Nico O’Reilly (Manchester City): The player of the weekend for me, and the player of the month by a country mile. Since O’Reilly has moved into that midfield, Rodri has looked better, Manchester City have looked better, he has looked amazing and the job he has done for the past 18 months at left-back shows his versatility. What a player. Both his goals against Newcastle were great and totally different. He offers so much to Manchester City and is a shoo-in for the England squad. We were looking at him as a left-back but does he now play midfield?

Anton Stach (Leeds): I thought Leeds might falter and fall away. I think they have to be careful with these draws but he was a really good performer against Aston Villa – and that free-kick he scored against a World-Cup winning goalkeeper in Emi Martinez means he goes in my team.

Eberechi Eze (Arsenal): He has to go in this week with his two goals against Spurs on Sunday. He has scored five goals against them now in two games – so Spurs are obviously his team to face. Good for him and good for Mikel Arteta to pick him. He has been up and down this season, in and out of the team, but this will be a real confidence booster for him and Arsenal.

Diego Gomez (Brighton): He got a goal in the win against Brentford, but it was also an important midfield performance from him. Brentford weren’t at their best, with injuries in the squad, but you have to be able to break through the lines and he did that a lot. He was fantastic. It was Brighton’s first win in seven league games and they needed it.

If Sesko broke Everton’s hearts at one end of the field, another summer recruit, Senne Lammens, did it at the other.

The Belgian goalkeeper kept out a blockbuster strike from Michael Keane, which Moyes felt sure was going in, then dealt superbly with a series of corners dropped under his crossbar as Everton literally tried to force an equaliser.

“Their goalie was brilliant tonight,” was Moyes’ blunt reaction.

“The save he made from Michael, the way he dealt with corner kicks. The pressure we had. For me, their goalkeeper was the best player.”

Carrick is the one who benefits though, just as he is benefiting from the decision of United’s recruitment department to block Amorim’s calls to bring in Emi Martinez from Aston Villa on summer transfer deadline day and instead place their faith in a relatively young £18.1m goalkeeper with just one full season of senior football in Belgium behind him.

Lammens is 23. Sesko is 22. United might not quite be winning trophies with kids, but they have a young generation that is beginning to blossom.

It was brought to Carrick’s attention after the Everton game that his former United team-mate and all-time great goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar was analysing the game on TV with Carragher.

Carrick skilfully navigated the question of whether there are comparisons to be drawn between the two men.

“I’ve got to be careful what I say,” he said.

“I don’t want to be comparing them because I don’t think it’s fair to Senne. But there’s definitely similarities.

“You want a goalkeeper to be reliable and trustworthy. Instead of creating a chaos, you want him to take the chaos away and calm things down. I think Senne is that.

“He’s quite quiet at times and unassuming, but he’s got real steel. It’s a big role for some, and it’s about being comfortable in your environment.

“Sometimes it takes time, sometimes not, but he has that calmness and composure. It helps those in front of him an awful lot.”

At the start of the season, United’s stated aim was to get back into Europe.

Even internally, it was felt reaching the Europa League was the most realistic target, and financial estimates were created around that.

However, in the wake of Amorim’s exit, director of football Jason Wilcox spoke to the players about reaching the Champions League.

The difference in status and finance is huge.

United have now gone 10 consecutive Premier League games without defeat for the first time since a run of 14 between January and May 2021 under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

From their current position, with no European distractions, which is something Villa, Chelsea and Liverpool all have, it would be a major disappointment for them if United were not to seal a return to European football’s top table.

“Manchester United are now virtually guarantees for one of the Champions League places,” said Carragher. “I can’t see them not making it.”

• 

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The 2026 Winter Olympics concluded on Sunday, and the NBA is already looking ahead to the 2028 games. Recently, four-time Olympian Kevin Durant said that he wants to play for a historic fifth gold medal in Los Angeles. “Hell yeah, I want to play,” Durant said. “I would love to, but I’ve got to stay on top of my game. I’m not expecting, I want to produce on the floor and make Grant (Hill) and whoever is making the decisions, want to put me on the team. I don’t want — not just for seniority. I want to still prove I can help the team win.”

Durant may ultimately deserve a spot on merit — 2028 is still a ways away for a 37-year-old, but he is still an All-Star-caliber NBA player — but if he wants a spot, it’s his on seniority. He is the greatest Olympic basketball player of all time, and his skillset should age well enough and fits so smoothly next to other elite players that, short of significant injury- or age-related decline, it’s hard to envision a scenario in which he wouldn’t be able to help Team USA.

