Nottingham Forest FC – CaughtOffside

Video: Diogo Jota scores for Liverpool and dedicates the goal to Luis Diaz whose parents were abducted last night

Mehdi Gokal — Sun, 29 Oct 2023 14:43:40 +0000

Diogo Jota has given Liverpool the lead against Nottingham Forest and dedicated the goal to his teammate Luis Diaz.

Alexis Mac Allister played a huge role as he won the ball back with a great challenge inside his own half before releasing Mo Salah. Mo Salah played through Darwin Nunez whose first time shot is saved but Jota is there to score on the rebound.

Jota headed straight to the bench to grab a Luis Diaz shirt as he dedicated the goal to the Colombian whose parents were kidnapped by armed men in their home town last night.

Watch the goal and celebration below:

Diogo Jota. Right place. Right time!

But it’s the celebration that shows his class ?

The Liverpool man holds up a shirt for his teammate Luis Diaz as he deals with a personal matter.

LIVE | https://t.co/GsfLPeVfZg #PL #OptusSport pic.twitter.com/FOgfneyv1j

— Optus Sport (@OptusSport) October 29, 2023

?? GOAL: Liverpool 1-0 Nottingham Forest

Diogo Jota scores and dedicates the goal to Luis Diaz ?

pic.twitter.com/HaS7XQUeJ7

— AnfieldIndex (@AnfieldIndex) October 29, 2023

Diogo Jota dedicates his goal to Luis Diaz ???

pic.twitter.com/duGXs0b6hi

— CentreGoals. (@centregoals) October 29, 2023

Brilliant goal created by Alexis winning back the ball. Jota dedicates it to Lucho ?? pic.twitter.com/xZdo9N8ViX

— The Anfield Talk (@TheAnfieldTalk) October 29, 2023

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Liverpool team news vs Nottingham Forest

Connor Holden — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 22:00:00 +0000

Liverpool (4th in the Premier League) take on Nottingham Forest (15th in the Premier League) on Sunday, 29th of October, at Anfield Stadium, at 14:00 PM (BST).

The last time these sides faced, Liverpool beat Nottingham Forest 3-2 at Anfield. Goals from Diogo Jota (x2) and Mohamed Salah for Liverpool, and goals from Neco Williams and Morgan Gibbs-White for Forest.

Liverpool won their previous Premier League game, beating Everton 2-0 at Anfield. A brace from Mohamed Salah secured the win and three points for Liverpool.

Nottingham Forest drew in their last Premier League game, drawing 2-2 with Luton Town. Goals from Chris Wood (x2) for Forest, and goals from Chiedozie Ogbene and Elijah Adebayo for Luton.

How to watch Liverpool vs Nottingham Forest

Date: Sunday, October 29th, 2023
Kickoff: 14:00 PM (BST)
TV Network: Not broadcast in UK
Venue: Anfield Stadium

Team News:

Liverpool will be without Andrew Robertson, Stefan Bajcetic and Thiago Alcantara through injury, whilst Curtis Jones will be unavailable due to suspension for Sunday.

Predicted XI:

Liverpool: Alisson, Tsimikas, van Dijk, Konate, Alexander-Arnold, Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Szoboszlai, Dias, Nunez, Salah.

Nottingham Forest: Turner, Toffolo, Murillo, Boly, Aurier, Sangare, Mangala, Dominguez, Elanga, Wood, Gibbs-White.

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All 20 Premier League clubs set to vote against European Super League

Mark Brus — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 13:47:29 +0000

All 20 Premier League clubs are set to vote against the proposal of the formation of a new European Super League, according to an exclusive from Ben Jacobs via the Daily Briefing.

This story hasn’t completely gone away since a first attempt at forming a Super League fell apart in just 48 hours back in April 2021, with the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham backing the project at the time before U-turning after huge backlash from fans.

All 20 English top flight teams have now agreed that they’re against the idea of the European Super League, despite some figures in the game clearly still being keen on trying to make it work.

Two in the frame for England job as Newcastle’s Eddie Howe makes his position clear

Jason Pettigrove — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 21:47:48 +0000

Eddie Howe has worked wonders at Newcastle United in a relatively short space of time, and the Toon Army would’ve been incandescent if the former Bournemouth man decided to throw his hat into the ring for the England manager’s job when Gareth Southgate vacates.

