Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has made Lazio defender Aleksandar Kolarov his fourth major signing since the end of last season.
The 24-year-old Serbia international, who has passed a medical and been granted a work permit, will provide direct competition for Wayne Bridge at Eastlands.
Mancini said of Kolarov, who is reported to have cost City £16million:"I want two top-class players for each position.
"I first saw Kolarov when he made his Lazio debut back in 2007. He was composed on the ball had an excellent delivery with his left foot and was technically very able.
"I have watched him a lot since then and so have the Manchester City scouts. His attacking capability is very good. He is fast and can shoot with power and accuracy.
"He also has the ability to play in numerous positions and is very good in midfield. This is an additional benefit to the team.
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"He has a fantastic international career ahead of him and I am looking forward to working with him."
Mancini had already signed David Silva, Yaya Toure and Jerome Boateng this summer with Kolarov's arrival increasing his spending to approximately £75million since the end of last season.Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
We as football fans don’t take kindly to owners, managers or players who we don’t think are leading our club in the right direction. And, as much power as the mainstream media has in influencing the mindset of the fans, we have to consider the role of social media in the fan-based mutinies that occur often within football. The beauty of social media is that each individual fan has the opportunity to influence others and display their opinion in some small way. What is more, one person’s gripe can take on a snowball effect and create a mob mentality within social media. Suddenly you’ve gone from some loner sitting in bed with your laptop to the catalyst for major debate and unrest. So what is it about social media that harbours such enormous power and how can we use it.
Facebook
To consider that one in every three pages on the internet is a Facebook page goes some way to explaining the power of the organisation. Take Manchester united as an example; it says on Facebook that 20 million people are fans on Facebook alone. Then consider the fans ongoing battle with the Glazer family. What better way to indentify and reach 20 million fans than by simply going to the page and directing your arguments at fans that share your interests. Is there an easier way of finding likeminded people in such quantities than on a social media site that over 800 million people log on to and spend hours on almost every single day?
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Blogs
The beauty of blogs lies in the attitude of their readers. Initially you might stumble across a blog or be recommended one by a friend, but the likelihood is that you are a regular reader of any blog you might be on. What does this mean? That you think it is worth reading. And why do you think this? Because it is entertaining, you trust the writer and presume them to be some kind of authority. If you thought that they had nothing to offer you then you wouldn’t waste your time with that blog. All of this means that whilst you may not get millions of hits on your blog, although some do, all of your readers are ready and waiting to buy into any sort of opinions that you may ordain to present them with.
Obviously newspapers are an authority too but in a different sort of way. You expect newspapers to give you the facts, not original thinking about your club to go with the facts. Readers are more inclined to be inspired by somebody who cares about the things they do. That doesn’t mean they will always swallow what the blogger feeds them, but they will most of the time.
Twitter
Twitter’s speciality, as anyone who ever uses it will know, is that it is arguably the fastest way to spread news. Unlike Facebook and blogs, which are perhaps either more pre-emptive or analytical of news, Twitter is the one to break the news. Trending opinions and arguments consume fans and spread ideas to more people faster than any other form of media. And the power they exert is very real. Footballers such as Thierry Henry have been forced off Twitter in the past because of abuse they have suffered at the hands of the masses. Twitter is both the indication of and vent for public opinion on all matters and football is no different.
Nobody is denying the power that the media has in influencing the opinion of the football world. An article written may spark huge debate, but that debate is carried out on social media. Furthermore social media can be used to organise demonstrations from social to sporting reasons. The lack of online accountability takes the power of the media that step further. Fans on social media have nothing to lose and the most radical ideas are more likely to originate and be debated in these spheres. The mainstream media will always have power but it’s about time people stopped blaming the media for mutinying fans and started taking part in the debate.
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To take part in this and other debates follow Hamish on Twitter @H_Mackay
Football FanCast has teamed up with Zoo Magazine to bring you the Football Fans’ Survey 2011.
The survey asked all the burning questions in football right now and you may be surprised by some of the results given by you – fans of the beautiful game. We asked a range of questions to get a feel for your views of where football is at right now.
