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There is no denying it: this season has been a disaster for Tottenham Hotspur.

Ange Postecoglou can end it spectacularly by winning the Europa League, but when it comes to the Premier League, things could not have gone much worse.

In fact, had it not been for some genuinely terrible form from the newly promoted sides, there might have been a real discussion around possible relegation at points, as so far, the North Londoners have lost a staggering 19 games in the league.

It’s been so poor that it seems as if Postecoglou will be on the way out regardless of what happens in Europe next, which has, in turn, seen a plethora of names linked with the job, including old boss Mauricio Pochettino and Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola.

However, another name has also been linked with the job, someone who could make the board forget about the rest.

Manager Focus

Who are the greatest coaches in the land? Football FanCast’s Manager Focus series aims to reveal all.

Why Spurs would want Poch or Iraola

So, before getting to the manager in question, it’s worth looking at why the North Londoners might want to hire Pochettino or Iraola.

When it comes to the former, there are several reasons at play, but they all come back to one thing: familiarity.

Since leaving the club, it would be fair to say that the Argentine has not enhanced his reputation.

First came an unspectacular stint at Paris Saint-Germain, then a dire season with Chelsea and, as things stand, a disappointing spell in charge of the USMNT.

However, during his time in N17, he helped build a squad almost from the ground up, turned them into serious Premier League and Champions League contenders, and, just as importantly, formed a genuine connection with the fans.

Daniel Levy and Co would want to bring him back because they know that Pochettino can deliver at the club because he has done it before.

Iraola, on the other hand, does not have that familiarity with the club or fans, but he has the wind in his sails and is arguably one of the most exciting up-and-coming managers in the league.

For example, he took charge of a Cherries side that looked destined for relegation last year and has turned them into European hopefuls this season, all while losing their talismanic striker to the Lilywhites in the summer.

Iraola in England
Games (All Comps)	83
Wins	33
Draws	20
Losses	30
Points per Game	1.43
All Stats via Sofascore

Moreover, he helped to transform Rayo Vallecano in Spain before coming to England, so he has proven himself in more than one dugout.

With all that said, another manager hasn’t been talked about as much, but could be just the man Tottenham needs.

The Manager to make Spurs forget Poch & Iraola

According to reports from Germany earlier this month, as relayed by GIVEMESPORT, Tottenham have inquired about Borussia Dortmund’s Niko Kovač.

The Croatian coach may not be all that familiar to fans of English football, but for fans of the Bundesliga, he’s a well-known and well-respected quantity.

For example, over the last seven years, he has managed Eintracht Frankfurt, VfL Wolfsburg, Bayern Munich and most currently Dortmund – while spending a year and a half with AS Monaco.

Kovac’s record
Club	Games	Points per Game
Dortmund	17	1,76
Wolfsburg	66	1.30
Monaco	74	1.95
Bayern	65	2.26
Frankfurt	91	1.54
All Stats via Sofascore

Described as “one of the best coaches in Europe” by football writer Sebastien C, the 53-year-old is generally regarded as a coach who likes his teams to play vertically, getting the ball forward quickly when possible, but also something of a pragmatist who likes his sides to be defensively sound.

This could see him win over the Tottenham faithful early on, as he wouldn’t be as gung-ho as Postecoglou, but he wouldn’t want to shut up shop as much as Antonio Conte, for example.

Moreover, he’s shown a willingness to switch up his formation to suit his players in the past and is currently employing a 4-2-3-1 at Signal Iduna Park.

This is a set-up that could work wonders in North London as well, with extra cover in front of the club’s frequently shaky backline.

Finally, he’d join the club as a proven winner, having picked up the German Cup with Frankfurt and then winning the Cup and League double with Bayern a year later, in 2019.

Ultimately, Kovac might not be the first name that comes to fans’ minds when thinking of Spurs’ next manager, but thanks to his moderate pragmatism and historical successes in the dugout, he should be.

Uh oh: Ange hints £190k-a-week Spurs star could miss Bodo/Glimt with injury

Postecoglou has dropped a worrying injury update ahead of Tottenham’s crucial Europa League tie.

By
Dominic Lund

Apr 28, 2025

Sheffield United slipped out of the automatic promotion places in the Championship after they were beaten 1-0 by Millwall at Bramall Lane on Tuesday night.

The Blades found themselves 1-0 down after 21 minutes when centre-forward Josh Coburn brilliantly beat Michael Cooper with a well-taken effort from just inside the box.

Chris Wilder was not afraid to make changes in an attempt to turn the game around, withdrawing Southampton loanee Ben Brereton Diaz at half-time after the forward put in a dismal showing.

Ben Brereton Diaz's performance against Millwall

The Chile international had an excellent opportunity to draw the Blades level shortly after they went 1-0 down when he had a free header from around eight yards out, but could only guide his effort straight at the goalkeeper.

Brereton Diaz ended the half with one ‘big chance’ missed – the header – and created one chance, whilst he lost possession six times, which led to Wilder taking him off at the break.

The former Blackburn Rovers attacker is now in danger of losing his place in the starting XI after he failed to make the most of his chance in front of goal, but he was not the only poor performer for Sheffield United.

Chalkboard

Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

Wilder must also ruthlessly ditch Gustavo Hamer from the line-up against Plymouth Argyle at Home Park, as the mercurial playmaker was just as bad as Brereton Diaz.

Why Gustavo Hamer should be dropped

The Sheffield United boss must brutally drop the attacking midfielder from the team after a disappointing performance from him against Alex Neil’s side on Tuesday night.

The former Coventry City dynamo did not offer enough quality with his use of the ball on the left flank, letting his team down too often with a poor pass or delivery into the box.

He ended the match, having played the full 90 minutes, with zero shots on target, zero out of two dribbles completed, and zero ‘big chances’ created for the Blades.

Minutes

45

90

Shots on target

2

0

Key passes

1

2

Big chances created

0

0

Crosses completed

0/1

2/10

Duels won

2/3

2/7

Possession lost

6x

22x

As you can see in the table above, Hamer and Brereton Diaz both failed to create a ‘big chance’ for their teammates, but the former failed to do so whilst losing the ball a staggering 22 times, failing with eight of his ten attempted crosses.

It was an incredibly wasteful display from the Dutch whiz, who has now scored one goal and provided zero assists in his last nine outings in the Championship.

Sheffield United needed Hamer, who has eight goals and five assists to his name in the league this season, to step up and provide a bit of quality in their time of need, 1-0 down and trailing for so long against Millwall in front of their home supporters.

Unfortunately, the right-footed flop did not step up to be a difference-maker, delivering a performance just as bad as Brereton Diaz’s, and that is why Wilder should consider axing him from the XI for Saturday’s trip to Plymouth.

Wilder must axe Sheffield United man earning more than Cooper & Campbell

Chris Wilder could soon ditch this Sheffield United high earner.

ByKelan Sarson Apr 8, 2025

He has frequently made it easier for others in India’s line-up to score big by reducing the need for them to take risks, in what has been a golden phase for him in ODI cricket

Sidharth Monga06-Mar-20251:42

Kumble lauds Iyer’s ‘proactive’ innings vs NZ

Those who followed Indian cricket in the 1990s will remember with great pain how Saleem Malik, often without a helmet, used to give up his stumps well before a spinner got in his delivery stride and then manipulate the bowling seemingly effortlessly. It was part mockery, part dare, but fully an attempt to mess with the mind of the spinner.During this Champions Trophy, Shreyas Iyer has batted with the same chutzpah against spinners on tracks that might not have turned square but have been slow and have generally aided spin. He has moved away from the stumps regularly, even as the spinner is running in, but has hardly ever been done in. An Indian middle-order batter controlling the game against Pakistani spinners is quite the turnaround from the 1990s.Iyer is marginally behind the leading run-getter against spin in the tournament, and easily the most prolific against spin in Dubai. He has done so despite not getting to start against pace; all his knocks have begun against spin with the field spread-out and the ball old.Related

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This tournament has brought out a new side to Iyer. He has scored his career’s slowest fifty during this tournament. This is overall his second-slowest series of all time. On pitches that have produced 1990s-style ODIs, Iyer has adapted to play an old-fashioned game, not unlike Malik. In the game against Pakistan, he and Virat Kohli stabilised the chase before he took the lead to push India ahead of the asking rate. Against New Zealand, he rescued India from 30 for 3 with his slowest half-century.Iyer might not have scored a century or claimed the Player-of-the-Match award so far, but this display of adaptability has put him among the premium middle-order batters in the world. He had already been among the most impactful since the 2019 World Cup. He is one of the six who have scored 2500 or more runs in this period, but all others bat in the top three and none of them is quicker.However, since February 2022, Iyer has entered a golden phase. He has frequently made it easier for others in the India line-up to score big by reducing the need for them to take risks. Rohit Sharma does that job in the top order with his ultra-aggressive approach, Iyer in the middle only with more consistency. Shubman Gill, Kohli and KL Rahul dovetail nicely with the responsibility of scoring big around these two impact players.Of the 43 batters that have batted 30 or more times in this period, Rohit has the best runs-to-non-striker-runs ratio. Iyer has the tenth-best. There are no Indians between them. It means Rohit and Iyer frequently score quicker than their partners, letting them play the accumulators’ role with ease. Among these ten high-impact batters, Iyer is the most consistent run-getter as well.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn this period, 69 batters from the Full-Member teams have batted post the powerplay 20 or more times. Only five among them average 50 or more and go at better than a-run-a-ball in non-powerplay overs. Four of them average better and score quicker than non-strikers: Heinrich Klaasen, Aiden Markram, Iyer and Gill. Only Iyer and Klaasen do so even when non-strikers are going at a strike rate of 100 or more.It’s wild that at the start of this ODI season, India were flirting with the idea of dropping Iyer. In fact, had Kohli not injured his knee on the eve of the first ODI against England, Iyer might have lost out on the one format he regularly plays, after a rather unsavoury exit from the Test plans. After playing a match-winning hand in what must have seemed like his only chance at that time, Iyer made it a point to let us know it was he who had replaced the injured Kohli, and not Yashasvi Jaiswal.It just speaks to the incredible amount of batting talent in the country and the constant need to keep improving. The team management was desperate to introduce a left-hand batter among the five specialist batters to make it an even more formidable unit. Rohit is the captain, Kohli is among the greatest ODI batters of all time, Gill is the most prolific in recent years, and Rahul keeps wicket. That made Iyer the only one dispensable if India wanted to experiment.That experiment was dropped in a hurry, and seven matches averaging 53.71 later, Iyer is not so dispensable anymore.

They have been in form in the lead up to the World Cup but have different roles to play in the two XIs

Mohammad Isam27-Sep-2023You are likely to hear a lot more about Najmul Hossain Shanto and Will Young during the World Cup. They head into the tournament among their respective team’s top scorers this year, having also top-scored in the Bangladesh-New Zealand third ODI in Dhaka on Monday, their last game before the World Cup. But they have reached this stage through different routes in the last couple of years.Young is New Zealand’s fourth-highest run-getter in ODIs since his debut in 2021. He has opened in half of those matches, and has now nailed that position even as Kane Williamson returns for the World Cup. His 70 off 80 in the third game while chasing 172 against Bangladesh ensured New Zealand didn’t stumble despite losing two early wickets.Young said that although Bangladeshi conditions aren’t exactly like India’s, they helped New Zealand know their balance ahead of the World Cup.Related

