Liverpool’s season has been extremely eventful thus far. After the last campaign where the Reds were unlucky not to win the Premier League title, Brendan Rodgers has struggled to emulate that form so far. Currently sitting in fifth place and 13 points, level with West Ham, the Anfield outfit have experienced unexpected losses, including defeats against the Hammers and at home to Aston Villa.

Once more, the £70m sale of star striker Luis Suarez to Spanish giants Real Madrid has quite clearly derailed the Liverpool squad, and some of the confidence that was evidently flowing through the camp has been scuppered in 2014/2015 so far. The Uruguayan’s replacement, Mario Balotelli, has failed to score a single league goal since his £16m arrival from Italian giants AC Milan, and his sole striker in a red shirt coming in the Champions League at home against Ludogorets. Elsewhere, the likes of Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert and Lazar Markovic have all failed to sparkle for their new club.

Another player that has recently been criticised for his performances for Liverpool is full back Glen Johnson. New recruit Javier Manquillo has been able to muscle in front of Johnson in the starting XI for the Reds albeit in part due to the England international struggling for fitness. The vast experience of the former Portsmouth defender would be priceless to most Premier League clubs, but with more English players being encouraged to ply their trade abroad, a move to another country could massively appeal to the former Chelsea defender.

The full back, who came through West Ham famed ‘Academy of Football’ where the likes of Joe Cole, Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard have launched their illustrious careers, is out of contract at the end of the season, and Rodgers has already expressed his desire to cut the wage bill at the Merseyside club. As well as his Liverpool starting spot, his place in the England set up is also in jeopardy. Roy Hodgson has injected a lot more youthful legs after the disastrous World Cup campaign, with the likes of Arsenal’s Calum Chambers and Southampton’s Nathanial Clyne already in front of Johnson in the Three Lions pecking order.

Blessed with great dribbling skills, a good eye for a pass and has a stinging shot with either his left or right foot, there will be plenty of admirers for the England international, who is free to talk to any club in January. The 30-year-old recently told the Liverpool Echo:

“I’m very relaxed about my contract. There are no talks going on with the club at the moment. There were minor talks towards the end of last season but nothing else. I’ve loved playing my football here from day one. I’m more than happy here. But obviously I can only talk to the club about it when they want to speak to me.”

Let’s just hope Rodgers is listening because it currently looks like he won’t be at Liverpool in the long-run.

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Alan Shearer has revealed that he’s just as frustrated as the majority of Newcastle fans with the start his old club have made to the season.

The Tynesiders are currently joint bottom of the Premier League after seven games in which they have failed to register a single win.

This poor form has led to calls from large sections of the St James’ Park crowd for the sacking of manager Alan Pardew, while owner Mike Ashley has come in for serious criticism following the sales of star players.

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Shearer – widely hailed as the greatest player to have ever played up front in the black and white shirt – watches his hometown side from his own box in their ground, and says that he’s just as frustrated as the rest of the club’s supporters thanks to the lacklustre showings Newcastle have produced in 2014:

“I don’t hold out too much hope for us,” he is quoted by the Daily Star.

“I think it could be a long, hard season.”

“It hasn’t been pleasant watching to be honest,” said Shearer, speaking ahead of a dinner next month which will be held in his honour to raise funds for the Stroke Association.

“I’m exactly the same as the fans, I’m one of them. I pay my ticket and am entitled to my opinion.

“It’s been poor since January and the quicker we can get out of it, the better.”

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“The harsh reality is that we haven’t been good enough and things have to improve pretty quickly or we could find ourselves in a hole.”

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April 27th, 2014, and Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers – clearly aggrieved after Chelsea had just dealt a colossal blow to his side’s title aspirations with a 2-0 victory at Anfield – had the following to say about the Blues’s tactical approach to the game:

“I don’t think it’s a tactic. Anyone can ask a team to just sit back and defend on the edge of the box.”

Fast forward seven months, and a subtle yet significant alteration to the 41 year-old’s claim is perhaps in order, as the painful reality appears to be that any manager apart from Rodgers himself is able to coax a solid defensive performance out of his players.

Liverpool’s dreadful 3-1 defeat to Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Sunday means that the Reds have now kept just two clean sheets in their last 24 games in all competitions. They have already lost as many league games this season as they managed in the entirety of the last, and a defeat against Ludogorets Razgrad in the Champions League on Wednesday would be their fifth in a row and would mark their worst run since 1953.

