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Leeds picked up their second win of the Premier League season to move out of the relegation zone on Sunday as they beat Norwich 2-1 at Carrow Road.

Marcelo Bielsa’s side are now on ten points after as many games, as they bid to stay up in their second season in the top-flight after promotion in 2020.

The Argentine is in his fourth campaign in charge of the club and has achieved great success at Elland Road, with a Championship title and a top-half Premier League finish in the first three terms.

Bielsa masterclass

Bielsa arrived at Leeds after they finished mid-table in the Championship and inherited a squad lacking in Premier League experience, but has been able to bring a number of players along for the journey with his excellent coaching – one of them being Poland international Mateusz Klich.

The ex-Lille manager has produced a masterclass with the central midfielder over the last three years. Klich joined Leeds from FC Twente in 2017 and played a measly five Championship games before being sent out on loan to Utrecht in January 2018

At the end of his loan spell, which coincided with Bielsa’s arrival, Klich was valued at just £1.58m by Transfermarkt. Instead of heading away from Elland Road again, he remained in Yorkshire and quickly became an influential member of the squad.

He played 91 of Leeds’ 92 Championship regular-season matches under the Argentine, scoring 16 goals and providing 13 assists. His form earned high praise from Bielsa, who has held him in high esteem. He said: “Klich for me is a player that can play in all the best teams in the world.”

The central midfielder then played 35 of the club’s 38 Premier League games last term, chipping in with four goals and five assists. This shows that the manager relied upon him week-in-week-out in the top-flight, which highlights the immense progress he has made since failing to make the grade in England in the second tier in his first year at the club.

To that point, David Prutton called him the ‘epitome’ of Bielsa’s work with the club in terms of improving players whilst moving up the football ladder. Prutton told the Yorkshire Evening Press:

“You can look at what Leeds have got out of maybe an unsung hero in Mateusz Klich which has been wonderful.

“Klich has been a player who has been the very epitome of what Marcelo has done with Leeds United in making him better.”

At the time of writing (02/11/21), Transfermarkt value Klich at £3.5m. This means that his price has rocketed 127.8% from when Bielsa was appointed in 2018 and illustrates the development he has undergone under the 66-year-old’s coaching. Therefore, it has been a masterclass in management and, hopefully, more players will follow in Klich’s footsteps in the coming years.

AND in other news, Viduka 2.0: Leeds could land new goalscoring sensation with “technically-gifted” beast…

John Dyson, the former Sri Lanka and West Indies coach, has expressed interest in the New Zealand post recently vacated by Andy Moles

Alex Brown30-Oct-2009John Dyson, the former Sri Lanka and West Indies coach, has expressed interest in the New Zealand post recently vacated by Andy Moles. New Zealand Cricket have encountered difficulty filling the head coaching role of late – Moles’ appointment last November came after Matthew Mott, Graham Ford and Mickey Arthur turned down the position – and the availability of a well-credentialled candidate will be viewed as a positive by Kiwi officials.Before the industrial turmoil that engulfed West Indies cricket this year, Dyson led the side to three wins, seven draws and five defeats in the Test arena – a vast improvement on their record of six draws and 14 defeats in the 20 matches immediately prior to his arrival. His tenure was highlighted by West Indies’ Wisden Trophy series victory over England this year and a shock away defeat of South Africa in his first match as coach. The nadir was undoubtedly the home Test series defeat to Bangladesh, during which a severely depleted West Indian side slumped to a 2-0 loss. Dyson was sacked shortly after.Previously, Dyson piloted Sri Lanka to second and fourth in the Test and ODI rankings, only to be replaced by Tom Moody when a new administration took charge. Moody, Stephen Fleming and Greg Shipperd are among those to have withdrawn their candidacy for the vacant New Zealand post – all three have IPL commitments – leaving Dyson among the few contenders with recent international coaching experience.”If the opportunity arose and they considered me a suitable candidate, I’d definitely be interested,” Dyson told Cricinfo. “They have a couple of genuinely world-class players in Daniel Vettori, Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum, and then guys like Jesse Ryder who really could be right up there as well. They certainly have the potential to be a very competitive team.”Australians and New Zealanders have a healthy sporting rivalry, but when you get right down to it, they communicate well. I feel the experience I have gained at Sri Lanka and the West Indies would hold me in good stead, but we will just have to wait and see if anything comes of it.”John Wright and Steve Rixon have both been touted as contenders for the New Zealand coaching post, although neither is guaranteed the position. Wright, the former India coach and current NZC high performance manager, has previously expressed reservations about returning to touring life, while Rixon has not held down an international post since he left the New Zealand job a decade ago.Wright this week received the strong endorsement of Martin Snedden, the former NZC chief executive, however the incumbent CEO, Justin Vaughan, was somewhat less effusive when assessing Wright’s claims to the job. “We all want to get the best of John Wright, we all want to get the best out of the Black Caps and we want the best equipped to do that and I’m not sure if all those three lines intersect,” Vaughan told the .Dyson, meanwhile, confirmed he would not pursue legal action against the West Indies board over his surprise sacking in August. “It’s done with,” he said. “It is disappointing that no official has yet had the courtesy to explain why I was terminated, but I am not going to push it any further. It was certainly disappointing that just a couple of months after we were being hailed as heroes for beating England – which I told them at the time was dangerous – they decided to replace me as coach.”

