Tag: Gareth

Harry Redknapp believes that Manchester United can become title challengers once again

Former Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp believes that Manchester United can become title challengers once again if they bring in Gareth Bale back to the Premier league.

The former Tottenham star is currently with Real Madrid, but it appears that speculation about a return to the English league will never go away. This is largely because Cristiano Ronaldo has continued to dominate the headlines even though Bale is being played in a much more forward role. Bale missed out on being nominated for the FIFA Ballon d’Or award shortlist whereas Ronaldo was for yet another year.

Even then, Redknapp believes that Bale is a supremely talented player who can turn around the fortunes of United. The Red Devils have been struggling to come anywhere near winning the title since the days of Sir Alex Ferguson came to an end. In fact, the club are struggling to even finish in the top four. It has been reported that United have been very keen on bringing Bale even before the winger went to Real Madrid. David Moyes has confirmed that this was indeed the case. The former United manager was involved in a number of failed attempts to get star names. Continue reading

Angel Di Maria reckons Argentina needs a tall man in the attacking line

Angel Di Maria reckons Argentina needs a tall man in the attacking line in order to be more aggressive and win the games by much bigger margins.

There has been a bit of criticism of late that the Argentineans are not able to dictate terms even when they come up against weaker oppositions.

In the currently going Copa America competition in Chile, Argentina took on Paraguay to start their campaign and could only manage a draw.

And, then, versus Jamaica, they won by a slender margin of one goal.

In both those games, they were expected to be more dominant as they have some big names on the paper.

But, according to Di Maria, when the minnow teams face Argentina, they tend to be back most of the times and that makes it difficult for La Albiceleste to score too many no. of goals. If there had been the presence of a tall attacker, playing in the air would have been possible and that would probably have yielded better results. Continue reading

Gareth Bale’s injury will keep him out of the playing grounds for up to 3 weeks

On April 18, Real Madrid secured their 25th La Liga victory of this season with a final scoreboard of 3-1 but this victory came at a hefty cost for the team of Carlo Ancelotti as Gareth Bale had to be removed from the pitch at the 5th minute as he was replaced by Javier Hernandez at the early stages of the game.

The medical staff of Real Madrid is now reporting that Bale might have to stay on the sidelines of the team for up to 3 weeks and this will be leaving the Welshman unable to play in the upcoming crucial matches of Real Madrid as they have to play against: Athletic Madrid, Celta de Vigo, Almeria, Sevilla and Valencia in the next 3 weeks.

Karim Benzema, Luka Modric and Gareth Bale are the regular starters of Ancelotti which have been picking up injuries recently and the Italian coach will have to find a solution to this recent injury wave that has been affecting some of his key figures.

Gareth Bale underwent a series of physical tests and scans in order to find out the length and condition of his injury and Real Madrid released a statement which read:  “Following tests carried out on Gareth Bale at the Sanitas La Moraleja Hospital by the Real Madrid Medical Services, he has been diagnosed with a muscle injury in his left soleus. His progress will be monitored.” Continue reading

Carlo Ancelotti shows full confidence on Marcelo

The Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti has said that there is no player in the world who can play better than Marcelo at the full back position.

It completely contradicts the statement that the Selecao manager Dunga had made about Marcelo the other day.

Dunga had said that Marcelo did not have the right kind of approach during the World Cup this year and his recklessness cost Brazil dearly in the all important semi final game against Germany.

According to Dunga, rather than doing his job i.e. to keep  the opposition attackers at bay, Marcelo has the tendency to try and move forward all the time and in order to do so, he leaves a hole at his position.

But, Ancelotti does not think that there is anything wrong with Marcelo’s approach as defender.

The Blancos manager has, in fact, put the 26-year old right up there in the list of full backs.

Speaking about Marcelo last evening, Ancelotti said, “I don’t think Marcelo was the only reason because of which Brazil could not win the World Cup. They made mistakes as a group. To hold any particular player responsible for that is not fair at all.”

“For me, Marcelo is as good as anybody else playing as full back in the professional circuit. This season, he’s been brilliant for us and we would not mind if he is not recalled to the Brazilian side because then he would put all his focus on the club.”

The previous manager of Brazil i.e. Luiz Felipe Scolari had faith in Marcelo and he had started with him in most of the games in the World Cup.

But, since the time Scolari has been replaced by Dunga, Marcelo has not played even one game for his country.

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