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Everton have been dropping in and out of form this season, and finding that creative midfielder to score goals and create chances has surely become a top priority for Rafa Benitez.

James Rodriguez’s exit has seen the side lack attacking presence in midfield, and Rafa will be keen to rectify that issue in the upcoming winter transfer window, with a signing that can make an instant positive impact on both Everton’s Premier League campaign and tight challenge for a European spot.

What’s the word?

A number of sources, including Calciomercato, have linked ex-Arsenal and current Juventus player, Aaron Ramsey, to an Everton move in January, stating the club has an “excellent relationship” with the Serie A winner.

Ramsey has failed to be part of the bigger picture at Juventus for Allegri, with Fabrizio Romano taking to Twitter to confirm that the club were keen to move the Welsh international on.

The Italian journalist wrote: “Juventus are still planning to find a solution to sell Aaron Ramsey in January. He’s out of the plans and looking for a potential new challenge.”

There doesn’t seem to be a definitive answer as to why Allegri doesn’t utilise the experienced midfielder in his successful Italian side, but if the reports are anything to go by, both Juventus and Ramsey would be keen to seal a deal in January to benefit both parties.

It remains to be seen how much Ramsey might command in terms of transfer fees, though Transfermarkt currently value the 69-cap midfielder at just £9m.

Sign him up!

Ramsey would be a fantastic addition to the blue side of Merseyside if his experience is anything to go by, with three FA Cups and a Serie A title, to name a few of his accomplishments.

He also offers huge amounts of European experience, in both the Champions League and Europa League for his previous Premier League club, Arsenal, featured which will surely be advantageous for Rafa Benitez, whose obvious goal will be to secure European football for the Toffees this season.

The Welshman provided 65 goals and 65 assists in over a total of 371 matches in north London, in which he recorded a career-best of 13 goals and ten assists during the 2013/14 campaign, as per Transfermarkt. That suggests that, on his day, he is a goal threat from midfield and one that could help fill the void left behind by Rodriguez.

Of those 370 matches, 63 were in a European competition.

He has regularly been compared to the likes of Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, two players renowned for their influence in the heart of the pitch and in the final third.

BT Sport pundit Martin Keown, who was once a colossus for the Gunners, also once described him as a “great leader” and an “outstanding technician” – a glowing endorsement that only bolsters reasoning to sign him this January.

As a proven winner and a proven Premier League player, the 30-year-old could help to inject a winning mentality into the current side to push them on in both domestic competition and when challenging for European spots in the Premier League over the second half of the season.

Therefore, director of football Marcel Brands must push ahead with plans to seal the Wales international this winter.

AND in other news, Brands joins race for £15.3m-rated “match-winner”, he’s just what Everton are missing…

It was groundhog day for Andrew Strauss. Another far from daunting one-day chase was scuppered as England’s top order handed their wickets to Australia and this time there was no lower-order rally to get the scoreline close

Andrew McGlashan at Lord's06-Sep-2009

It was groundhog day for Andrew Strauss. Another far-from-daunting one-day chase was scuppered as England’s top-order handed their wickets to Australia and this time there was no lower-order rally to get the scoreline close. This was a weaker display than on Friday at The Oval, as the home side fell from 74 without loss to lose all 10 wickets for 136, leaving Strauss to admit it wasn’t good enough.”Being 70-odd for nought we were in a great position to really come home quite comfortably but to a certain extent we were the architects of our own downfall,” he said. “Three reasonably soft wickets in a short space of time and suddenly we’re in that situation where you’re asking the bowlers to score runs for you, which is not really what we want to be doing.”Strauss admitted he was one of the culpable batsmen, chipping a return catch to Nathan Hauritz for 47, and there was also the mix-up between Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah, although he played down the significance of Shah’s latest run out. “Yes definitely. It was needless really, that’s disappointing,” he said of his own dismissal. “From being in such a strong position it’s disappointing to suddenly be down four wickets a couple of overs later, good sides won’t do that very often.””At the start of an innings sometimes he [Shah] can be nervy and maybe that leads to those sort of things but once he’s in, he’s fine. I don’t think it’s something we really need to target with him, but it’s generally not something we’re looking for as a batting unit.”England have had one half-century so far in the series – Collingwood reaching 56 as he tried to marshal the run chase at Lord’s – but Matt Prior is the only one of the top six to fall in single figures. A lack of significant scores has long been a problem in England’s one-day performances (and Kevin Pietersen’s absence has removed one of the few with a reputation of getting hundreds) leaving them struggling to stay in the series.”Everyone’s got a start in the two games but no one’s gone on so I don’t think it’s a lack of confidence,” Strauss said. “Maybe we just haven’t been smart enough in what our percentage shots are and we’ve just been a little bit soft in our dismissals. I firmly believe your top six have got to score the bulk of your runs in one-day cricket and we haven’t done that for the last couple of games.”When Collingwood fell to seal the defeat, England were just two overs into their batting Powerplay having delayed taking it as wickets were lost. Both sides have opted to take their five overs late in the innings, but while it worked for Australia as Mitchell Johnson cut loose, England were nine-down when theirs was finally signalled.”You want to take it at a time where you’ve got freedom to go out and play and not worry too much about losing wickets,” Strauss said. “So in my view it’s got to be in the latter half of the game, but when you lose a lot of wickets early it generally gets pushed further and further back. That’s not ideal really. You don’t want to necessarily be taking the last five overs but we were kind of forced into that given that we lost wickets at regular intervals.”The other significant talking point was the omission of Adil Rashid following his impressive performance with bat and ball at The Oval. The withdrawal of Stuart Broad with a neck injury left England concerned about their batting line-up so Eoin Morgan was drafted into the middle order.”It was not an ideal situation to be in because he bowled so well and he showed so many encouraging signs,” Strauss admitted. “To a certain extent we were slightly hamstrung by the fact that Stuart wasn’t fit and our batting was probably a bit weaker.”And we didn’t actually think it was going to turn very much. It probably turned more than we thought it was going to. But the seamers did a good job, our bowlers did a very good job, 249 was very chaseable and I thought it was a very flat wicket. To be honest, the batsmen have got to hold up their hands and say we weren’t good enough.” We’ve heard that somewhere before.