That’s expected to be as soon as the end of Euro 2024, unless the Three Lions win their first major title since the 1966 World Cup, in which case Southgate will surely find it much harder to walk away.

Fortunately for anyone of a Magpies persuasion, Howe is going nowhere according to The Telegraph (subscription required).

By effectively ruling himself out of that particular race, it only leaves two standout candidates.

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One of those is Nottingham Forest’s 43-year-old manager, Steve Cooper, who worked successfully at various England youth levels between 2014 and 2019, before taking up his first club managerial post at Swansea – the pre-cursor to his appointment at Forest.

The other candidate named by The Telegraph is ex-Chelsea man, Graham Potter.

As he’s not taken up any role since he was sacked by the Blues during the season, any approach from the FA could be dealt with swiftly one way or the other.

That would surely be a preference for all concerned, as the last things Southgate would want is for anything to distract from the next stage of England’s eternal quest on the pitch.

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Most likely destination for free agent Jesse Lingard revealed as Gerrard struggles with foreigner allocation

Jason Pettigrove — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 17:27:16 +0000

It appears that Jesse Lingard’s struggle to find a team to play in for the remainder of the 2023/24 season may soon be at an end.

He’s been training with Al Ettifaq of the Saudi Pro League, however, it’s believed that manager, Steven Gerrard, is struggling with his allocation of foreign players.

Lingard was released by Nottingham Forest at the end of the 2022/23 campaign after a disappointing season for the former Man United ace.

Almost a month spent training with West Ham during the close season and beyond didn’t elicit a contract offer from the east Londoners, which is why Lingard chose to try his luck out in Saudi Arabia like many of his contemporaries.

According to ESPN, Al Ettifaq is still the most likely destination for the player as Gerrard will ensure that space is made in his squad for the 30-year-old to join permanently.

That will bring to an end a saga that has rumbled on for a few months and threatened to see Lingard either lose his livelihood completely or potentially be forced to drop down a league or two in order to resurrect his career.

There’s a cogent argument that a player who once had it all for club and country has now found his level, but that’s a damning indictment on the player’s fitness levels and application.

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Supporters get 3pm blackout update as new Premier League TV packages set to be agreed

Jason Pettigrove — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 18:51:37 +0000

Premier League football supporters across the country will arguably waiting with baited breath to find out the detail behind the new TV deals, including a longed-for removal of the Saturday 3pm blackout.

Clubs in the English top-flight will also be keen to understand what slots will be available when the deals for 2025/26 to 2028/29 are struck.

According to BBC Sport’s Simon Stone, the packages are set to be agreed by the end of the calendar year, and supporters are set to be disappointed once more.

Premier League expect to have 2025-26-2028-29 TV packages agreed by end of year. Sat 3pm ‘closed period’ retained. All other games live, inc all Sun 2pm. 5 packages, all linked to current slot (Sat 1230 + 1730, Sun 1400 + 1630 and Mon/Fri). All packages bigger than 38 matchrounds

— Simon Stone (@sistoney67) October 18, 2023

The 3pm blackout will stay as part of all of the packages available, which will, apparently, be bigger than 38 match rounds.

There will be five packages on offer with every slot, including the 2pm Sunday kick-off’s, now having live matches.

Jurgen Klopp is unlikely to be happy about the Saturday lunchtime slot being kept, with all other ‘usual’ slots – Friday night, Saturday evening, Sunday afternoon and Monday night staying the same too.

In short, not an awful lot has changed and the vagaries of the fixture calendar will surely end up with supporters having to travel the length and breadth of the country at hours to suit the TV companies rather than those that the game supposedly can’t do without.

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Newcastle enquire about signing 6ft 3in Chelsea player ahead of January

Darren Looney — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 12:53:27 +0000

Eddie Howe could look to sign a centre-back in January and Chelsea’s Trevoh Chalobah is one player Newcastle are looking at ahead of the transfer window.

