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Goals or help? The ultimate question with Finn Azaz
Finn Azaz has been the creative force in Middlesbrough’s ferocious attack this season.
But does he prefer scoring or creating goals?
“It depends sometimes, but I have to say goals,” he said with a smile.
“Like an assist when you pass it to someone and they run through five players and score. Not those.
“But the assist is against the likes of Sheffield United. I was very proud of that because that was the moment that unlocked the game. Those are the best.”
Azaz has been in exceptional form this campaign, but he tends not to rest on his output.
“I don’t watch the goals or assist back too much,” he adds. “Maybe I used to! But not now.”
Harry Souttar’s big man battle with teammate Moore
It must be quite a task defending Sheffield United’s set-pieces this season, with the formidable presence of Harry Souttar and Kieffer Moore both attacking the ball.
Souttar smiles when asked who is the bigger of the two.
“I’m definitely taller than him,” he said. He is 6ft 7in, with striker Moore at 6ft 5in.
But have they gone back to back yet?
“Not yet!” Souttar adds. “I think the boys tried to get us, but not yet.”
The defender, on loan from Leicester, is proud to be on Moore’s team, rather than having to mark him.
“I remember playing against him when he was in Cardiff and so. He’s certainly a handful so I’m very proud that we’re on the same team,” he jokes.
Myles Peart-Harris on growing up in Chelsea
There are Cobham graduates spread across every corner of football in this country.
One is making an impression at the moment at Swansea, on loan from Brentford, in Myles-Peart Harris. The 22-year-old left Chelsea for the Bees in 2021.
“Obviously Chelsea is probably the best academy to grow up in,” he said. “Learning there, studying there and going to school there, and being with the best coaches and professionals is every child’s dream.
“They have given me the footprint and the path to be where I am now, and I am very grateful for that.”
Peart-Harris had a bunch of teammates there too.
“Levi Colwill, Tino Livramento, Jamal Musiala – until he was 16,” he recalls. “It was like playing with friends but you could see their talent to this day now. You see how things have turned out for them, but everyone has different paths. I look at them but you can’t compare.
“It gives me the confidence and belief in myself that I can be where they are one day.”
Jordan Rhodes: I have no regrets about the lack of PL games
Jordan Rhodes has played 386 times in the Sky Bet Championship, 173 times in League One and 19 times in League Two.
His deadly natural instinct has earned him a reputation as one of the EFL’s most prolific goalscorers, with the Blackpool forward hitting 222 goals in League football alone to date.
However, he has only played six times in the Premier League, with all of those appearances coming during the 2016/17 season with Middlesbrough.
The striker’s brilliant flight was a lackluster one, yet he is not bitter about it.
“I’ve been very lucky to have the career I’ve had, to score the goals and have the memories now to look back,” he said to Air Sports.
“Throughout my life and my career, I’ve had my critics, so to have been able to achieve what I feel like I’ve been able to achieve in this game, I’m very lucky and thankful I did it.
“I can see why you would look at it, but on the flip side, I feel very grateful to have made six appearances in the Premier League. I look at it as a glass-half-full scenario. It’ n one of the proudest moments to look back and say I played in the Premier League.”
Was there ever a chance to return?
“Probably, maybe, when I went on loan to Norwich,” he added.
“Teemu Pukki was doing as well as ever and there was a chance of making that switch from Sheffield Wednesday if the stars had aligned, but they didn’t.”
By Dan Long
Joe Hugill: Rooney, Ronaldo my heroes – but I get compared to Vardy!
Joe Hugill’s chance to train under Ruud van Nistelrooy at Manchester United in the summer was a thrill for him, even if the Dutchman’s Old Trafford prime was a little ahead of his time.
“Rooney was my age. Ronaldo. Others like Drogba. People just after Ruud,” said Hugill – who is currently on loan from Man Utd at Wigan -.
A more recent Premier League legend is someone, at least stylistically, that Hugill can relate to more.
“I always get a bit of a comparison with (Jamie) Vardy,” he said. “The runs in are behind, quite quick, the six yard box type of finish. The poachers’ goals.
“He had a different story in terms of how he came through non-League. But quite similar in terms of style.”
