Man U win fails to ease pressure
IT’S an intensive morning at Brighton and Hove Albion’s training ground in Lancing, on the south coast of England, and Socceroos goalkeeper Mat Ryan is under bombardment from Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard and Romelu Lukaku.
Not from the Manchester United stars themselves, exactly, but Brighton goalkeeping coach Ben Roberts has set up players and machinery to mimic the style of attacks that Ryan will face the coming weekend against United, so that reacting to a Pogba long shot or a Lukaku header becomes second nature.
The following week the setup will change again to mimic Brighton’s next opponents, and in that process you can start to understand why Ryan has overcome widespread doubts about his stature to become so highly rated in the EPL over the past 18 months.
Last night the 26-year-old was due to face Crystal Palace in a relegation dogfight – but Ryan’s stature is such that even if Brighton was to go down, there’s no doubt EPL suitors would seek to keep him at the elite level.
Since his debut for the Mariners eight and a half years ago, Ryan has risen to every challenge.
That desire to improve has been there forever, according to John Crawley, now Sydney FC’s goalkeeping coach who AFTER the miracle of Paris, Manchester United has no time for a hangover when it travels to Arsenal early tomorrow morning (NT time) if its chances of even qualifying for next season’s Champions League are not to suffer significant damage.
Should United repeat its 3-1 success at the Emirates in the FA Cup six weeks ago, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will rack up a perfect 10 away wins since taking caretaker charge to make a seemingly irrefutable case to be handed the job on a permanent basis.
The highlight was beating free-spending Paris SaintGermain 3-1 in dramatic circumstances on Thursday morning to progress to the quarter-finals of the Champions League on away goals and erase the consequences of Solskjaer’s only defeat in 17 games in charge.
United has made up an 11point gap to the Premier League top four under the Norwegian, but its Champions League status for next season is still far from assured.
The Red Devils lead Arsenal by just a solitary point and a two-point advantage over sixth-placed Chelsea could be wiped out by the Blues’ game in hand at home to Brighton. discovered Ryan at Blacktown City aged 13.
“He’s always been very, very coachable,” said Crawley. “He wants to be the best and always has new goals. In some ways I am surprised he’s done so well in the EPL because it is very, very physical.
“A smaller goalkeeper has to be on top of every other part of their game ... and Mat has got every drop out of every last inch of that frame of his.”
Momentum is on United’s side, but it faces a far tougher run-in than the Gunners with title chasing Manchester City and Chelsea still to visit Old Trafford.
By contrast, the visit of Solskjaer’s men is Arsenal’s last against top-six opposition. “I don’t think it is definitive, but we need to show and push (tomorrow morning) to take more possibility to finish in the top four,” said Arsenal boss Unai Emery.
The Spaniard also has reason to be positive. Arsenal has not been beaten at the Emirates in the Premier League since City’s visit on the opening day of the season and has won its past eight home league games.
“We played against a big team and at some moments showed we can fight and battle with them, but we lost and that is the reality,” added Emery on the FA Cup tie between the pair.
“We need fresh players, players with energy, we need quality, we need good combinations, and we need the players who start on the bench after they can help us on the pitch and deliver a big performance as well.”
That suggests Emery could make major changes from the side that lost 3-1 to Rennes in the Europa League.