Pirate Galaxy » d class centre-back wouldnt hurt

LONDON - Its third against fourth in the English Premier League this weekend as Manchester United entertains Southampton with both teams in a fine vein of form.United is unbeaten in 11 matches, 10 in the league.Going into the New Year on the back of a good run means that its a case of working even harder to climb the table and get as many points as we can, United defender Chris Smalling said. We need to do as much as possible on the pitch and, as an individual, do as much as we can in terms of recovery and extra work.After a dip in form which saw it lose four matches on the trot, Southampton is back on track and has won three of its past four league matches — drawing the other one, against league leader Chelsea.Fifth-place Tottenham will be a keen spectator of Sundays match. It visits Crystal Palace the previous day, with Spurs two points off the Champions League places.Arsenal, which is a point further back, hosts Stoke on Sunday.Here are some other things to watch:___STRIKING RETURN FOR CITY: Manchester City strikers Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko are back in full training, a timely boost while their team is neck and neck with Chelsea at the top of the Premier League.Dzeko strained his calf warming up for the Leicester match a month ago, shortly after returning from another injury, adding to Manuel Pellegrinis problems up front after Aguero, who had 19 goals in 17 starts, injured his knee in the previous match.City managed to cope, picking up 13 points from five matches to draw level with Chelsea at the top of the table.City visits Everton, while Chelsea entertains Newcastle during a dip in form; a draw against Southampton and 5-3 loss at Tottenham.THE LONG GOODBYE: Liverpool captain Steven Gerrards farewell tour moves on to Sunderland on Saturday.Since saying hes heading to the LA Galaxy after the Premier League season, Gerrard has kept his focus amid an ongoing debate over whether Liverpool did enough to keep him, and scored two penalties in an FA Cup third-round win over Wimbledon on Monday.His concentration is now on football, he has announced where he is going so you have all the information, and he has done all his interviews, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers said. Now we really have to concentrate on the football and the team and keep the momentum going.ESCAPING THE DROP: There was no movement in the drop zone in the last round, as all three clubs managed to pick up a point, and none of the three clubs above them lost either.On the bottom sits Leicester, which fought from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Liverpool on New Years Day. It is three points below Crystal Palace and Burnley, and four points behind 17th-place West Bromwich Albion. It hosts Aston Villa on Saturday.Burnley entertains QPR, with both teams on a run of two consecutive draws, while Crystal Palace welcomes Tottenham, which is on a six-match unbeaten run in the league. Vapormax Italia Scontate . Manager Ryan Nelsen has confirmed Brazilian No. 1 Julio Cesar will be rested for Wednesdays first leg of the semifinal. That opens the door for Bendik, who started 33 games for Toronto last season. Nike Vapormax Saldi . Blackhawks RW Patrick Kane came up big when it counted, tallying two goals and an assist. He scored the game-winner with 4:45 remaining in the third period, stopping on the right hashmarks, carrying the puck up through the top of the Kings zone, then firing a wrist shot from the top of the circles past Jonathan Quick, who had his view obstructed by Andrew Shaw. http://www.vapormaxitalia.it/.Y. - Geno Smith still thinks of himself as the New York Jets starting quarterback. Nike Vapormax Scontate .C. -- Al Jefferson knows few people will be giving the Charlotte Bobcats a chance to upset the Miami Heat in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Vapormax Outlet Italia . In the days leading up to the draft, TSN.ca and TSN Radio basketball analyst Duane Watson looks at some of the names that will be headlining the event. Tonight, Michigans Nik Stauskas of Mississauga, Ontario.ESPN raised some eyebrows recently when, attempting to find the best modern day side of the Champions League era, they ranked Manchester Uniteds 1999 side higher than the 2008 winners. United fans have little to do during the week at the moment, being out of Europe for the first time in 25 years, so this topic certainly got a lot of their attention as they debated the merits of both sides. Why not, right? It was certainly more fun than picking the bones out of a 4-0 loss to Milton Keynes Dons in the League Cup or a recent 0-0 draw at Burnley. United fans have been doing a lot of looking back recently. They regularly cast their minds back to the Sir Alex Ferguson era and wonder if any of the current issues existed then. They are regularly reminded of the short David Moyes era where they became forlorn, former giants of the domestic game, forcing the clubs upper management to shop on a different street in the transfer market and finally bring back some expensive class home that can make a difference. Yet this season was supposed to be a new dawn. A new era away from Fergies 2012-13 and the Moyes nightmare of 2013-14 where they can draw a line under the past and move forward. If any comparing of recent eras were to take place, United fans simply hoped it would be in comical fashion referring to how poor they were last year compared to this. That ambitious leap looks far too premature at the moment after their most recent defeat, a 5-3 loss to Leicester City, in which they were massacred in the second half by a club who was playing in the Championship last season. After taking one step forward in their 4-0 win over Queens Park Rangers, they took another two steps back in humiliating fashion at the King Power Stadium on Sunday losing the last 30 minutes of the match 4-0, after being ahead 3-1 after an hour. Captain Wayne Rooney ended the game with a foul-mouthed rant in the face of the officials, believing referee Mark Clattenburg had gotten two major decisions wrong that led to two of Leicesters goals. There was no question that Jamie Vardy fouled both Rafael and Tyler Blackett on the buildup to the penalties being awarded but United will be naive and completely missing the point if they lay this loss at the hands of the officials. The simple truth is United were poor enough to allow the officials to be an excuse. Louis Van Gaal is known to be a coach of great details. He carries around a giant folder to each match and this week he gave us a glimpse of what kind of information was in it. “I have analysed them (Leicester) three times,” he said. “I prepare all my matches very thoroughly. I know all about the games they have played already and the game they lost to a minor team [Shrewsbury] in the Capital One Cup. I know everything about the team, about individuals, substitutes, what the atmosphere will be like in the stadium, how they take free-kicks, everything. My staff check all that out and then we send it to the players. Ryan Giggs gives them a presentation, then we simulate our opponents in training.” Whoever simulated Leicester in training this week got it wrong. Very wrong. They failed to show that two men would press Daley Blind whenever he received the ball, ensuring he made less than half of the passes hhe attempted last week against QPR.dddddddddddd They failed to simulate Leonardo Ulloas instincts in the box shown when he scored a crucial header, not tracked, at 2-0. They failed to simulate the tempo that Leicester played with, even when they were down 3-1, something Van Gaal will never have experienced from a promoted team when coaching the likes of Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Above all, they certainly failed to test an embarrassingly open team that showed no backbone, belief and leadership when faced with adversity. In parts United were breathtaking, looking nothing like their former selves, when Radamel Falcaos brilliant cross found the head of Robin van Persie and when Angel Di Maria dribbled his way into the box and lobbed Kasper Schmeichel soon after, but in many ways it is those moments that makes Uniteds second half performance even more alarming. The Premier League has a video library of all of their past matches and inside that library is a list of what they call ‘EPL Classics. These are offered at a price to their broadcast partners around the world. United feature heavily in many of these games and most of them they win. Even when they didnt always play well such classics showed Uniteds incredible resolve and recovery abilities to come from behind and win matches, like the famous 5-3 victory at Tottenham in September, 2001. Sir Alex Ferguson called that one of his most memorable victories and talked in his book about the belief the team had down 3-0 at half-time. He wrote: “As they traipsed into the dressing room, three goals down, the players were braced for a rollicking. Instead I sat down and said: ‘Right, Ill tell you what were going to do. Were going to score the first goal in this second half and see where it takes us. We get at them right away, and we get the first goal. ” It was a 5-3 that said everything about that United team. The moment they scored the first goal the entire ground wondered about a comeback. Sundays 5-3 loss to Leicester said everything about this current United team. Up 3-1 they should have seen it out but they left too many attacking players on the field and crumbled, losing a Premier League match, after being up two goals, for the first time ever. At 3-3, with 25 minutes left for them to still go on and win, they walked back to the centre-circle with their heads down. The only one whose head was up was captain Rooney who screamed at his United teammates. It is not all Rooneys fault but it was hardly the image of leadership and it speaks volumes that there is no better option than the Englishman to wear the captains armband. A team that once had incredible leadership and characters relied upon individual brilliance to insert their dominance over Leicester but when the going got tough they disappeared. Some blame falls at the feet of Van Gaal, of course, and it is clear his folder needs more chapters, and the profile of a world class centre-back wouldnt hurt either, but the capitulation falls on the players. There is no hiding behind an inadequate manager anymore. The Premier League has a new game to place inside their classic library. It is up to the current crop of United players to now ensure its a match that doesnt define this era. 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