There’s nothing better than seeing a spectacular volley fly into the top corner for your team. We all dream of replicating this ourselves, but more often than not – like most football moments we try to recreate – it is more likely to happen on the popular FIFA series.
FIFA 13 has vastly improved it’s shooting facility since the last title and volleys and different types of finishing can be practised in the arena mode before a game, or in training mode.
These modes are great for honing your skills and also a lot of fun as you are constantly chasing the highest score to unlock further levels.
With regards to pulling off a spectacular volley, it is all about three things.
Firstly is the accuracy of the cross. It is important to judge the flight of the ball all the way onto your players foot. Floated crosses are usually better for volleys, as it gives you more time to judge the flight of the ball.
This leads on to the second and most important aspect which is timing. The timing is absolutely everything when trying to execute the perfect volley. Watch it all the way and when the moment is right, prepare to strike.
Finally, as you strike the ball, hold down the L2 button simultaneously with the circle button, to ensure the player attempts a volley, rather than a header.
The L2 button ensures the player will volley the ball no matter what position, so if it has been timed to perfection there is every chance he may execute an overhead kick, or spectacular strike of some kind.
Practice is everything, so be sure to try out the shooting drills in the arena beforehand.
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Judge the flight of the ball, ensure perfect timing, and hold L2. And be sure to save the replays of your spectacular goals.
Take a look at the video below to see some of the finest volleys, long shots and overheads scored in FIFA 13!
As reported by The Sun, Rangers are lining up a January move for Bournemouth midfielder Emerson Hyndman.
What’s the story?
The Light Blues have already produced a fairly exciting transfer window for supporters, signing the likes of Jamie Murphy, Jason Cummings and Russell Martin in their bid to build a team that can compete with Celtic in the Scottish Premiership.
It seems though that their business is far from done.
The Sun report that they are ready to make a move for American Emerson Hyndman, a year after the midfielder enjoyed a successful loan spell at Ibrox.
The paper say a similar deal is in the offing, with Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe set to sanction another loan deal to allow the player to find regular first team football.
Can he make an impact?
Rated at £900,000 by Transfermarkt, Hyndman has again failed to win his way into Bournemouth’s first team this season, finding his action limited to just three appearances in the two English cup competitions.
Last season he was in a similar situation come January and moved to Rangers to provide an instant attacking spark to their central midfield area. He provided four goals and four assists in 17 appearances for the Light Blues, proving to be very capable indeed at Scottish Premiership level.
While the incoming Pedro Caixinha may have chosen to largely overlook him, he can again make a similar impact this season, with Rangers midfield rather defence minded and lacking real creativity.
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Rangers have utilised loan deals well this month and Hyndman can be the latest to give Graeme Murty’s squad a boost.
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers will bring back his big guns when Manchester United arrive at Anfield on Sunday.
Rodgers left the likes of Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez, Joe Allen, Martin Skrtel and Daniel Agger behind for Thursday’s trip to Switzerland to take on Young Boys in the Europa League.
He was left impressed by the way his young team performed coming away with a 5-3 victory, and Jonjo Shelvey is in contention to start after the 20-year-old emerged from the bench to score the two decisive goals on Thursday.
Manchester United arrive at Anfield on the back of four straight victories in all competitions, and are set to recall Robin Van Persie and Patrice Evra to the starting line up.
Whilst Liverpool are still searching for their first Premier League win of the season, United have not won at Anfield since 2007, losing four or their last five.
The animosity between the two sides that has been a feature in the last year since the Suarez, Evra row will be put aside, with it being Liverpool’s first home game since the Hillsborough enquiry came to light.
Key Battle: Steven Gerrard v Michael Carrick
Steven Gerrard has yet to really find his form so far this season, playing at the tip of a midfield three just behind Luis Suarez. It will be up to Michael Carrick – set to make his 350th Premier League appearence – to halt the threat of the Liverpool captain. You feel Gerrard is due a big game, and there is no bigger occasion than this. It is so often the case that if Gerrard plays well, Liverpool do. You can see him being the key to Brendan Rodgers hopes of recording a first Premier League win as Liverpool manager.