But that exacerbates a first-world problem for Team USA: after years of fear about the American developmental pipeline, we’re in the middle of a talent boom. The last handful of drafts have been very kind to American prospects, and when you consider all of the great existing American players who have already worn the red, white and blue, it suddenly gets very difficult to trim the roster down to 12 players. With Durant in place, there are really only 11 spots.

So… who do we think is filling those other slots? We’re going to take a shot at filling in the rest of the team. Keep in mind that we’re still more than two years away here, so aging will be a factor. So will the stylistic differences between the NBA and FIBA game. Remember, FIBA has no defensive three-second rule, no goaltending and a shorter 3-point line, so shooting is at an absolute premium. Officials tend to call fewer fouls as well, allowing for more physicality defensively. We still have a ways to go before 2028, but for now, these are the players who make the most sense four Team USA’s next Olympic roster.

The stars

Yes, yes, I know, almost everyone who plays for Team USA is going to qualify as a “star.” But every Olympic cycle reminds us this process is a bit more complex than slapping the 12 biggest names together. We just watched Jayson Tatum ride the bench in the 2024 run to gold while his less-accomplished NBA teammate, Derrick White, played a vital rotation role. The idea here is to grab a handful of the best players in the NBA and then use the rest of the roster to round out the team with specialists.

Now, Durant will be on the team, but he will be 39 when the Olympics arrive. He’s probably coming off of the bench. We’ll address the bigs separately. Fortunately, the four other starters appear to be relatively straightforward at this point.

• Cade Cunningham is, at worst, the fourth-best point guard in the NBA. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is Canadian, Luka Dončić is Slovenian and Stephen Curry likely won’t be back as a 40-year-old in 2028. That leaves Cunningham as the obvious choice as our starting point guard. His playmaking should fit in quite well on an Olympic roster with far more offensive firepower than his Pistons, and his size and defensive versatility ensure he won’t get picked on. This one’s a no-brainer.
• Anthony Edwards won gold in 2024, has improved markedly as a shooter and post player since then and will turn 27 soon after the 2028 Olympics. He should be at the peak of his powers at this point and could easily be the best American player in the NBA. Once again, this one is obvious.
• Jayson Tatum really should have been one of the core members of the 2024 team. American Olympians usually only play once or twice before handing the baton to the next generation. Durant and LeBron James didn’t do that last time, so that forced Tatum to the bench, where Steve Kerr seemingly determined that despite being a jack of all trades, he was not enough of a master at any single one to justify consistent specialist minutes off the bench. Well, with James presumably done competing for gold and Durant headed for the bench, Tatum’s versatility alongside other stars suddenly looks a lot more valuable. Assuming he doesn’t significantly decline as a result of his torn Achilles, he should still be a deserving starter. He was the best American forward in the NBA before he got hurt, and arguably the best overall American player.
• Cooper Flagg rounds out our core. We’re admittedly doing some projecting here, but it feels relatively safe to do so. He’s just the fourth rookie in NBA history to average 20 points, six rebounds and four assists. The first three were Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Luka Dončić. Odds are, he’ll be a special player by his third season. His defensive versatility and competitiveness should fit in quite well here.

So let’s take stock here. In Cunningham, Edwards, Tatum and Flagg, we have an enormous set of starters in which our smallest player, Edwards, is 6-foot-4. Defensively, this foursome should be stellar and capable of pretty much any scheme Erik Spoelstra wants to run. There’s plenty of playmaking here too. Cunningham currently trails only Nikola Jokić for the NBA lead in assists, and Tatum and Edwards have both averaged at least five assists per game in a season despite not playing point guard. Throw in Flagg’s passing and you have a really balanced group that can all set one another up.

If it’s lacking anywhere, it’s probably shooting, and that’s only a minor blemish. Cunningham is roughly a 34% shooter from deep, Flagg is at around 30%, and while Tatum is typically a reliable shooter, his jumper seemingly abandoned him during his last run with Team USA. Fortunately, we have a wide pool of American players to choose from to fill in that “gap” and round out the rest of the team. Let’s start with the big men, who deserve their own category. Fortunately, there isn’t really a shortage of American bigs who can shoot.

