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Liam Palmer was busy earning his second cap for Scotland on Thursday night but it wasn’t a happy evening for the full-back who was part of a 4-0 defeat against Russia.

The Scots held their own throughout the first half but four unanswered goals in the second period saw them condemned to a defeat which meant they couldn’t automatically qualify for Euro 2020 unless they do it via the Nations League playoffs.

One of the players who had a particularly difficult night – according to fans anyway – was Sheffield Wednesday’s Liam Palmer.

A number of individuals took to Twitter throughout the game and after the final whistle to slam the 28-year-old.

One fan said he looked like he’d won a competition to be out on the pitch while another said seeing him play international football should give everyone hope.

He was also labelled garbage and shocking by two others.

Palmer has featured nine times for the Owls in 2019/20 with the vast majority of those matches seeing him play at left-back.

For Scotland, however, he was playing on the opposite side of the pitch.

Here’s the best of the reaction.

QPR travel to South Wales this Wednesday to take on Cardiff, following a mixed start to the campaign for Neil Warnock’s side.

The Bluebirds have won three, drawn four and lost two of their nine league games so far, whereas Mark Warburton’s men have only just seen a fantastic four-game winning run come to an end with a 2-0 defeat to West Brom.

There were a few questionable performances last time out, with some fans unhappy about Joe Lumley’s contribution after a poor mistake.

In addition to that, Todd Kane delivered a poor performance at right wing-back, so the R’s will be keen to bounce back at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Let’s take a look at the XI Warburton should put out to give his side the best chance of doing just that…

As you can see, there aren’t too many drastic changes from the XI that lost to Slaven Bilic’s side.

We have decided to drop Lumley from the starting lineup, not solely due to the fact he attracted criticism from some fans as aforesaid, but because he has been in underwhelming form for a while now – Liam Kelly takes his spot in our XI.

Indeed, Lumley allowed Nathan Ferguson’s shot to swerve under him against the Baggies, while his woeful error against Luton in which he literally gifted Harry Cornick an open goal almost saw the Londoners throw away a three-goal lead.

Grant Hall also looks to have recovered from an injury problem, so we think he should come in to replace 34-year-old Geoff Cameron.

Elsewhere, the only other suggested change is one that sees 21-year-old Conor Masterson come in for what would be his debut – he is yet to play a minute since arriving from Liverpool – as a replacement for the suspended Yoann Barbet, who was sent off against West Brom.

With these changes, Warburton would be handing his side a good chance of getting a result against Warnock’s men.

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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… 

“I didn’t have doubts.”

After seeing him deliver a stellar performance in an unfamiliar role against Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday night, Pep Guardiola lauded Fernandinho’s ability to adapt. Manchester City’s injury crisis has left them desperately short of options at centre-back, and the Brazilian was thrust into the deep end in the Champions League.

Speaking after the Citizens’ resounding 3-0 victory in Ukraine, Guardiola pointed to the holding midfielder’s “intelligence” as the main reason behind why he looked so comfortable in the heart of defence.

“That’s why he is so important for us. We don’t have many choices. I think he is the only one I have (at centre-back). Other players can play in that position but Fernandinho is a clever player and so intelligent – an incredible guy.  Of course he has a lot of experience and personality, and what he says the people follow him in the locker room so it’s important.”

Watch Manchester City Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

And when looking at the numbers behind his performance against his former club, it is clear to see why the Brazilian was singled out for praise by his manager.

As is to be expected with having a midfielder by trade dropping into centre-back, the passing numbers were very impressive. The 34-year-old looked understandably at ease with the ball at his feet, but he also proved he can read the game particularly well too. The Brazilian registered two interceptions over the course of the game, whilst his 5 foot 9 stature didn’t seem to matter much as he won three aerial duels too.

And that second stat is perhaps what Guardiola should be most intrigued about. The stereotypical centre-back is a 6 foot plus beast who barges and bullies opposition players off the ball and hoofs it into row Z. But just like he did with Javier Mascherano in his time at Barcelona, it could be the perfect time for the City boss to fully convert Fernandinho into a central defender.

Watch how to cross the road like a boss with freestyler Ben Nuttall in the video below…

The former belied his physical flaws with an exceptional reading of the game, with former Blaugrana teammates like Gerard Pique and Dani Alves hailing his “intelligence”. Sound familiar?

Fernandinho’s equally masterful ability to break down opposition attacks by simply being in the right place at the right time – last season he averaged 2 tackles and 1.4 interceptions per game in the Premier League – shows he can be the latest Guardiola tactical masterpiece.

If the Spaniard can succeed in his project of converting the Brazil international into a bona-fide centre-back like Mascherano, City may well have an in-house solution to all their defensive worries.

Rangers got off the mark in their Europa League group on Thursday night as they beat Danish side Brondby 2-0 at Ibrox.

Kemar Roofe and Leon Balogun scored the goals for the Gers as Steven Gerrard led his team to their first three points in the group after losing to both Lyon and Sparta Prague.

They now return to Premiership action as they travel to face St Mirren on Sunday. Rangers are top of the table and could extend their lead if other results go in their favour.

Gerrard could make some changes to his starting line-up to keep the players fresh and offer opportunities throughout the squad to see what the lesser-seen options are capable of doing. One player he must ruthlessly axe from Thursday’s team is midfielder Steven Davis.

The Northern Ireland international was not at his best in the Europa League clash and the veteran’s time should be up ahead of this clash with St Mirren. At the age of 36, he should not be relied upon to play week-in, week-out, as he is heading towards the end of his career and his performance against Brondby suggests that it is the right time for Gerrard to pull him out of the starting XI.

As per SofaScore, Davis lost 66.6% of his duels in the match, winning one in total. He also failed in 100% of his attempted dribbles and managed one tackle in the game, whilst failing to make a single clearance, block or interception. This suggests that he was lacking defensively and unable to impose himself physically on the opposition.

He came on for 12 minutes against Hearts in the last Premiership outing and failed to win a single duel, completing seven passes and doing little else. Davis has not shown enough in recent games to be deserving of a starting berth this weekend.

Dropping him from the team gives a chance to another midfielder to show that they deserve to be a regular in the side moving forward. Scott Arfield and Juninho Bacuna were both on the bench against Brondby and could be motivated to put in a top performance to nail down a place in the starting XI.

Therefore, Gerrard must ruthlessly axe Davis from the team. His display against Brondby was not good enough to secure his spot against St Mirren and should open the door for others to prove that they can perform to a high standard, which will hopefully be the case on Sunday.

AND in other news, Gerrard could unearth McGregor 2.0 in Rangers gem who has shown “excellent progress”…

Leeds head coach Marcelo Bielsa has a terrific reputation in the game and has achieved wonders at Elland Road in recent years, with Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola hailing him as a ‘magical man’.

The Argentine boss has taken Leeds from dwelling in the Championship year after year to competing in the Premier League and going toe-to-toe with the best of the best in England each week. He won the second tier title with the club in the 2019/20 campaign before leading Leeds to a ninth-place finish in the Premier League last term, avoiding relegation in style.

Along the way, he has developed a number of players at Elland Road instead of relying purely on big-money additions to the side. The likes of Liam Cooper, Pascal Struijk, Luke Ayling and Stuart Dallas are just a few of the players who he either inherited or brought through the academy and developed into being top-flight regulars for the club.

Struijk is a particularly fascinating case as he arrived at Leeds six months prior to Bielsa as an academy player. He joined from Dutch giants Ajax and formed part of the U23 squad and did not play a single first-team minute in Bielsa’s first season in 2018/19.

In the 2019/20 promotion out of the Championship, Bielsa brought Struijk into the first-team fold and handed him five appearances in the second-tier. He averaged a SofaScore rating of 6.83, starting two of those matches, and made 2.2 tackles and interceptions per game.

Following his first foray into senior football, Struijk was handed a valuation of £675k by Transfermarkt in October 2020. This seemed a fair evaluation of his talents given that he had only started two league matches for Leeds the previous campaign.

Struijk’s breakthrough season for Leeds came in the Premier League last term as Bielsa placed his faith in the central defender to perform in the top-flight. The Argentine coach slowly bedded the Dutchman in after initially being in the academy and coached him into becoming a reliable player in the top division.

In the 2020/21 Premier League season, Struijk averaged an excellent SofaScore rating of 6.94 across 27 appearances. He made 3.4 tackles and interceptions per game as he helped Leeds to keep seven clean sheets and avoid relegation back to the Championship.

This form led to ex-Whites gem Dominic Matteo saying that Struijk has ‘got it all’ and lauding all the areas of his game. He said: 

“There’s plenty of work to be done but, with the size of him, his physicality, his passing, he’s got it all and can step into midfield.

“He looks very calm on the ball, players who are a bit erratic are not for me but he looks comfortable in possession.”

At the time of writing (07/10/21), Struijk is valued at £8.10m by Transfermarkt. This means that his value has soared 1100% in one year under Bielsa’s coaching, with the defender thriving after being handed a leading role in the Premier League last season.

Bielsa has pulled off a masterclass with Struijk as he has turned an academy prospect into a valuable Premier League asset in virtually 12 months, although some of the groundwork was laid in the build-up to last term. Hopefully, Struijk will continue to progress and play a key role for the club for years to come.

AND in other news, Leeds could find their new Bamford in 17 y/o dynamo, Bielsa must work his magic again…

Nottingham Forest are set to appoint Steve Cooper as Chris Hughton’s successor at the City Ground.

What’s the talk?

That’s according to a claim made by John Percy, with The Telegraph journalist revealing in a post on Twitter that Forest are set to officially confirm the arrival of the former Swansea City boss as their new manager at some point today.

Percy goes on to state that the 41-year-old was Dane Murphy’s number one choice for the role, as well as revealing that the Reds agreed to pay the Swans £500k in compensation in order to be able to sign Cooper.

In his tweet, the journalist said: “NFFC are set to confirm the appointment of Steve Cooper on Tuesday. Cooper was the No. 1 choice for new CEO Dane Murphy. Compensation with Swansea was agreed on Friday and is around the £500k mark.”

Fans surely buzzing

Considering the fact that Cooper was linked to clubs such as Crystal Palace, Fulham and West Bromwich Albion this summer, the fact that the 41-year-old has agreed to join Nottingham Forest can easily be viewed as a rather large coup for the club – especially considering their current league position – and is sure to have left the City Ground faithful buzzing.

Indeed, the former Swansea manager appears to be an extremely exciting appointment for the Garibaldi, as the Welshman led the Swans to a top-six finish in both of his seasons at the Liberty Stadium, as well as further enhancing his reputation for developing the club’s younger talents – the latter of which is believed to have been a key factor for the Forest CEO.

As such, as long as Cooper can turn the tide on Forest’s current level of performances in the Championship, and quickly, the future certainly appears to be a great deal brighter in Nottingham than during the last few weeks, as a Hughton-led Forest suffered six losses in seven league games.

In other news: Journalist reveals NFFC talks for “outstanding” £1.8m-rated ace, he’d be a major coup

A number of Liverpool supporters are delighted that Naby Keita is back in training ahead of the Champions League clash with Porto.

The Reds are back in Champions League action on Tuesday night, making the trip to Portugal for another important Group B clash.

Jurgen Klopp’s men beat AC Milan 3-2 in a thrilling contest in their opening fixture and this is a great chance to build on that victory.

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There are a number of absentees for the game, however, with midfield duo Harvey Elliott and Thiago both missing on Tuesday.

Someone who is back in the fold however is Keita [via Anfield Watch on Twitter], having missed the Brentford game after picking up an injury away to Norwich City last week.

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Liverpool fans react to Keita news

These Liverpool fans reacted positively to the sight of the Guinean in training on Tuesday, taking to Twitter to provide their thoughts as one supporter called it ‘great news’.

“Great news! Maybe give him 15mins vs Porto at the end then start vs City. Without Thiago, Naby’s skillset is really important to provide control and balance to our midfield.”

Credit: @TaintlessRed

“MIRACLE”

Credit: @DrHarryCover13

“Nice one”

Credit: @_DarraghLFC

“Thank god”

Credit: @Homes19LFC

“Huge boost, need him for City”

Credit: @HendoGoat

“Brilliant news”

Credit: @6timesladd

In other news, some Liverpool fans love a transfer rumour that has emerged. Read more here.

Ange Postecoglou may have a vision for a ‘Liverpool-type front three’ at Celtic, Alex McLeish says. 

The lowdown

Postecoglou has mostly used Liel Abada and Kyogo Furuhashi, signed during the summer transfer window for a combined fee of around £8million, either side of a central striker.

Between them, they have recorded 15 direct goal contributions so far, with Furuhashi responsible for eight and Abada the other seven.

Odsonne Edouard led the line last time out against Rangers, but he’s since sealed a move to Crystal Palace.