After securing their fourth consecutive draw in League One with a 2-2 result against Cheltenham Town at the weekend, Sheffield Wednesday are back in action on Tuesday evening with a big clash against Sunderland, who are currently six points ahead of Darren Moore’s side in the table.

On the chalkboard

Looking ahead to the midweek match against the Black Cats, one Wednesday player that featured in the draw against Cheltenham that we feel should be in the starting XI against Sunderland is defender Chey Dunkley.

During the match at the weekend, Dunkley started and played the full 90 minutes and not only did he manage to score one of Wednesday’s goals on the day, but he also managed to make a vital contribution at the other end of the pitch.

He made three interceptions, blocked three shots and produced four clearances which led to him winning ten of the 14 duels he was involved in. That ultimately earned him an impressive overall match rating of 8/10, making him Wednesday’s highest-rated player on the day according to SofaScore.

This shows just how useful Dunkley, who has been described as “solid” in the past by Moore, can be for the Owls in a defensive and attacking sense on this occasion. That’s precisely why we feel he would be a good option to start again against Sunderland who could see their attacking players bullied while trying to get past the Wednesday defender.

The Yorkshire side signed Dunkley back in August 2020 from Wigan Athletic on a free transfer on a reported two-year deal. Since then, the 29-year-old, who is currently valued at £720k according to Transfermarkt, has made 22 appearances for the Owls across all competitions.

Looking ahead to the match against Lee Johnson’s side, who were beaten 5-1 by Rotherham United in their previous league outing, we feel that Dunkley should definitely be in the starting XI, especially if Dominic Iorfa, who missed the Cheltenham game through injury, isn’t available to play after Moore said it’s 50/50 over whether he’d be fit enough to play a part.

If Dunkley does play in midweek, we think he would give Wednesday a great chance of grabbing a positive result and keeping their unbeaten streak going with the Owls having not lost a league game since their 2-1 defeat against Oxford United back in early October.

In other news: Sheff Weds sweating over big injury blow ahead of SAFC clash, Moore will be gutted – opinion

Everton believe it is too soon to start Tyler Onyango in the Premier League, according to The Athletic’s Greg O’Keeffe.

The lowdown

O’Keeffe’s colleague Patrick Boyland considered the possibility that first team opportunities would arise for the young midfielder in the wake of Abdoulaye Doucoure’s injury. He is said to boast a similar profile to the Frenchman and has been described as a ‘machine’ by his former under-18 coach Paul Tait.

He has only previously made one senior appearance for the Blues, and that came as a late substitute in the FA Cup fourth round meeting with Sheffield Wednesday last season.

Toffees assistant manager Duncan Ferguson is thought to be an advocate of Onyango, but Rafael Benitez has overlooked him for each matchday squad since the 18-year-old returned from his own injury lay-off.

The latest

Ahead of Everton’s clash with Tottenham on Sunday, a Toffees supporter suggested in a Q&A for The Athletic that Benitez should try a midfield three of Onyango, Fabian Delph and Allan.

However, O’Keeffe responded to that claim by saying: “The feeling is that Onyango isn’t ready yet.”

The verdict

It may not simply be a question of ability. Indeed, the 18-year-old’s comeback performance against Leeds United under-23s on 18 October was adjudged to be of a Premier League standard.