The bigs

Our first center choice is easy. We want a big who can shoot? Chet Holmgren is roughly a 37% 3-point shooter. Problem solved. That he’s also a perpetual Defensive Player of the Year candidate is a nice bonus. He’s not a great rebounder, but having Tatum and Flagg at forward should help offset that minor deficiency, and besides, we have two more big slots at our disposal here. We can stylistically cherrypick from this point on.

Rebounding largely fits into the broader need for physicality. Serbia gave Team USA its biggest test in 2024, so winning in 2028 means having an answer for Nikola Jokić. Alperen Sengun, Domantas Sabonis and Giannis Antetokounmpo loom as possible opponents here as well, and though he plays differently, Team USA needs as many stylistic options as it can find to throw at Victor Wembanyama. So for our second big slot, we’re looking for a bit of heft.

This isn’t something the American hoops pipeline tends to deliver much anymore, but we fortunately have a pretty straightforward choice here. It’s Jalen Duren. He comes with baked in chemistry with Cunningham, he rebounds, and although the sample in the modern NBA is always going to be fairly small, his numbers defending the post have by and large been excellent. Over the past three seasons, he has been in the 75th percentile or better at post up points allowed per possession. Again, tiny sample, but it checks out. When you’re as strong as Duren, you’re probably going to be tough to score on near the basket.

The third spot comes down to two names, and they’re pretty similar players. Both Bam Adebayo and Evan Mobley are enormously versatile defensive big men who have improved meaningfully as shooters in recent years and can create some of their own looks. The standard aging curve would suggest that Mobley, who will be 27 when the Olympics roll around, is likely to be better at that point than Adebayo, who will be 31. He might even be better now. But Erik Spoelstra is coaching this team, and he’s probably going to lean toward the player he’s more comfortable with, which would surely be the one he’s coached in Miami for almost a decade now. It wouldn’t hurt to have a bit more Olympic experience on this roster, so Adebayo’s 2024 run is a plus as well. If it’s a tie or close to it, he’s probably going to win. If he’s declined at all by then, though, Mobley is ready to go.

The supporting cast

So right now, we have eight spots locked up: Durant, Cunningham, Edwards, Tatum, Flagg, Holmgren, Duren and Adebayo. There are three pretty straightforward roles we need to fill with our four remaining slots: backup point guard, designated shooter and designated defender.

• Tyrese Maxey is our backup point guard. His speed and shooting contrasts nicely with the bigger Cunningham, giving Team USA a curveball to throw at opposing bench lineups. The name of the game here is versatility, and Cunningham and Maxey just complement each other perfectly.
• Kon Knueppel is the clear designated shooter choice. He’s leading the NBA in made 3-pointers as a rookie. He’s averaging eight 3-point attempts per game, and the only players to shoot a higher percentage from deep on that volume in a season are Stephen Curry and Duncan Robinson. He’s on track to succeed Curry as the best shooter in the NBA, so if we’re looking for one, pure shooter for the roster, he’s our guy.
• Amen Thompson is our defensive specialist. This was the trickiest choice. He just checked the most boxes. He’s perhaps the NBA’s best athlete, he’s 6-foot-7 with a seven-foot wingspan so he’s positionally versatile, and FIBA’s whistle should be very kind to him given how physically he likes to play.

We’ll get into some of the other players I considered for those slots in the snub section, but for now, we have one last slot to fill. It’s a tricky one. There’s no specific need we’re looking to address here. We’ve checked every positional box, and because of how big some of our guards are, there’s not really an impetus to seek out size here either. It’s just a matter of picking the best available American player.

Now, this could change in the next two years, but I believe at this point the best available American player is Donovan Mitchell. He’ll be closing in on his 32nd birthday by then, so decline is a real possibility, but he still hasn’t played and 2028 will probably be his last realistic chance. He’s a seven-time NBA All-Star. Every other active player to be chosen to that many All-Star teams has at least been chosen by Team USA, though Kawhi Leonard dropped out due to injury. He finished fifth in MVP voting last year and just ranked seventh in ESPN’s latest MVP straw poll for this season. Only two Americans finished above him, Cunningham and someone we’ll get to in a moment. Purely as an individual, he is the most accomplished American player without a gold medal.

So Mitchell is the pick to round out the roster. That leaves us with the following 12-man team…

The final roster

The snubs

So, we mentioned one other American player who just outranked Mitchell in the MVP straw poll. That would be Jaylen Brown. In pure basketball terms, he would be a reasonable choice. He’s having the best season of his career, he played for Team USA in the FIBA World Cup, and our roster does lean a bit more toward guards than forwards.

