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

It’s not often that Marcelo Bielsa takes a gamble. His squad is thin and he prefers familiarity, making few changes to his side this term.

He’s used a league-low 17 players in the Championship and he’s predominantly only made changes because of injury.

It took a blow to Barry Douglas for Gjanni Alioski to earn his place while the same can be said for Jamie Shackleton who stepped into the shoes of Adam Forshaw.

Helder Costa has since replaced Pablo Hernandez on the right-hand side as well.

Injuries again will force the manager’s hand this weekend as the aforementioned Shackleton and Liam Cooper are set for a spell on the sidelines.

On the chalkboard

Bielsa hasn’t been shy in revealing his team news ahead of fixtures and before a clash with Wigan, he essentially disclosed his full XI.

He was also far from secretive on Thursday as he detailed the switches to his side he might make when they travel to Millwall today.

Speaking in his press conference, the following was noted:

It will be interesting to see just how the 64-year-old lines up but taking the decision to move Dallas would be a strange one.

The Northern Irishman has arguably been one of Leeds’ best players this season and has started in all ten league outings so far.

He ranks four-highest for average match ratings according to WhoScored and even popped up with a goal against Stoke. He’s been effective on the right and manages 1.7 tackles and 1.5 interceptions on average each outing.

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

The 28-year-old was brilliant at left-back in the dying weeks of last term and scored twice against Derby in the playoffs.

A winger by trade, he’s been moved into both full-back positions and taken on the roles with great professionalism.

There is no doubting he’d do the same in a central role but he’s played the majority of his football in wider spaces, suggesting he might struggle if moved inside.

After all, he’s only played through the middle three times in his entire career. Even if Bielsa thinks he has the qualities, it’s a risk, particularly when the midfield has struggled at times in 2019/20.

They’ve only been involved in two goals between them in the Championship and those are both courtesy of Mateusz Klich.

Dallas’ strong work ethic and ability to get up and down as he does in a full-back role should lend itself to the box-to-box style he’ll have to bring on Saturday but it’s still hugely unfamiliar.

Having made 1.1 key passes he has an eye for a pass but Leeds’ midfield was overrun when Shackleton went off last Tuesday.

They’ll have to ensure the same doesn’t happen with Dallas occupying his role as he did in the final quarter. Perhaps someone more familiar in the middle would be a better option.

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Liverpool’s imperious domestic form has seen the Merseyside side rise to 1st in the Premier League table with eight wins from eight games, with Manchester City’s latest defeat last Sunday meaning Jurgen Klopp’s side are eight points clear at the summit of the league table.

The eclectic trio in Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino have been typically outstanding for the Reds, though the defensive prowess that had been seemingly ever-present in the 2018/19 campaign has evaded the 2019 Champions League winners in the current campaign.

Ahead of the international break that will see the top-flight’s high-flyers pause domestically for two weeks before re-mounting their pursuit of Premier League glory, we take a look at five of the key points that Klopp will be keen to address ahead of their return to league action against Manchester United at Old Trafford on October 20th.

[snack_break title=”Salah fitness central to Liverpool’s success”]

Although Liverpool’s last-minute winner against Leicester on Saturday sent Anfield into a state of euphoria, it was not all smiles for manager Klopp after the game when questioned on the injury sustained by Salah.

The Egyptian was taken down after a foul from Hamza Choudhury, who was booked for the challenge, and the German coach fumed that the Leicester midfielder had not received stricter punishment – especially after a similar challenge from the 22-year-old on Newcastle midfielder Matt Ritchie last week.

Although initial scans have suggested Salah’s injury is not serious, ensuring the forward is fully fit ahead of the return to Premier League action will be simply vital for Liverpool and Klopp if they are to maintain the momentum that has seen them excel in the 2019/20 Premier League campaign.

[snack_break title=”Clean sheets evading Liverpool’s backline”]

From a defensive perspective, Liverpool were in simply sensational form in the 2018/19 campaign, guiding the club to a sixth European trophy whilst also laying the foundations for a title push that fell fractionally short, owing to the excellence of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.

The likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson contributed both offensively and defensively as the Reds battled in domestic and European competition, but the defensive rigour that saw Klopp’s side concede just 22 league goals is currently not present to the same extent at Anfield in the current campaign.

Whilst Liverpool have conceded just six goals so far, they have kept just two clean sheets in eight games and the lack of solidity is starting to spill over into their Champions League endeavours – where they conceded three goals to Red Bull Salzburg. Solving these issues will be vital for Klopp and the German will be hoping to address the lack of clean-sheets after October’s international break. 

