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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Tony Cascarino feels that Jordan Pickford could leave Goodison Park to try and rediscover his form between the sticks.

What did he say?

The £100,000-a-week star has been at Everton for the past two years and has since established himself as England’s number one. In his 98 appearances for the club, Pickford has kept 30 clean sheets and helped the Blues finish eighth last season.

In that time last season, the Englishman conceded just 46 goals in the league – the fifth-lowest. Pickford would also be vital for England in their fourth-placed World Cup finish last summer, playing a telling role in the country’s first-ever penalty shootout win at the tournament.

Cascarino told The Times: “Yet another entry in the catalogue of Jordan Pickford errors shows why the Everton keeper’s days as England’s number 1 are numbered… beaten easily by a set piece, (which) went almost straight at him. His poor form has slipped under the radar.

“Fraser Forster and Joe Hart lost form and moved on in past seasons and I think Pickford, the way he is going, will follow suit and leave Goodison Park. He is a rash goalkeeper at the best of times and makes far too many mistakes to continue to be Gareth Southgate’s first choice for the national team with a major tournament coming up next year.”

Pope and Heaton ready to pounce

This season has been entirely different from the form the £100,000-per-week star showed last year.

So far, Everton have conceded 16 goals in 10 league games and his error against Brighton & Hove Albion was just one of many this season.

Not only is Pickford’s form at Everton a concern for the club, but it will certainly be a major worry for Gareth Southgate with the Euro’s on the horizon.

And it’s not like he doesn’t have any attractive alternatives to chose from either.

Nick Pope and Tom Heaton have made 2.9 saves per game in the league so far, whilst Pickford has averaged 2.4. The Everton man has also conceded more goals than Pope, with the Burnley keeper letting in 15 to his 16.

Southgate will have a decision to make next summer, but Pickford’s form of late suggests it won’t necessarily be one involving his 2018 number one.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Gary Neville has praised Tottenham for what they have achieved in recent years and suggested they have been unfairly criticised of late.

What did he say?

Tottenham have come under fire recently due to their bad run of form, with some suggesting that the players’ unhappiness with Mauricio Pochettino’s training regime has created unrest and contributed to their downfall.

However, considering the comparative transfer budgets and wage structures between Spurs and the rest of the top six, it is fair to say that they have overachieved in the last few years, albeit without winning a trophy.

As a result, Neville is choosing to look at the bigger picture, and doesn’t believe a few poor results should create media hysteria over the way Spurs approach their wage structure.

Speaking on Sky Sports’ Super Sunday, he said:

“This team has eight times in the last ten seasons finished above Liverpool, it’s got to a Champions League final, it’s been run really well for quite a long time. They’ve played so well for four or five years this team.

“I don’t think they can go and pay the wages or wouldn’t pay the wages and that’s a decision that they’ve made as a football club and I don’t think we can sit here and criticise it.

“They either keep the players and let them run their contracts down or they cash in, they get criticised both ways.”

Breath of fresh air

Although they were busy in their recruitment over the summer by usual standards, various players continue to be linked to the club as possible solutions to help them pick up their form, including the likes of Bruno Fernandes, Nathan Ferguson and Max Aarons.

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The chairman, Daniel Levy, brought in several multi-million-pound signings over the summer in Ryan Sessegnon, Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso [who is yet to join permanently] despite the huge cost of the new stadium.

The summer spending spree was something of an anomaly in the context of Spurs’ recent windows, but the club have remained competitive during a tedious financial balancing act period.

They have had a lot of joy from their academy, too, and Levy and Pochettino collectively took the club to the verge of European glory.

Neville suggests that the club shouldn’t be criticised for their wage structure and the manner in which they deal with players, and considering some of the astronomical salaries that are being paid, it is easy to understand why the Sky pundit sympathises with the refreshing approach.

Liverpool face Genk at Anfield on Tuesday as they look to keep the pressure on Napoli at the top of their Champions League group.

The Reds have won two and drawn one of their games so far in Europe’s premier club competition, with their last match being a 4-1 victory against the Belgian side.

Watch the moment Adam Lallana broke United hearts at Old Trafford in the video below…

Jurgen Klopp will likely rotate again this time around, especially considering his side face Manchester City at the weekend. Here, we try to predict his starting XI, with five changes made to the side that started against Aston Villa.