The results are featured below for you to take a look at, with some of the standout answers being that more than half of you want Harry Redknapp to be the next England manager, a whopping 82% of you would prefer your club to win their league than England to win 2012, and that you feel that Liverpool have the best supporters in Britain.
There were of course the more light-hearted questions as well, with Ryan Giggs your favourite drinking buddy and El Hadji Diouf your least favourite, three quarters of you are more disappointed by players cheating on the pitch than on their partners, while if it came down to a choice between sex and football, you’d go for the beautiful game, just!
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[divider]
Should England’s next manager be English?
Yes
54%
No
46%
Who do you want as the next England manager?
Mourinho
18%
Allardyce
3%
Redknapp
53%
Hodgson
7%
Hiddink
9%
O’Neill
4%
Other
6%
Would you prefer England to win Euro 2012 or your club to win their league?
My Club to win their league
82%
England to win Euro 2012
18%
Would you swap a better national team for a worse league standard?
Yes
23%
No
77%
Is the Premier League better or worse than it was five years ago?
Better
74%
Worse
26%
Who is the best Premier League player?
Nemanja Vidic
6%
Wayne Rooney
4%
Paul Scholes
4%
Gareth Bale
12%
Luka Modric
4%
Steven Gerrard
21%
Frank Lampard
2%
Rafael van der Vaart
7%
Samir Nasri
11%
Cesc Fabregas
14%
Carlos Tevez
13%
Other
6%
Which club do you hate the most?
Man United
35%
Arsenal
8%
Liverpool
13%
Tottenham
6%
Newcastle
2%
Everton
1%
Bolton
1%
Chelsea
16%
Man City
8%
Other
10%
If you had to support another club, after yours, who would you choose?
Tottenham
20%
Arsenal
19%
Man United
7%
Man City
3%
West Ham
12%
Chelsea
4%
Liverpool
13%
Other
22%
Who are the best away supporters in Britain?
Celtic
8%
West Ham
6%
Leeds
5%
Newcastle
14%
Everton
2%
Liverpool
28%
Man United
12%
Man City
5%
Tottenham
8%
Other
13%
Which is the best away ground to visit in Britain?
White Hart Lane
7%
Emirates Stadium
27%
Anfield
19%
Old Trafford
22%
Britannia Stadium
4%
Villa Park
4%
Elland Road
4%
Other
12%
Which footballer would you most like to go for a pint with?
Jimmy Bullard
22%
Wayne Rooney
9%
Ryan Giggs
25%
Van der Vaart
8%
Kevin Nolan
13%
Anyone who’s buying
23%
Which footballer would you least like to go for a pint with?
Steven Gerrard
14%
Joey Barton
17%
Andy Carroll
4%
Gary Neville
25%
Rio Ferdinand
4%
El Hadji Diouf
30%
Other
6%
Does your club offer value for money?
Yes
67%
No
33%
Do you feel that your club treat you as A) a supporter, or B) a customer?
A) a supporter
66%
B) a customer
34%
What disappoints you more: players who cheat on the pitch or cheat on their partners?
Players who cheat on the pitch
75%
Players who cheat on their partners
25%
Sex or football: if you could only have one, which would you choose?
Sex
46%
Football
54%
Should England’s next manager be English?Yes54%No46%Who do you want as the next England manager?Mourinho18%Allardyce3%Redknapp53%Hodgson7%Hiddink9%O’Neill4%Other6%Would you prefer England to win Euro 2012 or your club to win their league? My Club to win their league82%England to win Euro 201218%Would you swap a better national team for a worse league standard? Yes23%No77%Is the Premier League better or worse than it was five years ago? Better74%Worse26%Who is the best Premier League player?Nemanja Vidic6%Wayne Rooney4%Paul Scholes4%Gareth Bale12%Luka Modric4%Steven Gerrard21%Frank Lampard2%Rafael van der Vaart7%Samir Nasri11%Cesc Fabregas14%Carlos Tevez13%Other6%Which club do you hate the most? Man United35%Arsenal8%Liverpool13%Tottenham6%Newcastle2%Everton1%Bolton1%Chelsea16%Man City8%Other10%If you had to support another club, after yours, who would you choose?Tottenham20%Arsenal19%Man United7%Man City3%West Ham12%Chelsea4%Liverpool13%Other22%Who are the best away supporters in Britain? Celtic8%West Ham6%Leeds5%Newcastle14%Everton2%Liverpool28%Man United12%Man City5%Tottenham8%Other13%Which is the best away ground to visit in Britain? White Hart Lane7%Emirates Stadium27%Anfield19%Old Trafford22%Britannia Stadium4%Villa Park4%Elland Road4%Other12%Which footballer would you most like to go for a pint with? Jimmy Bullard22%Wayne Rooney9%Ryan Giggs25%Van der Vaart8%Kevin Nolan13%Anyone who’s buying23%Which footballer would you least like to go for a pint with?Steven Gerrard14%Joey Barton17%Andy Carroll4%Gary Neville25%Rio Ferdinand4%El Hadji Diouf30%Other6%Does your club offer value for money? Yes67%No33%Do you feel that your club treat you as A) a supporter, or B) a customer?A) a supporter66%B) a customer34%What disappoints you more: players who cheat on the pitch or cheat on their partners? Players who cheat on the pitch75%Players who cheat on their partners25%Sex or football: if you could only have one, which would you choose?Sex46%Football54%
When I sat down to watch England play the Platinum All-Stars on the internet there was no commentary, instead all I got was a torturous, mono-toned drone. I checked the speakers on my laptop and fiddled with the wires, but still it continued. I then realised that the noise was coming from the game, and after only 5 minutes it was bugging me. ‘I hope it doesn’t last for the whole game’, I thought. Unfortunately it lasted for the whole month.
The Vuvuzela, what more can I say? We all have our opinions on them, some love them most loathe them. Me? Well, I loathe them, so I was thrilled when the first few Premier League dominoes started to topple in banning them. In the World Cup we tolerated them as they were all part of the South African footballing culture. But now we’re coming back round to the start of our domestic season it is time to leave them in the sub continent.
Tottenham, Arsenal, West Ham, Sunderland and Birmingham have all made official announcements which prohibit the instruments from entering their stadia this coming season. All of which cited health and safety and decibel levels as reasons for their actions. However I can’t help but feel that at some level these are just official excuses for saying: ‘We just find them irritating’. I don’t believe that anyone in England would relish sitting through a game with a man blowing on his Vuvuzela next to them for 90 minutes.
At some point we’ve all been sat in the stands near the large man banging away on his big bass drum *BANG BANG, BANG BANG BANG, BANG BANG BANG BANG, TOTTENHAM*. That can get a bit annoying sometimes, but at least it encourages some crowd interaction. What would happen to terrace chanting amidst the whining of trumpets? The strong hearted encouragement for the home team, the gentle mockery of the opponent; these are the thing we stand to lose if the Vuvuzelas are welcomed in the Premier League.
Blackpool are rumoured to be considering allowing them into Bloomfield Road in order to create an intimidating home field advantage. In fairness to them, they may be on to something. Blackpool will have the smallest stadium next season, so if they think they can increase the noise inside the ground with the Vuvuzelas then good luck to them. But the question that arises is will people actually do it? I expect one man with a Vuvuzela could quickly be discouraged from using it if the 100 people around him aren’t keen. Birmingham have said that they have banned it after a survey of fans were heavily in favour of keeping them away from St Andrews – power to the people!
When I was 13 I brought a flag at the Tottenham club shop. It was, what can only be described as a standard flag – a piece of cloth with the club badge on it attached to a piece of cheap wood. But when I got to the turnstiles it was taken from me because it was deemed a health and safety hazard. ‘Health and Safety gone mad’ I remember thinking. But, for once, it seems health safety has been thinking clearly. So long Vuvuzelas, it’s been…well…annoying.
Written By Karl Sears
Click on image to see a gallery of the BEST BABES at the World Cup this summer
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Anyone thinking back to Manchester City ’s pre-season will remember one thing above all others – the attempted back heeled goal by Mario Balotelli against LA Galaxy, and the subsequent reactions by both Mancini who was furious and promptly substituted the player for ‘not taking football seriously enough’ and the player himself reacting as though he could teach a toddler a thing or two about throwing their toys out of the pram.
Fast forward a couple of months, and after a couple of unfortunate incidents with other member s of the City front line, mostly occurring against Bayern Munich in the champions league, Balotelli is now City’s main man, scoring 4 goals in 4 games, the last of which was a brilliant overhead kick against Aston Villa on the weekend.
The future of Carlos Tevez at Manchester City is over, with the player now quite rightly in exile, having evidently decided the bench was closer to his family in Argentina than the field of play, hence refusing to come on as a substitute losing not only the respect of his manager and fans but also more importantly their trust.
Edin Dzeko also challenged Mancini during the same game, and whilst that incident is now forgotten, the subsequent loss of his place in the starting line up as a result and the form of Balotelli may be something he lives to regret. One player Balotelli is not in front of in the pecking order is Sergio Aguero , yet with the player missing through injury this weekend, Balotelli took his chance and again left a lasting impression on the game, being the inspiration for City’s 4 – 1 victory.
The form and attitude displayer by the 21 year old has not gone unnoticed by his team mates either, with De Jong commenting that even in training the player is ‘behaving quite normally for him’ – yet compared to his previous behaviour of trips to a women’s prison and Mafia links, just how normally this is leaves a lingering question! However, the fact remains, in the last few weeks, Balotelli has left his performances on the pitch to do the talking, and they have spoken in volumes about what ability the boy has when he puts his mind to it and controls his behaviour.
Despite his former manager Jose Mourinho wrongly calling the player ‘unmanageable’, the faith that Roberto Mancini has shown the player is paying off, and for a player whose talent has never been in question, the levels that Balotelli could potentially reach within the game are limitless.
City’s real challenge is yet to come, when in December they face a fixture list that even Barcelona would struggle with, playing Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Stoke in the premier league, along with a Champions League game against Munich thrown in for good measure. Balotelli will be hoping he has more than a little bit to say in those games, and really put in a claim for being City’s unlikely hero this season.
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Article courtesy of Rebecca Knight from This is Futbol
Inter Milan boss Leonardo is satisfied with how his players have performed since he took over, but would like to see them take more risks.Leonardo took over at Inter in December after the dismissal of Rafael Benitez, and since then the reigning Italian and European champions have looked a different side – charging up the Serie A table to sit in second place, just five points behind AC Milan.Ahead of their clash with Genoa on Sunday, the Brazilian said he would like his side to adopt a more attacking mindset as the title race reaches heads for a thrilling conclusion.”I’m satisfied for the job that has been done, since it has been a difficult and delicate situation for me,” Leonardo said. “I’m satisfied for what we have done and how we have achieved our results, for the intense and involving way in which we have experienced this. Sincerely, I’m very satisfied.””I believe that the continuity we have had up to now will bring us somewhere.””My objective is to win the match and in order to do this you should be able to score at least one goal more than the opposing team.””This means that you should take at least three or four risks since it is impossible to score a goal at the first attempt.” “Of course we try to find the balance, but the most important thing is the willingness to win.”
Werder Bremen midfielder Mesut Ozil, one of the stars of this summer's World Cup following his impressive displays for Germany, has hinted that he would welcome the opportunity to play in England.
The 21-year-old was particularly outstanding in the victories against Australia and England and is expected to play a key role in Saturday's quarter-final clash with Argentina.
However, Ozil has just a year left on his current contract with Werder Bremen and the Bundesliga side may opt to capitalise on his excellent form in the tournament by selling him this summer.
Ozil would not be unhappy about that prospect, saying:"The World Cup is all that matters at the moment but when I get back we can think about my future. For now it's not something I want to give a lot of thought to.
"To the top players the Premier League is attractive. You look at what Manchester United and Chelsea have achieved over the last five years and you see it would be easy to be successful at two clubs like that.
"I see what Michael Ballack achieved at Chelsea and the quality of players he played with and the temptation becomes obvious.
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"Trophies are what matters to me. There are two teams in England always at the top and of course that's attractive. But the same is true for La Liga. They're the strongest leagues in the world."