Onyango’s recent injury sidelined him for six months, so perhaps there are lingering physical concerns less a month on from his return. Also, as explained above, he has just one senior appearance to his name, so it could be risky to throw him in at the deep end of top-flight football, especially with Everton taking just two points from their last five matches.

Benitez instead looked to Delph against Spurs, handing him a first league start of the season. The former Aston Villa player justified his manager’s faith, winning the club’s man of the match award.

In other news, some Everton fans slammed this man’s performance against Spurs

Kumar Sangakkara has called on his spinners to raise their game in the final Test in Mumbai

Sa'adi Thawfeeq27-Nov-2009It hasn’t been a great tour for Muttiah Muralitharan so far•AFPSri Lanka came into the series intending to secure their maiden Test victory on Indian soil but were left with a lot of soul searching to do after they were thrashed by an innings-and-144-runs in the second Test in Kanpur.Though India ran up 642, Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara defended the selection of three spinners. “If we had won the toss and batted first on the wicket and got a decent amount of runs on the board our spinners would have been quite a threat on this track,” he said. “It would have been very hard to score runs off them as well. The chances that we did create were not taken by us, allowing the Indian batsmen to get away on a really flat track. 400 runs on the first day was a little too much.”The main concern for Sri Lanka was the inability of the world’s leading wicket-taker Muttiah Muralitharan to provide the breakthroughs for his team as he had done till the recent past. Murali went for over hundred runs for the second time in two Tests; so far in the series his returns are five wickets for 396 runs, average 79.20. “It does become a concern when your star strike bowler is not really picking up the wickets you know he can, but he is still the best bowler that’s played the game,” Sangakkara said. “You still have to have faith in him and trust him and back him 100% to do the job because he is going to do it at one point, hopefully in the next Test.”The Kanpur defeat was the largest in terms of runs to India but Sangakkara remained optimistic that he had the bowlers to win in Mumbai. “We have the potential to pick 20 wickets with the bowlers that we have,” he said. “Potential is one thing really doing the job is another. We would like a bit more penetration with the spin.”With our fast bowlers we always created opportunities, the disappointing thing is we haven’t really taken those chances twice in the first over in two Test matches, especially this one on a track that was one of the flattest we’ve played on.”We’ve still got a lot to achieve in Mumbai. We can still equal the series and finish one-all. That’s a great motivation for us. Disappointed with today’s defeat, but that’s the way cricket goes. If you don’t play well enough you lose and you’ve got to accept that responsibility but still move on. You have no one else to blame. You got to look at the 16 players in the dressing room and say that we were just not good enough. We were outplayed by India who were a better team in this Test match.”It was a good toss to win for Dhoni the first day the wicket was going to be the flattest and it got slower and slower as the game progressed. If we probably had kept India down to about 450 in the first innings it would have been a chance for us to come back, but 600 runs on we were always chasing. Bad batting in our first innings put us into trouble.”

Taking to Twitter, many Southampton fans criticised the performance of winger Mohamed Elyounoussi against Norwich City at Carrow Road today.

Looking to climb from the mid-table places after a solid run of form, Ralph Hasenhuttl’s men took on the Canaries for Dean Smith’s first game in charge. Indeed, all eyes were on the 50-year-old, who arrived at Norwich after being sacked from Villa, with the Saints hoping to make his first game at the helm a losing one.

Che Adams couldn’t have got the Saints off to a better start, opening the scoring with a neat bottom-corner finish after wriggling his way through Norwich’s backline. However, some poor goalkeeping from Alex McCarthy granted the home side a leveller just three minutes later as Teemu Pukki scored at the back post.

Then, with 10 minutes remaining, Norwich came back to take the lead courtesy of defender Grant Hanley – who rose highest at the back post to nod in the winner from a corner. It turned out to be the winning goal at Carrow Road as the Canaries made it two wins in a row.

Saints slam Elyounoussi…

As the Saints come away from the east coast with nothing, one man who was slated by some of their fans was Elyounoussi, due to his lack of impact going forward.

The 27-year-old, taking among the fewest touches out of any Southampton player according to SofaScore, also didn’t register one cross into the box or shot on target, prompting Hasenhuttl to replace him with Armando Broja midway through the second period.