In goal, Alisson is the favourite to be given the nod. The Brazil international has started each of the last three Premier League games and started the last match against Genk as well.

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With Andrew Robertson being so dangerous going forward – he made 11 assists in the league last term – Klopp will likely want to use him here to try and secure their place in the next round of the competition as soon as possible. Trent Alexander-Arnold, though, could be rested to give James Milner a run-out, as was the case in the previous Genk game. Joe Gomez could see a return to the side to feature alongside Virgil van Dijk, who has started all but the League Cup matches this campaign.

In midfield, there could be some rotation from the former Borussia Dortmund manager in order to keep his squad as fresh as possible for that huge clash against the Citizens. Jordan Henderson should keep his place, but Adam Lallana could be moved further forward from the defensive midfield role he took up against Aston Villa. Naby Keita should come into the XI as Fabinho continues to prepare for Pep Guardiola and co.

Mohamed Salah may have played at Villa Park, but he lasted just 65 minutes before being taken off. Considering Liverpool should win this game without him, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain would be an adequate replacement on the right wing. On the opposite flank, Sadio Mane will be looking to add to his 10 goals this term.

Divock Origi rarely starts – he has been in the first XI just five times this term – but this is the perfect opportunity to give Roberto Firmino some time off.

The Belgium international scored twice against Arsenal in the League Cup recently and he will be hoping to continue that form here.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

Christian Eriksen turned in another absolutely woeful performance on Sunday.

Spurs drew 1-1 with Everton and the Dane lasted the complete 90 minutes before being substituted in an extended injury time that allowed for Andre Gomes’ horror injury.

To look at his statistics is to see a player who is seemingly bereft of confidence.

Throughout the game, Eriksen touched the ball 47 times, per WhoScored. He did not have a shot and clocked a pass completion rate of 74% – of the outfield Spurs players that started the game, only Lucas Moura and Dele Alli had a lower number.

The Dane did register one key pass but he did not complete a dribble, nor did he make a tackle or win an aerial duel; he was dispossessed on two occasions.

This is a player in genuinely atrocious form and the statistics support that.

Take a look at his shots per Premier League game. This season that number is 1.5 per his WhoScored history. Last season it was 2.4; in 2017/18 2.6; in 2016/17 3.7 and in 2015/16 it was 2.9. That is not so much a sharp decline as a steady stagnation.

His key passes per game numbers are even worse. Back in 2015/16, it stood at 3.3 and since then it has slowly but surely declined, as has his influence on the team.

In 16/17, it was 3.1, then 2.6, then 2.1 and now it stands at 1.4.

Tackles per game have got worse, too; he averages 1.1 now. While his zenith was 1.4 in 17/18, it was 1.2 in 18/19 and 1.3 in 15/16 and 16/17.

The numbers are clear.

Eriksen’s contract expires in the summer and there have been suggestions that he is key to this Mauricio Pochettino team, with Barney Ronay of The Guardian writing that he was “essential” after scoring against Arsenal.

But that, quite simply, is rubbish. Eriksen has got markedly worse across Pochettino’s reign and one feels that perhaps his time to make that big move, to a club of the stature of Real Madrid, has been and gone.

He needs to improve if he is to even hold down a spot in this Spurs team, particularly with Giovani Lo Celso surely champing at the bit to get into the action on a regular basis.

As it stands, though, the statistics point at another season of underachievement from the Dane, who may have already peaked.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

Barcelona’s start to the ongoing 2019/20 campaign has been a far cry from what they have probably wanted it to be.

Of course, La Liga’s curtain-raiser saw them defeated to Athletic Bilbao and that somehow set the tone of the upcoming games as well.

And true, the Catalan giants are currently top of the league and also top of their Champions League group so any supposed claims of a crisis are not exactly valid, are they?

Well, yes and no.

In the first four games of the new campaign, Barcelona tallied two wins, a defeat and a draw in the process. By their standards, that was a rather slow start that saw them yield the top of the mountain to some of their rivals.

Coincidently (or not?), that was also the period Lionel Messi was out of the team with a foot injury that made him miss, you guessed it, the initial four games of the season.

