Leeds United’s already paper thin squad has been weakened this month following Samu Saiz’s decision to return to Spain on a temporary loan deal, leaving Marcelo Bielsa with a dilemma this month.Â

The Argentine has maintained a stubborn stance on transfer policy throughout the season but Saiz’s unexpected departure will undoubtedly test his resolve.

Leeds are staring promotion in the face after starting the campaign in excellent form, but their January activity could make or break the foundations which they have built thus far.

According to a report from German media outlet Bild, Leeds have identified Hoffenheim’s Steven Zuber as a player they are interested in bringing to Elland Road this month, but the likelihood of a deal may well depend on the players willingness to take a step down in class.

And according to Goal journalist Ronan Murphy, Hoffenheim are willing to sell the rarely seen attacking midfielder but Zuber is unlikely to be willing to move to a Championship club.

The 21-time capped Switzerland international has experience playing in both the World Cup and the Champions League, so it’s easy to sympathise with his view that perhaps he can attract interest from a top-flight club.

The influence of Bielsa and Leeds’ obvious promotion credentials will be giving Zuber plenty to ponder over as he weighs up his future, and a lack of alternative options may well allow the Whites to pull off an ambitious swoop towards the end of the month.

Murphy’s admission has served to pour cold water on reports for the time being but Leeds supporters shouldn’t give up hope on clinching Zuber’s signature just yet.

Either way it seems clear that Leeds are in the market for new talent, regardless of Bielsa’s standpoint, with Saiz’s departure leaving a creative void which may well need filling if the club want to realise their promotion dream.

Leeds fans – thoughts? Let us know below!

Loads of Everton fans have been giving their verdict on Saturday’s FA Cup win over Lincoln City, and they’re absolutely crucifying Tom Davies.

When Davies dominated Manchester City during the Toffees’ 4-0 win over the Champions back in January 2017, fans felt they had a genuine Scouse superstar on their hands.

Unfortunately, Davies hasn’t just plateaued, the 20 year-old has actually regressed since his breakout season, and the hopes that Marco Silva could reignite his fire are slowly dwindling.

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After an awful season under Ronald Koeman and Sam Allardyce, the youngster has been completely ineffectual for Silva too, often getting carried through games by the likes of Andre Gomes and Idrissa Gueye.

He was poor again in the 2-1 win over Lincoln, as the visitors at Goodison were actually the better side for large parts of the match.

Fans are desperate for some January reinforcements to help add consistency to Silva’s up and down start at the club, and it looks like any new midfield signing could spell the end for Davies.

You can find some of the best Twitter reactions down below…

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Despite having already confirmed the arrival of winger Oliver Burke on a loan deal from West Brom until the end of the season, Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers may be keen to bolster his attacking contingent with further arrivals this month.

The likes of Leigh Griffiths and Scott Sinclair have struggled to find their best form so far this season, so Rodgers may take once again to the market in order to reinvigorate his side’s forward line.

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If the Bhoys are to hold off the title challenge of Steven Gerrard’s Rangers, and bring an eighth consecutive Scottish Premiership title to Celtic Park this season, then they could do with some added creativity in the final third.

To provide this injection of invention, Rodgers ought to launch a bid for Sunderland No. 10 George Honeyman.

The 24-year-old deserves to be playing at a higher level than League One, and Celtic could give him that chance.

Hoops fans, however, appear torn on the idea of making a move for the Sunderland academy product. Of those who took part in our poll, only 47% voted in favour of signing the playmaker. See the full results below.

Liverpool and Crystal Palace played out an exciting 4-3 Premier League encounter at Anfield over the weekend with Jurgen Klopp’s men running out as the eventual winners despite going a goal down and not performing at their usual level.

All things considered, it was a game where the visitors probably deserved something and might have gotten just that on another day, a day without goalkeeper Julian Speroni being between the sticks to make a host of costly mistakes.

In the end, it was still a good performance by Crystal Palace, though Wilfried Zaha still had some strong words for his team-mates after the game.

The Breakdown

“You can’t come to Anfield and score three goals but still lose,” Zaha told Crystal Palace’s official club website following the defeat.

“We need to tighten up because some of the goals we conceded today are just not good enough so it’s not a case of we performed well but were unlucky, we just need to be better, a lot better.”

