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Sunderland will be looking to bounce back from their 1-0 defeat to Charlton on Saturday as they travel away to face QPR in the League Cup on Tuesday.

The Black Cats succumbed to a loss at the weekend as Jayden Stockley scored the only goal for the Addicks, sending Sunderland down to fourth in the table.

They now have a chance to regain momentum and gain some confidence as they face a Championship side in QPR, with the chance of progressing through to the fifth round of the competition.

Lee Johnson could make some changes to his team to freshen the team up and give other players a chance to show that they deserve to start in the league. As part of this, one player he must ruthlessly axe from the team is attacking midfielder Alex Pritchard.

The former Huddersfield and Norwich playmaker recorded the joint-lowest SofaScore rating (6.4) for Sunderland against Charlton as turned in a worrying display in midfield. Per the same source, he lost 85.7% (6/7) of his duels on the pitch, whilst failing to make a single tackle, interception, block or clearance.

This shows that he was a lightweight in his 50/50 battles and did not put the hard work in defensively to win possession back and get his side back on the front foot.

On the ball, he was inconsistent. Via SofaScore, he created three chances for his teammates as he showed off his quality to open up defences in the final third. However, he also had a dribble success rate of 0% and gave possession away 20 times from 52 touches, whilst also completing three of his eight attempted crosses and long balls.

Therefore, he was not able to prove that he can be reliable off the ball or on the ball. Despite showing flashes of quality, the overall standard of his performance was not good enough and that was reflected in the final score as Charlton won the match.

Johnson must axe Pritchard from the XI for the encounter with QPR after proving himself to be a liability to the team, giving him the chance to get his head down in training and focus on next weekend’s League One game against Rotherham. Hopefully, it will fuel the fire inside the midfielder and encourage him to up his levels ahead of playing a starring role against the Millers.

AND in other news, Possession lost 18x: Sunderland dud with 25% dribble success had a ‘mare vs Charlton…

Many Wolves fans have been left buzzing over the latest news involving Dion Sanderson.

As per the official website of the Molineux faithful, they have now recalled the central defender back from his loan spell at Birmingham City.

He has certainly done well there, ranking highly among his teammates in terms of average interceptions, clearances and blocks per game in the Championship this season (WhoScored).

With Romain Saiss now representing Morocco at the African Cup of Nations (AFCON), and both Willy Boly and Yerson Mosquera remaining injured, Sanderson will now give Bruno Lage another handy option for the rest of the term.

At 22 years of age, the Englishman still ha so much potential to fulfil, and it seems fans are extremely excited he will get the chance to continue that development with his parent club.

Wolves fans on Sanderson news

These supporters of the Midlands club were left buzzing as the news on Sanderson was shared on Twitter, with one WWFC supporter hailing the club’s decision to recall the defender as ‘excellent’:

“Excellent. Needs to work on not pulling shirts but he’s got the potential to be a fantastic Wolves player.”

Credit: @PeppiattColin

“Welcome back! Excited for this”

Credit: @pjsaturday63

“This is a great call! Killer, Coady and Dion! It’s magic, you know!”

Credit: @JamesJWYork

“So happy to see this news, come on @SandowRs Go smash it!!! We all behind you!!!”

Credit: @Marksav8pesc

“Bigggggg”

Credit: @ashstain99

“DION DION DION”

Credit: @RA_04NKS

In other news, find out who Wolves have now submitted a bid for here!

Tottenham Hostpur have been handed a boost in their bid to bring Lautaro Martinez to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the summer transfer window.

What’s the talk?

That’s according to a report by Italian publication Corriere della Sera (via Sport Witness), who claim that Inter Milan have lowered their asking price for the centre-forward, with the Serie A side now believed to be willing to accept an offer of between €60-€70m (£50m-£58m) for the 24-year-old.

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The report goes on to state that both Tottenham Hotspur and Atletico Madrid have declared their interest in signing the Argentina international – for whom Inter were thought to be demanding around €100m in order to part with last summer – ahead of 2022/23.

Conte would love Martinez

Considering how prolific Martinez was under the management of Conte last season, it is not difficult to see why the 52-year-old would be keen on a deal to bring the striker to north London this summer.

Indeed, over his 38 Serie A appearances last time out, the £63m-rated forward played a starring role in Conte’s Scudetto-winning side, scoring 17 goals, registering 10 assists and creating nine big chances for his teammates, as well as taking an average of 2.9 shots – the most of any Inter player – and making one key pass per game.

These returns saw the £177k-per-week hitman who Roberto Rojas dubbed an “absolute goal machine” average an extremely impressive SofaScore match rating of 7.17, ranking him as the Nerazzurri’s third-best player in the Italian top flight.