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“The boys were saying in the change room that we haven’t won a one-day series here since 2008,” Young said. “Just the extra fuel for the fire to come here. Heading into this game with a 1-0 lead, get[ting] the job done. Winning a series for the first time in 15 years is pretty special. Playing three games in Bangladesh before a World Cup in India is pretty good preparation. It is not the same conditions but they might be similar, especially with the balance of sides.”Potentially, three seamers and couple of spinners. It was a good hit out. Five of us are heading to India for the World Cup. For those guys it was especially good. For the rest of the team, it is good to get the experience here as they [conditions] are very different to what they are like back home.”Young said that he was looking forward to linking up with the rest of the New Zealand squad so that they know more about Indian conditions. “We have a lot of experience in our batting in the World Cup squad,” Young said. “Rachin [Ravindra] and I are younger in our international careers. It is nice to have a bank of experience of playing in these conditions. We will take it to the World Cup.”For the rest of the squad, batters in particular, they have played in the IPL and bilateral series against India for years. We will hear what they have got to say, soak it all up. So, when we play the first game against England in Ahmedabad, we can hit the ground running.”Shanto was the only Bangladesh batter to go past 50 in the third ODI•AFP/Getty ImagesShanto has turned his career around in the last 12 months, from being a benched T20 batter to being the Bangladesh vice-captain in the World Cup. He returned to lead Bangladesh in the third game after missing a few matches in the Asia Cup with a hamstring injury and led from the front with his 76 off 84 balls.”It was disappointing to get out like that. If I hung around till the end, we could have made 200-220 runs, “Shanto said. “I should have batted with the tail. I couldn’t do it, so it was disappointing.”It is a matter of pride. My family is very happy. I will enjoy these moments. It wasn’t a happy occasion result-wise. I was excited since I was declared captain. When I was batting or when the bowlers were starting well, I was enjoying it.”Shanto’s innings stood out but the rest of the batting order crumbled around him. While the hosts maintained a good run rate, they couldn’t get partnerships going at any stage.”I think it was a good wicket for batting. We continued on a good run rate of around 5.5 to 5.7 even when we were losing wickets. We had a few batters getting out after being settled in the wicket. We needed a couple of big partnerships. I think we have to look inwards [to figure out] why it is not happening. It is up to the individual,” he said.Shanto’s turnaround in form started with the T20 World Cup last year where he was the team’s highest run-scorer. He expressed his desire to get better individually and collectively. “As a batter, it is my duty to score runs in every game. It shouldn’t be a dream. It is what I am supposed to do. I should do better. I am trying to improve myself.”It doesn’t matter if I am the highest run-getter if the team doesn’t do well. We didn’t make it to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup last year so individual performance doesn’t count much for us. Important thing is, we need to win matches. I will try to convert those fifties into hundreds. I want to bat with the same intent and plan whenever there’s an opportunity,” he said.

He hasn’t been the same bowler since his action was brought under scrutiny in 2014

Osman Samiuddin17-Mar-2021Sunil Narine is lingering. Narine, explained the West Indies chief selector Roger Harper ahead of the series against Sri Lanka for which he was not considered, had indicated that he was “not ready” to return yet to international cricket.Not ready because last October his action was reported once again, during the IPL. As is the practice in some T20 leagues, he was placed on a “warning list” that would allow him to continue bowling until and if he was called again, whereupon he would be banned from bowling.Unhappy with him dangling in this quasi-purgatory, where he could bowl but with the knowledge that one delivery could see him banned, the Kolkata Knight Riders decided to fight back. They sent slow-motion video footage of his bowling from the game in question to a tournament committee on suspect actions, made up of two former cricketers, a former umpire, a board administrator and approximately zero human movement specialists or biomechanists. They viewed the footage with “the naked eye” from “back and side angles” and came “to the conclusion that the elbow-bend appears to be within the range of permissible limits”.Related

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Two things about this occasion are worth noting. One, the umpires reported concerns with all of Narine’s 24 deliveries from the game, which is not often the case. Usually specific types of deliveries are highlighted by the umpire, with details of when they were delivered.Two, unlike in international cricket – leagues have their own protocols for suspect actions – Narine was not sent to a lab for an independent assessment of his action. There he would have been required to replicate his match action in front of sports scientists and have it rigorously tested by all manner of hardware and software before it was deemed legal or illegal. Narine was tarred by the naked eye of the umpire and subsequently cleared by the naked eye of non-specialists, which, as a method, seems to have bypassed entirely the advances in modern science in the 21st century.Since the pandemic began, the more thorough ICC-led process of assessing actions has not been available even in top-flight international cricket – it being difficult to ensure all those reported can travel to labs. If a bowler were to be called in a bilateral series tomorrow, their action would be judged by an expert panel on video footage alone. This panel could have on it people who run the testing labs, but it’s still only video footage they’re looking at. So it’s entirely understandable that Narine doesn’t feel ready right now. The IPL has been his main gig for some time and if he’d played international cricket before it, been reported and his action found illegal, under the regulations he would not be able to play in the IPL.More or less, this is where Narine has been – not feeling ready with his action – and in this lingering pose ever since he was first reported in the Champions League in 2014 – twice in a matter of days. He has been reported four more times since. At various times he has been banned from bowling in international cricket, banned from bowling offbreaks in the IPL, and placed on warning lists in the PSL. Each time he has corrected his action and returned; sometimes, as ahead of the 2015 IPL, he had to be cleared twice by different labs, just because.Can’t bowl? Can bat. Narine’s hitting has come along in leaps and bounds over the last few years•Randy Brooks – CPL T20 / GettyBut at each moment the effect has been to force him to retreat a little further from the game itself. He missed the 2015 World Cup because he wasn’t sure of his action. Ditto the following year’s T20 World Cup and the World Cup qualifiers in 2018. He has only played 12 international matches since 2017, and since September 2019 only two CPLs, one IPL and a bit of the Super50. It’s become real life Whac-A-Mole: here he appears, hoping not to get called, there he goes, here he appears again.The real-deal Narine is long gone, the man with the game’s best carrom ball, the man who had not a doosra but a post-doosra, who was not only the next level in offspin evolution but who looked like he was deconstructing, cherubically, the very idea of offspin.

