YOU know the most impressive thing Arne Slot has done since taking over at Liverpool? Nothing.
And the best way to keep that fantastic start at Anfield rolling along? Carry on doing exactly the same.
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Arne Slot’s start as Liverpool manager has been impressiveCredit: AP
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The Reds have marched to the top of the league with Slot keeping changes to a minimum
If you think it’s a strange thing to say about someone who’s won six of his seven league games, I’m not suggesting Slot’s sitting in his office with his feet up.
What I am saying is he’s been smart enough to realise there was no reason to make any big changes — and honest enough to admit it.
The minute Liverpool won their first two or three games, everyone was into him about what he was doing on the training ground and how he was different from Jurgen Klopp.
But Slot was dead honest. There was no secret plan, he didn’t arrive with big ideas of how he’d fix this or that. If it’s not broken, why should he?
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Instead he was straight up. It was about having a fantastic group of players, with great partnerships, who’d been together for a long time.
No bulls**t like you hear from lots of managers who talk about what they’ve done, about high presses, changes they’ve made, like there is some sort of magic formula.
Well let me tell you, there isn’t. It’s not as though pressing is something new — just that back in the day they called it tackling!
Stuart Pearce or Tony Adams didn’t press, they tackled!
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Slot knows he took over a great squad and is happy to admit as much — and fair play to him.
The more I hear about the Liverpool manager, the more I like. He comes across great.
Arne Slot aims dig at Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool boss says ‘I’m a stupid manager if 12.30pm kick offs are more difficult’
He’s not gone around taking down pictures from the old days, like plenty do when they arrive.
There’s been no “that was the past, we’re doing it my way now”. No boasting about his own success, no “I’ve won this or that”.
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The plan has been just to carry on playing as they did under Klopp — and they’re doing it very well.
Slot knows he’s got great players — Virgil van Dijk at the back, Luis Diaz in the form of his life, a magnificent attack, class all over the park. That’s what wins things.
I don’t dispute Liverpool face their biggest test so far, against Chelsea this afternoon, after a pretty kind start against sides you’d expect them to beat.
And no doubt the next few weeks will tell us more, with Arsenal, Brighton and Aston Villa to come. But I’d be amazed if they’re not in the mix again this season.
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For me Liverpool are one of three contenders and although you would have them as outsiders behind Manchester City and Arsenal, it wouldn’t be the biggest shock if they won the title.
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Liverpool, led by Mo Salah, should be considered title contenders
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Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca inherited a great squad says Redknapp
And I certainly expect them to win today, for all that Enzo Maresca has inherited a fantastic squad as well.
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Maresca was maybe a bit fortunate to get the Chelsea job on the back of one good season at Leicester, winning the promotion you’d expect with that bunch of players.
Like Liverpool, they’ve made a decent start — but nothing they shouldn’t have done — and like Liverpool they have a tough-looking run coming up.
I can’t have them as title- winners yet but they’re certainly entitled to think they’ll be challenging for the top four.
Anything less would be a big disappointment — and in my book, that’s what they’re in for at Anfield.
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I fancy Liverpool and can’t see anything but a home win.
Just don’t expect to hear Slot making a song and dance about his part in it.
Chat a Cars-crash
THERE’S no doubt Thomas Tuchel has the world at his feet with such a huge pool of talent to pick from as national manager.
So let’s hope he gets it right.
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Thomas Tuchel was announced as England manager in the past week
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Redknapp believes Lee Carsley talked himself out of a job
As a proud Englishman, I certainly hope he makes a right good go of it.
Let’s face it, the bottom line is that’s what he will be judged on — if he can make us winners.
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But while I have no problem with a foreign boss, the big disappointment is we can’t produce an Englishman to manage England. That’s the really scary thing.
I’ve no doubt Lee Carsley was first choice and, in my book, the job was his until we played so poorly against Greece.
That is what changed the plan.
Up to then Carsley was the one, for sure.
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I know the FA claim Tuchel signed up two days before the game but I’m not buying that.