قرر نادي ليفربول إعارة أحد مدافعيه إلى نادي شالكه الألماني، حيث أعلن الريدز ذلك في بيان رسمي، أصدره قبل قليل، مع تبقي 48 ساعة على نهاية نافذة الانتقالات الصيفية.

وتنتهي سوق الانتقالات الصيفية في الدوريات الخمس الأوروبية الكبرى، في الساعات الأولى من صباح الأول من سبتمبر.

وقال ليفربول في بيانه إن النادي الإنجليزي توصل إلى اتفاق مع شالكه على إعارة مدافعه الهولندي الشاب، سيب فان دن بيرغ حتى نهاية موسم 2022/23 الجاري.

اقرأ أيضًا.. فان دن بيرج: لاعبو ليفربول يساعدوني وأتعلم من فان ديك

وأوضح ليفربول في بيانه أنّ فان دن بيرج وقع عقدًا جديدًا طويل الأمد مع الريدز، قبل الاتفاق على الإعارة الثانية في مسيرته.

دن بيرج صاحب الـ”20″ عامًا، كان قد انضم إلى ليفربول قادمًا من زفوله الهولندي في 2019 مقابل 4.4 مليون جنيه إسترليني، وفضل الريدز، على بايرن ميونخ الألماني وايندهوفن.

وسبق وأنّ تمت إعارة دن بيرج والذي يعتبره الكثيرون خليفة مواطنه فيرجيل فان دايك في “آنفيلد” إلى نادي بريسون وذلك في شتاء 2021.

Sepp van den Berg has signed a new long-term contract with the club and completed a loan move to @s04 for the rest of the 2022-23 season.

Best of luck, Sepp 🙌 — Liverpool FC (@LFC) August 30, 2022

Even though Liverpool currently have a hefty number of central-midfielders in their senior squad at the moment, some of them, such as Thiago Alcantara, Jordan Henderson and James Milner have all hit or gone past the age of 30.

One player that the club currently have in their youth system that we feel could well go on to be a suitable replacement for one of those previously mentioned senior midfielders is 18-year-old Tyler Morton.

As a product of Liverpool’s youth academy, Morton, who is currently valued at £270k according to Transfermarkt, has made 23 appearances for Liverpool’s U18 side in which he has managed to score six goals and provide seven assists in the process.

Morton has also made 24 appearances for Liverpool’s U23 side, scoring five times and supplying four assists along the way, proving himself as a rather useful attacking option from midfield.

The midfielder made his senior debut for Liverpool during their 3-0 win over Norwich City in the Carabao Cup last month in which Reds manager Jurgen Klopp said Morton put in a “confident” performance in his first senior outing for the Merseyside club.

Opening up on the midfield general, the German boss explained: “Tyler, really, he gave us the opportunity to connect again, because he just played simple, passed the ball in the right spaces, defended the right spaces.”

In addition to this, Morton was given an overall match rating of 7/10 for his performance against Norwich from the Liverpool Echo who said that he “slotted into the defensive midfield role impressively” after replacing Naby Keita.

The teenager has managed to rack up an average of three key passes per game based on the two performances he’s put in for Liverpool’s U23 side in the Football League Trophy this season, which is considerably more than Henderson (1.1 key passes per game) has done in the Premier League so far this season.

