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Kevin de Bruyne midfielder has been a revelation since joining Manchester City, spearheading the club in their Centurions season and now back to his best after a season marred through injury.Â

De Bruyne, who could barely influence City’s treble-winning campaign last season due to repeated absences, has been back fit and firing so far this time around – bagging an outstanding nine assists in as many games – as per Transfermarkt.Â

The 28-year-old has so far been one of Pep Guardiola’s most crucial players in the run-in to perhaps their most challenging title chase yet – with his latest contribution being another assist for David Silva in City’s 3-0 walk over Aston Villa at the weekend.

In response to this, the club posted in an official tweet asking the age-old question ‘Is De Bruyne the best in the Premier League?’

Of course, City fans answered the question in droves with a unanimous ‘Yes, of course’.

Here’s what Sky Blue supporters had to say about De Bruyne in the wake of another excellent performance.

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…

It’s been an impressive start to life at QPR for Mark Warburton.

Having been appointed as recently as May, the former Brentford man has overseen six wins from his first 11 Championship games as the R’s boss.

The Londoners currently sit 9th, picking up a draw along with their six wins – they have suffered defeat on four occasions.

All in all, it’s been a solid start to the season for QPR with a number of players in white and blue performing well.

It’ll be a tough job to narrow those players down – figures such as Ryan Manning and Toni Leistner deserve credit –  but here are the two QPR stars who we think have been the standout performers so far…

Dominic Ball

You could name Ilias Chair in this small list of ours. You could also name seven-goal Nahki Wells, or Jordan Hugill, who has six strikes to his name.

However, there is one man who has been playing a key role in front of the backline, helping QPR’s attacking players thrive – Dominic Ball.

The man signed on a free transfer back in the summer has quietly gone about his business in a defensive midfield role, doing the dirty work to enable the likes of Chair and Eberechi Eze to focus solely on causing chaos.

Ball, who averages two tackles per game, is certainly one of the standout stars of QPR’s season so far.

Eberechi Eze

While we detailed above that Eze has only been allowed to perform as effectively as he has done because of Ball’s work behind him, the former Millwall man has still delivered consistently excellent performances that can’t go unnoticed.

Eze has already matched his four-goal haul from the previous Championship campaign in just 11 appearances – grabbing two assists also – and has also won four WhoScored Man of the Match awards.

That means the 21-year-old is named MOTM every 2.75 games on average, and his showings also earned him a maiden call-up to the England Under-21 side.

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

Imagine being this popular.

Dwight Gayle is a player that seemingly every club in the Championship wants to sign. Fulham, West Bromwich Albion & Leeds as well as Middlesbrough all expressed an interest at some point during the summer. Given his record at this level, scoring 59 in 100, you can’t really blame them.

According to Paul Taylor in his recent column for The Athletic, Nottingham Forest were among those in for Gayle during the window and after their display against Wigan on the weekend, he believes that they will do their best to be at the front of the queue again when the January window opens.

But just where would Gayle fit in the current Nottingham Forest side if they were to make a bid for him?

On the chalkboard

Bringing in Gayle would prove to be more difficult than it would seem.

Yes, there might be a portion of the Nottingham Forest fan base that wants him signed, but if you put him in the starting eleven, you have to take someone else out, and even change a few things along the way.

Forest have predominantly played this season in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Lewis Grabban mainly acting as the centre-forward in that formation leading the line, which is where Gayle has played the majority of his career.

Neither of them will be willing to sit on the bench, so either one of them has to go, or you change things a little bit.

If you aren’t willing to drop one of them, the best line of attack is to change to more of a 4-2-2-2 system.

That does mean that most of the creativity is going to have to come from the wingers, but for Forest that shouldn’t be too much of a hurdle to overcome. Joe Lolley provided 11 assists last season so if he keeps up that same pace throughout this term it will be a good starting point.

This will, however, mean that there will only be room for one more central midfielder alongside Samba Sow.

Therefore, the likes of Joao Carvalho, Tiago Silva, Ben Watson, Alfa Semedo, Ryan Yates and John Bostock are all going to scrap it out to get that place. That would cause a potentially troubling scenario in terms of playing time.

So if they want to bring in one man, they might end up upsetting quite a lot more people in the process. Given they’re fighting for promotion is this a risk worth taking? It’s difficult to work out. Certainly on squad harmony, it might not be the best idea.

Whilst his goals might bring points, is it worth it to risk essentially putting so many people out of work for six months?

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Having started the new campaign with a brace in the opening Premier League game of the season against Chelsea, Marcus Rashford appears to be going through a bit of dry spell in terms of goals.

The England international has three goals in total, but two of them have come via penalties. Against FC Astana in the Europa League on Thursday, the 21-year-old once again struggled in front of goal, seeing his five attempted shots fail to beat the goalkeeper.

