Latest news with #ErlingHaaland
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
👑 Top 20 scorers: the big winner for 2024-25 is...
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here. This is the conclusion of our top 20 scorers (goals + assists) of the 2024-25 season in the five major leagues! Throughout the season, the forwards kept us on the edge of our seats. Close to dropping out of the Top 20, Erling Haaland saves his place thanks to his goal on the last day of the Premier League. Despite a very strong second half of the season, Kylian Mbappé just misses out on the podium. The Real Madrid striker is joined in this final ranking by three other Frenchmen: Bradley Barcola, Ousmane Dembélé, and Michael Olise. Note that the only two French clubs represented in this ranking at the end of the season are OM and PSG. Discover the winner of the Top 20 scorers just below. NB: In case of a tie in points between two players, the most complete (with the least difference between his goals and assists) is ranked first. The statistics come from the specialized site Transfermarkt. 20. Lamine Yamal - Barcelona - 24 pts (9 + 15) 19. Cole Palmer - Chelsea - 24 pts (15 + 9) 18. Romelu Lukaku - Napoli - 24 pts - (14 +10) 17. Erling Haaland - Manchester City - (22 + 3) 16. Serhou Guirassy - Dortmund - 25 pts (21 + 4) 15. Ante Budimir - Osasuna - 25 pts (21 + 4) 14. Tim Kleindienst - Monchengladbach - 25 pts (16 + 9) 13. Bradley Barcola - PSG - 25 pts (14 + 11) 12. Mason Greenwood - OM - 27 pts (21 + 6) 11. Bryan Mbeumo - Brentford - 28 pts (20 + 8) 10. Robert Lewandowski - Barcelona - 29 pts (27 + 2) 9. Alexander Isak - Newcastle - 29 pts (23 + 6) 8. Ousmane Dembélé - PSG - 29 pts (21 + 8) 7. Raphinha - Barcelona - 29 pts (18 + 11) 6. Michael Olise - Bayern Munich - 30 pts (12 + 18) 5. Mateo Retegui - Atalanta - 33 pts (25 + 8) 4. Kylian Mbappé - Real Madrid - 34 pts (31 + 3) 3. Omar Marmoush - Frankfurt/Manchester City - 34 pts (22 + 12) 2. Harry Kane - Bayern Munich - 36 pts (26 + 10) 1. Mohamed Salah - Liverpool - 47 pts (29 + 18) - FC Ptit Déj: the teams qualified in C1 🏆, Jul 🤝 OM - France U17 team: Diandaga's missile against Albania - PSG/Inter Milan – The Parisian team already announced, with Barcola 📸 Michael Regan - 2025 Getty Images
New York Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Manchester City's player of the season: Josko Gvardiol – Pep Guardiola's wildcard
It isn't usually this difficult to pick out a consistent, standout performer from a Pep Guardiola side come the end of the season, at least not because of a lack of genuine candidates. But this has not been a normal year for Guardiola, or the modern Manchester City, who will finish without a major trophy for the first time in eight seasons and went the entire month of November without a win. Advertisement Erling Haaland has been typically effective and Omar Marmoush a breath of fresh air. But if there is one player who embodies the highs and lows of Guardiola's tactical soul-searching this season — starting at left-back and centre-back, tucking into midfield, practically playing up front — and still managing to come out of it all looking pretty good, it's Josko Gvardiol. Not everything has gone smoothly for the 23-year-old in his second City season. There have been mistakes and misplaced passes, loose in the build-up to the first of Feyenoord's three goals at the Etihad, arguably at fault for two of Tottenham Hotspur's four. No outfield player has made more than his seven errors leading to shots in the Premier League this season. But at the team's lowest ebb, Gvardiol often looked the most dangerous attacking player, the one with genuine power and forward momentum from deeper positions to break through defensive lines. More recently, with flying full-back Nico O'Reilly stealing the limelight, he has been quietly brilliant in the heart of defence. Like most throughout a torrid winter, Gvardiol was caught up in the storm. But for his versatility, the variety in his attacking link-up and movement, and his ever-presence in a tough City season, there is reason to be excited for what lies ahead. Just a glance at City's top scorers in the Premier League this campaign paints an alarming picture. Far clear of the pack is the inevitable Haaland, but second is Phil Foden, who scored six of his seven goals in a three-week purple patch, along with Marmoush, a January signing. Mateo Kovacic is next with six, more than he has managed in his last seven league seasons combined, just ahead of Gvardiol — a defender, remember — with five. For a team usually fizzing with creative attacking ideas, their reliance on a single goalscorer, along with a late addition to the team and an unusually clinical finisher from the edge of the box, is not the spread of goal-scoring responsibility we are used to seeing. That said, Gvardiol's contributions — on both