Louis van Gaal's focus on technique and tactics changes mindset of Manchester United's players

Under the charismatic Dutchman the change in attitude among the squad has been remarkable

At one stage of last season, the difficulties experienced by Manchester United under David Moyes led to a joke doing the rounds that it was because the headmaster – Sir Alex Ferguson – had been replaced by a supply teacher.
It was a harsh appraisal of Moyes, but results and performances did little to help the Scot confound his critics and United's downward spiral ultimately led to the inevitable dismissal of the former Everton manager.
One inescapable conclusion of the Moyes reign was that the players never really bought into the manager's methods.
He did not challenge them enough, they became restless and, like any unruly classroom led by a supply teacher, the players lost interest and performances deteriorated as a result.
But under Louis van Gaal, the change in attitude among the squad has been remarkable.
If Moyes was a supply teacher, Van Gaal is the university professor accustomed to dealing with the very best and making them even better.

No Mo Farah but Hampden Park roars for hapless Rosefelo Siosi

Hapless 5,000m runner from Solomon Islands is cheered all the way home by 40,000 crowd as England's Adam Gemili qualifies fastest from 100m heats with 10.15sec

      Not so lonely long-distance runner: Rosefelo Siosi had 40,000 people cheering him to the finish line in Glasgow

They came expecting Mo Farah, and were rewarded instead by the strange but stirring spectacle of a lone straggler from the Solomon Islands. If the 40,000 vociferous fans at Hampden Park were dismayed at being denied the one transcendent star of the 5,000 metres – and Usain Bolt in the 100m heats, for that matter – they concealed it brilliantly, as last man Rosefelo Siosi completed his two final laps entirely tout seul, to be assailed by a crescendo of noise that would have embarrassed Eric the Eel.

All the finest sporting spectaculars have a habit of yielding a heroic also-ran like Siosi. At the Sydney Olympics it was, of course, the Eel, otherwise known as Eric Moussambani from Equatorial Guinea, a swimmer so hysterically underqualified that he completed the 100m freestyle in a time slower than the world record for 200m.

Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert wants to sign Chelsea winger Victor Moses on loan for the season

Paul Lambert keen to offer Victor Moses a fresh start in at Aston Villa as he bids to further strengthen his squad

     Target man: Aston Villa are hoping Victor Moses will lead them to the promised land of Premier League survival

Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert has made a move for Chelsea winger Victor Moses and will step up his bid to sign Ki Sung-yueng this week. Lambert is keen to sign Moses on loan for the season and is waiting for a response from Jose Mourinho. Moses, 23, will be allowed out for another season despite his struggles at Liverpool and Lambert is keen to offer him a fresh start in the West Midlands as he bids to further strengthen his squad.

However, the Nigeria international is also a target for Everton, Newcastle United, former club Crystal Palace, West Ham United and West Bromwich Albion and the final decision will rest with Mourinho.
After his lack of opportunities at Anfield, Chelsea are determined to ensure Moses’s next move is the right one and Mourinho will assess the merits of every club.

Nigeria isolates Lagos hospital where Ebola victim died

Dr. Jide Idris, Lagos' state commissioner for Health, speaks during a news conference on the death of an Ebola victim in Lagos July 25,2014.

The Nigerian city of Lagos shut down and quarantined on Monday a hospital where a man died of Ebola, the first recorded case of the highly infectious disease in Africa's most populous country.

Patrick Sawyer, a consultant for the Liberian finance ministry aged in his 40s, collapsed on arrival at Lagos airport on July 20. He was put in isolation at the First Consultants Hospital in Obalende, one of the most crowded parts of a city that is home to 21 million people, and died on Friday.

"The private hospital was demobilized (evacuated) and the primary source of infection eliminated. The decontamination process in all the affected areas has commenced," Lagos state health commissioner Jide Idris told a news conference.

Some hospital staff who were in close contact with the victim have been isolated. The hospital will be shut for a week and all staff closely monitored, Idris added.

What is the Ebola virus, and how worried should we be?

As the death toll from Ebola reaches 670, a second Amercian doctor contracts the virus in Liberia, and it is feared to have spread to Nigeria, here's an explanation of what Ebola is, how it is spread, and how worried we should be

The World Health Organisation says Ebola is one of the most virulent viral diseases known to humankind, causing death in 50 to 90 percent of all clinically ill cases

What is Ebola?
Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is described by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as "a severe, often fatal illness in humans."
It first appeared in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks - in Nzara, Sudan; and in Yambuku, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The latter was in a village situated near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name. It is mainly found in tropical Central and West Africa, and can have a 90 per cent mortality rate - although it is now at about 60 per cent.

How is it transmitted?
The virus is known to live in fruit bats, and normally affects people living in or near tropical rainforests.
It is introduced into the human population through close contact with the sweat, blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals such as chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines found ill or dead or in the rainforest.
The virus then spreads in the community through human-to-human transmission, with infection resulting from direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) and indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluids.