Author: Joe Soriano

Joe Soriano is the editor of The Trivela Effect and a FanSided Hall of Famer who has covered world football since 2010. He’s led top digital communities like The Real Champs (Real Madrid) and has run sites covering Tottenham, Liverpool, Juventus, and Schalke. He also helped manage NFL Spin Zone and Daily DDT, covering the NFL and pro wrestling.

Aurelien Tchouameni won’t like the latest Enzo Fernandez transfer news
24Mar By Joe SorianoNo Comments
Transfer News

Aurelien Tchouameni won’t like the latest Enzo Fernandez transfer news

Real Madrid star defensive midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni has been under a microscope since joining the club in 2022 as the Casemiro replacement after the Royal Whites won the Champions League title. But Tchouameni has been a success on his 80 million euro price tag, winning a Champions League crown of his own in 2023/24 as a crucial starter, including playing some important games as a center back amidst a serious injury crisis at the position. This season, Tchouameni is settling down and playing the best football of his life under new manager Alvaro Arbeloa, but that doesn't mean his future as a starter is 100 percent secure. Enzo Fernandez dreams of Real Madrid Real Madrid are being linked with another deep lying playmaking midfielder in Chelsea's controversial and high priced st...
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Kylian Mbappe destroyed an insulting injury conspiracy
24Mar By Joe SorianoNo Comments
Injury News

Kylian Mbappe destroyed an insulting injury conspiracy

Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe had to miss several games with a left knee injury that had been acting up. He was initially trying to play through the pain, but Madrid and doctors thought it would be best for the French superstar to shut things down and heal instead of making things worse. He returned against Atletico Madrid in a 3-2 El Derbi win, looking quite spry off the bench for the Merengeus. It is questionable if he will play for the French national team during this March international break, but Mbappe looks ready to make a difference for the Royal Whites when play resumes in April. Unfortunately, as with anything relating to Mbappe, there are always conspiracies and rumors abound, and one of them is that Mbappe has been trying to take games off in order to save himself f...
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Real Madrid players know the counterintuitive truth about Alvaro Arbeloa and Xabi Alonso
24Mar By Joe SorianoNo Comments
News

Real Madrid players know the counterintuitive truth about Alvaro Arbeloa and Xabi Alonso

Xabi Alonso did not last long as Real Madrid manager, and even though he was hyped up as the perfect successor to Carlo Ancelotti with experience as a top midfielder for Los Blancos when they won La Decima, his reign, in hindsight, was a nightmare. While Alonso is clearly an excellent coach and will always be able to boast about going undefeated with Bayer Leverkusen to break up Bayern Munich's record hegemony in Die Werkself's first ever Bundesliga title triumph, he was anything but a great fit for Real Madrid. In addition to alienating star players like Vinicius Junior, Jude Bellingham, and Fede Valverde, Alonso did not exactly show up as the master tactician that he was at Leverkusen, with his ideas both proving ineffective and falling on jaded ears. Real Madrid players are prais...
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Real Madrid legend is finally achieving his biggest dream
23Mar By Joe SorianoNo Comments
News

Real Madrid legend is finally achieving his biggest dream

There are a lot of current Real Madrid fans and even star players like Jude Bellingham who consider themselves Madridistas for life because they grew up watching the elegance of Zinedine Zidane as the centerpiece player of the Galacticos project in the early 2000s. Zizou then went on to become an even bigger Real Madrid legend as a manager, first learning under Carlo Ancelotti as an assistant and then building on the Decima success with an unprecedented three straight Champions League titles before returning for a second stint to win another La Liga from the grasps of Lionel Messi. After stepping down from Real Madrid for a second time after burning out during a grueling, COVID-stricken 2020/21 season, Zizou's biggest dream as a manager then became leading the French national team. ...
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5 Real Madrid stars are pushing for Alvaro Arbeloa to stay permanently
23Mar By Joe SorianoNo Comments
News

5 Real Madrid stars are pushing for Alvaro Arbeloa to stay permanently

Real Madrid did not initially hire Alvaro Arbeloa to be a permanent solution at manager, but rather a stabilizing force with experience at the club who could smooth over the acrimony building up in the club after Xabi Alonso essentially treated the club's star players like a bunch of overgrown children. Well, mission accomplished. After being battered by Atletico Madrid in the first Derbi of the 2025/26 season, Real Madrid came roaring back and battled past injuries and adversity to christen the Santiago Bernabeu with a 3-2 victory over Los Rojiblancos in a thriller. And in the aftermath of the game, all anyone can do is wax poetic about Arbeloa. According to a new report from MARCA, via The Madrid Zone, some of Real Madrid's most important players are pushing hard for Arbeloa to be ...
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Real Madrid vs. Atletico Player Ratings: Vinicius Jr. is the hero
22Mar By Joe SorianoNo Comments
Player Ratings

Real Madrid vs. Atletico Player Ratings: Vinicius Jr. is the hero

Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid did not disappoint in El Derbi, and Los Blancos were able to survive an early deficit and a Fede Valverde red card to take down their crosstown rivals 3-2 in a huge win that keeps them plugging along right behind Barcelona in the La Liga title race. Here are the player ratings from the win, with Vinicius Junior leading the way as Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappe were second half substitutes on their road back from injury. GK Andriy Lunin, 7.0 He could be better on the ball, but Andriy Lunin made a couple of big saves and could do nothing about the goals Atletico Madrid put past him. LB Fran Garcia, 6.0 He actually played alright. Fran Garcia is not the best player technically and has serious limitations, but his effort is often enough to ensure he is...
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5 talented Premier League strikers who have been downright horrible this season
22Mar By Joe SorianoNo Comments
Analysis

5 talented Premier League strikers who have been downright horrible this season

Premier League fans are looking at the top scoring charts and wondering where the quality at the No. 9 went over the past decade in English football. These five strikers have not exactly helped change that narrative in the 2025/26 season. Jorgen Strand Larsen, Wolves Jorgen Strand Larsen has looked significantly better for Crystal Palace with three goals in six games, clearly benefiting from a move to a club that is not dead last in the Premier League right now. But Larsen still deserves a mention on this list for just how horrendous he was at Wolves. They are, in no small part, in last with some "thanks" to Larsen, who scored just once in 22 appearances with some of the most inept all around play at the position in the division. Hwang Hee-Chan, Wolves With Wolves staring down releg...
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5 Premier League wingers who have flopped miserably this season
21Mar By Joe SorianoNo Comments
Analysis

5 Premier League wingers who have flopped miserably this season

Premier League fans have lamented the down turn in individual quality and wing play this season, and these five players have fed into that narrative with horrendous 2025/26 seasons. Kaoru Mitoma, Brighton Remember when Kaoru Mitoma was the Khvicha Kvaratskhelia of the Premier League? The Japanese international was not but a sensation a couple of years ago, and now he is an absolute ghost for Brighton who can barely pose a threat to the opposition keeper. He was getting links to Barcelona, for goodness sakes, and now he is nowhere near a top five player on his own team. Mohamed Salah, Liverpool Obviously, the biggest flop among the Premier League wingers is Mohamed Salah, who went from being the best player in the league during the 2024/25 season to being a liability for Liverpool. And ...
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Ranking the 10 best English players in the Premier League this season
21Mar By Joe SorianoNo Comments
Rankings

Ranking the 10 best English players in the Premier League this season

With the 2026 World Cup on the horizon, now is as good of a time as ever to take stock of the English talent playing in the Premier League right now, scouting out their form. Here are the 10 best English players in the Premier League of the 2025/26 campaign, ranked in order. 10. Chelsea AM Cole Palmer Even in a down year for him personally, Cole Palmer is still one of the best non strikers in the Premier League at finding the back of the net with nine goals in 17 starts. If you believed Palmer was a Ballon d'Or candidate in the past, then you had better believe he still has heaps of quality. The skill and shooting ability have clearly not left him, even in this difficult 2025/26 campaign. 9. West Ham RW Jarrod Bowen Jarrod Bowen is perennially underrated, and if it were not for him roa...
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3 teams that should be begging to sign Pedro Neto
21Mar By Joe SorianoNo Comments
Transfer News

3 teams that should be begging to sign Pedro Neto

Chelsea right winger Pedro Neto is a quality Premier League forward, and while he does not fit the high standards the Blues want as Premier League title hopefuls, he would make a ton of sense for several other notable teams around Europe. Here are three sides that should pick up the phone and call Chelsea about the former Wolves star's availability this summer. Atletico Madrid Pedro Neto is best off in a 4-3-3 as a right winger and Atletico Madrid play a 4-4-2, but Diego Simeone is flexible enough to utilize both formations and could have some use for Neto as an attacking option. He has Nico Gonzalez and the well rounded Giuliano Simeone as his favored - and scrappy - option, but Atleti do need a guy who can be a bulldog on the ball with the skill to make magic happen. Nico has the sk...
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