All posts by rastrear-estafeta.com

[ad_pod ]

Nottingham Forest legend Garry Birtles has written in his Nottingham Post column that striker Daryl Murphy can be an important player for the club over the remainder of the season, but he has got it completely wrong.

What’s the word, then?

Well, Murphy has become more of a prominent feature in the starting XI following Aitor Karanka’s departure and Martin O’Neill’s arrival at The City Ground last month, starting four of the six Championship fixtures the Irishman has been in charge for to date.

Prior to that he had only made the XI on six occasions this term when the Spaniard was at the helm, and he started with fellow striker Lewis Grabban in the goalless draw against Preston North End at Deepdale last weekend.

Birtles obviously feels that the Republic of Ireland international has big role to play, writing in the Nottingham Post: “Daryl Murphy can sometimes get a bit of stick from some Nottingham Forest fans, but he has shown how important he can be.

“Daryl can be a great outlet for us. He can take the pressure off Lewis a little bit. We can direct the ball towards Daryl, and Lewis can play off him.

“Before, when we just had Lewis up front, the ball was coming back a little bit too often. He’s not the greatest in the air, but Daryl is.

“Daryl will win you plenty of headers and can hold the ball up. That can be a big help for Lewis.

“And having Daryl in the team can give an extra bit of height for set-pieces against us. It’s not always appreciated just how important strikers can be in that sense; in your own box.”

Birtles is wrong

While the 62-year-old is right in some aspects such as the centre-forward being useful in terms of holding the ball up and his presence in both penalty boxes because of his height, he is completely wrong in others.

Basically saying the 35-year-old should be starting alongside Grabban is living in the past and something of a throwback to yesteryear, and football has moved on from a 4-4-2 even if it is a formation O’Neill has sometimes opted for since his return to the club.

Check out Matchday With Max’s verdict on Preston 0-0 Forest in the video below…

Instead of making a veteran striker a key player in the coming weeks and months, they should be doing everything they can to find a role for record signing Joao Carvalho, who has barely featured under the experienced manager to date.

He is the future of Nottingham Forest, and O’Neill needs to adopt some modern-day tactics based around arguably their best player to get the team fighting at the top of the Championship – just look at Leeds United and Norwich City.

Alasdair Gold has delivered a transfer update on a potential Tottenham swoop for Juventus star Paulo Dybala this summer.

What’s the story?

The Argentina international’s contract with the Turin club comes to an end at the climax of this season, and speculation has unsurprisingly arisen about where his future destination could be.

During a Q&A for football.london, Gold revealed: “The whole Dybala thing is an interesting one. It feels very 2019! The fact that he’s expected to be a free agent means you can’t rule anything out, but it feels like a slightly more awkward fit for Spurs in this moment than it did three years ago.

“There’s no doubting he’s talented and still scores goals, with 13 this season from 29 matches – eight in Serie A – but I’m not sure Fabio Paratici is as desperate to sign him as is being reported in some quarters.

“If Spurs do end up moving for him, it might well be because Antonio Conte has requested them to, although I’m not entirely whether Conte’s physical demands during and around matches will suit Dybala either with his last couple of years’ worth of injury problems.”

A statement from Spurs

While Dybala’s injury history is certainly worrisome, that doesn’t detract from the fact that, when he’s fit and on form, he remains an enviable talent who would certainly walk into most teams in Europe.

With 113 goals and 48 assists in 283 games for Juventus, the Argentine has performed at the very highest stage for a number of years, delivering multiple league titles and also competing for the Champions League.

Indeed, Gold himself has said that signing Dybala would be an “eye-catching” signing for the north Londoners, but questioned whether the 28-year-old would be the right fit for Conte’s tactical demands.

On a free transfer, though, it’s difficult to argue against certainly exploring a potential move for the Argentina international, and maybe it could help him rediscover his form and fitness away from Turin.

Whatever the case, it would certainly be a very intriguing and exciting move for Spurs to make.

