Anthony Davis bounced back with a stellar performance and got ample help from D'Angelo Russell and LeBron James in the Los Angeles Lakers' 127-97 win over the Golden State Warriors on Saturday.
Davis had 25 points on 7-of-10 shooting and grabbed 13 rebounds as the Lakers took a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference semifinals.
The Lakers' big man was limited to 11 points and seven boards in a Game 2 loss but was relentless at both ends in this one, also adding four blocks and three steals.
Russell scored all 21 of his points in the first half as the Lakers took a 59-48 advantage into the locker room.
James did not attempt a shot in the first quarter for the first time in his playoff carer but led several runs in the second and third quarters on his way to 21 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.
Los Angeles had a huge advantage at the free throw line, making 28 of 37 to just 12 of 17 for Golden State.
The Warriors ended the opening quarter with a 30-23 lead, but the Lakers won the second and third quarters by a combined margin of 63-38. Lakers coach Darvin Ham rested his starters for most of the fourth quarter.
Stephen Curry had 23 points and Andrew Wiggins added 16 for the Warriors, who committed 18 turnovers and made only 13 of 44 from long range.
Golden State got very little from anyone other than Curry, Wiggins or Klay Thompson (15 points), with starters Draymond Green and JaMychal Green combining for just four points on 2-of-9 shooting.
Heat get Butler back, dominate Knicks
Jimmy Butler scored 28 points and was the driving force in his return from a sprained ankle and the Miami Heat rolled to a 105-86 rout of the New York Knicks in Game 3.
Max Strus added 19 points and Bam Adebayo had 17 with 12 rebounds to give Miami a 2-1 lead in the second-round series.
After missing Miami's Game 2 loss due to the ankle, Butler was seen limping at times in the second half Saturday, but the Heat started fast and never trailed against the cold-shooting Knicks.
Butler scored 10 points in the first quarter and the Heat made 10 of their first 15 shots in racing to a 58-44 halftime lead. New York, meanwhile, misfired on 13 of its first 17 shots and shot just 34.1 percent for the game, including a dismal 8-for-40 from 3-point range.
Jalen Brunson led the Knicks with 20 points and Josh Hart had 14. Julius Randle was mostly ineffective with 10 points on 4-of-15 shooting and RJ Barrett was not much better with 14 points on 5 of 16.
Ryan Mason paid tribute to the collective after Tottenham claimed a first clean sheet in the Premier League since February.
Harry Kane’s first-half header, his 28th goal of the season, earned Spurs a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday that kept them in the hunt for a top-six finish.
Kane moved ahead of Wayne Rooney into second on the all-time Premier League goal-scorer list with his 209th top-flight strike but it was the other end of the pitch where Tottenham’s improvement was noticeable.
After conceding six at Newcastle and four at Liverpool during the last two weekends, Mason used his full week on the training pitch to tweak the 3-4-3 system used for the best part of 18 months since Antonio Conte took over.
Spurs went with a back four out of possession and it worked to good effect after Palace were limited to minimal chances with the hosts able to register a first league clean sheet since February 26 versus Chelsea.
“When you keep a clean sheet, it’s a collective. It’s everyone and everyone fought for the clean sheet,” Mason said.
“The players on the pitch but also the ones who didn’t because in the training week we’ve all worked hard together and they’re the results you want.
“We understand the importance of the win and the clean sheet as well is a great response from the players because maybe mentally when you concede so many goals in a short space of time, it can have an impact but the players have worked hard.
“The whole squad has worked hard on the training pitch. We’ve had a bit of time together to try and influence things and they responded. I thought it was a cagey game but overall we deserved the three points.”
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Spurs have spent the whole of this season using a 3-4-3 system but Cristian Stellini, who stepped up from assistant to replace Conte, went with a back four at Newcastle last month.
It ended up having disastrous consequences with Tottenham 5-0 down inside 21 minutes and Stellini ultimately losing his job as acting head coach as a result.
Mason hinted upon taking charge it would be hard for him to make changes for the Manchester United and Liverpool fixtures, but after a week on the training ground reverted to a back four, which he used in his previous caretaker spell in 2021.
