Man City survive UCL scare | Could Duran AND Watkins leave Aston Villa? | Amorim: Rashford issue isn't personal
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Welcome to Back Pages, bringing you everything you need to know about the biggest sports stories making headlines in the morning's newspapers. I'm Teddy Draper and joining me are the Athletics Manchester United correspondent Carl Anker and the Times football writer Martin Hardy. Welcome to you both. OK, let's start with the back page of The Guardian, the front page of the Sports Supplement. Even let's come to you, Carl, with this headline. City survive scare. Savinio caps fight back to secure playoff spot.

They've stumbled over the line somewhat. It's hard not to get through in this Champions League group format, isn't it? Yes, the format is a curious salve to some of the problems that some people in Europe thought they could solve with the Super League. I do remember not long after the proposed Super League collapse, Ikai Gundogan tweeted his frustration at the Swiss format's Champions League and thought and said, what's the effect of, can we do something about this next? But...

More games means more opportunity to fix things if you have a stumble in the middle. And this is what we've seen from Manchester City. It was nervy for a little bit when Khabib went ahead, but their talent...

told eventually and they ran a fairly comfortable 3-1 winners. Martin, what was your assessment of it? Back page of your paper then, we can have another look at that. They don't make it easy, Bayern Munich or Real Madrid up next for City after scraping into playoffs while Villa win thriller to join Liverpool and Arsenal in round of 16. It wasn't exactly storming through, was it Martin? What did you make of it? They had to let Bruges go in front first.

No, it's kind of if there was the ideal scenario to justify this monumental change to the Champions League, well, at 18 minutes past nine tonight of Game 8, Manchester City, the first team in history to win the English title four times on the trot, and the Champions League winners from two years ago were going out. That was unequivocal and that was exciting from a footballing perspective. Nothing against Manchester City, but as a journalist, you're like, "Good grief, Manchester City could be about to be knocked out here."

Club Bruges hadn't lost in 20 games and were playing really, really well. And then the jet that he slightly goes with the own goal to make it 2-1. It's then that we check the league table and realise that it's going to take a minor miracle for Bruges not to go through. So Bruges actually don't need to go for the victory themselves because of the way that the table formats play.

Stuttgart were getting beat at that stage 4-0 off PSG. I think Dinamo Zagreb were beating AC Milan. They had to win about 6-1 and we won in 2-1. So that flattens it slightly. And then Bruges, you watch, this is the thing that's frustrating from this. We're trying to get atmospheres in the grounds and trying to get kids off their mobile phones. And all we are doing at this point is watching the club Bruges bench, looking at the laptops to try and figure out what they have to do to stay in the competition. And

In the crowd, the poor Bruges fans are doing exactly the same. And I know the Wi-Fi inside football grounds is not always the best. So you wonder how quickly the feeds are coming through.

At that point, the Bruges fans, you hear them start singing because they think, yes, we are pretty much through. Manchester City are pretty much through. And the Bruges manager, and they had a brilliant first hour of that game, really, really impressive. He then takes off the front three and the two wide players that are causing Manchester City chaos. And at that point, obviously, we see Guardiola, who's been booked for a Bruges break. That actually was, wasn't offside when the linesman has flagged. He's been booked in.

when they scored the second goal as if to highlight the tension that was real in this state of the competition he's booted the water container as hard as he could um because he's frustrated with the whole night so

We are seeing a different element to Game 8, and then we kind of flip, because in the 90 minutes and 15 seconds in the game, Guardiola starts shaking hands with the opposition manager and the game's still going, and this is the worst-case scenario of World Cup games where both teams know what they have to do to go through. However, it does happen. At that stage, you're kind of looking to see Atlanta and Aston Villa are now where the jeopardy is, and Aston Villa score a fourth through the outstanding Morgan Rodgers.

Their game finishes, and I think this has a slightly more real feel, where their players go to their bench, and they, this time, are hugging around telephones to find the score between Barcelona and Atlanta. So, a mixed bag, all of this, and 24 teams are still left in the competition.

