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Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag came to Anthony Martial's defence after his poor performance against Newcastle United at the weekend.

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Ten Hag defends Martial amid criticismSlammed for his performance against NewcastleWill likely face Chelsea on WednesdayWHAT HAPPENED?

The French forward had a forgettable outing in United's 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United as he failed to make a mark on the game and was subbed in the 62nd minute. Even manager Ten Hag was left fuming by his poor performance as he was seen shouting at Martial. But now, the Dutch manager has come out in defence of his player amid severe criticism from all quarters, while insisting that the entire team is trying their best to improve themselves after a dire start to the 2023-24 campaign.

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Speaking to reporters ahead of a midweek clash with Chelsea, the Red Devils boss said: "Anthony Martial played brilliantly against Everton. I don’t think it’s fair to point to one player. If you have one moment, you can’t make that as a pattern. The week before we played brilliant, lot of energy in the team, spirt, you see all the games before – I mentioned Fulham, Burnley, Brentford, Luton, so many games for evidence. If it was a pattern, these were different. But this is not a pattern, absolutely not. Everyone is giving their best, there is unity as a team."

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The 28-year-old has experienced an underwhelming campaign so far, managing to score just twice in 18 appearances for the club. With both Marcus Rashford and Martial out of form, Ten Hag's side have been wildly inconsistent. They are on the brink of Champions League elimination and find themselves seventh in the league, 12 points behind league leaders Arsenal.

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Getty ImagesWHAT NEXT FOR MANCHESTER UNITED?

The Red Devils have a very busy schedule in December. After the game against Chelsea, Ten Hag's side will prepare for a home clash with Bournemouth before a must-win Champions League group stage clash with Bayern Munich. Huge domestic games against Liverpool and West Ham will follow before Christmas Day that could go a long way to deciding whether United make the Premier League's top-four.

Ange Postecoglou's departure as Australian coach seven and a half months out from the World Cup has left the FFA with a massive void to fill.

The governing body are keen to recruit a foreign manager, most likely from Europe, to steer the team through Russia before Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat takes over permanently.

Which candidates will the FFA be looking to add to their shortlist?

Cesare Prandelli

Despite the Azzurri’s early exit in Brazil, the 60-year-old Italian is still held in high regard for orchestrating his nation’s surprise run to the Euro 2012 final.

A modest playing career saw him feature for the likes of Atalanta and Juventus before guiding Hellas Verona to promotion from Serie B in the late 90s.

Enhanced his reputation at Parma in the 2000s before establishing himself as one of the nation’s best coaches after leading Fiorentina to consecutive Champions League campaigns.

Short, turbulent stints at Galatasaray and Valencia have followed in recent years with the ex-Roma boss now finding himself in charge of Dubai-based Al Nasr.

AdvertisementGettyBert van Marwijk

Having helped Saudi Arabia directly qualify for Russia next year ahead of Australia, the 65-year-old Dutchman, much like Postecoglou, will not be at the tournament to finish off his work.

One of the best coaches to come out of the Netherlands in the last two decades, the one-time Dutch international earned accolades for steering Feyenoord to UEFA Cup success in 2002.

Two years at Borussia Dortmund and another season at De Kuip preceded his time as Holland manager which saw him come within a whisker of helping the much-maligned Oranje win the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.

A group-stage exit at Euro 2012 saw him depart his post before spending a season managing Hamburg.

GettyimagesLaurent Blanc

A World Cup winning captain on home soil at France 1998, the 52-year-old has recently emerged as a surprise candidate for the vacant US men’s national team post.

A two-decade long playing career saw him feature for the likes of Napoli, Barcelona, Marseille, Inter Milan and Manchester United.

A three-year spell on the touchline at Bordeaux yielded a Ligue 1 title in 2009 before helping the Girondins reach the Champions League quarter-finals the following season.

Promoted to the role of French national team coach, his two years in charge saw him get Les Bleus back on track after the disaster of South Africa and most notably led PSG to three successive league titles prior to his 2016 departure.