He was rushed back and ended up tallying some minutes in the next couple of matches but suffered a relapse and had to sit out one additional game once again.

Luckily for Barcelona, they managed to dispatch Getafe in a 2-0 victory even without their talisman, but by that point their struggles were evident despite results sometimes going their way.

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And then suddenly they started stringing together victory after victory and clawed their way back to the top of La Liga, jumping over Real Madrid in the process.

So what changed? Messi came back, of course.

In the last seven games Barcelona played since his return, they won five, lost just one and tallied one draw along the way.

The little Argentine, however, bagged a goal and/or an assist in each of those bar the goalless draw against Slavia Prague at the Camp Nou. That makes for nine goals and three assists in seven games.

And how many have his teammates scored, you may ask?

A total of ten across all of those matches.

One man scored nine and the rest of the team scored ten, three of which were assisted by Messi as well. If we remove his contribution, that’s just seven goals out of 19 that were bagged without the Argentine’s influence.

So no, Barcelona are not in a crisis per se. At least, they won’t be in a real crisis for as long as the alien can kick a ball and have a say on that matter but what happens when he’s not around?

What happens when’s gone in the foreseeable future?

“Messidependencia” is not really a myth, it’s very much Barcelona’s reality – something that we’ve seen on previous occasions before with the player himself even forced to address the issue directly back in 2016 – and Valverde owes a lot to the little man from Rosario.

But the only way for them to really improve is to somehow manage to accomplish something without him.

Can they really do it? Only time will tell.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

Rumours of Qatari investment into Leeds United have been going on for months at this point.

The saying goes ‘there’s no smoke without fire’ and with Phil Hay saying that there’s loads of smoke from both sides this is a deal that could actually be finalised in the coming months.

Of course, backing from a multi-billionaire investment group has caused huge excitement amongst the club and the fans. Andrea Radrizzani has stated that this investment could lead to United rivalling Man City, while fans have jokingly claimed that they’ll be signing Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.

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While the Neymar and Mbappe suggestions are rather tongue-in-cheek it’s clear that the fanbase have rather high expectations around the club’s potential new owners.

However, financial fair play rules will hugely limit what the club are able to do in the transfer market, and promotion to the Premier League will be more vital than ever if QSI do invest.

Indeed, the Qatari based firm wouldn’t immediately be able to splash the cash, and that’s at least partly down to the mistakes of the current ownership.

Championship clubs are allowed a £39m loss over a three-year period and with Leeds posting a loss of £4m last year they’ll have to be quite careful in terms of how much they spend, especially when you consider that they’re already committed to a £15m outlay for the permanent transfer of Helder Costa.

If QSI invest and Leeds don’t go up it may just be a case of business as usual in the transfer market as the Whites would be heavily shackled by the regulations they’re bound to by FFP. After all, a lack of permanent transfers last summer shows how tied down they were.

If the club have real ambitions of becoming the next Man City then they need to have a foot in the door in the Premier League as FFP rules in the top-flight allow for a lot more investment in the transfer window as shown by both Fulham and Aston Villa splashing over £100m after promotion.

Tottenham Hotspur fans want their club to snap up Giovani Lo Celso on a permanent basis in the January transfer window.

Spurs completed a deal to bring the Argentine into the club on an initial loan deal from Real Betis in the summer.

However, Spanish outlet Sevilla.ABC claimed over the weekend that it would cost Spurs €32m (£27.3m) to make the deal permanent when the winter window opens.

If they were to wait until the summer, however, it would cost €40m (£34.1m), leading to a belief in Spain that the deal will be done at the turn of the year.

Spurs are already reported to have paid €15m (£12.8m) to take Lo Celso on loan, a figure that has been banked by Betis.

Thus far, the 23-year-old has made just two starts in all competitions but he scored his first goal for the club in the 4-0 thumping of Red Star Belgrade in Serbia.

And fans are keen for him to be tied to the club on a permanent basis as soon as possible.

Take a look at the best of the reaction below!

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Aston Villa will be looking to return to winning ways when they host Newcastle United on Saturday in the Premier League, but in the meantime one of the club’s most consistent performers in the current campaign has been delivering on the stage of international football.

Whilst away with the Scottish national side, John McGinn has been adding to his growing reputation in the 2019/20 season with yet another goalscoring performance, this time against Kazakhstan, and Villa fans have been reacting in their numbers. 