Here’s what these Saints supporters made of his performance as they took to social media, with one fan calling him the team’s ‘weak link’:

“#SaintsFC need Ted Lasso to teach these boys to make the extra pass. If he can teach Jamie Tartt, he can teach Mo Elyounoussi.”

Credit: @FUT_AST

“Imo, Diallo shouldn’t be playing where he is. He’s a good player but he’s not got that attacking intelligence that you need to play further forward. Elyonoussi has been poor and wasteful as well. If I’m Tella watching this, I’m not sure what I need to, to get into the squad.”

Credit: @JamesWardBecks

“Spot on. Elyounuossi is the weak link so far, he needs to step up and start taking his chances or assisting some goals.”

Credit: @slyoldstoatyfox

“Elyounoussi the weak link in this side today !”

Credit: @Peter67305335

“Elyounoussi is a talented player, but my God his decision making is so bad. In fact the decision making of all 3 of our attackers today is horrible.”

Credit: @SaintMatt7

“Elyounoussi has been shocking”

Credit: @SamTaylorSFC

George Bailey controlled Tasmania’s tricky chase with an unbeaten 74 that sealed a tight win over New South Wales

Cricinfo staff05-Dec-2009Tasmania 7 for 178 (Bailey 74*, Smith 3-43) beat New South Wales 177 (Henriques 37, Denton 3-19) by 3 wickets
ScorecardGeorge Bailey stayed composed as his side edged past the Blues•Cameron Spencer/Getty ImagesThe captain George Bailey controlled Tasmania’s tricky chase with an unbeaten 74 that sealed a tight win over New South Wales. A testing pitch in Launceston made life hard for the batsmen and it was Bailey’s innings that stood out as his side reached 7 for 178 in a three-wicket win.Chasing the Blues’ 177, Tasmania were looking comfortable at 3 for 87 following a stand of 51 between Brett Geeves (36), the makeshift opener, and Bailey. However, Steven Smith created some awkward moments with 3 for 43 before Bailey, who hit three sixes and four fours during his 89-ball stay, and Brendan Drew (31) guided them home.The Blues, who have lost three of their four games in the competition, relied on some late hitting from Stuart Clark and Simon Keen to reach their total on a pitch offering some unpredictable bounce. Gerard Denton caused the early damage with the prized wickets of Phillip Hughes (0) and Phil Jaques (0) in the first over before following up with David Warner (8) in a match he was not meant to play in. The late withdrawal of the opener Wade Irvine, who hurt his back in the warm-up, allowed Denton to take his place and he finished with 3 for 19.Moises Henriques started the recovery from 3 for 14 with a team-high 37 while Ben Rohrer’s 28 and Smith’s 25 avoided an embarrassing total. Clark and Keen both scrambled 29 to hold up the hosts while Geeves and Luke Butterworth collected two wickets each to keep the pressure on.

Waqar Younis, Pakistan’s bowling coach, said it was a treat to watch his side’s pacemen Mohammad Sami and Mohammad Asif bowl on the first day of the Sydney Test.

Osman Samiuddin at the SCG04-Jan-2010Waqar Younis, Pakistan’s bowling coach, said it was “a treat” to watch his side’s bowling on the first day of the Sydney Test. Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Sami combined for nine wickets on a grassy SCG pitch to bowl out Australia for 127, allowing Pakistan to take control of the Test by the end of the second day with a lead of over 200 runs.”We were hungry and disciplined yesterday with the ball and it was a treat to watch,” Waqar said. “Sami was on his comeback and when he went out, he looked at things and took responsibility so well to be leader of the attack. The Mohammad Aamer injury was unfortunate but it was a blessing in a way as well.”After Sami had ripped through the top three, Asif picked his way through the rest of the batting, ending with a career-best 6 for 41. The display prompted comparisons with Glenn McGrath in sections of the Australian press, though Waqar was quick to play that down. “Whenever he gets a wicket like this, he will take wickets. The McGrath comparisons are too much because he took over 500 wickets and Asif is still new. The style of bowling is maybe similar but he is a very good bowler.”There were concerns over the third paceman Umar Gul, who had been dropped for the first Test in Melbourne because of poor form. Gul only took one wicket – the last one of Doug Bollinger – and still looked short of form. “He is different to the others. He often has problems with his run-up and rhythm,” Waqar said. “He may be lacking a little confidence and didn’t get the wickets but I thought he bowled well and was unlucky actually to not get more wickets.”Though Pakistan are in a strong position, Waqar believes they will have to work very hard to win the Test, which would be their first in 15 years against Australia. “We are in a strong position, we have a grip on the match and we could have been stronger. But in Australia you have to work hard to win a Test. They will not just give it to you. We haven’t lost a session yet in this Test and I am happy with that. Danish might now become more important.”This is Waqar’s second stint as bowling coach with the side. Though his first ended in an acrimonious break-up with the previous board administration, it was a popular and successful tenure; a number of bowlers were happy with his role. He has currently been employed only for this series and said he would only decide at its conclusion whether or not to take it further.Pakistan are meanwhile confident that Aamer will be available for the third Test, due to begin in Hobart from January 14. Aamer was ruled out of the second Test with a groin complaint but it has required nothing more than regular icing. Members of the team management do not suspect a pull or a tear and his missing out here was more a precaution, especially given that there is a week-long gap between the end of this Test and the start of the third.