Yet it wasn’t losing the game where the real damage was done — anyone can get beaten.
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Thomas Tuchel inked an 18-month contract with the FA worth £5m-per-year
It was Carsley’s interview afterwards that did more damage than anything his team did on the pitch. It was very, very poor.
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I looked at that and thought, ‘There’s no way you can manage England’.
Obviously I wasn’t the only one, either.
Changes to the Premier League for 2024/25
NOTHING stays the same forever.
And that includes the Premier League, which is making a number of tweaks this season.
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Team news will now be released 75 MINUTES before kick-off, 15 minutes earlier than had been the case before.
Things could get crowded on the touchline, with the number of substitutes permitted to warm-up boosted from three players per team to FIVE.
There’s also a change to how added time is calculated when a team scores a goal, an update to the ‘multiball’ system and the introduction of semi-automated offsides – but not straight away.
With two balls to go, South Africa needed 38 runs to win the Women’s T20 World Cup. New Zealand’s hands were all-but on the trophy and their legendary captain Sophie Devine looked to the sky in a brave attempt to fight back tears.
And when the victory was confirmed, Suzie Bates, her international team-mate since 2006, leapt into her arms in an overload of emotions from joy, to disbelief, to pure ecstasy at a lifelong dream finally being achieved.
It was the crowning moment for 35-year-old Devine and Bates, 37, who have made a combined 624 appearances for their beloved White Ferns.
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For a pair who have seen it all, who have lived and breathed every single moment of New Zealand cricket’s highs and lows – back-to-back final defeats in 2009 and 2010, to the 10 consecutive losses leading into this tournament, all culminating in the most unlikely victory in their 18th year of international sport.
Neither had particularly eye-catching tournaments in terms of statistics, and by their own high standards, but cricket goes beyond numbers.
Bates’ experience at the top of the order allowed her 20-year-old partner Georgia Plimmer to express herself freely, both finishing at the team’s joint-highest run-scorers with 150 each.
Devine’s calming influence as captain and unwavering trust in her players allowed Melie Kerr to take a record-breaking 15 wickets in the campaign.
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With Bates’ and Devine’s glory comes an unforgettable moment for a country with a population of fewer than six million, where its best female athletes tend to opt for netball and rugby, where they are not blessed with a talent pool in the vein of Australia, India or England.
But the bigger picture for the women’s game goes beyond New Zealand’s story. Their victory offers hope for a sport that was becoming too predictable, such was Australia’s dominance in winning six of the past seven titles.
It has proven that the gap between Australia and the rest may not be as big as we once thought – but the game must not become complacent. It must be a turning point, not the endgame.
Phil Foden was thrilled with his huge carp, pictured with ITV4’s Monster Carp host Neil SpoonerCredit: https://www.tiktok.com/@reel.quick.fishin
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The Man City midfielder is a keen angler and plans to swap football for fishing when he retiresCredit: https://www.tiktok.com/@reel.quick.fishin
In a TikTok video, he boasted to his fishing partner — ITV4’s Monster Carp host Neil Spooner, with Phil: “It’s a big one!”
The midfielder, who played in City’s win yesterday, is a keen angler and plans to swap football for fishing when he retires.
After the Euros, Foden went on a £14-a-day angling holiday on the edge of the Cotswolds.
The £200,000-a-week Man City star snubbed exotic destinations popular with his Three Lions team-mates to spend five days with his dad fishing for carp, catfish, tench, pike and perch.
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An onlooker at Linear Fisheries in Witney, Oxfordshire, said: “Phil was happy as Larry camping out in a cheap tent,
“He was so down to earth and was just hell-bent on trying to land himself a carp as the lake has some absolutely enormous ones in it.
“While his England pals were living it up in posh hotels next to beaches, the most luxurious thing Phil had on his holiday was a Portaloo.”
Foden was winding down after the Euros ahead of rejoining the City squad preparing for the new season.
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He is an avid angler and has boasted about his big catches on Instagram.