Ultimately, the prediction was informed by two factors. The first is that I simply think Mitchell is slightly better. In the best year of Brown’s career, he and Mitchell are still basically even in terms of scoring volume. Brown is the better defender given his size, but Mitchell is a better playmaker, is more efficient and beats Brown in most of the all-in-one metrics pretty meaningfully. They’re close enough that if there was a specific need for something Brown did, he’d be a fair choice. But if that were the case, we would have carved out a specialist slot for him and we didn’t.

The other factor was politics. Brown criticized Team USA in 2024 for his belief that it allows Nike influence over roster decisions. Whether that’s true or not, it’s a headache Team USA would probably prefer to avoid. If we were talking about a foundational part of USA Basketball, that would be one thing, but for one of the last slots on the roster, the tie is probably going to go to someone else.

The other candidate for the final, “best available American player” slot was Jalen Williams. He’s not the individual creator Brown is, but he’s a better defender and on the right side of the aging curve. He’s having a down year as he recovers from a wrist injury, but it’s reasonable to assume that he’ll at least bounce back to the level he played at last season, when he was an All-NBA choice. If USA Basketball wants a forward for this last slot, he’s the easy pick. But in a tie, I’m giving the edge to the older player. Williams will have more chances.

Backup point guard was a nightmare. Tyrese Haliburton was on the 2024 team, though he barely played. Jalen Brunson missed the cut, and he reportedly wants another shot in 2028. Either would have been worthy choices. But the guard pool is so deep that, with two years out, I’m inclined not to gamble on what Haliburton looks like post-Achilles tear. I’m a bit more comfortable with Tatum, a forward, looking mostly like himself after that injury compared to Haliburton, a guard. Brunson is the oldest of the three, right in the same range as Mitchell, but his playing style is a bit more tailored to the NBA given his mid-range mastery and defensive vulnerability at his size. Both were agonizing cuts, especially given how well Haliburton’s passing fits into the FIBA game, but we only have 12 spots.

Devin Booker didn’t really fit into a neat box, but he was another brutal cut considering how well he played in 2024. But Mitchell has outplayed him for several years now, and we’ve now had two full seasons of subpar 3-point shooting out of Booker, so he wasn’t going to get any consideration in the designated shooter slot. He’s not beating players off of the dribble quite as easily anymore either, so I’d be a bit concerned with how he’ll look in two-and-a-half years.

I could have gone in so many different directions for the designated defender slot. Jalen Suggs isn’t durable enough. Herb Jones doesn’t do enough offensively. Alex Caruso is too old. Cason Wallace is too small. The two players that most seriously challenged Amen Thompson were his brother Ausar and Stephon Castle. In the end, Amen’s offensive advantage over his brother and his slight size advantage over Castle were the tiebreakers. Castle is certainly better on offense than Thompson, though, and if either of them can just get to passable as a 3-point shooter, that would make picking a winner easier. Speaking of shooting, that was what kept Scottie Barnes off the team. He could qualify as a defensive specialist, though he’s obviously more well-rounded than that overall. This team just already has enough of what he does offensively, and Thompson is an easier fit in the on-ball defensive role we’re looking to fill.

The only other big man I gave any consideration to was Walker Kessler. He hasn’t played much this season due to injury, but he played for Team USA in the 2023 World Cup and he checks the same size and physicality boxes that Duren does. Duren’s growth into an All-Star this season made him the clear choice for this role on the team, but I’m keeping an eye on Kessler just on the faint hope that his experiments with 3-point shooting ever bear fruit. If he ever learns to shoot at his size, he’d be a great FIBA player, so watch out over the next two years.

And then there are the youngsters. I don’t think Reed Sheppard is going to catch Knueppel, but he was a similarly gifted college shooter. The 2025 draft class is promising enough that some of these players, like Cedric Coward or Derik Queen, may be heard from in the years to come. And of course, we have three enormously promising American youngsters coming in June in Darryn Peterson, AJ Dybantsa and Cam Boozer. Making the team after only two years as a professional is rare, but not unheard of. Keldon Johnson made the cut after his rookie season in 2020, and Anthony Davis played for Team USA before he even played in the NBA. Neither played major roles in the Olympics, but both won gold medals, so we can’t rule the upcoming rookies out.

Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick praised match-winner Benjamin Sesko’s attitude after the striker came off the bench to score for the third time in four matches in the 1-0 victory at Everton.