Ozil has scored 13 goals in 95 appearances for Werder since making his debut for the club in February 2008.Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
After what has seemed a long, long summer of sport (were the Euros really only a few months ago?) our favourite time of year is nearly upon us. In just a few days’ time, Blackpool kick off their season away at Millwall with an unusually high level of expectation on the terraces.
After last year’s play-off disappointment, there were fears our squad could suffer a long hangover, or be torn apart – Or both. But neither has happened and there is a definite optimism coming from Bloomfield Road. Whether this optimism is reasonable only time will tell, but there are a few genuine reasons to expect Blackpool to be challenging at the very top of the table. We have two of the hottest properties in the division in Matty Phillips and Tom Ince and if we manage to keep hold of them, which it looks as if we could, then no defence will look forward to facing us. We have a style of play that has served us and other teams very well in this league, and a manager whose passion has seen us perform well above our capabilities. And keeping hold of Holloway is far and away the best news we could have hoped for over the summer.
In some ways, it has been a summer like no other. We have created a development squad with it’s own manager, with his own credentials, who we had actually heard of. We have opened a classy hotel within the stadium with gym facilities for the players. And we have been linked with young players from PSG, Lille and Athletico Madrid rather than Mansfield or Barnet. Yet in other ways, it has been a case of same old same old, with fans moaning about the chairman’s lack of investment, missing out on targets and late arrivals.
But it has really been a first for us this summer, with no real overhaul in the squad. We have kept hold of our best players thus far and the only departures have been fringe players with Keith Southern being the only player to leave who may have featured. So, looking at how we did last year, it feels sensible to say that with a few tweaks here and there, we could progress a bit further and aim for an automatic spot.
We are one quality striker away from getting really excited about this season. But then, how many teams are saying the same thing? It appears to be the only position in which we are lacking and with us creating so many chances, we could really do with someone who is going to start most games and put them away regularly. Hopefully this will be addressed in the next few days, or at least before the window closes.
It seems silly to say we have a tough start – away to Millwall and Leicester and home to Leeds and Ipswich – when in fact, this might well be the toughest year in the Championship. Of the 3 teams relegated from the Premier League, I can’t see any of them performing well enough to run away with the league, and without a team at the top taking points away from everyone else, it will make the league even tighter. Then at the other end, the three teams who have joined the league are big clubs. Charlton, Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield will all be expecting a top half finish.
If we are to succeed this year, we need to use our squad as best we can. Thankfully, we have built a squad with real quality in depth, which will hopefully stand us in good stead come May.
What will be nice this year is having a few local games. After last season’s nearest neighbours being Barnsley some 90 odd miles away, we now have Blackburn, Bolton and even Huddersfield who are closer. Getting shot of West Ham, Southampton, Reading and Portsmouth was also a bonus. So overall, there should be a few more happy travellers from the seaside, and hopefully the players will perform better on the road this year after disappointing last season.
So, we have a great squad with some star players, and a great manager with some star quality, and another year in arguably the toughest league in the world. Unfortunately, this could well be our last chance with this squad and this manager. I can’t see us keeping Holloway out of the Premier League for another year, but this could well work in our favour and inspire the players to get into one of those 2 automatic spots.
All in all, as usual, it’s damn near impossible to predict how things will go this year, but I’ll throw a guess out there.
Top 2: Blackpool, Leicester.
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It is no secret that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has had his sights set on Champions’ League glory ever since he purchased the club in 2003. The club have come painfully close once, when a fateful slip by John Terry and a miss by Nicolas Anelka in the penalty shoot-out cost them the 2008 crown at the hands of Manchester United. Under Abramovich, Chelsea have spent in excess of £500m on new players, including the likes of Fernando Torres, Juan Mata, Didier Drogba, Andrey Shevchenko, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Michael Essien and Ricardo Carvalho – a select group of signings who have cost the club over £20m each. And still, the greatest prize in club football eludes them.