We feel that if Morton continues to play well for the youth team and take any opportunity that comes his way to play in Klopp’s side, such as their upcoming Carabao Cup clash against Preston North End later this month, then he could well see himself as a possible regular first-team player in the next few years, in the same way Curtis Jones has done.

Looking ahead to the future further down the line, even though he signed a new deal over the summer, we could see Morton potentially being a long-term replacement for Henderson if he ends up leaving when his current deal expires given his age.

Like the skipper, he is defensively astute and capable of carrying the ball forward. He’s certainly one to watch.

In other news: Imagine him & Thiago: Klopp must secure LFC move for “incredible” £36m-rated machine – opinion

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

MatériaMais Notícias

O treino do Botafogo desta sexta-feira foi fechado à imprensa, mas é fato que o time que vai enfrentar o Cruzeiro, neste domingo, estará bastante modificado. Quase todos os titulares serão poupados, mas um o técnico Jair Ventura garantiu que prossegue entre os 11 iniciais.

– O Jefferson segue fora, no departamento médico. O Gatito continua – resumiu o técnico, lembrando do edema na coxa esquerda do ex-Seleção Brasileira.

Será a chance de alguns jogadores, como Marcos Vinícius e Valencia, além de mostrarem serviço ao treinador, ganharem mais ritmo de jogo. O chileno, por exemplo, estreou contra o Palmeiras, na última quarta-feira, mas não atuava desde o dia 2 de julho.

Jair entende que ganhou dois jogadores para a criação. Para a função de extremo, no entanto, ele não acredita que poderá, no curto prazo, utilizar dois dos reforços mais recentes.

– Não seria muito a característica deles. O Marcos já fez assim no Cruzeiro, mas não está no ápice físico. Jogar pelo lado requer muta aptidão física. O Leo é mais forte, mas conheço pouco o que ele pode me proporcionar. Requer tempo. Volto a questão do tempo, para ver característica. A gente conhece o jogador quando trabalha – finalizou.

Manchester City face another stern test this weekend with a trip to Anfield to face Liverpool after two tough fixtures against Chelsea in the Premier League followed by a disappointing Champions League defeat against Paris Saint-Germain.

After securing all three points in a 1-0 victory at Stamford Bridge, Pep Guardiola’s side fell to a Lionel Messi-inspired 2-0 defeat against PSG in midweek, with a trip to Liverpool now on the horizon.

One of City’s standout players this season has been Gabriel Jesus, who scored his second Premier League goal of the campaign in the win against Chelsea, taking his overall goal tally for 2021/22 up to three across all competitions, chipping in with three assists as well. Furthermore, the Brazil striker was recently voted as the club’s Etihad Player of the Month for his performances throughout August.

For the midweek game against PSG, though, he found himself replaced by Raheem Sterling in the starting XI, and the England winger was unable to get on the scoresheet in France.

On The Chalkboard

Since arriving in Manchester back in January 2017 from Brazilian club Palmeiras for a fee of £28.8m, the 24-year-old has played predominantly as a centre-forward but also on the left and right flanks on occasion.

This season has seen Jesus, who has been described as a “versatile” player by former Brazil star Rivaldo, mainly play as a right winger in the Premier League, which is where he has scored most of his goals and provided his assists.

In our view, there should be no question over whether or not Jesus should be in the starting XI to face Liverpool, against whom he scored in the 1-1 draw at the Etihad Stadium and provided an assist against in the 4-1 win on Merseyside last season.

However, Riyad Mahrez played in the right-wing position in the game against PSG and earned himself an overall match rating of 8.1/10 for his display, making him the highest-rated City player on the day according to SofaScore. That could well give Guardiola a tough decision to make over who he chooses to start at Anfield on Sunday.

If Jesus does start against Liverpool and scores or sets up a goal, particularly if it tips the result in his team’s favour, then he should definitely be viewed as the club’s first-choice right-winger moving forward throughout the campaign.

In other news… Report reveals exciting Liverpool transfer update, fans will be absolutely buzzing 

When Rafa Benitez was controversially appointed as the new manager of Everton at the beginning of the summer, few would have expected him to begin life in the fashion he has.

The Toffees aren’t only in the top four after the first month of football but they sit level on points with the league leaders Manchester United.

On the chalkboard

Everton have spent a considerable sum of money in the last few years without ever really getting close to the Premier League’s elite.

It is typical, therefore, that after a window where they spent an accumulative £1.7m on five players, they were now well and truly gunning for European football again.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin has started the season with three goals in three matches but they owe much of their early season form to their two wingers.

Demarai Gray is showing signs of finally living up to his wonderful potential with three strikes in four appearances while Andros Townsend has hit the ground running too.

The left-footed dynamo was simply superb against Burnley on Monday night as he supplied a delicious cross for Michael Keane to head home and then unleashed a quite magnificent long-range effort that flew into the back of the net.

However, they weren’t the only wingers starring at Goodison Park this week.

Magical McNeil

One player that Everton targeted in the summer transfer window was Burnley’s Dwight McNeil.

The 21-year-old was linked with a £25m swoop but the Clarets were able to hold onto him for another campaign.

It feels like it’s only a matter of time before the flanker earns a bigger move elsewhere, especially if he stars as he did in Merseyside on Monday evening.

Despite his team losing the match, McNeil completed all five of the dribbles he attempted, while delivering another handful of crosses and playing two key passes.

Per SofaScore, he ranked as the club’s best player during the 90 minutes which is hardly surprising given his exciting style of play.

Dubbed “special” by his teammate Ashley Westwood, this isn’t the first time that the England U21 international has terrorised Everton.

During a 2-1 win for Burnley at Goodison back in March, McNeil was on the score sheet as he gave Mason Holgate a torrid time down the left side.

He completed three dribbles on this occasion, conjured up four key passes and managed another five crosses.

Coincidentally, he also gave them a fright in the 1-1 draw at Turf Moor last December. During that clash, the forward produced a jaw-dropping ten crosses and was successful with another five dribbles.

It appears as though McNeil relishes playing against Everton but he could become one of their own in the January window.

On the evidence he’s provided Toffees supporters with already, they’d surely love to see him in the royal blue once the winter arrives.

Benitez simply has to secure him when the next market opens.

AND in other news, Bye-bye James: Rafa must unleash Everton’s “sensational” rarely-seen 17 y/o this term…

Manchester United will be aiming to bounce back from consecutive defeats when they host Villarreal in Group B of the Champions League this evening.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s charges suffered a shock loss on the opening day of Europe’s elite cup competition, going down 2-1 against Young Boys following Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s early red card.

And United haven’t responded to that result in the manner that they would have hoped, losing two of their following three fixtures since.

A calf injury picked up by captain Harry Maguire last time out is set to add to the Red Devils’ woes, but the club’s hierarchy are hopeful that left-back Luke Shaw will have recovered in time to feature from the off.

With that in mind, here’s how Football FanCast expects Solskjaer to line up at Old Trafford, with two changes from the side that started against Aston Villa over the weekend…

In goal, David de Gea’s spectacular return to form sees him keep his place between the sticks, meaning Dean Henderson is set for another frustrating evening watching on from the sidelines.

Ahead of the Spanish shot-stopper is set to be a much-changed back four. Maguire’s injury has ruled the £45m-rated beast out of action, while Wan-Bissaka’s suspension means Diogo Dalot and Victor Lindelof will accompany Raphael Varane and Luke Shaw in the backline.

The engine room will have a much more familiar feel to it, though. Solskjaer is expected to persist with a double pivot of Fred and Scott McTominay, despite recent criticism, in an attempt to provide stability to United’s midfield.

In attack, World Cup-winner Paul Pogba is set to take up residency on the left wing with Mason Greenwood on the opposite flank and Bruno Fernandes just behind compatriot Cristiano Ronaldo.

It’s a front four that should strike fear into any defender’s heart, but they failed to find a breakthrough against Villa and will be desperate to put things right in midweek.

And, in other news…Man Utd suffer major injury blow ahead of Villarreal, Ole will be gutted 

Ange Postecoglou has no intention of using Celtic left-back Boli Bolingoli, according to The Athletic’s Kieran Devlin.

The Lowdown: Bolingoli’s summer

Bolingoli returned to Parkhead over the summer following a loan spell in Turkey with Istanbul Basaksehir.

The Belgian was linked with a return to Turkey with Altay SK back in June, however, he remained a Parkhead player beyond Tuesday’s deadline.

He posted a picture on Instagram prior to the 2021/22 campaign in Celtic colours ready for the new season with the caption ‘let’s go’. However, he hasn’t been used in a competitive match under Postecoglou, and it seems as if he isn’t in the Parkhead boss’ plans.

The Latest: Devlin’s claim

The Athletic shared a story on Wednesday about some players who have been left high and dry after failing to secure a summer transfer.

Devlin contributed with a section on Bolingoli, claiming there is no intention in Glasgow to use him in the first team.

Bolingoli, on £780,000-a-year at Celtic, still has two years remaining on his deal.

The Verdict: January exit?

With Postecoglou preferring Adam Montgomery and new right-back Josip Juranvoic on the left-hand side in Greg Taylor’s absence, it looks like a New Year exit for Bolingoli could be on the cards.

The Hoops may well be open to a loan or permanent deal for the 26-year-old, and should it be the latter, they could struggle to recoup the £3m fee they forked out for his services back in 2019, especially with his Transfermarkt valuation dropping to £1.98m.

In other news: Ange’s first January target emerges; Celtic will watch ‘really important’ ace tomorrow.