The Slovenia striker has yet to start in Carrick’s six matches in charge, but has contributed two winners and a late equaliser to maintain the former midfielder’s unbeaten start following his initial short-term appointment.

Sesko has scored six in his last seven appearances, but has still not managed to force his way into the starting line-up and, while Carrick said there was maybe some frustration for the £66million summer signing, the 22-year-old was not complaining.

“I get why everyone’s talking about it and making a bigger deal of it, but I’ve got a really good relationship with Ben,” said Carrick.

“I’ve got no problem with Ben and he hasn’t got an issue. He obviously wants to play, but I can’t speak highly enough of how he’s been and the work he’s putting in and his attitude to come on and do what he’s done again.

“We’ve had some really good conversations and he’s in a really good place, and part of us is helping him take his steps in development and growing him as a player.

“Sometimes that’s little steps, sometimes that’s bigger steps and he’s taken some huge steps recently. That’s great to see.”

Carrick also had praise for Senne Lammens, who kept United’s first league clean sheet away from home since last March.

“For me a goalkeeper has to be reliable, be trustworthy,” he said. “Instead of creating a chaos, you want him to take the chaos away and calm things down. I think Senne does that.”

Everton tried to put Lammens under pressure by stationing a number of players near him at a series of corners in the second half, but to no avail.

Toffees boss David Moyes conceded it was a plan that failed.

The Scot said: “The goalie was bloody brilliant. The save he made from Michael Keane, the way he dealt with the corners.

“We hoped somewhere we’d have got a nick on one of them with the pressure we had in those situations. I thought we would get one, but we didn’t. For me he was the best player on the pitch.”

Everton have won just four of their 14 Premier League games at their new stadium and Moyes accepts his side are still adapting.

He said: “I think there is probably a change – other teams come here and enjoy it.

“There are things about it which are different and we have to get used to.

“But I think our games are better than at Goodison. Our team is better this year and it wasn’t as if we were winning every game at Goodison, to be honest.”

Charles Bediako is once again attempting to return to play for No. 17 Alabama. According to AL.com, the former Crimson Tide center filed an appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court on Monday, two weeks after a Tuscaloosa County circuit court judge denied Bediako’s motion seeking a preliminary injunction against NCAA eligibility rules.

While Bediako’s appeal is pending, he’s seeking “interim injunctive relief” that would allow him to play immediately.

“The request is to put an injunction in place while the Alabama Supreme Court considers the substance of our argument as to why we believe the Circuit Court’s order was incorrect,” David Holt, one of Bediako’s attorneys, told ESPN.

Bediako has remained a student at Alabama and helped with the scout team, per coach Nate Oats. Alabama’s next game is Wednesday vs. Mississippi State.

It’s the latest twist in what’s been quite the saga for Bediako, the NCAA and eligibility rules.

Bediako played for Alabama in 2021-22 and 2022-23 before forgoing the rest of his eligibility and entering the NBA Draft pool. Though he did not get drafted, he signed a two-way contract with the San Antonio Spurs. He never appeared in an NBA game but did play for the Austin Spurs of the NBA G League. He also appeared in G League games for the Grand Rapids Gold and the Motor City Cruise on Exhibit 10 contracts.

Charles Bediako ineligible after judge’s ruling: Why 7-footer’s journey from G League back to Alabama is over

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In late January 2026, Bediako filed suit against the NCAA, requesting “immediate preliminary and permanent injunctive relief.” Because Bediako enrolled in Alabama in 2021, he was — and is still — within his five-year eligibility clock. Tuscaloosa County judge James Roberts granted Beidako a temporary restraining order against the NCAA, paving the way for him to return to the Crimson Tide. After it was later discovered Roberts is an Alabama donor; he recused himself from the case.

Under the order, Bediako played in five games with Alabama from Jan. 24 to Feb. 7, averaging 10 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.4 blocks while shooting 77%.

On Feb. 9, Alabama circuit court judge Daniel Pruet denied Bediako’s motion seeking a preliminary injunction against NCAA eligibility rules. The aim of the preliminary injunction had been to allow Bediako to play for the rest of the season.

“Common sense won a round today,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said in a statement. “The court saw this for what it is: an attempt by professionals to pivot back to college and crowd out the next generation of students. College sports are for students, not for people who already walked away to go pro and now want to hit the ‘undo’ button at the expense of a teenager’s dream.