feet, from set pieces and after storming forward runs — have been a welcome continuation of last year's late-season form. Against Chelsea, in Marmoush's first game for the club, we saw a glimpse of Gvardiol's potential in a high-and-wide full-back role, dovetailing nicely with the Egyptian as City unleashed his running power down the flanks. The pair nearly link up for a goal below, as Gvardiol careers into the space that Marmoush's out-to-in movement creates, just overhitting his cross. Twenty minutes later, he nets City's equaliser with a similarly positive run. More common, however, is to see Gvardiol roam into the final third and find spaces in more central areas, where his technical ability and two-footedness come to the fore. It hasn't always been easy for him to get forward from his wide centre-back role this season, often pinned to the left side of a back three when City are in possession. Throughout their sticky mid-season run of form, Guardiola's side looked their most predictable when Gvardiol wasn't able to offer those overlapping and underlapping runs. A 2-1 defeat at Villa Park was a particular struggle, a game characterised by long passes out to the isolated Grealish — 23 to be precise — who was marshalled out of the game with Gvardiol itching, but tentative about getting forward in support. Earlier in the season against Newcastle United, Gvardiol was deployed in a similar role, but was more comfortable making forward runs with centre-back Manuel Akanji in midfield to provide extra defensive cover. On this occasion, Gvardiol's clever movement takes the extra man away from Grealish, who can now skip past his full-back and find an incisive pass into the box. With the composure of a forward, Gvardiol takes the ball in his stride, chops onto his weaker right and slots into the far corner. Those two sides to City were on show in a single game against Club Brugge — ponderous and overly cautious in the first half with the control of wide players Bernardo Silva and Foden and a positionally shackled Gvardiol in the first half, more dynamic and adventurous with the positivity of Savinho and an unleashed Gvardiol in the second. Advertisement The Croatian makes a similar underlapping run in the left half-space to receive the ball for City's second goal (cued up in this link). Keep an eye out for him on the third too, making a darting run into box to give Savinho the space to bring down a pass and score. He hasn't always had the freedom to impact games, but whenever he could, Gvardiol's intelligent and disruptive movement caused chaos, opening space for wingers who have generally struggled against deeper, well-set defences this year. As we saw with the Newcastle goal, Gvardiol's ability in tight spaces is absurd for a defensive player, with frequent flashes of brilliance helping City over the line in tricky games. His right-footed finish against Wolves is his most eye-catching goal of the season, but thumping headers against Manchester United and Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup semi-final were big goals at the time. Both were reminders, too, that we're still talking about a centre-back here — tall, physically imposing, and a threat from set pieces. An absolute ROCKET! 🚀 🤯 @JoskoGvardiol4 — Manchester City (@ManCity) October 20, 2024 The most distinct part of Gvardiol's game in this City set-up, however, is his readiness to power forward and attack defensive structures with his runs from deep. He started and finished a sweeping move against Real Madrid, first sending Haaland in behind with a quick turn and pass, before tearing past back-tracking midfielders and into the box. See him appear from nowhere in the clip below, before chesting down for his No 9 to score. Similarly, against Nottingham Forest, Gvardiol is tasked with tucking into midfield whenever City have the ball. He spots an opportunity to push on as Grealish drops back into midfield, eventually latching onto a Haaland lay-off and firing just wide. It's another role that the 23-year-old can play; not as agile in tight midfield spaces as someone like Rico Lewis, but much more destructive if given the chance to attack the spaces in behind. Gvardiol has been solid at the centre of defence in recent weeks, but his unique blend of technicality and bulldozing pace and power can sometimes feel wasted in a purely defensive role. He played well in a hybrid role on the final day at Fulham, nominally a wide centre-back but looking to move forward when a City midfielder dropped deep to pick up the ball. Advertisement He feels essential to the next evolution in Guardiola's dynasty — outrageously talented, versatile, comfortably passing the ball one hundred times or more — but well-equipped to help City in an era of increased athleticism, physicality, and end-to-end football in the Premier League. It's been a disorientating year at City, but if it's taught us one thing, it's that there is more to come from Gvardiol.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