Speaking after the game however, United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer leapt to his defence, insisting he isn’t worried at all by the striker’s run of poor form.

The Norwegian reiterated Rashford is still young and that he is still yet to approach the peak years of his career.

Watch Manchester United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

After hearing Solskjaer’s comments, United fans flooded to Twitter to vent their frustrations at seeing their manager continue to defend their goal-shy centre-forward.

Many Red Devils supporters slammed the United boss, and insisted Rashford is simply proving that he isn’t cut out to be a striker.

Some fans even suggested Solskjaer’s continued protection of the 21-year-old is one of the reasons why he continues to under-perform.

Check out some of the reaction of United fans below:

Some Tottenham Hotspur fans on Twitter have managed to find player to praise following their humiliating 7-2 defeat at home to Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Tuesday night – midfielder Tanguy Ndombele.

Spurs would have known they were in for a tough battle against the Bundesliga giants, and they looked to have a decent chance of taking at least a point from the encounter when they were trailing 2-1 at half-time.

In fact, club-record buy Ndombele had a decent chance to score a second for the hosts in the opening 45 minutes, although he wasn’t able to take it.

Watch Tottenham Hotspur Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

We all know what happened next as the north London outfit completely collapsed, although the scoreline was only 4-2 when the Frenchman was replaced by Christian Eriksen in the 64th minute.

The 22-year-old certainly impressed from an attacking point of view especially in the first half, and he was successful with both of the dribbles he attempted during his time on the pitch, according to SofaScore.

Tottenham supporters seemed to be impressed with what they saw from the former Lyon man, with one individual describing him as the “only positive from last night”, and another saying “what a player”.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

[ad_pod ]Tottenham Hotspur confirmed via their official Twitter account on Friday that midfielder Harry Winks is being assessed ahead of the north London derby against Arsenal at Wembley on Saturday with a hip injury, and it could give teammate Victor Wanyama a big chance.

What’s the word, then?

Well, the England international has become a key part of the Spurs team this season and been a consistent starter – he has played the full 90 minutes in nine of their previous 11 Premier League fixtures.

That included the 2-0 defeat against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, but it appears that between then and now he has picked up a hip issue, which could potentially see him miss out against the Gunners.

The news would be a big blow to Mauricio Pochettino and the supporters given the 23-year-old has been one of their most impressive performers in recent times, forming a strong partnership with Moussa Sissoko at the heart of the midfield.

Opportunity knocks

One man’s misfortune can be another one’s gain in this case however, with Wanyama waiting in the wings following his own return from injury.

Pl>ymaker FC Exclusive: Jermaine Jenas lifts the lid on the North London Derby’s famous 4-4 – Check out the video below…

The 27-year-old has been an unused substitute in three of the club’s last four top-flight matches, playing 10 minutes in the win against Leicester City.

With Eric Dier also out as he recovers from illness and Mousa Dembele leaving during the January transfer window, the only other options Pochettino really has to slot in alongside Sissoko would be Christian Eriksen or Oliver Skipp, but Wanyama would provide the bite and strength those two perhaps don’t really have.

The Kenya international would surely also thrive to return to the XI on such a big occasion, giving him the rare chance to be a Tottenham hero.

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It seems as though when it comes to former transfer targets, Leeds fans don’t forget they were once linked to the club.

Dan James, who nearly signed last January, was the topic of discussion last month but now another player who used to be the club’s radar has attracted their attention.

Erling Braut Haaland was once tracked by the Whites but according to Phil Hay in May, Red Bull Salzburg offered a better pay packet.

This new debate over why he didn’t sign arose after the 19-year-old scored a hat-trick for his side against Club Brugge in the Champions League on Tuesday night. The forward also netted three goals last weekend too.

During the discussion, one Leeds fan claimed it was fairly obvious why he didn’t sign at Elland Road as another suggested money talks for the teenager.

A further individual noted that his performance this week is likely to have many top sides now watching over him.

Haaland claimed when he was 16 that he once wanted to win the league with Leeds. The forward has scored an incredible 17 goals in just nine appearances this term.

Here’s the best of the debate.

Many Sunderland fans were left slamming the display of Elliot Embleton in their 6-0 loss away at Bolton Wanderers in League One on Saturday afternoon.

It was a day to forget for manager Lee Johnson and his team, in what could turn out to be a very damaging defeat in the race for automatic promotion up to the Championship.

Embleton was just one of a number of poor performers for the Stadium of Light faithful, missing with both of his shots at goal, while he also failed to record a single successful dribble and lost possession of the ball eight times (SofaScore).

He also recorded fewer touches than his own goalkeeper Ron-Thorben Hoffmann, highlighting his lack of impact from an attacking point of view.

