Danny Welbeck is part of the pantheon of great English forwards who do not score goals. That’d seem to be a terrible oxymoron, but you forget that supporters love a grafter. If you had to rely on one striker to effectively man-mark a center back out of a match, it’d be Danny Welbeck.
I don’t know why you’d ever employ that tactic, but that’s the highest praise I can bestow on Welbeck.
We were all wrong. Let’s take a moment to come together, as a community, and admit that we all assumed the appointment of Gennaro Gattuso as AC Milan manager was absurd to the point of hilarity. Our sides were splitting. Our guffaws echoed along the corridors of the internet. We laughed and we laughed and we laughed.
But we were all wrong.
You see, it turns out that Gattuso might just be exactly what Milan needed.
For the first time since the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League Round of 16, Arsenal have been drawn against AC Milan in European competition. But, with the encounter now taking place in the Europa League and the added coinkydink of both sides sitting sixth domestically (both are also eight points back of fourth place), there’ll be a lot of glorious nostalgia mixed with contemporary handwringing before the San Siro first leg on March 8.
This is the end of an era. Ronaldinho, the last remaining active player not named Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo to have won the Ballon d'Or, one of the most joyous and fun footballers of all time, has officially hung up his cleats.
Dinho hasn't actually played competitive football since 2015, but his retirement rules out any chance of a return. Unless, of course, he returns.
2017 was a pronounced year with regards to the retirement of a legion of decorated footballers. In the list below, we have an assortment of winners of the World Cup, European Championship, Copa America, Champions League and pretty much every domestic title out there.
Sadly, we’ve seen the last of this group on the professional pitch and on our gaming consoles via FIFA. Here are 10 footballers (along with a few honorable mentions) that hung up their boots this year.
Antonio Donnarumma is AC Milan starting goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma's brother. Gigi Donnarumma is a boy wonder, starting for Milan at just 18 years old. Antonio Donnarumma is, um, not that. He's 27 years old, AC Milan's third-choice goalkeeper and probably only there to keep his family and younger brother happy.
However, with Gianluigi injured and regular backup Marco Storari having injured himself during warmups, the job of seeing AC Milan past hated rivals Inter into the Coppa Italia semifinals fell to Antonio.
Last week, Serie A news revolved around goals. Goals change games was the mantra. After Juventus beat Napoli, it seemed like it was all change at the top of the table.
Instead, many of this week’s most important matches were goalless. Not bad, as such, but not quite the high scoring affairs we’d hoped for.
Most years the Europa League is barely given a second thought this time of year. Sure it might be worth watching as the competition draws to its climax, but the Round of 32, not to mention the Europa League draw itself, typically doesn’t register highly on the mainstream soccer watch list.
Goals change games. That’s pretty much football 101. That’s how the game works. But not every goal is created equal. This week in Serie A, the true value of a goal was shown to be different on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So let’s take a look at the three goals that defined the weekend and why they differed so widely.