The Times - UK (2021-11-10)

58 Wednesday November 10 2021 | the times

SportFootball

5

West Ham United could resurrect their

interest in the Croatia centre back Duje

Caleta-Car as Angelo Ogbonna is set to

miss the rest of the season with a

cruciate ligament injury.

Ogbonna, 33, appeared to suffer the

injury before being substituted due to a

cut above his eye in a separate incident

after 23 minutes of the 3-2 win over Liv-

erpool in the Premier League on Sun-

day. He reported feeling discomfort in

his right knee and had a scan on

Monday that showed the problem.

His absence will leave West Ham

with only three recognised centre

backs — Kurt Zouma, Issa Diop and

Craig Dawson — meaning the club are

likely to try to sign a replacement in the

January transfer window, given the

additional demands of competing in

the Europa League. They were interest-

ed in Caleta-Car of Marseilles, whose

Ogbonna out for the season

contract expires in 2023, in the sum-

mer. The 25-year-old was part of Croa-

tia’s squad at Euro 2020 and started in

their group stage defeat by England.

Ogbonna is out of contract at the end

of the season but West Ham are still

prepared to offer him a new deal. The

Italy international has started all 11

league matches this season, helping the

team to their present position of third

place in the table.

He had hoped to sign a new deal,

having joined West Ham from Juventus

for about £8 million in 2015. He has

begun his recovery and is scheduled to

see a specialist this week.

Aaron Cresswell played as a third

centre back when David Moyes de-

ployed a wing-back system last season,

but the manager has since switched to a

traditional back four. Declan Rice, Alex

Kral and Tomas Soucek have also

played at centre back but are unlikely to

be moved from midfield.

Liverpool fan cleared of

spitting at Man City staff

A Liverpool supporter has been

cleared of spitting at members of

Manchester City’s backroom staff

during last month’s Premier League

fixture at Anfield (Paul Joyce writes).

The fan was found to have shouted

and gestured aggressively towards the

away side’s bench in the aftermath of

Mohamed Salah’s 76th-minute goal

in the 2-2 draw, but there was no

evidence to support City’s allegation

that they had been spat upon.

Interviews and subsequent

statements received from City staff

did not state that they were spat at by

a supporter. Nor did City, the case’s

complainant, report the matter to the

police for any criminal proceedings.

The supporter has now been moved

to a seat away from the dugout after

a comprehensive investigation by

Liverpool, which included studying

video footage.

The findings of the investigation

have been shared with the FA.

P

erhaps the biggest

compliment I can pay Eddie

Howe is that, whenever

I set foot on the pitch for

Bournemouth, I didn’t want

to let him down. The culture he

created, the work he put in on the

training pitch to improve you as a

player made you want to win for him.

Since Eddie was appointed

Newcastle United head coach, a lot of

the lads who played for him have told

me how excited they are. It’s a very

different job, in terms of the size of

the club, the squad he’s inheriting.

But I expect him to walk in there and

have the same impact he had on us.

From the moment Eddie arrived

at Bournemouth I knew that by

listening to everything he said I

would become the best player I could

be. He was always first into training

and the last one to leave. He always

wanted to do extra with you. Not only

younger players, but older players like

myself, Steve Cook, Andrew Surman,

Tommy Elphick — he improved us

no end, because we’d never had

coaching like that in our careers.

Eddie is most at home out on the

grass. Training is always enjoyable,

fresh, but intense and competitive too.

The winners of every game or drill in

training would have a team photo

taken and the picture went up on the

TVs in the canteen, along with a

league table and the player-awarded

“trainer of the month”.

We did a lot of passing drills and

patterns of play — repetition,

repetition, repetition — and then

they would come out in a game like

it was second nature. If you watch

back our promotion season in the

Championship [in 2014-15], and first

few seasons in the Premier League, so

many of our goals came from patterns

we had worked on in training.

Newcastle are a different challenge.

We began in League One then rose

through the Championship to the

Premier League. We all had the same

motivation, the same hunger. He’s

going into a struggling Premier

League club, with players who have

played at different levels. But I think

they will be excited about working

with a young, English manager who

wants to play attacking football.

I speak to [Newcastle’s former

Bournemouth players] Matt Ritchie

and Callum Wilson often and I know

how excited they are to work with

Eddie again. There will be no issue

with Ryan Fraser either, who left

Bournemouth on a sour note when

he chose not to extend his contract

in 2020. He’s a player Eddie got

the very best out of. When Ryan

moved down from Scotland [to join

Bournemouth in 2013], Eddie looked

after him off the field as well. They

almost had a father-son relationship,

and that won’t be affected.

It hurt Eddie, the relegation and

the way it ended at Bournemouth.

He’s been out of the game for longer

than many of us expected, but I think

going straight back into another job

Howe will make mark

instantly – and yes, he

can organise a defence

would have been too soon for him.

I spoke to him a few times while he

was out of the game. I was convinced,

from seeing how meticulous and

dedicated he is, that he would be

itching to get back in straight away.

But he loved being home with his

family and was happy to bide his time.

When I last spoke to him he was

refreshed, watching a lot of football,

going back over his training sessions

and games, analysing everything. You

could tell he had the bug again.

