London – Alvaro Morata needs goals to boost his fragile confidence, said Chelsea coach Maurizio Sarri after the striker again failed to find the net in the Europa League match against PAOK in Greece.
Morata, 25, scored freely in the first few weeks after joining Chelsea last year but has appeared short of confidence recently. He has scored once this season, in August’s win over Arsenal.
“Alvaro has to gain confidence with one, two, three goals,” Sarri said following the 1-0 win on Thursday, during which the Spain striker and Chelsea missed a number of chances.
“I am not able to give him confidence,” he said in comments carried by the British press on Friday. “In this match he has had three, four opportunities. He was unlucky.
“I hope for him that in the future I can try to help him, but the confidence can become only with goals.
“I have to say also, for maybe the first time in this season Alvaro was ready in the box. He was on the ball and was active.”
Chelsea have won all five of their Premier League games so far under Sarri ahead of Sunday’s trip to West Ham, and Willian’s seventh-minute strike was the difference in Greece.
But the 59-year-old Italian bemoaned his side’s inability to finish off their opponents.
“When it is time to kill the match we have to kill the match,” he said.
The one major blot was a stoppage-time shoulder injury for Pedro, which could rule him out of Sunday’s trip to West Ham.
“I don’t know exactly the situation,” said Sarri. “I have spoken with the doctor but only for a few seconds. The doctor told me that probably it’s not a very serious injury.”
BALTIMORE — Hundreds of fans lined the streets on Saturday to pay homage to former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis for his recent induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Lewis, who was enshrined on Aug. 4, was honored with a downtown parade and was given an engraved key to the city. Mayor Catherine Pugh proclaimed Sept. 22 as Ray Lewis Day.
In a nine-minute speech at City Hall, Lewis preached unity and even asked fans to hug one another at one point. He ended by performing his signature dance as the Ravens marching band played Nelly’s “Hot in Herre.”
“Today, I want to say this from my heart: Baltimore, you’ve given everything I could ever ask for in life. And I owe it to you to give you my life in return, to make this city a Baltimore place,” said Lewis, whose Hall of Fame bust was only a few feet to his right.
The crowd along the 1.1-mile parade route was sparse at different points. Fans were never lined up more than two deep behind the barricades, and there were some areas with no fans at all.
Those who attended wore their purple No. 52 jerseys and approached Lewis, who was riding in a light blue Cadillac convertible. One woman kissed Lewis and others shook his hand.
At the City Hall celebration, a woman held a sign: “You made Baltimore proud.”
“He’s No. 52, but he’s No. 1 in all our hearts,” Mayor Pugh said.
Lewis pledged to be an advocate for the city and wants to play a leading role in bringing the community together.
“I believe I’m just getting started,” Lewis said. “Football is one thing. But what I’m willing to do in this community … we’re going to change the scope of our city. Our city is about love. Our city is about hope. Our city is about faith. All things are possible.”
Lewis had fans recite these words: “We are Baltimore. We love each other.”
It is believed to be the third time in the past 25 years that Baltimore has honored a sports figure with a parade. In 1995, tens of thousands celebrated Cal Ripken Jr.’s record-setting 2,131st consecutive game played. In 2001, fans cheered Hasim Rahman after he became the heavyweight boxing champion.
Lewis said the idea for his parade came from Mayor Pugh. Preceding Lewis along the parade route were the Ravens marching band and cheerleaders, along with a float from a fan club and high school bands.
On Sunday, Lewis will be given his Hall of Fame ring during halftime of the Ravens-Broncos game.
This is the latest honor for Lewis in Baltimore City. In 2010, Lewis had a street named after him in East Baltimore. Four years later, the Ravens put up a statue of Lewis outside M&T Bank Stadium.
“I will not let you guys leave here without installing one thing in our hearts right now: We must walk in love and we must do everything together,” Lewis said.
Paris – Paris Saint-Germain manager Thomas Tuchel admitted Saturday he was left puzzled by the lack of cohesion between his trio of star strikers against Liverpool.
“It’s very hard to explain, perhaps you could ask the players. I cannot explain it,” Tuchel said.
Kylian Mbappe, despite a late goal, and Neymar seemed far below their best, while Edinson Cavani hardly touched the ball as PSG lost 3-2 at Anfield in the Champions League on Tuesday.
“We saw that too, we missed their presence in this match, but they have been decisive in other matches we have won,” said the German coach at the press conference before the squad set off for Rennes for their Ligue 1 match on Sunday.
“It was not their best performance and we needed it, we said so in the changing room,” said the former Dortmund coach. “But it’s always an effort by the whole team, we have to improve on that and look at the intensity, the hunger to play our game, we have to improve it with all the players.”
RENTON, Wash. — Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll did not commit to Earl Thomas playing Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys after the All-Pro free safety didn’t practice for the second time this week despite apparently being healthy.
Rookie tight end Will Dissly, whose two TDs already match Jimmy Graham’s total in his first year with Seattle, leads a new group of pass-catchers.
Thomas’ absences both Wednesday and Friday were listed as not injury-related. While Thomas was with the team Friday, Carroll cited an unspecified “personal” issue for him not practicing while giving brief and vague answers to questions about Thomas’ situation.
“Yeah, he couldn’t work today,” Carroll said.
Asked if there’s a chance Thomas won’t be able to play Sunday, Carroll said, “We’ll see how he’s doing, make sure he’s OK.”
Asked if his absence was injury-related, Carroll said, “No, he’s got some other stuff we’re working on.”
Carroll then answered in the affirmative when asked if it’s a personal matter with Thomas, saying that’s why he wasn’t elaborating.
The curious situation with Thomas comes as the Seahawks (0-2) are preparing for their home opener against the Cowboys, the team that has been most connected to Seattle in a possible Thomas trade. It was after a Christmas Eve game at Dallas last season that Thomas, a Cowboys fan growing up, chased down coach Jason Garrett and told him to “come get me” if he were to become available.
Thomas declined to speak to reporters when approached Thursday in Seattle’s locker room.
Thomas, who is making $8.5 million in the final year of his contract, publicly urged the Seahawks during his holdout to trade him if they weren’t going to extend him. He cited the money he would stand to forfeit if he continued to hold out into the regular season — $500,000 each week in game checks — as the reason he returned.
But upon that return, Thomas showed all was not forgiven, at least not on his end. He wrote in an Instagram post that the “disrespect has been well noted and will not be forgotten.” When asked after the opener how burned the bridge is between he and the team might be with regards to Thomas potentially remaining in Seattle beyond 2018, he said, “I have no clue. I have no clue. All I can do is just put the best product out there as possible and protect myself until I do get paid.”
Asked if he’ll be able to put his contract dispute behind him and just play, Thomas said at the time, “I’m going to try to do the best I can, try to work my way through it. I’ve got a great team behind me.”
In addition to Thomas, the Seahawks could be without four other starters against Dallas.
Wide receiver Doug Baldwin (knee), left guard Ethan Pocic (ankle) and linebacker K.J. Wright (knee) have all been ruled out. Center Justin Britt (shoulder) is listed as questionable, along with linebacker Mychal Kendricks, although Carroll said the team thinks Kendricks will play despite a sore foot.
Carroll said the team didn’t want to overwork Kendricks in practice this week after he came down awkwardly on his foot. He was limited in practice over the past two days.
Kendricks, who is playing while appealing a suspension over his connection to insider trading, is replacing Wright at weakside linebacker. Wright missed the first two games following arthroscopic knee surgery, and Carroll indicated that he might be out a while longer when he said Friday that Wright’s recovery is “going slow.”
D.J. Fluker is expected to make his Seahawks debut after missing the first two games with a hamstring injury. His return will push J.R. Sweezy to left guard for Pocic. The Seahawks will get middle linebacker Bobby Wagner and right cornerback Tre Flowers back after they missed the Chicago game.
Baldwin will miss his second consecutive game due to the MCL injury he suffered in the opener. He didn’t practice this week, but Carroll was encouraged by how Baldwin has been running.
“Doug ran really well the last couple days,” Carroll said. “He’s going to take tomorrow off. I believe now he’s went four straight days. That’s a really good sign and he’s feeling really good about it. So I don’t know what to tell you about projecting that, but he was weaving and running and changing directions some and all that today, so he’s coming close.”