Prediction : Liverpool 2-1 Manchester United – I feel that Liverpool are due a touch of fortune, and with an emotional crowd behind them, may just be spurned on to victory. It is often the case that the Reds perform best when they have been under fire.
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United have looked somewhat shaky at the back this season, and no doubt Luis Suarez will be in the mood to shine. It will be tight, but I fancy home advantage to tilt it in Liverpool’s favour as it has done so often in this fixture during the past five years.
With Arsenal’s season getting off to a rather subdued start, there’s already plenty of talk about the tyrannical, stubborn, apparent-source-of-all-Gunners-problems, Arsene Wenger, being overthrown in what would likely be a rather bloody and debasing coup. One recent opinion poll claimed around 68% want the Frenchman’s head on a chopping block.
So the question persists; who should take the reins from Wenger? Once again going on public opinion, the answer is Borussia Dortmund’s Jurgen Klopp. Not for the first time, his popularity in the English press has coincided with the Gunners facing the Black-Yellows in the Champions League.
But that’s all paper talk. Brainfodder for the masses. In my opinion, there’s only one man to follow Wenger’s almighty footsteps – Everton’s Roberto Martinez.
The similarities between Wenger and Klopp are hard to ignore. Both managers have struggled but succeeded in protecting their clubs from engulfment by the financial powerhouses surrounding them, whilst remaining in the Champions League. Both managers have rebuilt and remodelled after selling key players to divisional and continental rivals. Both managers insist upon a distinctive style of attractive football. Both managers believe in the value of developing young players over taking seismic risks in the transfer market.
Yet, there’s something about Klopp, despite his outgoing, entertaining, madcap demeanour in press conferences, despite his impeccable record up until now at Westfalen, that doesn’t quite fit. He likes attacking football but it comes from a different, more industrious source than Arsenal’s expansive style.
Gunners fans will argue that’s precisely the point; perhaps qualifying for the Champions League every year wouldn’t be viewed as such a catastrophe if it was annually secured through blood, sweat and tears, rather than Arsenal’s elusive, diminutive and frankly, mercurial stars seemingly going off the boil for certain periods of the season, no logic necessary, before hitting form just in time to maintain Wenger’s 18 year-tradition.
Yet, how long would that transition take? To re-educate and re-programme an entire squad towards Klopp’s all-or-nothing mentality? To bring players in that can actually be expected to put in the leg work? To get rid of those who aren’t buying into it?
You could say that about any manager at a new club – even the legendary Brian Clough lasted just 44 days at Leeds United as the players rejected his management style and ideas – but Klopp’s Emirates arrival would undoubtedly lead to teething pains that could take two or three seasons, not to mention significant investment in the transfer market, to resolve. Klopp will have to adapt and learn from English football too.
Martinez, on the other hand, was almost born to manage Arsenal – or more precisely, succeed Arsene Wenger.
He was the mastermind behind the aesthetic football that brought Swansea City from League One to the Premier League, the administrator of Wigan’s cockroach top flight survival and the first FA Cup in their history, the overseer of Everton’s incredible philosophical transformation last season, with a virtually unchanged squad of hardmen evolving into tiki-taka enthusiasts almost overnight.
One could argue he shares too many similarities with Wenger, particularly their idealism; the correlations between the types of goal Everton and Arsenal concede, with pushed up full-backs leaving the centre-halves too exposed on too many occasions, has become glaringly obvious this season.
There’s one crucial difference however, in that Martinez is expedient enough to compromise his philosophy for crucial fixtures. Last season for example, he out-thought Wenger to claim a 3-0 win at Goodison Park, utilising Romelu Lukaku in a wide-right role to wreak havoc on the physically mismatched Nacho Monreal. Against Manchester City in the FA Cup final, he surrendered Wigan’s habitual possession-based football to grind out a 1-0 victory. Some of his other recent scalps include Chelsea and Manchester United – in a nutshell, the calibre of opposition that continue to cause Arsenal problems under Wenger.