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Jurgen Klinsmann

A World Cup winner with West Germany at Italia 90, the 53-year-old also won Euro 1996 as well as two UEFA Cup triumphs in a decorated playing career which saw him earn cult hero status with Tottenham at White Hart Lane.

His appointment as Germany manager in 2004 raised many eyebrows given he then had no previous managerial experience and lived in California, although Klinsmann eventually won over his detractors by helping Die Mannschaft finish third as hosts of the 2006 World Cup.

A failed spell at Bayern Munich followed although he restored his reputation by taking the United States to the round of 16 at Brazil 2014 before falling out with the US football governing body.

Jamie Siddons, the former Bangladesh coach who is now in charge of Wellington, has questioned whether coaching standards in New Zealand are up to providing players, particularly batsmen, for the national side who can cope in alien conditions

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Nov-2013Jamie Siddons, the former Bangladesh coach who is now in charge of Wellington, has questioned whether coaching standards in New Zealand are up to providing players, particularly batsmen, for the national side who can cope in alien conditions. After New Zealand suffered a second ODI whitewash against Bangladesh, Siddons suggested that the team’s overall skill levels were not high enough.Siddons was in charge of Bangladesh when New Zealand lost 4-0 on tour in 2010 and he said that little seemed to have changed when it came to playing on foreign pitches. Having been involved in New Zealand’s domestic set-up for more than two years, he pinpointed “the coaching … the technical side of things”, as well as saying that soporific surfaces at home were part of the problem, with batsmen only comfortable when “it’s not swinging and it’s not spinning”.”It looked pretty similar,” Siddons said of New Zealand’s efforts, three years after their last visit to Bangladesh. “The conditions are a bit foreign to the boys, not that they turned a lot, just slower pace and facing some reasonable spinners with a bit of variation.””I don’t think [Bangladesh] were clearly better. I think they utilise their conditions pretty well and we weren’t prepared for it or good enough to handle it.”Despite some encouraging results under the captaincy of Brendon McCullum – New Zealand beat England and South Africa in away ODI series earlier this year and drew with England in the home Tests – a fragility in the batting has been a repeated motif. Even when they managed to pass 300 in the third match against Bangladesh, their opponents overhauled the target with four wickets and four balls in hand.”We need to practice tougher. We need to have wickets that turn, practice how to face faster bowling and swing bowling,” Siddons said. “As soon as it’s tough your batsmen are vulnerable and it’s the coaching, it’s the technical side of things, it’s the mindset. It’s certainly not mental.”I hear a lot of people say it’s mental problems with the players, but everyone’s trying. These guys don’t get out because of mental mistakes, it’s the skill levels. It’s hard work on the road. Those guys will come back here and it’s flat and it’s not swinging and it’s not spinning and they’ll be okay. But as soon as you go away and you’re under pressure again against something you haven’t practised against, then you’ll have problems.”Despite being generally competitive in one-day cricket, New Zealand were dismissed for 45 in the Cape Town Test at the start of 2013 and then 68 at Lord’s in May. They also only managed to scrape past Sri Lanka’s total of 138 in Cardiff during the Champions Trophy, a tournament which they exited at the group stage.Siddons, who amassed 11,587 first-class runs and was capped once by Australia during his playing career before going on to be his country’s batting coach, acknowledged that it was difficult for Mike Hesson and his New Zealand staff to make technical corrections while on tour. The problems arose further down the system, he said.”It’s near-impossible – they’re supposed to be ready when they get there. Supposed to be,” he said. “Under our system I’m supposed to have these guys ready and they ask me about my guys and I tell them the truth. I say he’s not ready, he’s not going to be successful, wait, give him time, he’s got this problem, he’s got that problem.”They [New Zealand’s coaches] can get them up and talk about plans and stuff, but if they haven’t got that ability to run down the wicket, they can’t run down the wicket. If they don’t have the sweep shot before they get there, they’re not going to develop one.”

