According to reports in the Chronicle Live, Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez is targeting a summer move for Red Bull Salzburg attacking midfielder Valon Berisha, rated at £4.5m by Transfermarkt, as he prioritises bringing a new No 10 to St James’ Park.
What’s the word, then?
Well, the Chronicle Live says that Benitez is targeting the Kosovo international even though his own long-term future is far from clear, and with the Magpies still in danger of being relegated back to the Championship – although they can move on to 35 points if they beat fellow strugglers Huddersfield Town at St James’ Park on Saturday.
The Chronicle Live says that while Ayoze Perez and Mo Diame have often played in the No 10 role this season, the Spanish manager wants a more creative player in that position that can unlock opposition defences seeing as he has seen his side score just 30 times in 30 top flight matches this term, with the fans suggesting Mikel Merino should play there.
The report adds that the Tyneside outfit have traced Berisha for 18 months and could finally be ready to make a move for him this summer.
How has Berisha done this season?
He has impressed.
While Benitez may want to bring him to Newcastle to play in a central attacking midfield role, more often than not during the current campaign the 25-year-old has played from the left for Salzburg.
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The Swedish-born player has certainly impressed with 11 goals and nine assists in 38 appearances in all competitions, and according to WhoScored.com he has made 20 key passes in nine Europa League outings this term to help his club reach the quarter-finals of the competition.
Would he be a good signing for Newcastle?
He probably would be, yes.
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The Kosovo international has shown with 43 goals and 63 assists in 226 appearances in total for Salzburg that he would bring some much-needed creativity and goal threat to the Magpies side, while he has also shown his leadership skills by captaining the side on occasions.
The 25-year-old certainly looks as though he would be a major upgrade on Perez, who has struggled to make an impression in a number of Premier League matches throughout the current campaign.
What a difference 12 months makes. Last Christmas Manchester United were very much in the middle of the table – resembling a turkey in more ways than one – with the David Moyes reign on the verge of reaching its lowest ebb. But, now Louis van Gaal is in charge, exciting football is a regular occurrence at Old Trafford and a somewhat unlikely title charge is being talked about in the stands.
However, even though things are looking rosier than Sir Alex Ferguson’s cheeks on a cold December afternoon, LVG could do with a few lovely little gifts under his Christmas tree… and here are FIVE that could well be on his list to Mr Claus…
Fit defenders
The above list shows all of the injuries Louis van Gaal has had to contend with since taking over at Man United. Ouch. A large chunk of these fitness blows have been for defenders, with the likes of Marcos Rojo, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling having all spent time on the sidelines, preventing the Dutchman from fielding a consistent back two or three.
The perfect present for Van Gaal would be a guarantee that at least a handful of his centre-backs and full-backs can remain clear of injury.
Kevin Strootman and Mats Hummels
The two major areas of concern in the United squad seem to be at centre-back and in holding midfield. Of the £150m spent during the summer, the majority was used for attacking additions, and while goals have been forthcoming of late at Old Trafford, conceding at the other end is an issue. Strootman of Roma and Dortmund’s Hummels are widely seen as the two players to solve the issues, with the Dutch midfielder and German defender two of the best players in Europe in their respective positions.
A new knee for Radamel Falcao
The headlines when he arrived from Monaco in a summer deadline day loan deal are about the only ones the Colombian has grabbed so far. Falcao was tipped to be a massive success regardless of his knee injury, but United’s gamble has, so far, failed to pay off. The 28-year-old has notched just two goals and has made most of his appearances for the Red Devils from the bench, with injuries having been a worry. A calf problem has been the latest issue, but the ACL injury suffered back in January looks to be the major worry. Once an explosive force in the final third, the troublesome joint appears to have robbed Falcao of a yard of pace.