“While we’re glad the court upheld the rules our members actually want, one win doesn’t fix the national mess of state laws. It’s time for Congress to stop watching from the sidelines and help us provide some actual stability.”

Bediako’s return to college basketball after signing multiple NBA contracts had caused significant consternation among NCAA higher-ups, with even SEC commissioner Greg Sankey signing an affidavit against Bediako’s cause.

After Pruet’s ruling, it appeared Bediako’s return to college basketball had ended. Now, though, he and his legal team are trying once again. With the end of the regular season (March 7) rapidly approaching, Bediako’s motion indicates his request “will become moot without interim relief” with the appeal process “unlikely to resolve before the season concludes.”

Back when the Minnesota Vikings had bottomed out in the 2025 campaign, sitting with a 4-8 record after a gruesome loss at the eventual Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, running back Jeremiyah Love felt like an obvious choice for a purple team that would finish the 2025 regular season with a Top 10 pick incoming. Thereafter, Minnesota won five straight games, ruined the Love idea, and earned the 18th overall pick in the draft. Thanks to NFL.com’s Charles Davis, though, the Love dream is back, if only in theory.

Charles Davis connected Minnesota to Love again, reviving the same draft lane that keeps popping up around pick No. 18.

Davis posted a mock draft last week, connecting Minnesota to love at Pick No. 18 after a strange mock-draft tumble.

Love Back in Minnesota’s Draft Range per Charles Davis

Could the dream remain alive?

Davis: Love to Vikings at No. 18

Davis picked Miami EDGE Akheem Mesidor for the Detroit Lions at Pick No. 17 and proceeded to Minnesota, where he theorized Love, the draft class’s top tailback.

He wrote about Love to Minnesota, “Are teams undervaluing the running back position again? The Vikings cannot pass on a top-three talent in this year’s draft. Head coach Kevin O’Connell will find plenty of plays for him.”

Until Davis’s mock, most have envisioned a cornerback, defensive tackle, or safety for the Vikings, who fired their general manager three and a half weeks ago.

A Dream Come True for Fans

The Vikings haven’t employed a dynamic, game-breaking running back since Dalvin Cook, and his last prolific season occurred … five years ago. Since Cook slowed down in 2022 and eventually left in free agency, Minnesota has tossed and turned between men like Alexander Mattison, Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason, and Cam Akers. Jones, especially, has worked to some degree, but he’s also over 30.

With Love — when he felt gettable for the Vikings at 4-8 — Minnesota would draft and instantly employ a bellcow RB1. He’d take pressure off J.J. McCarthy — who needs a lot of pressure taken off — and force O’Connell to run the football, a tendency that he doesn’t seem to love as a former quarterback and playcaller.

Love is basically this year’s Ashton Jeanty or Bijan Robinson. Until Davis’s mock draft, the dream felt dead. Maybe there is a chance for Love to tumble down the board on April 23rd.

Love’s Bio and Scouting Report

Love has a 6’0″, 214-pound frame and 4.4 speed. In the last two years at Notre Dame, he’s tabulated 2,497 rushing yards and 35 touchdowns, adding in 5 receiving paydirts to boot.

NFL draft analyst Jeremy Percy on Love: “Love is a big-play threat every time he touches the ball in the run game. He has good vision overall but occasionally lacks patience when running between the tackle and gets too eager to bounce the ball outside rather than wait for blocks to develop.”

“He also is not the quickest in short areas when cutting back in zone or making defenders miss in the hole. Once he breaks through the line, however, Love’s weaknesses are very few and far between. He has elite long speed and has the potential to score anytime he sees the open field.”

For now, Love is expected to fly off the board sometime between Pick Nos. 7 and 12.

Percy added, “Love has a gliding running style and a good ability to read and leverage space while being elusive in the open field. He has very good contact balance and excels at keeping his feet when he is not hit squarely and picking up big chunks after contact.”

“Love is not the most powerful back who will consistently run through defenders and is not ultra effective on the goal line, but has enough power to finish off runs with attitude and fall forward consistently. He has excellent ball security and has fumbled only once on 450 touches in his college career.”

Love … Loves the Vikings

Love said on The Paul Harrington Show earlier this month when asked about Minnesota possibly scooping him at No. 18, “I would be blessed to go there. Lot of great guys.”

Of course, Love would probably say that about any team, but fans interpreted his message as a rubber stamp.

The Vikings probably have to hope the Washington Commanders, New Orleans Saints, Kansas City Chiefs, and Cincinnati Bengals pass on Love in the draft to begin his plunge to No. 18.