Gautam Gambhir has called for “rank turners” when teams visit India after India have lost seven consecutive away Tests on pitches that he reckons had lot of grass on them

Sidharth Monga at the Adelaide Oval22-Jan-2012Gautam Gambhir has called for “rank turners” when teams visit India after India have lost seven consecutive away Tests on pitches that he reckons had lot of grass on them. He said the real test of a team was to win overseas, and that Indian curators shouldn’t hesitate to make it as tough as possible for visiting teams.”We need to realise that when we go overseas every country prepares wickets to their own strengths,” Gambhir said. “So once the other teams come home we need to prepare tracks to our advantage as well. So there should not be a lot of talk when Australia or South Africa or England come home that we should not be preparing turners. I think we should be playing to our strengths, and if we can prepare rank turners, that’s where their technique and their temperament will be tested.”Gambhir said there was a lot of movement available to seam bowlers in all of their seven defeats starting from the English summer onwards. “We have seen in last three Tests matches and even in England, there was a lot of grass and that helped their seamers,” he said. “Once these people come to India we should not be hesitant in making turners, and that’s where we would get to know whether they are mentally strong, and [what happens to] the kind of chit chat do they do when we go overseas and they talk about our techniques.”That’s where they will be tested, and we’ll see how good they are against spin bowling. So we shouldn’t be hesitant in preparing turners to our advantage, and that has been our strength and if we can do that people should support us rather than saying we should not be preparing turners. We should always be preparing something which is to our advantage.”Gambhir was asked what progress he saw in Peter Siddle’s bowling from the time he debuted against India in 2008-09 to now being the leader of the Australian bowling attack. “The only difference is the conditions,” Gambhir said. “He made his debut in Mohali. He played really well in that Test series. It’s [these are] his own conditions, it’s his own backyard. The important thing is once you start doing well in subcontinent, that’s when you are rated as a very good bowler.”He has bowled really well in this series – no doubt about that – he has been their main bowler who has always taken wickets whenever he has got into his spell. The important thing is, how he bowls well in the subcontinent. Here he has bowled well, but let’s see what he does in other conditions as well.”That didn’t stop Gambhir from praising the Australian bowling unit, whose performance he rated higher than the English bowlers last summer. “When you see the results both have been at par,” Gambhir said. “England had a lot of lateral movement, but over here a lot of credit goes to them [the Australian bowlers]. They had a very inexperienced attack. England have far more experience than the Australian fast bowlers. The way they have bowled in this series is tremendous.”They have never let us off the hook, they have always kept us under pressure though they were playing with just three seamers and a spinner. They kept coming at us, which is important, because there are times in Test cricket where you can get easy runs, especially in middle sessions. A lot of credit has to go to them.”Even in the middle sessions they kept hitting those areas, and never let us score freely. As we all know Indians are known to score runs freely. Most of our middle order has been boundary hitters. They never let us score those boundaries. Never gave us balls where we can score freely. Especially in that middle session.”COMMENT – A frustrated reactionGambhir’s comments about the pitches seem to be a combination of many factors. At worst they could be indicative of the defensive attitude of a team that has lost seven away Tests in a row. They can easily be seen as an extension of the response of Ishant Sharma and Virat Kohli to sledging by Australian players about the Indian batsmen’s technique and average. You would expect better from a team that wants to be the best in the world.There also seems to be a lack of awareness that India’s recent wins outside the subcontinent have all come on seaming tracks that make it easier for their bowlers to take 20 wickets. Also the pitches in Sydney and Perth were hardly the monsters they are being made out to be.However, at such times, it is easy to miss the deep-rooted frustration at the kind of pitches the Indian curators have been rolling out over the recent years: slow, low, devoid of life and excitement. The last time India actually got a pitch that turned and bounced was in Kanpur in 2007-08. Otherwise the pitches in India are all designed to last the longest possible distance. Gambhir is also understandably annoyed at how easily the turning tracks are labelled “disgraceful” by the media and the ICC. Sidharth Monga