Last season’s Eredivisie top-scorer Giorgos Giakoumakis has been brought in from VVV-Venlo as the Frenchman’s replacement.

The latest

Former Scotland boss McLeish, speaking to Football Insider, said the biggest similarity he had noted with Jurgen Klopp’s attack was the work-rate being demanded.

He explained that they need not be ‘brilliant defenders’, but have a key role to play in the team’s pressing structure.

“It almost seems like he’s trying to create, possibly a Liverpool-type front three,” he said.

“One where the front three are going everywhere and anywhere but sticking to their defensive duties.

“Obviously not being brilliant defenders but playing in the correct positions that can allow teammates to recover the ball.

“The Liverpool players do that with ease at times.”

The verdict

This is consistent with what we were told shortly before Postecoglou was appointed at Celtic. In June, former Australia and Rangers defender Craig Moore likened his brand of football to that of Klopp, as well as Marcelo Bielsa, Thomas Tuchel and Pep Guardiola.

None of those managers would have achieved what they have if their sides weren’t exceptionally disciplined and relentless in their running, and Celtic fans should surely be excited by the prospect of a similar approach being implemented, considering the success of those names.

In other news, a source has shared a decisive update on this Celtic forward.

Sunderland have been handed a boost regarding the fitness of Arbenit Xhemajli.

What’s the talk?

In recent comments cited by Chronicle Live, Lee Johnson revealed that the centre-back, who has been sidelined for almost a year due to a serious knee injury, has returned to full training with the Black Cats and will be eased back into action for the club’s U23 side in the coming weeks.

Regarding the current condition of Xhemajli, Johnson said: “Arbenit trained today, which was good. It was great to see him out there.

“Obviously, he is a bit of a way off, but he has trained properly for the last two days and that’s a real heartwarming thing to see because I know how hard he has had to work behind the scenes and how hard the physio department have had to work to get him to this point.

“I think we are still looking at a turn of the year timescale [for a first-team return]. But U23 games have got to be considered, probably over the next six weeks, I think that could be an option.

Fans will be buzzing

Considering the fact that Xhemajli has made just one first-team appearance for Sunderland since his move to the Stadium of Light back in September 2020, the news that the defender is nearing a return to full fitness is sure to have fans of the club buzzing.

While the centre of defence is a position in which Johnson strengthened this summer, bringing in the likes of West Ham United defender Frederik Alves and Manchester City centre-back Callum Doyle on season-long loan deals, the return of a player who was originally brought into the club as a first-team regular is undeniably positive news for Johnson.

Indeed, Xhemajli’s addition to the 40-year-old manager’s options at the back will only further strengthen Sunderland’s promotion credentials this season, something which already appear to be in very good shape following a fantastic start to their 2021/22 League One campaign.

In other news: Alan Nixon drops update on off-field Sunderland development, it’s more good news

Celtic striker Albian Ajeti looks set to be frozen out at Parkhead under Ange Postecoglou, Football Insider report.

The Lowdown: One in two out…

The Hoops managed to bring one striker in and part ways with two more in the final hours of the summer window.

Georgios Giakoumakis arrived from VVV-Venlo on a five-year deal thought to be worth £2.5m.

Shortly after that move was confirmed, Celtic officially parted ways with Odsonne Edouard, who joined Crystal Palace in a transfer which could total to £20m.

Leigh Griffiths also left the club on loan, and it seems they weren’t the only forwards Postecoglou doesn’t have in his plans.

The Latest: Source shares update

Football Insider, who were informed by a Celtic source, shared an update on Ajeti on Friday morning, revealing Postecoglou will now freeze out the forward following Giakoumakis’ arrival.

They claim that the Hoops were willing to listen to loan or permanent offers for Ajeti in the summer and even held discussions with clubs in Europe over a temporary exit.

The Verdict: Still time for a move?

Ajeti, on £832,000-a-year in Glasgow, may still have time to seal a Parkhead exit before the New Year.

That’s because there are still multiple countries, including Israel and Serbia, who can sign players this month.

There are just days remaining in both of those respective windows, though, so if the Hoops still wants to part ways with the forward who Scott Brown called ‘exceptional’, they may have to act fast.

In other news: McKay’s ‘top’ under-the-radar Celtic signing has already made an ‘impact’ at Lennoxtown.