Foden started fishing with his dad, Phil Senior, as a boy and said previously: “It’s the perfect hobby to rest your legs and have some down time.
Inside Phil Foden’s surprise love for fishing
“Probably about 95 per cent of the football lads don’t enjoy it.
“The odd one likes fishing, so when people find out they say: ‘what a weird sport to enjoy’.
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“They don’t understand why you enjoy it.
“Obviously, they need to go and try it.
“I think it’s the perfect hobby to rest your legs and have some down time.”
Foden has shared several of his top catches on social media from his trips to lakes across the UK and in Spain, which was the location of his biggest catch yet – a HUGE 130LB Catfish.
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Foden’s catch came in at 28lbCredit: https://www.tiktok.com/@reel.quick.fishin
LAS VEGAS – Rob Font had his back against the wall entering UFC Fight Night 245, but the recent changes he’s made in his MMA career helped him get out of that situation.
Font (21-8 MMA, 11-7 UFC), 37, was coming off two consecutive losses and was 1-4 in his past five outings prior to Saturday’s co-main event bout at the UFC Apex. Defeating young, rising contender Kyler Phillips was a must, and that he did. Font’s unanimous decision win over Phillips (12-3 MMA, 6-2 UFC) came at a much-needed time, and also a time of change.
“Yeah, losing two in a row, a new camp, you obviously hope you made the right decisions,” Font told reporters at the UFC Fight Night 245 post-fight press conference. “I put a lot of pressure on me. I want to win. I want to win, and I want to get as many wins as possible, and I want to look good doing it. I was to represent my family the right way. So yeah, there was a lot of pressure, but this is what we do, and this is what we want. We want those moments, and I’m not afraid of that.”
This was Font’s first fight under seasoned coach Firas Zahabi at Tristar, most notably the home of MMA legend Georges St-Pierre. Font believes the switch to Tristar was key to his career and will continue to train there for the foreseeable future.
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“It was a whole new camp and a whole new scenario,” Font said. “I was in Montreal basically all summer. I trained with all the guys out there. Firas has been a huge help in my career, and they took me in, and they opened up the red carpet for me, and I just want to give a shout-out back to everybody in Montreal.”
The announcement made at the Ferrari World Finals for its one-make challenge series at Imola followed news announced on Saturday that Fuoco and Molina had renewed their factory contracts for next year.
Calado and Pier Guidi were granted contract extensions this time last year.
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Coletta explained that there was no reason to make changes to the driver roster for the third campaign by the factory AF Corse team in the WEC.
“It is confirmed: #50 and #51 will not change – we will have the same drivers,” he said. “The #50 and #51 will be exactly the same.
#51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
“We are happy with the line-ups: we have won with both at the Le Mans 24 Hours [with #51 in 2023 and #50 in ’24].”
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Coletta stressed the importance of “consistency and continuity” in terms of the drivers on its Hypercar squad.
“When we started with the 499P and chose our GT pilots some people were not happy,” he continued.
“But even the sceptics have had to change their minds. All six 499P drivers have won Le Mans, which I think validates our choices.”
There has been no confirmation of the drivers for the #83 satellite entry run by AF Corse on a customer basis and driven this year by Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Robert Shwartzman
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Coletta outlined a hope to “announce it just before the Bahrain race” [this year’s WEC final on 2 November.
He ruled out Arthur Leclerc, brother of Ferrari F1 driver Charles, racing the car next year, even though he is scheduled to test one of the 499Ps in the WEC rookie test at Bahrain the day after the season finale.
Coletta explained that the younger of the Leclerc brothers, who is listed as a development driver for the F1 team, still needed to learn about sportscar racing.
He was placed by Ferrari for this year in the endurance segment of the Italian GT Championship, which he is contesting alongside his LMP2 commitments in the European Le Mans Series with Panis Racing.
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“Our goal is for Arthur to keep learning about endurance and then there might be the chance for him to catch an opportunity in one of our prototypes in the future,” said Coletta.
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