Madrid – Paris Saint-Germain should have no fear of another Champions League clash with Barcelona despite a poor record against the Spanish champions ahead of its last-16 meeting Tuesday, insists winger Angel Di Maria.
Barca has held the upper hand in six previous meetings over the past five seasons, losing just once and progressing to the semi-finals from its two quarterfinal clashes in 2013 and 2015.
However, ahead of Barca’s latest trip to the French capital, Di Maria, who experienced plenty of El Clasico highs and lows against the Catalans in four seasons with Real Madrid, believes PSG now has the quality to compete with the Spanish giants for a first ever European crown.
“PSG have players of enormous quality. People like Marco Verratti, who is wanted by Real Madrid and Barcelona, give the team something extra,” Di Maria told Madrid sports daily Marca on Friday.
“When he isn’t there, the team feels (his absence). I think that PSG can easily compete with Madrid or Barcelona.”
However, to make the last eight, PSG faces the daunting task of restricting Barca’s fearsome ‘MSN’ front three of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar.
Suarez and Neymar did the damage in the last tie between the sides, scoring all five of Barca’s goals in a 5-1 aggregate rout, but it is his Argentine international teammate Di Maria fears most.
“Barca have great players. The MSN is the best attack right now,” he added.
“Leo is different from the rest.
“I think to stop him it requires the whole team because when he doesn’t do something magical he leaves a teammate free.”
Atlanta Falcons secondary coach/senior defensive assistant Marquand Manuel will be named the team’s defensive coordinator, a source told ESPN.
Manuel was considered the front-runner after the Falcons decided not to keep Richard Smith in that role. Smith could remain on staff in an advisory position, but he is exploring other options.
Manuel, 37, has the most familiarity with head coach Dan Quinn’s scheme. He was the assistant secondary coach for the Seattle Seahawks when Quinn was the defensive coordinator there. Manuel then followed Quinn to Atlanta in 2015.
Manuel played eight NFL seasons at strong safety from 2002 to 2009 after entering the NFL as a sixth-round draft pick of the Cincinnati Bengals. He also played for the Green Bay Packers, Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions and Seahawks.
Manuel’s hands-on coaching style was key in the improvement of the Falcons’ defense toward the end of the 2016 season and leading into the Super Bowl.
He helped put Jalen Collins in position to fill the void left when Pro Bowl cornerback Desmond Trufant needed surgery for a season-ending pectoral injury. Manuel also helped develop free safety Ricardo Allen, rookie strong safety Keanu Neal, rookie nickelback Brian Poole and cornerback Robert Alford, who had an 82-yard interception return for a touchdown in Super Bowl LI.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Quinn took over the defensive playcalling from Smith during the season, starting with the game against the Kansas City Chiefs (Dec. 4). Quinn is sure to have his stamp on the defense moving forward, but Manuel likely will have an opportunity to call the plays despite not having any coordinator experience. He interviewed for the defensive coordinator position with the Jacksonville Jaguars last offseason before the team promoted Todd Wash.
The Falcons will enter the 2017 with two new coordinators in Manuel and offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian, who replaced new San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan.
The Falcons also parted ways with defensive line coach Bryan Cox. Quinn is expected to hire one of his former players, Bryant Young, to replace Cox.
During the regular season, the Falcons ranked 27th in scoring defense in allowing 25.4 points per game and ranked 25th in total defense in surrendering 371.2 yards per contest.
The Falcons primarily started four rookies and three second-year players, and the unit showed vast improvement at the end of the season and into the playoffs as Quinn mixed in more man-to-man with his Cover 3 scheme.
After a fast start in Super Bowl LI, which included helping the Falcons to a 28-3 lead, the defense ended up surrendering 466 passing yards to Tom Brady and 31 points after halftime in a 34-28 overtime loss to the New England Patriots.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — As Mike McCoy prepares to begin his second stint with the Denver Broncos as offensive coordinator, he finds himself in the early stages of a rather large reconstruction.
McCoy will avoid specifics in public and call what comes next “the Denver Broncos offense” or “our offense,” but his vision of the playbook will be flexible. It’s also not what most of the Broncos players might be used to.
“We are as a staff going to change some things,” McCoy said. “I’ve laid the playbook out with the one I’m bringing with me, but then there is going to be some things that different coaches have called differently. There is going to be flexibility. We’re going to give the players some flexibility also.”
Ultimately, McCoy wants the Broncos to be able to adapt week to week and opponent to opponent. That’s a common goal in any offensive huddle, but the Broncos had a pile of issues in 2016 that need attention if the team is going to return to the postseason with a defense that figures to still be among the league’s best.
Last week in Houston, during the buildup to Super Bowl LI, former Broncos coach Gary Kubiak called the offense’s stagnation his “biggest disappointment.” The failings — the Broncos finished 27th in yards per game, 22nd in scoring and 27th in rushing — combined to derail what the team’s players believed before the season was a Super Bowl contender.
“My first call was to Mike McCoy,” Broncos coach Vance Joseph said. “Mike, obviously being an ex-head coach, that was important. Being a successful coordinator in the past, that was more important. I wanted a guy who could build a system toward his players, and Mike was that guy. … That was a big hire for us. Mike was a guy that was being chased by four or five different teams, so we’re happy about having Mike.”
McCoy said this week the work has started, but he isn’t ready to say what the playbook will look like. Broncos coaches have met daily since the new staff gathered for the first time Jan. 30, and the group will continue to meet until they attend the scouting combine in Indianapolis at the end of the month.
“I will say this. … We’re going to install our system and go from there,” McCoy said. “There is going to be a lot of changes. They are going to have to leave this building when they get here in the offseason program and take their work home. That’s not just the two quarterbacks, but it is everybody. I think for every player it is going to be a challenge for them coming into a new system.”
McCoy has also said he’ll adapt to the Broncos players, especially the quarterbacks, after he sees them work on the field and talks things over in the meeting room. There is plenty of evidence showing McCoy’s adaptive nature as a playcaller. He worked with Kyle Orton, Tim Tebow and Peyton Manning in his previous stint with the Broncos from 2009 to 2012.
“We have put things in place for players to succeed, for us to score points and for us to win games,” McCoy said. “But it’s going to be some work to get where we all want to go.”