He added: “We added a sixth man into the press and tried to be a bit more aggressive.
“I have to compliment the players because when you’ve been working in a certain way for so long, to make that change at this stage of the season it’s very positive for me.”
Roy Hodgson, who watched Crystal Palace lose for only a second time since his return, acknowledged the respect Spurs had given the visitors with their formation.
“I saw us on the ball for large periods of the game and I saw us attempting to get into the right areas,” he said.
“We didn’t have the success we had last week (against West Ham) or the weeks before, but that’s a credit to Tottenham deciding to defend as they did against us.
“It’s never easy to find that bit of space when there are a lot of players in and around the box.”
Ilkay Gundogan accepted his share of the blame after Premier League leaders Manchester City failed to beat relegation-threatened Leeds by a convincing scoreline on Saturday.
The German midfielder scored both of City’s goals as they maintained their title charge with a 2-1 victory at the Etihad Stadium but his late missed penalty opened the door for a potential Leeds fightback.
Regular penalty-taker and top scorer Erling Haaland passed up the chance to score from the spot to allow club captain Gundogan a shot at a first career hat-trick, but things almost went badly wrong.
Gundogan’s effort in the 84th minute smacked the post and Leeds scored just moments later through Rodrigo.
Suddenly, a game City had completely dominated until that point ended in a frantic finish but the hosts held on.
Manager Pep Guardiola was far from impressed by the episode and Gundogan held his hands up.
“It was a good performance,” said Gundogan. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to transmit that performance into the result.
“It feels like this game should have been won by at least three goals’ difference.
“We had a lot of possession, we were able to create a lot of chances. The negative is that we were not able to score a third one.
“The game could have been over in the first half and, of course, also in the second. We had plenty of chances – myself included, unfortunately – to score a third one.
“Conceding quite an easy goal made the last five to 10 minutes a little bit nervous for us, which should not have happened. It’s another experience that we take on board.”
That incident aside, Gundogan was outstanding, putting his side in command by sweeping home from Riyad Mahrez passes on the edge of the area in the 19th and 27th minutes.
City could have increased their lead several times over with Haaland going close on a number of occasions, including hitting the woodwork twice himself.
Gundogan feels it is important City, who now face Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals on Tuesday, continue to set high standards as they chase the treble.
He said: “Some people say it’s more important to win than play well, which might be true, but I think that’s just not our standard.
“Of course we want to win games but also we want to keep playing the way we have done here.
“There’s just a few games left until the season is over and every game is like a final right now.”
Until their late flurry, Leeds offered little in Sam Allardyce’s first match in charge and they remain in deep trouble at the bottom of the table.
Allardyce has just three games – tough fixtures against Newcastle, West Ham and Tottenham – to steer them to safety.
It looks a daunting task but the 68-year-old is determined to get the best out of his players.
He said: “Even though my position is head coach I am a manager, and my biggest strength is making people feel better, making people do better.
“Since Monday with (assistants) Karl Robinson and Robbie Keane and the staff already here, we’re working diligently to make the team better.
“We haven’t stopped talking for the last four days, and not just daytime. We’ve been together all night, every night, plotting, talking and trying to find the right formula.”
Livingston manager David Martindale says some members of his squad should not be surprised if they are dropped for the trip to Kilmarnock following their performances in a 2-0 defeat by Ross County.
The Lions started as the better of the two teams in Dingwall but could not find a breakthrough to make the most of their momentum.
Either side of half-time County did find the net through Alex Iacovitti and Alex Samuel – and in the end it was a comfortable victory for the Staggies.
That comfort level left Martindale unimpressed, and he thought some of his players looked as though they had nothing left to play for this season.
“I don’t think up until the first goal the boys were off it, but giving the cheap goal away saw Ross County grow in confidence,” he said.
“There was more desire and intensity from Ross County than us after the goal, so we need to find our feet very quickly.
“We will be playing against other teams who are fighting against relegation, and we have to match that desire that those players will have. It’s my job to make sure the players find that.
“We have four games left now, and if most of the guys got dropped next week I don’t think they could have much to say about it.