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Not that Klopp is incapable of similar triumphs – his Dortmund side reached the 2013 Champions League final, beating Real Madrid 4-1 at the Bernabeu in the process, which is an accomplishment Martinez can only dream of right now. Admittedly, the Westfalen gaffer’s impressive track record in Europe, even amid his side’s recent relegation-threatening malaise, is a major selling point.
But Arsenal don’t need a change in philosophy. They don’t need to be rebuilt into an industrious-yet-elegant Klopp variety of side. They simply need a manager, capable of working with the players already at Arsenal’s disposal, that isn’t as outdated or stubborn as Wenger.
Klopp and Martinez both fall into that category, but whilst German ideals have the potential to fall afoul in north London, the Spaniard has been auditioning for the Emirates hotseat, whether he knows it or not, his entire management career.
According to Sky Sports, Everton are one of a number of Premier League clubs interested in signing Nice midfielder and reported Arsenal target Jean Michael Seri, who is rated at £22.5m according to Transfermarkt, either during the January transfer window or in the summer.
What’s the word, then?
Well, the Gunners have long been linked with a move for the impressive 26-year-old, with The Sun reporting back in November that the Ivory Coast international is still a target for Arsene Wenger.
However, Sky Sports says they have been joined in the race to sign the midfielder by top flight rivals Everton, although the player’s preference is to join a Premier League club competing in the Champions League.
How has Seri done this season?
He hasn’t been quite as impressive as he was last season with performances that saw him come close to joining Barcelona during the summer, but he has still done well.
The 26-year-old has scored one goal and provided a further five assists in 21 appearances in all competitions for the Ligue 1 outfit, compared to seven goals and nine assists in 39 outings in total last term.
To be fair to the Ivorian, he has largely been playing in a deeper role in midfield during the current campaign than he did in the previous one.
According to WhoScored.com, Seri has still made 35 key passes in 16 appearances in the French top flight and the Europa League this season – he made 80 in 38 matches in both competitions last term – while he has an impressive passing accuracy of 91.1% across both competitions.
Would Arsenal still want him?
It’s difficult to say.
If he did join the Gunners he would probably play a similar role to Aaron Ramsey or perhaps even Granit Xhaka, but the north London outfit may feel that they need a player that will sit deep and protect the backline rather than another individual who seems to be a little more effective offensively than he is defensively.
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If he could be brought in for a reasonable fee then he could still be an option, but Arsenal are surely likely to look elsewhere if Wenger does decide that he needs to find an alternative to the likes of Mohamed Elneny and Francis Coquelin in the middle of the park.
Arsene Wenger has always prided himself on placing a lot of faith in youth. Cesc Fabregas, Alex Song and Jack Wilshere are just a small example of the huge success that Wenger has had in finding and blooding young raw talent into his Arsenal squad over the years
As with all successes, there are always failures, and players who promised so much but failed to deliver. While Arsenal have had plenty of young talent come through the ranks, the Gunners have also had their fair share of youngsters who failed to make the grade at The Emirates Stadium or Highbury and never got to wear the Arsenal shirt for an extended period. Here are some of Arsenal wonderkids tipped to make the grade who fell by the wayside…
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Click on Bentley below to see the Top 10
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Arsene Wenger endured another tough match in the dugout after watching Arsenal succumb to defeat against Olympiakos last night.
The Frenchman was left frustrated with officials after the Greek side were controversially awarded a corner, from which Giannis Maniatis scored the equaliser. Kostas Mitroglou went on to secure the victory in a match the Gunners had led with Tomas Rosicky’s first-half strike.
The result extends Arsenal’s run of winless games to four, and the under-fire Wenger cursed his team’s misfortune, as he told ITV1, “For their first goal, it was a goal-kick, simple as that.”
“What is the fifth referee doing behind the line? Nobody knows. I don’t think it was the right decision, but we have to cope with it. After that they scored a good goal.”
The Gunners had already booked their place in the tournament’s knockout stages, but the defeat meant they finished the group as runners-up behind Schalke and will be pitted against a group-winner in the next round.
Nevertheless, Wenger was happy with the performance of his team in his 150th Champions League game in charge. “Some of the younger players did very well for an hour and that is very positive. Also Tomas Rosicky has not played for six months and he had a good 45 minutes and that is the positive of the night.”
