Everton have a tough run of fixtures coming up with Liverpool and Chelsea to come to Goodison Park, so things aren’t about to get any easier for Marco Silva’s side. 

The Toffees will still feel as if they can challenge for a European spot in the current campaign, despite losing their last three games, as there’s still a lot of games left to play.

Interestingly, it appears as if the Merseyside club are eyeing a possible summer swoop, as according to Le10 Sport (via HITC), Everton are interested in a summer move for Thomas Meunier.

Meunier has established himself as one of Europe’s best full-backs since moving to Paris Saint-Germain, but he just hasn’t been able to work his way into Thomas Tuchel’s plans in recent times.

Seamus Coleman has had his injury troubles and he’s set to turn 31 this year, so it would make sense for the Toffees to bring in a replacement.

Marcel Brands pulled off a masterstroke by bringing Lucas Digne to the Premier League back in the summer transfer window, as he’s gone on to become one of Everton’s star performers.

Believe it or not, the PSG man is currently a better player than Digne as he’s more defensively assured and can apply a deadly touch in the final third, whether it’s with a dangerous cross or a strike from distance. Indeed, the Frenchman was arguably Everton’s best summer signing and offers an awful lot going forward, but Meunier can provide more height and has more goals and assists to his name this season, despite playing one less game.

So, Brands has the opportunity to pull off another masterstroke by moving for Meunier, who is valued at £31.5 million (by Transfermarkt). Indeed, the Belgium international could really thrive in the Toffees’ system as Marco Silva gives the full-backs the licence to get forward, which is what the Belgian does best.

Everton fans – thoughts on a potential move for Thomas Meunier?

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Sunderland are seriously struggling to score goals at the moment, and Jack Ross simply must re-introduce Max Power to the starting XI along with a slight tweak to Friday’s formation.

After facing pressure to play two strikers up front together, Ross finally pulled the trigger last week as Charlie Wyke and Will Grigg started against Accrington Stanley at the Stadium of Light.

Grigg missed two golden opportunities to open his Sunderland account while Wyke was barely even involved in the match as both of the front men blanked in the 2-2 draw.

Now, Ross must find another solution to fix the balance in his side. Sitting six points off the automatic promotion places and drawing six of their last seven league games, the Black Cats should bring back Power in a traditional 4-2-3-1 formation.

The ex-Wigan ace has become a somewhat controversial figure after picking up three red cards earlier in the season, but his return will help at both ends of the pitch.

Former Wigan & Fulham man, Jimmy Bullard recently showed that he’s still got it! Check out the video below…

On the chalkboard

While scoring goals has been a problem – Ross’ side have scored just one goal in ten of their last 11 league games – the defence has looked weak in recent weeks too, perhaps due to a lack of protection from midfield.

Alongside the experienced and reliable Grant Leadbitter, Power’s energy, drive and skill will be able to get his side on the front foot from midfield, while also offering a little more defensive protection than starting with two up front.

The 25 year-old’s all-action presence will make life much easier for Leadbitter, and the pair should be capable of controlling the midfield – where the game is won and lost – against most of the sides in League One.

Get Grigg going

Switching to a 4-2-3-1 could also get Grigg firing in a red and white shirt, as the Northern Irishman hasn’t quite got going yet at the Stadium of Light.

With the likes of Aiden McGeady, George Honeyman, Lynden Gooch and Chris Maguire to choose from for those spots behind the striker, it shouldn’t be too difficult to surround Grigg with pace, creativity and movement.

With three attacking midfielders behind the January signing as well as Power bursting forward from midfield, the goals will be flowing in no time, and Grigg could be the biggest beneficiary of all.

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Mauricio Pochettino has suggested that Tottenham Hotspur lack the mentality of champions.

Spurs lost to Burnley at Turf Moor on Saturday and play Chelsea on Wednesday, and the Argentine insists that it may take a decade to turn the club into title-winners.

What’s the word?

Spurs’ defeat to Burnley leaves them five points adrift of both Liverpool and Manchester City, with games against Chelsea and Arsenal to come this week.

