Sportsoff

Why Dani Alves can be an asset for FC Barcelona

Yesterday the news broke out that Xavi has given a green signal to sign the Brazilian who is 38 years old and in night Barca make this move official through their social media handles and to be honest no one was expecting this transfer to happen this quick like in morning we read the news and in the night it just gets confirmed.

But many fans are skeptical of this move and where Barcelona is going with this strategy. Let’s discuss it.

There is a great concern that with the arrival of Alves the playing time of Oscar Mingueza and Dest will be affected but I feel, this will not be the case in the long-term because firstly, he will not be going to play every match or every minute but he can play a vital role as a substitute and secondly, he is coming on the contract which will run only till June 2022 and Alves is a competitive beast so he is a kind of player who can push Dest and Mingueza to their max which will benefit them and the team.
And another reason can be Xavi wants a player who can bring new energy to the team and we know that Alves can bring that winning mentality to the team which is missing in past years in these players and this team of Barcelona is very young so having a man who has the monstrous mentality and wants to win everything can be a great asset for the team.

Another thing which we have to consider is that he can be another body in the dressing room like Barcelona has some serious injuries issues throughout this season and Dest has to play as a winger for the team to provide the width so in those circumstances he can play as a right-back or even a winger because in past he has played that role with the team, so with his arrival, we can optimize our options and Barcelona is financially struggling so it is a viable option for short-term because he is a free agent and reportedly he will play for free for the club because he will get the minimum salary so that he can get register with Laliga.

And the most important thing is, he can be a mentor for many young players. At Barcelona, some serious talents can mark an era, and learning someone from the player like Dani Alves who won the most trophies in the history of football, and arguably the best Right-back football has seen is something special, so for them, it is a great opportunity and Dani is a character when the team might be losing or in a difficult phase, he can be someone who can lift the team-up and boost the morale of the players.
So, these were my thoughts about Dani Alves, and it will be interesting to see what will his role be in this Barcelona.

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Newcastle United: Can they be the next big club in the world?

Yesterday afternoon, Newcastle United an English Club has been taken over by the Saudi Arabian Consortium and they bought the club ownership for £300M. And with that Newcastle united has become the club that has the wealthiest owner in world football and their net worth is a whopping £320 BN. It is more than the net worth of the top ten richest club owners in the world. But I am not here to discuss the money, I want to talk about football and will this be starting off the new era of a club?

After the news breakout, everyone is saying that they will buy this player or that player, and they will win everything in the next 4-5 years. But my thoughts are a bit different here it can be right or wrong.

The road to success or re-development for Newcastle will not be easy as it seems. To become a World-class club you need a solid sporting project. And for a solid project, you need the right team to lead the charge of the sporting area. And they have to lay the foundation from the basic which is youth football, everyone talks about City signings and how much cash they spend but look at their youth level football and how they are nurturing youth and they have some great talents in their academy. A player like Phil Foden is a great example.

And next thing is they have to create a culture of football in the city and within the club, a sporting director or the personnel related to the sporting area should decide how they want to play football what they want to offer to the world. A club like Barcelona and Real Madrid are famous for their culture, like Barcelona is famous for Tiki-Taka and Real Madrid is famous for Galacticos signing. So, they have to create a culture of whether they want to invest in youth or they want to buy superstars from the market. And which brand of football they want to play and what their goals are. And creating the unique identity of the club is one of the hardest things to do so.

And another thing is if you have money and you can spend big it doesn’t mean that any player will sign for the club. Great players always want to play for the club who are well established like in the premier league if any player got an offer from United, City, Chelsea, or Liverpool then the player will like to play for these clubs who are competing at the highest level. And when it comes to money, nowadays all the clubs in the world have resources to smash wages on the table especially when you talk about Premier League clubs. And because of Financial Fair Play, they can’t just throw money while signing the players they need to be astute in this process and have to value the players fairly.

And the next thing is signing a new manager; talks already started that Steve Bruce will be sacked and even he admitted this publicly that he knows he may get sacked at Newcastle. But the dilemma is who will be the next manager? According to bookies, Antonio Conte is the favorite to take the position of head coach of Newcastle United, and Steven Gerrard’s name is in the air too, and it will be interesting to see whom they root for.

