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Liverpool slumped to their sixth straight home defeat in the Premier League after their 1-0 loss to Fulham on Sunday.

Pearce reacts

Things went from bad to worse for the reigning Premier League champions as they fell further off the pace in the race for the top four. If there were any doubts of their title charge being over before the game, they have now surely been confirmed.

Mario Lemina scored the only goal of the game right on half-time to secure the points for the relegation-battling Cottagers, who latched onto a mistake from Mohamed Salah.

After the full-time whistle, The Athletic journalist James Pearce provided immediate analysis on the game as soon as referee Kevin Friend put the whistle to his mouth.

Transfer Tavern Verdict

Liverpool have had just 10 shots on target in their last three games, which is nowhere near good enough for a team which recently won the Champions League and the Premier League in the space of 13 months.

It’s becoming increasing unfathomable that their gruesome run has continued. Jurgen Klopp freshened the squad up and featured some new faces in a bid to provide some new ideas, but ultimately nothing new came to the table.

The mystery is growing. Only Klopp and his coaching staff can work on the possible answers with a huge Champions League game on the horizon in midweek.

In other news, Liverpool blockbuster move in trouble as ‘unplayable’ star’s hefty demands emerge

Tom Davies has been saved from getting undeservedly axed from Carlo Ancelotti’s midfield against Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup, as Everton will not have Allan back in contention to play in midweek.

That’s according to the Liverpool Echo’s Adam Jones, who notes that the 30-year-old is not ready to make a return following hopes he could be declared fit and made available for selection on Wednesday night when Jose Mourinho’s Spurs visit Goodison Park to contend for a place in the Quarter-Final.

Allan has not been seen on the field since limping off against Leicester City in mid-December with a hamstring injury, which ruled the £21m summer signing from Serie A side SSC Napoli out of 11 fixtures across all competitions.

Ancelotti hopes to be able to call on Allan against Fulham on Sunday, which would leave Jean-Philippe Gbamin as Everton’s only player unavailable while James Rodriguez is still being monitored, having been withdrawn in Saturday’s 3-3 draw with Manchester United due to a tight calf.

Allan was a constant fixture of Ancelotti’s Premier League plans following his move to Goodison Park in the off-season, starting 12 of a possible 13 games with his only absence in that period coming against Brighton and Hove Albion in early October due to a groin strain.

The Brazilian’s subsequent hamstring injury has now resulted in his longest enforced break between league appearances since 2011, having at worst missed three successive games over the past decade through injuries.

Ancelotti offering the 10-cap enforcer a recall to the Everton starting line-up in the FA Cup would likely have come at the expense of Davies, who stood in as the Toffees’ holding midfielder against Manchester United over the weekend.

Fans waxed lyrical over Davies’ performance on social media following the draw, with select supporters dubbing the Blues academy graduate as their Man of the Match for his hard work and determination in the midfielder’s return to the side.

Davies had played just one minute over Everton’s previous two Premier League games, but was given a reprieve against the Red Devils to earn just an eighth top-flight start of the term.

For Davies to have been axed for Allan to feature against Tottenham would have come as a very much undeserving blow for the £14.5m-rated 22-year-old, who brought energy and grit to the engine room at Old Trafford.

Davies came into his own after the break as he sought to drag the Blues back into the game while two goals behind, with his perfectly weighted pass through to Dominic Calvert-Lewin creating the shot which rebounded into the path of Abdoulaye Doucoure to pull a goal back.

Yet his creativity was nothing compared to his defensive efforts, with Davies offering a joint game-high three successful tackles during the 74 minutes he was on the field, but with a 100% success rate compared to Andre Gomes (43%) and Aaron Wan-Bissaka (75%), per WhoScored.

Davies also registered the second-most clearances (4) by any single player, with Michael Keane (5) the only one to lump the ball long in efforts to protect his side’s goal, and trailed only Richarlison (2) for dribbles (1) as one of just two visiting players to carry possession successfully up the pitch.

