IT CAN BE HAPPY EVAN AFTER IRELAND U21..
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few days in charge at United, Rangnick spent hours in his hotel suite watching videos of his new players in action and getting up to speed.
One player in particular caught his eye, with Elanga impressing him so much in the clips he viewed that he instructed the club to halt any moves to loan him out.
Training
“From the very first day of my first training session, he showed up,” said Rangnick.
“l’d heard his name before and I was in my hotel room watching videos of him on YouTube and I thought ‘this boy is really good’.
“He was almost on his way out on loan. I told him ‘You will not go, you will stay here’ and he’s developed in training.”
Elanga responded with three goals and two assists and, while he has yet to open his account this season, he has impressed Ten Hag, with the feeling mutual.
“During pre-season, we worked really hard and bought into how the manager wants us to play,” said Elanga.“If I have to say one thing that’s changed, it’s attitude. Our attitude has improved a lot. We’re more focused and know what to do. We play as a team.
“It’s been really good, new tactics, a new system and I’m really excited about working with him this season, getting better and improving all areas of my game.
“It’s important to have good competition in the team. “Antony plays on the right and I play on the left. It’s good. We’re all young and we have a lot of games this year.”
IRELAND will head to Tel Aviv next Tuesday confident that they can secure their place in next year’s Under-21 European Championships, despite being held to a draw in Tallaght last night by Israel.
Jim Crawford’s side produced a fine display in this playoff and carved out the better chances, only to be dealt a sucker punch shortly before half-time.
However, they bounced back in fine style and levelled through 17-year-old Brighton striker Evan Ferguson, before pushing for a winner against a visiting side that played the final 10 minutes with 10 men.
Israel will be without defender Stav Lemkin for next week’s second leg after he was red-carded for a shove inches outside the area on Aaron Connolly.
Connolly was impressive on his eagerly anticipated return to Under-21 duty and was desperately unlucky not to score.
After soaking up some early pressure, Ireland gained a foothold in the game and their early forward momentum was driven largely by the industrious Joe Hodge in midfield.
His first contribution came after just two minutes when he produced a thundering, but fair, sliding tackle near the left-hand touchline.
It was reminiscent of a young Roy
Keane, as was his
Once the hosts took control of the ball, it didn’t take on-loan Venezia man Connolly long to link up with his attacking teammates.
Trademark
His trademark runs off the shoulder caused all sorts of problems for the visitors.
One of those almost led to a 15th-minute opener. Coventry won possession 10 yards outside the area and slipped the ball through to Connolly, who was already on the move.
His left-foot shot was touched onto the inside of the near post by goalkeeper Daniel Peretz; a real let-off for the visiting side.
They breathed a sigh of relief again moments later when Tyreik Wright, Will Smallbone and Connolly combined to tee up Ferguson, whose shot was blocked.
Israel’s Mohammad Kanaan was quick to fire a reminder of his side’s threat when his 25-yard strike fizzed narrowly over Brian Maher’s crossbar.
Yet the best of the chances continued to drop at the other end, where on 19 minutes Lee O’Connor drilled a low ball in from the right to Connolly, who took a touch, turned and shot inches wide of the left-hand post.
Hodge, Coventry and Connolly weren’t the only star performers.
Mohammad Kanaan was Israel’s danger man and at times he brought the best out of St Patrick’s Athletic defender Joe Redmond.
But Derby defender Eiran Cashin really caught the eye with a couple of blocks inside a minute to keep shots from Ido Shahar and Osher Davida from troubling Maher.
At the other end of the pitch, Ferguson grew into the game and it