Sunderland fans slam Embleton

These Black Cats slammed his performance on Twitter, with one SAFC supporter going as far as to claim that he was a ‘passenger’ in the match, criticism which is certainly backed by the numbers:

“Gooch, Embleton awful. Offer nothing”

Credit: @LeeSafcMiller

“Elliot Embleton did absolutely nothing in that half. A passenger far too often for long spells in games.”

Credit: @Michael35507062

“Can’t believe I haven’t seen anyone talk about how bad Embleton has been recently it’s like playing with 10 men. He takes the kick off then just disappears for 10 minute intervals”

Credit: @tazzlor___

“Gooch, Embleton, Neil not good enough, I get the home grown craic but come on!!!!”

Credit: @ChristopherT198

“Embleton and Gooch very lucky to survive half-time.”

Credit: @_toosb

“Dan Neil poor, Embleton poor, Gooch dire!! And that back like is horrible. We look vulnerable every time we have an attack against us!!!”

Credit: @leech_tom

In other news, find out transfer update has Black Cats buzzing here!

The signing of Matt Doherty at Tottenham Hotspur has always been a strange one.

£15m gamble

Back in the summer of 2020, the north London outfit – who had Jose Mourinho at the helm – splashed out around £15m on the Jorge Mendes client after regularly featuring at right wing-back for Wolverhampton Wanderers

The problem was instantly clear. Mourinho’s system did not cater for an attack-minded option in the role, meaning he found it very hard to adapt and was often left to play second fiddle behind Serge Aurier.

What adds further mystery to his arrival is that he couldn’t even break into the starting XI under his former Wolves boss Nuno Santo, who would only last a mere few months in the dugout.

Now he’s been gifted a manager in Antonio Conte that plays a system that fits his attributes like a glove and he’s still not the no.1 choice.

A truly baffling signing in the first place.

Robbing Spurs blind

Over the past one-and-a-half years (76 weeks to be precise), the 25-time Republic of Ireland international has played 45 times for Spurs, where he has delivered no goals and just five assists, as per Transfermarkt.

In that time, his transfer valuation has dwindled, sinking down to £10.8m. And that’s hardly a surprise given the fact that he’s played only 3,241 minutes on the pitch, which works out to be about 72 minutes per appearance.

Doherty is thought to be sitting pretty on £74k-per-week, according to Salary Sport, and that’s more than the likes of Sergio Reguilon (£68k-per-week), Davinson Sanchez (£67k-per-week) and Emerson Royal (£62k-per-week), who all start more games under Conte.

It means the 30-year-old has taken a total of £5.6m from chairman Daniel Levy’s coffers in wages alone, meaning the total outlay of his transfer sits at £20.6m – and counting. He’s still under contract until 2024.

That is an awful waste of money, indeed.

By comparison, Spurs signed Heung-min Son for an initial £22m back in 2015 and look at the impact he has had over the years. A stark contrast to that of the former Wolves ace.

It’s fair to suggest that the Lilywhites have not got their value for Doherty and it’s evident that he will never have a long-lasting impact here, especially considering his age and where he sits in the pecking order.

A weird signing to begin with, the Irishman has been nothing short of a disastrous signing for the north Londoners.

AND in other news, 17x possession lost: Spurs’ shocking £25m-rated liability has just proven Conte so right…

Leeds United are not looking to sign former midfielder Ronaldo Vieira this month, according to The Mirror’s David Anderson.

The Lowdown: Italian reports

The Whites are looking to bring in two midfielders before the end of the month, with numerous updates emerging from Italy regarding Vieira.

The 23-year-old has recently returned to Sampdoria’s matchday squad following a lengthy period out through injury, with reports towards the end of 2021 suggesting Vieira was ‘ready to return home’ with his bags packed.

A recent story went as far as to say Leeds are ready to sign Vieira over the coming weeks, however, it doesn’t seem as if that will materialise after all.

The Latest: Anderson’s post

Anderson took to Twitter on Wednesday afternoon to provide an update on the Englishman.

This is what he had to say, revealing the Whites are not making a move for Vieira.

“I know Leeds fans would rather hear who they are trying to sign, but it is my understanding that they are not attempting to re-sign old boy Ronaldo Vieira.”

The Verdict: Correct call?

Leeds currently have Kalvin Phillips and Jamie Shackleton out injured, leaving them with just two out-and-out midfielders available.

Vieira’s last competitive appearance came way back in February though, so it wouldn’t make sense to bring an injury-hit midfielder to rescue Leeds’ injury-hit squad.

There’s no denying that the Whites need additions in the middle of the pitch before the month is out, however, they need to be the correct ones in both the short and long term, so it seems to be the right move to not pursue Vieira going off his recent injury woes.

In other news: ‘This is huge’ – BBC pundit reacts to ‘massive’ Leeds news he’s heard from Elland Road.