AND in other news – Left in 2019, now worth £50m: Levy suffered shocking Spurs howler over “insane” star

With three new players through the door during the current January transfer window, Aston Villa could be set to miss out on a big opportunity to strengthen their squad even further before the end of the month.

What’s the news?

After being mentioned with a move to sign Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder Denis Zakaria, it seems as though the Midlands club could be set to miss out on signing the Swiss international after journalist and transfer expert Fabrizio Romano shared a post on his official Twitter page with the latest details regarding the midfielder.

In the tail off to his update about the midfielder, Romano uttered the dreaded five-word update: “Premier League move seems unlikely.”

He then went on to suggest that Bayern Munich and Dortmund were pushing to sign him.

Fans will be gutted

Since joining Monchengladbach back in the 2017 summer transfer window, the 25-year-old has gone on to make a total of  146 appearances for the club across all competitions with five of those appearances coming in the Champions League last season, showing the sort of top-level experience the midfield maestro has under his belt and why he would be a useful asset in Gerrard’s squad.

With all of that in mind and the fact that Gerrard apparently wants to add a midfielder to his squad before the end of the month, Zakaria could be a valid and cheap option for Villa to sign after they reportedly had a bid of £25m rejected by Brighton & Hove Albion for Yves Bissouma.

Thus, if Zakaria does end up moving to Bayern or Dortmund this month for the relatively low transfer fee Romano speaks of, it would surely be disappointing for the Villa fans to see their club not do all they can to bring him to Villa Park.

That’s especially when you consider how active they have been in the transfer window so far and how capable they have been when it comes to spending money on new players.

Consequently, the Villans would then have to make sure they bring a different midfielder in before the window closes to give Gerrard the best possible chance of ending his first season in charge of Villa as strongly as he can.

In other news: Talks ongoing: Sky Sports journo drops big Villa update on live TV, fans surely elated – opinion

Leeds United pundit Noel Whelan has been reacting to Joe Gelhardt’s recent injury, Football Insider report.

The Lowdown: Gelhardt sidelined

The 19-year-old has featured heavily in recent months with the likes of Patrick Bamford and Rodrigo out through injury.

Gelhardt has provided three assists in just 301 minutes of Premier League action, while also scoring his first Leeds goal against Chelsea.

His last appearance came against Burnley in a 3-1 win at Elland Road, with the forward becoming a firm fan favourite at Elland Road.

However, as revealed by Marcelo Bielsa, Gelhardt is now set for a spell on the sidelines following a training ground injury which looks set to keep him out for ‘three to four weeks’.

The Latest: Whelan reacts

Whelan, who reports for BBC Radio Leeds, was talking to Football Insider about Gelhardt’s ankle issue.

He labelled the teenager as Leeds’ ‘surprise package’ and described the update as ‘huge’ and tipped the youngster to be a ‘massive miss’.

“This is huge.

“He’ll be a massive miss for Leeds United because he’s playing with no fear. He’s a player who can really drive and take the game to opposition defensives.

“We’ve seen him do it a couple of times before, winning penalties at important times through really positive running.

“He’s a player that the opposition don’t know too much about, as well. He’s been a real surprise package for us.

“We’re lacking options when it comes to that central figure leading the line, especially with Patrick Bamford also out yet again. We’re down to the bare bones.”

The Verdict: No signs of slowing up

We’re now into the second half of the season, and the club’s injury list is showing no signs of slowing up, so a signing or two could come in handy before the end of the month.

The Whites may well be without a whopping 11 players against West Ham on Sunday, with question marks over all of their senior attacking options alongside youngsters Gelhardt and Sam Greenwood.

It would be remarkable if Leeds’ injury issues last the whole 2021/22 campaign, but at this moment in time and following Gelhardt’s injury, you wouldn’t bet against it.

If Bielsa can keep the Whites in the Premier League for a third season, you could argue that it would be just as good an achievement as the club’s ninth-placed finish last term.

In other news: ‘We’re told’ – Graham Smyth shares key update as Orta and Leeds finally step up January business. 

Having secured a 1-0 victory in their previous SPFL match against Livingston, Rangers are back in action this afternoon with an away clash against Ross County next up for Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side in their latest attempt at moving a step closer to securing the league title.

On the chalkboard

In terms of which players Van Bronckhorst could select to be in his starting XI to take on County this afternoon, one figure that didn’t start against Livingston but ended playing a big part in the win that we feel should be in the team from the beginning on this occasion is Scott Arfield. 

After replacing James Sands in the 59th minute in midweek, Arfield managed to get his name on the scoresheet and score the vital goal that earned Rangers the three points on the day. 

With that in mind, it would be a good option to give Arfield, who is currently picking up a weekly wage of £16k-per-week according to Salary Sport, the chance to potentially add another goal to his tally for the season from the start rather than the substitutes bench again. 

Also, with Van Bronckhorst recently sharing his wishes at seeing the Canadian stay at the club for the foreseeable future after his current contract at Ibrox expires at the end of the season, starting him this afternoon would be a good way of proving just how important he is for the team.

Labelled as a “reliable” player for Rangers by Kenny Miller, Arfield has racked up 165 appearances for the Scottish champions across all competitions with 32 goals and 18 assists under his belt, showing not only how experienced he is but also how capable he is in front of goal.

Taking into account how the 33-year-old has already scored against County this season back in August during Rangers’ 4-2 win, he now has the chance to haunt them again this time around and terrify them with his goalscoring ability.

Moving forward, while the midfielder proved in the game against Livingston how much of a useful impact player he can be for Rangers off the substitutes bench, it could be worth starting him this time to see if he can help his side have a more comfortable game this time around.

In other news: “Monitoring”: Journalist delivers key Rangers transfer update which Van Bronckhorst will love…

Ahead of the teams’ upcoming clash in the Carabao Cup tomorrow, lots of West Ham fans have erupted after the club shared a highlights reel from their win over Tottenham earleir in the season, when Michail Antonio scoring the winning goal.

The Hammers make the short journey to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Wednesday night, with the two London clubs vying for a place in the last four of the competition.

[web_stories_embed url=”https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/web-stories/west-ham-latest-updates/” title=”West Ham latest updates!” poster=”” width=”360″ height=”600″ align=”none”]

This follows the Irons’ elimination of current cup winners Manchester City. Pep Guardiola was left stunned after the Sky Blues suffered an early exit, losing the game 5-3 on penalties, as the Hammers progressed to the quarter-finals and ended City’s four-year hold on the trophy.

West Ham’s last outing against Spurs came in October, which saw the Irons clinch three points in a 1-0 win at the London Stadium.

Lots of Hammers fans erupted at this footage of this club throwback

West Ham took to Twitter to share a throwback of the win over Spurs from two months ago, showing Antonio gracefully connecting with Aaron Cresswell’s corner to score the winner.

Lots of West Ham fans have erupted at the “unreal” footage, although some pointed out that this was the last time that the Jamaica international scored, having started the season in magnificent form.

Here’s what these fans said:

“if he can do that again that would be unreal”

Credit: @whubenbagged

“That was his last goal”

Credit: @westhamtransfer

“I miss this Antonio”

Credit: @AkiW_M

“As much as I love this, is it wise to show this? They are a better side than they were then.”

Credit: @Heydawro

“Same again please lads”

Credit: @shanyloublog

“Hopefully Antonio ends the goal drought”

Credit: @GarethClowngate

In other news: ‘Attractive to West Ham’ – Irons tipped to sign 44-cap beast hailed by Kaká; he ‘can go far’

Coming off the back of Anfield victories against Arsenal in the Premier League and FC Porto in the Champions League, Liverpool have another home clash on their hands this afternoon against Southampton. 

Speaking ahead of the match against Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side, Jurgen Klopp revealed that the Reds will still be without Curtis Jones, Joe Gomez, Naby Keita, Harvey Elliott and Roberto Firmino through injury. 

With this in mind, here’s how we feel Liverpool will line up against the Saints this afternoon, with six changes from the side which started against Porto on Wednesday night. 