Davies’ efforts on any other week would have more than ensured he retained a place in the starting line-up for the following game, so missing out for Allan to return at home to Tottenham would have come as a cruel blow that Ancelotti is now able to avoid.

AND in other news, Everton have their eyes on a £10m+ striker boasting 18 goals this season…

In an exclusive interview with Football FanCast, former West Brom midfielder Carlton Palmer has dropped his verdict on Phil Jones amid reports linking him with a move to the Hawthorns this transfer window.

Earlier in the month, the forgotten Manchester United centre-back was mooted as a loan target for the Baggies, as per the Daily Star.

They claimed that the 28-year-old colossus was free to leave the Red Devils this month and that they were prepared to pay a sizeable portion of his £120k-per-week wages, even if he remains under contract until 2023.

Jones hasn’t featured for United this season but Albion’s defensive issues continue to increase tenfold after they leaked another five goals to Manchester City on Tuesday night.

It means Sam Allardyce’s men hold the worst defensive record in the Premier League, conceding 12 more goals than any other side, while no team across Europe’s elite divisions has leaked as many goals at home than West Brom.

And Palmer believes Jones could help solve their backline problems…

He told FFC:

“Big Sam’s always fancied him. He has always fancied Phil Jones – big, strong, athletic.

“I haven’t seen Phil play for ages, I thought he’d do really well at Manchester United because he’s got serious pace about him and he’s athletic. It’s just not worked out for him at all.

“Sam certainly needs quality throughout his side. He needs a central defender. And Sam gets the best out of people. It could be a good fit for both Phil and West Brom.”

[snack-amp-story url=”https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/read-the-latest-west-brom-news-and-rumours-copy” title=”Read the latest West Brom news, transfer rumours and more!”]

The 27-time England international may have not featured in a competitive game since January 2019, but he is someone that Big Sam knows very well from their time at Blackburn Rovers.

Indeed, Allardyce dubbed the young Jones a “leader” who would one day go onto captain England – he was partially right, at least.

The £5.4m-rated defender has played 200 times in the Premier League and over 30 times in Europe, per Transfermarkt; vast experience that is lacking in abundance in this current Albion squad.

Clearly, if fit, he’d be a welcome addition at the Hawthorns.

AND in other news, 3 new signings, no Sawyers: How West Brom’s XI may look after deadline day…

Many Sheffield Wednesday fans are reacting to the latest news reported by Dom Howson around Owls player Joost van Aken.

The journalist posted on Twitter that: ‘Joost van Aken has suffered a fresh injury blow. The defender has not played for #SWFC since their Boxing Day draw at Blackburn.’

The 26-year-old was loaned out last season but became integral for the 2020/21 campaign as he featured 17 times before his injury (Transfermarkt). During the 1278 minutes of football he has played in the Championship, he managed 1.1 tackles, 1.2 interceptions, and 2.4 clearances a game (WhoScored).

When he played this season, the Owls managed six clean sheets, but only managed to win three games (Transfermarkt). Since his injury, Wednesday have won three out of four matches, and due to this, many are not too upset that he will be sidelined for even longer than expected.

However with Sheffield Wednesday still in the relegation zone and four points from safety (SofaScore), depth in their squad is needed as they have to turn things around sooner rather than later, so this injury will be frustrating for the club.

Here is what fans said following the injury update:

“Get rid”

Credit: @RyanGoodo

“Lucky escape for SWFC.”

Credit: ShiregreenOwl

“Missed 6 matches, we win 4 out of 6”

Credit: @DavidGillet

“Meh. Average at best would be bottom of the pile for CBs for me.”

Credit: @Patchswfc

“Forgot about him tbh”

Credit: @OwlSheffield

“Was actually playing very well on left of a back three. We need all hands on deck…”

Credit: @1SportsGenius

In other news, fans were discussing midfielder Izzy Brown. Have a read why here!