The defender is out of favour at Chelsea and has yet to play for the West London club this season as Mauricio Pochettino prefers his other options over the 24-year-old. This has led to speculation that the centre-back will leave in January and there are several clubs interested in his signature.

According to 90min, Newcastle United are among clubs such as Nottingham Forest, Brentford and Fulham, who are all monitoring Chalobah’s situation at Chelsea.

The biggest competition, however, comes from Germany as Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich wanted to sign the 24-year-old in the summer and remain keen on him. Thomas Tuchel worked with the 6ft 3in defender at Chelsea and the player would likely want to work again with a coach that trusted him and helped him develop his game.

As for Newcastle, Chalobah has a lot of qualities Howe could certainly work with and if he does decide to move to St James’ Park, the Magpies boss will make sure all of the Chelsea star’s potential is extracted in order to develop him further towards being a top defender in the Premier League.

Collymore’s column: Euro 2028 can bring us together again, player strikes, top man Saka and more!

Stan Collymore — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 13:13:58 +0000

In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Liverpool attacker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest talking points, including Premier League funding of lower leagues, Bukayo Saka’s current form, why he supports player strikes, what Euro 2028 will do for the country, plus much more.

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English teams will dominate in Europe again but that might not be good for the game

Brighton got a bit of a bloody nose in in match day one and then they sort of regrouped by match day two. I think that Newcastle’s result against PSG was perhaps more relevant than ever and it made a change because it wasn’t just the champions putting on a performance like that.

West Ham winning the conference league last year – there were some very good teams in that tournament, and let’s not forget Aston Villa in the game in Warsaw. We’re in a very, very strong footballing zone, without a doubt, and I don’t think many people will be surprised that the Premier League with its riches would have the strongest teams.

When I was a kid growing up, I think it was six European Cups on the bounce. Liverpool three times, two for Forest and one for Villa over six consecutive years,. Then you had the likes of Ipswich Town and Tottenham winning the UEFA Cup, and even Scottish teams like Aberdeen were winning the Cup Winners’ Cup.

The Premier League undoubtedly is entering an era where it’s money has, and will continue to make, a difference in terms of getting the best players from around the world, and I wouldn’t be surprised that unless there’s some sort of real attempt from UEFA to implement some sort of financial fair play that allows teams in Holland, Belgium and Portugal, never mind in France, Spain, Italy, and Germany, to compete on a level playing field, then I don’t think it will be all English clubs that win the major European trophies.

Spanish clubs will always be there or thereabouts but we will get to a point if you’re not careful where it’ll be the vast majority of clubs are English with two or three Spanish clubs mixed in that are winning everything.

Let’s not forget that if we’re looking back 40/50 years ago, we’re talking about clubs from behind the Iron Curtain being very competitive. Russian teams, Ukrainian teams. Others like Dukla Prague.

Those days are gone, unfortunately, but for me, a healthy UEFA ecosystem means clubs in Eastern Europe, Portuguese clubs and others would be competitive in Europe, and I don’t see that being the case for some for some time to come.

—

I’m in favour of player strikes but the caveat is managers need to play the game too

I don’t think authorities give a **** about players. They’ll be provided with analytics and data that shows a players physical state dropping off at times of the season but FIFA still want to push for a World Cup every two years because it makes them more money.

You also have the ridiculous situation that whenever there is a three or four week break, players are going off to America or Asia for lucrative pre-season or end of season tournaments.

The reality is that yes, I agree with Pep and I think if European players went on strike they would have to insist on two things.

Pep Guardiola

Firstly, a six-to-eight week, end-of-season, break. All of June and all of July off, no football anywhere except for a World Cup or a European Championship.

Secondly, a maximum number of games played, or a cap on how many minutes an individual player can play in a season.

For example, if Jack Grealish has played 45 games for Manchester City and then he’s got five more games to go in a season to make it 50 – and that’s the total amount he’s allowed but he has cup games and England games still to play – I’d want to see Pep Guardiola go ‘I’m happy for him to play five games potentially for England even if that means missing Manchester City games. We’ve got a big enough squad to cope.’

It would call out the managers that are bleating about player welfare, and show quite clearly who is serious about it and which managers are the hypocrites.

If Pep is serious, then I would absolutely follow him on this.

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Euro 2028 can bring the country together again just like in 96 but the experience will be diluted

Euro 96 was effectively the rebirth of the English flag for the English team. If you remember it was just a year before the Labour Party voted ‘things can only get better’ and there was a real sense of ‘we’re in the EU, we’ve got Italian baristas making coffee in even the smallest towns, we’ve got Polish builders and carpenters doing a great job…’

There were people coming from left, right and centre and working in all sorts of industries and Britain felt inclusive. It felt like the English flag was no longer a flag that traditionally had been flown by the National Front and the BNP. Euro 96 was a real galvanising force for everybody.

To be honest, I think that the vast majority of football fans are still in that mindset, despite the fact that the country has a very nasty post-Brexit feel about it at the moment.

With regards to Euro 2028, I’m not against more countries having big tournaments but I do think from a cultural perspective, that European Championships and World Cups should only ever be held in one country.

I think that that’s an important component of a tournament, so I’m not a massive fan of a Pan Britain or a Spain/Morocco/Portugal tournament. Even an America/Canada/Mexico tournament means a lot dilution of the full experience.

The experience is supposed to be as much about learning about the culture in that country, as it is about spreading football love, so to speak.

I’ll give an example of Germany 2006. There were at least 100,000 England fans over there and pretty much most of them came back with an attitude of ‘we’re only a generation or two away from our grandparents who are always talking about World War Two in Germany and whatever, but what a great country what a great welcome.’

I’ll go and I’ll enjoy Euro 2028, but I don’t think it will resonate in the same way as Euro 96 because that was solely an English tournament and it coincided with the feeling of England being comfortable in its skin politically for the most part.

—

Bukayo Saka gets the nod ahead of Jude Bellingham as player of the season so far

The reason I’ve chosen Saka is because he’s not allowed missing the penalty for England, which is only two years ago, to affect him.

Being a particularly young man, a relative rookie, he’s already being thought of as the top man, the game changer at Arsenal and he’s taking that all on board whilst scoring goals and creating chances. Just brilliant.

I was sat amongst the families during the Euros for the semi-final and the final. I sat with Jack Grealish’s dad, chatted to my former captain, Stuart Pearce, and I saw Saka with his girlfriend after the game.

I said to my mate I’m gonna go over and say something. I said “you won’t know me from Adam, but I’ve been in your position. Not missing a penalty, but I’ve been in your position now as a footballer where you have days where something doesn’t happen for you. Just keep your chin up.” He looked really crestfallen and it could have been very, very easy over the next couple of years for his form to be really up and down.

You look at Marcus Rashford for example, getting involved with charities, school meals and taking on the government… Rashford’s been hot or cold on the pitch at present. There’s been no consistency.

I could equally say Jude Bellingham as my pick for the season’s best player so far. What an incredible start for life at the world’s biggest football club.

His trajectory – Birmingham-Dortmund-Madrid – has always been forward. That dude has also very cleverly done well to escape the spotlight. He comes back and plays for England and if he plays poorly, he goes back to Madrid and plays well. Nobody’s really gonna care if you play poorly.

For Saka at Arsenal, he’s still the top man, and he’s still doing it with the England squad. He’s been absolutely exceptional is for me, and I’m really looking forward to him scoring the match-winner in a semi-final or a final which would completely banish the memories of his penalty miss.

—

The Premier League must help to fund the lower leagues to stop more clubs going out of business

The chasm between the Premier League and the other English professional leagues is growing, and I think that what has to happen is a clear pipeline of money from the English top-flight downwards must be established. Look at the Premier League benefactors and the system that they work in – it’s the football pyramid.

Luton Town were in the bottom tier of the professional game in League Two and went all the way up to the Premier League. They’re not an established Premier League club yet, but let’s say we’re looking back in 10 years time and Luton have the money to buy Jude Bellingham because they’ve spent their Premier League money very wisely. They’ve got into Europe, they’ve done a Brighton and then some and they’re competing in the top four of English football… you would say that’s impossible but with the with the money that’s available the game, it’s not impossible.