So these are my views, I hope you like them and I will love to hear your views on this.
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Is the time of Delhi Capitals have finally arrived for lifting their first-ever IPL Trophy?

Well, for many a match between CSK VS DC can be a match to top the table but I am seeing that match as a potential final of this edition. And Delhi’s capitals came strong in this particular match. Both the bowling sides have dominated most of the match and it was Delhi batting who help them to take the 2 points and win an important fixture to build their confidence and gain momentum over CSK. While in the last two matches Chennai looked a bit sluggish against Rajasthan they were never looked in control in bowling and against DC their batting is a bit of a flop show. And every team should note that if you take early wickets against CSK then they are the team that has big flaws in the middle-order. And DC exploited this weakness of CSK very well and asked some difficult questions which every team till now has failed to do so.

But coming to Delhi why they are more poised to win this edition of IPL. Firstly, they play exciting cricket they have a good blend of youth and seniors which makes their team very strong. And their opening pair lays the foundations for other batsmen which makes the job of other batsmen easy and especially in UAE where pitches are slow this time, so if your openers utilize the first 6 overs of powerplay brilliantly then you have a good chance to make winning runs. And then their middle order and lower order is also very reliable they got Shreyas Iyer and Pant then some big hitters like Hetmyer, Axar Patel, and Stoinis. Stoinis is currently injured but he has always played a vital role in Delhi’s success over the past 2 years. And one thing they have shown this season is match awareness, like last season in big matches some batsmen used to got panicked and they throw their wickets easily especially in big matches and which resulted in the loss in final. And with that loss, they have become stronger and mentally they are stronger than ever and this helped them a lot and in this season they have won many tight matches in this edition which they might have lost in last editions of IPL.

And last reason is Ricky Ponting, I think he deserves huge credit for the team’s success. After his arrival, Delhi has always managed to be in the top-4, and last season they reached their first-ever final and there were times when Delhi was one of the teams who always finishes last and even with the great team they always underachieve but he has created the monster team. So Kudos to him.

MNM NEEDS TIME!

If you had to pick a team in Europe and bet your money for winning everything, people will blindly select PSG over any team. PSG has created the dream team which looks only possible in video games. And the expectations are enormous from PSG and from their dream trio which got their name as “MNM”. And people expected them to perform from the point go. But football doesn’t work like this as you have to create synergy and as a player, you should know when the player will make his run or in which position the player came in often, so it is not that easy to understand but there can be an argument that Messi and Neymar have played together and with Di-Maria also Messi plays with Argentina team so why it is taking so much time?

And I am not the best person to judge the players like Messi-Mbappe-Neymar but it is my understanding which I would love to share with you all and to give my opinion on this.

First, we have to start with Messi. I think for him on a personal level things haven’t gone quite well and to be honest he proved to be so unlucky till now, as some brilliant stunners hit the woodwork like 2 freekicks from outside the box, if they went in that will be a pure class or you can say Messi Class. And of course, he hit the woodwork against Club Brugge also when he cut inside and try to attempt from outside the box. And his late signing doesn’t help him either as Ligue1 started early compared to other leagues and when he signed with the PSG they already had played 1 game in League and overall out of 9 league games he only managed to play one full game or if I have to be precise he only played 190 minutes for PSG. And the most important thing, he played 20 years in a completely different setup in Barcelona so he needs time to adjust himself. So speculating him as a failure based on 370 minutes in a PSG shirt is completely absurd.

As all eyes are on Messi these days, we almost forgot about Neymar Jr. I think this season, he has been poor. And when you are Neymar people expect a ton from you, but he is not even near to his best and some performances were awful if I have to be quite honest and when he arrived at the start of the season there were talks about his weight and all but till now he has not hit the stride.

And one of the big reasons why they haven’t get in the groove is because of their positioning or their roles. I think all three likes to receive a ball from midfield and to drop a bit and then try to dribble 3-4 players and then create chances for others or to score themselves but sometimes what happens is Messi is also doing this and even Mbappe is dropping a bit and then Neymar is also doing the same, so you don’t get bodies ahead of you to make a pass. I think this thing Pochettino has to sort out and how they all will play together. But with the time I am quite sure they will scare everyone and against Rennes in the first half especially we saw glimpses of what they can do and there are one-two’s between them, So I am excited to see them.

I hope you like this blog and you can share your opinions with me and how you feel about this.
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Is this edition of IPL boring?

The second phase of IPL 14 started last week in UAE and till now this phase has not gained momentum and one of the reasons for the slow start of the IPL is low scoring matches and the pitches.

I am shocked that pitches are this slow especially in Sharjah wherein the first half of last season IPL there were scores of above 200 in every match and even Abu Dhabi pitches were good to bat on too, but this season Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah pitches look slowish to me as the ball is not coming to the bat properly and the ball is holding on the pitch which makes strokes playing a bit harder and the lack of bounce worsen the things. And don’t get me wrong but to be honest, in T20 I want to see pitches where there is a pace and bounce because this generation like IPL because they get enticing cricket to watch where there are lots of sixes and fours, and matches are so tight that till last over you don’t know who is going to win. People can criticize me for this that low-scoring matches are interesting. Yes, I agree with them but seeing every match as low scoring doesn’t excite me and from IPL you expect better as a cricket fan. And you want to see those big innings from young guns and those heroic spells from bowlers like Kartik Tyagi bowled against Punjab Kings.

And one more concern I have that how pitches will be in World-cup because there are too many matches yet to play in this edition of IPL and after IPL pitches will be prepared for World-cup again but seeing these wickets at the starting of the IPL scares me because in T20I world-cup you don’t want to see matches where 140 runs are made and batsmen are struggling to make runs. So, I hope in the future we will see more fantasizing cricket.

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Thomas Tuchel: From being sacked to being regarded as a genius!

Goodbyes to loved ones are never easy and liked by many people but in Chelsea F.C instance it has brought the fortunes to them or you can say sacking Lampard (Club Legend) in mid-season left all the fans in agony but I feel it has turned out as one of the best decisions in club history and I can surely say no fan of Chelsea FC might regret this decision.

From the day Tuchel took the reign of Chelsea in his hand, he never looked back and from match 1; Chelsea is firing in all cylinders especially their defensive stability is hell good. And to be honest, When Tuchel arrived for Chelsea I never thought that this kind of dominance Chelsea will show, and in the same season, he will win their second champions league in the history of the football club. Because only a few days back Tuchel got sacked by the PSG and going after that manager who recently got sacked was a daring decision by management and whoever take that decision I think he/she has hit the bullseye.

But how Tuchel turned this side into a world-class team that is struggling under the Lampard? So let’s have a look at what he has done.

When any new manager arrives at the club, he might try to focus on playing attacking football which may excite the fans but Tuchel adopted a different approach what he did was, he first solidify his defense and solve the defensive issues and their defense from the very first match was unbreachable and many said that they are playing boring football and other things but Tuchel knows what he is trying to do and where his team is going and at the end, it pays off.

And in modern football, we always talk about formation and playing style. And he adopted a system of 3-4-2-1 and I want to quote Pep Guardiola here as he said in an interview that “Why Chelsea play so good because they have three central defenders close, the two holding midfielders who move in relation are close, the pockets are close, the striker and the two [others in the attack] are so, so close. “The distances are so close, and at the same time they are so wide with the wing-backs, they are so good with the ball in behind. “That’s why you cannot be close because they push you [out wide] and they have a lot of good players in the middle. “That’s why it’s difficult to face teams who want the ball and want to play with the ball. We’ve tried to do it since day one.” And one thing I want to add here is their work-rate means the work they do when they don’t have the ball they press high, their defender’s positions are right and they play fierce football when they defend they defend hard when they attack they attack hard and within 7-8 months he has made this team unbeatable.

And now with the arrival of Lukaku, they have a striker who can bang 30-35 goals in a season and if Lukaku achieves this number I think they will win some major titles in this season. And I feel they are one of the main contenders of winning the Premier League as things stand as of today.

I hope you like this blog and if you do so, please like and share my blog and even you can share your opinions in the comment section.

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Virat steps down as a captain from T20I’s.

On 13 September 2021, the news broke out by the Times of India journalist that Virat is considering stepping down as a captain in T20I’s but a few hours later, the treasurer of BCCI played down the news and said he will continue as captain. And even I considered this news a bit kind of distraction but there is no denying that if Virat doesn’t win this T20I world cup then the sword will be hanging over the head. But yesterday evening Virat himself announces that after this T20I world cup he will step down as the captain because of the immense workload which he faced in the last 8-9 years.

And in my opinion, this is the courageous decision of Virat to step down as a captain because people usually don’t want to delegate powers and in India, people don’t like the culture of split captaincy but he has put his nation above everything and I respect his decision and we have to cheer him up for this world cup because even he will be willing to leave a mark by winning this trophy as a captain. But things don’t look as simple as they are because even Sunil Gavaskar sir has said that “He might have got a hint that BCCI and selectors aren’t impressed with his white ball captaincy. This could be the reason why he left T20I captaincy and decided to give leadership to someone”.
But God forbid if India fails to win this world-cup then this decision will come but it may come from BCCI or maybe Virat do it voluntarily and what will happen is that people will think just because we have lost the world-cup that’s why Virat is forced to step down as a captain. So, the timing of this news is well planned and is right.

And with Virat stepping down who can be the next captain of T20I? There is no reward for guessing as it will be Rohit Sharma and if he doesn’t become the captain it will be a surprise for me and the whole nation would be surprised, because after Virat if anyone is the leader in this team in terms of performance or by charisma as a captain then it is Rohit Sharma and there has been heated debate in media especially after 2019 world-cup that Rohit Sharma should take the charge of White ball cricket but I feel his time has finally arrived at least for T20I’s. And also it will be interesting to see whether the BCCI will remain with Virat in the ODI captaincy or will they change it but one thing is for sure now BCCI has to make a decision and the ball is in their court now.

So if you have any thoughts regarding this you can share them with me in the comment section.
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The Ro-Hitman Sharma 2.0

I never saw Sachin Tendulkar in his prime because I was 12 when he retired from cricket in 2012, but after seeing this test series against England and how Rohit Sharma played, I am quite sure that after some time ,when I share my experience as a fan , then I can say that I have seen Rohit Sharma playing because in this series his batting is like poetry.His every shot has some reason and meaning behind it. It is just beautiful to watch and I am out of words to explain this.
Who doesn’t know the story of his revival in the Test Cricket, so let’s take a look.

3-4 years back everyone writes off Rohit Sharma as the Test batsman and labeled him as a White-ball cricketer. But after having a sumptuous ODI world-cup in England in 2019 where he scored 5 hundred, the team management decided to promote Rohit Sharma as an opener in the Test match but everyone still makes statements that the test is a different ball game, ball swings more and it is challenging and Rohit doesn’t have a technique, etc but in the very first match against South Africa he started with a bang and scored 2 hundred and 1 double hundred in that series but he still had to prove his critics and everyone was sighting their eyes for New Zealand tour because as an Indian Opener it is considered if you perform in SENA countries then only you are a good opener but because of injury he missed that series and now the next challenge was Australia and he played there in last two matches were he got moderate success as he made 1 fifty and got the start of 30 odd runs in 2 innings so the sample size was small but he was solid, but those big runs were missing which we expect from Rohit Sharma but right after in-home series he again scored some crucial runs where wickets were spinner friendly and both teams were struggling to bat on and he scored 169 runs in Chennai test match where other batsmen even struggled to make 50 runs. And overall it was just a pretty good series for Rohit Sharma. And now England is the ultimate challenge for him and what he does in this tour is just mind-blowing, his defense and his shot selection are on-point and no one expected him to bat like this. And we have always watched Rohit Sharma being aggressive and even in test match batting with a strike rate of 50 plus and in this series, his strike is just 40 and he is the batsman who have played most balls in this series; above 700 which shows how much patience he has batted in the whole series and it resulted that he scored 368 runs in the series already and he is the second-highest run-getter in the series.

A big congratulation to Rohit Sharma for this hundred and also for completing 3000 runs in Test cricket and completing 16000 runs international cricket runs and completing 11000 runs as a test-opener.
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India’s playing XI for the fourth match.

After suffering a defeat in Leeds, India has a big point to prove in Kennington Oval Cricket Stadium. But the history doesn’t favor India as for the last 50 years India has not won a single Test Match in Oval. But there are too many questions that have been asked about team 11 after the loss and even I have discussed in my previous cricket blog. So, let’s forget about the last match because there are 2 matches left and the series is on level at 1-1 and I want to be optimistic and want to believe that this team has done in the past and they will bounce back from this too.

