Category: Sport

Round 14 of the UPL: “Dynamo defeated Chornomorets 3-1 and took a 2-point lead over Oleksandriya, which drew 1-1 with Veres. “Shakhtar defeated Ingulets 6-0.

Kyiv's Dynamo pulls away from Oleksandriya, which drew against Veres, Ingulets loses 0-6 to Shakhtar Donetsk, super safes, air raids, red cards – this is how the 14th round of the Ukrainian Premier League ended. UNN decided to tell you the results, new achievements and what the next round of the UPL will be remembered for.

"Karpaty" thanks to a beautiful goal Bruninho wins "Kolos"

On Friday, it fell to the local Karpaty to open the next round of the UPL in Lviv, with Kolos Kovaliv visiting. Traditionally, the first symbolic kick was taken by a veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The first shot in the match was taken by Oleh Lyubinsky, a scout with the Special Forces who participated in battles near Kyiv, in the Kharkiv sector, in Pokrovsk and Bakhmut. He is currently undergoing treatment after being wounded.

At the start of the match, the teams exchanged chances, but Kolos was closer to scoring, but the Giant lacked accuracy. After 6 minutes, Tsurikov made a great pass to Bolivar, but the Venezuelan hit his chest inaccurately. During the half, Diego and Alefirenko had their chances for Kolos, but it was the home team that opened the scoring.

First, Bruninho intercepted the ball, passed it to Neves, who passed it to captain Ambrosio Chachua. Chachua gave a subtle scoop pass to the same Bruninho, who hit Pakholyuk with a powerful second touch – 1: 0 in favor of Karpaty in the 32nd minute.

“Karpaty could have doubled their lead in a minute when Neves decided to take a shot from the top of the box, but this time Pakholyuk made the save. At the end of the half, Kolos got its own episode, but Krasniqi's scissor shot was right at Kemkin.

The second half was significantly inferior to the first in sharpness. The first moments began to arise only after the 60th wave, "Karpaty" had its own episodes, but in the first case, the ball passed by after a rebound, and Pakholyuk coped with Kostenko's shot.

In the 73rd minute, Colos forward Bolivar had a killer moment, but the crossbar took the shot. But in the end, the" Carpathians "managed to keep the goal" dry " and get a minimal victory – 1:0.

Vorskla beat LNZ with goals in each half.

In the first match of Saturday, Vorskla Poltava was visited by LNZ Cherkasy. Before the start of the match, the players observed a minute of silence in memory of the Holodomor victims.

The home team created the first chance in the 2nd minute of the match when Kucherenko pulled Krupsky's long shot from under the post. “LNZ” answered in 5 minutes when Yashari threw forward to Mollo, Isenko came out of the goal, averted the threat, but passed it right to Yashari's foot, but the midfielder could not throw the ball over the goalkeeper.

Vorskla's goal was unexpected, especially after the game had calmed down a bit. On the right flank, Iede made a diagonal left to Myakushko, who handled the ball, moved to the center and put the leather one into the corner of the LNZ goal – 1-0 in favor of Vorskla.

The teams had their moments before the break. Vorskla defender Batsula could have cut into his own goal, but he was lucky, and instead the Poltava midfielder shot straight into the keeper's hands.

After the break, Vorskla still managed to double the advantage. Ides, who has already scored an assist in this match, scored himself. Kane gently threw into the penalty area on Yede, the striker tamed the ball, and shot exactly past Kucherenko – 2:0, although three minutes earlier Yede missed a super chance.

“LNZ tried to seize the initiative, but things got really bad for Cherkasy in the 70th minute when center back Salihu received two yellow cards in 6 minutes and was sent off the field. In the 88th minute, LNZ defender Daiko could have reduced the deficit, but Isenko managed to save the shot.

In the end, the final whistle recorded a confident advantage of Vorskla with a score of 2:0.

Buyalsky's beautiful goal, Chornomorets' defenders' “deliveries”, Surkis' gift

In another match on Saturday, Dynamo Kyiv hosted Chornomorets Odesa. Before the start of the match, the players honored the memory of the Holodomor victims with a minute of silence, as well as the representative of the Obolon Kyiv ultras Pavlo Vedybida, nicknamed Obolonchyk, who died on November 13, 2024, in the battle near Chasovyi Yar, Donetsk region.

Vedibida has been a combatant since 2014, in particular as part of the DUK PS, defending Savur-Mohyla, Donetsk airport and other strategic positions. In 2022-2024, he served with the 112th Brigade of the Obolon District Military District, participated in the defense of Kyiv, the battles near Lysychansk, the liberation of Klishchiyivka, and the defense of Chasovyi Yar.

To the surprise of the audience, it was Chernomorets, which was an outsider in this match according to bookmakers ' forecasts, that started the match actively, but by the 8th minute the capital's grandee seized the initiative when Vladimir Brazhko first hit the leg of the Chernomorets defender, and on the second attempt hit the rack. Later, Alexander Karavaev could not hit the empty goal, shooting higher.

Chernomorets snapped back at Hoblenko, who hit the net from the outside from an acute angle.

In the 15th minute, Denys Popov intercepted the ball in the other half of the field, passed it to Buyalsky, who passed it to Vanat, and the forward scored exactly in the corner – 1: 0.

Kyiv continued to control the course of the match, striking at Chornomorets' goal, but it did not come to anything concrete. The ball either went past or Rudko controlled the situation.

After the break, Dynamo again looked sharper, not allowing Chernomorets to create chances. First, Karavaev shot higher from a killing distance, three minutes later Karavaev shot again with his head, but Rudko repelled, and two minutes later the same Karavaev earned a penalty, but after reviewing the VAR, the referee canceled his decision.

Still, Dynamo managed to score – in the 69th minute Buyalsky received a pass from Vanat in front of the penalty area, the Captain adjusted the ball under his right foot and powerfully shot into the far nine. The goalkeeper of the" Mariners " failed to help out in this situation 2:0.