The small matter of Luis Suarez leaving the club in the summer – whose goals effectively deflected attention away from Liverpool’ defensive shortcomings – is no excuse for such damning statistics. Rodgers has been given considerable time and funds to improve his side’s defence, yet the Reds backline has actually regressed since the Irishman took over two years ago. In the 2011/12 season – Kenny Dalglish’s last as manager – Liverpool conceded a total of 40 league goals. In the two subsequent seasons under Rodgers, they let in 43 and 50 respectively, and the current tally for this campaign of 18 from 12 games – 1.5 goals per game – means that the Anfield outfit are well on course to break their record for most goals conceded in a Premier League season.

£63 million has been spent on defence alone by Rodgers since he became manager in June 2012. The fact that things have somehow worsened despite significant investment highlights the Liverpool boss’s two major managerial flaws: his inability to find value in the transfer market, and his lack of expertise in defensive coaching. Simon Mignolet has been woefully out of his depth since he joined the Reds from Sunderland in the summer of 2013 and is clearly a mid-table Premier League goalkeeper at best, while Dejan Lovren’s status as a professional footballer continues to beggar belief, such has been the Croat’s embarrassing incompetence in central defence. The pair cost a combined £29 million; to put this into context, Hugo Lloris – a genuine world-class goalkeeper – was bought by Tottenham for just £12 million, while Vincent Kompany was priced at £6 million when he signed for Manchester City.

Rodgers would argue that every manager has his weaknesses, and that his own strengths lie elsewhere. It is hard to dispute this; last season’s LMA manager of the year is undoubtedly very talented, and the attacking prowess of his Liverpool side has at times been breathtaking. However, his continued refusal to accept that his defensive approach simply isn’t working is having a damaging effect on the club’s on-field performances. There has been no sign whatsoever of an improvement in the Reds’ backline solidity, and until Rodgers bites the bullet and hires a defensive coach – as Dalglish did when he brought in Steve Clarke to help him out – Liverpool’s problems will persist.

The Liverpool boss is highly unlikely to do so, which is why he must go. Although the man from Ballymena is one of the most intelligent, progressive and tactically astute managers in the game, his stubbornness with regard to his clearly faulty defensive methods is sending Liverpool into freefall. A questionable record in the transfer market is just about excusable – Rafael Benitez hardly covered himself in glory with his signings, and neither did Kenny Dalglish. However, these two men at least ensured that the Reds defence retained a degree of respectable solidity.

Liverpool’s backline woes need to be addressed urgently if their season is to be saved. As talented a manager as Rodgers is, he does not seem to be the man to make this happen.

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Sir Alex Ferguson, although one of the greatest managers of all time, made his fair share of transfer boo-boos. Anderson, Bebe, Massimo Taibi… all three of these were pretty terrible additions, but right now it looks like one of the players he let go was the biggest error of all – Paul Pogba. The Frenchman was only a youngster at the time – and still is now – but the Scot’s reluctance to field him left the midfielder frustrated to the point that he slipped out of the Old Trafford exit door and right into the arms of Juventus.

At the time, the deal didn’t look such a big issue. Pogba was largely unproven and had some way to go to justify his tag as the ‘new Patrick Vieira’, yet he has gone the distance in Turin. With Serie A titles, a spot in Les Bleus’ senior squad and Champions League experience, the 21-year-old is now one of Europe’s best enforcers, and United are considering righting the wrongs with a £60m+ deal.

Such a fee would just about usurp the cash paid for Angel di Maria – the current British record buy – and is the sort of money many clubs can only dream of. Given United’s £150m summer spend, there are some opposed to a deal, but the Red Devils need to splash the cash for Pogba…

In terms of the major stats needed for a top class central-midfielder, Pogba simply wipes the flop with United’s current offerings. Although he’s played more minutes in league action than the likes of Michael Carrick, Daley Blind or Marouane Fellaini, the Frenchman boasts much better numbers in terms of chance creation, key passes and goals scored. Although these are ‘forward thinking’ attributes, he also takes the plaudits defensively, winning more tackles and more duels (both aerially and on the ground).

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And with goals in mind, Pogba scores some absolute crackers. Midfielders are required to weigh in with the odd effort that hits the back of the net, and when the Juve man does this, he does it with swagger and style. From long-range thunderbolts, to neat finishes and headers, Pogba can do it all.

The real irony with all of this is that United need a midfielder of the starlet’s quality more than ever and they let him go. The money received was minimal by football standards, and paying over £60m for him now could look like an admission of the mistake – which is not something a giant of the game will want to confess to.

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However, it’s time to put aside any reluctance and start spending that £750m adidas are set to hand over…

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Sunday wasn’t the greatest day for Liverpool, they were shut out by a disciplined and resilient Blackburn side who hassled them all game with a rampant physicality.

