Man Utd suffer ‘huge injury blow’ as Southgate ‘sweats’ over fear player ‘could miss rest of season’

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22 Feb 2024

Manchester United left-back Luke Shaw is in danger of missing the rest of the season through injury, according to reports.
Shaw’s 2023/24 campaign has been hampered by injuries, suffering his most recent setback in Sunday’s Premier League win at Luton Town.
He was substituted off in first-half injury time, walking straight down the tunnel with his side 2-1 up.

The England international was a doubt going into the fixture at Kenilworth Road and it looks like Erik ten Hag took a massive risk by starting him.
It has been reported by the Daily Mail that Shaw’s ‘recurrence of a leg injury’ against Luton means he ‘could miss the rest of the season’.
This does not just have repercussions for Man Utd but for England as well, with Gareth Southgate said to be ‘sweating over the player’s Euro 2024 inclusion’.
Shaw will definitely miss the Three Lions’ friendly fixtures against Brazil and Belgium next month and his place at this summer’s European Championships in Germany is now up in the air.
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The Red Devils, meanwhile, have 13 Premier League matches remaining and are still in the FA Cup.
Ten Hag has been forced to deal with a number of injuries to important players this term and is without Lisandro Martinez for several months.

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Martinez could have filled in for Shaw in left-back, with Ten Hag now without a player in that position.
Tyrell Malacia has not played at all this season due to a serious knee injury and the report adds that the Dutch defender recently suffered a setback in his recovery.
Man Utd signed Sergio Reguilon on loan from Tottenham last summer but sent the Spaniard back to north London in January.
Ten Hag has turned to Victor Lindelof and Sofyan Amrabat when Shaw and Malacia have been injured this season, but both players have struggled in left-back.
If Shaw is unavailable this summer, Southgate will have Chelsea’s Ben Chilwell to turn to.
Chilwell, like Shaw, has had his fair share of injury problems in recent seasons but has been a constant fixture under Mauricio Pochettino this year.
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Man Utd legend Solskjaer ‘ready’ for Bayern job; Tuchel ‘imagines’ Premier League return

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would be willing to take over from Thomas Tuchel if the German boss decides to leave Bayern Munich before the end of the season, according to Florian Plettenberg.
It was confirmed on Wednesday that Tuchel has decided to leave Bayern at the end of the 2023/24 campaign.

His decision comes after back-to-back defeats in the Bundesliga left his side eight points behind league leaders Bayer Leverkusen.
Sandiwhced in between the losses to Leverkusen and Bochum, Bayern were beaten 1-0 by Lazio in their Champions League last-16 first leg.
Leverkusen are yet to taste defeat this season and are absolutely flying under Xabi Alonso – who is the frontrunner to replace Tuchel at the Allianz Arena.
Alonso happens to be the man every Liverpool fan wants to take over from Jurgen Klopp, who will also leave his club at the end of the season.
Tuchel’s exit coming before the campaign ends is not written off, however, with a Champions League exit to Lazio surely the final straw for Bayern’s hierarchy.
Former Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solksjaer has surprisingly been linked with the Bayern job on an interim basis if Tuchel departs and German football expert Plettenberg has confirmed that the Norwegian is ‘ready’ to step in.

Cristiano Ronaldo punishes Al-Fayha! CR7 pounces on terrible error to send Al-Nassr cruising into AFC Champions League quarter-finals

Al-Nassr beat Al-Fayha 2-0 - 3-0 on aggregate
Ronaldo put in an impressive shift for the hosts
Scored late to cap off fine performance

TELL ME MORE

Cristiano Ronaldo Al-Nassr
© Provided by GOAL
It was one-way traffic right from the start at Al-Awwal Stadium as Al-Nassr dominated possession, with Marcelo Brozovic pulling the strings from a deep-lying position in midfield. And they did not have to wait for long to break the deadlock as Otavio headed home an inch-perfect cross from Al-Khaibari in the 17th minute.

