List of All Articles with Tag 'al'

FanSided readers excited for the college football season have a great opportunity to score a HUGE payday thanks to Caesars and BetMGM's exclusive sign-up bonuses. Following an initial deposit, your first wager at each sportsbook will be refunded in bonus bets if you lose, giving you a second ch...

The United States women’s national team narrowly qualified to the round of 16 after a disappointing 0-0 draw against Portugal inspired a second place finish in group E.

US President Joe Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, could slash US greenhouse gas emissions in

The heavy metal legends were less than impressed with the mammoth bill they had to pay because of gig-goers.

IndiGo, India’s biggest airline, reported a bigger-than-expected net profit for the first quarter through June as travel demand

Germany will increase a levy on polluting fossil fuels used in housing and transportation next year as planned,

It transpires there are different kinds of problems involving the Liverpool midfield. Last season was a tale of the aged, the injured, the inconsistent and the incoherent, the malfunctioning midfield that meant a champion team suddenly looked disjointed and disappointing. If it was an exaggeration to say Liverpool didn’t have a midfield last season, in a sense they don’t have one now. Or not their old midfield, anyway. An exodus was partly planned, partly thrust upon Jurgen Klopp by Saudi Arabia’s injection of money and unexpected wish to acquire defensive midfielders. Perhaps Jordan Henderson and Fabinho will not be able to gegenpress in 45-degree heat, but it is not Klopp’s immediate concern; if the plan was for two new faces to feature in his first-choice midfield, a complete overhaul has become necessary. He wanted change and got a revolution instead. Of the six midfield departures, Arthur Melo – he of the solitary, 13-minute appearance – is still more of an afterthought now. Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are cases of what might have been, some of their potential left unrealised amid spells on the treatment table. But James Milner, Henderson and Fabinho were three of the quintessential Klopp midfielders: the fourth, Gini Wijnaldum, left in 2021. Between them, they played 1063 times for Klopp; they rank second, fourth, 17th and 11th respectively for most appearances in the German’s managerial career and, even including his days at Mainz and Borussia Dortmund, no central midfielders have lined up as often for him. They were the men who made his teams work, the rhythm section of his heavy-metal football, leaving the glamorous jobs to others. There were always other midfielders, but they were usually those trusted for the big occasions. In the 2018 Champions League final, Milner and Wijnaldum flanked Henderson. Come the 2019 final, when Fabinho had joined, he had the anchor role, with Henderson and Wijnaldum either side and Milner deployed as a specialist finisher, using his experience to see out the victory. The Dutchman was a different sort of finisher on Klopp’s greatest night: initially benched for the second leg against Barcelona, Wijnaldum came on at half-time, as Milner switched to left back, to score twice in a 4-0 triumph. All of which was uncharacteristic. Those 1063 appearances produced just 71 goals, a total that would have been smaller still but for Milner’s excellent penalty-taking. There were 99 assists, too, but to put that in context, Kevin De Bruyne got 149 on his own for Manchester City since Klopp’s appointment at Anfield, plus 92 goals. It illustrates it is a comparison of opposites. The definitive Klopp midfielders were the selfless support acts, defined by what they did not do – score, for instance – and where they did not go: the penalty area, or not often anyway. The full backs usurped them as creators; the goals came largely from the front three; if most great teams have at least one goalscoring midfielder, and Klopp’s Dortmund protégé Ilkay Gundogan developed a potent streak for Pep Guardiola and alongside De Bruyne, his Liverpool were the exception. His core four at Liverpool were the masters of the unspectacular: workhorses who ran many a mile, though often in relatively short distances, experienced figures who were experts at positional discipline. They were a reason why, at their best, Liverpool were rarely caught on the counter-attack, even when Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold were in the final third. Liverpool were never a pure possession team but Wijnaldum, in particular, tended to have very high pass-completion statistics. It was in part because they were rarely charged with playing the most ambitious balls but Wijnaldum, especially, made playing in a Klopp midfield look deceptively simple: as his far greater goalscoring return for the Netherlands showed, his was a self-sacrificial role, playing within himself with the intelligence to make the tactics of a narrow 4-3-3 work. In one respect, Fabinho is the anomaly. He was the specialist defensive midfielder. The other three were all multifunctional grafters, their broader skillsets equipping them for many a task (often playing full back in Milner’s case). None was an out-and-out playmaker, but they brought combativity and understated chemistry. It amounted to a triumph of all-rounders: whereas some midfields were combinations of players with contrasting attributes, Liverpool prospered with those with similar strengths. Maybe an ethos has changed now. Klopp’s first two summer midfield additions, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai, offer the prospect of more goals than his quintessential quartet ever provided: after the shift in formation towards the end of last season, when Alexander-Arnold came to join Fabinho at the base of the midfield, Klopp referred to his more advanced pair as “two [No] 10s”. And if Wijnaldum could play as a genuine No 10 elsewhere, Milner and Henderson rarely did. Mac Allister and Szoboszlai, however, can meet the description. But maybe the newcomers will discover they are charged with copying their predecessors. Perhaps the beginning of the end for Klopp’s original midfield can be traced to the signing of Thiago Alcantara, to the sign he wanted something more stylish. But suddenly, an era has ended. Klopp’s four favourite workhorses are all gone. There may not be an all-conquering midfield quite like them again. Read More Jurgen Klopp responds after Kylian Mbappe to Liverpool rumours Liverpool name Virgil van Dijk as new captain after Jordan Henderson exit Liverpool confirm Fabinho transfer in latest Saudi Arabia move Lauren James on song as England thrash China – Tuesday’s sporting social Sadio Mane’s swift decline reaches new low Liverpool make second Romeo Lavia bid as Southampton set transfer price