But the transfer policy and pursuit of success at all costs is having other side-effects at Stamford Bridge. Firstly, Abramovich is going through managers at a fairly prodigious pace. Claudio Ranieri was never the kind of character to survive once the Russian arrived (although the Tinkerman has had a successful time in Italy since he was relieved of his position in London). Following in the trails of Jose Mourinho have been some of the biggest names in football management – Avram Grant, Luis Felipe Scolari, Guus Hiddink, Carlo Ancelotti. All have failed Abramovich on the biggest stage. Andre Villas-Boas is next in line.
Aside from managers, though, there is another footballing demographic suffering from the all-or-nothing approach at Chelsea – the club’s youngsters, who would be forgiven for thinking they have no chance whatsoever of surviving at a club where star players arrive and depart with such bewildering regularity.
The former head of scouting, former Denmark international Frank Arnesen, was brought in from Tottenham in 2005 with a brief to find the best young players in football and build an academy team from them. It can only be assumed that Abramovich felt that the ultimate path to success lay in becoming an ‘English Barcelona’ – a club capable of feeding its senior team with a constantly-renewing flow of youth prodigies. Many more in football would agree with this policy than the Russian’s subsequent financial tour de force, one suspects.
But Arnesen’s efforts seem to be in vain. There are a smattering of his success stories in the Chelsea team of the present – including Salomon Kalou, Florent Malouda and John Obi Mikel – but many of the younger players he unearthed are buried in the reserve teams or out on loan. There’s Gael Kakuta, out on loan at Bolton; Jeffrey Bruma, the gifted young centre-back on loan at Hamburg SV; Patrick van Aanholt, still no closer to breaking into the first team and spending this year at Wigan. The likes of Ben Sahar, Miroslav Stoch and Scott Sinclair have grown tired and moved on to pastures new, where they are flourishing. Defenders Michael Mancienne and Slobodan Rajkovic are also at Hamburg, but on permanent deals. It is no coincidence that Hamburg hired a new sporting director a year ago – one Frank Arnesen.
The current crop of youngsters at Chelsea is spearheaded by Lukaku, Daniel Sturridge and the perennial ‘prospect’ Josh McEachran. But this summer, Chelsea brought in Mata and Raul Meireles; Torres arrived in January. No Chelsea manager can afford the time to blood youngsters and wait for them to flourish as the more secure Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and David Moyes have done so successfully. For a Chelsea manager, looking two or three years down the line is a futile exercise, for without immediate success, they won’t survive to reap the rewards of what they sow.
Petr Cech admits in this interview that Chelsea are “obsessed… but in a good way” with the Champions’ League. He was half-right. They are obsessed. But that obsession may be holding them back.
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Napoli manager Walter Mazzarri believes his side may have to sacrifice some of their attacking style to make the Europa League’s last 16.
Spurred on by the performances of strikers Edinson Cavani and Ezequiel Lavezzi and attacking midfielder Marek Hamsik, Napoli have risen to second on the Serie A table and within three points of league leaders AC Milan.
But Mazzarri believes different opposition – such as Europa League round of 32 opponent Villarreal – may require a different approach.
Napoli host the La Liga club in the first leg on Thursday before travelling to Spain on February 24.
“The more we go on in the competition the more we have to deal with new kind of pressures for us,” Mazzarri said.
“Obviously this will be a match over two legs so we need to be mature and understand that if, for example, we don’t manage playing our way at certain times in the game we need to be rational and limit the damage.”
“We shouldn’t risk something in order to play our way at any cost, only attacking. We need to do both, in the right way and being able to interpret the game itself.”
“They’re a typical Spanish team, they like ball possession and playing in a way that is somehow similar to my idea of football.”
With defender Paolo Cannavaro to miss through suspension, Edmilson Cribari will get another chance to push his claims in the first team.
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Giuseppe Mascara and Jose Sosa will vie for one spot in the starting XI, but Mazzarri left no doubt as to who would lead the line against the Spanish side.
“Lavezzi should be himself and have no worries at all,” he said.
“Tomorrow he will be playing as usual and must do what he did in Rome. The judgement on Lavezzi is really wrong so I hope justice will be served on Friday, according to the current rules. Cavani is a player who touches three balls and scores twice so – even only from a psychological point of view for the rest of the team – he needs to play. He is our most important scorer.”