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Arsenal return to Premier League action on Saturday, when they host West Brom at the Emirates, hoping to bounce back from last weekend’s 2-0 loss to Swansea.
Goran Popov and Steven Reid are back from injury and both vying to start in West Brom’s away trip to face Norwich City on Sunday.
Full-back Popov has been struggling with a calf problem of late, while midfielder Reid has also been battling to shake off an injury. The pair were fit enough to sit on the bench in Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat at Manchester City and will now be looking for a place in boss Steve Clarke’s starting XI for the game at Carrow Road this weekend.
Clarke will give skipper Chris Brunt as long as possible to prove his fitness as the influential midfielder has virtually overcome a knee injury which he picked up during last month’s 1-1 draw against Newcastle at the Hawthorns and has sidelined him for three games.
Gabriel Tamas will be available despite requiring stitches to a head wound caused by Aleksandar Kolarov’s high foot in a first-half challenge at City on Tuesday.
Clarke told the club’s website: “He’s got a bad cut, with stitches in it, and he lives to fight another day.
“I haven’t heard any complaints and I haven’t seen that incident again.
“You can’t make too much of it – these things happen in a game.”
James Morrison should again feature after showing no ill-effects of his recent groin injury when he got through the full 90 minutes at the Etihad Stadium following on from his 12-minute cameo appearance coming off the bench against Wigan last Saturday.
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Marc-Antoine Fortune is again unavailable as he serves the final game of his three-match ban for his red card in the 3-0 win at Southampton.
Manchester United striker Robin van Persie has come to the defence of under-fire boss David Moyes, but also criticised some team-mates for “sometimes occupying the spaces I want to play in”, according to the Guardian.
Van Persie told the Dutch TV channel NOS: “Our fellow players are sometimes occupying the spaces I want to play in. And when I see that it makes it difficult for me to come to those spaces as well. So that forces me to adjust my runs, based on the position of my fellow players. And unfortunately, they’re often playing in my zones. I think that’s a shame.”
However the Dutchman – who missed a good opportunity for an away goal towards the end of the game – did come to the defence of his manager.
“He’s working hard at it, and so are we. Sometimes we play well, but not all the time. We don’t have luck on our side. It’s easy to point the finger at someone, but I’m not like that. We have to do better ourselves,” he added.
And of his missed chance, the former Arsenal star said: “I rushed that shot. That’s a shame because I don’t get a lot of chances so when you get one, you have to score.”
United crashed to a 2-0 defeat against the unfancied Greek champions, to condemn Moyes to a first defeat in Europe as United boss.
“That’s the worst we have played in Europe, that’s for sure,” admitted RvP.
“It was a really poor performance. We never really got going from the start and we didn’t deserve anything because of the way we played. We never really got to grips with things and to a man you could hardly pick anybody out. We just didn’t perform.”
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So, here we go again. I wrote about him last year repeatedly, I wrote about him elsewhere last week, with another “bust-up” story tediously finding its way into the newspapers, and like night following day or Paul Scholes fouling an opposition player, here we are again with the weekly bust-up story. This time, Mario Balotelli “stormed off the pitch” after being substituted early in the 2nd half against Sunderland.
Stormed off? Not my words, but those of your average dullard tabloid hack, this time Joe Bernstein at the Daily Mail leading the way. He did nothing of the sort of course, in fact he was barely moving at all as he trudged off, but apparently that counts as storming off to some nowadays.
There was no real story with Balotelli on Saturday. He did ok in the first half, but as always seemed to lack the desire or work rate, but it was by no means his worst performance. He then walked straight down the tunnel, giving the press an easy story, then left the country to go on international duty, giving the press another easy story. Carte blanche therefore for the press to publish out the same article wheeled out 30 times before, of the owners losing patience with him, leading to an inevitable month of transfer speculation in January (and before) linking him either to a mega-money move to PSG, or back to Italy, probably Milan. We’ve been here before. Last week, Mancini was reported to have pushed him in the tunnel. The week before he was known to be exasperated at his smoking habit. Before that, a long lens captured a “bust up” as Mancini spoke to him on the training ground! OMG!
Groundhog day.
An enigma wrapped inside a puzzle, wrapped inside another enigma, coated with a puzzle. Or summat. No one seems to know what goes on inside Balotelli’s head, though Roberto Mancini will know better than most. The case for the defence is as long as the case for the prosecution. He has been subject to ridiculous provocation on the pitch, and ridiculous slurs off it. Fabricated stories about him appear almost daily. A red card at Liverpool stands out as one of the most ridiculous dismissals of his City career, a referee once more conned by an opposition player understandably targeting Balotelli, to wind him up, and doing so successfully. A red card at West Brom the previous season was the most ridiculous of all. The second yellow card at Arsenal last season was equally lame, though as it turned out he deserved red for his actions elsewhere. He gets kicked from pillar to post at times, and most of the time he doesn’t react, he keeps his calm. But where’s the story in that? Where’s the story in Stoke’s Andy Wilkinson getting a three-match ban the other week for elbowing Balotelli in the head? It’s certainly not half the story that would have dominated the airwaves if it had been the other way round, but that’s the price that the big names have to pay. When Balotelli was banned for his supposed “stamp” on Scott Parker, the Telegraph ran a story (anonymously of course) asking if Balotelli could be subject to police charges.
And he clearly doesn’t help himself. His whole demeanour will of course lead to opposition players trying to rile him. His reputation will sub-consciously linger in referees’ minds when evaluating incidents, however much they may deny it. When Graham Poll is appearing on Talksport decrying his hairstyle, it gives you a good insight into how match officials enter the field with agendas and preconceived ideas. Maybe Balotelli deserves it then. Hey, he doesn’t smile enough for my liking, so throw the book at him.
He has a reputation, and it will never leave him now. He’s not the only one of course, but he goes to ground too easily, and plays the victim too often. Some days he seems not to be bothered, sometimes he reacts to provocation. He is no longer a kid, and the excuse that he is young is now wearing thin. And though the stories about him are usually exaggerated, sensationalist drivel, he makes these stories easy to write.
After all, after his substitution against Sunderland, would it have been too much to go and sit on the bench as most players do, and watch the rest of the game, and support the team? He wasn’t the only player to walk down the tunnel after being substituted that day (Silva and Adam Johnson did it, but later on in the match), but the press will inevitably pick up on him, and make a story out of it. Why did he need to give them that story?
The problem is, it’s getting to the point that it’s just not worth the hassle for City. Balotelli is a distraction that no team needs. Innocent or guilty, his life is one long soap opera, and he will never be left alone. Managers may use distractions to divert attention away from poor performances, but a constant distraction is more of a hindrance than a help. Mancini must be bored of being asked about his Italian striker and you wonder if team mates are sick of the circus too, and the possibility that he gets preferential treatment from his manager.
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I would wager that most City fans have shown patience with Mario, which is what he deserved. He came to City a young man in a foreign country, into a pressure-cooker environment, and an alien culture. But personally I can never excuse less than 100% effort from any player representing my team. The folly of youth does not excuse that. His performances towards the end of City’s FA Cup winning season suggested a new maturity that didn’t really materialise last season. A strong showing in the European Finals in the summer suggested this maturity once more, but he again appears to have taken a step backwards. If he was an average player putting in average performances, we could understand. But it’s the knowledge of just how good he can be that frustrates the most.
Mario Balotelli clearly has an active mind, he gets distracted, bored easily, he seeks out new things, new challenges. He is not responsible for the image of him constructed by others, of false tales passed round social media sites, of hatchet jobs constructed by members of the press. He is answerable to the club itself, and to the manager and us fans, and it is on the pitch we should judge him. But it is here that he has to deliver consistently to justify his inclusion in teams, his transfer fee, and his large wages. This is a crucial season for him on the pitch, and it is here he will be ultimately judged. If he cannot be seen to be improving season on season, and maturing with it, if he cannot put in the effort week in week out, then there will come a point where enough will be enough. And that point is getting closer for more and more City fans.