Does Hugill also have a style similar to Vardy when it comes to drinking a famous energy drink before games?
“No!” he laughs. “I’m a little different to him there.”
Toby Mullarkey: Professional player and PT
When Toby Mullarkey was released by Crewe in 2017, he needed to find a way to keep himself going as he tried to work his way back into the professional game.
“I’ve always been interested in the gym and keeping fit,” said the Crawley defender. “So that’s when I got my Personal Training qualification and the more I worked in the gym, the better my football got. So I could talk about that on my page.”
Mullarkey, now 29, and back in the Football League after spells at Rochdale, Grimsby and currently Crawley, has maintained his role as a fitness influencer and online coach throughout.
“It would have been easy to part ways with him when I went pro again,” he adds. “But it keeps me busy away from football which is good.
“It’s my profession, but it’s still a job and you need that. It’s very important to get away from it, to have that mental breath and that physical reset.
“Hopefully it will give me a career path too once my playing career is over.”
Jack Shorrock: Vale’s teenage star on his way to wonder
It came to Jack Shorrock on the edge of the box. He caught the volley perfectly and the cameras were delighted.
Some moment for the 17-year-old Port Vale defender. It won him the Sky Bet League Two Goal of the Month for November.
“There were a lot of emotions,” Shorrock said of his superb strike against Crewe. “I was more shocked than anything. It was a big game and it was so early. I was buzzing.”
Not a bad effort considering it was only his second goal for the club, and the first while live on Sky. It wasn’t something that crossed his mind at the time.
“After the game he did it when everyone was messaging me,” he said. “You realize a lot of people have watched it. It’s not something I’d thought about before.
“I was just in the moment. I was running around. My family comes to every game. My grandmother and my girlfriend are there. So seeing them afterwards was also a nice feeling.”
Mickey Demetriou’s continental route into the EFL
There are so many unique routes into the EFL. Mickey Demetriou took a continental route.
The Glenn Hoddle Academy, when the football legend took players who had been released from professional clubs to train in Spain and tried to get them back into the game, was the start of Demetriou’s path.
Out there he played for Jerez Industrial, a fourth tier Spanish team in Andalusia which was filled with academy members during a short period of 2010-11. Demetriou ended up there by chance.
“I was quite lucky because I never came through an academy,” said Demetriou, who now plays for Crewe after more than a decade in the EFL. “I was playing in Bognor at the time and they came to watch a striker play for Worthing against us in a pre-season game.
“I must have had a good game because they invited me for a trial. Then I was accepted and we flew to Spain, which was amazing.
“Glenn was there a lot when I was there. So learning under him was great. You were listening as much as you can, trying to take in all the information they can pass on to us.
“They pushed me into the central role after going there as a left-back. When I came back I could play both.”
The tweak that made Alex Gilbey thrive at MK Dons
In over 350 appearances in all competitions, Alex Gilbey had scored 28 goals when he re-signed for MK Dons in July 2023.
Three promotions – two from League Two and one from the National League – proved he was a reliable midfielder, but he knew he could do more – as did former MK boss Mike Williamson.
One day, Williamson – now in charge at Carlisle – pushed Gilbey into a more advanced midfield position, with Jack Payne dropping back. He took the opportunity, ran with it, and had 23 goals and 10 assists in his last 71 games until Christmas.
“The big question mark over my name my whole career was that I didn’t score enough goals, didn’t set up enough goals, especially when I was at the club the first time around. It’s nice to see the goals start to go. as I always knew I could do it, it was just to prove the point.
“I’ve always had the legs to run into the box, but being in a higher position, closer to the goal. It’s crazy that it took me so long to find my position.
“I have worked very hard on my finishing, especially last season. This year, Carl Laraman has come to the club and he has given me many tips, helping me, and I have just listened to the attackers .
“Ellis Harrison and Scotty Hogan have been massive for me. I try to mirror their runs, so if the ball misses them, I’m there. Listening to people who have scored goals has been a big help and I know how to do that. I have to keep doing that.”
By Dan Long
New Year’s Day EFL Matches on Sky Sports+
Kick-off at 3pm unless otherwise stated (games in bold also on Sky Sports Football)