[snack_break title=”Matip returning to full-fitness”]

Whilst Salah’s injury understandably agitated Klopp due to the nature of the challenge, the return to fitness of centre-back Joel Matip, who was absent against Leicester last time out, will also be extremely important for the Reds after the international break.

Matip, 28, has formed a promising partnership with Virgil van Dijk at the heart of Liverpool’s defence, resigning Joe Gomez to a place on the bench.

Although Liverpool have been comparatively less resilient defensively, it will be vital for Klopp that Matip returns to full-fitness, and if the Cameroon international is unable to return after the international break, the form and fitness of fellow centre-back Gomez will be crucial for the club’s domestic and European prospects.

[snack_break title=”Utilising Wijnaldum’s growing importance”]

Netherlands international Georginio Wijnaldum has played a starring role under Jurgen Klopp in the Premier League, and the Liverpool midfielder is once again proving his worth in the 2019/20 campaign.

Alongside his typically resilient performances in central midfield, Wijnaldum has also been getting his name on the scoresheet with a fortuitous strike against Sheffield United, but the 28-year-old is contributing significantly to Liverpool’s attacking and defensive endeavours in 2019/20.

Klopp will be hoping for a series of similar performances when the Dutchman returns from international duty, but the German will also be looking to further utilise the incredible consistency that Wijnaldum is providing in the Liverpool starting XI.

[snack_break title=”Joe Gomez: preventing the centre-back’s development stalling”]

Despite enjoying a breakthrough season in the 2018/19 campaign, Liverpool centre-back Joe Gomez has, so far, been unable to establish himself as a starting selection in Jurgen Klopp’s first-choice XI.

Gomez, 22, had seven caps for England at international level, but the Liverpool boss has decided to partner van Dijk alongside Joel Matip, with the former Charlton man starting just one league game so far in 2019/20 – the opening 4-1 victory over Norwich City.

With the gruelling festive fixture list on the horizon, Klopp is likely to be looking to utilise the extensive squad depth at his disposal.

Ensuring Gomez is able to continue to develop whilst playing a vital role in Liverpool’s bid for domestic and European success should be at the top of his priorities.

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Gaetano Berardi could have a decision to make over his Leeds United future at the end of the season, according to the Mirror.

The Swiss defender’s contract is set to run out in June, and it could be up to him whether he stays at Elland Road or moves on.

Berardi has been at Leeds since 2014 and has played 136 times for the club in that time, scoring two goals.

However, under Marcelo Bielsa, he has seen his game time significantly reduced. Indeed last season he made just 13 Championship appearances after failing to break back into the team following injury (via Transfermarkt).

He has once again struggled to force himself into the starting 11 this term, with Liam Cooper and Ben White starting the campaign as the first-choice pairing at centre-back. He has started just three times in the Championship, and two of those have come recently due to an injury to Cooper.

Despite not being a regular, the Mirror are reporting that Leeds are still prepared to extend the Switzerland international’s contract beyond the summer.

It is thought that he is a popular player in the dressing room, and the club’s hierarchy would like to keep hold of him due to his experience. However, they are believed to be prepared to leave the decision down to Berardi, so he must choose whether to stay or leave on a free transfer.

It will be a tough decision for Berardi, after all, he is currently in his sixth season with Leeds.

But he is not getting much game time at all and is clearly seen as defensive cover by Bielsa who has preferred White and Cooper this term.

It is possible that the Whites will be promoted to the Premier League this term, and if they do then Berardi’s opportunities to play would probably be limited even further as they would surely look to bring in some higher calibre players.

Leeds fans, would you like to see Gaetano Berardi stay at Elland Road? Or has the time come for him to move on at the end of the season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below…

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

According to Time Sport, as reported by Goal, West Ham tried to sign Mohamed Elneny from Arsenal during the summer.

What’s the word?

The Egyptian international was reportedly a wanted man over the transfer window, with a host of clubs interested in taking him away from the Emirates before he made a loan move to Besiktas.

His agent, Alaa Nazmy, has revealed that West Ham were amongst that list of clubs to make an offer to his client, though it is not clear whether they were interested in a permanent or short-term deal.

Watch West Ham United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

The Hammers were linked with midfield players throughout the window, including Everton’s Andre Gomes, but in the end Manuel Pellegrini had to settle for what he had, with just four players on the books able to play in central midfield.

Interestingly, it doesn’t appear high on the list of his transfer agenda, instead focusing on adding a striker and a defender, but given the lack of depth and quality, not landing Elneny could be a chance missed.

Upgrade on current players

Although Declan Rice and Mark Noble have made the midfield their own since the beginning of last season, but there is a worrying lack of depth in the squad, with players such as Jack Wilshere and Carlos Sanchez lacking fitness, quality, or both.

The latter is a particular concern, and if he doesn’t make some kind of impact soon he will rightly be considered a flop – he might already be well on the way to that having picked up a 2/10 rating from Football London for his display against Oxford this term.

Since signing in the summer of 2018 he has made only 13 appearances for the club, achieving a WhoScored average rating of just six in 2018/19, and therefore hasn’t provided sufficient competition to West Ham’s regulars.

That should be a concern for Pellegrini, and Elneny would have likely solved that problem. He was often on the periphery at Arsenal but displayed his quality on the ball when he got the chance and having settled in the London area after arriving for £5m he could have been a good fit at the Hammers.

He played only 15 times for the Gunners last season but his pass accuracy never fell below 91% and he managed 1.6 tackles per league game, which shows that he would have added to West Ham in both attack and defence.

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…

The Championship season is only 12 games old, but West Brom have been brewing up a storm as they currently occupy top spot going into tonight’s fixtures.

Albion have lost the fewest amount of matches in the division, meaning they are two points clear of second-placed Leeds United, who are the only side to defeat them this season.

But, it’s not just the club as a whole that have been topping the charts for specific statistics.

The Baggies’ shot-stopper Sam Johnstone is currently outperforming every single goalkeeper in England’s top two divisions in terms of total saves made for the season.

The 26-year-old has recorded 42 saves across 12 matches, meaning he averages 3.5 per game. He is closely followed by Millwall’s Bartosz Bialkowski, who has managed one less having joined from relegated side Ipswich Town in the summer.

Johnstone has even managed more saves than Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno, who has recorded 35 saves from their nine matches, though his average per game is higher at 3.8.

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But the Gunners recently held the unfortunate acclaim for facing the most shots of any side in Europe’s elite five leagues, so that only makes Albion’s number one look even more impressive.

However, despite all the personal positives for the former Manchester United man, it offers up a more pressing concern for manager Slaven Bilic.

The fact that his keeper is making so many saves means that his defence is rather penetrable as they are clearly allowing attempts on goal, this train of thought is only reinforced when seeing that West Brom have kept just two clean sheets all season – yet somehow remain at the Championship’s summit.

The Baggies currently concede an average of 11.9 shots per game, which places them in the middle of the Championship for that statistic, but what is most damning is that their most likely title challengers in Leeds are conceding the fewest shots per game at 8.9, via WhoScored.

At some stage, the scale is going to swing in their favour unless the Croatian can find a way to eradicate the problems that lie in his leaking defence.

Newcastle United fans have been reacting to comments that skipper Jamaal Lascelles made about the team’s “heart and character”.

Lascelles, 25, has featured in all nine Premier League games this season and the Magpies find themselves in the relegation zone with only two wins and two draws to their name.

The criticism came the Toon skipper’s way after saying his team have had a positive start to the season.

Lascelles told The Chronicle: “We’ve had a really tough start to the season, Man United, Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea, Leicester and Arsenal in our opening nine games. That’s a really tough start.

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“When you consider we have eight points out of that it’s positive. We have been in a lot worse positions.

“I am just pleased with our performances at the minute and I know we can build on this.”

The Toon Army disagrees with their captain’s comments and made their feelings clear on social media.

One fan said that Lascelles was “deluded” and that his comments have no substantiation to it as he does not know where the goals will come from. Another supporter reminded him that he once said that Mike Ashley was a “good guy”.

Here you will find some of the best reactions from Newcastle fans…

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…

Playing his own game.

That is how Blues boss Pep Clotet assessed the development of 21-year-old Fran Villalba during his first couple of months at St Andrew’s.

Speaking ahead of the game against Luton Town, Clotet spoke about just how well he is adapting to the Championship, predominantly how physical the league can be, and how he’s learning to play smart rather than try to play the opposition at their own game:

“I think he understood on Tuesday (against Blackburn), in Spain if he has the ball and someone pushes him from behind, they will give him the foul. Here in England if it is a fair fight, the ref will not give you the foul. You cannot expect your lack of physicality will grant you fouls.

