Not only are the New York Jets playing poorly on Sundays but they are not practicing with a sense of urgency, according to two defensive players.

In recent days, safety Bradley McDougald and linebacker Avery Williamson have questioned the team's practice habits. Whether intended that way or not, their comments will be perceived as criticism of coach Adam Gase, who has come under fire after an 0-2 start.

"It all goes back to practice. We've had some slow practices, and it correlates to the game," McDougald told SNY TV after Sunday's 31-13 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. "We need to have a complete, full week of just great practices, and I don't think we've had that yet.

"The sooner we realize that and hone in on how important practice is and coming out and winning at practice, then it will translate to the games on Sunday."

Williamson, in his weekly spot Tuesday on WFAN radio, agreed with McDougald's assessment.

"Sometimes, in practice, guys are missing tackles or we're not doing things right," Williamson said. "We haven't been as crisp as we should be at times. ... We don't start fast at practice."

Same for the games.

The Jets have trailed at halftime by the same score, 21-3, in both losses. Against the 49ers, they allowed an 80-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage, the start of another poor performance by the defense.

"Until we dominate at practice on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Sunday is going to be a toss-up," said McDougald, acquired in the July trade that sent safety Jamal Adams to the Seattle Seahawks.

Gase said he received a text Tuesday from Williamson, who apparently wanted to clarify his radio remarks. The coach said he wasn't aware of the comments.

"Until [the PR department] tells me, I probably won't know because I don't even open internet browsers right now," Gase joked.

The players' opinions are somewhat surprising because defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is known for his intense practices, and Gase disagreed with their sentiment.

"Nobody said anything during the week," he said. "I felt like we had really good tempo to practice. Sometimes an individual guy, if he wants to change something, we talk about it every week. It's not like it's not an open forum. If somebody doesn't like the way something is going, we can easily speak up."

The Jets travel to the Indianapolis Colts (1-1) on Sunday, looking to avoid their second consecutive 0-3 start. Gase is 7-11 as the Jets' coach, with nine of the losses by at least 10 points.

Gase said that if the players are unhappy with the practice intensity, now is the time to change it.

"If that's the feeling they have, we have a chance to ramp it up and make sure we're doing what we need to do in individuals and pick up the tempo," he said. "I haven't necessarily felt that."

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Luke Voit has had quite a journey: from a Missouri Valley Conference standout to a St. Louis Cardinals farmhand stuck without a spot in the majors to, as New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone likes to say, the star of the "Luke Voit Show."

The right-handed-hitting first baseman has transformed himself into a staple of the Yankees' lineup and currently leads the majors with 21 home runs. Only Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox (56) has driven in more runs than Voit has this season (49). Voit has more RBIs than Yankees stars Aaron Judge (21), Giancarlo Stanton (10) and Gleyber Torres (16) -- who have all spent time on the injured list -- combined. And that's a long way from where he was less than four years ago, and far beyond even the highest expectations for what he could do.

Voit had spent seven years in the minor leagues before being called up by the St. Louis Cardinals in June 2017. He became an instant hit with fans in his hometown of St. Louis by telling the media he was there to mash "doubles and bombs."

A graduate of Lafayette High in St. Louis, he grew up rooting for the University of Missouri and dreaming of being a linebacker for the St. Louis Rams until two shoulder surgeries derailed his plans. He even received a note of congratulations from Cardinals legend David Freese before his first game.

But the fact that Voit was plunked in his first big league at-bat might have been a sign of things to come. It would not be an easy ride for Voit, and his new wife, Victoria. Three labrum tears and a severe thumb injury later, the brawny slugger thought he had finally arrived. Going back to obscurity at Triple-A Memphis was never part of the plan. Voit promised himself he would do anything in his power to keep him from going back to being called a farmhand, one closing in on 2,000 minor league at-bats.

"My numbers in Triple-A were unbelievable and I felt I deserved a chance," Voit said in a phone interview with ESPN. "Meanwhile, I am seeing all these guys that I came up in the minor leagues with and played against on other teams having success, and I was like, 'I am just as good as them and yet they're getting a chance to play every day. I didn't have that opportunity with St. Louis. And it was a salty feeling for me."

After playing 62 games in 2017, Voit played only eight for St. Louis the next season, batting .182 (2-for-11) with one home run and three RBIs. The Cardinals, who selected Voit in the 22nd round (665th overall) in the 2013 MLB draft, would not wait to see if he could turn things around and join the ranks of their success stories with later draft picks.