Glasgow Rangers have been dealt a huge transfer blow after Barry Fry dismissed claims about Siriki Dembele’s future at Peterborough United.

What’s the word?

Fry had previously claimed towards the end of last month: “Rangers have watched Siriki twice as have the Scottish national side.

“Newcastle manager Steve Bruce watched him at Crewe when he didn’t play well.

“There will always be interest in players like Siriki, but we don’t have to sell him. We have him for another 18 months and we’d rather he stayed until the summer when we can reassess his situation.”
However, he has now strongly denied reports linking Dembele with a move away from the Weston Homes Stadium, via The Grimsby Telegraph.

Make Fry an offer he can’t refuse?

Rangers have been heavily linked with Dembele in recent months, with The Sun even going so far as to claim he has recently submitted a transfer request in an attempt to push for a move in the January transfer window, whilst Peterborough Today added Celtic, Fulham, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest and Stoke City have also been interested in acquiring his services.

But the Posh director of football has since rebuffed those reports in what will certainly be considered a blow by Steven Gerrard, especially when you consider the fact that versatile forward Kemar Roofe suffered an injury nearly halfway through the crunch Old Firm clash with Celtic, which has left the Ibrox boss short of back-up options out wide.

As per Transfermarkt, his market value is currently unknown, but it’s likely Ross Wilson may have to bring out the cheque book to prise him away from the Posh, and that may not actually be a bad idea if you take a closer look at the numbers.

Dembele may not be the first name on everybody’s lips but you may have heard of his younger brother Karamoko Dembele who is currently plying his trade at Parkhead. Before you turn your noses away in disgust, need we remind you of the McAdam brothers? The two brothers bridged the gap between both sides of Glasgow and went onto become Scottish football icons.

Whilst it’d be a bit of a stretch to suggest that the 24-year-old will go on to hit the same heights as the aforementioned duo, there’s no doubting that he is still an impressive talent.

Recently described as “the best player in League One” by Posh owner Darragh MacAnthony, WhoScored lists his key passing and strong dribbling as some of his key strengths, and statistically at least, he is a better option than current back-up Jordan Jones.

The diminutive Scottish national, who stands at 5 ft 6 in, averages 2.1 shots per game this season whilst producing 1.7 key passes per match.

When you compare his numbers to Jones, there’s almost no comparison, as Dembele is better than the 25-year-old in almost every area. The Northern Irishman only averages one shot per game, whilst averaging just 0.3 key passes per game, so he takes fewer shots and creates fewer chances than Dembele, and fails to really offer anything of note in the final third with just one goal in four appearances in Scottish football this season.

Similarly, Dembele would also be an upgrade on Barker, as he has shown that he isn’t afraid to do the dirty work as well. That’s because he makes 1.5 tackles per game, which is more than Barker himself has managed this season. In terms of statistics, he’d rank joint-fifth highest out of Gerrard’s men in terms of his WhoScored score, should you compare this to the rest of the Rangers squad.

It’s fair to say that Rangers have been crying out for some real depth on the wings to cover for the likes of Ianis Hagi and Ryan Kent. In Dembele, they could find themselves a player who can do precisely just that.

Whilst Fry has insisted he is not for sale, Wilson should splash the cash as it might prove to be too tempting for him to ignore a substantial offer during such a time of economic uncertainty.

AND in other news, Rangers could propose swap deal involving Scott Wright and Greg Stewart…

Erling Haaland sent a one-word message to Takumi Minamino on Instagram after the Liverpool ace scored the opening goal in the 7-0 win over Crystal Palace in the Premier League away at Selhurst Park yesterday lunchtime.

As shared on Twitter by a fan of the Anfield faithful, the Borussia Dortmund star sent ‘Takuuuuumi’ followed by an emoji of praying hands after the Japan international scored very early on to put Jurgen Klopp’s team 1-0 up in the clash and thus put them on course for a very handsome victory, one which in turn elevated them to first spot in the top flight table leading up to Christmas.