Leeds United will be looking to improve their fortunes on the pitch as they return from the international break just one place above the Premier League drop zone.

Marcelo Bielsa’s side now travel to north London to face a Tottenham Hotspur side buoyed by a new manager bounce, having appointed Antonio Conte as Nuno Santo’s successor nearly three weeks ago.

The Argentine has plenty of decisions to make heading into kick-off, not at least because of the several injury woes he’s faced since the start of the season.

But what sort of lineup could we see against Spurs? Here’s what Football FanCast are predicting…

There could be just two changes from the side that drew 1-1 with Leicester City before the break.

Both Patrick Bamford and vice-captain Luke Ayling are confirmed absentees for the trip south, though Bielsa is expected to be able to welcome back Junior Firpo, who could come straight into the starting XI at left-back, replacing Pascal Struijk.

He joins the defence of Liam Cooper, Diego Llorente and Stuart Dallas, in front of goalkeeper Illan Meslier.

In midfield, we could see Adam Forshaw and Kalvin Phillips continue their impressive-looking partnership. The former made his long-awaited comeback from injury and has since had two weeks to recover. It means Mateusz Klich remains on the bench.

Further up the pitch is where Bielsa has a major conundrum as his side has looked futile in front of goal. Jack Harrison’s struggles have been evident, so despite the 25-year-old starting eight games this season and featuring in 36 league games last term, he could be axed with Dan James taking up his place on the left.

Raphinha should resume his duties on the right, with Rodrigo through the middle.

But up top, there is a rare appearance for Tyler Roberts, who could be given the nod in the absence of Bamford.

AND in other news, Huge blow: Key Leeds man “not available” this weekend, Bielsa will be gutted…

New Zealand Cricket (NZC) will be holding the passports of all visiting players at the upcoming Under-19 World Cup as a precautionary measure

Nagraj Gollapudi14-Jan-2010New Zealand Cricket (NZC) will be holding the passports of all visiting players at the upcoming Under-19 World Cup. The exercise is understood to be a precautionary measure after there were instances of players going missing at the qualifying tournament in Toronto last September.An ICC spokesperson confirmed the developments and said the message had been communicated to the management of all teams prior to their departure, to which there were no objections. “They asked NZC to retain passports of players from certain countries, whom they considered to be a high-risk of overstaying,” he told Cricinfo. “We did not feel it was fair to single out a small number of teams so NZC is holding the passports of all the teams.”During the qualifiers, seven Uganda players were unaccounted for, just before the team was due to return home from Canada. It later emerged five players and a coach of the Afghanistan squad also failed to return home with the rest of the squad, and were believed to be seeking asylum in Canada.”Naturally, this [the Canada fiasco] has had a knock-on effect for the tournament proper in New Zealand with understandable concerns being raised by the immigration authorities that there may be a repeat occurrence,” the spokesperson said. “The people at New Zealand Immigration have been extremely helpful and accommodating in ensuring that the teams taking part in the Under-19 World Cup were granted the necessary visas for the event but they did require certain assurances. All the teams understand the need to do this and it is being done in the best interests of the event and the game of cricket.”The Under-19 World Cup will kick off on January 15 with defending champions India taking on Afghanistan in the opening game at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval.