Over-Analysis 'Killing" Soccer: Pochettino

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino fears English soccer's obsession with over-analys of decisions and a fixation with diving could kill the sport.
Pochettino's side drew 2-2 at Luverpool on Sunday in a match marred by contentious penalty decisions by referee Jon Moss.
Tottenham was awarded two penalties which have been the source of fierce debate in the past two days, while Spurs midfielder Dele Alli was also booked for diving. Pochettino felt all three calls were correct, but Liverpool counterpart Jurgen Klopp was left furming as his side were pegged back in stoppage time when Harry Kane converted the second controversially awarded penalty.
Tottenham's impressive performance has shbsequently been over looked as the decisions of the officials are analyzed with a fine-tooth comb, and Pochettino believes paying so much attention to such issues takes away from the essence of the game.
"Soccer is a creative sport, in which you need the talent, that grows in a very intelligent person, a very smart brain," he said. "And now we are so focused on minimal details. I don't know. I am worried that in a few years (...)."

AFP/London

Neymar Gets £3 Million a Month

Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) pays 12 of the 13 largest player salaries in the French league, led by Neymar, who makes £3.07 million (US$3.8 million) gross a month, more than twice as much as the next highest earner, sport daily L'Equipe reported on Tuesdah.
Behind Neymar, PSG players occupy the next seven places: Uruguayan Edinson Cavani makes £1.54 million a month, French teenager Kylian Mbappe earns £1.5 million and Brazilian defender Thiago Silva makes £1.33 million.
Then come Argentine midfielder Angel Di Maria and Brazilian defender Marquinhos, both on £1.12 million, Italian midfielder Thiago Motta (£875,000), and Argentine Javier Pastore (£770,000).
The first non-Parisian on the list is Radamel Falcao, the Colombian striker who earns £750,000 a month and, because he is in Monaco, pays no taxes.
The top ten is rounded out by Dani Alves, another Brazilian defender at PSG, who makes £700,000. Next come three more PSG stars - German striker Julian Draxler and Italian playmaker Marco Verratti both make £600,000.
PSG's French striker Hatem Ben Arfa is tied on £500,000 a month with two Marseille players, the former West Ham player Dimitri Payet and Brazilian Luiz Gustavo.
At the other end of the Ligue1 salary table are Amiens, where the average monthly salary is £15,000, including three players on just £2,800.
Next comes another man working tax-free in Monaco, Leonardo Jardim, on 350,000 closely followed by Claudion Ranieri, who won the English Premier League with Leicester in 2016 and makes 340,000 a monthin Nantes.

AFP/Paris

Kane Penalty Earns Hotspur Draw

Harry Kane scored his 100th Premier League goal from the penalty spot in stoppage time to snatch a point for Tottenham Hotspur in a thrilling 2-2 draw with Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday.
Mohamed Salah capitalized on a mistake from Eric Dier to put Liverpool in front in the third minute, taking his tally to 20 league goals for the season.
Substitute Victor Wanyama thundered home an equalizer 10 minutes from time before Kane missed from the penalty spot in the 87th minute.
In the most dramatic of finales, Salah thought he had won it in the 91st minute, only for Spurs to win another penalty which Kane converted to leave his team fifth in the table, two points behind third-placed Liverpool.
"It is difficult to get every decision right," Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino said. "When they are right and show character I needed to congratulate them."
Defender Virgil van Dijk, returning to the Liverpool starting lineup, did a fine job of keeping an unchanged Spurs quiet for the majority of the first half.
Liverpool's task was made easier by their early opener. Dier, in attempting to make an interception, diverted the ball into the path of Salah, putting the Egypt international clean through to break the deadlock.
Tottenham's only shot on target in the first 45 minutes came via the boot of Mousa Dembele, but his half-volley was easily saved by Loris Karius.
Spurs improved after the break and almost equalized through Son Heung-min in the 58th minute, but Karius stood tall to make the block.
The visitors equalized out of the blue when Wanyama thundered the ball into the net from distance before the drama unfolded.
Kane's tame penalty was easily saved by Karius after the England striker had been felled in the box before Salah danced his way past two Spurs defenders and fired into the net to score what looked likely to be the winner.
However, the linesman spotted a foul by Van Dijk on substitute Erik Lamela in the box, giving Kane the chance to make amends.
"The softest touch in the whole game decides the game," Klopp said. "It is not a penalty."
Kane duly converted from the spot with virtually the last kick off the game to silence Anfield.

Reuters
London

Pique Defends Celebration After 'Special' Goal Against Espanyol

Gerard Pique said shushing Espanyol fans with a finger to his lips after scoring was the least he could have done while celebrating the goal which earned Barcelona a 1-1 draw in La Liga on Sunday.
The defender headed home Lionel Messi's free kick in the 82nd minute to preserve the league leader's 22-game unbeaten run, a club record, tying a spiky derby clash at the waterlogged RCDE Stadium in Cornella.
Pique had been berated throughout by Espanyol fans for his comments after Barcelona eliminated its local rival in the King's Cup quarterfinals in January.
A long-time hate figure for Espanyol supporters, Pique stoked the fire by referring to it as "Espanyol de Corella" multiple times.
Espanyol moved to its new stadium in the town near Barcelona in 2009 after preciously playing at the Olympic Stadium in Catalonia's capital.
"They are from Cornella, like I said the other day," said Pique. "I know it hurt them and I used sarcasm to annoy the!.
"Saying they play in Cornella is not disrespectful, it's a fact. They complain about that and report me, but they don't investigate insults towards my family. That is disrespectful. Telling them to be quiet was the least I could do."
Espanyol supporters had hurled abuse at the defender and his pop star partner Shakira during the King's Cup first leg at Cornella, which the hists won 1-0.
After Pique scored on Sunday he ran off in celebration before approaching a stand packed with Espanyol supporters and putting his finger to his lips.
"Celebrating the goal was special after everything that's happened in the last week," added Pique.
"Some of the fans here have been directing insults at me and my family for a long while. I know a lot of Espanyol fans that are good people but those at the to don't report those insulting chants.
"We are people and we have a limit. It's a derby game and it is what it is."
Espanyol midfielder Estabam Granero was not imprressed with Pique's celebration.
"When you provoke people you can't later ask for respect," Granero told reporters. "Before the gesture it was a model game. Later it was more wild. Everybody must take responsibility for their actions."