****

Bureaucracy neutered Narine, not a witch-hunt. The ICC’s clampdown on suspect actions in 2014 was a triumph of the former, dousing the charged idea of chucking as a moral failing. In the process, though, it took some of the humanness away from the process of dealing with it. Vicon cameras, human-movement specialists, standardised testing protocols, accredited labs, boxes ticked, reports compiled; suddenly, illegal actions were an infomercial.Historically cricket dealt with chuckers by lynch-mobbing them out of the game. Now it chose to be the pre-recorded voice down the end of a phone, politely informing bowlers their actions were outside the parameters of legality and to take up any complaints with an entirely different department that is experiencing a busy period and may not be able to respond to your query immediately. Or ever.Perhaps it was necessary, given that we weren’t long out of the fires that nearly consumed Muttiah Muralitharan’s career. But because offspinners who could bowl doosras became the biggest victims of this clampdown, it also stopped dead in its track whatever evolutionary jump offspin could have taken, with someone like Narine at the forefront. Certainly in white-ball cricket, deprived of an essential variety, offspin has not been the same since.There’s much less of it overall, for one. Comparing a similar span pre- and post-clampdown (from the start of 2009 to the end of 2014, and then the start of 2015 to the end of February this year) the percentage of balls delivered by offspinners in ODIs has fallen from 20.55% to 15.04%. Legspin has doubled, slow left-arm has fallen slightly, and left-arm wristspin has increased 52-fold. Three offspinners in the first period took 100 ODI wickets but none did in the second; 12 took 50 ODI wickets in the first, only five did in the second, three of whom are allrounders.In all T20s there has been a similar trend, from offspin forming 15.65% of all balls delivered before to 11.57% now. That masks an especially sharp drop in T20Is, from 20.84% to 11.2%.The overall ODI average for offspin bowling has jumped from 35.42 to 41.31 since 2015, as has the strike rate, from 45.11 to 49.68. By contrast, legspin’s corresponding numbers have trended downwards. The fall in these metrics in T20s are not nearly as pronounced but that is against a backdrop of significantly less offspin being bowled in the first place – and much of that is bowled by allrounders: 15 of the 18 offspinners who have bowled at least 1000 balls in ODIs since 2015 are allrounders.Six years on now, we can sense something more has been lost beyond what this data shows. Trends can be cyclical, so offspinners may become important again, particularly in T20s. But not knowing where it could have gone had Narine and others continued, how the balance between bat and ball might have tilted, how the game might have developed, is a loss difficult to calculate.Many will argue that these bowlers contravened a law, but the thing about bowling actions is that the more you learn, the less you know. We still know very little, for instance, about intent in elbow straightening, or how injuries impact it. We know even less about causation: between elbow straightening and speed or greater revolutions, or its impact on the doosra, or whether straightening is an advantage at all.Allowing 15 degrees of elbow straightening is not an entirely arbitrary cut-off limit between what is legal and isn’t, but it does lean heavily towards being an aesthetic one. The game it odd beyond 15 degrees, that it is throwing. And yet, there’s a study co-authored by renowned sports scientist Tim Noakes that concludes that it is actually impossible for an umpire to conclusively call a bowler’s action based only on naked-eye observation. The internal whirring of the elbow and even its external motions, the study says, are simply too complex to process through a pair of eyes.Indeed, if you look really hard, 15 degrees can feel no sturdier than a bandage tasked with holding back a world of biomechanical truth bombs from bursting out and dropping themselves on long-held myths about straight-arm bowling.

****

The pandemic has made life harder for Narine. As well as not having access to a testing centre for detailed analysis of his action, he has not been able to work with Carl Crowe, his long-time coach, as often and as regularly as he might like. It’s almost like he’s working blind on rectifying whatever needs rectifying on the action.But – and this is the thing to cling to – Narine is still around, lingering but definitely around. Is there another bowler who has been reported as often who is? Mohammad Hafeez maybe, though he’s primarily a batsman.ESPNcricinfo LtdEvery ball Narine has bowled in the six years since being first reported, he has bowled under a magnifying glass not placed over any other bowler. That’s just the nature of how this works: that the more you get called, the more umpires scrutinise your action and, perhaps, are inclined to call you. Both franchise and bowler expressed surprise when Narine was called at the last IPL. Suggestions that the umpires might have decided pre-game to report him are unfounded, but they’re not outrageous. To bowl under that kind of pressure, in a format where every ball potentially carries the game with it – well, the wonder is that it hasn’t broken Narine yet.It’s changed him, sure. He’s not a strike bowler anymore but he’s still brought control to his teams. Most counterintuitively, he has become a mould-breaking, pinch-hitting opening batsman, and last season in the IPL, he was even teasing more shades in his batting.More power to him, in that if he’s not that bowler anymore, he’s not that cricketer anymore either.

An “amazing” Everton player is now thought to be “seriously considering” leaving the club when the January transfer window arrives.

Beto under-fire among Everton fans

In the Blues’ 3-0 defeat at home to Tottenham in the Premier League on Sunday, Beto again failed to score, meaning he has only found the net once in the competition this season.

Sky Sports reporter Alan Myers has revealed that one Everton fan slammed the Portuguese after the game, comparing him to “that riderless horse in the Grand National that keeps going even though he’s never going to win the race,” and adding that “hard work cannot be criticised but as a striker, you will be judged on goals and he just isn’t scoring enough of them”.

Beto hasn’t managed to consistently shine for the Blues since arriving at the club, but he isn’t alone, with too many new signings flattering to deceive in recent years.

While Jack Grealish has made a positive start to life at Everton, other fellow arrivals haven’t managed to hit the ground running, and one such figure is already reportedly eyeing a fresh challenge in his career.

Everton player "seriously considering" exit

According to Africa Foot [via Sport Witness], Everton left-back Adam Aznou is “seriously considering” leaving the club in January, having not yet played a single minute of football for the Blues this season.

The £25,000-a-week Spaniard only moved to the Hill Dickinson Stadium from Bayern Munich in the summer window, but it looks as though a loan move away could be on the cards. A switch to La Liga is most likely, with Getafe leading the race, and Everton are open to the idea of loaning him out.

Aznou must be frustrated with how things are panning out at Everton, but there is no need to panic about his early struggles, considering he is a young player in a new country, especially given how tough the Premier League is.

Alongside Beto: Moyes must drop 4/10 Everton star who lost possession 19x

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By
Kelan Sarson

Oct 27, 2025

The former Bayern teenager is clearly a talent, being described as an “amazing player by scout Jacek Kulig, and a loan move elsewhere in the second half of the season could be more beneficial instead of him not even being involved in matchday squads.

MatériaMais Notícias

O Palmeiras entra em campo na noite desta quinta-feira (23) no Estádio Santa Cruz, em Ribeirão Preto, para encarar o Botafogo-SP, no jogo que pode garantir o Verdão nas oitavas de final da Copa do Brasil de 2024.

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➡️ Siga o Lance! Palmeiras no WhatsApp e acompanhe todas as notícias do Verdão

Com o retorno de Aníbal Moreno, recuperado de um trauma no olho, Abel Ferreira deve contar com força máxima para jogar até pelo empate que já garante o Palmeiras na próxima fase.

Endrick, recuperado de um edema na coxa direita, ocorrido na semana passada no Allianz Parque, também está confirmado para fazer o seu penúltimo jogo com a camisa alviverde.

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A única dúvida de Abel Ferreira no time titular deve ser no ataque, onde Lázaro e Flaco López brigam por uma vaga ao lado de Endrick e Estevão.

➡️ O mata-mata da Copa do Brasil está pegando fogo! Abra a sua conta e faça já a sua aposta no Lance! Betting

O provável Palmeiras para encarar o Botafogo-SP é: Weverton, Mayke, Gómez, Murilo e Piquerez; Aníbal Moreno, Zé Rafael e Raphael Veiga; Endrick, Estevão e Lázaro (Flaco López).

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AC Milan have made contact with Nottingham Forest over a deal for a £26m Nuno signing who now wants to leave.

Forest on the up under the helm of Dyche

Ange Postecoglou didn’t last long after replacing Nuno earlier this season, but Sean Dyche has really managed to turn things around, with his side now four points clear of the Premier League relegation zone, after defeating Wolverhampton Wanderers last time out.

The Tricky Trees edged out a 1-0 victory against the bottom-placed side, courtesy of an Igor Jesus goal with just under 20 minutes left to play, meaning they finally have some breathing room, and survival is looking increasingly likely.

Dyche praised his side’s mindset in the narrow victory, saying: “They kept going and throwing things at us. I’m pleased with our mentality. You saw the way we dug it out, they threw a lot at us second half and we dealt with it well.”

In fairness, given that Forest qualified for the Europa League last season and spent heavily in the summer, relegation shouldn’t be on the cards, but it would be fair to say some of their recent additions haven’t hit the ground running at the City Ground.

Arnaud Kalimuendo, who arrived from Rennes for £26m, has particularly struggled to make an impact, having failed to score in his opening seven Premier League games, predominantly being utilised as a substitute.

According to a report from Corriere dello Sport (via Sport Witness), the striker could be offered an exit route soon, with it being revealed that AC Milan have made contact with Nottingham Forest CEO Lina Souloukou over a potential deal.

Kalimuendo now wants to leave Forest, amid a lack of game time, featuring for just 81 mintues across his seven Premier League appearances this season, and clubs from Italy are lining up to sign him, with AS Roma also being named as potential suitors.

Forest should sanction Kalimuendo departure this January

In truth, it is probably best for all parties if the centre-forward moves on this summer, given that he clearly hasn’t managed to impress all three of Forest’s managers this season, given the lack of game time in the Premier League.

The 23-year-old has impressed at times in the Europa League, most recently scoring in the 3-0 victory over Malmo FF, but he was unable to make an impact as a substitute against Brighton in the following match, failing to register a single shot.

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In fairness, it is difficult to have a major impact coming on late in the game, and Kalimuendo may need to be given a Premier League start if he is to prove himself.

However, with Jesus recently scoring his first Premier League goal, and Chris Wood still to return from injury, opportunities are likely to be even more limited going forward, and it may be worth Forest cutting their losses in the January transfer window.

Penny for Alexander Isak’s thoughts? Liverpool’s record-breaking striker has been down by the wayside right since the summer, and the fans are desperate to see him recover his form and showcase that world-class quality.

Isak left Newcastle United for Anfield at the end of the summer transfer window, on strike throughout August following a breakdown in relations on Tyneside. It’s been a struggle ever since, with the lack of a pre-season and injury issues in recent months limiting him to just four Premier League starts so far.

This is all symptomatic of the deeper malaise at Arne Slot’s Liverpool. Slot’s Liverpool, last season’s dominant league champions, have been pants this year, with nine losses in their past 12 matches in all competitions.

Not good enough. Isak’s only goal came against Southampton in the Carabao Cup, a competition the Merseysiders have since been dumped out of.

He will surely come good, but FSG will be anxiously waiting for proof that they have got bang for their buck. At the moment, Isak is offering less than Darwin Nunez before him.

Why Liverpool sold Darwin Nunez

Slot’s brand of football is built on structure and. Both he and Jurgen Klopp subscribe to attacking play, but where the German enjoys heavy metal, Slot is more of a purveyor of smooth jazz.

That was last season, though, with the Reds having left so much to desire this season. Liverpool are so tactically imbalanced, lacking the control of last season.

It’s for this reason that Nunez was sold. Wasteful in front of goal, yes, the Uruguayan was also erratic and mercurial, and given that Slot only started him once in the Premier League after Boxing Day, it’s clear he did not view him as the answer.

Darwin Nunez – Past 5 Seasons (all comps)

Season

Apps

Goals + Assists

25/26(Al-Hilal

10 (6)

5 (2)

24/25 – Liverpool

47 (17)

7 + 7

23/24 – Liverpool

54 (33)

18 + 15

22/23 – Liverpool

42 (26)

15 + 4

21/22 – Benfica

41 (32)

34 + 4

Stats via Transfermarkt

So, it would not be that bold to assume that selling Nunez to Al-Hilal and replacing him with a clinical superstar like Isak was done with a view toward giving Liverpool more accuracy and presence in the final third.

