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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Noel Whelan has heaped praise on Liverpool forward Sadio Mane, but suggested the winger could leave the Reds for one of the La Liga giants.

What’s he said?

The BBC pundit spoke to Football Insider about the Senegal international, who was on the score-sheet again on Wednesday night against Red Bull Salzburg.

“What a player, he’s incredible. He is so dangerous, the worst nightmare for any defender. Everyone talks about Mohamed Salah but Mane looks the man and the biggest threat of all.

“He’s so quick and elusive, and unpredictable, too. He scores goals from inside and outside the box, sets them up, takes players on. He can do everything. He would walk into every team in the world – Man City, Real Madrid. Anyone.

“He is worth £150million now. His commodity is massive at the moment.

“Would Liverpool cash in? Well, they sold Coutinho and Suarez, so there’s always that possibility of a Spanish move. He’s such a unique talent, he’s the one you think they will sell if anyone.”

Hard to disagree

Pretty much everything the former Coventry City and Leeds United striker said is spot on.

It would hurt Liverpool fans to lose Mane. His down-to-earth personality combined with his world-class talent and killer instinct on the pitch have forged a bit of a cult hero, and he fully deserved that Champions League medal last season.

That said, when the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona come calling, even while both are in much worse condition than Liverpool at the moment, it is hard to turn down due to the sheer amount of money on offer.

Cesc Fabrgeas showed just how highly Mane is thought of on the continent earlier this week, anointing him one of the three best players in the world, and if the Spaniard’s former club agree with that verdict, then a fee of around £150m, as Whelan suggests, seems reasonable.

For all of Mane’s qualities, he will be 28 by the end of this campaign, and Liverpool have shown before with Philippe Coutinho that under the guidance of Michael Edwards and Jurgen Klopp they know full well how to reinvest a big transfer fee into the right areas.

If either of the La Liga titans were to stump up £150m, the Reds may well be tempted to take it and replace their superstar with a younger model like Jadon Sancho.

With an alarming array of reds and yellows and barely any greens, Manchester United’s form guide makes for very, very poor viewing.It’s becoming increasingly apparent that the mesmerising flurry of form experienced by the 20-time champions of England when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was first appointed caretaker manager in December was more a result of relieving the crushing weight of Jose Mourinho’s relentless negativity than it was the former Molde manager’s tactical knowhow.Under Solskjaer, United have suffered their worst start to a season in over 30 years and are currently 12th in the Premier League, just two points above the relegation zone. They have not won away from Old Trafford in domestic competition since February and have failed to score more than one goal in any game since the opening day of the season, and with last term’s staunchest defenders Liverpool as their next game, we don’t see their dreadful record improving anytime soon.Watch Manchester United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

Since being appointed on a permanent basis, Solskjaer has registered a win percentage of just 24 per cent – which breaks down into five wins, seven draws and nine losses. United have also conceded 27 goals in that time and scored just 18 themselves. Boring and ineffective doesn’t quite cut it.

However, as Ed Woodward announces that patience is required as the club try to recapture their former glory, which seems a very long way off, there’s little evidence to suggest that the board will be taking the same course of action we’d typically expect when any manager underperforms. But is this right? Can we really expect a repeat of Sir Alex Ferguson’s iconic turnaround?

talkSPORT had their say on the situation…

It has been a mixed start to Douglas Luiz’s career at Aston Villa.

The 21-year-old recently signed from Manchester City for £15m, with him being part of a huge spending spree from Dean Smith and co this summer as they attempt to stay in the Premier League.

However, he has started just three matches in the Premier League, averaging a WhoScored rating of just 6.61. He has featured in just one of the last three league games as well.

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On the other hand, he has scored two goals for the club since his arrival, and he was also on the scoresheet for Brazil’s U23s in the early hours of Friday morning as the Selecao beat Venezuela 4-1.

It was another good finish from the youngster.

The Villans’ supporters have been reacting to the fact that he has once again netted with a fantastic finish.

They have taken to Twitter to share their thoughts, and you can see some of the best comments from the social media platform below.

West Brom have made a new signing this week after manager Slaven Bilic was impressed by the player’s performances during a week-long trial.

Young French striker Cheikh Diaby has joined the Hawthorns on a free transfer, signing a contract until the end of the season.

The 19-year-old has been available since his release at Ligue 2 side Le Harve, who have produced many a Premier League talent over the years, including Paul Pogba, Riyad Mahrez, Dimitri Payet, and Benjamin Mendy.

He very nearly became a La Liga player during the summer as Valencia were close to clinching him, but a change of management just three games into the season put an end to that.

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It is believed that Diaby will go straight into the U23 setup to get him up to speed with valuable game time under English conditions.

Several of the Baggies fanbase have taken to social media to share their thoughts on the move.

One supporter claimed it was the second coming of Thierry Henry, which was quite a recurring theme amongst much of the reaction, as another added that Diaby reminded him of a prime version of the Arsenal legend.

A further member of the Hawthorns crowd believed the starlet was already better than Hal Robson-Kanu and Kenneth Zohore put together with one more calling the move ‘Slav’s revolution.’

Here’s the best of the reaction:

Arsenal face Vitoria in the Europa League this week.

Unai Emery’s men, of course, lost 1-0 to Sheffield United on Monday and will need to bounce back when they return to European competition.

They have, thus far, recorded two comfortable victories on the continent, thumping Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 and beating Standard Liege 4-0.

Both games have featured a number of youngsters, with Emile Smith-Rowe, Joe Willock and Bukayo Saka all playing against Frankfurt, while Gabriel Martinelli scored twice against Liege in a game in which Kieran Tierney made his debut.

Football FanCast has taken a look at the XI Emery should select…

Bernd Leno will surely be given a rest, as Emiliano Martinez has played in both European games thus far, keeping two clean sheets.

Both Hector Bellerin and Kieran Tierney were left out of the XI to face Sheffield United so they should be included here, if only to build match fitness.

Rob Holding, too, must be restored to the XI after he was also absent at Bramall Lane, while one would expect Shkodran Mustafi to take his place too, having played against Liege.

In midfield, Lucas Torreira and Dani Ceballos played well together against the Belgian side and deserve another chance.

It makes sense to bring Mesut Ozil into the fold, too; he has played just once in the Premier League this season and starting him – even if he is going to be substituted in the second-half – would be a show of faith from Emery.

Bukayo Saka should play on the left, despite struggling against the Blades, while Nicolas Pepe should be given the chance to build his confidence following a horror miss on Monday.

Up front, Emery should keep Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang well-rested and play Martinelli once again.

Leeds United’s performance against Preston North End at Deepdale on Tuesday evening was rather flat.

The Whites didn’t show many of the qualities that we’ve come to expect from Marcelo Bielsa’s side over the past 12 months as they struggled to create any real clear cut chances – being limited to just three shots on target against the Lancashire club.

United struggled against Preston, and the stats from Kalvin Phillips that evening shows just how much they strayed from their normal game.

The defensive midfielder played five key passes, which is more than any other player who took to the pitch on Tuesday evening.

The 23-year-old also attempted eight crosses, an uncharacteristically high number for the central player as he usually averages around 1.8 crosses per game.

Watch Leeds United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

The midfielder also attempted a disproportionately high number of long balls as he attempted 10 of those whereas he usually averages around 5.4.

However, the most staggering stat is his pass accuracy. Throughout last season and this term Leeds’ number 23 has averaged around 82 per cent pass accuracy, but that was way down to 60.9% on Tuesday.

It’s all well and good to look at these numbers and to say that Phillips had an anomaly of a game, but why did this happen?

The picture becomes much clearer when you look at the players around him.

Ever wondered how modern day skills would cope with the world’s oldest football? Find out in the video below…

Rather than having the reliable duo of Pablo Hernandez and Adam Forshaw in front of him, he had the out of form Helder Costa and an out of position Stuart Dallas.

Costa just wasn’t showing enough as a viable passing option for the man dubbed as the Yorkshire Pirlo. Costa had only 35 touches of the ball throughout the whole game, compare this to Hernandez who regularly has over 80 and you can see where the problem was.

With the short passing option out to the right-wing off the table, Phillips continuously had to go long with the ball, and understandably, his pass success rate suffered.

Of course, he played more key passes as his simple options often weren’t there, so he had to attempt the more audacious balls, and when they came off they were effective, but a look at his poor pass success rate shows that they weren’t finding their mark as often as he’d have liked.

Manchester City fans are loving Tommy Doyle after the academy graduate put in a memorable display against Southampton in midweek.

The 3-1 win over the Saints was the youth product’s senior debut and he shined in the centre of City’s midfield. Doyle registered a 7.6 rating, making two keys passes and 73 touches across the pitch.

The Etihad faithful have been relatively starved of academy graduates over the past few years but, with Phil Foden and Eric Garcia also breaking into the side of late, it seems a corner may be turning in regard to emerging talent.

Now, it looks like the supporters have another fan favourite on their hands coming through the ranks.

One fan has said Doyle “made the club proud”, whilst another supporter added how he even helped calm down Nicolas Otamendi on the ball. Indeed, it does seem like City supporters have one of their own coming into the first-team once again, and they just can’t seem to get enough of this.

Unfortunately, fans may not get to see Doyle as frequently as they may like, with City once again involved in a tense title battle with Liverpool.

However, the youngster has certainly made a mark on Pep Guardiola’s team for the future.

Here’s what some fans have had to say…

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Injury News series, which considers the impact of the latest updates on players’ fitness.

Liverpool have confirmed that Shaqiri will be out for the foreseeable future, and as a result his chances of making an impression on Jurgen Klopp have taken another hit.

What’s the latest?

The Switzerland international picked up a calf injury in September but the club are taking extra precaution over his recovery, and so his expected return has been put back until after the next international break.

Shaqiri was out of favour even before his injury, playing only 14 minutes this campaign excluding the Community Shield, and therefore the setback comes as a huge blow to his ambitions this season.

Although he will return in late November he will also take some time to rebuild his fitness, and by the point he returns he will have missed a handful of League Cup and Champions League fixtures that he is seemingly more likely to feature in given Klopp’s need to rotate his squad over a long season.

Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are evidence of that, with neither getting a starting chance in the league of late but both appearing in cup competitions, including recent outings against Genk and Arsenal.

Given the Swiss has to compete with Mo Salah for a starting berth, he has found himself in a similar predicament.

Running out of time

It has been a frustrating time on Merseyside for the winger since he joined in 2018 and his hopes of getting first-team football don’t look like they will be realised any time soon.

Shaqiri has experienced this situation before at Bayern Munich, where he made 36 starts in three years – prompting him to jump ship, and if he remains on the fringes he may be inclined to do the same at Liverpool.

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The main reason for that is his own desire to play more often, but the Reds may also be concerned with the type of injury he has suffered, as he is not a stranger to calf and muscular injuries.

When he has featured, he has often failed to reproduce the quality he showed on occasion at Stoke, with six goals and five assists in 36 games, and he lacks the pace to be a really effective option in Salah’s place.

Upon his comeback from injury he needs to have a positive injury-free run and express a desire to get into the team.

If he does that and makes a valuable contribution going forward then he could resurrect his Liverpool career.

However, given how sparsely Klopp has utilised him so far, that looks unlikely.

Time seems to be running out for him to impress and the latest injury setback certainly hasn’t aided his cause.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

He’s taking an awfully big risk with a move like this.

After winning the title back in 2015/16, Jamie Vardy has arguably become one of the biggest names in the history of Leicester City, and according to his boss Brendan Rodgers, he could become an even bigger name yet.

What’s he said?

Speaking in his press conference yesterday, Rodgers spoke about how, despite being the upper side of 30, fans shouldn’t be worrying about his performances dropping:

“His best years will be here and if you look at him now there are still a few more to go yet. He’s still so sharp, clinical and fit – he’ll be 33 in January but he looks after his body.”

Time to call for the cavalry

The problem with a comment like this is that it makes it sound like Leicester are going to be relying on him for the foreseeable future. Which is all well and good, but it does make you worry whether or not they are perhaps putting too much pressure on his shoulders and relying on him too much to carry the load of the entire team?

If you take a look at his numbers so far this season (via Transfermarkt), his goals account for 37% of the total goals that the Foxes have scored this season, which puts him sixth in the league in terms of his contribution to a team’s total goals.

His next closest in terms of contributor in the Leicester team is James Maddison with 11.1% of the team’s goals, placing 71st in the league.

This is a huge drop off in terms of production across the board at the King Power, which puts them in a rather difficult position. Do they keep relying on Vardy to keep coming up with the goods and hope that he stays injury/suspension free? Or do they get him some help?

It looks as if they’re going down the latter route with reports coming in linking them to Club Brugge forward Emmanuel Dennis.

At the same time though, Vardy needs to be looking to his teammates for support and chipping in with more goals every now and then rather than making it all go through him. If he doesn’t get more support in the future, there might well be problems.

Sunderland have taken a turn for the worse over the past week and following an embarrassing mid-week defeat to Scunthorpe, fans are keen for the clash against Gillingham to be forfeited.

The Black Cats are due to play the FA Cup replay next week, but Phil Parkinson suggested the game could be postponed due to players being away on international duty.

That news isn’t what supporters want to hear, as another fixture against Burton the following Tuesday could make scheduling difficult, and therefore some fans would be more than happy to see the Mackems withdraw from the competition.

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At the very least, others feel it is not worth delaying and clogging up the fixture list, and instead offer an alternative – for the youngsters to play.

After all, given Sunderland’s form under Parkinson – two wins in eight games – some of the fanbase probably feel they could do no worse than the first-team.

Here is some of the reaction to the manager’s comments and the calls for their team to lose against the Gills.