yoga98929

... with the Carling Cup one of their only chances of silverware this season although Sir Alex Fergusons side are still 5/6 favourites for the Premiership without Chelsea. Strike duo Ruud van Nistelrooy is 5/6 and Wayne Rooney 10/1 to top the premiership scoring charts.

Middlesbrough
One of the pre season outsiders for a top four position, Middlesbrough are now staring relegation square in the face. Boro have won just once in their last 10 premiership outings and that was away at rock bottom Sunderland.

No players arrived in January although Szilard Nemeth left for Strasbourg. One of the few bright spots, striker Yakubu, can be backed at 16/1 to top the premiership goalscoring chart while speculative punters may fancy the 13/2 on offer of relegation.

Newcastle United
Manager Graham Souness became the latest premiership managerial casualty after recently losing five of their last six league matches. With just 36 wins in his 83 matches in charge the club are hovering six points above the drop zone.

big money arrivals michael Owen and Alberto Luque failied to ignite an expected charge for european football and former West Ham manager Glenn Roeder and Alan Shearer have taken over the reigns temporarily. Bolton manager Sam Allardyce is the 9/2 favourite to take over permanently and despite a poor run of form the Magpies remain 20/1 outsiders for relegation.

The third and final part of the review will look at transfers involving Portsmouth, Sunderland, Tottenham Hotspur, West Bromwich Albion, West Ham United and Wigan Athletic.more

Soccer Systems of play, Positional Dynamics and Team Formation 4-5-1

...fensive in their roles but will become part of the attack when their team has possession. They will generally use the central midfielder to create plays and control the tempo of the game.

Forward,

This team is usually confident of their lone striker.
The striker in this formation actually acts as a "post-up" player. This means that this striker at times plays with the opposing defense at his/her back.
This player will try and stretch the defense, will receive the ball to lay it back to the oncoming team-mates to close the ground/space that this striker has created.
The cycle continues until a good scoring opportunity has been formulated.

Occationally this striker will turn and attack the goal when the timing is right.
This is usually communicated to the strikers by their team-mates.
However a great striker will sense these situations based on the run of play and the opportunities that this striker has created.
more

Champions League Round Up - 23 February 2006

...lead with a penalty after eight minutes but Rangers hit back through Peter Lovenkrands. Diego Forland gave the visitors the lead again 10 minutes before the break but an own goal from Pena eight minutes from time handed the Gers a lifeline.

Rank outsiders Werder Bremen caused an 11/5 shock against Italian giants Juventus. Christian Schulz bundled in for the home side six minutes before half time but it looked as though 13/10 Juventus would come out victorious with goals from Pavel Nedved and David Trezeguet. However, Bremen were not discouraged and levelled through Tim Borowski with three minutes to ...more

League One betting Review - 5 February 2006

...oked the safest bet of the day as goals for Isaiah Rankin, Ricky Newman, Paul Brooker, Sam Sodje and a penalty for Kevin O'Connor eased the Bees to victory.

Huddersfield lost ground in the promotion hunt going down 2-1 at Tranmere on Friday night. David Graham cancelled out an early Carl Tremarco goal but the home side stunned the Terriers when former striker Delroy Facey netted the winner with six minutes to go for 7/5 Rovers.

Veteran striker Paul Hall's 100th league goal denied Gillingham an unlikely 7/2 victory and extended Chesterfield's unbeaten run to 15 matches. The Gills took the...more