"I got stuck. I got stuck behind good players. Matt Carpenter was up playing first. They had Jedd Gyorko who could play first and third; there wasn't really a spot for me. My only spot was on the bench and I was a pinch hitter and that's really hard to make an impact," he said of what little opportunity he had to contribute to the Cardinals. "[Pinch hitter] is the hardest position I think in the big leagues. Coming in in the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth inning and you're facing usually some of the best guys, it's hard. Baseball is already hard enough, you're already supposed to fail, and to come in and maybe get three or four at-bats a week is hard to do. I would have a stretch of like three weeks where I did play well, but I had to deal with injuries. And when any of those guys came back I went right back down to my role."

In 2018, after hitting .299 with nine homers and 36 RBIs in 67 games for Memphis, Voit got a call he never thought he would get: He had been traded to the Yankees. New York would get Voit and international signing bonus pool money for relievers Chasen Shreve and Giovanny Gallegos. Voit's "I'm going to go out there with a killer attitude and hit bombs and doubles" rookie quote was going to be tested on the biggest of big league stages.

"I just said, 'Holy cow!' I was kind of in a daze," Voit said of his reaction after learning of the trade. "It's the New York Yankees, the best organization in professional sports. I knew I would have a chance at the DH spot, since I'm more of a first baseman and DH, which is huge. Our minor league coaches told us always playing throughout the minors, as much as you play with the birds on the bat on the Cardinals jersey, you're playing for 29 teams every day you take the field. Always remember that. The scouts are always watching you. And I listened, but I never thought it was going to happen to me. We're in Vegas three years ago and boom, I got traded. I was in the locker room and I was shocked. I had my chance."

It turns out that the deal was not even Yankees general manager Brian Cashman's first attempt at acquiring Voit. The Bombers' analytics department had long been interested in him.

"Voit was a player identified by our analytics department as someone that was blocked, with real potential on his bat," Cashman said to ESPN. "We took a few swings at it and failed, probably over two years, two and a half years. That [2018] deadline, when we secured him trading from area of strength, our analytics crew was really excited."

Cashman added: "After we made the playoffs that year, after the celebrating and the champagne, I brought my crew down, and I introduced [Voit] to our analytics department. I wanted to introduce him to the crew that really pushed his name, to have him interact with that aspect of the operation was very important for me. Luke was, as you would expect, really appreciative. It was a cool, genuine moment to see a manifestation of their hard work play out in such a successful way."

Voit got his first taste of the legendary Red Sox-Yankees rivalry in his first game in pinstripes. He was slotted as a DH, batting seventh, sandwiched between then-Yankees first baseman Greg Bird and backup catcher Austin Romine. In his first at-bat, he faced pitcher Brian Johnson in what was a cloudy and humid day at Fenway Park, and lined out to deep right field. His next 16 at-bats over the following five games would yield similar results, and Voit was sent back down to Triple-A. Scranton taught him an important lesson, just as Memphis had.

"I needed to learn that I couldn't be someone that I'm not," Voit explained. "'Just be you, man.' As much as I've said that in the past, it's so hard. It's the easiest thing to get away from. You get in the spotlight, the media can take over, and you get in your head and then you're worried about your stats and so many other things. But at the end of the day I was like, 'Dude, just go have fun; it's the New York Yankees; it's gonna be an awesome experience; you have a chance to win a World Series; like, let's go.'"

Voit proved he was an impact big leaguer when the Yankees needed him most. His joy for the game and enthusiasm was contagious. That clubhouse where he had felt so overwhelmed walking into became his safe place.

"It's an intimidating locker room to pop into, but I was like I have to take this and run with it. This is my opportunity to show them what I can do," Voit said. "That's where I got caught up early on. I was trying to hit a home run 800 feet and then I ended up being sent back down. I was like man, you can't do that. You don't know how many chances you're going to get here. So that's when I went back down to Scranton for like three or four days, Didi [Gregorius] ended up getting hurt again. And I knew it was my job when I came back to use the whole field, like I always had, and be myself, to come up and drive guys in."

Cashman and the team's number crunchers never realized that Voit would do a lot more than drive in runs.

"When we acquired him, we were buying the bat. We believed in the bat. But after we got him, we were pleasantly surprised that we had this larger-than-life, genuine player with great passion for the game," Cashman said. "I told him, he's just like my wrestling hero Jerry 'The King' Lawler. A WWE wrestler who was a big gigantic-like teddy bear that was passionate, wrestled hard, and was a champion. We have learned over the course of time that he had that Nick Swisher-type of love of the game, a passion that played out on the field. Look, we bought the bat, but we got much more than just the bat, clearly, because of his makeup."

In 2012, Voit helped the Missouri State Bears reach their first NCAA tournament since the 2003 College World Series. In 2020, he might help the Yankees get to their first World Series since 2009.

"I just think we're seeing the growth of a really good hitter that's gone to another level and is now having an MVP season," Boone said in talking about Voit's impact this year. "It's hard to imagine where we'd be without Luke Voit, and it's good to see him starting to find his way in that MVP conversation."

Voit rejects any attempt to give him credit or call him the MVP of the Yankees' season. He will quickly dismiss it because he knows how ephemeral it all can be. Voit has been so low that he once questioned whether another team would ever think of him as valuable. But a key part of his success has been trusting that he would come out stronger on the other side.

"I was always played with a chip on my shoulder to prove people wrong. I played with many really good players in the minor leagues, first-rounders signed for a bunch of money, and I would say to myself, 'I'm just as good as these kids.' I had to tell myself constantly that it doesn't really matter, 'as long as you hit, you'll always have a spot,'" he said.

"I love being a Yankee. I hope I am a Yankee for a long time. I want to win. That's what we all want. That's the most important thing. Obviously, the numbers have been good for me and I always want to have as best year as possible. But that is not the goal. The goal is to win a World Series and now's our chance to take advantage and end 2020 on a good note. All I want to do is thank the New York Yankees and Brian Cashman for giving me the opportunity to come here. They took a shot with me and the only way to repay that is to work my butt off until they take the cleats away."

QUEEN CREEK, Ariz. — The upcoming Keyser Manufacturing Wild West Shootout presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts’ headline super late model division will once again boast title sponsorship from Dirt Track Bank.

For the second-straight year the featured class during the six-race mini-series, which runs from Jan. 9–17 at FK Rod Ends Arizona Speedway, will be known as the Dirt Track Bank Super Late Models presented by Black Diamond Race Cars, bringing the financial institution’s name to the forefront through the mid-winter action that also includes racing for the Modified and X-Mod divisions.

Based in Malvern, Iowa, Dirt Track Bank caters to the specialized needs of all those involved in the dirt-track racing industry. The affiliate of Malvern Bank offers race fans the opportunity to make deposits with a firm that provides services such as loans for racers looking to purchase haulers or expand their motorsports businesses as it strives to fulfill its role as the Official Bank of Dirt Track Racing.

“We’ve been calling Malvern Bank the official bank of dirt track racing for years, and in our quest to increase the bank’s core depositor base we made the decision in 2019 to take the next step and actually create a completely separate online bank that everyone involved with dirt track racing could call their own,” said Malvern Bank President Jay Burdic. “We’re continuing to grow Dirt Track Bank and spread the word about exactly what we have to offer and the Wild West Shootout gives us a great opportunity to get a fast start toward our 2021 goals.

“If most race fans are like me, once January rolls around we’re all tired of the cold and snow and ready to watch some racing, whether we do it in person or at home. The Wild West Shootout provides a captive audience, which allows us to get the word out that Dirt Track Bank is unlike anything that fans have seen before, and that their deposits into Dirt Track Bank will be used to fund the race haulers that get our favorite drivers from track-to-track throughout the year. Equally cool, account holders can get debit cards with a photo of their favorite dirt track image on it.”

Both Dirt Track Bank and Malvern Bank have deep roots in dirt track racing via their partnerships with various events and series. Additionally, both companies provide financial assistance to teams, tracks, and individuals throughout the dirt racing industry.

“Having the continued support of Jay Burdic and the staff at Dirt Track Bank means a lot to our event on both a personal and professional level. Whether it be Dirt Track Bank or Malvern Bank, Jay and his staff are some of dirt track racing’s biggest allies,” Keyser Manufacturing Wild West Shootout event manager Ben Shelton said. “Not only do they sponsor tracks, series, and events but they also finance dozens upon dozens of haulers for the race teams, who compete in these events.

“I think it’s really cool that we now have a bank for the racing community that is run by the racing community. From my perspective, I don’t know that there is a better way to invest our money than to put it into an institution like Dirt Track Bank that helps racers reach their goals.”

PATASKALA, Ohio – After recently announcing its split from Team Penske at the end of the season, Honda Performance Development has announced that Wayne Taylor Racing and Meyer Shank Racing will both field the Acura ARX-05 in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship DPi class beginning in 2021.

Wayne Taylor Racing most recently was part of the Cadillac program in IMSA’s top class, winning three of the last four Rolex 24 events at Daytona Int’l Speedway. The team has also captured two driver championships, with the most recent coming in 2017.

“While Wayne Taylor Racing has been enjoying much success with Cadillac over the past several years, Acura and Honda Performance Division (HPD) have also had considerable success,” said team owner Wayne Taylor. “All of us at Wayne Taylor Racing are looking forward to partnering with Acura and HPD and adding to their achievements. Our new partnership with Acura and HPD provides us with the long-term stability necessary to properly invest in the program and remain championship contenders for years to come.”

Meyer Shank Racing steps back up to the top class in IMSA competition after most recently racing in the GT Daytona class with the Acura NSX GT3 since 2017. In that time Meyer Shank Racing has six times while also capturing the 2019 team and driver titles with with Trent Hindman and Mario Farnbacher.

The team currently leads the GT Daytona driver standings heading into this weekend’s event at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

“We have worked for so many years to get a championship title and I think that partnering with Acura back in 2017 was just what we, as a team, needed to make that happen,” said Meyer Shank Racing co-owner Mike Shank. “We’ve continued to push for podiums and victories, and the performance that Acura brings to the table in such a competitive series is exactly what we needed to get the job done.”

Meyer Shank Racing first utilized Honda power in 2015 when the team moved to the LMP2-specification Ligier, getting a fast start with a run to the Rolex 24 At Daytona pole and going on to claim three podium finishes with the Honda Ligier at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Detroit and and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

The team continued with Honda into the 2016 season which saw the team make its debut entry into the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where drivers, Ozz Negri, John Pew and Laurens Vanthoor led laps and finished ninth. MSR went on to make its 250th Prototype start at the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans and win the 10-hour endurance event, which concluded the team’s Prototype run.

“When Acura and HPD chose Meyer Shank Racing to debut the Acura NSX GT3 in 2017, it was a big moment in our history,” continued Shank. “I’m really proud of building a championship-winning program and everything that we’ve been able to accomplish together with the NSX. As a team, we’ve been working towards the opportunity to go and fight for overall wins for a long time, and I am thrilled to be making this announcement and eager to get going with this DPi program. But we have some work to do first, and we are 100 percent focused on bringing another IMSA championship home with the Acura NSX in 2020.”

Acura began competing in the DPi class in 2017 when the brand partnered with Team Penske to field a pair of Acura ARX-05 entries. Last year Juan Pablo Montoya and Dane Cameron partnered to give Team Penske and Acura the driver and team while also claiming the manufacturer championship for Acura.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – Solid Rock Carriers CARS Tour officials have confirmed the Heritage Transportation Risk Management Old North State Nationals presented by GXS Wraps, will move south to Greenville-Pickens Speedway on Oct. 24-25.

The move comes on the heels of North Carolina governor’s decision to continue to restrict fan attendance at race tracks. The event was originally slated to be held at Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, N.C.

The 200-lap race for late model stock cars will pay $30,000-to-win and $1,250 to take the green flag with additional purse money up for grabs. The event format will remain the same as a season ago, with qualifying and qualifying races determining the starting field. The main event will once again be just a six tire race with controlled cautions utilized to change tires and add fuel. Tire changes and fuel additions cannot take place on the same controlled caution, creating a multi pit stop race for teams.

Heritage Transportation Risk Management will be the new title sponsor of the South Carolina edition of the Old North State Nationals, with annual supporter GXS Wraps presenting qualifying races on Saturday night Oct. 24.

In addition, Busy Beaver Tree Service of Greenville, S.C., will award $2,000 to the leader of lap 50, 100, and 150 on Sunday’s main event. Peformanccenter Racing Warehouse will also award $500 to the driver who leads the most laps. Each qualifying race winner and the last chance race winner will add an additional $250 to their winnings check. Over the four weeks leading up the event Greenville-Pickens Speedway will host a Facebook Live drawing for two free tires every Wednesday for teams that have filed their entry form online to encourage early entry by competitors.

“It has been a challenging year with everything that has been going on. We’ve had to move dates, relocate to different race tracks, and faced numerous other challenges behind the scenes to get this season completed in its entirety,” explained CARS Tour owner, Jack McNelly. “I think with today’s announcement that we are moving the Old North State Nationals to Greenville-Pickens, people will see that while many big races have canceled, the CARS Tour is doing what it takes to make things happen the way we said we were going to. I think teams, drivers, and fans will get the biggest and best weekend of Late Model Stock Car racing in the country on Oct. 24-25.”

