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Arne Slot has responded to Wayne Rooney’s claim that the Liverpool head coach does not have the “aura” to manage the club by pointing to his Premier League title success last season.
Rooney questioned Slot’s suitability for the job, telling The Overlap: “I have met him a few times. He was a nice fella but I just don’t think, for Liverpool, he’s got that aura about him. Maybe this is because you have just come off the back of Jürgen Klopp and it’s going to be difficult for anyone to have that, but I just don’t think there’s that aura about him.”
The former Manchester United striker said it was “strange” for Slot to be in an apparent “audition” to keep his job so soon after winning the league but believes failure to qualify for the Champions League would lead to the Dutchman’s sacking.
Will that new manager bounce come into effect for Tottenham tomorrow?
I am hoping Tudor has the same effect on Spurs as Carrick had when Man Utd played Arsenal!
Johan Lange, the Tottenham sporting director, has explained the rationale behind Igor Tudor’s hire as head coach until the end of the season. Lange said: “it’s very important to go into a shorter process than you do if you are changing a head coach over the summer. We interviewed a few candidates. Igor impressed us very, very much in the interview.
“He comes in with very big experience at the highest level in football. As a player, playing for a very, very big club, one of the biggest clubs in the world in Juve. Of course he was part of this very good generation of Croatia national team in the late 90s. He has shown the capabilities of coming into clubs around this time, February, March, and also big clubs, and made an immediate performance impact. That was of course a very big reason.”
Lange said the next, full-time appointment will be made with playing style at the forefront of executives’ thoughts. “We are very ambitious to create a team that can play dominant football and that can control the matches with the ball for a few reasons. If you look across almost every league in the world, that is how you can say the top teams normally are successful – that is being able to dominate possession, create chances, be aggressive without the balll
“We are also a club with a rich history of having some of the best offensive players in the world and having a very particular style of play that resonates with the history, resonates with the fans and I think that, combined with having a possession-dominant, aggressive style of play, those two things go hand in hand. That is something that is important for us here at the club.”
Jeff Sax has messaged in about Mikel Arteta and Arsenal:
“I cannot understand how Arteta is not receiving more criticism. He has not been able to win the league for years and now he seems to be setting up for another miss.
Look at his body language and head position when on the sideline: no confidence and scared.”
Do you agree, Arsenal fans?
Championship fixtures (3pm GMT unless stated otherwise)
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Stoke City v Leicester City (12:30pm)
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West Brom v Coventry City (12:30pm)
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Swansea City v Bristol City (12:30pm)
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Hull City v QPR (12:30pm)
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Millwall v Portsmouth
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Norwich City v Birmingham City
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Wrexham v Ipswich Town
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Middlesbrough v Oxford United
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Southampton v Charlton Athletic
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Watford v Derby County
Mikel Arteta has insisted the word “bottlers” is not in his vocabulary and that Arsenal must take criticism “on the chin” after surrendering a 2-0 lead against the bottom side, Wolves, in midweek.
As always, feel free to email in with any thoughts, feelings, predictions and all that jazz ahead of today’s games. You can also leave a comment below the line.
From strike partners to new eras, here are 10 things to look out for in the Premier League this weekend…
Thomas Frank, sacked by Tottenham last week, is believed to be a contender to take over at Crystal Palace in the summer. Palace would also be interested in Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola, whose contract expires at end of June. The former Republic of Ireland forward Robbie Keane, who is managing Ferencvaros, and Rayo Vallecano’s Iñigo Pérez have also been mooted as potential replacements.
Crystal Palace have decided against sacking Oliver Glasner despite his latest public outburst on Friday when the manager said he was “just not good enough” to turn around the club’s fortunes.
Glasner has announced he will leave Palace at the end of the season, but the club’s chair, Steve Parish, considered bringing forward the Austrian’s departure after supporters turned on the manager during Thursday’s 1-1 draw at Zrinjski Mostar in the Conference League.
Palace next face Wolves in the Premier League tomorrow.
Premier League fixtures (3pm GMT unless stated otherwise)
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Aston Villa v Leeds United
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Brentford v Brighton
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Chelsea v Burnley
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West Ham v Bournemouth (5:30pm)
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Manchester City v Newcastle (8pm)
Preamble
Hello, good morning and welcome to another Matchday live! We have five Premier League fixtures to look forward to this afternoon as Leeds United travel to face Aston Villa, Brentford host Brighton, Chelsea take on Burnley, West Ham host Bournemouth and Manchester City face Newcastle.
Not only that, we will be looking ahead to this afternoon’s Championship, League One and League Two fixtures, as well as some of the biggest games across Europe.
And let’s not forget, there’s the small matter of a North London Derby to preview for tomorrow….
We’ll be guiding you through it all - join us!
