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Player Focus: WhoScored's Top Rated Under-21 XI

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Player Focus: WhoScored's Top Rated Under-21 XI It's been a breakthrough season for a number of young stars across Europe's top 5 leagues and WhoScored has compiled a team of the top rated players of the age of 21 and under.To be included in our all star XI players must have started at least 10 league games for their respective sides, and the res...

Player Focus: Biggest Player Impacts on Results

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Player Focus: Biggest Player Impacts on Results A team's results are never down to a single player, no matter how much the 'one man team' phrase is banded around nowadays, but it's fair to say that some players appear to have had a significant influence on those around them this season.In this piece WhoScored takes a look at the 5 players who&rsq...

Player Focus: Ilkay Gündoğan

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Player Focus: Ilkay Gündoğan True, it wasn't Ilkay Gündoğan's best performance. But then neither was it Borussia Dortmund's as a whole. There's one very disappointed team at the moment and one very lucky one, coach Jürgen Klopp said. I didn't expect to see this from my side – it was our worst game in the Champio...

Player Focus: Ivan Rakitic

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Player Focus: Ivan Rakitic During the summer there was great attention and analysis of Luka Modric’s move to Real Madrid from Tottenham Hotspur. However, it’s another Croatian who has dominated in La Liga this season and one who, at €1.5m, cost a mere fraction of his compatriot.In a season of very few consist...

Player Focus: Is Welbeck Really the Man for the Big Occasion?

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Player Focus: Is Welbeck Really the Man for the Big Occasion? Danny Welbeck's performances for club and country lately have drawn a lot of admirers, with the forward's work ethic perhaps the main point of praise from pundits and fans alike.The fact that Sir Alex Ferguson has looked to his academy graduate more and more in the 'big games' this season is certain...

Player Focus: Europe's Most Trigger Happy Defenders

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Player Focus: Europe's Most Trigger Happy Defenders This week WhoScored.com takes a look at the most adventurous defenders in terms of overall shot tallies in Europe’s top 5 leagues this season. The top 5 here combines a mixture of indirect set-piece threats with long range specialists and the Premier League is particularly well-represented, wi...

Player Focus: Montenegro Statistical Scout Report

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Player Focus: Montenegro Statistical Scout Report As England prepare to take on top-of-the-group Montenegro in Podgorica tonight, WhoScored.com take a look at two key areas of the Balkan teams' first eleven, where there will be some familiar faces who currently ply their trade in Europe's top 5 leagues.Central DefenceMontenegro's first choice centr...

Player Focus: England's Options at Centre-Back

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Player Focus: England's Options at Centre-Back We all thought the whole Rio Ferdinand-John Terry saga might have been behind us when Terry announced his international retirement towards the beginning of the season, and yet Rio stepped in last week to open a new can of worms by rejecting his call up last week. There are still some important, unan...

Player Focus: Questionable International Omissions

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Player Focus: Questionable International Omissions The international break is a quiet time for football, with little in the way of breaking news, but each manager's choices in his squad selection ensure there are talking points aplenty and a fair, though relatively small, amount of controversy. The continued inclusion of Emile Heskey in England squa...

Player Focus: Real Sociedad's Rising Stars

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Player Focus: Real Sociedad's Rising Stars While most clubs have to trawl around the world in search of future stars, Real Sociedad only had to look to their own youth academy to find not only one, but two players, who are now key to both their future and their present.Iñigo Martinez and Asier Illarramendi have this season established...