Sports Poets Society

Jamie Jackson 23 Jan 2025 - The Guardian Ruben Amorim regrets saying his Manchester United team may be the worst in the club’s history and giving the post-match dressing down that reportedly damaged a television screen. The head coach claimed that his public comments after Sunday’s 3-1 defeat by Brighton at Old Trafford were aimed more at his underperformance than his players. He also suggested changing-room criticism of his squad had been an error because he does not usually address them after a game. Reflecting on his press conference remarks, Amorim said: “I was talking more for myself than my players because I was talking that [I am] a coach who starts out losing seven games in the first [15]. “It’s the same players doing worse with a new coach – that is my only concern at the moment. I also talked about how I was not helping my players and if you look at every time you [the media] push about the players [not being] good enough I never put the spot [blame] on my players. “So I unde...

ADAM DAVY/PAErling Haaland shows his despair after  Manchester  City  gave up a two-goal lead to lose at Paris Saint -Germain David Hytner  23 Jan 2025 - The Guardian Parc de Princes - Pep Guardiola refused to wallow after Manchester City’s latest Champions League misstep, delivering home truths and accepting that if his club were to exit the competition it would be what they deserve. City lost 4-2 against Paris Saint-Germain at Parc des Princes, having led 2-0, and they will fall short of the playoff round if they do not win their final group tie next Wednesday at home against Club Brugge.* Guardiola appeared to suggest he had been outmanoeuvred by the PSG manager, Luis Enrique, his good friend and former Barcelona and Spain teammate, who regularly had the extra man in midfield by playing with a false nine. Guardiola lamented his team’s lack of intensity and how poor they were with the ball at the back. “The players suffered and PSG were better,” he said. “They were...

David Hytner 23 Jan 2025 - The Guardian Parc des Princes - It ought to have been over. In previous times it surely would have been. Erling Haaland had tapped in from close range shortly after Jack Grealish, on as a substitute, had broken the deadlock. There were 53 minutes on the clock and Manchester City looked ready to breathe life into their ailing Champions League campaign. And yet the current edition of Pep Guardiola’s serial Premier League champions have come to lack the old certainties. They are vulnerable to high-tempo flurries from the opposition. The idea for them was to prove they were back, having moved on from that horror run of one win in 13 from the end of October. They had won four of their previous five. Instead, they fell apart. Again. Paris Saint-Germain were electrified by Bradley Barcola who made their first goal for Ousmane Dembélé, on as a substitute, and scored the second himself. Guardiola had reshuffled his defence at half-time when Rúben Dias was forced off w...

23 Jan 2025 - The Guardian Barney Ronay Parc des Princes - Slowly, and then all at once. This is how Manchester City collapse these days. Pep Guardiola once described his ultimate fever dream as a coach, the goal at the end of all this detail; which is essentially to have the ball for 90 minutes, creating his own frictionless Pep-world of total control. Well, that might just have to be parked for a bit. Probably best not to watch this one back for a while, either. At the Parc des Princes City produced one of the strangest performances of Guardiola’s time. Everyone has an off day. Human error happens. What stood out in, a second half during which City went from 2-0 up to 4-2 down, was how lonely the players looked out there, a team utterly losing the sense of itself. Mainly it all just came from nowhere, arriving as a kind of social contagion. For 15 minutes City simply fell apart, collapsed like a rain-soaked cardboard box, an entity that suddenly had no resistance, no fibre, no sense ...

UNE TEMPÊTE Menés 0-2 en début de seconde période, les Parisiens ont réussi une remontée prodigieuse contre City. Un match nul mercredi prochain à Stuttgart leur assurera une qualification pour les play-offs. 23 Jan 2025 - L'Équipe VINCENT DULUC Il y a peu de soirées au Parc des Princes qui font un vacarme pareil et sèment une telle joie, peu de matches aussi électriques et renversants, peu de rendez-vous européens qui semblent à ce point transformer le sens d’une saison et justifier la quête d’un entraîneur. Mené 0-2 après 53 minutes alors que tout était contre lui, mais qu’il avait déjà soumis les champions d’Angleterre à une intensité qui les aura souvent fait passer pour des petits garçons, le PSG a complètement éparpillé Manchester City dans une atmosphère de tempête, égalisant en sept minutes, et roulant sur l’équipe de Pep Guardiola dans des proportions que l’on aurait difficilement soupçonnées (4-2). La vérité est que l’on n’avait pas vu Paris à ce point conquérant, emballa...

PLZEN - ANDERLECHT Tijd voor Grote Luis “We weten dat we anders moeten spelen met Vazquez dan met Dolberg”    - David Hubert, Coach Anderlecht 23 Jan 2025 Gazet van Antwerpen Stad en Rand Een goeie -3 graden, witbevroren bomen, hier en daar sneeuw. Het lijkt bijwijlen wel het decor van de Disney-film Frozen. Hier kan Anderlecht verder schrijven aan een heel mooi verhaal. Als RSCA wint van Viktoria Plzen is het na zeven speeldagen al zeker van de 1/8ste finales van de Europa League. Dat zou straf zijn in een competitie waarin topteams als Tottenham, AS Roma of Porto meedoen, neen? Bij een gelijkspel heeft het nog 73% kans op die top acht. Er is wel een ‘maar...’ De Brusselaars moeten komaf maken met Viktoria Plzen. Dat is de Tsjechische nummer twee en een ploeg die in tien Europese matchen nog maar één keer verloor. Van Man United nota bene. Anderlecht mist op de koop toe zijn topschutter Kasper Dolberg en moet rekenen op de Argentijn Luis Vazquez. Tja. Die Luis doet ons wel ee...