🎥 A fierce new rivalry is born: This season's best Premier League matches
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here. The 2024/2025 Premier League season had it all: a surprising champion, a dramatic battle for the international spots, and a completely unexpected collapse of the former serial champions Manchester City. Week after week, thrilling duels captivated millions of fans around the globe – but some matches stood out even more. In this article, we take a look at the most unforgettable games of the season. The most memorable were the tension-filled encounters between Arsenal and City. Let's put it this way: Erling Haaland and Mikel Arteta probably won't be friends in this lifetime. Things got really bitter for the Skyblues in the return leg: The Gunners absolutely thrashed Pep Guardiola's team and repeatedly poked fun at Haaland. Similarly high-scoring was the December clash between Newcastle and Liverpool. The Magpies were among the few teams that managed to trouble the Reds this season... Fans were also treated to a real spectacle in the London derby between Tottenham and Chelsea. And somehow, this match is symbolic of the Spurs' season. The exact same can be said about the match against Liverpool. Against the Reds, who played with complete freedom, the future Europa League winners really took a beating. Whenever Brentford played at home, it usually meant plenty of goals. That was also the case against the Wolves, whom they defeated in front of their own fans after a true goal festival. Now it's your turn: Which duels from the past PL season excited you the most? Let us know in the comments! 📸 Alex Pantling - 2025 Getty Images
The Sun
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
All the incredible stats as Mohamed Salah reaches 500 points in record-breaking Dream Team season
WHO else but Mohamed Salah (£6.4m) to score Liverpool's last goal of their triumphant season? The Reds' Egyptian king was on hand in the 84th minute to score an equaliser against FA Cup winners Crystal Palace amid a celebratory atmosphere at Anfield on Sunday. In doing so, Salah passed the 500-point mark in Dream Team to seal his record-breaking campaign in fine style. One game remains before 2024/25 is condemned to the history books but there is nothing realistic that could occur between Chelsea and Real Betis in Wednesday night's Conference League final to bother Liverpool's iconic No11 at the top of the rankings. Salah's final total of 503 points puts him 60 clear of his closest rival Bruno Fernandes (£6.9m) after the final Premier League weekend. Incredibly, he will finish 136 points ahead of the game's next-best forward, Erling Haaland (£7.3m). Salah scored 34 goals in all competitions, three more than Manchester City's No9, but he carved out a bracket all of his own by also providing a whopping 23 assists. For comparison, Haaland registered just four assists all season long. 4 MOST GOALS AMONG DREAM TEAM PLAYERS THIS SEASON MOHAMED SALAH - 34 goals Erling Haaland - 31 goals Alexander Isak - 27 goals Bryan Mbeumo - 20 goals Chris Wood - 20 goals Bruno Fernandes - 19 goals Yoane Wissa - 19 goals MOST ASSISTS AMONG DREAM TEAM PLAYERS THIS SEASON MOHAMED SALAH - 23 assists Bruno Fernandes - 20 assists Bukayo Saka - 17 asssists Morgan Rogers - 16 assists Jacob Murphy - 15 assists Ollie Watkins - 15 assists There are many ways to skin a cat in Dream Team but it remains as true as ever that scoring a shed-load of goals is the best way to top the rankings. 57 goal involvements in a season stirs memories of the dizzy peaks of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. 4 Officially, Salah registered 47 goal involvements in the top flight; 29 goals and 18 assists to claim the Golden Boot and Playmaker awards. This tally is an outright record for a 38-game Premier League campaign. Alan Shearer and Andy Cole also achieved 47 goal contributions in the 1990s but at a time when the top flight featured 22 teams, with each side fulfilling 42 league fixtures. Salah is the first player to ever claim the Golden Boot, Playmaker and Premier League Player of the Season awards in the same campaign. The 32-year-old created 33 big chances for his team-mates in all competitions, the most among all Dream Team players. Only one other forward, Son Heung-min (£3.7m), registered 20 big chances created this term. Salah even topped the considerably more niche metric of most successful dribbles (67) among Dream Team forwards. There is much to admire about Salah's season but 503 points is undoubtedly the headline, an almost unfathomable achievement that speaks to every last bead of sweat expended. Looking ahead, the question must be asked: what will his starting price be for 2025/26?