Guarantee that rivals will continue to stutter
United have been by no means impressive this season. A recent run of six wins on the bounce repaired the damage of early losses at the hands of Swansea and Leicester, but the Red Devils’ third place slot owes much to the issues at clubs around them. Arsenal cannot hold a lead, Liverpool cannot score and Spurs cannot be non-Spursey, leaving West Ham and Southampton, who are tipped to fall away, as major rivals. If the chasing pack continue to stutter, United are in a great position to qualify for the Champions League
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Michael Carrick in midfield
Injury issues have forced LVG to deploy Carrick as a centre-back of late. Although admirably secure in the role, the midfielder’s true talents lay in building attacks, which he is often too deep to do when used in a back three. Van Gaal would surely love to be able to use the veteran playmaker in his preferred role, but he will need some luck with injuries before that’s an option.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has denied that the Gunners back room staff; including his number two Steve Bould, are unhappy with his management.
The comments come after reports circulated this week that Bould was frustrated with Wenger after their Capital One Cup exit to Bradford on Tuesday night, something the Gunners boss claims are lies.
Bould reportedly wants to be more hands on when it comes to match preparation and training but despite Wenger being on compassionate leave two weeks ago, Bould still didn’t take charge of the sessions.
A large section of Arsenal fans have called for their long serving boss to leave after their poor start to the season that was exaggerated by their defeat to Bradford on penalties this week.
Despite everything that has happened at the Emirates during the past few weeks, Wenger is happy to take the criticism on the chin but has slammed the ‘lies’ written in the newspapers.
“We are a united staff team. You can unfortunately not control all the lies that are written in the newspapers,” Wenger told the Daily Mirror.
“I believe it’s a good opportunity to show that we are strong inside the Club and let people talk.
“We are criticised when our results are not good – we have to take that on the chin. That we have to face a lot of lies is less acceptable.”
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Everton have revealed that Gylfi Sigurdsson could be on the sidelines “for several weeks” with the knee problem that he picked up against Brighton & Hove Albion at the weekend.
Sigurdsson picked up the injury in the first match of his team’s 2-0 win at Goodison Park on Saturday afternoon, but played on for the full 90 minutes.
The Iceland international will now undergo a scan to determine the extent of the problem, but it has been suggested that the attacker could struggle to play again this season.
A statement on Everton’s official website read:
“Gylfi Sigurdsson will see a specialist this evening to determine a time frame for recovery from the knee injury he sustained in Saturday’s Premier League win over Brighton at Goodison Park.
“It is anticipated that the 28-year-old Icelandic international could be sidelined for several weeks but it will only be after consulting with the specialist that a definitive time frame will be known.”
Sigurdsson, who is valued at £27m by transfermarkt.co.uk, has scored six times and registered five assists in 33 appearances for Everton during the 2017-18 campaign.
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The 28-year-old initially struggled to settle at Goodison Park following a big-money move from Swansea City in last summer’s transfer window, but his form has taken a turn for the better since Sam Allardyce arrived as head coach.
Roy Hodgson seems to be doing more damage to England than good at the moment, and it revolves around his selection policy.
When he was first handed the job he promised he would be looking at form rather than reputation when selecting who to call up to the squad. Reputation and who you play for seem to have been the biggest deciding factors if you are to earn a call up to the squad, with form being on the back burner in a complete u-turn on what he stated he was all about.
There is no doubting the England manager’s credentials as a football coach, his track record in domestic football leading up to his England duties spoke for itself.
A lot of articles have leaped to the defence of Hodgson after such a shambles of a World Cup saying that there is no one out there that could have done a better job than him given the players that were available to him for selection, that the poor offering of talented youth to step up to the big holes left behind by the older generation of stars who have hung up their boots for their country is a far wider spread problem that cannot be pinned on the manager.
Granted, from grass roots to senior level, England have got a very big problem on their hands at the moment with a big percentage of the star talent in the EPL currently being foreign and clubs choosing to look abroad to bring in their transfers rather than at a club’s own academy, there is a severe shortage of promising young English players who are being given the right type of opportunity to break into the senior squad of their own team let alone the England set up. If you take this into account then the future of English international football looks bleak at best, and will inevitably get worse before it gets better.