But I think the success, if there is a success of this format, it's that Man City very nearly went out. That is really interesting. And the next format is that there are a lot of big teams in that playoffs. And we're going to see some big clubs, particularly Real Madrid and Manchester City, exit in the competition before it even gets down to the last 16. So, yes, the...

it's here to stay. You watched tonight and you thought so many people are watching. It's just an extremely confusing format when people are inside the ground, when people who are coaching a football team in the game don't know actually what's going on. Yeah,

Yeah, everyone was actually looking at mobile phones, weren't there, as well. Let's talk about Manchester City and the state of their health, Carl, from what we've seen here. Back from the Brinkers headline in the mail, City come from behind to keep Champions League hopes alive. But next up, it's Bayern or Real Madrid. There's been a sort of narrative going around that maybe they could have a sensational spring and lead themselves to glory in a lot of trophies. Are you convinced? What do you make of the chances of that happening, particularly with these two up next?

Oh, you're asking a Manchester United reporter about Manchester City's chances of turning things around. Let's see. I mean, normally for the last four or five seasons, we've seen when Manchester City reaching up a gear and go 10, 15, sometimes more than that, games in a row with multiple victories. That seems less likely happening right now because this is a team that is older than older. It's been injury depleted and there are a number of

glaring weaknesses both in the nature of the front press the midfield and at right back this isn't a team that necessarily needs the crunching tackles of a player like Lee Catamol but they could definitely do with a little bit more stodgy in central midfield going forward so there's that to consider however for the time being Pep Guardiola is still regarded as one of the best football managers in the world if not the best football manager in the world there is money to spend

They've already brought in two new recruits that we saw in the game against Chelsea, one that had a pretty good debut and one less so. So the idea that they are absolutely doomed facing a Real Madrid team that, yes, has an abundance of attacking talent, but has some structural weaknesses and has a manager in Carlo Ancelotti who can either get it very, very right or can get it very, very wrong.

Or someone like Vincent Kompany, charge of Bayern Munich, same thing. Some structural issues there. They are a good team, but not necessarily an outstanding team. I don't think there's any team out in Europe right now that can call themselves outstanding outside maybe Arnaz Lotz Liverpool. So I'm not going to count them out just yet. There's a lot of ifs, coulds, maybes with this new Champions League permutation. And I really just want to see a ball being kicked inside a stadium first before I give a big conclusion about anything.

Yeah, it's going to be fascinating to see how they get on against Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. That draw on Friday, of course. Aston Villa very much in it. Martin, let's check back in with the mail with Sammy Mockbell's piece here. Villa rebuff Arsenal bid for Watkins. It was a great win and a great game against Celtic tonight, but they say that perhaps this has overshadowed it. And could this threaten to derail Villa's season in the Champions League and beyond? How serious is this, Martin, the Watkins interest from Arsenal?

Well, it's very serious and you've had enough journalists on here saying that Arsenal need to buy a centre forward

they've identified a very good one although it's interesting that's ollie watkins's first champions league goal that he scored tonight in his career we've been reminded of quotes from four or five years ago that arson is his team um aston villa likely castle have these constraints have been an ambitious club but have psr problems and therefore the thought and there's also the the the footballing element which is that morgan rogers is this outstanding player who plays better when he's playing just behind the center forward and

Aston Villa have two pretty good ones in John Duran and Ollie Watkins and therefore do they cash in on one of them and you would have thought John Duran is the favoured one of the two to be sold and there's interest from Saudi Arabia and there's interest from West Ham as well but this is I was aware Aston Villa were annoyed at the timing of the league but transfers come out and there's very little that certainly journalists and newspapers can do about them I can't

I can't imagine for a second Arsenal have deliberately leaked a story like this on the day of the game when they're also playing. It's going to be interesting here to see what Watkins' thoughts are. You know, Aston Villa are an emerging team. Arsenal are probably a little bit further on in their project.

we may think it's slightly too early for the title this season, but they're not a million miles away and they've had a very good Champions League run to this stage. They have another, you know, they win with 10 men, even in controversial circumstances on Saturday at Wolves.

So they are staying on the shoulders of Liverpool as much. Would Watkins be tempted by that? I think he has three years left on his contract at Villa Park and you expect Villa to fight a hold of him and there's not a great deal of time to do the deal, but in football, never say never. How delicate is this situation for Villa, Karl? We're reporting that John Gerrard imminently could have a medical with Al Nasser. They put an offer for him. But also reading around this a little bit, Watkins grew up an Arsenal fan.

How interesting are the next few days going to be for Unai Emery and Villa getting this right? Because they've already sold a centre-half, haven't they? They look a little bit short there at the moment. It could be tricky. Massively. I think this has been described very eloquently. You've got two very talented strikers at Aston Villa, but perhaps have two different play styles. Ollie Watkins is a very good channel runner, whereas Duran is more of a fixed point and is fond of a long-range effort. I think they work quite well in unison, so...

defenders get used to playing against Watkins for an hour and then you make the swap. However, they are PSR things to consider and a large fee and profit for Duran can help Aston Villa, not just Emery, but also Monkey, their sporting director, who we know has had a very good spell of player trading in his first and second spell at Sevilla. Not so much in his time at Roma, but he knows how to pick a player. He does play

or historically have had good form in the January transfer window as well. So I'm sure Aston Villa wouldn't be allowing these players to depart without having an idea of who they want to buy next. This January transfer window confusingly ends in February 3rd. So this one's going to go right down to the wire. I'm going to assume and make a punt that Oli Watkins will probably still be an Aston Villa player. But

by Valentine's Day, if only because it's okay to lose one striker for a club of this size, but I don't think it's wise to lose both.

Absolutely. He joined himself tonight with Morgan Rodgers, didn't he? And that's in the Telegraph. Matt Law at Villa Park. Rodgers' hat trick sees Villa through, Martin. I wonder, you mentioned that Rodgers' role in this, that perhaps he just allows Villa to feel more relaxed about letting 21-year-old Duran go. He's got lots of promise, but maybe Rodgers can push into that sort of role and works better with Watkins than Duran would. Yeah, I would agree with that, I think.

Durrani is more work in progress as well. He had the ban for being sent off at Newcastle

And even Unai Emery, after the game, admitted he's volatile and that they're doing work within him. I think you've got more of the finished article in Ollie Watkins. You may command a greater fee for John Duran because he's younger as well. And, you know, Watkins fits so well alongside Rodgers. As I said, when you've watched games and if it's certainly with Duran on the bench, he looks really unhappy about it. And Watkins doesn't look overly impressed either. So you may need...

a backup that's a little bit more prepared to take the lesser role and yeah I agree with Carly I think Duran is the more likely sale but then we'll wait and see how this plays out but the form of Rodgers and I was there when Arsenal played us in Villa Park at the start of the season and

Partey, Declan Rice and Odegaard couldn't control Rodgers in the second half. Just such a good runner with the ball, so powerful and kind of said at the time, this looks like an England player in the make and he's just progressed since then. You know, has a great coach in Emery and probably should sing Emery's praises again here in terms of his skills for knockout European football, where he just knows what to do.

and how to get results and seems to be a really good teacher for Rodgers at such an important part of his career. Fantastic achievement, isn't it, on the day that Steven Gerrard left to his latest job at Al Etifat, the former Villa manager as well. Villa Fury at Watkins Bid, by the way, in The Times. Charlotte Dunker reporting that interestingly there. Let's go to the back page of the mail, as promised, talk about Marcus Rashford. Karl, come to you. It's obviously a topic you're very familiar with at

At the moment, Chris Wheeler in Bucharest for the Stour game in the Europa League. But reporting on Ruben Amarim saying Rashford has to change. Just wonder though, Carl, within those comments from Ruben Amarim as Estaga continues, he says, our team should be so much better with Rashford, but Rashford has to change. Is a glimmer of hope of a reconciliation opened with those comments, do you think? Possibly. Again, I was here last week and I said Amarim appears to be playing his cards very close to his chest regarding Marcus Rashford.

While he said Marcus has to change, he didn't elaborate. There was no follow-up question on what the thing exactly he needs to change. We don't know if it's perhaps off the ball effort or does he want him coming into training earlier to work on his sprinting or squatting, shall we say. So we are lacking a little bit of clarity on the outside, but it appears there's definitely been conversations internally about their relationship. Again, we are talking in the final days of a transfer window about

I'm sure if Manchester United won,

or another football club comes in and there's some sort of bid for Marcus Rashford and all parties can agree Marcus Rashford made the part. But if Marcus Rashford stays, there is also the conclusion, the opportunity for Marcus to reapply himself and work his way back into the starting lineup. Marcus Rashford at his best is of such an attacking talent that he would make Manchester United a better football team. There's another Manchester United team that scores goals in high abundance and Rashford is the last Manchester United player to score 30 goals in a season, albeit in all competitions. So,

They might find a place where they need each other. We do need to see or hear about Marcus doing something that Amarin desperately needs him to do before he can get into that starting line-up again. Maybe it's an unhappy marriage. Maybe it's warming up slightly, though. Martin, the back page of The Sun there, if Marcus changes, we'll use him, is the line they go with. What's your read on the Rashford-Manchester United situation at the moment, Martin?

Well, I really like Marcus Rashford as a player, but I'm not quite sure where he is in all this. I think there was a video emerged, was it two or three weeks ago, and the subs doing the warm-up at Old Trafford before a game, and it was just a bit of a joke. There was no intensity there. I think you then got an insight into why Amr is so frustrated and trying to stress this is a new regime and you have to do the hard work wherever it is to be accommodated.

I think, was it Amaran's birthday today? And I saw another video of him having to do the run in the training ground with all the players slapping him on the head. And I assume by the fact he didn't get hit too hard, that Marcus Rashford probably wasn't one of them.

I hope there is a future for him and as Karl said, it may have to be a situation whereby nobody comes in and pays his money. Man United look a shadow of the team that the club is supposed to be and they have one grade A forward inside the football club that they have to get back on board. Can you kind of understand it from both perspectives, whether Amarone's been a bit naive in some of his public declarations so far, we remain to be seen but

I think Rashford now has to knuckle down for a period, maybe two or three weeks, to prove that he wants to be part of this new regime. And if he does that, these slight olive branches, but this follows on from the manager saying that his 63-year-old goalkeeping coach would get picked ahead of Marcus at the minute. So it's a bit...

It's a bit of an inconsistent message, which probably won't be helping things from the Rashford side, but for the good of Man United, both parties have to come together at some point. Yeah, and that's a 63-year-old goalkeeping coach who's a lot more sensational than we realise. That's a bit of an insult that reverberates, doesn't it? Let's go to the back page.

of the Times. Carl, stay on Manchester United. United bringing athletics guru Matt Lawton reporting here. Harry Marra. Is this marginal gains? Do you smell Dave Brailsford's influence and do you think maybe it's putting the cherry before the cake at the moment given United's problems? What's your read?

From Ruben Amarin's very first press conference, he mentioned the physicality needed for this Manchester United team. And he said the physicality could be better. He mentioned the fact that Manchester United and players need to be better at running, not just running.

Up and down, but also making sure they track back, knowing when to run, knowing how to run. I think one of the big problems of Manchester United at this point in time, being under Amr and Ori's predecessors, is that this is a squad that just does not have many of the key ingredients that a number of top Premier League clubs have at this point in time. If you watch the defeat against Brighton or defeats against Bournemouth, this Manchester United team are often...

weaker, slower, and less reactive to some of these things. You think about a player like Morgan Rogers, six foot plus, incredibly powerful ball carrier. That's not a type of player United have an abundance of.

