Western Counties Soccer

Federico Macheda reckons that his team Birmingham City needs to answer the critics with performances on the field and not with the words.

This season has been very poor for the Blues so far and they are in danger of being relegated to league one. So, quite obviously, there is anger among the fans and the players are being criticized big time.

According to Macheda, the only way his side can stop that criticism is by putting up some good shows in the near future.

The German coach of Malaga, Bernhard Schuster has revealed that his future in the Spanish club will depend on a clause that exists in his contract. Following Malaga’s triumph against Villareal a few days, Schuster went on talking about his future with Malaga and if whether or not he will be staying in charge of it.

There are some leagues in Europe that have already announced who are the champions, one of those cases is the German league with Bayern Munich running past everything and everyone in their path and even though there are more than 4 matches left to be played, the squad of Pep Guardiola have already won their league.

In the Italian League, Juventus has a healthy lead over everyone else and it is pretty safe to say that they will be winning the league title for another year but the Premier League is as tight as ever.

Wayne Rooney is the top candidate on becoming the next captain of Manchester United after Nemanja Vidic makes his way out of the Premier League club but the English forward has also revealed his desire of captaining England.

Steven Gerrard is the current captain of England but speculation of the Liverpool legend not being featured for the 2014 World Cup has risen ever since Roy Hodgson admitted that some big name players will be dropped and will not be travelling to Brazil.

Liverpool blasted 4 goals past Everton some weeks ago but despite this, the side of Roberto Martinez is still charging their way in the top 6 spots of the Premier League and the American goalkeeper Tim Howard praised the work that Martinez is doing ever since taking over the club and succeeding the former coach David Moyes.

"No matter what game we go into, the focus has not at any point this season been on the other team, it has always been about us. You have to do this 40 weeks of the year, it is nice not to come into work every day thinking 'Oh, that's looming ahead’’.

Everton manager Roberto Martinez has already made significant changes to the squad since taking over at the club in the summer.

The financial difficulties of the Merseyside outfit are well-documented, but it has not prevented the Spaniard from bringing in quality players at least on a loan deal.

Players like Romelu Lukaku and Gareth Barry have been influential in the season so far, and they have been bought on loan deals. They would more than repay the loan fees if Everton finished in the top four and qualify for the Champions league.

The 34 years old goalkeeper of Everton and USA, Tim Howard has been in sensational form and this can be seen by the last 3 clean sheets kept for Everton in the Premier League but the event worth remembering was the penalty he saved when facing Aston Villa back in October.

In Everton’s match against Aston Villa, Christian Benteke was awarded with a penalty kick that was denied by Tim Howard and following the match the veteran goalkeeper said in a comedic fashion that his beard made the difference.
Tim Howard joked: ‘I think I’ve gained most of my strength from the beard.

The arrival of new manager Roberto Martinez has been followed by three consecutive draws in the Premier league for Everton. This is primarily because of the different tactics adopted by the former Wigan manager, who is a fan of passing football.

Former manager David Moyes, though, was more towards getting the results and it primarily involved playing direct football more often than not. This change in management has seen Everton struggle to score goals at the start of the season. Goalkeeper Tim Howard, who has been at the club for almost a decade, is staying confident.

Everton are likely to be in the transfer market for a new goalkeeper after releasing Jan Mucha last season. American International Tim Howard is the recognised first-team goalkeeper at the club.

After the arrival of Roberto Martinez as the new manager at Goodison Park, there could be possible changes in several areas of the pitch. Everton could go out and sign a replacement goalkeeper, who could provide a real competition for Howard. The former Manchester United man, though, has said that he is intent on keeping his first-team spot under Martinez as well.

Paris St Germain defender Thiago Silva has said that he expects Barcelona to be at their best when they face each other in the quarter-finals of the Champions League on Tuesday night. He has said that his team should expect the unexpected when facing the four-time European champions.

This will be one of the stern tests for PSG in their efforts to reach the semifinals of the competition. This is the first time they have been in the quarter-finals after more than 18 years.