The weekend will kick off with an optional test day on Friday October 23rd that is free to attend for fans.

Saturday’s qualifying night presented by GXS Wraps will set the 28 car starting field. Single car qualifying will lock in the top five starters and pay $250 for the Hedgecock pole position. Positions 6th through 21st will be determined by 25 lap qualifying heat races, with positions 22nd through 26th set by a 25 lap last chance race. The final two positions in the field will be awarded to the highest non-qualified driver in CARS Late Model Stock Tour owner points. Following the night’s racing action, the Tyler Hatley Band will kick off a post-race concert and party to cap off the night.

The biggest payday of the year for late model stocks will take place on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 25 and feature 200 green flag laps of racing. Fans are encouraged to arrive early and attend the Windshield Deep Trackside Live pre-race show on the speedway concourse prior to the field taking the green flag at 3 p.m.

“Even though we are having to move the Old North State Nationals out of state, I think Greenville-Pickens will be a great facility to host such a big event. A big thanks goes to Heritage Risk Management, GXS Wraps, and Anthony Anders for helping make this all happen,” said CARS Tour Series Director Chris Ragle. “This race will be the biggest Late Model Stock race in the country this year without question. If you’re a competitor you have to be here to race against the best, if you’re a race fan then this is the ticket you need to buy. You will see one guy win $30,000 and on the same afternoon we will crown a 2020 late model stock champion. It will be an awesome way to close out such a difficult season.”

Tickets for the Old North State Nationals are on sale now only at www.carsracingtour.com, and reflect heavy savings for those purchasing in advance.

General admission tickets to Saturday’s qualifying race day and concert are $15 in advance and $22 the day of the event for adults thirteen years of age and older. Kids twelve and under are free with a paid adult. Trackside parking spots are $13 in advance and $20 the day of the event.

Sunday afternoon’s 200 lap main event, general admission ticket will be $23 in advance and $30 the day of the event for adults 13 years of age and older. Kids 12 and under are free with a paid adult. Trackside parking spots are $13 in advance and $20 the day of the event.

LEXINGTON, Ohio – Team Hardpoint is expanding its efforts in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship to include the Petit Le Mans and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

The team originally planned to compete in just the Sprint Cup events on the IMSA schedule this year in the GT Daytona class.

First, the No. 30 Team Hardpoint/GridRival.com Audi R8 LMS GT3 returns to action for the two-hour, 40-minute race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this weekend on Sept. 25-27. Co-drivers Rob Ferriol and Spencer Pumpelly will once again pair up for the Sprint Cup race.

The team’s remaining plans will then take them to the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, the 10-hour Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and the season-ending 12 Hours of Sebring.

“We said from the start that our primary goal for the 2020 season was to establish a solid foundation by which we could build a relevant, long-term team in this paddock,” said Ferriol, the team principal. “To paraphrase a saying from my former life, ‘no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.’ This process doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and 2020 has certainly brought its fair share of surprises. I believe the key is to remain agile, evaluate opportunities as they come – not only for the present, but how they may shape the future as well – and make the best move possible. We followed that philosophy when we expanded into the WeatherTech Championship after the extended break, and now is the right time to continue building on that program for Team Hardpoint.”

The endurance race driver lineups will feature Ferriol, an Audi Sport works driver and a third driver to be announced later. In the meantime, Ferriol and Pumpelly will continue to drive during all sprint races, including at Mid-Ohio.

This will be the first IMSA visit to Mid-Ohio for Team Hardpoint, though not for the drivers. Ferriol stood on the podium twice during the 2019 IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA doubleheader at Mid-Ohio, while sports car veteran Pumpelly has won numerous times at the track.

“The GTD class of the WeatherTech Championship is, in my mind, the most difficult class in the paddock,” Ferriol said. “We have to be flawless each and every time out to compete, and if we can be successful there, we can be successful anywhere. The refinement of our GTD program has progressed considerably since VIR, so I look forward to seeing the team’s efforts translate into results at Mid-Ohio.”

INDIANAPOLIS – Andretti Autosport revealed Wednesday that Zach Veach will step out of the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda for the remainder of the NTT IndyCar Series season.

The team plans to announce a replacement driver in the coming days.

“The decision was made that I will not be returning in 2021 with Andretti Autosport in the No. 26 Gainbridge car. This, along with knowing that limited testing exists for teams due to COVID, have led me to the decision to step out of the car for the remainder of the 2020 IndyCar season,” Veach said. “I am doing this to allow the team to have time with other drivers as they prepare for 2021, and so that I can also explore my own 2021 options.

“This is the hardest decision I have ever made, but to me, racing is about family, and it is my belief that you take care of your family. Andretti Autosport is my family and I feel this is what is best to help us all reach the next step.

“I will forever be grateful to Michael and the team for all of their support over the years. I would not be where I am today if it wasn’t for a relationship that started many years ago with Road to Indy. I will also be forever grateful to Dan Towriss for his friendship and for the opportunity he and Gainbridge have given me.

“My love for this sport and the people involved is unmeasurable, and I look forward to continuing to be amongst the racing world and fans in 2021.”

Veach has been a part of Andretti Autosport’s NTT IndyCar Series program since 2018. In 45 starts with the team, Veach has earned a best finish of fourth on two occasions.

“We first welcomed Zach to the Andretti team back in his USF2000 days and have enjoyed watching him grow and evolve as a racer, and a person,” said team owner Michael Andretti. “His decision to allow us to use the last few races to explore our 2021 options shows the measure of his character. Zach has always placed team and family first, and we’re very happy to have had him as part of ours for so many years. We wish him the best in whatever 2021 may bring and will always consider him a friend.”

USMNT and Manchester City goalkeeper Zack Steffen has said he will continue to take a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement but has called on more "action" in the fight for social justice.

Steffen is set to make his City debut in their Carabao Cup tie with Bournemouth on Thursday, and ahead of the game the 25-year-old Pennsylvanian said he will continue to use his platform to make a stand against racism.

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"We have a big role to play," Steffen, who has a foundation which supplies computer equipment to children from disadvantaged communities, told ESPN.

"We work hard each and every day to build these platforms and fans pay money to come see us play on the field, come to events to see us off the field, follow us on social media, and we have these massive platforms that we can really do a lot of good.

"Not for our own personal gain but for our communities we come from.

"Change is really only going to come through actions. I think teams taking a knee is good, I think we should still do that, but we really need each team, each person, to stand up with the Black community and minority communities and fight. Action is the way towards real change."

Steffen signed for City from Columbus Crew in 2019 and after a season on loan at Fortuna Dusseldorf, is finally ready to make his first appearance for Pep Guardiola's side.

After Claudio Bravo's departure, he will play No. 2 to first-choice Ederson but he is still expecting plenty of opportunities after Bravo was handed the gloves for 17 games last season.

"I want to play games and get better, and I know I have to get better," said Steffen.

"I'm here to do those things. This is my team, this is who I signed for and I want to be with them. I want to come in here, learn, get better, push the players and have them push me. I want to win trophies. I want to stay here for a while and enjoy the ride. I'm just happy to be here."

Ederson has been Guardiola's established No. 1 since arriving at the Etihad Stadium from Benfica in 2017 but Steffen has promised to push the Brazil international, starting with a possible debut against Bournemouth.

"I definitely have that competitive nature," said Steffen.

"Ederson is high quality. I'm very happy to be here and just watch him, learn from him and pick his brains about certain things. That's how I'm going to get better.

"The season has just started and I feel like I've already learned a lot so I'm really just looking forward to the future and the opportunities that come my way.

"We talk about techniques and little different things, even off the field. He's been a great guy so far and a good role model for me in training."

Kepa Arrizabalaga is used to things happening fast. At age 23, he had made 53 La Liga appearances when Chelsea made him the world's most expensive goalkeeper in summer 2018. Athletic Bilbao finished a modest 16th place that season. Kepa had one international cap for Spain, earned in a 5-0 friendly win over Costa Rica. Despite possessing more potential than proven pedigree, the Blues handed him a seven-year contract in a remarkable show of faith for a club famed for its capriciousness.

Just two years later, Kepa is losing the battle to save his Chelsea career as head coach Frank Lampard harbours mounting doubts over whether he will ever become robust enough to form the first line of defence in a Premier League title-winning team.

With Edouard Mendy's imminent £20 million arrival from Stade Rennes, and Willy Caballero trusted to play in the cup competitions, is it already too late? There are precious few examples of goalkeepers who recover from the position Kepa finds himself in now. Some sympathy should exist given the dramatic trajectory of his career thrust immediate expectations on a player palpably yet to fully mature.