Barcelona ready to make fresh push for Joao Cancelo after failing to sign him from Manchester City in January. Arsenal also retain an interest.

Ousmane Dembele has told Barcelona that he wants to leave to join Paris St Germain, according to manager Xavi. The Ligue 1 side have made the 26-year-old an offer that Barca “cannot match” and he has informed his manager that he wishes to move. The France international has a £43million release clause in his contract which PSG have reportedly triggered, shortly before the terms of his deal stipulated the figure would rise to £86m. Talks have taken place between the parties and Dembele has made up his mind that his future lies away from Barca, whom he joined from Borussia Dortmund for £125m in 2017. “Dembele came and told me he wanted to leave,” said Xavi. “He has an offer from PSG that we cannot match.” He has played 185 times for the club and has won three LaLiga titles during his six-year stay. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

Brentford goalkeeper David Raya has agreed personal terms in principle over a move to Arsenal, where he would be willing to play second fiddle to Aaron Ramsdale. The Bees are continuing to demand £40m for the Spain international.

Russian forces struck Ukraine’s Danube River port of Izmail in a drone attack, according to government and industry

The microphone that Cardi B hurled at a fan in Vegas has now been put up for sale on eBay. For the blissfully unaware who missed the viral footage circulating over the weekend, the 'Bodak Yellow' rapper was filmed retaliating to an excited fan while performing at Drai's Beach Club in Las Vegas. Cardi, real name Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar Cephus, was drenched in water when the fan splashed her with her drink. In response, the rapper furiously hurled her microphone at the attendee before they were escorted out by security. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Now, the mic is being auctioned off by the audio production company – and all for a good cause. Scott Fisher, the owner of The Wave in Sin City, told TMZ the mic was easy to track down after the rapper threw it. The starting bid on the eBay listing was $500 with the original RRP being $1,000. It currently has 39 bids at the time of writing, and has reached a staggering $30,000. Scott intends on splitting the money across two charities, the Wounded Warrior Project and a local Vegas charity called Friendship Circle Las Vegas. It's unclear whether the fan's actions were intentional or not – but a new angle shared on TikTok shows the woman being apologetic. One concertgoer managed to get a closer look at the incident, which prompted an influx of comments from fellow TikTokers. @typicalelliott Mistery solved. This is the most detailed video of what happened to Cardi B that made her threw the microphone at a fan during a concert in las vegas #cardib #microphone #news #ice #drink #fyp #ny #dominicana #drais #rap "She looks genuinely apologetic," one person wrote. "What’s messed up is… what if she really didn’t mean to? Like what if she wasn’t thinking and just waved her hand forgetting the cup [was] lidless?" asked chimed in under the TikTok. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.