Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman has joined other managers in lashing out at the packed European football calendar after deciding to rest Lionel Messi for Tuesday's Champions League trip to Dynamo Kyiv.
Barca lost Gerard Pique and Sergi Roberto to serious injuries in Saturday's 1-0 defeat by Atletico Madrid in LaLiga, leaving them with only three defenders in the first team squad for the trip to Ukraine.
It is fair to say that money controls the Premier League. Money is the reason Manchester City and Liverpool are title contenders, while Brighton and West Brom languish near the bottom of the table.
Soccernomics co-authors Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski calculated that 90 percent of variation in league position in the Premier League is determined by a club's wage bill.
Tottenham Hotspur manager José Mourinho has said the wealth of experience he has gained from previous coaching stints should be reflected in a new moniker: “The Experienced One.”
Mourinho famously described himself as “A Special One” when he arrived in England as Chelsea's manager in 2004, having just guided Portuguese club Porto to the Champions League title. The 57-year-old Portuguese has since held coaching positions at Inter Milan and Real Madrid followed by a second stint with Chelsea before taking over at Manchester United and then Spurs.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta says he is hurt by Mesut Özil's situation at the Premier League club but is resigned to facing questions about the German midfielder after every defeat. Özil, 32, who is under contract with Arsenal until June 2021 earns a reported $452,830 per week, but has not played for Arteta’s side this season after being left out of the 25-man Premier League squad.
The playmaker, who last played for Arsenal in March, was also left out of their Europa League squad, leaving him only eligible for Under-23 games.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has signed a new two-year contract that will keep him in charge until the end of the 2022-23 season, the Premier League club said on Thursday.
The Spaniard has guided City to two Premier League titles, three League Cups and an FA Cup since his arrival in 2016.
Germany coach Joachim Löw was at a loss to explain his side's humiliating 6-0 loss to Spain in the UEFA Nations League on Tuesday which caused them to miss out on a place in the competition's final four.
"I really don't know what happened to the team," Löw told reporters after Germany's heaviest defeat in 89 years and their worst in competitive football. "We had hardly any chances and we didn't win a single individual battle out on the pitch."
The World Cup finals in Russia feel a lot longer than two years ago, especially for an England team, beaten 2-0 by Belgium on Sunday, that have lost their way.
During their run to the semifinals in 2018, England seemed to have solved the long-standing puzzle of how find a way to inject the quality, tempo and excitement of Premier League football into the national team's style of play. Finally, Gareth Southgate had created a team where players were performing in the same manner, with the same intensity and positivity, that they showed with their clubs every week.
Paul Pogba "cannot be happy" with the situation he finds himself in at Manchester United, France head coach Didier Deschamps said on Monday.
The French midfielder has started just four of United's seven Premier League games this season, and just one of three in the Champions League. Pogba's future at United remains uncertain after he suggested last month that he "dreams" of playing for Real Madrid.
Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said his side could not hide behind the referee's decisions or their injury and illness woes after they stumbled to a 4-1 defeat at Valencia on Sunday.
Real conceded three penalties for the first time in their history, all of which were scored by Valencia's Carlos Soler, while Raphael Varane also scored an own goal, after Karim Benzema had given the champions the lead.
I think I speak for many other Liverpool fans when I say I was skeptical when the club signed Diogo Jota. Nearly $50 million for a player who scored just seven league goals last season? Especially with the attacking depth the Reds have? Mo Salah, Sadio Mané and Roberto Firmino starting. Divock Origi, Takumi Minamino, Xherdan Shaqiri, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita off the bench. Liverpool only has three senior center backs, and Klopp is going off and overpaying on a somewhat promising attacker? It didn't make much sense at the time.