Oval is one of the stadiums in England which helps spin bowlers and the meta of the pitch is that win the toss here and bat first because on the first day and second day the pitch is better for batsmen and on the 4th and 5th day the spinners always get a sharp turn. This pitch behaves a bit like Indian wickets where starting days of the match are the best days to bat on but as days pass the pitch becomes spinner-friendly. So, I think this is now or never for R. Ashwin and India should play him. He is the world best off-spinner at the moment and the kind of form Ashwin is in he has to play regardless of the situation or pitch and he recently played a county match in Oval during the break after WTC final and he took 6 wickets in an innings and even in WTC the pitch which had nothing for spinners he still managed to take 2 wickets in each inning. And seeing England have 5 left-handers and statistics says Ashwin got Root number in Test matches so he will be a threat to a Root too. And another change which I like to see or everyone is talking about is playing 6th batsmen. I was reading many legends comments and they all want to play Suryakumar Yadav but I feel Vihari is a perfect batsman for 6th number, technically he is strong and during IPL season he played here county cricket so the experience which he got here will come in handy and after seeing his innings in Australia, if India wants to play a batsman on Number 6 then he should be Hanuma Vihari and he can give some overs too if the team needs him. But I feel India will not go with 6 batsmen and Rishabh Pant will play on Number 7, & they will back their batting and will not change anything in the batting line-up. But they should incorporate Ashwin in place of Ishant Sharma and if Jadeja is not fit because he got some knee issues in the last match so then play Shardul Thakur. I personally highly rate him because of his traditional swing bowling and he can contribute from the bat also.

The probable starting XI can be Rohit Sharma, K.L. Rahul, Pujara, Virat Kohli, Rahane, Pant, Shardul (If Jadeja is injured), Ashwin, Bumrah, Shami, and Siraj.
I hope you like my blog, you can share your opinions with me in the comment section and we can discuss cricket or other sports.
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Top 5 transfer deals on deadline day

The one who follows football knows the hysteria of the transfer window, especially in the last 2 days. And similarly, this amazing transfer window has left no stone unturned.
We will talk about the best five deals which happen in the last 2 days of a transfer window.

Antoine Griezmann
Atletico Madrid has got a bargain if I have to be honest, a world-class player who carry them for those champions league finals and the history he has written for the club is just unbelievable. But after leaving Atletico his stars were not shining and he got heavily criticised by Spanish Media but yesterday Atletico take advantage of Barca’s financial situation and they signed a Griezmann for a 1-year loan deal which can be extended for 2 years + €40M option to buy the player. And in 2022 they will have an opportunity to sign him for just €40 M and they sold him in 2019 for €120M, this is just insane business from Atletico.

Saul Niguez
An Atletico player who was not in Diego Simeone’s plans has chosen his new destination which is the current European champion Chelsea FC, this is another loan deal but effective for Chelsea FC. Chelsea will pay €5M for Saul Niguez to Atletico Madrid for the one-year loan spell and after the year they will have an option to buy him for €40M.

Eduardo Camavinga
An 18-year-old boy who is a new French prodigy makes a move to Real Madrid this summer. He signed a six-year deal with the Spanish giant. The details of the deal are €31M + add-ons. He plays as a central defensive midfielder and with the arrival of him, Real Madrid is surely building a team for the next 5-7 years with the likes of Fede Valverde, Kylian Mbappe potentially next summer for free, and maybe Haaland also if Perez get it right.

Emerson Royal
It is another fantastic deal for Tottenham Hotspurs. E. Royal was acquired by Tottenham for €30M which is a good signing for the English side as he will add variety to the right-back position. And by many Brazilians, he is very highly rated. So it is a good signing for Tottenham.

Moise Kean
It is a two years loan deal for a young Italian striker, he started his career at Juventus but being sold to Everton but destiny has brought him again to Juventus after enjoying his loan spell for PSG. The loan fee is around €7M.

So, in my opinion, these were the best 5 transfers that occur on the deadline day. You can give your opinions on the chatbox I would love to hear what is your opinion or any player who can make this list.

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