Bangladesh’s new skipper Mushfiqur Rahim has spoken of his ambitions as a captain, and the realistic goals he has set ahead of the series against West Indies

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Oct-2011Mushfiqur Rahim had to break a long-held superstition after being appointed Bangladesh’s captain. For the past six years, he has made it a point not to speak to anyone in the media on the eve of an international match. Though he stuck to it on every occasion, that all changed on Monday when he spoke of his ambitions as a captain, and the realistic goals he has set ahead of the series against West Indies; he even admitted to prepping himself mentally before he betrayed his routine.Bangladesh take on West Indies in the solitary Twenty20 on October 10, marking Mushfiqur’s debut as captain. He hardly resembles one; the towering Darren Sammy even jokingly crouched as they posed with the trophies. But Mushfiqur wasn’t asking the West Indians to bend down as yet, the 23-year-old instead wishing for a good start and a lockdown by the spinners.”The start is very important,” said Mushfiqur. “Like it was against New Zealand who were well prepared last year, it is going to be the same with West Indies. We need to believe that we can win against them and that will come when we make a good start.”In international cricket, whether you’re a captain or not, there’s a lot of pressure. We’ll get home support and help from the wicket, so I think sometimes it’s better to look at the positives,” he added.He wants to mark his ascent as the leader of the pack with change in Bangladesh’s fortunes. “We couldn’t find the results as expected during the last tour. I want the team to perform as a unit. The difference that I want to create is by finding positive results,” said Mushfiqur.Coach Stuart Law, in his first home series in charge, believed that the new skipper is the sort of character everyone wants in a team. “Mushy is very much his own man,” said Law. “He’s very driven and knows what he needs to do to get the best out of himself.”He’s one of those players you love having in your team. He works very hard and hopefully that ethic comes into the team now. He’s a great example to the younger players.”I believe we can win the series. West Indies are a good outfit. We have to play well to beat them. They’re ranked higher than us, I believe we go into this as the underdog.”As long as we play smart cricket, we are a force at home,” he said, adding that he wanted some international teams taking part in the BCB Cup though he regarded the preparatory one-day tournament as satisfactorily “competitive”.

Tony Palladino celebrated the first seven wicket haul of his career to lead a Derbyshire fightback against Kent that turned the Division Two match at Derby on its head

04-Aug-2012
ScorecardTony Palladino celebrated the first seven wicket haul of his career to lead a Derbyshire fightback against Kent that turned the Division Two match at Derby on its head.Palladino, the 29-year-old seamer who last week scored a hundred as nightwatchman against Australia A, ripped through Kent to claim 7 for 53 as the visitors were bowled out for 161 despite skipper Rob Key’s disciplined 81 from 156 balls which left Derbysire, the Division Two, leaders chasing 295 for victory.An opening stand of 83 between Wayne Madsen and Matt Lineker put them on course and then Usman Khawaja and Wes Durston blunted the Kent attack to leave the Division Two leaders only 127 runs short of victory on 168 for 2 when rain forced an early close.Kent had gone into the third day holding the best hand with a lead of 226 and seven wickets intact but Palladino’s inspired burst coupled with reckless batting saw them collapse to 161 all out before lunch.Only Key showed the necessary application as Palladino and Tim Groenewald swept away the remaining seven wickets for 52 in 19 overs. Groenewald started the slide by having Michael Powell caught at short midwicket to end a stand of 66 and the rest of the innings imploded as Palladino took 5 for 23 in 12.5 overs.Key must have been dismayed to see several of his team-mates fall to loose shots while he worked the ball into the gaps and he looked set to carry his bat when Palladino had him caught behind.An acrobatic catch by David Wainwright at midwicket gave the former Essex man his seventh victim and match figures of 9 for 118, the best of his career, and his inspired spell had put Derbyshire right back into a game that looked to have slipped away from them.Derbyshire had batted poorly in the first innings but this time they played with greater discipline and patience to chip away at their target. The opening pair were together for 26 overs before Madsen gloved a ball from Matt Coles and Lineker was lbw for 45 off 97 balls playing forward to James Tredwell’s offspin.At 95 for 2, the game was back in the balance but Khawaja and Durston played with composure and selectivity to share an unbeaten stand of 73 while Kent’s frustration threatened to boil over with Charlie Shreck showing petulance when an appeal for a catch behind was turned down.

