Quiz! Quiz!! Quiz!!!
All is not well at Ajax. After Sébastien Haller was mistakenly left out of their Europa League squad comes the news that their goalkeeper, Andre Onana, has been handed a 12-month suspension for failing an out-of-competition doping test, with the club claiming he accidentally took medicine meant for his wife’s consumption. They had hoped for a conditional suspension but the ban is effective from today. The club has released a statement.
On the morning of October 30, Onana was feeling unwell. He wanted to take a pill to ease the discomfort. Unknowingly, however, he took Lasimac, a drug that his wife had previously been prescribed.
Onana’s confusion resulted in him mistakenly taking his wife’s medicine, ultimately causing this measure to be taken by UEFA against the goalkeeper.
Furthermore, the disciplinary body of the football association has stated that Onana had no intention of cheating. However, the European Football Association believes, on the basis of the applicable anti-doping rules, that an athlete has a duty at all times to ensure that no banned substances enter the body.
AFC Ajax (@AFCAjax)
The disciplinary body of the European football association, UEFA, has imposed a suspension of 12 months on Andre Onana for a doping violation.
February 5, 2021
Yes, it had fully evaded my attention until now. Bayern Munich play Hertha Berlin in the Bundesliga tonight, then fly to Qatar to play Al Ahly in the semi-finals on Sunday. Palmeiras, who only won the Copa Libertadores last week, play Tigres UANL, who beat the Korean club Ulsan in the quarter-final on Thursday. Al Ahly beat Al-Dusain - of Qatar and coached by the former Nottingham Forest manager Sabri Lamouchi - on Thursday.
The pub banter king, Sean Dyche, speaking to PA Media, has continued his message that laughter is the best medicine. As yet, he appears not to have commented on the leveraged buyout of Burnley that David Conn helped bring to light in these pages.
We’ve had some really tough times; very pressurised, full of anxiety and you’ve got to diffuse that at times. It’s certainly something I’ve believed in throughout my life. The hardest things can find the funniest moments, I don’t mean crass or awkward moments or horrible ones. It’s a deadly serious moment in our world but there still has to be a moment where everyone can relax a little bit. You still have to do the job, no matter who you’re playing against. A bit of humour doesn’t go amiss. I accept humour from the players as well. It’s not a one-way street, they can have the odd flippant or funny remark. Going back to lookalikes, we did have a lookalike board, I’m not going to tell you who was on it but there were some brilliant ones which the players put on themselves. If you try to have a joke or a one-liner or fun about anything, it’s turned around on you, virtually always. It’s a shame but that’s modern life, I get that. Some managers who probably have way more humour - and I know some that are for a fact - they just go ‘there’s no point because I ended up getting it turned on me’. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Most managers, in my experience, put a straight bat on it, bat it away and try to not show the truth of who they are.
Did we mention that there’s a lot of football on this weekend? That goes for sport too. Paul MacInnes has worked out the schedule.
And talking of the Champions League, there’s this riddle to solve.
A meeting about this is taking place today, presumably on Zoom. More as and when we get it.
West Brom v Tottenham will see the José Mourinho charm offensive continue.
His team were rotten against Chelsea.
The big game, of course, is Sunday’s showdown at Anfield. Here’s what Alex Hess had to say in our 10 things preview, with obligatory Nigel Tufnell quote.
Pep Guardiola may be a tactical genius, but as Spinal Tap’s guitarist once said: “It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.” The Manchester City manager has proven as much with his tendency to overcomplicate things in big matches. Few know this better than Jürgen Klopp, whose Liverpool team have more than once been grateful beneficiaries of Guardiola’s needlessly intricate one-off gameplans. There is no call for such complexity on Sunday. City head to Anfield having won 13 games in a row in all competitions, while their opponents have won three of their past 10, lost two on the bounce at home and kept one clean sheet this year. The Anfield crowd, which has in recent years fuelled early blitzkriegs against City, will be absent. Guardiola’s main task may be psychological rather than tactical: to ensure his players take to the pitch with the same freedom of the past two months. Or to put it in plain terms, to avoid messing with a winning formula.
Public health warning: there will be no Premier League football on tonight. But titter not, lest you be tittered, it’s back tomorrow and the cold turkey will be brief. There will be aching limbs all round, and a few suspensions too after a few red cards, not all of them rescinded.
So, what do we have in store? Saturday’s early game sees Aston Villa entertain Arsenal, with both teams coming off defeats in midweek. At 3pm, Burnley welcome in-form Brighton, slayers of Tottenham and Liverpool in four days. Sean Dyche, the lookalikey banter king, takes on Graham Potter, future England manager. After their *latest* 9-0, Southampton go to Newcastle, who lost to Crystal Palace on Tuesday in a game that already feels a long time ago. A London derby follows that, and it’s Fulham versus West Ham where future Hammers manager Scott E Parker takes on David Moyes, who has found the new Fellaini in Tomas Soucek. Saturday’s fun concludes with Manchester United struggling to score against Everton having used up all their goals against Southampton.
Tottenham versus West Brom is Sunday’s midday meeting of the entertainers, followed by Nuno’s Wolves, another team of thrill jockeys, taking on Leicester, who recovered themselves after losing to Leeds last Sunday by beating Fulham. Then comes Liverpool versus Manchester City, a match Jürgen Klopp may be relying on an outbreak of Cityitis to have any hope of defending the title. Sunday’s late game, Sheffield United versus Chelsea, will see Thomas Tuchel trying to out-tactic Chris Wilder whose Blades have glinted a glimpse of safety. The round of matches concludes on Monday with a discussion of Argentinian literature between Marcelo Bielsa and Roy Hodgson when Leeds play Crystal Palace.
from Football | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Lq6gmy
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