During the international break, the 25-year-old also netted against Cyprus and Villa boss Dean Smith will be hoping that the former Hibernian man can translate his promising international form into revitalising his club’s domestic fortunes, having lost three consecutive games to Manchester City, Liverpool and Wolves.

But for now, these fans are simply enjoying the sight of the Scotland international finding the net. Here are some of the best reactions following a tweet from the club.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Southampton striker Michael Obafemi has been speaking to The Daily Echo following the 2-2 draw against Arsenal at the Emirates on Saturday.

The Irish forward made his first Premier League start of the campaign against the Gunners, and proceeded to deliver an impressive display having made two key passes while also drawing two fouls.

Obafemi, 19, also could have scored were it not for Cedric’s mindlessly over-hit cross, when all he had to do was roll the ball into the teenager’s path.

What did he say?

Speaking to The Daily Echo, Obafemi said: “I was buzzing to be playing and I think I showed out on the pitch why I should be starting.

“I just kept my head down and kept working hard and waited for my chance to come. I feel like I am doing well at the moment, so hopefully I can carry on doing that.”

All depends on Ralph Hasenhuttl’s selections

Ralph Hasenhuttl has been a hard man to predict so far this season when it comes to team selections and formations.

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The Austrian has played Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg at left-back and Stuart Armstrong at right-back – both players are naturally midfielders – whereas the former RB Leipzig boss has used six different tactical systems in 13 Premier League outings so far this term.

Obafemi’s hopes of starting rest on whether or not Hasenhuttl opts to play with two strikers up front, with him going with a 4-3-3 formation at Arsenal at the weekend. The Republic of Ireland international seemingly only started because Moussa Djenepo – who has been one of the club’s most important players this term despite his lack of game time through injury – wasn’t ready having only just travelled back from international duty.

With Nathan Redmond often playing in the front two when it has been used so far this season, Obafemi still has a lot of work to do to work his way in. This is especially the case if Hasenhuttl sticks with the three up top tactic he deployed against Arsenal, as it will be tough to dislodge the in-form Danny Ings from the starting XI right now.

Obafemi did his chances of another start no harm in north London on Saturday, but his hopes may no longer rest in his hands.

Elsewhere, take a look at how Southampton fans responded to an unpopular figure eyeing up Hasenhuttl’s job…

Former Liverpool central defender turned Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher claims that Harry Kane ‘has reached the crossroads of his career’ at Tottenham Hotspur.

‘Carra’ was speaking in his column for the Telegraph as he debated if Kane should leave the north London club and whether Spurs should sell him given certain factors.

The comments were relayed by Sky Sports and this is what Carragher had to say on the 26-year old:

“Harry Kane has reached the crossroads of his career at the worst time possible. In other circumstances, the Tottenham striker’s comments suggesting he would consider a move in the near future would be reasonable.

“These are far from normal times, with clubs losing money and needing to cut costs rather than plan major investments in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

“That means if players in the highest price bracket want out of their clubs, there is less chance they will get their wish.

“Kane is in that category. A limited number of clubs can afford him, and I am not sure how many have the appetite to engage in a fractious negotiation with Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy in the current climate.

“Kane turns 27 in July. We have no idea when the next transfer window will open or next season start. If Kane does not leave soon, the situation gets trickier for him.

“When players hit 28, psychologically it makes a big difference to clubs. They see him as nearer 30, recognise there is no resale value and baulk at high valuations.”

Reports from the likes of the Telegraph have stated that Kane is indeed considering his future with Spurs, but Carragher believes that because of circumstances at the moment, it may not be the best time for the English international captain to ponder.

The star is rated at £135 million according to Transfermarkt and will likely not come cheap given his status in North London, as well as being the England captain and the top-scorer at the 2018 World Cup to boot.

Furthermore, the 26-year old is arguably in the prime of his career given his age and his stats over the years for the Lilywhites are very impressive. As per Transfermarkt, Kane has scored 181 goals and provided 30 assists in 278 appearances in all competitions for Tottenham.

The central forward may feel that he has done all he can at the club and as Carragher believes, Kane ‘has reached the crossroads of his career’, meaning that he may be dwelling on a move.

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