Liverpool’s slick passers found it difficult to break down the well-drilled defence, but it was admirable how Liverpool’s own defence dealt with the threatening height and strength of Rovers striker Rudy Gestede.

Martin Skrtel fell awkwardly early on and had to leave the game. His injury looked bad and almost certainly could have been much worse, and at the time I thought that Liverpool were going to have a tough day defending the menace of Gestede without their designated ‘hard-man’. As it turned out though, Dejan Lovren, Glen Johnson, and Skrtel’s replacement Kolo Toure were able to deal with the physical battles and counter attacks.

Liverpool weren’t as impressive going forward as they have been in recent weeks, but they were solid at the back and kept possession well, and that solidity has been the basis for a run of form that’s seen Brendan Rodgers’ men unbeaten in the league since they were humbled 3-0 at Old Trafford on December 14th.

Their impressive performances in this time have turned around their difficult start to the season and put them into the mix for a Champions League place, and this is down in no small part to Brendan Rodgers’ courage in his team selections.

Yes, the man from Carnlough on the north coast of Northern Ireland is a brave man. He has some serious cojones.

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It actually started even earlier than December. Selling Luis Suarez was a decision almost unanimously agreed with. His last misdemeanour as a Liverpool player left a bad taste in the mouth and it was time to sell for the good of the club’s image. But it does take courage to do the right thing even when it means losing one of the best players in the world.

What happened since then has been tough, though. Accused of spending the reported £75m transfer fee on lots of underperforming players – ‘doing a Spurs’ – there were rumours of Rodgers’ being under pressure, that the board were considering his position as the club floundered in the league and crashed out of the Champions League.

Since then, though, the new side have turned their form around and it was the defeat at Old Trafford that sparked the revival.

That was the time this season that Brendan Rodgers went with three at the back. That was his first real gutsy play. The Northern Irishman started with the same back-three that started the Blackburn game this weekend, but Jordan Henderson started at right wing-back. This was also the first game in which Simon Mignolet was dropped. A goalkeeper was the difference on that day, as Liverpool had almost double United’s shot count, but De Gea was a match for all those on target, while Brad Jones conceded 3 of United’s.

Rodgers, however, was impressed by the energy of his team and stuck to the back three against Arsenal in the next league game. It has been that way ever since with the addition of Lazar Markovic at wing-back and Emre Can coming into the back three.

Since then Liverpool have looked back to their flowing and lightning-quick best in attack, but it is a more solid base, and one that allows them to play out from the back, that has helped their attack.

Emre Can has come into the defence – and this was the next gutsy move. Can wasn’t seen as a defender when he was signed but there he is playing regularly at centre back. A cultured midfielder playing in a back three is an interesting idea, and since he already has two team mates alongside him Can has a licence to take the ball out from the back, and has time on the ball to pick a pass or come into the midfield to start attacks.

Against Blackburn he was used in midfield, but Rodgers knew that the game was going to be played almost exclusively in the Blackburn half, so Liverpool needed to start attacks from higher up the pitch. Usually it is Can’s passing range and vision that helps launch attacks from deep, and this has been one of the reasons for their success.

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This one tactical change has had a huge effect on the morale of the players too. Underperforming players are now performing well, and even the previously-dropped Mignolet is back to good form as the team, on their day, are solid at the back and sometimes sensational up front.

Putting the theory into practice is difficult, but having the balls to do it in such big games is quite another thing. It took tremendous bravery from a young manager, while he was under huge pressure, to make the difference to Liverpool’s season. They now have a realistic hope of silverware if they can make it to the Cup semi-final against Villa, and they look on course for a top-four place and maybe a better crack at the elite European competition next season with a side that is already gelling.

The reds’ recent run can be traced back to that awful day at Old Trafford. Even though there were glimmers of bravery in the summer, that was the day when Liverpool finally laid the foundations of recovery, and the day that Brendan Rodgers’ showed the world his balls!

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After 11 years as Chelsea’s main shot stopper, the time has come for Petr Cech to leave Stamford Bridge.

Despite being relatively young, 32, for a goalkeeper and still considered to be one of Europe’s best, Cech has been given the option of either being using as Chelsea’s cup keeper or find a new club in the summer. For obvious reasons Cech is expected to choose the latter and look for a team where he can start regularly.

The Czech Republic international has been linked with numerous clubs, though the most persistent rumour doing the rounds is that city rivals Arsenal are a likely destination. The Gunners appreciate that Cech is a high quality keeper, the likes of which don’t come around too often. But Arsenal already have two capable goalkeepers, one of whom was brought in just last summer and the other who is expected to leave because he has had to share his place in the first team.