Of course, both Haaland and Minamino were teammates together at RB Salzburg and although they have since gone in different paths in the beautiful game, they seem to still have a nice friendship going.

Haaland has been linked to Liverpool

Haaland has previously been linked with a move to the Merseyside club, and it is not difficult to see as to why he has been dubbed as such a ‘huge talent’.

The Norway international has netted no fewer than 17 times in just 14 games in all competitions so far in the 2020/21 term (Transfermarkt), and at just 20 years of age, will surely only get better from this point in his footballing career.

The striker is currently valued at £90m, and if the Reds were to make a move for him either in the January transfer window or in the summer, he would surely be worth every penny.

In other news, find out what a journalist has revealed amid exit rumours concerning Mo Salah here!

AFC Bournemouth forward Joshua King showed David Moyes what West Ham United are missing in just 13 touches against Wycombe Wanderers on Tuesday night.

King entered the action at the Vitality Stadium as a late substitute to replace Dominic Solanke as boss Jason Tindall sought to see out a 1-0 win to solidify the Cherries’ place in the automatic promotion places.

Bournemouth have been in top form since their return to the Championship with 10 wins in 19 games, but are yet to see the best from King who remains without a goal or an assist after playing just 347 minutes in a heavily disrupted campaign.

King missed the start of the season through a thigh injury and later tested positive for coronavirus, before sustaining a back injury in training that kept the Norway forward out of action until Tuesday’s meeting with Wycombe.

West Ham had strived to sign King in the summer under the instructions of Moyes but failed to seal a deal, with Bournemouth rejecting the Irons’ offer of £13million as they chased at least £17m for the 51-cap international.

Moyes has remained keen on the idea of working with King at the London Stadium ever since, with reports surfacing lately claiming the Hammers boss has stressed the importance of offensive additions after marking the 28-year-old as his top January target.

Irons chiefs are confident Bournemouth will be more inclined to accept a lower sum in January with King’s £45,000-per-week contract due to expire in the summer, and would have seen what sort of impact the former Manchester United trainee could bring to the club in his brief cameo during the week.

He may not have scored or assisted with Junior Stanislas’ 68th-minute strike all that separated promotion-chasing Bournemouth and their relegation-threatened opposition, but King impressed in his limited window of opportunity.

Only Diego Rico (15) took more touches than King (13) following Tindall’s late triple substitution, per WhoScored, while being the only Cherries player to record a 100% pass success rate with each of his seven passes finding a teammate.

King was additionally the only Bournemouth player to register a key ball, successful dribble or aerial duel won in the closing stages, while Wycombe piled on late pressure with Daryl Horgan and Fred Onyedinma doing their best to inspire a comeback.

Moyes would no doubt have been impressed by what King brought to the field at the Vitality Stadium on Tuesday night, despite only playing the final nine minutes.

AND in other news, West Ham are showing short-term vision in the transfer market by targeting a £52k-p/w star who won’t cost David Sullivan a penny.

Speaking to Football Insider, former Premier League striker Gabriel Agbonlahor has claimed that Spurs star Son Heung-min can go to any club in the world – tipping the player to leave unless Daniel Levy ties him down with a bumper new deal. 

Son, who has been in electric form recently alongside superstar forward Harry Kane, is actually on much less when compared to his teammate – with the 27-year-old England captain taking home around £200,000-per-week.

In comparison, Son is on around £60,000-a-wek less despite contributing to an equally devastating effect under manager Jose Mourinho so far this season.

Son tipped for possible exit

Now, speaking to Football Insider, Agbonlahor has dropped a hint that the £67.5 million-valued Son could leave if Spurs fail to tie him down with a new contract.

According to the pundit, he could play for any side in world football, including four Champions League giants who have an abundance of star players already.