Although Ronaldo took his time to make his presence felt, once he warmed up he was right in the thick of things in attack. He was clamouring for a penalty after he was brought down inside the box by two Al-Fayha players, before being denied by the woodwork having risen highest in the penalty area.
Al-Nassr pushed on in search of their second of the night following the break and Ronaldo did find the net, but he was flagged offside after he mistimed his run by a fraction of a second.
However, with just four minutes from regulation time, the prolific forward put the tie to bed by finally getting his name on the scoresheet. A half-baked clearance from goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic ricocheted and fell kindly for Ronaldo, who simply rolled the ball into a gaping goal to seal a 3-0 victory over the two legs for the Knights of Najd against their domestic rivals.

THE MVP

Cristiano Ronaldo Al-Nassr
© Provided by GOAL
A late goal was the icing on the cake for Ronaldo, who came agonisingly close on a couple of occasions on the night. After emerging as the difference-maker in the first leg with an 81st-minute winner, the 39-year-old once again proved to be a handful for Al-Fayha defenders throughout the 90 minutes. Despite being denied by the frame of the goal and the offside flag, he kept asking questions and was finally rewarded for his perseverance late into the night.

THE BIG LOSER

Cristiano Ronaldo Al-Nassr
© Provided by GOAL
Al-Fayha goalkeeper Stojkovic must shoulder his fair share of blame after his team were knocked out of the continental competition. He could have done better with his legs to save Otavio's header and was again indecisive with the clearance that led to Al-Nassr's second of the night. A performance to forget for the Serbian shot-stopper.

WHAT COMES NEXT?

Al-Nassr will now shift focus on their domestic commitments as they are set to host Al-Shabab next in the Saudi Pro League on Sunday. They are chasing leaders Al-Hilal, who are seven points ahead of them in the title race and can hardly afford to slip up.

MATCH RATING (OUT OF FIVE): ⭐⭐⭐

Otavio Al-Nassr
© Provided by GOAL

Man Utd fans want Rashford out and he’s FFP gold – Ratcliffe has to sell him

I
t is almost eight years to the day that Marcus Rashford made his debut for Manchester United against Midtjylland in the Europa League. He scored twice in a 5-1 win. Three days later he made his Premier League debut against Arsenal, against scoring twice in a 3-2 victory. A star was born, a player to lead the post-Fergie generation against the oligarchy at Stamford Bridge and state-powered Manchester City.

Except it was never a fair fight and Rashford alone, as brightly as he has shone, was never going to be enough. It is 11 years since United’s last Premier League title and the club has finally reached an accommodation with that reality.
The approval of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s acquisition of a 27.7 per cent stake in the club and control of the sporting operation at Old Trafford signals a new beginning, but this United is not setting out from a position of strength.
After eight years swimming against a largely blue tide of one shade or another, Rashford and United find themselves at a crossroads. A fully committed Rashford, the one who smacked 32 goals last season, would be central to Ratcliffe’s vision. However, Ratcliffe and his new regime cannot unsee the last six months.

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The recent signs of a revival demonstrated by Rashford, though welcome, have suddenly acquired a different value to United. Sale value, one that becomes ever more relevant following the looming departure of Kylian Mbappe to Real Madrid.
PSG have identified Rashford as a player capable of filling the Mbappe gap. With United wrestling with profitability and sustainability regulations, the sale of Rashford has particular appeal since, as an academy recruit, any sum raised is pure profit.

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That, combined with the removal from the ledger of his huge wages, amounts to a significant financial gain to contribute towards the rebuild.
Rashford is in one sense a victim of United’s prior profligacy in wasting £1.19bn on poor recruitment.
Had he had around him a Ratcliffe-shaped infrastructure from the outset Rashford might have had more to show for his eight years of high-end delivery. Moreover, the need to sell might not be so compelling.
Few have come to represent the Manchester United ideal more impressively than Rashford in the thin years post-Ferguson. He has given every fibre of his being to the cause since that iridescent debut in 2016.
During the Covid interregnum he even became a figure of national renown when he took on the British state and forced the government into a policy U-turn over the provision of free school meals for impoverished children. No player will score a greater goal that that in the service of their country.

However, Ratcliffe’s arrival coincided with a point in his career when Rashford looked lost. The player who notched his 32 goals last season and who signed a new £320,000-a-week contract in July had been replaced by an imposter, a shadow Rashford – disengaged, aimless, troubled.

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Though he offered no explanation for his form his distraction was clear. The world was left to speculate about his mental health following the split with high school girlfriend and former fiance Lucia Loi last summer.
Who knows what kind of emotional toll this kind of stuff takes on a high-profile footballer with nowhere to hide? Pictures of them together in the autumn suggested a reunion, but elsewhere there were signs of Rashford unravelling.

Hours after the crushing 3-0 home defeat to City in October Rashford was pictured celebrating his birthday in a Manchester club.
And then there was last month’s notorious 12-hour Belfast bender, the scale of which would have made George Best blush. Instead of making headlines on the pitch Rashford was driving the news agenda with tales of a nightclub tryst and reports of a subsequent row in his hotel which ended with a woman being thrown out of his room.
And all of this when he should have been on duty with United. The apology he issued for missing training the next day was ultimately accepted and began the rehabilitation to something like the Rashford we witnessed last season. Against Luton he was much improved, but there remains a lack of defensive focus and a readiness by United fans to expose it.
A clip of Rashford ambling into the contact zone late in the game at Luton when United were defending a slender 2-1 advantage went viral. Ross Barkley went round him as he would a rubber training mannequin. The reaction of the supporters suggests the emotional bond with one of their own is irrevocably weakened.

Should Rashford depart for Paris in the summer there is unlikely to be any of the resignation that met with Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure to Madrid in 2009, or David Beckham’s six years earlier, for that matter.
All players endure indifferent periods. Rashford’s sudden collapse showed just how important he was to the old United. But a new dynamic is in play at Old Trafford, and Rashford might just be sacrificed on its altar.

Liverpool just saw Jürgen Klopp's biggest weapon as Luis Díaz helps break 128-year record

Liverpool ensured it will be top of the Premier League table when it takes on Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday by beating Luton 4-1 at Anfield on Wednesday evening. But for the first hour or so, it did not look like three points were on the cards for the Reds.
Thankfully, the side heavily weakened by injuries that Jürgen Klopp was able to select delivered in the end. It has been relatively rare for Liverpool to score four or more times in the second half of a Premier League match yet it has now done so in three of the last seven games in the competition. First came Newcastle, beaten 4-2 while conceding an expected goal record, and then Bournemouth was swept aside 4-0 on its own patch before the Hatters conceded four after the interval.

The breadth of goal scorers at Liverpool’s disposal is truly stunning. The goals against Luton were converted by Virgil van Dijk, Cody Gakpo, Luis Díaz and Harvey Elliott, meaning the starting front three all got on the scoresheet. There were also four different scorers in the previous match against Brentford and the same was true for the recent Chelsea victory.
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That win followed a cup triumph over Norwich City in which five members of the squad beat visiting goalkeeper George Long. Opposing teams don't have a clue where the threat is coming from.
The club’s top three goal scorers for 2023/24 were all unavailable against Luton, with the absence of Diogo Jota, Darwin Núñez and Mohamed Salah removing 46 goals from a squad that had collectively scored 96 ahead of kick-off. The absence of the latter pair, along with Trent Alexander-Arnold, meant the top three assist providers were nowhere to be seen either.

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Thankfully, Díaz and Gakpo stepped up when Klopp needed them most. They both set new personal bests for shots in a Premier League match, with 10 and eight respectively, and more importantly, both hammered the ball home in front of the Kop.
The Colombian’s strike carried an extra significance beyond taking the score to 3-1 and likely ensuring the points were secure. It was his 10th goal of the season and that means all five of Liverpool’s senior forwards are into double figures for the campaign.
According to Opta’s Michael Reid, this is the earliest Liverpool have had five players with 10+ goals since 1895/96: a full 128 years. Even having a quintet of men with as many goals across the whole campaign is relatively rare for the Reds, with this just the fifth such instance in the Premier League era.
With so many key men out, every game is going to be difficult for the time being. But when Klopp can call on this many players with this many goals, Liverpool always has a chance.