If Minnesota cannot draft Love, his teammate Jadarian Price, also a running back, would be a decent consolation prize in Round 2 or so.

Love will turn 21 in May. He’s about as young as it gets for an NFL rookie.

When Manchester United were looking for a saviour this season, they opted not to revert to their greatest supersub. They may not have Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the dugout but they seem to have his successor in spirit on the pitch. Benjamin Sesko is yet to start a game under Michael Carrick but he has come off the bench to score three times, all significant goals, delivering an extra five points.

First, the winner against Fulham, then an equaliser at West Ham, now a decider at Everton. It was early by Sesko’s standards – in the 71st minute, rather than injury time, when Jordan Pickford denied him a second – but it felt further evidence of Carrick’s nous. United had looked blunt before his arrival, lacking inspiration and a focal point in attack. Sesko is the only pure No 9 in the squad and, once again, he illustrated the merits of a penalty-box presence. In time, Carrick may have an issue if he can keep naming Sesko on the bench. For now, their alliance is benefiting both. Carrick said: “I have got a really good relationship with Ben. He has taken some huge steps recently.”

In a game low on drama, the goal came from a sweeping move. Everton, who had been the more positive in the second half, may regret committing too many men forward, leaving themselves open to the counter-attack which, whether under Carrick or Solskjaer, tends to be United’s most potent weapon.

open image in gallery

Sesko was involved twice in a move that involved their three big summer signings. He laid the ball off to Matheus Cunha, who sprayed a diagonal pass to release Bryan Mbeumo. He was confronted only by Michael Keane and squared the ball for Sesko, who had run 70 yards to slide in a shot. “It was a ruthless finish,” said Carrick. “I like the way he put it away with real confidence.” It was the Slovenian’s eighth goal for United. He only had two in 17 games when Ruben Amorim was sacked.

And United have been transformed since then. They took their haul under Carrick to 16 points from a possible 18, a charge that is putting them on a path towards the Champions League. A distinctly mundane match nevertheless produced a fine result for United.

Arguably, they undid some of the damage done on one of Amorim’s most ignominious nights. In November, his United were clueless when confronted with the 10 men of Everton and lost at Old Trafford. The rematch was different and not just because Idrissa Gueye completed the evening without slapping a teammate. Unlike Amorim, Carrick found a way. Successful substitutions have been a theme of his reign, and not just those involving Sesko.

For one of his predecessors, it was a frustrating reunion. David Moyes has now seen Everton go seven games without a win at Hill Dickinson Stadium. They are yet to record a win over elite opposition at their deluxe ground, and when they were looking more ambitious than United, they conceded.

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They had rarely threatened to in the preceding hour. They almost struck early, when James Tarkowski cleared Amad Diallo’s fourth-minute shot off the line, though Pickford had taken some of the sting out of it. Thereafter, Diogo Dalot thudded a long-range half-volley into the advertising hoardings while, after the break, Mbeumo blazed a shot over from an acute angle.

If the first half had seemed mostly a contest to give the ball away, United could savour the earthy qualities that earned them a result. “I’m delighted with the result and spirit, the boys digging deep and sacrificing for each other,” said Carrick. He played his own part. They had too little threat on either flank, so he removed Amad, brought on Sesko and recalibrated his side.

Moyes, of course, did not have a £73m striker in reserve, or in the team, for that matter. “The quality you are talking about costs big money,” he lamented.

The cheaper striker he does have, Thierno Barry, could have scored inside 10 seconds, albeit without knowing much about it, when Senne Lammens slammed a clearance into him. After that, the Belgian impressed rather more. “Senne was outstanding tonight,” said Carrick. “As a goalkeeper, you couldn’t hope for much more: safe hands, calm, composed, an exemplary performance.”

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Lammens held on to James Garner’s well-struck free kick, saved from Harrison Armstrong less than 30 seconds into the second half and, as Everton chased an equaliser, tipped away Keane’s thunderbolt from distance and thwarted the replacement, Tyrique George, in injury time. “Their goalie was bloody brilliant,” said Moyes, who nominated Lammens as his man of the match. Everton had directed a series of corners under the bar. They had not realised Lammens would deal with them so well, Moyes reflected ruefully.

With three summer signings combining for the goal, a fourth excelling in goal, it felt like a triumph for United’s recruitment. Of players and, more recently, a head coach.