It’s worth stressing that Isak is anticipated to be a success at Anfield. He is too good – and proven in the Premier League – not to click into gear.

But, as journalist David Lynch put it earlier in November, Isak is “offering Liverpool less than Darwin Nunez did” at the same stage last season, and that will certainly need to change going forward.

There is still full anticipation that the Sweden international will be a success story at the club, though, but the same can’t be said for another of Liverpool’s summer recruits, who has so much to prove after a wretched start to the season.

Liverpool's new version of Nunez

In fairness, Nunez scored on his Liverpool debut against Manchester City in the Community Shield. He posted a goal and an assist off the bench on his Premier League debut, a draw at Fulham.

But, ultimately, the 26-year-old’s erraticness and his inability to conform to Klopp and then Slot’s tactical systems led to his sale.

Now, Liverpool may have landed their new version of the South American, and not in Isak, but Milos Kerkez, who completed a £40m move from Bournemouth to the Anfield club this summer.

Kerkez, 22, was named as a part of the PFA Premier League Team of the Year for 2024/25, exceptional on the south coast. That fine form is a world away from what Liverpool fans have witnessed over the past three months, with journalist Jean Paul Schiberras claiming he “looks like he has never played football before” in Slot’s set-up.

Following the defeat to PSV, content creator Mark Goldbridge remarked that Kerkez has been “such a bad signing” for Slot’s team. It was a collective shambles on Wednesday evening, but the Hungary international was culpable for lackadaisical defending as the visitors surged forward and took the lead in the second half.

It is incomprehensible to think that Kerkez simply doesn’t have what it takes to play for Liverpool. Last season, he was arguably the best left-back in the league, such a ferocious mix of power and athleticism and energy.

But he is lacking, as it were, street smarts. Kerkez has the skills to succeed at a club like Liverpool, but too often he has suffered from poor decision-making, lacking the awareness and positioning to read danger and ensure he is one, two, three steps ahead.

Milos Kerkez in the Premier League

Stats (* per game)

24/25

25/26

Matches (starts)

38 (38)

11 (10)

Goals

2

1

Assists

5

0

Touches*

59.6

50.8

Accurate passes*

28.6 (80%)

27.9 (86%)

Chances created*

1.0

0.6

Dribble (success)*

0.6

0.3

Recoveries*

4.7

2.8

Tackles + interceptions*

2.6

1.6

Clearances*

2.6

3.3

Duels won*

4.0 (54%)

3.6 (61%)

Errors made

4x

2x

Data via Sofascore

This is why he is an endangered member of this squad. This is why he faces the potential of leaving with a reputation akin to Nunez, brimming with quality but arriving as a young and uncut gem, ultimately failing to bring it all together.

Is he a liability in this team? Perhaps so. It is useful to use Andy Robertson as a yardstick for the conundrum: last season, the Scotsman was clearly on the decline; a left-back was clearly a priority for FSG to sort out. But there are many calls now for the vice-captain to restore a nailed-down starting berth.

Slot has started using the 31-year-old more frequently, yes, but he has only started two of 12 Premier League fixtures this season, one of which includes the comprehensive 2-0 win over Aston Villa earlier this month.

Described as a “nervous wreck” by pundit Jamie Carragher, it’s clear that Kerkez is feeling the weight of moving to one of the world’s largest outfits. It doesn’t help that Slot’s tactics have proved so dysfunctional this term.

But left-back was a glaring weakness at Liverpool last year, and with Kostas Tsimikas out on loan and Robertson winding down, things have only gotten worse for the champions.

In this, Kerkez is becoming a major problem, a liability as concerning as Nunez was.

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Kieron Pollard and Nicholas Pooran’s whirlwind half-centuries helped Trinbago Knight Riders extend their dominance at the top of the points table with a 12-run win against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in Tarouba on Monday.Sent in, Knight Riders found themselves in early trouble, reduced to 27 for 2 in the fifth over and then 78 for 3 in the 11th. But Pollard and Pooran launched a massive counterattack, adding 90 runs in 8.1 overs to take them to 179 for 6. Patriots started the chase strongly, but soon withered away with seamer Nathan Edward picking up 3 for 30 in 3.2 overs and Mohammad Amir returning 2 for 29.