“If I was Tottenham I’d be putting down on a contract on whatever he wants, just to get him signed on because he can go to any club in the world,” he explained.

“At any club in the world he’d be starting, we’re talking Liverpool, Man City, Real Madrid, Barcelona he’s that good.

“Spurs will know that, Jose will know that, Daniel Levy will know that so I’m sure they’ll tie him down and he’ll be one of the highest earners for sure.”

Transfer Tavern take

Described as a ‘dream’ to work with by ex-Spur Alan Hutton, this news comes after Football Insider revealed a huge ENIC development from behind the scenes.

Indeed, according to the outlet, Joe Lewis and the ENIC group have approved of a new deal for Son, but with January around the corner, Spurs will want to tie him down as quickly as possible.

In other news: Alasdair Gold swooned over this shining light against WBA, find out more here. 

One of Leeds United’s top priorities this summer was to sign a striker, and they spared no expense in making sure they strengthened in that area, splashing out £27m to sign Rodrigo from Valencia.

The Spaniard cost a club-record fee this summer, and while United can be happy with their striker acquisition, they could have saved that cash if they’d have done the right thing back in 2019.

Nobody needs reminding that Leeds had Eddie Nketiah on loan last season, but his ill-fated spell was cut short as he grew frustrated with his lack of first-team opportunities.

Before Nketiah went back to Arsenal, Marcelo Bielsa expressed his desire to keep the forward on loan at the club for the 2020/21 season, and if United still had Nketiah, they could have saved the £27m they spent on Rodrigo.

Now, we’re not about to argue that Arsenal’s third-choice striker is better than Spain’s number nine, but it is worth considering that Nketiah has more goals in all competitions than him this season and his minutes per goal record in the Premier League last term was better than Rodrigo’s in La Liga.

£27m is a lot of money, and it had to be spent on a striker this summer because Patrick Bamford was the Whites’ only option heading into this season, but that money could have been put towards something else if United still had Nketiah.

Of course, the Yorkshire outfit would still have needed a striker in 2021 in this hypothetical scenario, but they would likely have had another year of Premier League revenue and perhaps a stronger spine behind them to fix their striker woes.

It’s certainly interesting to imagine what Leeds’ squad would look like right now if Bielsa’s original plan to keep Nketiah for the 2020/21 season had come to fruition.

Kepa Arrizabalaga’s future with Chelsea currently resides with a question mark as the club push to find his replacement. 

A move that started out with potential in abundance has become arguably one of the worst record-breaking moves in transfer history. Despite winning the Europa League with the Blues, Kepa’s Premier League career has failed to live up to expectations.

Maurizio Sarri helped orchestrate a £71million swoop for the Spaniard’s services back in 2018, smashing the record for most money spent on a goalkeeper (via BBC Sport). This record still stands, with not even Liverpool’s appointment of Alisson going beyond the hefty price tag.

Now, just two years into his tenure, Frank Lampard has planned for a future without Kepa. The Spain international disappointed his manager after a poor run in the Premier League, conceding a total of 47 goals.

Chelsea are yet to sign a replacement but are eager to strike a deal with latest target Edouard Mendy, with an agreement thought to be close.

Fellow goalkeeper Petr Cech has spoken out on the difficult situation at Stamford Bridge, suggesting that the Spanish international could still have a long term future in west London.

“Kepa struggled last season, that is unquestionable,” he said (via Daily Express). “But the club invested in him and gave him a long-term contract because they believe he has the qualities and attributes to be successful.”

The 24-year-old could re-establish himself as a first team player in the future, but for the upcoming season at least, it seems very unlikely Lampard will trust him as his first choice ‘keeper.

“Additions will be made to the squad, perhaps even in goal, and this is what is being discussed now,” Cech continued. “But nobody is giving up on Kepa and we all hope he has a great future.”

Do you think Kepa has a future at Chelsea? Join the conversation in the comments below!