Sachin Tendulkar’s return to the Mumbai Indians squad for today’s match against Deccan Chargers looks uncertain

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Apr-2012Sachin Tendulkar’s return to the Mumbai Indians squad for today’s match against Deccan Chargers looks uncertain, after he said on Twitter that the finger injury he sustained in the opening game against Chennai Super Kings did “not look good”.Tendulkar posted a photograph of the injured finger on his right hand and tweeted around noon on Monday.

Finger still not looking good. Had to aspirate blood from my finger twice in 4 days. yfrog.com/o0j2iduj

— sachin tendulkar (@sachin_rt) April 9, 2012

Tendulkar had to retire hurt on 16 after being struck on the glove by Doug Bollinger in the ninth over of the IPL’s opening game between Mumbai Indians and Super Kings. He then missed Mumbai Indians’ first home game, against Pune Warriors, and if he does not play today his next game could be against Rajasthan Royals on April 11.Just before the start of IPL 2012, Tendulkar had handed over the leadership of the Mumbai Indians to Harbhajan Singh, because he wanted to take a “break from the responsibility of captaincy”. Harbhajan had led Mumbai Indians to the Champions League T20 title last year and was an automatic choice to take over the captaincy.

Fluent fifties from openers Ahmed Shehzad and Shan Masood, and No. 3 batsman Azhar Ali helped Pakistan A reach 230 for 4 at the end of the first day against the South Africans

Firdose Moonda in Sharjah09-Oct-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo – Ahmed Shehzad made his case for the second opener’s spot with a fluent fifty•ESPNcricinfo LtdSouth Africa’s bowlers will hope the surface they toiled on in Sharjah will not resemble the pitches on which they will play the two-Test series. Although a few deliveries kept low, the conditions assisted neither spinners nor the seamers and it was nothing but a grind for the tourists.The South Africans took the field with ice jackets and cooling necklaces. Dale Steyn wore the former while the other was passed between players at intervals throughout the afternoon, to combat the 37-degree heat and high humidity. They also rotated stints in the field with all players allowed a break for a period of time.Pakistan A got some value out of the day, doing what captain Umar Amin wanted by batting it out to “give South Africa something to think about” and allowing openers Ahmed Shehzad and Shan Masood, as well as the national No.3 Azhar Ali, to bring up half-centuries.Shehzad’s may be the most important because it would allowed him to announce himself as the prime candidate to partner Khurram Manzoor in the first Test next week. Pakistan have yet to pick another opener after dropping Mohammad Hafeez and will likely select someone from the A side. Shehzad, who is uncapped in the longest format and is just 21 years old, showed he may be the man for the job.He was expressive against the spinners and fluent against the South African seamers, all four of whom bowled within themselves to avoid tiring out. Shehzad was particularly strong through the off side and on the drive, and was dismissed due to a lack of temperament rather than being outfoxed.With Robin Peterson keeping things tight, Shehzad tried to loft him over a strategically placed short mid-wicket but offered the fielder a simple chance. That was the South Africans only wicket of the middle session with the focus being on lines and accuracy.Steyn bowled below pace, Morkel found some bounce and was the only one of the trio to take a wicket when Faisal Iqbal was caught at slip, but it was Vernon Philander who looked the most threatening. His accurate line outside the off stump proved as successful, not in wicket-taking but in problem-causing terms, as it has elsewhere in the world. The bowlers operated in short spells through the afternoon and allowed the spinners to dominate proceedings later on.Tahir was expensive, especially in his first spell. Too many variations and a bouquet of full tosses threatened to derail the legspinner, especially with Shehzad and then Azhar using their feet well.Masood’s half-century was well-paced and he chose to retire after reaching the landmark. Azhar’s fifty was more eye-catching; he was patient upfront, with just 12 runs from his first 33 balls, but grew in confidence later on.His retirement allowed captain Umar Amin a stint at the crease. With a place in the senior side at stake, Amin showed his ability to hold fort as the day drew to a close. The captains had agreed to enforce declarations after the 100-over mark and with 22 overs left in the Pakistan A innings, South African captain Graeme Smith will have a last chance to bat before the first Test.