Nevertheless, Hodgson has a lot more talent at his disposal than the dross he has chosen to call up and he is not using the best that he currently has at his disposal, which begs the question why are people so quick to leap to his defence when it comes to player selection, or have the fans feeling a little bit more optimistic of the team’s chances of doing something other than looking second rate when competing against stronger opposition than that faced during qualifying rounds?
The England squad announcements always seem to have players from top reputation clubs, mainly Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea. There are certain clubs who play a greater majority of English than foreign players who seem to get overlooked a lot when it comes to selection. Despite the fact that Swansea’s Jonjo Shelvey has been selected, it still looks like there are a lot of players being called up that are second rate compared to the likes who are being left out. Shelvey, Andros Townsend, Jack Wilshire and Adam Lallana are all in the squad for the upcoming qualifiers against San Marino and Estonia yet, if you look at the present form and statistics of the likes of Stewart Downing, Mark Noble and Nathan Dyer, all look like better options who are in better form and can provide a cutting edge in the England midfield.
Not that these two games are anything to worry about, nor is the rest of the qualifying round. It is once we arrive at the competition proper in 2016 that the persistence to continually pick players based on reputation rather than form that will go a long way to further damage England’s chances of competing against sterner opposition, and making some sort of progress in the rankings and competitions.
The youth system and over use of foreign players at the domestic level will continue to cause issues at the international level if something is not done about it and fast, but when current selection revolves around the top clubs or players who have a reputation but are not playing to form compared to the wasted talent being left back at home then the manager is to blame for England’s continual slip down the FIFA rankings and poor performance on the world stage.
The tactics are also quite predictable and one dimensional, which makes it that little bit harder for different players to come in and make a difference when it is needed. Hodgson’s stubbornness with selection and tactics is making it hard to make the right changes to improve the situation. When he does make changes or bring somebody new in to the squad it seems that it is someone who isn’t really as deserving of an opportunity as somebody more capable.
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The excuses are starting to wear thin now and Hodgson cannot keep hiding behind lack of players to select any longer. The job needs to go to someone who will truly push reputation and stature to one side and pick a team more deserving and capable of competing at the top level.
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Queens Park Rangers boss Harry Redknapp has hinted that he will raid the American MLS in January to search for some bargains and loan deals to improve his struggling Rangers squad.
The MLS season is now over and players such as David Beckham, Thierry Henry and Landon Donovan have used this time to move to Europe on loan to stay fit over the past few years.
Beckham is now a free agent and is looking for a new dawn in his career, with offers from China, Russia, Australia and Europe to consider, so it is unlikely that West London will be his next destination.
One man that moved back to the Premier League this time last year was Robbie Keane who enjoyed a successful loan at Aston Villa and Keane may be top of Redknapp’s list when it comes to January arrivals having been together at Tottenham a few years ago.
“The MLS market is one that we’ve got to look at,” Redknapp told Sky Sports.
“Robbie’s a good shout. He probably would be an interesting player.
“I haven’t spoken to him yet no but he would be an interesting player.
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“He’s a good pro and he would be the ideal type to have around for sure because he would give us something.”
Manchester United are keeping a close eye on Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Victor Wanyama ahead of the summer transfer window, according to the Daily Mail.
What’s the word?
Wanyama has been at the North London club since 2016 when he signed from Southampton.
The Kenyan international has impressed with his strength in the middle of the park, but he has only managed to start two Premier League games this season, partly due to injuries.
According to the Daily Mail, United are considering their midfield options with Michael Carrick due to retire.
Wanyama is believed to be on their list, while Liverpool have also been touted as potential suitors.
Should Tottenham sell?
The 26-year-old has been a powerhouse in the team’s midfield, but since recovering from injury, the ex-Celtic player has not been selected regularly by manager Mauricio Pochettino.
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Eric Dier has taken the defensive midfield role, while Mousa Dembele is the other man in midfield.
Despite getting less minutes, Wanyama still has a role to play in the team, especially when Dier is required to slot back into the defence.
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Whether the Kenyan would be willing to eventually play a bit-part role remains to be seen.
One thing is for sure, though, chairman Daniel Levy will not allow the midfielder to go for a cheap price.
Forced to publicly apologise for fleeing Anfield early on Saturday afternoon, having failed to make Liverpool’s match day squad as they took on Everton, it’s safe to say Mamadou Sakho hasn’t quite lived up to expectations since swapping PSG for Merseyside last summer.
Indeed, initially purchased for £18million, making him the most expensive signing of Brendan Rodgers’ tenure at the time, and labelled by Ian Ayre as the ‘marquee signing’ fans had demanded for several transfer windows prior, despite often showing great promise, the centre-back is yet to justify his transfer fee or the Liverpool director’s billing.
Critics are not hard to come by, perhaps the most prevalent being Jamie Carragher; the Liverpool legend whom Sakho essentially replaced upon his retirement in summer 2013. If there’s one way for a centre-back to guarantee the Anfield faithful turning against him, it’s unquestionably running afoul of the greatest defender in recent Liverpool history, the Reds’ predominant representative on Sky Sports, capable of making even Lionel Messi look like a League One player through the powers of the studio whiteboard.
I’m far more fond of the Frenchman than many of his contemporaries. Whilst Martin Skrtel remains a throwback to more rugged, thuggish Premier League years and Dejan Lovren boasts the anticipation, intelligence and quality in possession of a modern defender, Sakho compliments both through his robustness and athleticism.
His pace in particular should be a key asset for Liverpool, whom through their rip-roaring, breakneck attacking style, have inevitably become one of the Premier League’s most susceptible to counter-attacking football; both Aston Villa and West Ham have claimed wins over the Reds this season despite recording less than 40% possession.
Sakho’s ball-playing qualities are often criticised, yet I see the situation rather differently. Looking remarkably uncomfortable in possession is a recurring theme of the 24 year-old, but in terms of using the ball productively, he boasted a higher pass completion rate, 92%, more passes per match, 50.17, and more accurate forward passes per match, 38.78, than any of his centre-back partners last season.
The defender creates good angles to move the ball forward; whereas the rest of the defence appear content to shift the ball around the back four, he attempts direct, horizontal passes. Perhaps the legacy of occasional displays in defensive midfield for PSG.
These are Sakho’s predominant strengths that in my opinion, combined with his height and power, suggest all the makings of a top defender. It’s incredibly telling that he earned Didier Deschamps’ faith for the World Cup in Brazil, starting every fixture at centre-back in a France squad that included Rafael Varane, Eliaquim Mangala and Laurent Koscielny – hardly lightweights amongst world football’s centre-half elite.
That being said, Sakho hasn’t been able to influence Liverpool’s habitually pedestrian defending as much as expected since moving to Anfield just over twelve months ago.
Last season, a campaign which saw him make 18 appearances in the top flight, Liverpool conceded 50 times, giving them the second-worst defensive record in the Premier League’s top eight after Tottenham. Conclusively, just one of the Reds’ ten clean sheets last year were in Sakho’s presence. A 5-0 win over – no prizes for guessing – Tottenham.
The situation is paralleled this season, and exacerbated further by the departure of Luis Suarez, reducing Liverpool’s firepower considerably. Liverpool have already recorded three losses after just six fixtures, haemorrhaging on average 1.5 goals per match. Sakho was at the heart of both defeats to Aston Villa and West Ham, in the latter fixture directly contributing to a Hammers goal through an individual error.
And I’m sure we all remember, as Jamie Carragher was quick to point out post-match, the Frenchman’s role in Liverpool’s 3-3 draw with Crystal Palace in May that essentially cost the Merseysiders any chance of claiming the Premier League title on the final day of last season. Images of Sakho negatively shifting his body back towards his own goal, echoing the famous ‘back and to the left’ scene from JFK, still probably flicker on Carragher’s eye lids late at night.
Positioning and pressure could well be Sakho’s biggest weaknesses. A regular flaw of athletically-blessed centre-halves, the Liverpool defender often relies upon his physique, rather his intelligence or reading of the game, to rescue him from difficult situations. Likewise, although any player of PSG will be no stranger to the pressures of European football, nothing quite matches the consistent, relentless intensity of the English top flight.
Yet, these are recurring trends amongst Ligue 1 defenders. Laurent Koscielny for example initially bore the brunt of huge criticism when Arsenal snapped him up from Lorient in 2010, but after adapting his game to Premier League requisites, the 29 year-old is now considered to be one of the division’s top centre-backs. Similarly, it took well over twelve months for Mathieu Debuchy to reproduce the form from his Lille days at Newcastle, but, at least by Arsene Wenger’s reckoning, he’s now a £12million-rated No.2.
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There’s no debate that Sakho is yet to justify his £18million price-tag. So far in his Liverpool career, the Frenchman has struggled to outweigh the good performances with the bad – a situation further amplified by his exclusion from the match-day squad and subsequent Anfield walk-out on Saturday afternoon.
We are talking about a 24 year-old defender however, who has currently registered just 21 Premier League appearances and amongst them, shown signs on slender occasions of better times ahead. Brendan Rodgers purchased Sakho with the next decade in mind; he certainly possesses the potential to remain in the Anfield first team for that long, but further performances to suggest this will have to come sooner rather than later.
With his professionalism and commitment now as questionable as his form in a Liverpool jersey, eyes will now be firmly on the French stopper.
It could be worse Nando, you could be one of these guys…
Newcastle will be looking to end a four-match losing streak when they host Wigan in the Premier League on Sunday.
Alan Pardew’s men have so far struggled to recapture the form that took them to a fifth-place finish last season. Since beating West Brom in October, the Magpies have endured a terrible run of form with just one point from their past five matches. Disappointing losses at home to West Ham and Swansea were followed by arguably their worst result of the season – a 2-0 loss at Southampton.
They looked like finally ending their losing run against Stoke on Wednesday night, but conceded twice in the last 10 minutes to slump to their fourth straight defeat. They are languishing in 14th place and in desperate need of a victory to kick-start their season.
Papiss Cisse may have scored in his last start against Stoke but the Senegalese striker has struggled so far this campaign after bursting onto the scene so spectacularly in January earlier this year. Newcastle’s other star striker Demba Ba has been more productive with eight goals to his name already and will be looking to further add to his tally in this clash.
Roberto Martinez’s Wigan have lost three of their past four clashes, but were far from disgraced in Wednesday’s 2-0 loss to defending champions Manchester City. Spanish attacker Jordi Gomez netted a sublime hat-trick in Wigan’s thrilling 3-2 victory over Reading and will pose a threat to Newcastle’s leaky defence. Arouna Kone and Franco Di Santo are also quality forwards with seven goals between them his season.
Wigan have never tasted a Premier League victory at St James’ Park, but if they break their duck it will be the first time Newcastle have lost three home matches in a row since April 2009.