Tottenham have yet to draw a game this season but lost seven times; City have lost four, Liverpool just once.

Those losses have included defeats to the likes of Watford, Wolves and the Clarets, along with Manchester United and Arsenal and the top two teams.

And Pochettino says the defeat at Vicarage Road, where Spurs led, is evidence that they are not yet ready to lift the biggest prize in English football.

“The example is Watford,” he told reporters, as quoted by The Independent.

“One-nil [up], and then in the last 20 minutes we threw away the game, because of us, not because of Watford.

“If you watch the game again you know that is what happened, and my worry is what happened and to change that is not only five-year work, maybe it is 10-year work to change that thing that happened here.”

Asked about the Burnley game, Pochettino said “it is unacceptable to lose”.

He added: “If you lose you cannot after say ‘No, we are a real contender, in the last 10 or 12 games you must be strong and you have to dominate and show you are a real contender’.

“We showed on Saturday that we are a good team yes, we have good quality yes, but it’s not enough to win a title like the Premier League and that is the reality.

“I think you think the same and the players think the same and everyone thinks the same.

“If you’re not going to be able to beat Burnley playing for the title I think it’s impossible to think that you are going to win the title.

“Maybe you might win afterwards but because another loses the opportunity to win, not because you push to win.”

Bottlers?

This will do little to dispel the misguided notion that Pochettino has yet to shake off the “bottling” tag that has long plagued Spurs.

The fact of the matter is that they are currently ahead of schedule in terms of their development.

The manager deserves a lot of credit for transforming the club from top-four contenders to title challengers but this kind of message is the wrong one to send out.

The likes of Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli are approaching their peaks and suggesting that they are not currently made of the stuff required to win titles is counter-intuitive.

If Pochettino is right, Kane may be 35 before Spurs win the Premier League. He may well decide that he cannot wait that long, and that decision may be traced back to this very press conference.

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Reports late last week suggested Rangers will secure a pre-contract agreement with Jake Hastie, and fans are absolutely ecstatic over the potential deal.

According to a recent report from The Scottish Sun, Rangers are set to win the race to sign Motherwell’s Hastie this summer.

The young winger is attracting interest from Celtic, Middlesbrough, Derby, Millwall and Hull claims the report, but Steven Gerrard “has won the race for his signature”.

Pl>ymaker FC Exclusive: Jermaine Jenas reveals he often received racist abuse after North London Derbies – Check out the video below…

The 19 year-old is of course out of contract in the summer, meaning the Gers can snap him up for free so long as they agree a deal with the player.

Hastie has scored ten times and registered seven assists this season, an impressive return for such a young player.

And the Gers are in need of a little extra dynamism up front, as outside of Alfredo Morelos you couldn’t call any of their current attackers consistent.

However, if they can secure Ryan Kent on a permanent deal and sign Hastie then Gerrard would have two explosive young wingers in his arsenal, and the Twitter reactions down below are desperate for it to happen…

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On Tuesday, Everton legend Tim Cahill shared an image of his son, Cruz Cahill, at a training session with the Toffees.

There is absolutely no question that Cahill – Tim that is – is an Everton legend, having made close to 300 appearances for the Merseyside club in all competitions, scoring 68 times in the process.

The 39-year-old is still playing professionally in the Indian Premier League, turning out for Jamshedpur FC.

Cahill was back on English soil earlier this week, however, and shared an image of his son in training with Everton.

Cruz was born in September 2012, meaning that he will turn seven later this year.

The post from his father was always going to bring a huge reaction from the Everton fans when considering Cahill senior’s standing at the club.

Pl>ymaker FC’s Matchday with Max caught up with Jamaica’s women’s team. See what happened when he met the history makers in the video below…

And that was indeed the case, with the Everton supporters, who are frustrated with their team at the moment, reacting to the image in their numbers:

West Ham United suffered a rather disappointing 2-0 defeat at Cardiff City on Saturday afternoon, which saw the Hammers struggle to work their magic in front of goal, ultimately failing to create any worthy goal scoring opportunities.