In goal, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Alisson Becker in the team on this occasion given that he’s played in the majority of their league games so far this season. 

Despite Neco Williams putting in a good shift against Porto in midweek, it seems likely that Trent Alexander-Arnold will come back and start given how impressive he has been this season. 

For the centre-back positions, we think Klopp will go with Joel Matip, who also impressed in midweek, but bring Virgil van Dijk back in ahead of Ibrahima Konate, who is currently earning a wage of £70k-per-week according to Spotrac.

At left-back, we expect Andy Robertson to be restored ahead of Kostas Tsimikas to see if he can win his place back in the team after replacing the Greece international in the second half against Porto. 

In midfield, we can see Klopp putting Fabinho and Jordan Henderson back in the starting XI next to midweek goalscorer Thiago Alcantara, leaving Tyler Morton and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to drop down to the substitutes’ bench.

For the front three, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah start on the wings given how they are currently Liverpool’s top two scorers in the league. 

Through the middle, with Takumi Minamino failing to have a big attacking impact in midweek after recording no shots at goal, we think Klopp will start Diogo Jota instead. 

With Southampton conceding just three goals more than Liverpool with 12 league games played, the Reds will need to be in clinical form if they want to secure the three points on offer today and put the pressure on league leaders Chelsea ahead of their match tomorrow. 

In other news: Matip 2.0: Edwards must seal Liverpool move for £22.5m-rated tank who “has everything”

Wolves have seen numerous key figures move away from the club over recent years such as Adama Traore, Rui Patricio and Diogo Jota to name a few.

With the upcoming summer transfer window on the horizon, it seems as though the Old Gold could be in danger of seeing another one of their pivotal players pack their bags and wave goodbye to Molineux.

What’s the latest?

According to a recent report from The Sun, proposed Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag will apparently look to make Wolves midfielder Ruben Neves his number one transfer target if he is appointed at Old Trafford.

Neves has been the talk of constant speculation surrounding his future so this update is not a promising one for Wolves.

Fosun disaster

Since joining the Midlands club back in the 2017 summer transfer window from Porto, the midfielder has gone on to make 207 appearances for Wolves across all competitions.

In those appearances, the 25-year-old has found the back of the net 24 times and delivered 12 assists in the process, highlighting how dangerous he can be in front of goal.

Back in October 2018, Wolves journalist Tim Spiers described one particular half-volleyed attempt at goal the former Porto ace had as “cheeky”, an assessment that rather sums up the midfielder’s overall nature.

With four goals and two assists under his belt in this campaign, Neves has also earned himself an overall performance rating of 6.95, making him the second-highest rated Wolves player to start more than four league games according to WhoScored.

To further highlight how important he is to the team in the middle of the pitch off the ball, only Joao Moutinho (274) has managed to rack up more recoveries in the league than his Portuguese compatriot (273).

With Bruno Lage saying that it’s a “big loss” for the team to have Neves out of action through injury at this stage of the season, it’s safe to say that it would be a much bigger loss for the team and club as a whole if the midfielder left in the summer.

Taking all of this into account, Fosun will have to do all they can to avoid disaster and convince the £58k-per-week talent to stay where he is and not join the Manchester club if they come calling.

A good step towards doing this could be to see the team finish above the Red Devils in the league table, which, as things stand, isn’t out of the question by the time the campaign draws to an end.

In other news: Lage can axe “toothless” Wolves flop with swoop for “breathtaking” £28.8m-rated star

Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic side finally return to Premiership action this evening, with Hibernian first up for the Bhoys in the second half of the 2021/22 campaign following the rearranged winter break.

And, with the 56-year-old Hoops boss having already made four signings in the January transfer window, with Reo Hatate, Yosuke Ideguchi, Daizen Maeda and Johnny Kenny all having arrived at Parkhead this month, there is the very real possibility of Postecoglou handing a number of debuts to his new additions against Shaun Maloney’s men tonight.

Of these players, undoubtedly the most exciting signing is that of versatile centre-forward Maeda, as the 24-year-old who Kevin Muscat dubbed a “dream” to manage was in astonishing form for Yokohama F. Marinos last year.

Maeda will give Maloney nightmares

Indeed, over his 36 J1 League outings in 2021, the £1.44m-rated man scored a remarkable 23 goals, registered five assists and created four big chances for his teammates, as well as taking an average of 2.6 shots and making 0.9 key passes per game.

These returns saw the Japan international earn a highly impressive seasonal SofaScore match rating of 7.09, ranking him as his club’s joint sixth-best performer in the league, as well as the joint top scorer in the division.

[snack-amp-story url=”https://www.footballfancast.com/?post_type=web-story&p=664142″ title=”Check out the latest Celtic news!”]

And, while it is true that Celtic have already scored a whopping 42 goals over their 20 Premiership fixtures so far this season – just one behind the highest scorers in the league – Postecoglou’s side have nevertheless struggled to break teams down on occasion this term – such as in the 0-0 draw with St. Mirren, the 0-0 draw with 10-man Livingston and the 1-0 loss against the same outfit back in September.

As such, with Hibs’ players sure to be eager to impress their new manager with a high-energy and battling performance against Celtic at Parkhead this evening, it would appear a must for Postecoglou to unleash Maeda against Maloney’s men, as the Japanese hitman undoubtedly possesses the goalscoring capability to give the 38-year-old Hibs manager nightmares.

In other news: Ange Postecoglou drops teasing transfer hint that will have Celtic fans buzzing

West Ham United ended their Europa League group stage campaign with defeat as they were beaten 1-0 by Dinamo Zagreb on Thursday night.

Irons boss David Moyes rang the changes at the London Stadium as he opted for a fully-rotated starting XI, in which a mixture of youngsters and fringe players featured.

One of the academy starlets to be handed a start was Manny Longelo, who was deployed at left-back in the absence of the injured Aaron Creswell and Ben Johnson, whilst he was chosen over Arthur Masuaku.

The Scot’s gamble paid off, even if their unbeaten European record came to an unfortunate end.

Ultimately, the Barking-born 20-year-old wasn’t at fault for the Croatian champions’ only goal of the game – a wonderstrike from Mislav Orsic – after an uninterested Andriy Yarmolenko gave the opposition winger time and space to fire a rocket past Alphonse Areola on the other side of the penalty area.

Longelo was actually one of the Hammers’ rare positives from the night as he was frequently involved for the team. Indeed, he registered the second-highest number of touches (87) in the whole game, just as Moyes’ wing-backs often do, so he was clearly adept on the ball and wasn’t fazed by the occasion of making his senior bow.

Only the skipper, central midfielder Mark Noble, had more (93).

He always tried to be productive up and down that left flank, also recording 37 accurate passes, and whilst none of his four crossing attempts found a player in claret and blue, it still suggests that he was trying to create things in the final third. He did compete 100% of his dribbles, by contrast.

Elsewhere, he put in important defensive work, managing two clearances (second-most for West Ham) and two tackles, as well as one interception (second-most), per SofaScore.

The young Hammers sensation left a lasting impression on many observers at the game, including Evening Standard reporter Jack Rosser, who waxed lyrical in his post-match ratings column, where Longelo was graded as Moyes’ joint-best player.

‘Encouraging first start for the 20-year-old full-back. Confident going forward with a number of driving runs down the left. One to keep an eye on,’ he said.

Similarly, The Athletic’s Roshane Thomas believed he “caught the eye” throughout the 90 minutes.

With Cresswell and Johnson likely to still be on the treatment table heading into a busy and hectic festive fixture list, Longelo could well provide Moyes with a solid option in the left-back role going forward.

Even going into the future when the 31-year-old moves on, the youngster has done himself the world of good, potentially handing Moyes a selection dilemma heading into this weekend’s tricky trip to Turf Moor, even despite the midweek defeat.

AND in other news, Newman could end West Ham’s striker nightmare with £10.35m-rated “absolute predator”…