Rik Sharma
Reuters/Barcelona

Higuain Bags Hat Trick In Juve's 7-Goal Rout

Juventus forward Gonzalo Higuain scored a second-half hat trick as the champion routed hapless Sassuolo 70 in Serie A on Sunday.
Juve stayed second, however, as leader Napoli won 2-0 at table-propping Benevento, helped by a gem of a goal from Dries Mertens, to keep it one point ahead of the Turin side. The leading pair have both won their last seven games.
AS Roma ended a six-match winless run in the league by beating Verona 1-0 with a first-minute goal by Cengiz Under while, in a bizarre game, both Bologna and Fiorentina scored directly from corners in a three-minute spell.
Napoli has 60 points from 23 games with Juventus on 59 before a gig gap to Lazio on 46, Inter Milan (45) and Roma (44).
Alex Sandro gave Juventus a ninth-minute lead and two quick goals from Sami Khedira put the Turin side three goals up. Miralem Pjanic added a fourth before halftime.
Higuain burst on to the scene with a hat-trick between the 63rd and 84rd minutes. The Argentine opened his account with a clinical finish, then latched on to Claudio Marchisio's long pass before rounding Andrea Consigli to score. He completed his hat trick by playing a one-two with Federico Bernardeschi before dinking the ball over the bemused Sassuolo goalkeeper.
"I'm always trying to improve," Higuain said. "As a player, you need to be humble enough to want to learn and know that you always have to question yourself."

Reuters
Milan

Neymar Plays 'Cat-and-Mouse' With Barca

Neymar played "cat-and-mouse" with Barcelona during the close-season before his move to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), Barcelona vice-president Jordi Mestre has said.
PSG paid €222 million (US$277 million) to trigger the buyout clause in the Brazil forward's Barcelona contract last August, making him the most expensive signing in soccee history.
Barcelona had believed Neymar was going to stay at the club, with Mestre stating he was 200 percent sure the Brazilian would be at the Nou Camp this season.
"What hurt me the most was the way it happened," Mestre told newspaper Diario Sport in an interview.
"We were all on tour talking with him and his father, and they were not transparent.
”If he came to us and said, I want to go, like Cesc (Fabregas), Pedro, Alexis (Sanchez), and (Javier) Mascherano did, we would have reached an agreement. What you can't do is rock the boat.
"He played cat-and-mouse with us. It arrived at a point where we say where things were going so we told him we would not pay his contract renewal loyalty fee."
Neymar and his representative did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Neymar renewed his deal with Barcelona in July 2016, which meant he was owed a €26 million renewal bonus.
Barcelona did not pay it and deposited the money with a notary. FIFA, world soccer's governing body, is investigating an official complaint from the forward regarding the matter. Mestre said Neymar's behavior caused inflation in the transfer market.

Reuters
Barcelona

MU Takes Advantage as City Held at Burnley

Manchester United's new signing Alexis Sanchez scored on his home debut in a 2-0 win over Huddersfield Town as it took advantage of a slip by cross-town rival and Premier League leader Manchester City on Saturday.
After City had been held 1-1 at Burnley, their daunting lead over United was reduced to 13 points when Jose Mourinho's side eventually overcame a defensive Huddersfield side.
It took 55 minutes before Romelo Lukaku broke the deadlock after which Sanchez won penaly, had it saved by Jonas Lossl, but tucked away the rebound in the 68th.
"We had to be patient but had to keep the intensity high and the pressure," Mourinho told the BBC.  "We had to break down the Berlin wall organized so well by David Wagner."
City paid the price for missed chances as they drew at Turf Moor with Johann Berg Gudmundsson's 82nd-minute equalizer eaening Burnley a point. City had dominated possession but, after taking the lead with a fine strike from Brazilian Danilo in the 22nd minute, the visitor failed to press home its advantage.
"We are frustated in terms of the result but the performance was outstanding," said City manager Pep Guardiola.
City has 69 points, ahead of United on 56 with third-placed Liverpool (50) at home to Tottenham Hotspur (48), which is fifth, on Sunday, while Chelsea (50) visits mid-table Watford on Monday.
Sixth-placed Arsenal (45) led Everton 4-0 at halftime and won 5-1 as Welsh international Aaron Ramsey scored the first hat-trick of his career. Record signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was also among the scorers.
Huddersfield's defeat at Old Trafford dropped them into the bottom three for a first time since it was promoted as Southampron and Swansea City both moved above them.
Bottom club West Bromwich Albion lost 3-2 at home to Southampton on a emotional day at the Hawthorns, where there was a minute's applause for the home side's former striker Cyrille Regis, who died aged 59 last month.
Albion led early on through Egyptian defender Ahmed Hegazi but were rocked by three goals, in a quarter of an hour either side of halftime.
Soithampton held on after Salomon Rondon's goal to secure a first win in 13 league games, leaving Albion four points adrift at the bottom with 20 points.
Improving Swansea earned a valuable point with Federico Fernandez's equalizer at Leicester City, for which Jamie Vardy scores his 13th goal of the season in all competitions.

Steve Tongue
Reuters/London