So you do need to work on these marginal games, not just on the tactics board about where you need to be running, but also if you can extract an extra two or 3% and get a little bit more explosive pace from your current players, that can be useful. We're also, you've got to bear in mind, Manchester United had quite frankly, abysmal injury crisis throughout much of 2020. So if you have a fitness coach in there trying to teach you how to run a hundred meters without the hamstring sniper, shall we say going ping, that might be useful too.

It certainly would, and Marcus Rashford's a fantastic runner, isn't he? I'm sure he'd love to work with him. We'll see if that happens. Big game for Manchester United as the Europa League reaches its climax on Thursday night. And for Tottenham, Martin, let's go to the eye. Dejan Kulosevki quoted there, Ange is still right man for Tottenham. Van de Ven set to make return for Elfsburg clash tonight. Martin, how big a night ahead for Ange Postakoglu in Tottenham?

It's kind of the catch-22 situation for Ainsposter Coghlan at the minute in that the Cups appear to be keeping him in his position, but the Cups are also providing more games for a squad that's already a breaking point. And I think in that interview, Kulosevski said they have 11 fit players

So you can see how stretched they are at the minute. The return of Mickey van de Ven, as long as he doesn't suffer a hamstring injury, is potentially big news for Postacoglu because it's what the centre of the team is so missing. Kulishevsky is actually one of the players that's flourished this year in the Postacoglu and what is now a really struggling team.

If a player is sitting there, it's very rare that he's going to slag off his current manager. So, of course, he's going to come and back-post to Coghlu as the manager. That's going to turn things around. But Tottenham are on an awful run. They're not a million miles away from being... I think they're too good for it, but they're not a million miles away from being dragged into a relegation fight. They need to concentrate on the Premier League form and the likes of Kulishevski are going to have to try and pull this team further forward because at the minute...

they have no confidence in very little form. And, Carl, briefly before we move on, it's vital they make sure Van de Ven is absolutely right before bringing him back, as Martin said there, isn't it? It's going to be hugely tempting, but we don't want to see that hamstring strained again.

Absolutely. I think I saw Luscious Sky Sports News earlier and they talked about the injuries in this Spurs squad. Of the 12 injuries listed, seven of them were muscular, which suggests to me that a lot of these players are doing a lot of running, a lot of high-impact running. And when you have a player like Mickey van den Boen, whose recovery pace is so important for a team that plays with such a high line, keeping him fresh is...

and wrapped up in cotton wool in between games is going to be really, really, really important between now and the end of the season. I look on Optus supercomputer. I'm still not quite sure what makes it a supercomputer rather than a regular one. I think it's the size of the wiring, but they said Spurs right now have a 2.6 chance of getting relegated in the Premier League. So it's not quite there yet. And I think the return of players like Van der Veen, Romero and others will help them pull away from that bracket at the bottom of the league.

Yep, it's going to be interesting to see how Tottenham get on in that game on Thursday night and Manchester United. So back pages back tonight after that one. Let's quickly talk Arsenal. We should give them some respect, Martin. Back to the Guardian Sport. Girona 1, Arsenal 2. Arteta's men fight back to win in Spain. Second favourites with the bookmakers, Martin. Give us about 20 seconds on what you rate their chances at the moment.

Of winning the Champions League or winning the title, I would say probably they won't win either, but they're right, they do deserve respect. Finishing third, carrying a lot this season without the most influential player in Odegaard and Saka. There is a unity there. Arteta's got them fighting, but they may fall short again. Fantastic. Give us one name for the winner of the Champions League quickly before you go, gents. Martin?

Oh, dear me. Liverpool, babies. Liverpool, get Carl. There's miles to go. There's miles. Inter Milan, why not? Inter Milan. Oh, there we go. Beat them finalists a couple of years ago. Never-ending story, this Champions League. We'll keep going. Thank you for watching, Carl and Martin. Thank you for being here.