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Bumrah had a significant say with three wickets although it was Australia who edged the honours with their top four all passing fifty
Andrew McGlashan26-Dec-20241:51
Manjrekar explains how Konstas took down Bumrah
Sam Konstas, the 19-year-old making his Test debut, lit up the MCG with an audacious display of strokeplay against Jasprit Bumrah which in the process riled Virat Kohli on a compelling Boxing Day at the MCG. The world’s best fast bowler still had a significant say with three wickets although it was Australia who edged the honours with their top four all passing fifty.By stumps, Steven Smith was the key figure in how much further Australia’s first innings would be able to extend as he eyed his second hundred in three innings after Bumrah had sparked a middle-order wobble. Yet it was the opening passage of the Test that could well go down as defining.Within an hour of his first Test innings Konstas, who became his country’s fourth-youngest men’s player, was the most talked-about figure in the game having brazenly taken 32 off two overs from Bumrah. While he was stopped on 60 off 65 balls, he had already written himself a chapter among the most remarkable debuts and more than repaid the selectors’ desire to provide something different at the top of the order after Nathan McSweeney’s struggles.Related
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Bumrah still pocketed key top-order scalps of Usman Khawaja, the prolific Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh although it did little to downplay talk India are over-reliant on him. The latter two came as Australia lost 3 for 9 in the final session with Akash Deep then claiming a much-deserved wicket with the second new ball when he removed Alex Carey to end the fourth significant partnership of the innings.Khawaja, Smith and Marnus Labuschagne all brought up half-centuries at more sedate tempos than Konstas. It was the first time since Rawalpindi in 2022 that Australia’s top four had all reached fifty in the same innings. Khawaja and Labuschagne will have been left wondering what could have been but Smith played a vital role in keeping Australia ahead.Sam Konstas celebrates his fifty•Getty Images
But it was all about how the day started. Konstas’ first over in Test cricket was against Bumrah and consisted of four plays and misses. Off his eighth delivery he worked a brace into the leg side to a loud ovation and two deliveries later signaled his intent with an attempt to reverse scoop Bumrah which brought a combination of cheers and gasps.He missed another an over later and with Mohammed Siraj also troubling Khawaja, Australia were 12 without loss after six overs when Konstas unleashed a passage of play that will never be forgotten. Off Bumrah’s fourth over he scooped to fine leg, reverse scooped for six over deep third and was an inch away from repeating it three balls later.He had dispatched the world’s leading bowler for 14 but wasn’t done there. In Bumrah’s sixth over he took him for 18, this time by peppering the boundary with drives including lofting a slower ball over wide long-on. By this point, he had been shoulder-checked by Kohli between overs with Khawaja trying to act as peacemaker with all eyes on how the match referee would adjudicate the confrontation.Not long after, a quickly run two brought up his fifty from 52 balls and he grabbed the Australian emblem on his shirt while pointing to the name on the back. What were you doing as a 19-year-old on Boxing Day? The mind started to wander towards something even more spectacular, but Ravindra Jadeja trapped Konstas lbw in a manner many a more experienced batter has been removed.The tempo then reverted to something more traditional: the stand of 89 between Konstas and Khawaja took 116 balls, the next of 65 between Khawaja and Labuschagne required 150. The afternoon session started with four consecutive maidens from Bumrah and Akash, the latter again bowling without luck. Both batters had edges fall short of slip and another from Khawaja which bisected the cordon took him to just his second fifty of the year.Jasprit Bumrah removed Travis Head for a duck•Getty Images
India were largely keeping the scoreboard under control but were not overly threatening, only for Khawaja to toe-end a pull against the first ball of Bumrah’s third spell to midwicket which left the bowler a little embarrassed to celebrate.Labuschagne was still not quite at his fluent best, but was looking as good as he had all series with some delicate glides to third off Jadeja and the types of drives to suggest better days lie ahead for Australia’s No. 3. There was a shift in gears after tea with Labuschagne and Smith adding 41 in the first six overs of the final session against the older ball, although there remained enough assistance from the surface to challenge the batters as another luckless spell from Akash showed.However, the door was opened for India by offspinner Washington Sundar, who had been brought into the side in place of Shubman Gill, when Labuschagne picked out mid-off with a skimming drive the ball after a drinks break. Labuschagne threw his head back as Kohli took the catch, knowing the chance of a first Test century since last July had gone begging.Rohit Sharma sensed a moment and immediately brought back Bumrah and against his third delivery Travis Head shouldered arms to one that clipped his off stump. A batter who has caused India nightmares with his attacking strokeplay departed not offering a shot. In Bumrah’s next over Mitchell Marsh, having slotted away one thumping cover drive, edged an expansive pull to continue what has been a lean series after the summer of his life in 2023-24.As the ground rose for the hats-off commemoration of Shane Warne at 3.50pm (to match Warne’s Test cap number), Smith had slotted consecutive boundaries off Jadeja when Australia looked to be taking control but now his presence was vital in ensuring the innings didn’t lose its way. He and Carey added 53 before Akash produced a terrific delivery from round the wicket. Smith remained firm and walked off to warm applause from those who remained of an 87,242 crowd but it was nothing compared to the ovations earlier in the day.