Furthermore, it is clear that Tottenham’s managing director, Fabio Paratici, is also a huge fan of the 24-year-old, with Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio recently stating:

“I think Tottenham will go after Lautaro because they wanted him last summer. They want another forward to play with Kane or plan for the future without Kane. Lautaro Martinez is one of the players that Fabio Paratici loves. I think it could be Lautaro’s summer and Atlético Madrid or Tottenham could be the perfect destinations for him.”

As such, with £58m very much being an asking price Tottenham could afford this summer, it would indeed appear a highly advisable move for Daniel Levy to launch an offensive for the striker come the end of the season, as it is clear that it would be a dream for both Conte and Paratici to bring the Argentine to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

AND in other news: Paratici must seal Spurs deal for £350k-p/w “monster” who would “go to war” for Conte

Arsenal have submitted an offer for Fiorentina striker Dusan Vlahovic, according to reports in Italy…

What’s the word?

La Repubblica claim that the Gunners have bid around €70m (£58.5m) for the 21-year-old and La Viola president Rocco Commisso is now prepared to let him leave Florence this month.

The Fiorentina supremo has grown impatient with Vlahovic’s attitude and the behaviour from his representatives after it was confirmed back in October that he would not be signing a new contract.

In recent weeks, the Daily Mail revealed how his transfer could cost a total of £150m when factoring in wages and other fees, so the north London giants will have to pay a premium to see him arrive at the Emirates Stadium before January 31st.

Get it done!

Arsenal are in desperate need of reinforcements this month, that much is obvious following Sunday’s north London derby postponement.

With virus cases on the increase, players at the Africa Cup of Nations, Granit Xhaka suspended and other injuries mounting up, Mikel Arteta has been left with a threadbare squad this week.

There is a longer-term issue emerging, though.

Alexandre Lacazette’s contract is up at the end of the season and there has been no incline that he’s prepared to extend his current deal, so right now, the French veteran is set to leave, whilst Pierre-Emerick Aubamyang’s future is by no means certainly after he was stripped of the captaincy.

It means a new frontman is needed and Vlahovic would surely be a dream signing for the young Spanish head coach.

The Serbia international has been in electric form in front of goal this season – as per Transfermarkt, he’s delivered 19 goals in 23 appearances, meaning he’s found the net once every 102.5 minutes.

That builds on his impressive form for Fiorentina last season, where he bagged 21 goals in the Serie A.

He has since been lauded as a “complete number nine” by Italian football expert Conor Clancy, whilst his former coach Ivan Tomic dubbed him a goalscoring “monster” with shades of Zlatan Ibrahimovic about him.

Valued at £63m by Transfermarkt, the Gunners would do very well to secure him for just £58.5m. He’s a player that Arteta desperately needs, so it’s on Edu Gaspar and co to seal a move for him at all costs before the end of the month.

AND in other news, Imagine him & Partey: Arsenal can find new Santi Cazorla in £49.5m-rated “outrageous talent”…

According to Football Insider, a new target for Tottenham Hotspur has emerged in the last week of the transfer window as they now set their sights on Sevilla defender Diego Carlos.

The Lowdown: Tottenham eye centre-half…

As reported by reliable correspondent Alasdair Gold, Spurs have a central defender on their agenda as manager Antonio Conte sets out four priority positions to strengthen in his squad.

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Alongside a new defender, it is believed that Spurs are after a right-wing-back, midfielder and striker as they seek to back Conte (football.london) – with transfer chief Fabio Paratici apparently set for a busy final week.

Tottenham are in talks to offload Tanguy Ndombele with sights set on his replacement in Fiorentina midfielder Sofyan Amrabat (Fabrizio Romano), with FI now sharing news on a new name being targeted.

The Latest: Spurs open Carlos talks…

According to FI, Tottenham have ‘opened preliminary talks’ to sign the Brazil international and are interested in a swap deal to bring down his £50 million asking price.

It is believed that the Lilywhites could allow midfielder Giovani Lo Celso to go the other way to ‘sweeten the deal’.

Spurs have ‘turned their attention’ to the colossal defender as they enter the market for a centre-half in this final week transfer push.

The Verdict: Unlikely?

Depending on whether the La Liga side are open to a swap deal, it will be interesting to see how this develops, but our thoughts are this move will be rather unlikely.

Newcastle submitted a series of £30 million bids for the South American star, all of which were knocked back, perhaps highlighting just how challenging it will be to negotiate a last minute deal with Sevilla.

Given their current attempts to sign Wolves star Traore, Amrabat and FC Porto forward Luis Diaz, signing a new defender may have to wait until the summer window.

In other news: Sky Sports: Conte ‘very, very close’ to signing which ‘could excite the Tottenham fans’, find out more here.

At the end, Liverpool were able to get their man when they signed Virgil van Dijk from Southampton last January.

However, the Reds were unsuccessful in their initial pursuit in a development which resulted in the Dutch centre-half not being in the right frame of mind to play for the Saints going into the 2017/18 season (Guardian).

Van Dijk, though, in a recent interview, has insisted he always gave his everything during his time at St. Mary’s.

The Breakdown

“After the end of August [and the transfer window] I put my head down, played for Southampton and gave everything,” the Liverpool defender told the BBC (via Daily Echo).

“I was happy to play because I came back from an eight-month injury. When everything happened over the summer, people doubt you.  For me, I really didn’t care as I gave everything in games and training.”

On the pitch, it is hard to argue against what van Dijk has said with the 27-year-old having truly put in some colossal performances at the back for the Saints.

However, to say he gave everything to the club entirely after effectively going on strike following his failed summer transfer to Liverpool is absurd and likely to leave some Southampton supporters feeling a little disgruntled.

Given the project Jurgen Klopp has going on at Anfield, you can understand van Dijk’s frustration at being denied his dream move at first. But making yourself unavailable for the club who pay your wages is not the classiest of ways to go about things, making the above comments that have followed more than a year later far-fetched.

The previous summer window saw a number of incoming and outgoing transfer deals taking place with the likes of Danny Ings, Mario Lemina, Jannik Vestergaard and Ryan Bertrand, among others, leaving the club in a mass exodus.

Meanwhile, the likes of Adam Armstrong, Romain Perraud and Lyanco, among others, made the move to St. Mary’s.

One player that made a permanent transfer to Southampton in the summer that the club hit the jackpot with is 18-year-old right-back Valentino Livramento.

Since joining the Saints for £5m from fellow Premier League side Chelsea, a side who did everything they could to keep hold of him in the summer according to Thomas Tuchel, the teenager has played the full 90 minutes in all of Southampton’s Premier League games so far this season apart from their 0-0 draw against Manchester City where he was taken off after 86 minutes after picking up a yellow card just two minutes earlier.

Livramento has also managed to score one goal and provide one assist in that time, proving to be an exceptional threat in offensive areas.

This shows just how important Livramento, who is currently valued at £10.8m according to Transfermarkt, has made himself for the Saints and how much Ralph Hasenhuttl rates him at such a young age.

The manager labelled the full-back back in August as a “fantastic young player”, and the fact that he is currently rated as Southampton’s second highest-rated player with an overall season rating of 7.02/10, according to WhoScored, further highlights what a great bit of business it was from the club to sign him.

However, with Livramento revealing last month that he would not rule out a potential move back to Chelsea in the future, an understandable admission given how he’s a product of their youth academy, we feel that it should be Southampton’s long term priority to keep him on the south coast for as long as possible.

His current contract isn’t set to expire until 2026 but given the talent he’s already shown in his short time at St. Mary’s and the fact that he has a lot of potential within him to develop and grow, it would be somewhat of a disaster to lose him.

While it may still be early days in his time at Southampton, it would be nothing short of a catastrophe for the club if they end up losing such a talented player before his current contract runs out.

He has proven to be an exciting addition to the Saints ranks and he could well be the difference between beating the drop next May.

In other news: Get rid: Ralph must let go of £18k-p/w forgotten Saints figure, his time’s running out – opinion

West Brom trio Jake Livermore, Karlan Grant and Jordan Hugill all struggled for the Baggies in their 0-0 draw away to Barnsley on Friday evening.

Valerien Ismael returned to his former club but failed to pick up all three points, on a forgettable night at Oakwell.

The draw leaves West Brom two points adrift of second-placed Bournemouth in the Championship, having played one game more than their promotion rivals before their lunch-time clash with Middlesbrough .

Using statistical experts Sofascore, here’s a look at the three players who struggled most for the Baggies, of those who were on the pitch for at least 45 minutes.

Jake Livermore – 6.4

Livermore is now a hugely experienced footballer but he didn’t enjoy a good night against Barnsley, struggling to impose himself in midfield and deservedly drawing criticism from fans.

The 32-year-old managed no key passes at Oakwell, playing a part in the visitors failing to break down their stubborn opponents.

Not only that but Livermore won zero per cent of his four aerial and ground duels and was guilty of losing possession a total of nine times.

Karlan Grant  6.4

Grant was another who was far from his best against the Tykes.

The forward was almost twice as wasteful at Livermore, giving the ball away a sizeable 17 times, and only one out of six crosses were deemed to be accurate.

Grant missed one big chance, too, proving costly as West Brom failed to find the net, while he also won just three of eight total duels.

Jordan Hugill – 6.5

Hugill was the third player who struggled most on Friday night, leading the line unsuccessfully for Ismael’s men while losing the ball six times.

Like Grant, the 29-year-old was guilty of missing a big chance during the game and only enjoyed 29 touches in the entire match – 12 fewer than his own goalkeeper, Sam Johnstone.