“What I like from him is he saw that lesson very well on Tuesday, in the first-half. In the second-half he got round it, which shows how smart a player he is, he just played quicker.”

Now that he has learned to adapt to the league, there needs to a lot more tangible results coming his way.

Villalba finally got his first goal for the Blues against Middlesbrough a few weeks ago, but if he is really going to show his worth, we need that to start becoming a regular occurrence.

Whilst some leeway can be granted to him because he is so young and that he took some time getting used to things in this country, that leash can only stretch so far before things need to take a step up once again.

And this doesn’t just go for Villalba, but the other Spaniards who joined the club like Agus Medina and Alvaro Gimenez, who between them have contributed just one goal with zero assists (via Transfermarkt).

It’s ok if they want to play ‘their style’ if they aren’t up to adapting fully to the English game, but if they choose to do that, then they have to bring something to the table, and at the moment they just aren’t.

Clotet obviously showed that he wanted to bring a certain style of play to St Andrew’s, based on the players he brought in and their nationalities, but if the players don’t start producing they could end up putting the Spaniard out of a job.

Then they run the risk of having to deal with a manager who doesn’t look upon them as favourably as Clotet does.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets… 

Leeds United returned to the top of the Championship table on Saturday afternoon following a convincing 2-0 victory over Queens Park Rangers.

The Whites cruised to the win thanks to goals from Tyler Roberts and Jack Harrison as they regained control of the division in West Bromwich Albion’s absence – they play on Monday night.

Watch Leeds United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

But aside from all the positives, one man amongst the starting line up may have just blown his final chance to impress manager Marcelo Bielsa.

Helder Costa, who was starting his seventh straight game, failed to catch the eye despite his side picking up all three points at Elland Road.

Per SofaScore, the 25-year-old failed to register an accurate cross, a single key pass, or even a successful dribble. While he also managed just one attempt at goal, which was blocked by a visiting defender.

He was replaced on the 77th minute by Pablo Hernandez, who was making a long-awaited comeback from injury – meaning that Costa’s days could be numbered amongst the starting XI as the influential Spaniard is back in the mix.

The 34-year-old has been absent since a 1-1 draw with Derby County back at the end of September, so the Wolves loanee has been deputising in the meantime.

But after this latest performance, it is unlikely that he will keep his place under Bielsa as he was one of the only negatives from Saturday’s win.

The midfielder’s loan will be made permanent for nearly £15m at the end of the season, which is already looking like a major mistake if this showing is anything to go by.

Why being the away goalkeeper at Leeds is the toughest job in football in the video below…

Supporters in west Yorkshire have been long against Costa, he was slammed for his role in their draw over Preston North End, and then even despite defeating Birmingham, he still came in for a lot of flak.

Hernandez has scored two and assisted two in nine appearances this term while Costa has failed to notch either during his absence.

For the next few games, at least, it may be a return to the substitutes bench following a far from inspiring display against the Rs.

Leeds United fans on Twitter have been reminiscing about one of their greatest players of the 21st century on the anniversary of one of the best performances Elland Road has ever seen.

Indeed, Monday marked 19 years since Mark Viduka scored four goals against Liverpool in the Whites’ 4-3 win against the Reds.

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These were much more fruitful times for Leeds as they were one of the Premier League’s top contenders at the turn of the millennium, and this performance from the Aussie has lived long in the memories of many supporters.

Understandably, fans reminisced about the performance, but others wanted to talk about Viduka as a player.

With Leeds struggling so much in front of goal in recent times fans were desperate to see a player of the striker’s ilk at the club in the present day, while others just marvelled at his incredible goalscoring feat against Liverpool.

Here’s what the Elland Road faithful have been saying on Twitter…

Tanguy Ndombele was taken off at half time during Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-1 draw against Sheffield United and replaced by Harry Winks.While there were some fans who thought this was merely a tactical move, as things went along, it seemed as though it was a decision forced upon Mauricio Pochettino.This was also the feeling from The Athletic’s Charlie Eccleshare, who tweeted that the Frenchman appeared to had injured his groin during the first half.

There has been plenty of concern for the 22-year-old, as one fan implied that the club doesn’t need any more injury issues for their signings, with Ryan Sessegnon and Giovani Lo Celso having missed 10 and 5 Premier League games respectively due to physical problems this campaign.

An especially frustrating factor of this is that Ndombele had been making strides in terms of first team influence, with the start against the Blades being his third in a row.

A selection of Twitter reaction to the injury, including posts from concerned Spurs fans, can be seen below: