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Many Liverpool fans have been debating who should step up in the absence of Joel Matip, after the Evening Standard reported the defender could be ruled out for up to six weeks.

Matip suffered a kick to his knee against Sheffield United on September 28, and felt the injury again at Old Trafford when he made his return against Manchester United following a three-week absence.

Liverpool intend to ease his return to full fitness, with the 28-year-old potentially facing a further six weeks on the sidelines after suffering a setback in his recovery.

Such a spell out of action would rule Matip out of the Reds’ upcoming encounters with Manchester City, Everton and the remainder of their Champions League Group Stage fixtures.

Watch Liverpool Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

Dejan Lovren has held duties alongside Virgil van Dijk in two of Liverpool’s last three league matches and against Genk in Europe in the absence of Matip, with Joe Gomez resigned to a back-up capacity since starting against Norwich City on the opening day.

Reds supporters have been discussing which of Lovren and Gomez should be offered a more prevalent role in Jurgen Klopp’s plans going forward.

Gomez made 16 outings in the Premier League last season, in which he averaged 1.4 tackles per ninety minutes, along with 1.2 interceptions, 3.3 clearances and 1.1 blocks, per WhoScored data.

Lovren, meanwhile, made 13 top-flight appearances in the 2018/19 campaign, in which he averaged 1.4 tackles, 1.0 interceptions, 4.7 clearances and 1 block.

Here are some of the messages shared…

Cast your mind back to the summer of 2015 when Mark Warburton was a coach in great demand.

After securing his first managerial position at Brentford via the unconventional route of first being their sporting director (and the even more unusual claim of previously being a city trader) Warburton took the Bees up to the Championship in his first season in charge, then strengthened his burgeoning reputation further by guiding a team hardly furnished with stars into the playoffs.

A fundamental disagreement over the club’s future strategy regarding transfers was what led to his exit at Griffin Park but with his footballing credentials to that point only impressive and progressive it was inevitable that a queue of potential suitors would line up to offer this promising new face another hot seat to warm. When his decision was finally made it was to the hottest one around.

His short time at Ibrox was initially successful, as Warburton took a reformed and rejuvenated Rangers back into the Scottish top flight. That was until harsh realities set in, the expectation for the fierce competition with Celtic to immediately resume despite there being a gulf in class between the sides. Warburton has spoken of his frustration in Scotland, particularly the manner of his departure which he discovered by tuning into Sky Sports.

Watch Queens Park Rangers Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

So it was off to Nottingham Forest he went, another club that demanded the squaring of its past. His time at the City Ground was a tumultuous and difficult period for both Warburton and the club and he was sacked on New Year’s Eve a mere nine months after taking the reins.

Few would have blamed Warburton had he felt embittered at this juncture. After all, in his five seasons as a head coach he had presided over two promotions and an unanticipated playoff charge. Now here he was on the proverbial scrapheap. There was no longer a queue to his door.

Cast your mind back again to the summer of 2015. That May QPR had suffered relegation to the Championship but with a recent history of yo-yoing between the top two leagues and with a squad abundant with genuine quality they are considered likely to bounce straight back.

They don’t. Instead the Hoops see their better players depart, one after the other and each subsequent season has seen a battle to avoid the drop rather than any promotion charge. In the four years since they last graced the Premier League seven managers have been at the helm, six of them leaving deemed failures.

Find out a how a world-record-holding freestyler got on with the worst football in the world in the video below…

The seventh boss was Mark Warburton who was appointed in early May and presently the West London outfit reside in a playoff spot after stringing together six wins from their opening eleven games. These results include eye-catching away wins at Millwall and Sheffield Wednesday while their attacking partnership of Nahki Wells and Jordan Hugill has garnered 12 goals and promises much.

It may be early days so it seems like a club in need of restoration and a manager in need of redemption have found each other. And it might yet prove to be a match made in heaven.

Manchester City fans have been making a lot of noise on Twitter in the last 24 hours after Liverpool drew 1-1 with Manchester United at Old Trafford.