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Kepa was twice dropped for Caballero toward the end of last season, but Lampard's faith in restoring him to the No. 1 position has not been rewarded. He failed to get down to a low shot from distance from Leandro Trossard in their opening game, though Chelsea won that game 3-1. However, his woeful attempted clearance, with his team down to 10 men, gifted Sadio Mane the opening goal in Liverpool's 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

It feels significant these days that Kepa's price tag was not the product of negotiations between two clubs. Athletic put an €80m (£73.5m) release clause into Kepa's contract to essentially ward off interest from Real Madrid, aiming to prevent a young talent born in the Basque town of Ondarroa and developed entirely through the Bilbao academy from leaving on the cheap. It was Chelsea who decided simply to cut to the chase, paying that fee in the belief comparable business elsewhere made it more palatable, chiefly the £66.8m Liverpool paid Roma for Alisson, which first broke the world record for a goalkeeper that had stood since Juventus paid Parma £32.6m for Gianluigi Buffon in 2001. Yet Alisson is almost exactly two years older than Kepa and was much further along in establishing himself for club and country.

Prior to Lampard's arrival, Chelsea were so often criticised for short-term thinking, so the willingness to offer a young talent such a long contract should be lauded in one sense. But the concern internally now is that this major judgement call was misguided. The coronavirus pandemic has depressed some elements of the transfer market to the extent that Chelsea would have to take a huge loss to jettison Kepa now.

Kepa certainly hasn't helped himself. A competent debut season was undermined by a staggering show of indiscipline when refusing to be substituted when he appeared to be injured in the Carabao Cup final against Manchester City. He has since claimed the Wembley row was a misunderstanding, and although the situation pointed to a wider malaise as part of then-coach Maurizio Sarri's tenure unravelling, Kepa's attitude was publicly called into question.

Last season, criticism of his performances followed. There are a plethora of statistics available to underline the issues but perhaps these two are most relevant: Kepa has conceded 19 goals from outside the box since he joined Chelsea, more than anyone else in the Premier League, and his expected goals against differential is 12.7. That means Kepa conceded almost 13 goals more than would reasonably be expected from the shots he faced. This is simply an unsustainable deficit for a team that has spent £220m in an attempt to bridge the gap to Liverpool and Manchester City.

Off-field issues are reported to have made matters worse, chiefly his slow progress in learning English and a split from his childhood sweetheart of nine years, Andrea Perez.

The club are acutely aware of the pressure Kepa's price tag can bring. Sources have told ESPN that senior figures there were determined to keep Kai Havertz's final fee under the £71.4m paid for Kepa, something they managed with the eventual acquiescence of his former club, Bayer Leverkusen.

Lampard appreciates how delicate the situation is, combined with the unique challenge of restoring confidence in goalkeepers, a task complicated by the idiosyncrasies of the role.

"I think it is the hardest position [to rebuild a player's confidence] because of the individual nature and mistakes generally get punished with goals," Lampard told ESPN. "That doesn't happen necessarily with other places on the pitch. The eyes can be drawn to that and I understand that. As a manager I also have to be sympathetic to that point.

"Last year, I changed the goalkeeper between Kepa and Willy a few times. When I do it I do it with a different mindset to outfield players because I understand the different elements to it. I am very aware of that. At the same time we are always striving for the best performance we can get and that is what we must continue to do."

Chelsea's defensive problems are not solely down to Kepa. They conceded more goals from corners than any other team in the Premier League last term and had the worst defensive record of any team in the top 10. Thiago Silva's arrival from Paris Saint-Germain is an admission there is an absence of leadership at the heart of the defence. But Kepa is currently a distraction for a team aiming for a title challenge rather than a central component of it.

Perhaps Kepa can draw inspiration from his compatriot and friend David de Gea's initial experience at Manchester United. De Gea joined United from Atletico Madrid in 2011 for £18.9m, then a British record for a goalkeeper. He was younger than Kepa, aged just 20, but there were similar issues with language and conditioning. De Gea weighed just 71kg when he arrived and was put on a programme which involved five additional gym sessions per week, beginning a transformation he later described as becoming "Captain America in one year."

Former United goalkeeping coach Eric Steele explained: "There were lifestyle issues. He'd sleep two or three times a day. He'd have his main meal late at night. He'd eat too many tacos. We pushed protein drinks on him straight after training. We physically made him drink. We had him in the gym a lot. He hated it. They don't do the gym in Spain as much. We needed to build his core strength."

Sources have told ESPN there are some at Cobham who believe Kepa could be doing more to improve his ability to compete. There are also understood to be technical concerns, chiefly that he is too late getting down to shots and could take steps to simplify how he dives for the ball.

Goalkeepers usually aren't given long to rectify these errors. Just ask Loris Karius, who left Liverpool on loan for Besiktas in 2018 after a series of high-profile errors when he was 25. It feels premature in some regards to dismiss a relatively young goalkeeper, but with the stakes so high at Stamford Bridge, the clock is definitely ticking for Kepa.

Tom Curran reckons that the opening night of the IPL in Sharjah offered a sign of things to come for bowling attacks in this year's competition, after the Rajasthan Royals out-muscled the Chennai Super Kings in a bat-dominated contest that featured a record-equalling 33 sixes across the two innings.

Curran himself was subjected to six of those, including three in a row in the final over of the match, as MS Dhoni belatedly turned on the afterburners with the contest already out of his side's reach.

But, Curran said, given the combination of Sharjah's short boundaries and the onset of dew in the latter stages of the CSK chase, he was happy to have taken his licks and emerged on the winning side - especially given that his brother Sam was in the opposition ranks.

"It's going to be tough work throughout the tournament, bowling at Sharjah," Curran said. "It's obviously small, but when the dew came in the second innings, it became really, really hard.

"The ball got really, really wet and with the combination of the humidity and how much you end up sweating there, there's going to be some entertaining high-scoring games. And the toss is going to be crucial as well."

Curran's second foray in the IPL comes after an initial stint as a late replacement for KKR in 2018, in which he picked up six wickets in five matches, but at an economy rate of nearly two a ball.

This time around, however, his burgeoning reputation as a death bowler - for Surrey and Sydney Sixers as well as England - persuaded the Royals to shell out INR 1 crore (USD140,000 approx) at last year's auction. And while his skills weren't exactly tested on Tuesday night, given that he was defending 38 in the final over of the match, the experience was valuable nonetheless, given that the Royals' next match, against the King's XI Punjab, takes place at the same venue on Sunday night.

"It was frustrating to go for those sixes but, at the same time, with a wet ball like that, the main thing was to not bowl a no-ball and make sure we win the game," Curran said. "If I start trying to nail my yorkers and the ball slips out, and I bowl a flat one that goes for six, it just brings them back into the game.

"The pressure isn't off but it kind of is, if you know what I mean," he added. "It's nice that we'd won the game but, as a bowler, to run up there at one of the most destructive batters in the world, it's not the nicest situation. It's one of those things really. It's about adapting on the night really, and trying to get the job done for the team, which is what we did as an attack very nicely last night."

As a bowler who relies on sleight of hand more than outright pace, however, Curran recognises that he won't be able to shelve his variations indefinitely in such conditions.

"As the tournament goes on, it'll be about practising with a wet ball and just trying to make the best out of a bad situation," he said. "Concentrate on the next ball and try and limit those big, big overs because there's going to be boundaries, there's going to be a lot of sixes. It's about limiting those, I guess."

If his evening's work with the ball wasn't quite as he might have planned, then Curran did at least enjoy a degree of one-upmanship against his brother, whom he withstood in an innings of 10 not out that, with Jofra Archer letting rip at the other end with four consecutive sixes, helped to lift the Royals to an insurmountable total of 216 for 7.

Sam Curran did land some telling blows on the Royals, if not his brother, claiming 3 for 33 with the ball before cracking 17 from six balls after being promoted up the CSK order. "He came out with one intention. And one message, to swing pretty hard," Tom said. "So unless he got 80-odd, I don't think I would have bowled to him.

"I wouldn't say there was any chirping, but there was a bit of banter going into the game, so it was nice that we got a win there," he added. "But it was a strange feeling, a different type of concentration really, seeing him running up, there were a lot more things on my mind than usual for those first couple, which was strange."

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Tom's main scoring shot against Sam was an outside-edged yorker that flew through third man for four, but while he was happy not to have got out to his younger brother, he did rue a missed opportunity to put a more definitive stamp on their mini-battle.

"I'd have liked to put him into the stands for a couple, to be honest! The last ball I faced, he tried to bounce me actually, which was surprising because he had square leg up. I wish I'd stood still because I reckon that was my chance to put him into the stands. But he was getting his yorkers in, so I tried to put him off and walk down the wicket.

"It was good fun. We definitely had a laugh about it afterwards but, like I said, I'd have liked to have put him into the stands. He had a really good game, but we had a win. It's nice to get a win and hopefully we get another little battle in a couple of weeks when we play them again."

Watch the Rajasthan Royals take on the King's XI Punjab on Sky Sports, Sunday, September 27, at 3pm BST