The result, however, also emphasised that midfielder Manuel Lanzini still has a lot of work to do to get back to his best following his long injury layoff, which only saw him make his first appearance of the campaign against Fulham at the end of February.

Since then, manager Manuel Pellegrini has tried to ease the 26-year-old back into the team, starting him in their previous two matches.

But, it was evident on Saturday that Lanzini has to get used to playing in a team environment again and will need to adapt as soon as possible to the type of game Pellegrini wants him to play.

Of course, the only way for a player who was out for such a long period of time to get back into the thick of the action is to play and get as many minutes under the belt as possible.

However, he will need to work closely with the manager at the training ground to get the full grip of tactics that Pellegrini wants to implement in the team.

Lanzini started in the centre of the midfield, next to captain Mark Noble on Saturday, but was replaced in the 58th minute of the match, shortly after Cardiff scored their second goal.

Michail Antonio was the man who replaced him as Pellegrini clearly felt Lanzini wasn’t being creative or effective enough for his team to get on the score-sheet.

The manager also threw on Samir Nasri for Noble at the same time, trying to be more attacking but it was all in vain as Neil Warnock’s men hung on for the remainder of the match.

Pellegrini will now have a difficult task in deciding how he is going to use Lanzini for the final stages of the season in order to get the best outcome for both the player and the club.

West Ham welcome Huddersfield Town to the London Stadium this coming Saturday and their fans will expect them to not have a lot of troubles seeing off the Terriers.

West Ham fans, do you think Manuel Lanzini will ever get back to his best? Join the discussion by commenting below… 

تلقى نادي بيراميدز خطابا رسميا من الاتحاد البوركيني لكرة القدم، يخطره فيه باستدعاء النجم إيريك تراوري لمعسكر المنتخب في التجمع الدولي خلال شهر أكتوبر المقبل.

أوضح محمد صلاح مدير فريق بيراميدز، أن الخطاب تضمن سفر اللاعب بداية من يوم 4 أكتوبر على أن تكون العودة إلى القاهرة يوم 13 من نفس الشهر.

وشدد على أن المهاجم البوركيني الدولي سيشارك مع منتخب بلده في مباراتين وديتين دوليتين أمام الكونغو ومدغشقر يومي 9 و12 من شهر أكتوبر المقبل.

يذكر أن وكيل إيرك تراوري كان قد صرح في وقت سابق أن اللاعب يرغب في الانضمام إلى الأهلي حال رحيله عن بيراميدز. طالع التفاصيل

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It is the old adage in football of winning, but not playing too well, that defines a champion.

We witnessed Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United teams win Premier League titles by doing just that; playing the fine stuff when opportunities allowed, but still managing to pick up the three points on days where they looked unlikely to do so.

The bottom line was to win. Ferguson wanted to win at all costs, and was willing to sacrifice the aesthetic side of things when required.

Impressively, the 20-time Premier League winning boss would be able to strangle the life out of a game where his side had obtained the lead they needed, in an act of game management that was of the highest order.

Similarly, the same can be said of one of his students in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who has bravely taken the reigns at Old Trafford after Jose Mourinho’s abysmal stint in the dugout – in that particular case, the team was certainly not playing well, and definitely not representative of champions as they also struggled to find a way to win.

Against one of Mourinho’s old clubs on Monday night, Solskjaer showed that he has learnt a lot from his 11 years under Ferguson at Old Trafford, leading his side to a professional 2-0 win over Chelsea in eye-catching fashion, but not for the reasons you’d think.

Admittedly, there were glimpses in the first half that did catch the eye, such as Paul Pogba’s one-man show in which he scored and got an assist, but the contrast in United’s play once they had raced into a 2-0 lead was evident and wholly impressive for an interim manager whose biggest job in football has been at Cardiff City.

The Red Devils went to Stamford Bridge and executed the game plan perfectly. Solskjaer set his team up to stay strong at the back, play safe in midfield, and work to Pogba and Marcus Rashford’s strengths – both men were involved in each of the goals, so it is safe to say it worked.

However, after Kevin Friend had blown his whistle to kick off the second half, it was a case of stifling the life out of the game and ensuring that the Blues had no chance of getting back into it. Yes, it was boring to watch, but football is a results game and boy is Solskjaer getting them right now – he has lost just once since stepping into the hot seat.

It wasn’t even a case of parking the bus, either. The manner in which United went about their play in the second period would have been a joy to watch for Ferguson, as the side in red simply set up to annoy Chelsea but also posed a threat by leaving the pacey Rashford and Romelu Lukaku on the shoulder to keep Maurizio Sarri’s men from piling pressure on.

There has been far too much talk of Mauricio Pochettino arriving at Old Trafford, but after appointing failures such as David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho, maybe it is time for the second coming of Sir Alex Ferguson in one of his former pupils.

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Southampton host Spurs on Saturday when they will be hoping to reproduce the calibre of performance which so nearly saw them take at least a point from Old Trafford last weekend, although they will have to enter into battle without a key player – once again.

What’s the update?

Well, speaking in his Thursday press conference, Ralph Hasenhuttl said:

“Danny [Ings] is not in the group at the moment. We didn’t take any risks, we want to give him the time to come back during the three-week break after Tottenham. We will play a friendly against a Championship team and he can play for 45 minutes maybe in that time and build up his fitness.”

Is the international break a blessing in disguise?

It should come as a relief that the former Burnley striker could be back in contention after the international break, especially considering how marginal Charlie Austin was in the defeat to Manchester United.

The St Mary’s Stadium outfit have strung together some solid performances in recent weeks – although results rarely went in their favour – with the performance against United by far their best since the win over Arsenal in Hasenhuttl’s first game at the helm.

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

Some may say, then, that the international break couldn’t have come at a worse time for the resurgent south coast outfit – it could prove to be a blessing in disguise though.

Ings has scored eight goals in 17 appearances for the Saints and his predicted return against Brighton will be a massive boost – it is important that he is brought back into the team as soon as possible but, crucially, within a realistic time period.

The break ensures that Ings cannot be rushed back for any relegation six-pointers and that will be vital if he is to stay fit for the rest of the season – he is their best hope of Premier League survival.

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Christian Eriksen has refused to quash rumours linking him with a move away from Tottenham Hotspur this summer, per Ekstra Bladet.

The Denmark international has yet to sign a new contract at Spurs and has been linked with a number of clubs, including Real Madrid and Juventus.

What’s the word?

A report from Calciomercato earlier this week claimed that Juve had made contact with Eriksen’s entourage as they weigh up the possibility of a summer bid.

And Real have long been linked as suitors, with The Independent reporting in January that contact had been made between the two clubs ahead of a potential £100million transfer.

Eriksen, who has linked up with the Denmark squad ahead of an international friendly against Kosovo and a Euro 2020 qualifier versus Switzerland, was given the opportunity to play down any speculation on Tuesday.

However, per Ekstra Bladet, Eriksen refused, insisting that he would not be discussing his future.

He said: “I don’t want to talk about it. You write everything anyway, so there is no need to talk about it. I really just want to focus on the national team, when I am here.”

His manager, Age Hareide, also dismissed any questions, insisting that he has no concerns about Eriksen potentially leaving Spurs.

He added: “I’m not talking to him about it. I never interfere with it. Christian is so professional that he does his job in Tottenham, where he has a contract for a year yet. Now it’s about the national team.

“Christian can go anywhere. It’s not a problem.”

On his way?

Eriksen’s straight-batting of the question appears to suggest that there is more to this than meets the eye.

His refusal to be drawn into speculation could, of course, be interpreted in one of two ways: he is either happy at Spurs and set to stay or he will be on his way and wants to stop talking about it.

There is an obvious lean to the latter given his contract situation.

He has yet to commit to fresh terms and will be available on a free transfer at the end of next season.

Were he really set to stay, he would surely have signed on the dotted line. That he hasn’t suggests he is ready to call time on his Spurs career and make the move to a European powerhouse.

Fans, however, shouldn’t worry; there will be plenty of money to reinvest if he does go, enough to potentially fund a complete overhaul of the squad.