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Team Focus: New Look Stoke Lacking Identity and Direction

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Team Focus: New Look Stoke Lacking Identity and Direction Though their 2-0 defeat to Arsenal was not unexpected, and Mark Hughes' side have had to endure a tricky start to the campaign, the early signs for this new look Stoke side aren’t as encouraging as anticipated.The manner of Saturday's defeat to the Gunners was not befitting of a club that has ...

Team Focus: Lack of Prolific Centre Forward Threatens to Curb Progress at Palace

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Team Focus: Lack of Prolific Centre Forward Threatens to Curb Progress at Palace Since taking over at Crystal Palace at the start of the year Alan Pardew has unshackled the club's frontline and transformed the Eagles into a menacing outfit stocked with pace out wide, while also managing to preserve the best qualities installed by Tony Pulis at the back. However, further progress...

Team Focus: Pressure on Courbis as Montpellier Struggle Without Last Season's Stars

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Team Focus: Pressure on Courbis as Montpellier Struggle Without Last Season's Stars The very first goal of a team’s season should be – and usually is – a moment of great joy and release, sweeping away the cobwebs after a few months off, and opening the route towards an exciting new campaign, replete with fresh hopes and possibilities.That has not, sadly, been the ...

Team Focus: Former Premier League Prospects Shining at Besiktas

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Team Focus: Former Premier League Prospects Shining at Besiktas Fatih Terim may be known as the Emperor of Turkish club football but Şenol Güneş is the undisputed Sultan of international football. The experienced coach guided the Crescent-Stars to an unprecedented third-place finish in the 2002 World Cup.Thirteen years on and Güneş has coached at Trabz...

Team Focus: Liverpool Must Show Purpose They Have Lacked Thus Far Against United

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Team Focus: Liverpool Must Show Purpose They Have Lacked Thus Far Against United A few days before Liverpool reheat the biggest rivalry in English football history, Nathaniel Clyne was striking all the right notes, making all the right noises.“We need to be at their throats from the start,” the full-back said ahead of his new team’s trip to Manchester United. &...

Team Focus: Can Chievo Pen Another Fairytale Under Maran?

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Team Focus: Can Chievo Pen Another Fairytale Under Maran? “Donkeys will fly before there’s a derby in Serie A,” Hellas fans used to sing. If you’ve ever wondered how Chievo got their nickname, there’s your answer. Rolando Maran knows the chant well. A former player with the club, he joined Chievo shortly after they had been pr...

Team Focus: Still Many Questions For Improving France

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Team Focus: Still Many Questions For Improving France “It’s a style that I don’t have yet.” Didier Deschamps’ words to describe his reasons for calling up Nabil Fekir for the first time, back in March, were unusually imprecise and vague. Fekir tends to have that effect on people. That particular blend of bewitching footwor...

Team Focus: Upcoming Qualifiers Allow England to Experiment in Midfield

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Team Focus: Upcoming Qualifiers Allow England to Experiment in Midfield There has been one constant throughout England's Euro 2016 qualifying campaign beyond winning each of their 6 group matches thus far. Roy Hodgson has fielded a midfield trio in every game, with the most common combination seeing Jack Wilshere start at the base, with Jordan Henderson and Fabian Delph...

Team Focus: Are Rennes Finally On Their Way Up?

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Team Focus: Are Rennes Finally On Their Way Up? Never judge any team on the first day of their season. Stade Rennais, to widespread surprise, are the latest to prove that cliché true. When they were beaten 2-1 at Bastia in their season opener, you’d have given coach Philippe Montanier little chance of hanging onto his job until Chris...

Team Focus: Palace Playing to Strengths Out Wide to Great Effect

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Team Focus: Palace Playing to Strengths Out Wide to Great Effect There is something engagingly simple, almost old-fashioned about Crystal Palace’s style of play. They sit two players in front of the back four, and have tremendous pace on the flanks. In three of their four league games this season, they’ve played with three of their four wide men &ndas...