“Our squad depth is a challenge at this point, but it’s up to me and my staff to find a solution and we’re more than capable of doing that.”
Martindale’s opposite number Malky Mackay, on the other hand, was delighted with Ross County’s display.
Coming off the back of a two-week wait for redemption after a 6-1 drubbing bby Hearts, Mackay was heartened by his players closing the gap at the bottom of the cinch Premiership table to a single point.
“We only haven’t been at it twice this season, and Hearts was one of them,” he said.
“In most games it has been close, we have been in and around it. Every team we have played, we have made it tough whether we win or lose – so I was really disappointed with that performance.
“It was really important that in the first of the two-week break, we got them back in and put a shoulder around them. They were battered and bruised, in terms of their reputation and they were disappointed.
“Against Livingston, we again made it difficult for a team. I’ve got a group here that will fight to the last to make sure we stay in this division.”
Frank Lampard believes Chelsea need to become “killers” in attack in order to build on an overdue victory and begin bridging the sizeable gap to the Premier League’s leading clubs.
The mid-table Blues on Saturday ended a nine-match winless run, including six successive defeats since Lampard was reappointed, by beating Bournemouth 3-1.
Conor Gallagher headed the visitors in front at Vitality Stadium but, after Matias Vina’s leveller, they were largely toothless going forward until late finishes from Benoit Badiashile and Joao Felix halted the prolonged slump.
While a top-half finish is the extent of Chelsea’s potential this season, they will hope to be challenging for Champions League qualification at the very least next term.
Interim manager Lampard, who is due to leave Stamford Bridge in the summer, feels the Blues must develop a ruthless streak in order to do that and suggested the club may need further recruits, despite having already spent more than £600million on transfers since Todd Boehly’s takeover.
“We controlled a lot of the game,” he said of the south-coast success.
“Without the killer instinct, we were running inside their box a lot in the first half, we had a lot of overloads on the side of the pitch.
“And as this team develops or as we add to the squad I think you have to be more killers at the top end of the pitch.
“If you look at the top half of the table, that’s what you will see all across it. At the moment, we haven’t got that. But you saw nice individual performances in a positive direction.”
Two-time European champions Chelsea sit in 11th position, a staggering 40 points behind leaders Manchester City and well adrift of the top four.
Travelling supporters celebrated the long-awaited triumph with self-deprecating cries of ‘we are staying up’, having earlier directed derogatory chants at American businessman Boehly.
Lampard backed the club’s owners to eventually be successful following a dismal first campaign at the helm.
“The fans have been used to a lot of success, they want a lot of success,” said the former Blues midfielder.
“What I do know is the fans will stick with this club. I do know there are a lot of intentions to take this club where we want to get it to again.
“There’s not one club out there of our size that hasn’t had transitional periods.
“People would give a left arm to have the success we’ve had for 20 years, so if it’s our year where we have to go again and work a bit and try and come back stronger next year, everyone stick together, then I’m sure we will.”
The west London club move on to meetings with relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest, reigning champions City, and Champions League hopefuls Manchester United and Newcastle.
Lampard is concerned left-back Ben Chilwell will be unavailable for the run-in after he limped off against the Cherries.
“It’s a hamstring injury,” he said.
“We don’t know if it’s serious but with a hamstring injury at this stage of the season it’s clearly a worry for the last few games.”
Bournemouth began the weekend level on 39 points with Chelsea and had the better chances for a winner before suffering late disappointment, with Badiashile’s pivotal strike coming from Hakim Ziyech’s free-kick into the penalty area.
The Cherries have the worst record in the division for conceding goals from set-pieces, an issue head coach Gary O’Neil is eager to address.
“We’ve struggled with defending balls into the box,” he said. “We’re obviously aware of it and it’s something we need to improve.
“I’m hopeful we can put some work in now week to week but then we can put things in place for next season to make us much stronger in that area.”
Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell believes Kevin van Veen deserves to be in contention for the Gallagher Premiership player of the year award.
The Dutchman scored his 25th goal of a stellar personal campaign in Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Kilmarnock, after Blair Spittal had given Well an early lead.