A late Adam Lallana goal in Manchester snatched a point for Jurgen Klopp, which means Liverpool’s lead has been cut to six points at the top of the table. However, as a result of the draw, it also means the Merseysiders failed to match City’s record of 18 successive wins in the Premier League.

The champions hold the record set in their breathtaking season of 2017-18, where they made history with the most league wins (32) and most goals (100). After drawing with Everton 1-1 early on, Pep Guardiola’s side would go onto win 18 games on the bounce, including victories over every top-six side along the way.

City’s record came to an end when they played out a goalless draw against Crystal Palace at the end of December 2017.

As for the Reds, their streak started back in March with a 4-2 victory over Burnley. Three points over the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea would rocket Liverpool to 17 wins in a row, whilst they even picked up the Champions League in the midst of their unstoppable Premier League form.

City fans wanted Liverpool to drop points on Sunday to reduce the eight point gap that existed prior to the weekend, but the narrative surrounding the winning streak added an extra layer of importance to the game.

Naturally, the Citizens were delighted to see their title rivals fall at the final hurdle.

Here’s what they had to say on Twitter following the 1-1 draw…

[ad_pod ]Leeds United and Marcelo Bielsa winning the FIFA fair play award is a funny one, isn’t it?If you went out on a Friday night and drunkenly destroyed someone’s garden gnome collection, you wouldn’t then expect an award from them for returning the next day with either a new collection of little pointy hatted men or a badly glued set of the obliterated old guard.Watch Leeds United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

We say this because Leeds and Bielsa have essentially been awarded for righting their own wrong.

Although there’s nothing in the laws of football that decrees you should kick the ball out of play if an opposing player, in this case Jonathan Kodjia, hits the deck writhing in pain, you’d certainly be on the wrong end of a serious finger wag if you didn’t ‘do the right thing’.

In this case, that was allowing Albert Adomah to waltz through relatively unchallenged (minus some protest from Pontus Jansson) and score. In the end, Leeds didn’t get their promotion party, which isn’t ideal, but the award will go some way towards easing the pain.

Then there’s the small accompanying detail of Spygate. You know, when Bielsa admitted that he had spied on every opponent last season by essentially sending a member of staff with a pair of binoculars to conduct shrubbery-based surveillance.

Regardless of this all, owner Andrea Radrizzani was full of pride when he responded to the club’s achievement on Twitter…

In today’s Everton roundup, we take a look at the news that has been doing the rounds for the Toffees. The fans are set to unveil an anti-racism banner in respect for Moise Kean, the club are targetting Matheus Doria, and there were raised eyebrows from the directors’ box after the Sheffield United defeat.

Silva keeping an eye on Doria

Report: As reported by TodoFichajes, Everton have an interest in Santos Laguna defender Doria. The report claims Everton have registered their interest to the club, with the Brazilian valued at €12m. His contract does run until 2021 and TodoFichajes states that this will ‘not make his exit easy’.

Verdict: Everton have been quite low in the defensive areas this season having released Ashley Williams, which has left just Michael Keane and Yerry Mina as the only out-and-out centre-backs. Indeed although summer signing Jean-Philippe Gbamin can play at the back, he is preferred in midfield as he was at Mainz 05 and may not be the best choice.

Signing Doria for a mere €12m, can only be seen as positive business considering it is not much money in today’s climate, and the fact the Toffees are in need of more defenders. Everton have conceded at least two goals in the last five games prior to their victory over Sheffield United, where they kept a clean sheet for only the third time this season.

Doria may not be internationally recognised, but from a backup perspective, it makes sense.

Director’s doubts over Silva

Report: As reported by the Athletic, their were ‘raised eyebrows’ in some areas of the directors’ box after Silva shook hands and applauded his players as they left the pitch red-faced.

Verdict: First and foremost, if Silva didn’t do this, fans may have jumped all over his case. If a manager claps and shakes the hands of his team, it does not necessarily mean he was happy with the performance – how could he be after losing 2-0 at home to a newly-promoted side?

It could just mean that Silva fears he may be losing the dressing room and is aware that his players are struggling and perhaps does not want to make matters worse.

As for those in the directors’ box, they have a right to be concerned. Everton held onto 70% of the ball against the Blades, but registered just three shots on target and failed to truly threaten the visitors throughout (as told by BBC).

Truthfully, although there was not much wrong with what Silva did, in a city as fierce and passionate as Liverpool, fans may have wanted to see the manager scold and publicly rage at the players after such a dreadful performance and not applaud them.

Everton to unveil fan-funded anti-racism banner

Report: As told by the Daily Mail, Everton will unveil a fan-funded anti-racism banner in respect to Moise Kean in the weekends game against Manchester City. The banner don the message ‘No Al Razzismo’ (No to Racism) and feature the 19-year-old’s face on it. Fans will roll the banner out in the Howard Kendall Lower Gwladys Street End of the ground.

Verdict: Kean was targetted by fans for racial abuse during his time at Juventus before he moved to Merseyside in the summer and although this was not a reported direct reason for his move, he will feel loved by the banner at his new home – something he may not have received in Italy.

This is a fantastic initiative by the Toffees, with fans from around the world having raised more than £3,000 to get the banner up and running, says the report. Already this season have we seen the likes of Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford targetted for racial abuse, as Romelu Lukaku was targetted by fans in Italy, just like Kean was.

The Premier League is working hard to try and fight racism in the sport, and it is little gestures as such from the Everton fans that make a memorable and heart-warming difference. Hopefully we see more of this from other clubs.

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Adam Reach hit a first-half brace as Sheffield Wednesday recorded a 3-1 win over Swansea City in the Championship on Saturday afternoon.

Wednesday raced into a three-goal lead before the interval, with Steven Fletcher joining Reach on the scoresheet in what was an incredible first 45 minutes.

Oliver McBurnie netted for the Swans in the 69th minute, but it was a case of too little, too late as the home side secured all three points.

Ahead of the clash with Swansea, Reach – a 2016 arrival from Middlesbrough – had actually gone eight Championship games without finding the back of the net.

However, the 26-year-old was back to his brilliant best against the Swans and that led to a host of praise from the Wednesday fans on social media.

Who are the best away fans in the Championship? Pl>ymaker FC’s Thogden gives his top 10 in the video below…

Reach has now managed eight Championship goals for the campaign and certainly played a key role in Steve Bruce’s side winning for the first time since February 2.

A selection of the Twitter reaction to Reach’s double can be seen below:

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more… 

Wolves’ season so far has had two very contrasting elements.

In the Europa League, they have mounted a historic run into the group stages, winning all six of their qualifying matches including an impressive two-legged victory over Serie A outfit Torino.

Whilst in the league, to say they have struggled would be an understatement.

The west Midlands club are yet to record a victory and last weekend’s 5-2 drubbing at the hands of Chelsea saw them slip closer to rock-bottom in the table.

If you don’t know the words to the Joao Moutinho chant in the video below, are you even a real Wolves fan?…

Nuno Santo managed to guide the club to a seventh-place finish last campaign, in what was their first season back in the top-flight in seven years after lifting the Championship in 2018.

The added strain of competing on the European continent has clearly had a significant impact already with the vigorous group stages only just starting later this week.

So where has it gone wrong?

On the Chalkboard

One area of the pitch that has drastically underperformed is in midfield.

The trio of Ruben Neves, Leander Dendoncker and Joao Moutinho are central to Santo’s three-at-the-back system working. They almost hold it all together.

Last season, they looked in another world – but so far this campaign, things just haven’t been up to scratch.

All three midfielders have been much worse with the ball at their feet, regressing on the number of passes made as well as on their passing accuracy.

Moutinho is the playmaker of the side. He recorded the most assists during 2018/19 with eight, and the number of passes he averages per game has lowered substantially from 49 to 37.4 – that’s a considerable drop in regards to his involvement.

The 33-year-old has also seen a decrease in the number of long-balls he plays, only adding to his creativity woes so far this campaign.

Dendoncker and Neves are mostly defensive-minded midfielders, yet they have seen a similar pattern in the focal points of their respective games.

Watch Wolverhampton Wanderers Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

The Belgium international’s average number of completed passes per game has dropped from 31.9 to 23.8, whilst he has been far less effective in the tackle – a decrease of 2 per game from last season, which you’d imagine has been a massive reason as to why opposition players have been able to get the better of Wolves so far this season.

Neves, who has been courted by reigning champions Manchester City in the past, has also underperformed greatly – his passing accuracy rate has dipped by nearly 10% with his presence on the pitch seemingly nullified through a lack of interceptions too.

Santo will need to find a way to get these three going or their Premier League hopes will dwindle away just as quick as these midfielder’s stats have.

Liverpool have not even started negotiations with Sadio Mane over a new deal at the club, according to reliable journalist Neil Jones.

The Lowdown: Mane into final 18 months

The 29-year-old has been an incredible player for the Reds, scoring 107 goals and registering 44 assists in 244 appearances overall.

Mane’s current deal expires in the summer of 2023, however, and with his 30th birthday approaching, there are slight question marks surrounding his future.

The arrival of Luis Diaz also potentially clouds the situation, with the Porto man possibly seen as a long-term replacement for Liverpool’s No.10.

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The Latest: Jones makes important claim

Writing for Goal on Sunday, Jones claimed that ‘there have been no formal negotiations’ between the Reds and Mane’s representatives regarding a new contract.

He also states that the signing of Diaz ‘adds an extra layer of intrigue’, perhaps hinting that the Senegal superstar sees the signing as a threat to his future at Anfield.

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The Verdict: Potential exit on the cards?

There is an argument to say that Mane isn’t quite the world-class player he once was, even though he has still scored ten goals this season.

His blistering burst of pace has dropped off slightly and his all-round involvement in games isn’t as great as in the title-winning season, with only one league assist to his name in 2021/22.

That being said, he remains a player who would walk into most teams – Jurgen Klopp has hailed him as ‘unbelievable’ – and if he agrees to sign a deal that isn’t necessarily long-term it would make perfect sense.

He may gradually become more of a squad player if Diaz excels, as well as the increasingly influential Diogo Jota, but at 29, there are still years left in him at the top.

In other news, some Liverpool fans love an update regarding one Reds player. Find out who it is here.

Tottenham missed out on signing Adama Traore and Luis Diaz because chairman Daniel Levy felt he would be able to strike a cut-price deal for both wingers late in the window, according to talkSPORT journalist Alex Crook (via Give Me Sport).

The Lowdown: Lacklustre transfer window

After Antonio Conte made it known that he wanted to bring former Wolves powerhouse Traore to north London, Fabio Paratici and Levy undertook lengthy negotiations with the West Midlands club.

As per The Athletic, Wolves rejected a bid of £15million from Spurs a few weeks into the window. It was said that the asking price was around £20million, so it was expected that an agreement would be made soon after.

However, La Liga giants Barcelona made an approach at the last minute, throwing the 26-year-old’s move to Tottenham in the air. The Spain international decided to reject the Premier League club and returned to the Nou Camp on a loan deal with a £30million option to make the transfer permanent.

Spurs were also set to sign Porto winger Luis Diaz, and were willing to pay up to £46million to secure the 25-year-old’s services. However, Liverpool swooped in at the last minute, and the Colombian opted to join the Merseyside club.

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The Latest: ‘Classic Levy’

Crook believes Levy’s insistence on leaving deals until the end of the window proved his side costly.

Speaking to GiveMeSport, he said: “It was classic Levy trying to get players over the line in the last few days of a transfer window because you think you’re going to save a couple of quid.

“Ultimately, it cost them with Traore because I think if they had just come in earlier in the window and paid £20million, that probably would have happened.

“Maybe they should have been looking at getting a deal done for Diaz a lot earlier in the window as well.”

The Verdict: Mistakes made

Tottenham made just two signings during January, and supporting Crook’s theory, they both signed on deadline day.

Conte was keen to sign the Spaniard from Wolves and convert him into a right wing-back, which the player did not seem too thrilled about, instead opting for a more advanced role in Catalonia. However, if Crook is correct, Traore would more than likely be a Tottenham player if the Lilywhites had just bit the bullet and met the asking price.

Levy did come close to securing Diaz from Porto, as there was confidence from both sides that a deal could be reached. However, this was before Liverpool reignited their interest, and the Colombia international chose Jurgen Klopp’s side instead. With that in mind, the criticism seems slightly harsh in the case of the former Porto star.

In other news: Fabio Paratici ‘wants’ Sven Botman this summer

Tottenham Hotspur should seal the signature of Adama Traore before this month’s transfer deadline…

What’s the word?

That’s according to the reliable Jack Pitt-Brooke of The Athletic after he delivered a fresh and exciting claim on this week’s episode of the ‘View from the Lane’ podcast.

“I think it’s more likely than not that they will end up signing Adama Traore,” he said.

“Traore I gather is still the likeliest target to come in. Tottenham are working on trying to get a deal done. Wolves do want to sell him. Tottenham are trying to find a way to do it.

“Some people talk about the possibility of a loan with an obligation, and I do think that if Matt Doherty were to go back to Wolves that would be slightly easier as that would be part of the deal but so far, I haven’t got any indication that is actually going to happen, even if Tottenham would like that to happen.

“I do think they will get it over the line.”

Just get it done

It’s thought that the Wolves star is available for just £20m this month but it seems as if the Lilywhites are dithering over a loan with an obligation to buy in the summer – really they ought to just stump up the cash now as manager Antonio Conte is in desperate need of additions.

As per the Telegraph, the tricky Spain international has been identified as a priority for the Italian, who sees him as a perfect fit for the right wing-back role over summer signing Emerson Royal.

[snack-amp-story url = “https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/tottenham-latest-news-transfer-gossip-rumours-conte-paratici-levy-premier-league” title=”Read the latest Spurs news, transfer updates and much, much more!”]

You’d imagine that Traore, who doesn’t have the best end product, would thrive in such a role and under a head coach like Conte.

Indeed, the 25-year-old powerhouse scored his first goal of the season at the weekend in the Old Gold’s win over Southampton, where he came off the bench in a 12-minute cameo – a sign he’s set to leave, perhaps?

But the 5 foot 10 dynamo, who has played for Aston Villa and Middlesbrough, has a nice mix of dribbling ability and brute physicality that would not only make him a lethal threat down the right flank but one that would have Spurs fans on the edge of their seats.

He’s built like a brick wall, as once alluded to by BT Sport pundit Rio Ferdinand, who dubbed him “a machine” who could be “a powerlifter or a cruiser-weight boxer” and Southampton forward Che Adams, who described him as a “monster” to the Premier League’s YouTube channel back in May.

Traore currently leads the top-flight for dribbles per game (4.3), which is more than the likes of Mo Salah (1.9), Wilfried Zaha (1.9) and Tottenham’s very own Lucas Moura (2.5), via WhoScored.

That combined with his average of 1.5 key passes per game last season suggests he’s a nuisance in the final third. He has previously played the wing-back role under Nuno Santo at Molineux, so he wouldn’t need much time in adapting and there’s no one better to learn from than Conte. Just look at Victor Moses’ time under him at Chelsea.

If Pitt-Brooke, who is one of the most reliable when it comes to Spurs news, believes the deal is likely to happen despite the situation dragging on and on, then many around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium must be absolutely buzzing.

It’s surely a matter of time before a deal is struck, especially as the Spaniard is entering the final 18 months of his current contract.

AND in other news, Spurs could land big Alli upgrade in “special” £18m-rated gem, he gave Dier nightmares…