Hugill also played no key passes and won only 7 of his 18 duels, taking the disappointing average of the trio’s contests with opposing players to a 33 per cent success rate (10/30).

None of the three players mentioned even managed to make a single tackle between them, summing up a below-par evening for West Brom.

In other news, some West Brom fans have hailed one exciting young player. Find out who it is here.

Celtic have the opportunity to take a step closer to securing the Premiership title this afternoon as they welcome St Johnstone to Parkhead for their latest league outing.

Last weekend saw the Hoops open up a six-point gap at the top of the league table after defeating their Glasgow arch-rivals 2-1 in the latest Old Firm derby.

The Bhoys now have the chance to secure their fifth league win in a row by securing victory against the Saints, who are currently 10 places and 49 points below the Hoops in the league table.

Speaking in his latest press conference ahead of today’s clash, Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou revealed that winger James Forrest is the only player in his squad who will be unavailable to play due to injury.

With that in mind, here’s how we feel the home side could line up this afternoon, with three changes expected from the team which started last Sunday’s win at Ibrox.

In goal, having played in all but three of Celtic’s league games this season, it seems highly likely that Joe Hart will keep his place in the team.

For the back four, we think Postecoglou will stick with the centre-back duo of Carl Starfelt and Cameron Carter-Vickers, who ended up scoring the Bhoys’ winning goal in the derby last weekend.

In the two full-back positions, we predict that Greg Taylor will start once again on the left but Anthony Ralston, who the Hoops boss described as a “warrior”, will come in for Josip Juranovic on the right. Having been criticised for his “really poor” role in Rangers’ goal last weekend by Ally McCoist, Postecoglou may decide to take the Croatian out of the team on this occasion.

Moving to the midfield, having also found himself on the scoresheet last time out, we think Tom Rogic will start alongside club captain Callum McGregor.

However, next to those two, we can see David Turnbull coming in for his first start since December after being out of action for an extended period of time with a hamstring injury, leaving Reo Hatate as the man to drop out following a relatively subdued performance last weekend.

In attack, we imagine that the 56-year-old Hoops manager will stick with Jota and Giorgos Giakoumakis but bring Liel Abada back into the starting XI in place of Daizen Maeda, who completed the fewest passes of any Celtic starter six days ago.

In other news: Celtic handed fresh injury setback ahead of today’s clash, Ange will be fuming

This is part of The Transfer Tavern’s Talking Tactics series, where we analyse two changes the manager should make in their upcoming fixture.

Frank Lampard’s Everton tenure began in style with a resounding 4-1 FA Cup victory over Brentford, but now attention turns to a crucial Premier League clash with Newcastle United.

The Toffees are hovering just four points above the relegation zone, and if results go against them this week, that gap could come down to one.

Injury updates

There was a fresh blow for Everton against Brentford as Ben Godfrey sustained a hamstring injury which is expected to rule him out for four to five weeks.

He joins Tom Davies, Fabian Delph and Abdoulaye Doucoure on the sidelines.

There’s better news on Dominic Calvert-Lewin, though, who’s back available after missing out at the squad.

Kenny out

The first change Frank Lampard must make from Everton’s last league game against Aston Villa is dropping Jonjoe Kenny.

Kenny struggled to make an impact in and out of possession against Villa, winning just one of his four duels, misplacing 17 of his 45 passes and failing to produce a single cross (via SofaScore).

Everton’s right-back faces a daunting test on Tuesday night in the form of Allan Saint-Maximin, who’s completing more dribbles per 90 minutes (4.3) than anybody else in the Premier League.

Ultimately, you have to question whether Kenny is cut out for the PL, the highest-ranking league in Europe. On loan at Celtic last season, in the ninth-best division, he was derided as a ‘horror show’ by pundit Paul John Dykes.

Potential replacements include Seamus Coleman or £12million January signing Nathan Patterson, who’s still awaiting a debut.

Beef up the midfield

When he was manager, Rafael Benitez faced criticism for his use of a two-man midfield. The Athletic’s Patrick Boyland wrote that opponents who set up with a three were able to overwhelm The Toffees.

And significantly, Eddie Howe set out his Newcastle team in a 4-3-3 formation last time out against Leeds United, with Joe Willock, Jonjo Shelvey and Joelinton across the middle.

Lampard matching up his opposite number would have the added benefit of accommodating new signing Donny van de Beek.

The Dutchman isn’t well-suited to a two because, in the words of Boyland’s colleague Mark Carey, he offers a very limited ‘defensive presence’.

He ranks well below the average central midfielder for tackles, clearances and blocks, and so he should be unleashed in a more advanced role, with a duo of Allan and Andre Gomes offering protection behind him.

Elsewhere, Everton are interested in this UCL defender.