The Celtic trio of Kyogo Furuhashi, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Reo Hatate are expected to be among the leading contenders when the nominations are announced by PFA Scotland next week but Kettlewell also made the case for Van Veen.
He said: “If I was a player I would vote for him. But I’m not in control of any of that stuff. I think he’s had a brilliant season, not just his goalscoring.
“It’s about how he approaches it every single week. You have to pitch his personal achievements up against most in the division.
“It’s great that at Motherwell we’ve got a striker that everybody is talking about. He had a moment in the first half where he chops inside with a Cruyff turn after the ball came down with snow on it. That was pretty amazing as well.”
Van Veen is likely to move on from Fir Park in the summer but Kettlewell insists the speculation has not affected the Dutchman’s form.
He added: “We all know what he’s capable of but sometimes it’s not just about the player, it’s about the person. I thought he handled himself absolutely brilliantly as well.
“There’s plenty of hype and talk about him and it’s very easy to think the players are like robots and can keep just churning it out. I’m more delighted with the person today than the player.
“I’ve said it before but if Kevin – or other players – aren’t doing it then we’re not speaking about it.
“And we’ve now got a situation where we are talking about it – although I don’t want to talk about it too much. Just in general you want people to speak about your players when they’re doing well.
“Nothing changes from where we are. The players are all in it for the cause and approaching every game the way they should do, whether there’s speculation or not. That’s the demands I put on them.
“They’re not going out there thinking about what might happen in four or five weeks’ time. We’re just focusing on each game.”
Kilmarnock are now just one point off the bottom of the table but have three of their final four matches at Rugby Park.
Manager Derek McInnes hopes that will play in their favour.
He said: “We needed a win away from home because we can’t be totally dependent on our home form. But the stats show how strong we have been at home, and we’ve got to try and utilise that.
“We’re going to have a big support at home next week against Livingston. Livi are safe, and there is more on the game from our point of view clearly, and we need to demonstrate that in our performance.”
A gallant and gutsy performance from Jon Ryder was not enough to beat Mexican fighter Canelo Alvarez in front of more than 50,000 people in Guadalajara, Mexico.
A bruised and bloodied Ryder lost by unanimous decision in a heroic effort against one of the world’s best fighters in front of a raucous crowd at Akron Stadium.
The judges scored the fight 120-107 on one card and 118-109 on the other two to improve Canelo’s record to 59-2-2 in his first fight in Mexico since 2011.
Both fighters used the first two rounds to feel each other before a Canelo jab caused blood to pour from Ryder’s nose.
Canelo then knocked down Ryder with a clean one-two in the fourth round and it looked ominous for the 34-year-old from Islington.
But he got back up and fought through the 12 rounds, coping vicious punches throughout the fight while spitting blood from his mouth but held on until the last bell.
Ryder had previously lost five career fights to Billy Joe Saunders, Nick Blackwell, Jack Arnfield, Rocky Fielding, and the most recent being Callum Smith in 2019 by unanimous decision.
The loss ended his four-fight win streak with his record now sitting at 32-6.
American Wyndham Clark shot a bogey-free day to go two strokes clear of the pack while English pair Tyrrell Hatton and Tommy Fleetwood are still in the mix after day three of the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte on Saturday.
Clark finished the day with eight-under 63 to become the outright leader going into the last day on the tournament with 16-under at Quail Hollow, with American Xander Schauffele two strokes behind.
If Clark can hold on to the lead on the last day it will be the 29-year-old’s first ever PGA Tour win.
After finishing day two tied in first place with Clark and Schauffele, Hatton continued his good form but could not keep up with the top two.
Hatton had six birdies and three bogeys to end the day with 68 and tied in third with Australian Adam Scott who are both on eleven-under, five strokes behind Clark.
Tommy Fleetwood had a strong outing with five birdies and just one bogey which came on the last hole of the day.
He finished the day tied fifth with South Korean Sungjae Im and American Harris English on ten-under.
Rory McIlroy had another inconsistent day in Charlotte and looks out of the running for his fourth Wells Fargo Championship, finishing the day tied in 50th place.
McIlroy hit four bogeys and four birdies and finished the day one-under.
Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes was criticised by Toto Wolff as being “a nasty piece of work” after the British driver qualified only 13th for the Miami Grand Prix.
As Sergio Perez took a surprise pole position – with Charles Leclerc’s late crash resulting in a red flag to leave Max Verstappen ninth on the grid – Hamilton endured another sobering evening in his unruly machine.
Fernando Alonso joins Perez on the front row following another impressive display by the evergreen Spaniard, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz third.
Kevin Magnussen qualified fourth for Haas ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell. Leclerc, who broke his rear wing in the accident at Turn 7, qualified seventh.
On Friday, Hamilton described the performance of his lacklustre Mercedes as “a kick in the guts”, and his mood will only have worsened after he was eliminated from Q2, an eye-watering 1.1 seconds off the pace, and two tenths down on Russell.
He returned to the pits shaking his head and took aim at Mercedes for leaving him with too much to do by not releasing him early enough for his final attempt in Q2.
“We left that way too late, guys,” he said over the radio. Hamilton now trails team-mate Russell 4-1 in qualifying after the opening five rounds.
“There is not a lot to say to Lewis because the car is simply not fast enough,” said Mercedes team principal Wolff.
“Putting him in a situation on his out lap where the driver is not able to prepare his tyres makes it even worse.
“We are not trying to make mistakes. We are trying to give the drivers the best position on the track, and we have in the past got it wrong many times, and also got it right many times. But if things go badly, they compound the situation.
“I take no enjoyment from finishing sixth (with Russell) and it is the lack of comprehension of what is wrong that makes this car such a nasty piece of work.
“The car is not a good car. There are problems everywhere, with the base performance of the car and the lack of understanding of the car. The performance is just really bad. It is not acceptable.”
Hamilton, already 45 points behind championship leader Verstappen, started Saturday’s running on the backfoot following a near-miss with Haas driver Kevin Magnussen.
The 38-year-old was on his first speedy lap of the afternoon when he was blocked by the Dane under braking at Turn 17. Hamilton was forced to take evasive action, brushing the barriers in the process.
“Check the front wing”, said the Mercedes driver, who swiftly dived into the pits for repairs. “I just hit the wall.”
Commenting on his lowly grid slot for Sunday’s 57-lap race, Hamilton said: “We knew it would be very hard and there was a 50:50 chance we could get into Q3 so we needed to be better with our timing.
“But it’s done. I’ll try and get my head down tomorrow and see what I can do – 13th to God knows where.”
Verstappen looked set to secure pole after dominating practice, but he made a mistake in his first run in Q3.
Then, with less than two minutes remaining, Leclerc lost control of his Ferrari and thudded into the wall.
The session was red-flagged and did not restart, leaving Verstappen, who leads Perez by just six points in the standings, in the midfield.
“F*** sake,” said the Dutchman over the radio after he was unable to complete his final lap.
For Perez, his pole comes a week after winning in Azerbaijan, and provides him with the chance to assume control of the world championship.
“It has been a bad weekend,” said the Mexican, who had struggled to get up to speed in his Red Bull before qualifying.
“But we made a small change and everything came alive. Tomorrow is an opportunity starting from pole and we will go out there and enjoy this amazing crowd.”
Rodrygo's double steered Real Madrid to Copa del Rey glory as they defeated a valiant Osasuna 2-1 in Saturday's final.
The Brazil forward netted twice to guide Los Blancos to their second piece of silverware this season in front of a packed Estadio de La Cartuja.
For Carlo Ancelotti's side, victory ends a nine-year drought in Spain's most prestigious cup competition, with Madrid having last won in 2014 during the Italian's previous spell in charge.
But it is a tough result for Jagoba Arrasate's Osasuna to take, after Lucas Torro's strike had given them hope of an upset in their first appearance in a Copa del Rey final in 18 years.
Madrid lived up to the favourites tag inside two minutes as Rodrygo swept Vinicius Junior's dynamite cutback past Sergio Herrera.
That early concession spurred Osasuna promptly onto the offensive, with Ante Budimir forcing Thibaut Courtois into a string of saves, while Dani Carvajal had to hook Abde Ezzalzouli's effort off the line.