Football moves fast. Some people,

in the time he’s been out, seem keen

to diminish the scale of his

achievement at Bournemouth. Or,

because we conceded at least 60 goals

in each season in the Premier League,

are questioning if he can plug the

gaps in Newcastle’s defence. It may

sometimes have looked as though

Bournemouth would rather win 4-3

than 1-0, but that was never the case.

Eddie was a defender himself as a

player. We worked on defending a lot.

Two or three days a week the

defenders would go out for training

early. The work we did was always

tailored to the opposition. If we were

playing Manchester City, we’d work

on blindside runs, midfielders

tracking runners, doubling up on their

wide forwards, or covering inside. If

we were playing Burnley, we’d be out

early defending crosses. No stone

was left unturned.

We were a better team when we

played on the front foot, though, and

at times that meant we left spaces at

the back. Yes, we lost games, we

conceded goals. But we stayed in the

Premier League for five years, which

was a remarkable achievement for a

club of Bournemouth’s size.

Early on, the approach with

Newcastle may be a little bit more

cautious, because ultimately they

need to get points on the board, fast.

But I’m certain we will soon see a

very different Newcastle — a team

who play the exciting, attacking

football the fans want to see.

6 Simon Francis played 324 times for

Bournemouth from 2011 to 2020

Reviving Newcastle is

a different challenge

for my former manager

but he is up to the task,

says Simon Francis

Francis worked closely with Howe

for eight seasons at Bournemouth

Five things new

boss must fix

get team playing

at a higher tempo

Eddie Howe arrived

at Newcastle United’s

training ground

before 7am yesterday.

His day centred on

familiarising himself

with his surroundings

and starting on a plan

to get his new side up

the table (Martin

Hardy writes).

Training in the

afternoon focused on

small-sided games of

three or four a side.

Howe and his No 2,

Jason Tindall, led

the sessions and were

encouraging a quicker

tempo throughout.

improve the squad

January is crucial to

Newcastle’s immediate

future. There is a need

to sign a commanding

centre back and a

dominant central

midfielder. They also

need to add quality

out wide, and it will be

interesting to see if

Howe can reinvigorate

his former charge

Ryan Fraser, who has

disappointed since

moving from

Bournemouth.

Newcastle have the

wealth now to bully

other Premier League

teams. Crystal Palace’s

Wilfried Zaha has all

the attributes to be a

huge hit at St James’

Park, while James

Tarkowski, running

his contract down at

Burnley, would make

sense. If Newcastle are

really ambitious, they

could move for the

Villarreal central

defender Pau Torres.

tighten up

Newcastle have

conceded 24 goals

this season, including

a league high of 13

at home. It may be

of concern that

Bournemouth were

hardly watertight

under Howe — the

fewest goals they

conceded in a Premier

League season was 61.

Howe has nine

games before the

window opens and

must find a central

pairing from Jamaal

Lascelles, Fabian

Schar, Ciaran Clark,

Federico Fernández,

Emil Krafth and Paul

Dummett — not easy.

work on the shape

of the team

The centre of

Newcastle’s midfield

has been a big

problem — one

identified by Paulo

Fonseca when he was

interviewed for the

position eventually

given to Howe — and

playing two holding

players there may help

to solidify the side.

Graeme Jones, while

interim manager,

reverted to a back five

in his three games,

with limited success.

Howe will not allow

his defenders to sit

deep and invite teams

on and he made that

point in his first

training session.

He also has the

dilemma of how to

make the big-money

signings Allan Saint-

Maximin, Miguel

Almirón and Joelinton

blend into his side.

keep wilson fit,

get dubravka back

Howe knows all about

Callum Wilson from

his time at the Vitality

Stadium. Wilson has

scored four goals in

seven Premier League

games this season,

after 12 goals in the

previous campaign.

His fitness is vital.

The absence of

Martin Dubravka for

the entirety of this

campaign has been a

blow. The return of

the Slovakia No 1, who

has been back in

training for two weeks,

would be a boost.

Gary Jacob

Paul Pogba could be out until the new

year after he suffered a thigh injury

while training with France. The Man-

chester United midfielder, 28, will miss

the World Cup qualifiers against

Kazakhstan and Finland after

picking up the problem

on Monday. The

French Football Fed-

eration said that he had

been the “victim of an injury to the

quadriceps of the right thigh”.

Pogba was set to miss United’s next

league match, against Watford on

November 20, as a result of a three-

game ban for his red card against Liver-

pool. But his prolonged absence would

be another blow for Ole Gunnar Sols-

kjaer’s side. Raphaël Varane has been

ruled out for a month with a hamstring

injury, while Edinson Cavani, the strik-

er, did not feature in United’s 2-0

defeat by Manchester City on Sat-

Pogba adds to United’s injury list

urday because of a tendon issue. The left

back Luke Shaw was forced off after a

blow to the head in the derby.

If Pogba is ruled out until the new

year, he would miss United’s two re-

maining Champions League group

games and be absent for a crucial run of

matches against Villarreal, Chel-

sea and Arsenal between No-

vember 23 and December 2.

Pogba’s performances

have been scrutinised this

season, despite providing

seven league assists. He

started the season well, lay-

ing on four goals in United’s

opening match and three more

in their next three league games.

But United’s downturn in

form has coincided with that

of several players, including

Pogba, left. He came on at half-

time in their 5-0 defeat by

Liverpool and was sent off for a

lunge on Naby Keita.

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Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero