e-mail this morning about a supercomputer predicting Premier League victory for Arsenal by 0.1 points and knew that if we amused ourselves with po-faced Mr Burt and his pointless Harry Kane defence that somebody would eventually publish this absolute tosh.So thank you The Sun.
Boffins and brainiacs over at Bettingexpert have crunched the numbers to produce BETSiE, a supercomputer tasked with predicting sporting outcomes.
According to BETSiE the title race is set to go down to the wire, with Arsenal just ahead of Liverpool and City by the narrowest of margins.
Now we’re used to ‘boffins’ and we have encountered ‘brainiacs’ before but both together? We suspect we have now spent way too long wondering if the same people are both ‘boffins’ and ‘brainiacs’ or whether The Sun are describing two distinct groups.
Anyway, let’s talk about ‘the narrowest of margins’. It’s 0.1 of a point. A tenth of a point. So a margin that does not actually exist in football.Related video: Harry Kane shutting up the critics! (Homestand Sports)
Yes, Harry Kane shutting up the critics.
For the scenario to play out exactly as the ‘boffins and brainiacs’ predict, Arsenal now have to lose exactly 1.4 more games.
We suspect they might lose to Manchester City and presumably they might be vulnerable to 0.4 of a defeat v Tottenham. Is that worth more than a draw? Should they play for a draw or for 0.4 of a defeat? We need an in-house boffin. Or brainiac.
We have no issue with content farms farming content but how can you write sentences like this…
Mikel Arteta’s side are slated to get 85.9 points, with Liverpool on 85.8. City, meanwhile, are back on 84.3 in third.
…without at any point being amused by what you are writing. It’s not normal to say that clubs are ‘slated’ to get 85.9 points after scoring 92.1 goals. It’s robot talk.
And once again, Mediawatch is left bemused by the concept of ‘betting experts’ predicting something entirely at odds with all the, well, odds providing by the actual betting experts.
Manchester City remain odds-on favourites for the Premier League title; the bookies clearly can’t see where those extra 2.1 defeats are coming from.
Carra correction
Not a brainiac, we see.
The 36-year-old with more goals than Haaland, Mbappé in 2024
With 17 goals in the first eight matches of the year for Sporting Cristal of Peru, Martin Cauteruccio is one of the most in-form strikers in the world. And, incredibly, he is set to turn 37 years old next month.
While Darwin Núñez's exploits for Liverpool, Luis Suárez's form at Inter Miami and Edinson Cavani's goals for Boca Juniors are among the Uruguayan strikers hitting the headlines around the world, it's a man who has never won a cap for his country who is outmatching them all in 2024, as well as the likes of Manchester City's Erling Haaland (nine goals from eight games, amid time out with injury) and Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappé (11 from 11.)
And his goal-scoring prowess continued in the Copa Libertadores. Not since 2013 has a club from Peru managed to make it out of the group stage and Sporting Cristal are not going to change that this season as they fell to Always Ready of Bolívia in the second qualifying round. But their early elimination was hardly the fault of Cauteruccio: He scored all four of Cristal's goals in the two-legged tie -- the problem was that his side conceded seven themselves to fall 7-4 on aggregate.
Since 2007, Cauteruccio has been trotting around Latin America at clubs like Nacional, San Lorenzo, Cruz Azul, Estudiantes and Independiente, always giving solid service and scoring plenty of goals. The 5-foot-10 striker is not physically imposing or especially quick, but he grew up with an understanding of the game, a fiercely competitive nature and a burning desire to get the best out of his talent.Related video: Haaland happy with life at City ahead of Copenhagen second leg (Dailymotion)
His highlight -- in a collective sense at least -- came a decade ago in Argentina when he was part of the San Lorenzo side that won the 2014 Copa Libertadores for the first time, beating shock finalists Nacional of Paraguay to the trophy.
Later that year in the final of the Club World Cup, San Lorenzo came up against Real Madrid. The European champions paraded a front line of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale, backed up by James Rodríguez and Toni Kroos; the San Lorenzo attack was led by Cauteruccio.
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