David Alaba struck the bar as Madrid aimed to double their lead, with Vinicius' hopeful appeals for a penalty falling on deaf ears on the stroke of half-time.
Madrid paid the price for those misses just before the hour mark, when Torro struck a superb low strike beyond Courtois from outside the box.
Yet Madrid recovered and, after Toni Kroos saw his shot deflected, Rodrygo was on hand to pick up the pieces and prod another finish home.
Karim Benzema was unable to add gloss to the scoreline and Los Blancos were almost punished again in stoppage time, but Carvajal made a last-ditch intervention to deny Kike Barja and ensure Madrid ended their long wait for a 20th Copa crown.
David Moyes has one last chance to avoid a damning statistic when West Ham host Manchester United on Sunday.
The Hammers, battling to stay in the Premier League, have yet to beat one of the traditional ‘big six’ clubs this season.
Home draws with Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal are the only points they have taken from 11 fixtures, with Wednesday’s 3-0 defeat at Manchester City completing a miserable set of six away losses.
Last season West Ham beat Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea on their way to finishing seventh, but this term has been a grim battle against relegation.
“I actually thought last year, we were due to beat some of the big teams and we did,” said Moyes.
“Some of the games we gave them really good games and of course, there were some games that we couldn’t really compete. I remember beating Liverpool and a couple of others last season.
“This year, we don’t feel as if we’ve been quite at that level, I am not saying we have been far off, but we’ve been trying to get back to it.
“I just think we are in a little bit better form than we were earlier on in the season. We played well at Old Trafford, we were a little bit unlucky at Chelsea away, even against Arsenal we were 1-0 up at half-time and we’ve just come back from Manchester City being 0-0 at half-time.
“So a lot of these games we have been in them and even Arsenal we got back to 2-2 after being 2-0 down. I think we’ve been close in a lot of the games, whether we’ve just been tipped over the edge to win them like we were last year, we’ve not shown it as much this season.”
Declan Rice, Tomas Soucek and Nayef Aguerd are expected to return after missing the City match due to being laid low by a sickness bug in the camp.
Newcastle boss Eddie Howe has praised Callum Wilson’s emphatic response to the challenge presented to him by record signing Alexander Isak.
The 31-year-old England striker has plundered eight goals in his last seven games, four of them from the bench with Howe having rotated the former Bournemouth frontman and his £60million summer capture in the face of a gruelling schedule.
Wilson, whose form was questioned in some quarters following his return from the World Cup finals, has twice been rested in the game after scoring two goals as a starter, but has channelled his frustration in exactly the way Howe hoped he would.
The Magpies’ head coach said: “He is certainly in great form. He is very focused at the moment. He knows he has to be because of the competition he has around him.
“The biggest compliment I can pay him is that he has always been himself – bubbly, bright, laughing, joking, a really positive character. He is someone that the squad needs to be positive, because he is such a big personality within it.
“That has helped him when he has come on the pitch and delivered for us. I’m delighted for him, personally, because he can react two ways to that challenge laid down to him – and he has responded how I hoped he would.”
Wilson made two appearances for his country as a substitute in Qatar without finding the back of the net, and went eight games without a goal on his return.
However asked if it had been foolish to question his ability to continue as the club’s main marksman at that point, Howe said: “It’s natural at this elite level that players are under scrutiny. Their performances are broken down to the ninth degree, and not just by me as the manager, but also by you guys in the press.
“I think he will understand that comes with the territory at this level.”
Wilson, who helped himself to a double in last Sunday’s 3-1 win over Southampton after being introduced as a second-half substitute, will hope for a chance to repeat the feat against high-flying Arsenal this weekend with Newcastle hoping to ease themselves closer to Champions League qualification.
Beyond that, a continuation of his current form could yet earn him a return to the England squad.
Asked about his international prospects, Howe said: “That is one for [manager] Gareth [Southgate], but he is certainly doing everything he needs to do. He is scoring goals and that is always going to get you in the headlines.”
Leicester boss Dean Smith believes Jamie Vardy can still flourish in the autumn of his career.
The 36-year-old has returned to form in recent weeks, scoring in the last two games to help the Foxes out of the Premier League relegation zone, having previously gone 19 outings without a goal.
The story of Vardy’s ascent to the top of the game is well known and Smith believes that him not coming through the system in a traditional way can help him now.
“It doesn’t surprise me at all – this is someone who’s scored 136 Premier League goals,” Smith said of Vardy’s resurgence ahead of Monday’s vital clash with Fulham.
“You don’t lose that. I expected that (pace) to still be there.
“What I’ve seen from him is the desire to still keep wanting it, from the runs he’s making. His running numbers are really good from Monday night.
“His story is synonymous with someone who came into the professional game a little bit later.
“So he’s probably not had all of those games before – at academy level for instance. So I don’t see why he can’t flourish in his later years.”
Much was made of whether former boss Brendan Rodgers played to Vardy’s strengths, something that Smith has seemed to do in the last few games.
“I didn’t watch too many of the games to see if he was playing to his strengths,” Smith added.
“He didn’t get as much pitch time as probably he would’ve liked, but I wasn’t here so I don’t really know.
“Shakey’s (assistant boss Craig Shakespeare) worked with him before and knows him as a person and a player.
“I know him as a player who’s been up against teams I’ve managed before.
“He’s always a threat on the shoulder – just talking to their coaches after the game, they just tell their centre-halves to keep an eye on their shoulders, because he’ll be on one of them, and he was.”
Erik ten Hag has long admired Sir Alex Ferguson’s successor David Moyes and knows Manchester United have to be at their best to beat his West Ham side this weekend.
Monday marks the 10th anniversary of the huge announcement that the Scot was stepping down after 26 medal-laden years in the Old Trafford dugout.
Ferguson bowed out on the back of a 13th league title – heights United have not reached since then, enduring their fair share of ups, downs and fallow periods.
Moyes was the first man to step into the breach and sacked before the end of the 2013-14 season, with the 60-year-old now in charge of a West Ham outfit hosting United on Sunday.
Asked if he was pleased to be the fifth permanent successor to Ferguson rather than the first, Ten Hag said: “It’s hypothetical, so you’ll never know.
“But it’s quite clear when you have to succeed Sir Alex that is a big challenge and that is a really difficult job to do.
“So, yeah, he did it, he had the bravery to do it, so that’s why I think I admire him that much. He’s also that long already with many clubs in the Premier League, so it’s a great manager with a lot of skills.
“I know my team has to be their best on Sunday. We have to play our maximum if we want to get the result we need, and that’s a win.”
United are looking to tighten their grip on a Champions League spot on Sunday with fifth-placed Liverpool hot on their heels.
Ten Hag’s side have two games in hand on their rivals but the gap sharpens the mind, which could also be beneficial given the all-Manchester FA Cup final against City looms on June 3.
“I’m telling them for every game, for every training – you have to be ready for every game in the Premier League,” he said.
“If you want to be in four competitions, you have to be so well prepared, you need so much energy, you need a good game plan and you have to go every game again.
“You can’t do it in 99 per cent, you have to do it 100 per cent and you have to do it over the full 95 minutes.
“That’s why we like it, top players like it, to have huge challenges, but it costs energy.
“But that’s our job, it’s our responsibility, we have to take it and we lay this aside Sunday. We go again and I’m sure we will be there.”
West Ham have had a free week to prepare for United’s visit, whereas United are reeling from being stung at the death in Thursday’s late 1-0 loss at Brighton.
It has been a relentless schedule as the Red Devils balanced domestic and Europa League exertions for much of the season, but Ten Hag believes they have handled it well.
“(The schedule) has already an impact on the whole season, and we are doing quite well,” he said.
“We’re not doing quite well, we’re doing really well. We have a big disadvantage against others. West Ham United, I think, is a team who has the worst schedule, but then us.
“But then we showed all season already we can deal with that. We are physical and mental very strong.”
United need to keep that going for another month without overstepping the mark.
“We have to keep our heads,” Ten Hag added. “Clear. But also I demand passion and desire from my players because if you want to win games, you need that and I think it brought us to where we are now.”
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