The thing that annoys me is, is that when when clubs get into the Premier League, they pretty much moan and bitch around the table ‘I gotta give more money to a team in the National League. Can’t we ever have the extra few million for ourselves?’

If 15% of all money that we generate in the Premier League is automatically going down the leagues in a very clear system that supporters can see, that the FA can see, that there’s nothing hidden and that every single penny is accounted for and it’s gonna be in perpetuity so that in 10 years time we will have seen the trickle down effect of that money, then that’s the way to do it.

We also need a fit-for-purpose ‘fit and proper persons’ test.

Ron Martin at Southend, the Oystons at Blackpool, those in charge at Charlton for years, Scunthorpe have problems, Oldham had problems… all of it could’ve been avoided if, on day one, when they owned their club, the authorities assigned the club a real world value and the new owners had to put down a 10% deposit in cash at an FA bank which was kept is a bond. Then if bills etc couldn’t be paid, the FA can release funds from the deposit.

Also, club owners must have their main source of business income in England. Not Scotland, not Wales, not tax havens, not Dubai, not America… Any business that runs Manchester United for example, or FSG at Liverpool – the business has to be registered in England, which is often not the case.

Clubs have got to look after themselves and work within their own financial parameters of course, but I do believe Premier League clubs are responsible for the pyramid up until a point probably not far beyond the National League South or North.

Perhaps the Isthmian League, where it’s a very good standard of semi pro teams, and you’re getting x amount of ex-pros, Academy kids etc.

That would be the starting point whereby those clubs upwards could get some sort of regular funding when required.

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Exclusive: VAR is needed but why use refs in their 30s and 40s

Jason Pettigrove — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 09:00:42 +0000

The absolute debacle surrounding the VAR decision in the recent Tottenham vs Liverpool game has reignited the debate over whether it’s the technology or those using it that aren’t fit for purpose.

Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) chief, Howard Webb, has done another media round where he’s attempted to smooth over one of the worst errors we’ve seen to date, but that’s done little for the credibility of the organisation.

An organisation who routinely employ officials in their 30s and 40s who are having to keep up with the play of super-fit athletes.

That’s all wrong according to Premier League co-creator, ‘super agent’ Jon Smith.

‘Despite the furore that has again erupted around VAR, my initial thought is that it’s needed. A lot of football fans say it’s not but I’ve seen some awful decisions over the years and I’m a huge referee fan by the way. Frankly, how can you have, and why would you want, someone in their 30s or 40s trying to keep up with play when the game is being played by super fit teenagers and 20 somethings?’ he wrote in his exclusive CaughtOffside column.

‘Then those officials are having to make instant decisions when they may be 20 yards away and slightly blindsided. Decisions which are impactful on people’s lives and, in some cases, on lots of money being earned by a club or national team who are hoping to progress through to the next stage of a tournament.

‘[…] I think there’s a dichotomy here. I like VAR. I think what they did in the World Cup was along the right lines and I think we should use modern technology, but, all the things I’ve just said, I think they’re relevant to how it should be implemented.’

One surely has to ask the question of the authorities as to why they aren’t using the version of VAR that was available at the 2022 World Cup – and is used in other leagues.

It takes all of the guesswork out of the decision, which can arguably be arrived at more quickly as a result.

Like most other things that the Football Association meddle with, there’s enough bureaucratic red tape to get through to put off even the most fervent supporter, but something really does need to change.

The multi-million pound entertainment industry that football now is cannot afford to be derailed by what we’ve become accustomed to.

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Video: Rio Ferdinand blames all other EPL teams for Liverpool VAR fiasco

Jason Pettigrove — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 17:16:00 +0000

All of the talk surrounding the Premier League at the weekend was over the disallowed Luis Diaz goal for Liverpool against Tottenham, and former Man United defender, Rio Ferdinand, has only added more fuel to the fire.

Always outspoken, you often wonder if Ferdinand says stuff for effect or if he genuinely believes in what comes out of his mouth.

Speaking on his Vibe with Five YouTube channel, he waded into the row by suggesting it was the fault of all the other Premier League clubs that this happened in the first place.

His rationale was that they had the chance to accept the technology used in the last World Cup, where human error doesn’t come into play, but they voted against it, a decision he called “wild.”

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