New York Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Premier League tactical trends 2024-25: Goalkeeper long passes, inswinging corners and fast breaks
It feels a lifetime ago that Arne Slot spoke about the importance of winning duels after Liverpool won away 2-0 to Ipswich Town on the opening day of the season. Nine months, 379 matches and 1,113 goals later — the second-most in a Premier League season behind 2023-24 — Slot's Liverpool have waltzed to the title, the promoted trio are relegated for the second consecutive season, and Nottingham Forest are the first team to double their points tally from one Premier League campaign to another. It was also a season packed with tactical intrigue. Let's dive into the trends from 2024-25. Nothing encapsulates the specificity of roles in Pep Guardiola's Manchester City team better than the goalkeeper, Ederson, and striker Erling Haaland, ending the season with the same number of assists (four). When teams press City man-for-man, the distance-kicking qualities of their goalkeeper are essential. Guardiola described it as 'a weapon that we have to exploit' earlier in the season. An important part is how short and slow City play so often in build-up, luring teams on to them and only — as Ahmed Walid wrote earlier this season — playing long passes in-behind when it is practical. The overall trend of goalkeepers launching (kicking 40+ yards) in open-play continues to drop, now down to 43 per cent. It is a less steep drop (four per cent) than between 2022-23 and 2023-24 (seven per cent) and, for context, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga goalkeepers play even shorter. Opta's data on launched goal-kicks dates back to 2017-18, and in this time frame, after six years of a steady downward trend, it is the first time that launch rates in those scenarios have plateaued — at one in three, which makes for a suitable tactical blueprint: play short twice, and when the opponents step up to press at the third goal-kick, play over them. Advertisement There were nine goalkeeper assists in 2024-25, the most in any Premier League campaign. Mark Flekken (Brentford), Jordan Pickford (Everton), Bernd Leno (Fulham), Bart Verbruggen (Brighton & Hove Albion), and Ederson all set up goals. Ederson was particularly effective at going in-behind when opponents locked on man-for-man but failed to apply pressure to the ball. This gave him time and space to be on the ball outside his box and pick a pass. It happened to Newcastle for the opening goal when they went to the Etihad in February. Here, Haaland and winger Savinho make opposite movements to manipulate Newcastle's man-marking. The No 9 drops in, taking Dan Burn away from Savinho as he runs in-behind. Kieran Trippier misjudges Ederson's pass, leaving the Brazil international alone to lob Martin Dubravka. The same happened to Brentford when they squeezed high at the Etihad, man-for-man, but did not press Ederson. This time, the goalkeeper played into the other channel as Kristoffer Ajer and Nathan Collins locked on to City midfielders. Haaland arced his run into space. His marker, Ethan Pinnock, misjudged the flight as he tried to block the Norwegian, who took two touches to control the ball and set himself before chipping past Flekken. City's fourth goal in their 5-2 comeback win over Crystal Palace was another example. Palace do not press man-for-man here, sitting in a 5-3-2 (but double-marking City's two pivots with their own midfielders and No 9s) with an aggressively positioned back five. James McAtee arcs his run along the defensive line, away from wing-back Tyrick Mitchell, kept onside by the far-side defenders. He misses when he tries to control Ederson's dropping long pass, and the pace takes him past Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson, who rushes out — he taps into an empty net. Bournemouth caught the eye this term — earning a club-record points total — with an intense out-of-possession style. They encapsulated just how physical the division has become. Data provider SkillCorner, who extract contextual metrics from broadcast tracking data, have measured the year-on-year increase in sprint distance in Premier League matches since 2018-19. Advertisement Comparing 2024-25 with six seasons ago, overall running distance is up just over six per cent, players are sprinting 19 per cent more often and 22 per cent further. This is fundamental to implement the pressing schemes that have become typical in the league. Though, after four years of them increasing season-on-season, the number of final-third regains has actually dropped, down to its lowest rate since 2020-21. That statistic could be linked to increasing physical intensity, with teams needing more (and longer) recovery sprints when opponents are playing over or through them. Andoni Iraola's Bournemouth were the best pressing team for final-third regains per match (5.7). For context in the rest of the league dropping off, there were five sides last season who made more. Teams adopted the 'if you can't beat them, join them' perspective after multiple seasons of Arsenal and Aston Villa enjoying success from inswinging corners. That corner type had accounted for 45-50 per cent of all deliveries in the previous five years. Recent seasons, though, have seen outswingers and straight balls steadily decline. Nottingham Forest were the only team to take more outswinging than inswinging corners in 2024-25. That outlier approach worked as they were one of only four teams to score 10+ corner goals, and ranked second for corners per goal (scoring once every 16 deliveries). In total, 2,341 inswinging corners were taken, which accounted for over 60 per cent of all corners — a higher total and proportion than any season since 2018-19. From the right, one in three corners targeted the six-yard box, with almost half of all left-side deliveries being dropped on to the goalkeeper. Curling inswingers for big centre-backs to attack is a throwback as corner tactics go, particularly in an era of set-piece coaches, though having specialists in this department ought to have contributed more on the defensive side. A combined league total of 135 goals from corners is the lowest for four years, with total xG from these scenarios and corners per goal (a measurement of efficiency) also at four-year lows — it is a drop of 36 corner goals with teams on average scoring once every 29 corners, five more than last season. Advertisement There were defensive improvements across the board, as last term City and Fulham were the only teams to concede fewer than six goals from corners, and in 2024-25, nine different sides conceded five or fewer. A simple but key reason may have been the absences of quality takers, with injuries limiting minutes for Bukayo Saka (Arsenal) and Kevin De Bruyne (City), while James Ward-Prowse (Nottingham Forest then West Ham) and Kieran Trippier (Newcastle) struggled for game time, and Brighton's Pascal Gross left last summer. The Premier League can now take the title from the Bundesliga: statistically, it is the most counter-attacking of Europe's major leagues. England's top tier had been trending in this direction anyway, with the past three years seeing the number of fast-break shots rise from 226 in 2020-21 to 392 last term, while the past two seasons featured over 80 fast-break goals — a threshold that was not broken between 2018-19 and 2021-22. A different level of counter-attacking was reached in 2024-25 with 513 fast-break shots and 112 goals from those situations. Liverpool and Mohamed Salah led the way, with 52 shots and 14 goals (22 and seven for Salah) from fast breaks being the best numbers by a team in any Premier League season in the past seven years — the frequency at which they went ahead in games allowed Liverpool to maximise the counter-attacking tactics that get the best of out Salah. Every team scored at least twice from fast breaks, which owes to the rise of quick, individualistic wingers and forwards spread across the division, plus the extent to which most teams want organised possession in the opposition half — that increases transition opportunities. A special mention for Ipswich Town's Liam Delap here, who accounted for 47 per cent of their fast-break shots in 2024-25, and scored four of their six goals from these scenarios. That accounted for one-third of his 12 goals in his breakout season, as the No 9 was able to maximise his running power and ball-carrying quality. The Premier League's middle-class rose this season, with all the teams between fifth (Newcastle) and 11th (Fulham) in the Championship as recently as 2017. Their attacking success in 2024-25 owed, for plenty of that pack, to attacking partnerships. Newcastle's Jacob Murphy provided No 9 Alexander Isak with plenty of cutbacks and low crosses from the right. Being a right-footer on his natural side 'brings a whole different dynamic,' he said in an interview with The Athletic last week. Savinho to Haaland and Anthony Elanga to Chris Wood were other winger-to-striker combinations that proved fruitful — the Sweden international has set Wood up 10 times since the start of last term, including four instances this campaign. Aston Villa (Ollie Watkins and Morgan Rogers) and Crystal Palace (Eberechi Eze and Jean-Philippe Mateta) both had success with No 10s playing off strikers. Advertisement Brentford's fluid strike partnership of Yoane Wissa (19 goals, converted from winger to striker) and Bryan Mbeumo (20) was one of the finest in the division, combining for 29 chances and six goals. All in, there were 14 instances of one player assisting another 4+ times in the Premier League in 2024-25, more than any campaign since 2017-18 (16 instances).
