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Forest and Marinakis target Marco Silva to replace Postecoglou
Here is a story from Ben Fisher and Will Unwin:
Evangelos Marinakis has made Fulham’s Marco Silva his No 1 target to succeed Ange Postecoglou as Nottingham Forest head coach. Silva’s buyout clause has been reported to be as high as €15m (£13m) but the Forest owner remains a big admirer of the Portuguese coach, who worked under him at Olympiakos. Crucially, Silva is thought to be interested in the Forest job, with European football a factor.
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Estimable? If only my three-year-old thought the same.
We’ll start with some fresh Mikel Arteta quotes regarding Arsenal’s 1-0 win at Fulham on Saturday. Save for a single season as a player in 2004-05 with Real Sociedad, the Spaniard has lived in Britain for the past 23 years but still isn’t completely up to date with the lingo here. I’m not sure everyone in the UK would react positively to being called “a massive weapon”, but we know what Arteta is getting at. I’m also not sure I would describe Leandro Trossard’s performance as “magical” – the winger was very underwhelming at Craven Cottage in open play and scored a tap-in at the back post with his knee. Anyway, the following is courtesy of PA.
Mikel Arteta has hailed “magical” Leandro Trossard as a “massive weapon” for Arsenal after he fired his side to the top of the Premier League.
Trossard bundled home Bukayo Saka’s 58th minute corner at Fulham in a 1-0 win for the Gunners which ensures they will end the latest round of fixtures at the league summit.
Trossard scored just eight times in the league last term and, following Arsenal’s summer spending spree with eight new players arriving at the Emirates, the Belgium international might have feared for his place in Arteta’s side. However, the 30-year-old has now started all of Arsenal’s last five matches, both in the league, and in Europe.
And Arteta said: “Leo has this quality to create these magic moments when the team needs it the most, and that intuition that he’s in the right place in the right moment is a huge quality for the team and a massive weapon for us.
“He’s been very, very good in recent weeks and now we have a lot of players in a really high emotional state and performance level, which is really good to see.”
Arsenal’s win at Fulham marked the first of seven fixtures in 21 days for Arteta’s men with a Champions League home clash against Atletico Madrid to come on Tuesday. The north London team will be looking to build on a strong opening to their European campaign with successive 2-0 victories against Athletic Bilbao and Olympiakos. The run of matches is set to test the depth of Arsenal’s new-look squad with captain Martin Odegaard, Noni Madueke and Kai Havertz already absent through injury.
But Arteta continued: “We know the schedule and the load is what it is, and the games now and the context demands a bigger squad. All the top teams are in the same boat, and we’re going to have to manage that really well, to look after them, and especially to get the best out of them.”
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Updated at 05.21 EDT
The reins are now with the estimable Michael Butler.
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Tactical talk. Gakpo the fall guy?
In the short term I think the simplest thing for Slot to do is replace Gakpo with Wirtz. That way Wirtz plays in his preferred position, in which he is better than Gakpo in any case, and it also allows him to keep his midfield three of Gravenberch, Mac Allister and Szoboszlai. Trying to keep Gakpo, Wirtz and Szoboszlai in the team, usually by shunting Szoboszlai around has created too much of an imbalance and has left Liverpool too vulnerable at the back and in transition.
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Quiz time, quiz time, it’s On the ball, a very good reason for you to download the Guardian app.
Today’s is gettable. Just go the Puzzles section on the app.
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You could cast Anfield today as flop striker Alexander Isak versus flop striker Benjamin Sesko, if you wanted. Jonathan Liew would rather you didn’t.
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Frank Lampard’s Coventry, to give them their legal name, are flying. The thought of them back in the top division is rather stirring to those of a certain age.
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Fair points made here from the comments section below.
“Postecoglou could be the least effective Premier League manager ever”
Well looking at the stats that may be true, but the damage was done before AP turned-up at Forest. The problem at Forest is
the players shattered morale, last season those same players proved they could beat anyone. For me the problem at Forest is a overbearing interfering owner who rewarded those players who gave everything last season and who missed CL football by a single point in their first PL season by sacking their inspirational manager Nuno Espírito Santo in the most humiliating way possible. People talk about managers, tactics, player’s effort and abilities but once a teams morale is broken, any manager will tell you, it’s extremely difficult repairing it especially when the person who broke it is still there every week crushing it even further.
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Getafe v Real Madrid is Sunday’s late game in La Liga, a local derby. Sid Lowe spoke to Abu Kamara, once of Hull.
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A couple of important pieces on talent development.
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Let’s look ahead to Liverpool v Manchester United, where Florian Wirtz and Mohamed Salah are due a performance. Jonathan Wilson previews the game.
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Saturday’s match reports are here.
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Let’s hope Jack Wilshere lasts a bit longer at Luton, though he had a tough start on Saturday.
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Our reaction to that Postecoglou news.
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Preamble
Good morning, football. Saturday was a red letter day in Premier League history, Ange Postecoglou biting the dust in record time. Things move pretty fast at Nottingham Forest so we await news of Evangelos Maranakis’ next move.
We’ll also build up to Tottenham v Aston Villa, the 2pm kick-off, and Liverpool v Manchester United at 4.30pm.
Join us. And do let us know your thoughts and plans. Perhaps fears in the case of Forest fans.
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Updated at 03.06 EDT
