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Ange Postecoglou says he doesn’t need players who are only interested in betting on the Champions League, adding that “I’m in favour of a certain type of character”.
The Tottenham Hotspur manager has been under pressure in recent weeks not to be obsessed with Champions League qualification, arguing that it is more vital that he continues to see the team expand between now and the end of the campaign.
Asked on Friday if some players would choose their next club based on whether or not they would play in the Champions League, Postecoglou said: “I don’t need those players. “
When asked why, he replied: “Because they don’t need to come to Tottenham. . . they need to move to a Champions League club. I signed Micky van de Ven this year. He’s not a bad player, is he?And were we in the Champions League? No, I don’t need those players. It’s a big discussion for me.
“That’s one of the discussions I’m having: why do you need to come to Tottenham?Because if you need to play in the Champions League and that’s all you need, you don’t need to come to Tottenham; you just need a ticket to the Champions League League. club.
“I need other people to come to Tottenham who know this club, who know the challenge we have, and we have a challenge, we’re different to other clubs in the sense that we haven’t had good luck for a while, so I’m looking for a certain type of character. The one who’s going to say, ‘You know what? They’re not in the Champions League yet, if I win something with them, it can mean something for my career and for me. I’m fit for this fight.
Postecoglou added of players desperate for the Champions League: “It has nothing to do with having that ambition, if someone needs to come to this club for the Champions League, that’s great, but if that’s going to be the deciding factor, then you’re probably not going to adapt to what I need to do now.
Spurs are two problems behind fourth-placed Aston Villa of late, but have a game in hand. They host Nottingham Forest on Sunday.
GO FURTHER
‘The call’: How Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou convinces him to sign him
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Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner refuses to deny his side’s chances of defying expectations despite a difficult fixture.
Palace will host Manchester City on Saturday, while in their final games they will face six of the top eight teams.
They have struggled in Glasner’s first few games but haven’t won since beating Burnley 3-0 in their first game in charge.
But Glasner prefers to watch his team’s games.
“We’ve been given 8 games, I need 24 points,” he said. Of course, our goal is to win games. If we don’t need to win the Array, it’s better for me to stay with my family and enjoy it. “The smart weather in Londres. Se expect it to be 21 degrees: sightseeing, hop on and off (tour bus), it’s great. If you say it’s okay when you loseArray, I’ll do it.
“We are competitors, we need to win the game and if I don’t have that hobby of winning each and every game, I will retire. I don’t like to say it’s Manchester City (so we can’t win). We have respect and they play excellently. “
City manager Pep Guardiola has never tasted defeat as a guest manager at Selhurst Park, and Crystal Palace’s last win over Manchester was in 2015 when Manuel Pellegrini was in charge.
“I was inspired by his functionality against Aston Villa and I’m inspired by Pep Guardiola because of what he’s done in the last seven or eight years at Manchester City and before that because I’ve seen him work in Munich,” Glasner said.
“That doesn’t mean we’re going to come in with the white flag and say ‘congratulations on the 3-0’. I’ll never do that, so I can’t do it. We’re going to win the game. “.
“We know it’s going to be a tough job for us: a lot of racing, a lot of concentration, a lot of concentration, but we’ll do it in our conditions and moments. That’s how I need to feel. So we say, Maybe congratulations at the end, maybe they deserve it, but never before the game.
After hosting City, Palace come with fixtures against Liverpool, Manchester United and Newcastle before facing Aston Villa on the final day of the season.
GO FURTHER
Crystal Palace has a new manager but the same old upheavals, and there is no solution
It’s possible that two stars will return to their groups this weekend.
Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner has shown that star winger Michael Olise (£5. 6m), who has 0. 3% scarring, will be part of tomorrow’s squad and could play between 15 and 20 minutes off the bench against Manchester City.
With City and Liverpool next, put him on the watchlist; it may be a glorious Double Gameweek option owned by a few other people in GW34.
While Aston Villa’s Unai Emery claims £8. 8m striker Ollie Watkins could face Brentford again. He’s been a very good asset to FPL, but with doubts about his fitness and only one game at DGW34, he’s an easy sell.
Wolves’ Darwin Nunez (£7. 6m) and Matheus Cunha (£5. 5m) have two games that week, while Newcastle’s Alexander Isak (£7. 8m) is in excellent form and is said to be a seasonal goalkeeper after his purchase.
With Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola revealing that goalkeeper Ederson is in contention to return to Crystal Palace from kick-off, and that Nathan Ake and Kyle Walker are still out, we have a pretty transparent picture.
Less so for Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland, and Guardiola said: “I still don’t know. Playing (at) 12:30 and just one or two days ago, we have to think. “
For me, that means keeping (or even buying, if you need to and can) Ederson, KDB and Haaland, and promoting Walker and Ake, but not to make a profit (yet) until we know more about their expected return date.
However, he would not be the captain of KDB or Haaland against Palace. Phil Foden will surely be the captain, but I would also look to Cole Palmer and Mo Salah for the armband.
There are marks on two popular and very possessed midfielders, Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka and Tottenham’s Richarlison.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta says he expects Saka to be compatible for tomorrow’s clash with Brighton. Meanwhile, Richarlison has a week off to get a chance to face Newcastle on April 13.
So what to do? I’d stick with Saka for now, but I’m still buying it. And if you have a way to get Richarlison back at GW35 when Spurs double up (i. e. a wild card), I’d sell him now.
Luis Diaz (£7. 6m), Kai Havertz (£7. 2m) and Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze (£6. 0m) are decent replacements with roughly the same value doubling GW34. But with Man City and Liverpool then for Eze, wait until GW34 to bring him in.
Newcastle manager Eddie Howe showed earlier in the day that he expects young left-back Lewis Hall (£4. 2m) to be compatible for tomorrow at Fulham.
It’s reasonable and, with a 0. 2% share, it can be a smart differential towards the end of the season. But given Newcastle’s defensive leaks and uncertainty over his fitness, for the moment he is a “monitor” rather than a “buy”.
Jamaal Lascelles will be out for at least six months with a knee injury, so immediately, even for a hit on runs. Similarly, Kieran Trippier and Nick Pope are expected to be out for about a month, so the same deal with them.
If your goalkeepers and defenders have a DGW at GW34, consider: Dean Henderson (£4. 4m), Net (£4. 7m); Daniel Muñoz (£4. 5 million), Rayan Ait-Nouri (£4. 7 million).
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The Athletic has a lot of brilliant content this week tailored to the Premier League Fantasy. Check out some of our articles below:
How you play those last seven game weeks of the season and how many chips you have left.
If you have your Free Hit, I think it’s more productive to use it on the DGW 34. This means you can do your loose transfers on the DGW 37.
If you don’t have it (like me) but you do have your wild card, you can “put your team on the spot” in GW34 by focusing all your transfers on short-term picks that will be smart in DGW34, and then play your Wild card in GW35 to build a great new team with DGW37 in the lead.
If you have a bench booster, it’s probably more productive to use it in DGW37. Please refer to Abdul Rehman’s expert recommendations below for more detailed details of the strategy.
The deadline for this week’s Fantasy Premier League is 11 a. m. m. BST for the UK, 90 minutes before Crystal Palace host Manchester City at tomorrow’s kick-off, which is at 6pm. m. ET and 3 p. m. PT for those in the U. S.
So if you like to sleep in, I think you’d better take care of your captain’s position, transfers, and lineup tonight.
GW32 is just around the corner, with a big double-play week in GW34 just around the corner. Find out what to do next.
I’m happy to subscribe to give you some tips on your Fantasy Premier League groups before the day ends.
As always, please contact us at our email address: [email protected] if you have any questions.
I’m ahead.
And that’s the end of my day. Thank you very much for your corporate and I hope that the football of the week ends.
I’ll start mine at Carrow Road over the small matter of an East Anglian derby that could have a significant effect on who will play in the Premier League next season. If you want to read the context of a misunderstood English rivalry (ignore the distance!), then the link is below.
Before all that, you now have the pleasure of my esteemed colleague Max Mathews, who will provide you (and me) with some Fantasy Premier League tips ahead of the Game Week 32 deadline. I appreciate it!
GO FURTHER
East Anglia derby fixtures: Ipswich Town vs Norwich City
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It’s been a year so far for Fulham striker Rodrigo Muñiz. The 22-year-old has scored 8 goals in nine games, ahead of Newcastle’s stopover at Craven Cottage tomorrow.
Here’s Fulham manager Marco Silva:
? “He’s got a lot of room for the mind and that’s a smart thing to do. The skills and ability are there for us as a footballer.
“He’s 22 years old and it’s normal for a striker to mature at a different age. It’s vital for him in the months and years to come, because I know he’s going to get bigger and bigger.
