تقدم كيفين دي بروين بهدف أول لفريقه مانشستر سيتي أمام بوروسيا دورتموند في المباراة بين الفريقين بدوري أبطال أوروبا.

وجاء هدف دي بروين في الدقيقة 19 من عمر اللقاء، بعد تمريرة من الجزائري رياض محرز.

ويلاقي مانشستر سيتي نظيره دورتموند على ملعب الاتحاد في ذهاب ربع نهائي دوري أبطال أوروبا. هدف دي بروين في مباراة مانشستر سيتي وبوروسيا دورتموند

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…

It’s been almost impossible to criticise anything Marcelo Bielsa has done during his time as Leeds United manager.

The Whites have gone from rotting in mid-table to being genuine promotion contenders under the Argentine, but there is one decision he keeps making over and over that he needs to rethink.

Of course, we’re talking about the Argentine’s tendency to allow a number of his senior players to appear for the U23 side.

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Pablo Hernandez was the latest player to step down to U23 level as he worked on recovering from an injury problem, but he didn’t last too long in that game as he picked up another knock that has forced him to miss at least two games of first-team football.

The Spaniard is undoubtedly one of the Whites’ most important players as he’s won the club’s Player of the Year award twice in a row, therefore being without him for two games is a huge loss.

Fortunately, Leeds managed to overcome Birmingham on Saturday, but they may not be as lucky against playoff contenders Preston on Tuesday evening.

For all of Bielsa’s good qualities, he’s never been great at managing a squad. The famed ‘burnout’ effect that his teams often go through is well documented, and injuries played a huge part in the Whites’ failure to seal promotion in 2018/19 – they had amassed 31 by the time April came around.

Playing senior players in the U23s after they’ve been out with an injury can be a good thing on some occasions. If an inexperienced player such as Jamie Shackleton or Ben White had suffered an injury, a spell with the U23s to help them recover their match sharpness may be just what the doctor ordered.

Why are Leeds fans the best in the country? Find out in the video below…

However, sticking a 34-year-old midfielder with over a decade of senior experience with Carlos Corberan’s side seems like a bit of a pointless endeavour, especially after he got injured just 24 hours before a league outing.

If Bielsa is to continue this policy of sending his senior players to the U23s he needs to be a bit more savvy about when to do it as there can be no doubts about the fact that he’s misjudged this one.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…

Tottenham Hotspur did not receive a single bid for Christian Eriksen in the summer, per The Athletic’s David Ornstein.

What’s the word?

The Denmark international was heavily linked with an exit from Spurs throughout the most recent transfer window.

Ornstein, writing in his Athletic column that is published every Monday, reports that the playmaker had set his heart on a move to either Real Madrid or Barcelona, though neither club were keen on bringing him to Spain.

Manchester United are said to have registered an interest, only for Eriksen to rebuff those advances before a formal bid could be tabled.

Eriksen’s contract expires at the end of the season and he has yet to sit down for talks over an extension, per Ornstein.

Stuck with him

This feels like a problem for Spurs.

Eriksen has struggled thus far this season, scoring just one goal and assisting one more, and one feels that the club could struggle to find a buyer in January, which will be their last opportunity to do so.

Indeed, Ornstein suggests that the club would rather keep him than not but, still, it is merely good business sense for Spurs to look to receive a fee in the next window.

At this point, though, they could be losing out on a major chunk of change.

Chairman Daniel Levy reportedly told Real that he would want over £100m if he were to sell in the summer but, now, there’s very little chance of a club bidding anywhere near that when they could sign him for free a few months later.

In January, the price will surely have halved but if Ornstein is right – he usually is – Levy may be stuck with an albatross around his neck, merely watching the clock as his contract ticks down.

That may not exactly be Eriksen’s fault – although recent form doesn’t help his cause – but nonetheless, Levy is now faced with drumming up interest in a player who received no bids during the summer or losing him for nothing.

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…

Ivan Rakitic’s case might be one of the most interesting ones to happen in the Catalan capital.

The now 31-year-old Croatian midfielder is undoubtedly a big part of Barcelona’s jigsaw and has been ever since he arrived at the club from Sevilla back in 2014.

So far, he has already tallied 274 appearances for the Blaugrana.

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But times have changed, and they have changed drastically for Rakitic.

Players come and go but he experienced the greatest change that practically happened overnight – he went from the most used player in the whole 2018/19 season and Ernesto Valverde’s talisman to an outcast chained to the bench and reduced to cameo appearances in the 2019/20 campaign with just 186 minutes to his name across all competitions.

And now, in a recent interview with a Croatian outlet 24 sata, Rakitic himself admitted that if things don’t change, he will have to sit down with the people in charge and discuss his situation.

But one other thing that’s mentioned in the source, however, is Juventus’ offer to take the Croat away from Barcelona for what was reportedly a €50m (£44.1m) price tag during the 2019 summer transfer window.

Watch Lionel Messi and Gareth Bale answer the internet’s weirdest questions in the video below…

Looking at that deal and Rakitic’s diminishing importance from the team, it seems the Catalans were wrong not to accept it.

After all, he is already 31 years old and his market value is dropping rapidly since 2018. At the moment, according to Transfermarkt’s estimated evaluation, Rakitic is currently worth around £31.5m and since he has been demoted to a secondary role at the club, that value is bound to decrease even further.

This is nothing new with players who are slowly but surely going towards the twilight of their careers but if Barcelona feel that the Croat has lost his spot in the team, then why keep him around at all?

And yes, maybe €50m (£44.1m) is not as much as they would have wanted for a player who was once a big part of their squad but in all likelihood, they could get even less for him in the future.

Their decision to pass on such a big offer for a declining player with a supporting role at the club could prove costly sooner rather than later.

Will they ever be able to get that big of an offer ever again?

We’ll have to wait and see but as things currently stand – that might’ve been a big summer blunder for the Catalans.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Off the Bench series, which places in-game managerial decisions and squad selections under FFC’s microscope.

Real Madrid beat Granada 4-2 at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday and they largely had Luka Modric to thank.

Snapshot

Zinedine Zidane’s troops are in red-hot form in La Liga.

Not only are Los Blancos still top of the table but they’re also unbeaten in their opening eight clashes of the new season. In fact, their only loss of the 2019/20 campaign came in Europe, when they were beaten 3-0 by PSG at Parc des Princes.

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Despite their victory, it was far from a perfect night for the Galacticos. The injury to Toni Kroos is definitely a big concern, but the man who replaced the German midfielder on the night just might lead them in his absence as well.

A much-needed reinforcement

Modric was injured for quite a while himself and he missed four games across all competitions due to a fitness issue.

But now he’s back and it was actually his substitution that made a huge impact on the clash against Granada, making his teammate’s injury look like a blessing in disguise.

Watch Lionel Messi and Gareth Bale answer the internet’s weirdest questions in the video below…

The 34-year-old Croatian midfielder was bossing the middle of the park and dictating the play overall. Of course, he was also the one who scored Real’s third goal on the night but he did so much more than just that.

Modric tallied two key passes, 86.4% passing accuracy and 66 touches during the game.

But he was also active going the other way, as well – two tackles and two interceptions can attest to that and with a 7.95 rating, he was Whoscored’s Man of the Match.

Looking at the numbers, it really does not come as a surprise at all.

Kroos’ injury is definitely a concern for Zidane but having Modric in top form will surely help Real weather that storm.

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…

Out of all the players in Crystal Palace’s squad, just four of them are under the age of 28.

26-year-old Wilfried Zaha, 24-year-old Max Meyer, 26-year-old Jeffrey Schlupp and the injury-stricken Connor Wickham – also aged 26 – are the players who fit into the aforementioned category – on-loan midfielder Victor Camarasa is 25, but isn’t technically a Palace player.

That is particularly concerning.

In a few years time, the core of Palace’s squad will be outdated and in dire need of a revamp, something that chairman Steve Parish and Sporting Director Dougie Freedman are somewhat aware of, at least.

The Athletic’s Dominic Fifield wrote that the pair are looking to target players in their early 20s with one eye on the future, with the snippet of information embedded in this article here.

“The sporting director, Dougie Freedman, and chairman, Steve Parish, were also acutely aware of the relatively hefty average age of the squad. There is a desire to bring in more players in their early 20s with an eye to the future.”

Their transfer vision for the club makes sense given the aforesaid, although there is another worrying stat that promotes their plans even more.

Prospect Watch, a site that keeps tabs on U23 players, revealed on their Twitter account that the south London side have handed the least amount of minutes to players who are 23 or under this season.

Palace have given just 156 minutes worth of playing time to players who slot into that category, and are in fact the second-worst side throughout the entire Football League for giving chances to players who are 23 or younger – only Championship side Sheffield Wednesday have given less minutes to such players, with 0 to their name.

If anything, this only reinforces and promotes Parish and Freedman’s transfer vision for the club.

While things are going well right now with Palace sat 6th in the Premier League, one can’t help but feel that there is an alarming lack of sustainability surrounding the playing staff, a concern that can only be backed up by Prospect Watch’s revelation.

A silver lining, at least, is that Parish and Freedman are seemingly aware of it and ready to fix it.

صرّح ناصر الخليفي، رئيس نادي باريس سان جيرمان الفرنسي، أن نجمي فريقه كيليان مبابي ونيمار دا سيلفا، ليس لديهما أعذار لترك النادي والرحيل لفريق آخر.

وجاءت تصريحات الخليفي بعدما نجح باريس سان جيرمان في إقصاء بايرن ميونخ بطل أوروبا، والتأهل لدور نصف النهائي لدوري أبطال أوروبا.

وقال الخليفي لـ “RMC sport” الفرنسية: “اتفق في أننا لقد استثمرنا الكثير في هذا النادي للفوز بدوري أبطال أوروبا وجميع الألقاب على المحك”.

اقرأ أيضًا.. الخليفي: الفوز على برشلونة وبايرن ميونخ يعني الكثير.. وهدفنا لقب دوري الأبطال

وأضاف: “نيمار وكيليان (مبابي) ليس لديهما أعذار للمغادرة، لدينا حقًا كل شيء للفوز بالبطولات، نحن فريق رائع أظهرنا ذلك اليوم”.

وأتم الخليفي: “نحترم الآخرين لكننا هناك معهم (الفرق الكبرى)، نعمل ولم ينته الأمر، نحتاج أن نستمر ونحافظ على هدوئنا، نحتاج إلى العمل أكثر كل يوم، الثقة موجودة، السر هو العمل والتفاصيل تصنع الفارق أيضًا”.

جدير بالذكر أن نيمار يرتبط بالعودة لفريقه السابق برشلونة، ومبابي محل اهتمام لنادي ريال مدريد.

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…

Have they done enough?

That will be the question that will be answered when Brendan Rodgers names his side to face Crystal Palace on Sunday, because after their display against Burton Albion on Tuesday, there will be a couple of names banging on the manager’s door that wouldn’t usually be.

What’s been said?

Speaking on Quest’s Carabao Cup highlight’s show on Wednesday night, former Premier League striker Bent was asked by host Colin Murray to name his star players from the side’s performance.

In response, he picked out Belgian midfielder Youri Tielemans and also took the opportunity to praise Demarai Gray, which may come as a bit of a shock to the fans, especially when you consider the amount of stick he got after his display.

Host Murray then briefly talked about Kelechi Iheanacho and his performance on the night, describing him as “the forgotten manâ€.

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Going to be a team effort

It’s interesting that those players should be the ones that get the majority of the praise from Murray and Bent, because two of them can easily be described as ‘fringe’ players in the squad setup.

Gray has only managed 147 minutes of league action so far this season with Iheanacho failing to get an appearance in the league (both from Transfermarkt).

This is something that we touched on with Iheanacho earlier this week, in that there are a number of players, with the Nigerian the best example, that clearly have a lot to offer the Foxes, but as the statistics show they just aren’t being utilised incredibly well.

If Leicester City are going to keep performing the way that people like Bent think they can, it is going to take an effort from the rest of the team, and displays like that on Tuesday night should really give players a platform to make a push for league places.

After all, Iheanacho rose from the shadows to score what is now a rare goal for the forward. Who knows what he could achieve with more chances?