Lionel Messi raged at Brazil forward Rodrygo while backing up Argentina team-mate Rodrigo De Paul after a delayed start to the game at the Maracana.

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Rodrygo and De Paul in heated discussionMessi comes to aid of Argentina team-mateAlbiceleste go on to celebrate 1-0 win over rivalsWHAT HAPPENED?

Tuesday's World Cup qualifier was pushed back half-an-hour following clashes with Albiceleste supporters at Rio de Janeiro's Maracana stadium – and the hostilities didn't end there. Immediately after the players returned to the pitch, De Paul and Rodrygo could be seen in deep – and antagonistic – conversation, before Messi rushed over to support his Argentina colleague.

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According to reports from , Rodrygo accused Messi, De Paul and Argentina of being "cowards", after the Albiceleste captain threatened a walk-off due to continued brutality from Brazilian police. In response, Messi is said to have retorted: "We are the world champions, why are we cowards? Watch your mouth."

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The match was eventually played despite the initial lengthy delay, and a Nicolas Otamendi goal was enough to consign Brazil to their third straight defeat and their first ever at home in World Cup qualifying. The rivalry was far from over after the full time whistle, as Messi took to Instagram to call out the "crazy" violence suffered by Argentina fans at the hands of Brazilian authorities.

Fast bowler Chanaka Welegedara has been ruled out of the Champions Trophy due to the foot injury he picked up during a practice match last week, and Sri Lanka Cricket has replaced him with seam-bowling allrounder Dilhara Lokuhettige

ESPNcricinfo staff22-May-2013Sri Lankan fast bowler Chanaka Welegedara is unlikely to travel to England for the Champions Trophy, after failing to recover sufficiently from an ankle injury he sustained on May 18. Welegedara failed a fitness test on Wednesday morning, and Sri Lanka Cricket have since named seam bowler Dilhara Lokuhettige as a replacement. The selection was cleared by the sports minister, but has not yet been approved by the ICC.Lokuhettige, 32, played eight ODIs for Sri Lanka in 2005, and two Twenty20 internationals in 2008. He has six ODI wickets at 36.83. He has largely been picked on his form in the recently concluded List A tri-series in Pallekele, where he was the joint highest wicket-taker: nine scalps at an average of 17.66. If approved, he will be one of four pace specialists on tour, with Lasith Malinga, Shaminda Eranga and Nuwan Kulasekara also traveling. Allrounders Thisara Perera and Angelo Mathews are part of the squad as well.”SLC have written to the ICC Event Technical Committee regarding this replacement,” an SLC statement said. “The replacement of a player requires the approval of the Event Technical Committee before the replacement player can be officially added to the squad.”Welegedara had picked up the injury during the penultimate match of the tri-series, which he left, in pain, during his third over. His chances of traveling to England had looked promising on Tuesday after scans revealed no breaks or fractures, but inflammation persisted and he was unable to put sufficient weight on his landing foot.Welegedara, also 32, was the leader of Sri Lanka’s Test pace attack, but has been plagued by injury in the last 12 months, in which he only completed one Test match. He strained his groin playing England in March last year, before tearing a shoulder muscle before the Pakistan series in July. He recovered in time to travel to Australia at the end of the year, but tore a hamstring early in the second Test in Melbourne, and has not played any international cricket since. Largely regarded a Test specialist, Welegedara has not played limited-overs international cricket since June 2010.The Sri Lanka squad leaves for England in the early hours of Monday morning.