In the 86th minute, The Defenders of Chernomorets played too much at their own goal, as a result of which Daniil Hoopoe gave a pass to Rudko, who was intercepted by Buyalsky, the goalkeeper did not have time to reach the ball, and the captain of Kiev gave it to the empty goal exactly on the leg of Valentin Rubchinsky, who had to send the ball into the empty goal – 3:0.

The Mariners managed to score a prestige goal in stoppage time – Skiba blocked Petryak's free-kick with his head. It should be noted that Roman Salenko made his debut in this match, who came out in the 90-1 minute instead of Buyalsky, the forces of the legendary Dynamo forward in the past Oleg Salenko.

The final whistle signaled a confident victory, with which Kyiv congratulated their president Ihor Surkis, who celebrated his 65th birthday the day before, and extended their unbeaten streak in the UPL, which has lasted for 15 games.

the fourth consecutive penalty deflected by Palamarchuk did not allow his Ingulets to burn down Shakhtar

In the last match on Saturday, Shakhtar Donetsk played host to Ingulets from Petrovo, which has not yet tasted victory in the UPL, with only 6 draws and 7 defeats. The first shot in the match was scored by police lieutenant Vasyl Ivanovych (call sign Professor), a fighter of the Special Operations Battalion “Aeneas” of the united assault brigade of the National Police “Rage.”

In May of this year, Vasyl, together with his brothers, performed combat missions in the Kharkiv region, liberating Ukrainian lands from the enemy. In June, his unit was transferred to the Donbass, where a soldier was seriously wounded in fierce battles near Toretsk.

Both teams decided from the start not to sit out in defense. Already in the 5th minute, Shakhtar forward Daniil Sikan created a chance, but shot past. "Ingulets" responded a minute later, when Pyatov processed the ball in the penalty area, shot, but Dmitry Reznik parried the shot. After 4 minutes, petrovtsev keeper Palamarchuk entered the game, eliminating the threat after Alexander Zubkov's shot.

In the end, by the end of the half, Shakhtar took possession of the initiative, but the final stage was not enough. In the 38th minute, the same Pyatov broke through the flank and shot, but the shot was not strong, so Reznik confidently fixed the ball.

In the 41st minute, Shakhtar earned the right to a penalty, after playing with their hand in Nuri Malysh's own penalty area. Georgy Sudakov took the shot, but could not beat Palamarchuk, who became the 4th penalty deflected in a row this season.

But Ingulets players did not rejoice for long. Already in the first minute added to the first half, Artem Bondarenko scored his 30th goal in the UPL – Zubkov in the center passed to Bondarenko on the flank, the midfielder passed the ball to Sikan, who returned it back to Bondarenko, who scored exactly in the corner – 1: 0.

The beginning of the second half was a disaster for Ingulets. In the 47th minute, Zubkov made a cross from the flank exactly on the head of Bartol Franic, who shot Palamarchuk from a few meters – 2:0.

In 3 minutes, the Donetsk team brought the score to a crushing one – again Zubkov went down the flank, shifted slightly to the center and gave it to Kevin, who sent the ball into the net in touch from outside the penalty area-3:0.

Ingulets responded only in the 67th minute, when Belotserkovets dragged the ball from the flanks, reached the penalty area and shot into the far corner, but Reznik helped out again.

Then everything only got worse for Ingulets – in the 69th minute, the Donetsk team ran out on the counterattack, Pedrinho burst into the penalty area, where he gently hung Eginaldo on his head, who shot the goal with his head-4:0.

After 10 minutes, Zubkov played Sudakov into the wall, got the ball back and scored from outside the penalty area into the far corner – 5-0.

Two minutes later, Eginaldo scored a double from Neverton's pass and put a bold point – 6:0. Shakhtar even scored 7 goals, but the referee recorded an offside position.

The final whistle recorded the crushing victory of Ingulets, which extended the unbeaten streak of the club to 15 games in the UPL.

"Alexandria" gave in to The Post and releases "Dynamo"

In Sunday's match, Veres Rivne was visited by Alexandria from Kirovohrad region, which needed a victory in order not to let go of Dynamo, which, as noted, defeated Chernomorets. The start of the match was postponed for 1.5 hours due to an air alert in the region.

42-year-old sergeant Oleg Adamchuk received the right to the first symbolic kick on the ball in the match against Alexandria. He gained combat experience in the Pokrovsky direction in the 68th separate Jaeger brigade named after Oleksa Dovbush, and now conducts training, working as an instructor in basic military training in the 233rd Unit Training Center.

The hosts started the match more actively, which is not surprising, because the players of "Alexandria" knew about the victory of "Dynamo". But by the 10th minute, Veres seized the initiative. Vitaly Dakhnovsky was the sharpest member of Oleg Shandruk's team. At first, he ran away on a date with Ermakov, but did not beat Ermakov low, and then the goalkeeper took a shot from dakhnovsky's fly.

Later, Dakhnovsky brought Gaiduchyk into the operational space, but failed to beat Yermakov.

In the 25th minute, Ivan Kalyuzhny played with his hand in his own penalty area, which is why the referee awarded a penalty, which was realized by Haiduchik – 1:0 in favor of Veres.

The goal shook up "Alexandria". After scoring a goal," Alexandria " even managed to quickly close the gap, but the referee canceled Belyaev's goal due to offside.

At the end of the half, Belyaev could have closed the gap of his team, but the ball went higher after a header. After the break, the Alexandrians looked more active. First Belyaev shot near the bar, then Giovani shot higher, Filippov's shot pulled Kozhukhar.

In the end, the goal was brewing, which actually happened in the 78th minute-Kalyuzhny shot in the direction of the goal after a corner, and Bezerra put his foot in front of the goalkeeper in time – 1:1. already in added time, Veres could have taken the lead, arranging an invasion of Ermakov's goal, but Kirovohrad fought back.

"Alexandria" lost important points, which allowed "Dynamo" to break away from the wards of Ruslan Rotan by two points.

"movement" breaks the winless streak

In the final match of Sunday, Lviv's Rukh met with Kyiv's Left Bank. “Before this match, Rukh had a disappointing winless streak – 6 draws, 2 defeats, so the Lviv team had to win. The first symbolic blow was made by Yulian Garasymov, a machine gunner with the 53rd separate rifle battalion of the 116th separate mechanized brigade. Yulian fought in Bakhmut and Staromayorske, where he carried his wounded comrade 5 kilometers to the evacuation point after the battles. He is currently undergoing treatment.

The first half turned out to be not rich at the moment, you can recall the shot of the left defender of Kiev Sydney, which Ledway coped with and Kogut's shot higher.

"Rukh" woke up before the end of the half and created several chances, one of which ended with a penalty against the "Left Bank". In the 42nd minute, the visiting player Yakimov knocked down Didyk in his own penalty area, the referee pointed to the point that the Carbine clearly realized.

The second half turned out to be interesting for moments – at first Dedukh could have equalized the score, but Ledviy managed, the Carbine and Kvasnitsa had half-moments, but they lacked accuracy.

The game was mostly like a football saying:"some couldn't, others didn't want to." "Rukh" mostly sat in defense, trying to save the result, and "Left Bank" in the second half almost nothing came out ahead. In the end, the final whistle recorded a minimal victory for Rukh, which broke the unbeaten streak.

a draw closed the Tour

In the final match of the tour, local Polesie and Luhansk Zarya met at the snow-covered Central Stadium in Zhytomyr. The first symbolic kick on the ball was performed by Nikita Maksimchuk, the son of a combat officer of the 132nd separate Reconnaissance Battalion of the DSHV, captain Andrey Maksimchuk, who now defends Ukraine.

The match started quite quickly. In the 5th minute, Alexey Gutsulyak, who returned from the national team camp, could have opened the scoring, but zleta shot over the goal. Later, Paishao, who had long been Gutsulyak in the previous episode, could not beat the Zarya keeper.

In the end, in the first half, Polesie looked more active, but the accuracy failed. Paishao, Hutsulyak, Nazarenko had their chances again, but Sarapiy successfully deflected the shots.

Zarya responded only closer to the end of the half, but Alexander Yatsyk's long-range shot went near the post. After the break, the home team continued to attack, but the sharp moments were created by the Zarya players. At first, Gorbach hit Verny after Yatsyk's cross, but the polesie keeper made an incredible save, turning the ball over to the corner.

Subsequently, Philip Budkovsky, who played for Polesie, shot higher over the nine. But still, Budkovsky had his say in this match. "Zarya" in the 65th minute went into a positional attack, which, it would seem, did not end in anything, but the striker of "Polesie" brought at his goal, Yatsyk took away, Juninho rolled to the left, where there was a locksmith, who in turn rolled to Budkovsky, who shot weakly, but accurately – 1:0 in favor of "Zarya". Smolyakov could have knocked the ball out of the goal belt, but waved past the ball.

In 2 minutes, Zarya could have doubled the advantage, but Volynets managed after a free kick. A minute later, Zarya remained in the minority – Roman Vantukh received the second yellow card and left the field.

A goal from Polesie was clearly brewing, which could have happened in the 80th minute, but Sarapiy gave the safe no worse than Volynets, pulling the ball out of the nine goals. Nevertheless, at the end of the match, the Wolves managed to equalize the score – Mustafayev served to the near post, Taylor threw a header at Sarapiy, and he literally brought the ball into the goal 1:1.

In the end, the final whistle recorded a draw.

The standings after 14 rounds are as follows: Dynamo continues to lead, breaking away from Alexandria by two points, Ingulets and Obolon continue to be in the relegation zone.

Earlier, UNN wrote that Kryvyi Rih "Kryvbas" minimally outplayed the capital's "Obolon". The fate of the match was determined by the only goal of Yegor Tverdokhleb from the assist of the 18-year-old debutant.

UPL: “Kryvbas narrowly defeated Obolon on the roadNov 24 2024, 01:50 PM • 21326 views

Jamie Carragher has picked out what he believes are the “weaknesses” in Ruben Amorim’s system after analysing his first game in charge of Manchester United.

Marcus Rashford gave Amorim the dream start, scoring inside two minutes on Sunday, but the game finished 1-1 after Omari Hutchinson’s fine long-range strike levelled things up.

Much has been made of Amorim’s switch to a 3-4-3 system and the new Red Devils boss insists his players will need time to adapt to the new setup.

But Carragher picked out what he believes will be a “big problem” going forward on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football.

Carragher said: “I hear a lot of managers including Ruben Amorim saying systems don’t matter too much. I believe that they do, no matter how many times managers tell me they don’t because, well why do you play a different system? Different systems give you different things in different areas.

“For me, the weaknesses are in these spaces here, either side of the two central midfield players. The reason why is, when you play a conventional back four, your wide man can tuck in and help.

“But because you play a back three, when they get the ball they naturally go wider and wing backs go wider and higher. It means there’s a lot more space around these two central midfield players, especially if the two attacking 10s don’t drop back. There were the same issues on the Ipswich side as well.

“The big problem is – is it a midfielder who should drop in to fill that space or should a centre-back step in with someone?

“We listened to Ruben Amorim after the game and he spoke a lot about Jonny Evans not making that jump into the space to pick up a man. Because they played the same system, it almost became a man-to-man game. Football has become that.”

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Amorim called out Joshua Zirkzee as well as Evans after the game, claiming his players are currently “confused” after his limited time working with him.

Amorim told Sky Sports: “I think that [decision-making] is a concern, you don’t need to coach them at this level.

“You have to keep the ball and know the momentum to put the ball in front. Sometimes you feel that you can’t keep the ball and you [have to] put the ball in front.

“Then you have like we are in the end of the game, we were around the box with two strikers. Josh [Zirkzee] has to understand that he has to go to the box to have the crosses.

“So we are doing some things that were not at the right moment, so that is something we have to address.

“Sometimes people talk about the 3-4-3, that is not the concern, the system is the system but the understanding of the game is what we have to improve a lot in this area.”

Amorim also insisted that Evans should have been getting tighter to Hutchinson with the Ipswich winger allowed too much space.

Amorim added: “If you see the first half, we were a little bit afraid. The No.5 [Sam Morsy] was always alone, we have to jump on him.

“Hutchinson was always in the dead space, Jonny Evans should be pressing his guy, but when we don’t have the training and it’s hard to see say all the reactions to the players.

“We had two days, they are confused a little bit. If you stay here, you don’t run, you defend but you don’t run. You feel that in the data, but we have to understand the data to understand what happened in the game, then we have to be so much better physically to cope with the high pressure, the volume of the high-speed running, we need time to work on these things.”

We can all enjoy/endure a steady increase in transfer rumours surrounding Manchester United as we approach the January window; even more than usual thanks to the arrival of Ruben Amorim, who will be handed the requisite leeway until then by dint of not having His Players to call upon.

The transfer gossip-peddlers have predictably chosen to interpret that cliched caveat very literally thus far, with plenty of focus on the Sporting players Amorim may be looking to poach to get the band back together, having observed Erik ten Hag’s rudimentary transfer policy in his time at Old Trafford.

But the hearsay net has been spread wide, with some of the players tipped to be his ‘first signing’ perfectly reasonable suggestions and others indicating profound delusion over the lure of a once-great football team.

We’ve ranked 21 players linked with being the first through the door in the Amorim era from least to most likely.

*Remember, this isn’t the chances of them ever joining Manchester Untied, just of them being the first signing*

21) Jamal Musiala (Bayern Munich)
Absurd, obviously. Musiala could just about have his pick of any club in world football and already plays for one that’s in the Champions League and on top of the Bundesliga. Manchester United are a long way from even being on the radar for someone like him. But we need to consider when this rumour emerged.

United fans were understandably excited on November 1 when Amorim was officially announced as their next manager, trawling the interweb for any story – hokum or otherwise – on their saviour, giddily clicking on links in the false hope that his arrival opened a portal to the mid-noughties when they had the clout to attract a footballer of such repute and hadn’t spunked hundreds of millions of pounds on average players in the interim to make his transfer an impossibility.

20) Ademola Lookman (Atalanta)
A report that starts with ‘PSG have made a £100m offer for the Serie A sensation’ should at no point suggest that Manchester United are in the running for the same transfer.

19) Lautaro Martinez (Inter)
The gall required by a Spanish outlet that will remain nameless to suggest that Inter are so desperate to sign Joshua Zirkzee that they’re willing to send their £100m captain to Old Trafford in exchange is extraordinary, particularly as they supposedly only want £50m as well as the flopping striker United literally just paid £34.5m for. Not gonna happen.

18) Geovany Quenda (Sporting)
It’s fair to say Diogo Dalot, Ten Hag-nail-in-the-coffin miss against West Ham aside, has been one of Manchester United’s better players this season, looking comfortable either on the left or right of defence. But there will be doubt over his suitability for the right wing-back role, and even if he thrives there, the grind and energy levels required to play that position will likely see United prioritise wing-back signings so that they have two players for the left and two for the right.

Amorim clearly has great faith in Quenda, having promoted the 17-year-old to the first team and made him a staple in his side this season. There’s always a bloody release clause though, and while Sporting may well be willing to soften their stance in the summer, they’re currently of a mind that the £83m they’re asking for ‘reflects his long-term value and potential in European football’.

If United are going to spend that much on a Sporting player, it’s not going to be Quenda…

17) Lorran (Flamengo)
Us neither. He’s an 18-year-old attacking midfielder who’s been promoted to the Flamengo first team this season and has one goal and one assist in 17 appearances. Like 99 per cent of the people on social media now hailing him as The Next Vinicius, that’s the sum-total of our knowledge of Lorran, aside from what we’ve gleaned from the two dozen Welcome To Manchester United 2024 Best Skills And Goals videos that have emerged in the last month.

Chelsea are of course also scouting the teenager, who has a release clause of €50m, which, whether United sign him in the future or not, they’re not about to spend in January on a player who in all likelihood won’t be ready for first-team action for some time yet.

16) Christian Pulisic (AC Milan)
There may be a sense of Unfinished Business in the Premier League for Pulisic, who was on United’s radar before his move to Serie A and can quite reasonably feel as though he was never truly given a fair shot at Chelsea. But by all reports he’s loving life in Milan and we really can’t see him wanting to rock the happiness boat ahead of leading his nation in a home World Cup in 2026.

15) Jarrad Braithwaite (Everton)
In an alternate but not all that distant reality, Branthwaite would currently be licking his wounds following an Old Trafford baptism of fire under the doomed Erik ten Hag and hoping – like the rest of his Manchester United teammates – that the manager was the problem.

Had Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS not been at the helm in the summer, the Red Devils would have got to deadline day, panicked, and bent to Everton’s crazy demands for their centre-back.

The new ethos of not paying over the odds for players, particularly young British talent, led United to instead sign Matthijs de Ligt for around half the £70m they would have had to stump up for Branthwaite.

We won’t know for a while yet whether Eric Dier’s understudy has struggled because of Ten Hag, his system or the team’s general hardships, but there is a sense – particularly as Amorim wants to play a back three – that further centre-back recruits will be required.

It makes sense for Branthwaite to be on that shortlist. He’s young, left-footed and has Everything You Want In A Centre-back. One for the summer though probably, as Everton surely won’t listen to offers in January; certainly not the sort of offers United will be prepared to put on the table given their financial constraints.

14) Christopher Nkunku (Chelsea)
We have little doubt having watched Nkunku’s fits-and-starts Chelsea career to date that if given a run in the team he would score plenty of goals. Cole Palmer aside, perhaps even including the Blues Starboy, Nkunku is the most natural and instinctive finisher in a squad bulging with attacking talent and potential.

He just doesn’t offer the same things as Nicolas Jackson, who’s very much the man in possession of the No.9 spot in the Premier League XI and doesn’t look likely to cede that role any time soon. If anything, he looks set to strengthen his grip, with his ceiling for improvement as high as anyone’s in Enzo Maresca’s squad.

There are already understandable rumblings of discontent from Nkunku, who – as the kids say – could Slap for a big side if given the game time.

The problem for United – and we’re not ruling it out because up until very recently Chelsea has been a madhouse under the new owners – is that it would take a special kind of stupid for the Blues to sign off on Nkunku moving to a Premier League rival.

They apparently turned down more money from Tottenham for Conor Gallagher and for the same reason would presumably only accept offers from abroad if the Frenchman angles for the exit.

13) Viktor Gyokeres (Sporting)
Definitely a transfer that could happen, though probably not in January, presuming Amorim is not a total snake.

A high chance of them making a move in the summer for sure, when Sporting have said they will listen to offers around the £60m mark: a price too low for United not to consider as they a) would love a proper goalscorer, and b) won’t want rival clubs to steal him away, as they will surely try to do.

Rasmus Hojlund has got a big six months ahead of him to prove to Amorim that they need not spend that cash on Gyokeres as they’ve already got a striker capable of producing consistent performances and banging in goals for fun. That’s surely the hope, though a report on Amorim’s plans for the United front three may well throw a spanner in the works.

READ MORE: Rasmus Hojlund must prove he’s Viktor Gyokeres, or Man Utd will sign Viktor Gyokeres

12) Jules Kounde (Barcelona)
The Premier League transfer rumour that just won’t go away. It seems everyone wants him, all of the time. Kounde feels like an odd focus as Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s supposed ‘obsession’, but he would clearly work very nicely on the right of a back three under Amorim.

To that end it’s claimed United have had offers of £37.5m and then £57m for the France international rejected by Barcelona, who presumably smell a bidding war involving all of the Premier League Big Six at some point over the next couple of years that will see Jules f*cking Kounde named the most expensive footballer in history.

11) Arda Guler (Real Madrid)
Arsenal are also thought to be keen as they look to safeguard Martin Odegaard by copying the transfer that landed them their now captain, the difference being it’s pretty clear Real Madrid are well aware that they have a potentially world class talent in Guler.

They don’t want him to leave but are supposedly considering his loan exit as the Turkey international seeks ‘more prominence’, which is why we’ve not dismissed Manchester United’s interest out of hand, we are though dismissing their attempt to send Antony the other way; so too have Madrid.

READ MORE: Arda Guler to Arsenal? Every Premier League club repeats their best signing

10) Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (Chelsea)
His signing always felt like a bit of an odd one, seemingly joining Chelsea more as an assistant coach to Enzo Maresca than a player, as someone who knows what the manager wants and can impart his ethos and tactics from within while Maresca works on them from the top down.

Dewsbury-Hall likely knew he wasn’t set to be a key cog in the midfield of a club that also has Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia and Enzo Fernandez as options, but presumably also hoped for more than 43 Premier League minutes in the opening 11 games of the season.

Perhaps even Maresca thought he would have called on him more often, but it’s all going rather well with Caicedo and Lavia in the middle, and if Dewsbury-Hall was indeed signed to ease the transition of styles, there’s a sense that his job is already done.

Our suspicion is that he’s not quite good enough for Chelsea, and therefore probably not quite good enough for Manchester United, or at least where they want to be, and we can’t imagine stumping up what we assume would have to be a similar fee to the £30m Chelsea paid Leicester for Dewsbury-Hall would engender great hope for the future among the Red Devils fans.

9) Yunus Akgun (Galatasaray)
“Yunus is struggling a little bit with the rhythm, probably because he said in Turkey the rhythm is a little bit low. Here it’s more quick, the pace of the game.” Enzo Maresca there, explaining why Akgun barely played for Leicester in the Championship last season.

We have very little doubt that £5m-rated Akgun and his people would bite Manchester United’s hand off were they to make him an offer in January, and it’s for that reason that Manchester United probably shouldn’t make an offer for £5m-rated Akgun in January.

8) Randal Kolo Muani (PSG)
We really like the sound of this one. Kylian Mbappe’s gone and the poor b*stard still can’t get a game at PSG. He’s started more games for France this season (5) than his club (2), with Marco Asensio of all people usually keeping him out of the team.

United haven’t got the cash to sign him in January but reports suggest PSG would listen to loan offers with an option or obligation to buy. Sounds as though it makes sense for all parties, particularly as Kolo Muani is well versed in Amorim’s 3-4-3 having played in that formation at Frankfurt.

7) Chris Rigg (Sunderland)
When asked about the futures of both Ring and Jobe Bellingham, Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris said: “I think it is important for them to be here until the challenge is not high enough for them. Probably, when they feel that they need something more to develop, that should be the right moment to leave.”

On the one hand it would be a bit of a d*ck move for Rigg to leave midway through a season in which the club that nurtured him is pushing for promotion, on the other a big-money contract from one of the biggest clubs in the world is going to be tough to turn down for the 17-year-old, who’s been described as The Next Roy Keane. No wonder Amorim is so keen to sign him and United are ‘serious’. They well think it’s worth making a move in January as come the summer there may be many more suitors.

6) Karl Hein (Arsenal)
We really like what we’ve seen and heard from Amorim so far. He wants the Manchester United players to have “fun” for the first time in over a decade, didn’t bow to Gary Cotterill’s ludicrous Little Englander demand, looks genuinely excited to be the new manager and has spoken eruditely about the challenges ahead. In short, he’s come across as a smart and passionate guy.

No smart guy would arrive at Old Trafford and think the first thing they need to do is change the goalkeeper. Andre Onana has been very good this season, and even when supposedly bad last season he wasn’t actually that bad.

We wouldn’t just question the intelligence but the sanity of someone who wants to replace statistically the second-best goalkeeper in the Premier League with a guy sent out on loan from a team that currently has the 16th-best as their No.1.

The content of the story was nonsense, but United signing Hein from Arsenal is perfectly possible, as a back-up, with a view to him surpassing Onana as No.1 in the future.

5) Douglas Luiz (Juventus)
Another Zirkzee swap patsy; one that may surprise a few as the Brazilian was brilliant for Villa last season and they’re not doing all that brilliantly without him. But Luiz and Juve boss Thiago Motta supposedly aren’t seeing eye to eye and the midfielder has started just two of the 11 games he’s been available for so far this season.

4) Danilo (Juventus)
It doesn’t reflect hugely well on us so-called journalists here at Football365 that it came as a surprise to learn that a footballer who’s played close to every game in the last two seasons for – and is the actual captain of – Juventus, is still playing football at all.

In our defence Danilo left the Premier League five years ago, at which point we stop caring about any player not making waves in the Champions League.

He’s now 33 and out of contract in the summer but, judging by his three Serie A starts from 11 this season, is on something of a downward slope in career terms. That certainly doesn’t rule out a move to United, particularly as he would cost them close to nothing in January, but it would strike us as an unnecessary move if not quite entirely pointless given the experience the Brazilian would bring.

3) Sverre Nypan (Rosenborg)
A likely first signing for two reasons: he’s not going to cost a lot – around £10m supposedly – and the Norwegian season is about to finish, easing his path to Old Trafford in the January transfer window.

He plays in central midfield, where Amorim will definitely need reinforcements; the hugely optimistic assumption that Manuel Ugarte will immediately return to his Sporting levels is not enough to offset concerns over his ageing competition for that role alongside Kobbie Mainoo.

Nypan’s only 17 and we can’t see a £10m teenager arriving and slotting immediately into the Manchester United team, but Big Sir Jim and the INEOS lads have promised signings for the future and he fits that bill…if they can steal a march on Manchester City and Chelsea.

2) Milos Kerkez (Bournemouth)
A bombing Hungarian left-back with a mullet playing for Bournemouth, they don’t come more hipster than that. But Kerkez has emerged from the footballing subculture this season, with his name being put forward among the best full-backs in the top flight no longer requiring a hand-knitted beanie to be doffed after a thoughtful sip of an oat latte, but a nod between sips of a pint of Stella.

Fun and brilliant though Bournemouth are, he’s destined for bigger things. There will be significant competition for his signature, from Liverpool, where Arne Slot is reportedly unconvinced by both Kostas Tsimikas or Andy Robertson, and from abroad, with Serie A and La Liga giants said to be keeping tabs on his situation.

But United seems like a really good option for Kerkez, particularly given how well suited he would be to Amorim’s system and the opportunity to fly forward as a left wing-back.

1) Andreas Christensen (Barcelona)
We can imagine the crestfallen reactions of Manchester United fans clicking on links tipping a Barcelona star to be the marquee first addition under Amorim and discovering that man is Andreas Christensen. Understandable but a tad unfair.

He’s been injured this season but was more or less a mainstay for Barcelona last term, and an attractive signing in that he can operate both at centre-back and in defensive midfield. Cheap given his contract expires in 2026 (possibly even free as Barca look to trim the wage bill), he has lots of experience, both in the Premier League and in Europe, though with enough left in the tank as a 28-year-old.

Christensen has also crucially played plenty of football in a back three, Amorim’s preference, having come into the Chelsea team after Thomas Tuchel took over from Frank Lampard before playing a key role in their Champions League win. It makes total sense for the Denmark international to be Amorim’s ‘winter priority’.

Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe have been told that he should’ve “tried to get Man Utd going again” instead of signing for the La Liga giants.

The France international moved from Paris Saint-Germain to Real Madrid in the summer transfer window after his contract at the Parc des Princes expired.

Mbappe has not managed to find his best form since joining Los Blancos despite scoring nine goals in 17 matches for Carlo Ancelotti’s side in all competitions.

The Real Madrid striker was a shock omission from the France squad for their Nations League matches earlier this month with Didier Deschamps describing it as a “one-off” following discussions with Mbappe.

He has been deployed centrally under Ancelotti but Mbappe is reportedly frustrated that the Real Madrid squad is not ‘playing for him’ like his team-mates did at PSG.

Mbappe moved out wide against Leganes in a 3-0 win over the weekend as Vinicius Junior came central in a move that seemed to pay off.

On his decision to switch Mbappe’s position, Ancelotti said: “Playing on the outside is more tiring than through the middle. Vini Jr returned from international duty on Thursday and Mbappe was fresher than Vini Jr. He scored a goal with a fantastic assist from Vini Jr. They’re both improving bit by bit.”

MORE MAN UTD COVERAGE ON F365…
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👉 Mailbox: Ruben Amorim at Man Utd: ‘New Manager Thud anyone?’
👉 Good luck Ruben Amorim; Man Utd are ‘a fat, lazy, bloated corpse of a club’

Man Utd have been linked with Mbappe many times since the former Monaco forward burst onto the scene in 2015 with rumours that potential Qatari investment could pave the way for his arrival at Old Trafford before INEOS pushed through their deal.

And now former L’Equipe CEO Cyril Linette insists Mbappe should have ended up at Man Utd in a fresh challenge for the Frenchman, rather than at a club like Real Madrid, which is already winning titles.

Linette told RMC: “I’m not saying that Mbappe is heading towards failure but he joined a club where, in his position, there is a player at least as good as he is. It makes no sense.

“He will have spent his whole career playing at clubs where there is a left winger at least as good as him, with Neymar at PSG and Vinicius Jr at Real.

“He could have gone to England, tried to get Man Utd going again, for example. There, he could have played in his position and could have written a great story.

“I don’t see what exceptional things he can achieve at Real, who have already done everything without him.”

Speaking recently about his position in the team at Real Madrid, Mbappe said: “My position? It’s the story of my career. I play on the left, right, middle and with two up top. It doesn’t matter to me. I want to help the team and score goals.”

GGBET became the title sponsor of FC Zorya (Luhansk).

GGBET became the title sponsor of FC Zorya (Luhansk). The licensed bookmaker continues to support Ukrainian football clubs and the development of Ukrainian sports. The cooperation with Zorya will include sponsorship in the current UPL season, as well as updating the team's media platforms, joint digital projects, and creating various content and special offers for fans.

“We continue to hold our line and do everything possible so that Ukrainian teams can feel the support of the business and focus on new achievements,” said GGBET UA CEO Sergey Mishchenko. ”Zorya Luhansk has undergone many trials in its century-long history. Unfortunately, the challenges that some teams faced during the full-scale invasion are not new to Zorya. Nevertheless, the Luhansk team is an example of resilience, loyalty to its position, values and supporters, and continues to strive for change and development. We will be happy to go this way with Zorya and provide all the necessary resources.

FC Zorya CEO Igor Guz commented that this cooperation is important for the club and its fans: “Our team has a great sporting career and achievements that we are proud to carry despite all the circumstances. We are grateful to GGBET not only for their financial support, but also for their ideas that will help us modernize our online platforms and open up new opportunities for fans. Together we will show the strength of Luhansk football.

Zorya's first game with the support of the new title sponsor will take place against Polissia (Zhytomyr) on November 25. The match kicks off at 18:00, the broadcast will be available on UPL TV. On the social networks of GGBET and the club, fans will be able to find interesting activities before the match.

An Ipswich Town fan has revealed the “truth” he told Man Utd legend Roy Keane to provoke him into an angry confrontation on Sunday.

Marcus Rashford’s second Premier League goal of the season after two minutes put the Red Devils ahead at Portman Road before Omari Hutchinson’s deflected long-range effort found the back of the net before half-time to give Ipswich a share of the spoils.

Keane was part of the Sky Sports punditry team for the match between two of his old clubs with the former Republic of Ireland international spending around 20 months as Ipswich Town manager between 2009 and 2011.

And following the final whistle in the 1-1 draw in East Anglia, the Man Utd legend went over to a group of Ipswich fans – who had been shouting abuse at him – during an advert break to make his own feelings known.

It quickly turned into a heated confrontation with Keane being heard yelling in a recording: “Wait in the car park, we can have a discussion. I’ll wait for you in the car park.”

Man Utd legend Keane had a poor spell in charge of Ipswich with the Tractor Boys getting nowhere near challenging for promotion from the Championship in his time at the club, before being sacked in January 2011.

MORE MAN UTD COVERAGE ON F365…
👉 Amorim Watch: New Man Utd manager rubs his nose a lot and we get bored
👉 Mailbox: Ruben Amorim at Man Utd: ‘New Manager Thud anyone?’
👉 Good luck Ruben Amorim; Man Utd are ‘a fat, lazy, bloated corpse of a club’

And Neil Finbow has claimed on Facebook to be the fan that Keane told to meet him in the car park with the Ipswich fan describing the incident.

Finbow wrote on the social media site: “New claim to fame. Just been offered out into the car park by Roy Keane after a few choice words.

“Even Jamie Redknapp had to come over to get him away. Just your average Sunday evening out.”

Roy Keane got heated with an Ipswich fan while doing punditry last night 😳

The former Man United captain offered to discuss their argument in the car park 😂 pic.twitter.com/JLidODIMm7

— Dictate Sports (@dictatesport) November 25, 2024

When asked by another user what sparked the altercation on Sunday evening, Finbow added: “I was reminding him that he set us back five years and ruined our football club.

“I also mentioned how he wasn’t fit to step foot anywhere near our ground [Portman Road].

“Oh, and I mentioned about him walking out on a World Cup and breaking Haaland’s leg and putting it in his autobiography. I hate the bloke, and that’s been boiling up since he got sacked all those years ago.’ ”

Finbow continued on Facebook: “The truth hurts. I feel sick when I look at him.

“Few home truths thrown at him, he decided to bite. Very unprofessional. I’m sure he had worse when he was playing.”

Ukraine's women's national fencing team won silver medals at the World Cup in Vancouver. The team defeated tournament favorites Italy and France, but lost in the final to Korea.

Ukraine's women's national epee team wins silver at the at the World Cup in Vancouver.

This was reported by the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine and the national Olympic team of Ukraine, UNN reports.

Details

The team consisting of Joan Fabi Bejura, Inna Brovko, Olena Kryvitska and Anna Maksymenko started the competition in the 1/8 finals. The first two matches were a real test for the Ukrainians. They defeated the Canadians with a minimal advantage (33:32), and in the 1/4 finals defeated the Italian team, number one in the seeding, with a score of 34:33.

In the semifinals, Ukrainian fencers met with the vice-champions of the 2024 Olympic Games, the French team. The Ukrainians dominated the match and won with a score of 38:30, advancing to the final.

In the final, the Ukrainians lost to the Republic of Korea with a score of 34:45, taking second place. This is the second year in a row that Ukrainian fencers have reached the podium at the World Cup in Vancouver: last year they were bronze medalists, and this year they won silver.

For Olena Kryvytska, this medal was the 12th at the World Cup, for Joan Fabi Bejura – 6th, for Inna Brovko – 4th, and for Anna Maksymenko, who made her debut as part of the adult team, it was the first.

Recall

Ukrainian foilists win silver at tournament in Tunisia

Jamie Redknapp believes trying to draw conclusions on what Manchester United will look like long-term under Ruben Amorim is effectively pointless, predicting that the line-up that played out a 1-1 draw against Ipswich Town will be unrecognisable over time.

Manchester United got off to a brilliant start to Amorim’s first game in charge as Marcus Rashford tapped home Amad Diallo’s low cross to the near post at the end of a blistering run, but that was to be United’s one and only real moment in the game bar a Bruno Fernandes free kick that went narrowly wide.

Omari Hutchinson’s deflected strike equalised just before half time, with Ipswich looking the more likely of the two sides to go on and win the game in the second half but having to settle for a 1-1 draw.

Amorim had set up in the 3-4-3 he had used to great success at Sporting, with a back three of Noussair Mazraoui, Matthijs De Ligt and Jonny Evans; Amad and Diogo Dalot at wing-back; Casemiro and Christian Eriksen in central midfield; and a front three of Bruno Fernandes, Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho.

United went through all five substitutions with the front line and midfield coming in for particular adjustments throughout the game, but none of them looked anything like sparking into life.

READ: Amorim Watch: Close eye on new Manchester United manager in his first game

Speaking Sky Sports after the game, Redknapp said: “They haven’t got quality in the team. There’s a lot of problems you have to solve. I’m already fed up talking about this system that he’s going to employ. I am, because it’s day one.

“The players that are in this system right now are not going to be the players in the future. You’re not going to see Jonny Evans as the left-sided centre-back, you’re not going to see Mazraoui [at centre-back], you’re not going to see [Amad and Dalot as the] two wing backs probably. Obviously they’re both opposite foot and they’re playing on the outside. Is that midfield going to be Casemiro and Eriksen? Of course it isn’t

“So we’re going to try and analyse it, [but] it’s almost pointless, because the system is going to change, because the players are going to change, and then they’re going to look better.

“In a way, the best thing that could probably happen is not get fooled by these players right now, because after two minutes we’re looking and thinking, ‘wow, the Messiah’s here, everything’s going to change. Look how good they look’. But then they became their true selves in the end and they see that the quality isn’t there.

“So this is going to take time, it’s going to take new personnel. They were always going to have to figure it out. He’s going to be changing the team probably week in, week out, searching for who is going to be the right people in this system.

“Once he gets that, then he has a chance. But right now you couldn’t pick the team that’s going to be there in six month, because you don’t know who’s going to fit into what he wants.”

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Nothing we’ve seen or heard of Ruben Amorim over the years suggests a figure daft enough to have been in any doubt about the scale of the task that awaits him at Manchester United. But it was still nice of the players to show him so clearly in what ended up being a pretty scruffy and even lucky 1-1 draw at Ipswich.

We’re not quite sure we’d call scoring an early goal at Ipswich truly qualifies as ‘utopian’ or ‘staggering’ or ‘beyond his wildest dreams’ as the never knowingly undramatic Peter Drury claimed. But it was still good, wasn’t it?

It was also, very obviously, a very Ruben Amorim goal. Amad Diallo’s run with the ball from right wing-back was ideal, as was the run from Marcus Rashford without the ball to get across the keeper and apply the finishing touch.

Given the way United have struggled for goals up to this point, we did start to wonder if perhaps Amorim really is a magician. And yet… that was it. United offered next to nothing further after that one shining moment.

For a team who scored an actual goal after 81 seconds to end the 90 minutes with an xG of less than one seems distinctly sub-optimal.

It has to be a concern that United’s most important player for the remaining 88 minutes of the game after that start was Andre Onana. United’s keeper was excellent and had to be, twice making unlikely saves to deny Liam Delap.

We know Amorim is going to play with his three centre-backs with wing-backs, but we also know that it probably isn’t going to end up being the players we saw in those positions . There are obvious flaws all over this team in this shape, and it’s going to take time to fix it all. This is all obvious stuff, but it was still jarring to see just how uncertain and unconvincing United appeared.

We’re not sure Casemiro and Christian Eriksen has much long-term potential as Amorim’s midfield double-pivot given the mobile types he liked to use there for Sporting, and the wing-backs are a work in progress.

Noussair Mazraoui strikes us a player with both the necessary technical ability and footballing intelligence to make a passable success of himself at wing-back on either flank, but Amad certainly represents more of a punt.

We saw the good with the goal, and then the bad for the first of Delap’s two clear chances after Leif Davis was allowed to make almost unhindered progress down the Ipswich left.

There’s no inherent reason why Amorim can’t, in time, get it all working. But it is clearly going to take a long time and plenty of new players. That £200m spent in the summer on Erik Ten Hag players really does look an absolute folly now. Especially the chunk of it spent on Joshua Zirkzee, bless him.

One way or another, United are going to be unrecognisable in six months’ time. And probably for the better. But while some players are learning on a job they may be able to make a go of, there are clearly others now just marking time. And United themselves are likely to feel that way until at least January.

The futility of analysing the team in the interim is so obvious that it left Jamie Redknapp philosophically questioning the entire concept of punditry. It was lucky Ed Sheeran turned up just in time to prevent the former Liverpool and England midfielder experiencing a genuine epiphany.

Ruben Amorim was right in the middle of Speaking Well, I Thought about the job ahead of him at United and deserves a deal of credit for not just telling Sky to shove their interview when it was so rudely and weirdly interrupted by a pop star who simply had no choice but to say hello to Redknapp in the middle of a live interview with the Manchester United manager.

It was not the first thing to test Amorim’s patience today, and it won’t be the last over the days and weeks ahead.

Sheeran was also quite comfortably the least interesting thing about Ipswich today. It was inevitable that, whatever happened, the focus would land on the visitors today and their latest reboot, but it must be noted Ipswich were excellent.

The win at Spurs before the international break was no fluke and had been coming for some time, and they should probably have taken all three points here. The biggest compliment one can pay Kieran McKenna and his side is the fact they don’t really play like a newly promoted side. There’s a canniness and nous about their play that feels more like a team that’s already survived a relegation scrap or two.

Perhaps their rock-solid and often enormously enterprising performance here looked better for coming immediately after the maddening naivety of Southampton’s generosity against Liverpool. But there is clearly something about this Ipswich team.

It would have been easy to have been overwhelmed and consumed by the sheer quantity of narrative around the place here, especially after that goal. But not a bit of it. Ipswich simply dusted themselves down and set about being the better team for the remaining 88 minutes.

They remain in the bottom three for now, but the idea that there are three teams with less about them than Ipswich is an increasingly convincing one.

It will be quite some time before we can even begin drawing any kind of similar conclusion about Amorim’s United.

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