Mesut Ozil is out of his damn mind. The 26-year-old German winger recently told Sport Bild that, "should I continue to improve myself and stay healthy, I want to get my hands on the Ballon d'Or in the upcoming years."
Just last week I wrote about how Liverpool were on fire and Manchester United were the “crappest” team in the English Premier League. United are still so lacking in any distinct style that they border on unwatchable, but they were solid in Sunday’s 2-1 win at Anfield and deserve to be fourth in a deeply mediocre table.
In a show of brazen "our young players are better than yours" one-upmanship, Manchester United this morning released a video of youth academy prospect Callum Gribbin absolutely schooling not one but three Aston Villa players during a recent under-18s game for the Red Devils.
They’re HUMAN! Manuel Neuer and Thibaut Courtois are arguably if not probably the two best goal keepers in the world. But this past weekend both were involved in incidents that resulted in their nets getting blemished.
Few games evoke a more visceral reaction than Liverpool vs. Man United. A fixture dating back more than 120 years, it’s a tried and tested recipe for creating endemic levels of anger, vitriol, bad losers and even worse winners. It’s why this Sunday’s BPL clash between the two kicks off at 1:30pm GMT, so everybody doesn’t have too much time to get overly beered-up (though, by God, they’ll try).
So The18 thought this the perfect opportunity to roll out our Top Five Most Hated Players in the history of Liverpool vs. Man United. In no particular order of loathsomeness:
Spanish supernova Barcelona defeated Manchester City 1-0 yesterday to advance to the UEFA Champions League Quarterfinals 3-1 on aggregate. The match was a thrilling affair with end-to-end action and both sides had ample opportunities to put the ball in the back of the net, but only Ivan Rakitic succeeded on the night, which was enough to send Barcelona through.
If there is one thing that has never been in short supply in the life of Mario Balotelli, it’s haters. The combination of his large personality, perceived arrogance, and talent level means that he is just as likely to piss off an entire stadium as he is to bring it to its feet in celebration. The fact that he lives in the first “hater generation,” as rapper Wale so eloquently put it, doesn’t help. Social media is nothing if not a bastion for ignorant hatred, and of all the celebrities who operate in the space Balotelli probably receives the worst of it.
It’s easy to see why Manchester United are so keen to land PSV Eindhoven’s Dutch winger Memphis Depay. The 21-year-old, who made a handful of eye-catching cameo appearances for The Netherlands at last year’s World Cup, is the Eredivisie’s leading scorer with 16 goals from midfield, and notched up another 13 last season. When The18 asked its Eredivisie scout (honestly, we have one) who "the next big thing" to come out of Holland will be, Depay was the first name on the list (and our scout's a Feyenoord supporter), in no small part because of goalscoring feats such as these:
You guys, Wayne Rooney was way ahead of us on this one, like, light years ahead of us.
On Saturday, video emerged of Wayne Rooney boxing in his kitchen with Stoke City’s Phil Bardsley. Aside from confirming every stereotype about Rooney and Stoke that there is, the video included footage of Rooney apparently getting knocked out. As in splayed out on the floor, completely out cold knocked out.
Your mind plays tricks on you. You might think that Lionel Messi is the best at everything in the world, that he has the best ball control, the best passing, the best finishing instinct, and the best shooting range. We can’t really fault you too much because most of the time you’d be right; Messi is incredibly good at a lot of things. But a young man named Cristiano Ronaldo has a little something to say about who’s the best at a certain little thing called shooting.