“There’s a lot more to come from him. I know he’ll be a player for this club. “
Silva will also be hoping to be able to react to the 3-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest in midweek, in which they passed two passes up in the first 20 minutes.
Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi has said he will have Ansu Fati and Valentin Barco in his squad to face Arsenal at the Amex tomorrow. Both missed Wednesday’s goalless draw at Brentford.
However, Adam Webster and Evan Ferguson will be absent, prompting De Zerbi to wonder if Ferguson will remain at Brighton next season.
The striker is one of the club’s most valuable young assets and has already been linked with a move to tomorrow’s visiting side. Here’s what Zerbi says:
? “I don’t know the plan for next year. Ferguson is still a player for us. If you’re that young, you can go through certain periods and play well in others.
“In the first part of the season he scored a lot of goals and before the season we knew he wouldn’t play every single game in the first eleven, but we are satisfied to have him and a lot of young players at the moment. level. “
Sheffield United is in last place in the Premier League, 10 points behind Nottingham Forest, in the last safe position, in 17th place. They have 8 games left, starting with the stopover at Chelsea on Sunday.
Forest have played one more game and it’s possible that Everton will still get closer on deduction issues, so it’s not over yet. But the death knell is ringing for the Blades.
And if you read between the lines of manager Chris Wilder this afternoon, you feel like he knows they simply lack the quality needed to wake up:
? “We have everything we want to play in the last 8 games. Above all, we owe it to our fans to give our best in each and every game. What I’ve noticed in the last 3 games In fact, it was a reaction to a disappointing evening at home against Arsenal.
“That’s been our Achilles heel all season, the late goals. The groups are strong. There are several things involved in this. . .
“When you look at Chelsea and Sheffield United, you look at the abyss and the gap. I’m not criticizing anything that happened here. But when you look at the details, I think you locate the answer. “
Okay, one more now that I’ve been through this wormhole. Whoscored. com also has a functionality review system.
Some football analysts would scoff given that it’s tricky to design an overall scoring formula for complex analyses that can be difficult to assess and aren’t comparable.
Still, those are the five most sensible players in the Premier League this season. Is he more accurate than FPL’s five most sensible scorers?
Please let us know your thoughts. Inbox is open: ✉️ [email protected]
I’ve played other sports and seen how their fantasy games are used to describe player performance, which led me to talk about the Fantasy Premier League.
They’re the five most level-headed players in the FPL this season. How would they rank among their five most sensible players from the 2023-24 campaign?
One thing is clear. All of this is a bit heavy going forward. But then, is this the case with primary prizes?
There’s even better news: Our FPL guru and colleague Max Mathews will join us here before the end of the afternoon to give us their recommendations on weekend games and their teams. Stay tuned.
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Virgil van Dijk says memories of Liverpool’s 4-3 FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Manchester United are still fresh but he is determined to make sure it doesn’t happen again in the next league game.
Last month’s match at Old Trafford was decided by a last-minute extra-time goal from Amad, with Liverpool taking the lead twice in the competition. Van Dijk said:
? “We were very disappointed. Losing is never good. Especially the way we lost that day, it hurts for the 24 hours after the game.
“Conceding goals like we did was disappointing. We controlled the game but kept them alive. They took advantage of it in the most productive way imaginable.
“It’s a credit to them, but we’ll go there on Sunday to sort things out and make sure we get the 3 points.
“We’re in a phase where we can’t lose problems and lose problems. It’s going to be difficult for us but also for them, after tonight’s game. I can’t wait to do it.
United suffered their own 4-3 defeat to Chelsea yesterday, with Cole Palmer scoring twice in stoppage time. However, Van Dijk knows that form can be irrelevant in matches between fierce rivals:
? “The games we play are opposites of each other, no matter what happened before the game in terms of outcomes. It’s all on its own. We have one step: pass out and try to win the game, we will give it our all.
And in case you think this latest post is a bit kind to Manchester United, here’s a review from my adorable colleague Charlie Eccleshare.
I think it’s possible that Manchester United still want to get back to normal, given that it’s been less than 24 hours since they lost that 3-2 lead to Chelsea.
So let’s talk about this gem ahead of hosting the Premier League leaders and arguably their fiercest rivals at Liverpool on Sunday:
I’m sure all the problems at Stamford Bridge would be solved with a win this weekend.