Leicester have some good players, but what really tests a team through a season is strength in depth. If they are just being made to sit on the bench with the odd cup game here and there, their fitness levels if and when they get called upon might not be up to scratch.

A lack of match action will only decrease their performances levels too.

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

West Brom currently occupy top spot in the Championship with Midlands rivals Nottingham Forest hot on their heels behind them in second, only by goal difference.

Slaven Bilic’s men were at one stage the only unbeaten side in the Championship before Leeds put pay to that with a narrow 1-0 victory up at Elland Road.

The Baggies responded with a 4-2 victory over Cardiff City at the Hawthorns just a few days later to leave their first defeat of the season fully in the past.

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Their win just before the international break also signalled a momentous occasion for two members of the Albion squad as both Charlie Austin and Romaine Sawyers netted their first goals for the club.

The introduction of the latter has undoubtedly played a role in their fortunes so far this campaign, but Jake Livermore may be seeing the biggest rewards from that.

On the Chalkboard

Football FanCast have previously outlined why the club should have moved on from Livermore earlier in the year, but his performances this season under Slaven Bilic have started to prove otherwise.

In the squad last season, the 29-year-old was potentially being asked to do too much as he was without a suitable midfield partner – alongside Gareth Barry and Chris Brunt, that’s quite an ageing duo, so Livermore would have had to do the bulk of the groundwork.

But now with Sawyers alongside him, he’s able to sit a little deeper and play to his strengths.

So far this season, Livermore has contributed to the defensive game substantially by averaging 1.9 tackles per game, which has allowed Sawyers to advance forward to provide those key passes as the former Brentford captain is averaging 1.3 per match, via WhoScored.

The 27-year-old has even stated how he listens to everything Livermore says in a recent interview: “When Jake talks, I listen. He has been different class on and off the pitch.”

He also claimed the following: “We complement each other without strangling each other and he gives me so much confidence.”

But this is something that Livermore wouldn’t have been able to achieve without Bilic bringing Sawyers back to the club.

He’s clearly starting to flourish in a leadership role, especially with the previous mentioned experienced duo of Brunt and Barry both departing the club at the end of last season.

It seems as if having someone to nurture like Sawyers is something he’s relished. There’s certainly been an added layer of maturity to his game.

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

The second international break of the season is finally coming to an end as the Championship season resumes this weekend.

Slaven Bilic’s West Brom face a trip to Middlesbrough on Saturday afternoon looking to continue their fine form into the festive period.

They currently top the table after 11 games as their 4-2 victory over Cardiff City last time out saw them overcome the first defeat of their season, which came just days earlier to Leeds United.

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The Croatian manager may even be able to call upon one of last season’s influential players after he made a return from injury on Monday afternoon.

On the chalkboard

Ahmed Hegazi featured for the full 90 minutes for the Egypt national team as they defeated Botswana 1-0, and the 28-year-old played a vital role.

Firstly, he kept a clean sheet on his first start since undergoing surgery for a persistent ankle problem, but he also provided an accurate long-ball pass to Mahmoud Alaa, who then whipped in a cross for Hamdy Fathi to slot home late on in the match.

The centre-back had featured for the Baggies’ U23 squad a few weeks ago, but this was his first real taste of competitive football action, and he may have just proven his fitness in doing so.

This should serve as a warning to Kyle Bartley, who has been quite an inconsistent figure in the Albion squad so far this season.

Against Blackburn Rovers, the 29-year-old was particularly error-prone, as the Express & Star pointed out in their match report of the game by saying: “In a mistake that mirrored last season’s woes at the back, Kyle Bartley played a poor pass in field to Romaine Sawyers, who was tackled on the edge of his own box before Bradley Dack swept the ball home.”

When comparing Hegazi’s 40 Championship appearances to Bartley’s start to the season, you start to see that the Egyptian may be the man to help put a stop to their defensive woes.

West Brom have kept just one clean sheet in 11 matches.

Via WhoScored, Hegazi averaged more clearances (6.1) and blocks (1.3) per game while conceding fewer fouls than Bartley at 0.8 per match.

It appears that a switch in defence could be inevitable – certainly if Bilic wants to stop leaking goals, as that could well be the difference between finishing top and having to fight it out in the playoffs.