Bayern Munich’s Thomas Müller has long been associated with the label he assigned himself on the pitch, that of the Raumdeuter, which is roughly translated as an “interpreter of space.”
If you had to speculate which player scored and assisted the most goals in English soccer in 2020, you might suggest Mo Salah, Kevin De Bruyne or maybe Manchester United headliner Bruno Fernandes. All of these would be very good guesses as all three players are among England's leaders in goals involvements this year.
But none of them lead English football in that category — that honor falls solely to Blackburn Rovers attacker Adam Armstrong.
It appears that the Kepa Arrizabalaga experiment is ending for Chelsea. The club announced the signing of goalkeeper Edouard Mendy from Stade Rennais on Thursday for a fee of $26 million. The Senegalese international allowed just 0.76 goals per game in Ligue 1 last season, second in the league, but is he the solution to Chelsea's goalkeeping headache, or will he be just another overpaid, underperforming shot-stopper?
Premier League fantasy may already be underway, but there are still plenty of questions surrounding some of the top players. Will Bruno Fernandes have an endless number of penalty kick opportunities again this season? Can Danny Ings match his goal-scoring form from last year? Which Manchester City right winger is worth adding?
When Wycombe Wanderers faced off against Rotherham United over the weekend, very few fans were expecting a footballing masterclass.
Both sides were newly promoted from League One; Wycombe gained promotion to the Championship for the first time ever this season, doing so after being relegation favorites last year, while Rotherham has bounced between the two divisions each of the last five seasons.
"He was what I called a ball-playing defender," long-time friend Dave Bassett said of Sam Allardyce, "If he wasn't playing with the ball he was playing with your balls."
Allardyce was a feared center back during his 20-plus years in English football due to his propensity to clatter opposing strikers and leave them moaning in pain on the turf. He was even given the nickname "Super Sam Bionic Man" for his ability to quickly ascend from these tackles and continue playing.
Lionel Messi will leave Barcelona at some point, that is a fact. When he leaves is still up for debate. What won’t be much of a debate is that Barcelona’s attack will suffer tremendously from the Argentine’s departure.
It’s a no-brainer that a team won’t score as often after the best attacking player leaves. The real question is how bad will it get? Cristiano Ronaldo leaving Real Madrid gives a good idea of what could happen with Barcelona in terms of offense.
Lyon secured its fifth straight Champions League title on Sunday after an entertaining 3-1 win over Wolfsburg to cement its place as the greatest dynasty in the history of the women's club game.
With seven titles overall, no team comes close to matching Lyon’s total (Frankfurt has four), and it says everything about the club's European dominance of late that all those victories have been recorded over the past 10 seasons.