David Ospina, currently Arsenal’s first choice keeper, was signed in the last summer window on a four year deal believed to be worth £3million. He caught Arsene Wenger’s attention after a brilliant performance for Colombia at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Since arriving in north London the 26-year-old has made 18 appearances, dislodging previous starter Wojciech Szczesny. Szczesny has been with the Gunners since he joined their youth team in 2009 and used to hold court in Arsenal’s goal before the arrival of Ospina.

With Szczesny wanting to leave because he isn’t playing enough, then why would Cech want to enter this situation? Would Cech be happy to equally share responsibilities with Ospina or would his transfer signal the start of a much reduced role for the Colombian? Surely Arsenal would have to make a choice, particularly when it comes to their Champions League matches, as they are likely to want to stick with one or the other, and with Cech having much more European experience you’d expect him to get the job.

As tempting as staying in London and playing for a team he is already very familiar with Cech can avoid numerous problems by just signing for another club who would welcome him as their main goalkeeper from the off.

Paris Saint-Germain are reported to be interested in signing him and would definitely provide Champions League football next season, along with a huge wage. Their early offer has been around the £7million mark but could increase if they have to battle against teams like Arsenal for his signature.

PSG are on course once again to win Ligue 1 and made it into the quarterfinals of the Champions League after knocking out Cech’s own Chelsea in the previous round.

Perhaps Cech would be an ideal signing for Arsenal and maybe Ospina wouldn’t mind playing a mostly back-up role to him, but Cech has the chance to join the current champions of French football, a team who are getting closer and closer to the level of European heavy weights like Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.

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PSG are a worthwhile project to join and after winning everything in England with Chelsea, it is the perfect time to try his luck somewhere else.

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It’s that time of year again when media outlets link any player to any side in order to get people talking. Kaka to Spurs? Tevez to West Ham? Sneijder to Man City? – You know the drill. And Man United are no exception to this rule, with are plenty of transfer rumours in the air at the moment. Are Falcao’s Old Trafford days numbered? And who will be replacing him?

As far as Radamel Falcao is concerned, it seems he has not got much time left in a red shirt. Failing to impress at Stamford Bridge against the league leaders Chelsea could well have made up Louis Van Gaal’s mind, with his late effort that crashed off the post a bitterly disappointing one. The loan deal with an option to buy at the end will likely not be fulfilled, and he will be playing elsewhere come the summer.

And there is no shortage of players to replace the Colombian. First up, Aston Villa’s Christian Benteke. The second half of his season has been outstanding, and he has not struggled to find the back of the net. He has scored a staggering six goals in his last four games: including a hat trick at QPR. If he is finding it easy to score goals with Aston Villa, he will have no problems at Manchester United. He’s already scored against them this season!

If Benteke cannot be lured away from the Midlands, there is a back up plan. That player being Burnley’s Danny Ings. Ings is on the verge of dropping down to the Championship, yet many believe he is destined to stay up – whether Burnley do or not. The media believes he has a big club signing lined up, with Manchester United showing interest.

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A Champions League goal has brought ‘Chicharito’s’ talents back to the spotlight. Chicharito’s dramatic late goal has gotten Real Madrid through to the Champions League semi-finals, and immediately questions of the Mexican’s Manchester United future were asked. Will he come back? It won’t cost anything (bar wages, of course) and he is a proven goalscorer for the Red Devils. One goal does not make a player – but what a goal to score.

Away from strikers, Hummels to United is one rumour that refuses to disappear. Manchester United need to strengthen their defence, and Hummels would be perfect. But, this could be just another Sneijder rumour that surfaces but nothing happens. However, Klopp’s Dortmund departure is adding fuel to the fire and Hummels could be a Manchester United player after all.

His Dortmund teammate Gundogan has also been linked to Manchester United as the perfect ‘replacement’ for Michael Carrick. Carrick has shown no signs of slowing down, and has been key this season, but he will not be at Manchester United forever. It seems Gundogan is on the radar in order to build for the future.

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Former Bayern Munich striker Roy Makaay has claimed that it “wouldn’t surprise” him if Bastian Schweinsteiger leaves his old side to join Manchester United this summer.

The German World Cup winner has recently been aligned with a switch to the Red Devils, amid claims that Louis van Gaal is keen to set up a reunion with his former star.

LVG coached the all-action midfielder during his spell at the helm of the Bavarian giants, and is widely credited as the man who turned him into a bombarding central player after spotting his talent in a wide role.

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Makaay was also involved in Bayern’s set-up with ‘The Commander’, and he says that it would be no shock to see the Allianz Arena idol relocate to Manchester in the coming months:

“He’s an amazing player, a world champion,” he told Goal. “If you saw him at the World Cup final he was bleeding everywhere but he came back on the pitch.

“He and van Gaal had a good relationship so it wouldn’t surprise me [if he joined United]. I hope he stays at Bayern. He’s a kid from the club and he has to stay there. But if he decides to move it wouldn’t be a surprise if he changed to Man United knowing the good relationship he has with the manager.

“When you listen to Van Gaal, there were players he had a good relationship with. Thomas Muller [is one], but he was quite clear and said ‘I’m going to stay at Bayern’ and Schweinsteiger, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

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Schweinsteiger has enjoyed a glittering career with Bayern, graduating from their youth set-up before winning eight Bundesliga titles and the Champions League.

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Like your nan probably used to tell you when she gave you some money, ‘Don’t spend it all at once.’

The same holds true in football. Liverpool blew their Luis Suarez money on a collection of players that failed to gel together: split like a bad hollandaise sauce. Tottenham did even worse with their Gareth Bale money, the flops from that venture are being offloaded as we speak. Etienne Capoue is now a Watford player and Roberto Soldado might flee back to Spain with his tail between his legs.

So the windfall Aston Villa have come into after the sale of Christian Benteke to Liverpool should be regarded in the same caution. It’s not quite so spectacularly large, but Villa would do well to replace him and build the team as they would’ve done with the burly Belgian.

And so it makes complete sense to see Tim Sherwood raid his old club Tottenham for Emmanuel Adebayor.

Is it a risk? Yes, Benteke is a great striker with a real future ahead of him. His goals have kept Villa in the Premier League in at least two season. Adebayor, on the other hand, hasn’t shown his quality since Sherwood was in charge at the Lane. And before Sherwood was in charge it was much longer ago than that.

But Adebayor is definitely a quality footballer. He’s also big and strong, and like Benteke he knows where the goal is. And Sherwood is confident he can get the best out of the Togolese once again.

So it might be a risk, but it looks like a calculated one that learns from the mistakes of other clubs. We’ll have to wait and see if Villa spend their money on other players too, of course. But if Villa do get their man, they’ll be able to build just as they would’ve done had they kept hold of Benteke.

We would call him a traditional number 9. In Brazil, the lone striker is known as the point of the lance. Benteke has been Villa’s bayonet, and with the direct style employed by Sherwood since his arrival, favouring pace in and around the lone striker, Benteke has been effective. Adebayor would surely fit the bill as a striker who can play in that role.

But replacing Benteke at the point of the lance will only be effective for Villa next season if the point is sharp. Adebayor played only eight times last season, scoring two goals, so it’s not clear that he’ll still be a striker with the quality to do it in the Premier League.

And Villa perhaps rely on their lone striker too much as it is. Benteke’s goals have been crucial in Villa’s survival bids over the last few years, but clearly that shows that the blade at the end of the lance is sharp. There’s something to be said for a blunt instrument too, of course, but it doesn’t have the penetrating power that a sharp one does.

And that’s the gamble that Sherwood is taking if indeed he does plump for Adebayor. If he does, he’ll be getting a striker he knows and trusts, a striker with obvious class and pedigree and someone who is very comfortable and totally adept at playing in the role that Sherwood wants him to play. But is he still up to the task?

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Tim Sherwood needs a new bayonet, and there are lots of plusses to choosing Adebayor for the job. But the two questions are: is he sharp? And is he rusty? Because if Adebayor can still do it Sherwood won’t have to build his team in a different way and he won’t have to buy lots of new players to create new options for the team like Spurs and Liverpool did.

But if Adebayor isn’t up to the task it could be a long season ahead for Villa. Playing a direct and pacey style with no one up front to score the goals could turn out to be hugely frustrating and ultimately a knife through the heart of Villa’s Premier League survival hopes.

Rangers confirmed on Tuesday that Kenny Miller is facing a ‘significant’ period out injured after rupturing his hamstring against Hibernian last week.

The attacker was forced off in the first half in the win at Easter Road and unfortunately for the club veteran, it’ll be a serious setback to his season.

It calls into question his entire Rangers career given his age and the fact he only signed a one-year contract extension last season.

He’s been a formidable force at the tip of the Light Blues’ attack for years and although his form has waned in 2017/18, losing his presence and experience in the first team squad will be a bitter blow to Graeme Murty.

Whether the 37-year-old comes back from this remains to be seen but the news has worried supporters, who believe the club now have a serious lack of depth in the final third.

Fans are calling on Rangers to make moves in the January transfer window and have suggested they should sign the likes of Jason Cummings or even former favourite Steven Naismith.

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They took to Twitter to share their thoughts on the news and what it means…