While Liverpool are a team capable of scoring four goals at Anfield against most teams, Zaha is right to air his frustration with the manner in which his side conceded, rightly describing it as being “not good enough”.

Looking at the season as a whole, though, defensively, Crystal Palace have been good, especially at home and compared to a lot of the teams around them.

But if they are an outfit who do want to go to that next level and not get caught up in a relegation battle every season, then they need to take Zaha’s words on board.

[ad_pod ]Liverpool attacker Sadio Mane has told LiverpoolFC.com that the team aren’t putting any pressure on themselves in the Premier League title race, and Reds fans have been quick to react to his comments on Twitter.

The Merseyside outfit recovered from the minor blip of losing consecutive fixtures against Manchester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers – in the top flight and FA Cup respectively – at the beginning of 2019 to record successive victories against Brighton & Hove Albion and Crystal Palace.

The latest thrilling 4-3 win against the Eagles left them four points clear of City at the summit, while they are also nine above third-placed Tottenham Hotspur in the standings ahead of the final 15 fixtures of the season.

Speaking to LiverpoolFC.com, Mane highlighted the professional mentality in the dressing room:

“We have experience now.

“Of course we are confident if we’re winning – but not too much, we know what can happen. We are still professional footballers and we’re still going to try to take it game by game.

“The season is long and we have many games. Making pressure for ourselves doesn’t help. Why not just try to win games until the end of the season?”

The FA Cup exit to Wolves means Jurgen Klopp’s men have an 11-day gap to prepare for their next Premier League fixture against Leicester City at Anfield on Wednesday, where they will hope to pick up their 20th top flight win of what has been a brilliant campaign to date.

Liverpool supporters took to social media to give their thoughts on their 26-year-old attacker’s defiant message, and while one said he’d “better tell Lovren and Lallana that”, another said the Senegal international has an “elite mentality”.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

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Arsenal visit Manchester City this weekend and will be hoping to pile more misery on the reigning Premier League champions while subsequently reducing the gap on London rivals Spurs – the Gunners, though, are thin in defence due to a number of injuries but this may be a blessing in disguise.

On the chalkboard

Unai Emery will surely be scratching his head over how he can approach Saturday’s clash with City; Sokratis Papasthathopolous, Hector Bellerin and Rob Holding are completely out of the picture, while Laurent Koscielny is being assessed (per Arsenal’s official club website).

The former Sevilla boss has chopped and changed frequently in a bid to find the right blend in his Arsenal side, but the lengthy list of wounded means his options are limited.

However, the lack of defenders may mean Emery is forced into a three-at-the-back approach, particularly due to the lack of pace now that Bellerin is sidelined. If the Gunners’ honchos tuned in for City’s defeat to Newcastle on Wednesday night, they would see that this is the key to besting Pep Guardiola’s men.

Flood the midfield

City have lost four Premier League games this season, three of which have come against teams in the bottom half. Crystal Palace got the better of the Etihad Stadium outfit before Christmas and the Magpies ran out 2-1 winners on Wednesday night – Palace played with five men in midfield while Newcastle’s wing-backs offered their men in the middle plenty of support, which is crucial to thwarting the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva.

Nacho Monreal’s lack of pace would surely leave him exposed on the counter by Raheem Sterling or Riyad Mahrez and so tucking the Spaniard into a back-three might be the best option, with Sead Kolasinac providing cover at left-wing-back. At the same time, the Bosnian and (most likely) Ainsley Maitland-Niles on the opposite flank can push up to support the engine room and help congest the middle of the park.

With Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang up top, the Gunners still possess plenty of attacking talent to upset the Cityzens – playing with three-at-the-back enables both to start and Emery to play the five-man midfield which is becoming City’s kryptonite.

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Norwich City made it well and truly clear to Leeds United on Saturday evening that they will push them to the very end of the season to claim the Championship title and secure automatic promotion to the Premier League.

Marcelo Bielsa’s men were put to the sword by the Canaries at Elland Road, suffering a 3-1 defeat that saw Norwich move top of the league table with a better goal-difference than Leeds.

But, while the big defeat was probably a big wake-up call to the Whites that they still have a long way to go if they were to play top-flight football next season, the loss presents a good opportunity for the manager to push his players even further.

Leeds travel to Teesside this coming Saturday to tackle Middlesbrough in what could be another tough encounter.

Middlesbrough are currently fifth in the league and are more than capable of delivering a good performance against Bielsa’s team.

But, the manager should use the pressure to his team’s advantage and get Leeds to raise their game for the match and the rest of the campaign.

Leeds have shown the tremendous talent and desire they have in their squad and Bielsa has done a brilliant job at getting his players to deliver at just the right times this season.

The loss on Saturday was only their third one at home this campaign and would’ve been somewhat of a shock to the club, given how easily and poorly the conceded the three goals.

This should also motivate this current set of Leeds players to make sure such a result doesn’t occur again this season, while the defeat should also not see the club revert into a state of panic, because they now sit second on the table.

Leeds have proven on more than a few occasions this season that they know how to bounce back from a setback and this trip to Middlesbrough presents them with the perfect opportunity to show once again how committed and determined they are to play in the Premier League next season.

Aston Villa will head to Griffin Park and face Brentford on Wednesday night as they look to keep their playoff hopes alive.

It will be the first time that Dean Smith has returned to his previous club following his departure in October.

He will want to ensure his side pick up the three points on what could be an emotional night, however, he will has been handed a double blow ahead of the trip to the capital.

According to a match preview by BBC Sport, The Villans will be without both Tom Carroll and James Chester.

Carroll, who arrived at Villa Park on Deadline Day in a loan switch from Swansea City, is set to miss the game with a strain he picked up on his debut against Reading.

Chester will miss his third match in a row on Wednesday night as he looks to recover from a knee injury that he has been dealing with.

The Verdict:

The match between Aston Villa and Brentford is likely to be an emotional contest for Smith, however, he will want to ensure that his current side come away with the three points.

However, Chester and Carroll’s absences could prove to be a huge blow to their chances, especially with how well the former has played this season.

The Wales international has been key for The Villans throughout the campaign so far and with their current defensive woes, the 30-year-old could be seriously missed.

Aston Villa fans – thoughts?

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

Andy Carroll was poor as Newcastle United lost 1-0 to Burnley in the Premier League on Saturday.

On the chalkboard

Signed on a free transfer in the summer, the 30-year-old had made just one start prior to the encounter with the Clarets.

Manager Steve Bruce started Carroll at Turf Moor at the weekend and he failed to really have any sort of impact in the final third.

Per WhoScored, he had two shots on goal, with neither on target, despite having a total of 36 touches throughout the game.

He notched a pass completion rate of a mere 63% – the joint-lowest of any Newcastle player to start the game – and did not complete a single dribble.

The former West Ham United striker, despite his 6 foot 4 height, also won just 37% of the aerial duels he attempted, meaning of the 18 he contested, he won seven.

Carroll was also dispossessed once, while was dribbled past on two separate occasions.

Not the answer

Newcastle have a number of strikers to choose from.

They also have Dwight Gayle, Joelinton and Yoshinori Muto but they have all struggled to hit the back of the net, scoring once in the Premier League between them.

Carroll is another to have failed to have scored in the top-flight and this performance proves that he is not the answer Bruce is looking for.

Naturally, he needs strikers who can score goals and, at the moment, it isn’t just Carroll who is struggling to do that.

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But here he outlined his deficiencies, his inability to create proper chances and his fallibility in the air.

As Newcastle’s season progresses, Bruce needs to drop Carroll.

Meanwhile, another Newcastle ace simply must improve.

Wolverhampton Wanderers’ unbeaten run finally came to an end on Sunday afternoon as they were agonisingly defeated by Tottenham Hotspur at Molineux.

The west Midlanders looked set for completing a 12th game without defeat until Jan Vertonghen popped up with a last-minute header to clinch all three points for Spurs.

Following the match, Wolves boss Nuno Santo urged referees to monitor Adama Traore closely to ensure that he doesn’t suffer a serious injury, and the picture below could show exactly why he has a point…

Tim Spiers revealed on Twitter that in 26 appearances this season, 24 opposition players have been booked as a result of trying to stop the Spanish winger.

That’s quite an alarming statistic, and it could suggest that he’s been quite lucky to avoid injury to date this season.

Traore has proven to be a crucial part of Wolves’ plans this season, scoring four goals and assisting six more in all competitions, forming a formidable partnership with Matt Doherty along the right flank.

To be fair to the 23-year-old, he just dusts himself off and continues without any frustration, which is a credit to his character, but for the sake of their season, he must remain fit and healthy.

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