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Liverpool failed to add substantial reinforcements to Jurgen Klopp’s first team squad over the summer, but that could change in the January transfer window.

What’s the story?

Former RB Leipzig centre-back Ibrahima Konate was the only major addition for the Reds, while their main domestic rivals all spent big money bringing in top-class talents such as Jack Grealish, Cristiano Ronaldo and Romelu Lukaku.

However, with the January window just a few months away, Liverpool’s hierarchy are already reportedly eyeing up a potential move for AC Milan midfielder Franck Kessie.

According to Italian outlet Gazzetta dello Sport (as relayed by Milan News), the Anfield outfit are one of three clubs interested in securing the 24-year-old’s services, who would be able to agree terms on a pre-contract agreement after entering the final year of his current deal.

The report also credits Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain and fellow Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur with an interest in Kessie, so Liverpool’s director of football Michael Edwards may need to move quickly in order to secure his signature.

Michael Edwards can redeem himself

After Gini Wijnaldum departed Anfield at the start of the summer, many expected the club to replace the Netherlands international given his importance to Klopp’s charges.

However, despite several star names being linked with a move to Merseyside, a new arrival in the centre of the pitch was not forthcoming, and the Reds have been left surprisingly short of quality in the engine room.

Although Klopp has many classy operators to call upon, the likes of Thiago, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita have all struggled with injuries in recent years, while 18-year-old Harvey Elliott is embarking upon his maiden Premier League campaign as a regular.

Therefore, Edwards’ inability to find a suitable heir to Wijnaldum could have serious consequences for Liverpool as the season progresses.

Bringing in Kessie halfway through the campaign would certainly go some way to redemption, though. The Ivory Coast international has established himself as one of Serie A’s most dominant midfielders since arriving at San Siro back in 2017 and would be a welcome addition in Liverpool.

After scoring 30 goals and providing 15 assists in 184 appearances for Milan, Kessie has caught the eye of several onlookers, including former Italy striker Antonio Cassano, who even compared him to a previous Premier League great.

“I want Kessie in my team, he scores, he assists, he has personality, he has quality, he doesn’t lose the ball, he is intelligent. I’m watching him carefully, against Roma, he was devastating,” he said (via MilanLive).

“He reminds me of the Yaya Touré of the best times. He is a different player, but in terms of impact, he is holding Milan’s midfield alone.”

It remains to be seen whether Edwards can lure Kessie to Anfield this winter, but if he does, it will go down as another masterclass from the Liverpool chief, and see his failures over the summer soon forgotten.

In other news… Neil Jones reveals LFC interest in “incredible” £27m-rated beast, Klopp will be gutted 

Everton return to Premier League action following the international break bang in form and with plenty of confidence.

The Toffees have secured seven points from a possible nine available and kept their first clean sheet of the season last time out.

However, they will be taking on a battle-hardened Burnley side on Monday night under the lights.

The task at hand will not be easy, especially if Rafa Benitez has to name his starting XI without star striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

Whether or not the forward is fit remains to be seen but here’s the XI we’re predicting at Goodison Park this evening.

We’re tipping the manager to make three changes from the side that beat Brighton 2-0 a fortnight ago.

The first alteration to note is up front where Salomon Rondon earns his debut for Everton.

Rondon was signed on transfer deadline day and will link with Benitez for the third time in his career. He plays at the expense of Calvert-Lewin who is a doubt for the game after training through pain in the last few weeks with a broken toe.

It would be a risk to play him and thus, we think the powerful 31-year-old will start instead.

The remaining changes are in the middle of the defence where Ben Godfrey and Yerry Mina return to the fray.

Both of the centre-backs have been out injured in recent weeks with Mason Holgate and Michael Keane having to play instead.

They kept a valuable shut out versus Brighton but the latter has been far from assured in 2021/22 so far.

We have already championed the idea of Mina and the £68k-per-week-earning Godfrey starting so they come in at centre-back to give Everton the best possible chance of winning against physically tough opponents.

Seamus Coleman picked up a hamstring injury on international duty with the Republic of Ireland but the boss has revealed that he should be fit to start at right-back.

Demarai Gray continues his role on the left and will look to score for a third successive game after his summer arrival.

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

Rangers recent stumbles continued on Sunday afternoon as they were unable to get maximum points from thier game at Ibrox.

The champions were unable to break Motherwell down in the Scottish Premiership clash, as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Graham Alexander’s side.

Steven Gerrard’s team came into the game off the back of a disappointing 2-0 defeat to Ligue 1 outfit Lyon in the Europa League last Thursday and were unable to return to winning ways in domestic action.

Fashion Sakala opened the scoring in the first half with his first goal for the club, with a second-half equaliser from Motherwell ensuring the game ended square.

One player, in particular, who struggled in the match and contributed to the Gers failing to pick up all three points was central defender Jack Simpson.

Gerrard dropped experienced, reliable, centre-back Leon Balogun to give Simpson a chance to show that he can perform at this level. Instead, the defender provided the head coach with a reminder of why he is not a first-team regular at the moment as he failed to grasp his opportunity.

Simpson was not at the level required to make a positive impact on the match. For the Motherwell goal, the defender allowed a player to dribble the ball past him in the box with relative ease as the defender stuck a lazy leg out and failed to cut out the danger. The forward failed with his attempt but the rebound then fell to the eventual goalscorer, who was able to prod home.

His all-around defensive play was also poor. Per SofaScore, the lightweight lost 67% of his duels on the pitch, losing six of his nine battles in total. He was also dribbled past three times, one of them being for the goal, and only made two tackles, whilst making zero interceptions. This shows that he was ill-prepared for what Motherwell had to throw at him.

On the ball, he was composed, albeit uninspiring. Per SofaScore, he completed 86% of his passes and gave possession of the ball away seven times in the 90 minutes. He failed to register a shot at goal when coming up for set-pieces and did not create any chances for his teammates or complete any dribbles, showing that he did not step out from defence to push the side up the pitch.

Therefore, Gerrard will be feeling let down by the defender as he put his faith in Simpson to step in for Balogun and perform. Instead, he was partially to blame for the equalising goal and struggled with the physical side of the game against Motherwell.

AND in other news, Wilson must make key decision over 28 y/o Rangers “warrior”, Gerrard needs him…

Football Insider and talkSPORT pundit Gabby Agbonlahor has been reacting to rumours linking Celtic with a move for free agent Robbie Brady.

The Lowdown: Celtic links

Brady has been without a club since his Burnley deal expired at the end of May.

The Irishman was discussed by Ange Postecoglou last month but has been linked with moves to Turkish side Gaziantep and Championship side Swansea City since then.

However, rumours of a move to Celtic Park emerged, with reports last week claiming Celtic are the front runners to secure the 29-year-old’s services.

The Latest: Agbonlahor reacts

Agbonlahor was asked by Football Insider in a story on Wednesday afternoon if the Hoops should pursue a deal for the 35-goal free agent.

This is what he had to say in reply, believing he doesn’t see Celtic bringing Brady to Glasgow.

“He’s not done it.

“Every time I watched him play for Burnley, he’s come off injured.

“I don’t see Celtic touching that, to be honest. It’s a big problem when you’re a free agent coming up to October. The season will have been going on for two and a half months.

“It’s worrying times if you’re a free agent now. It means that nobody wants you, to be honest. You’re going to have to get a deal that’s not what you want because you’re desperate.

“When you’ve been injured and not been in good form, it’s not easy to find a club.”

[web_stories_embed url=”https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/web-stories/celtic-updates-14/” title=”Celtic updates!!” poster=”” width=”360″ height=”600″ align=”none”]

The Verdict: Ange must want him

Celtic signed free agent James McCarthy over the summer, however, it has since emerged that Postecoglou didn’t play a meaningful role in the deal.

The central midfielder has struggled in Postecoglou’s intense training sessions since joining, so if the Hoops are to go after Brady, they need to have their manager’s blessing.

A repeat of the McCarthy deal with Brady could see two experienced professionals warming the Parkhead bench on big money, not exactly ideal for Celtic.

In other news: Celtic icon smiles and reveals whether he would replace McKay at Parkhead.

Celtic are suffering from the loss of Ryan Christie as well as their injured players, The Athletic’s Kieran Devlin says. 

The lowdown

Celtic tried to tie Christie down to a new contract, with his deal due to expire in June 2022.

But when they failed to reach an agreement, they opted to cash in rather than run the very real risk of losing him for nothing.

Celtic wound up banking £1million from AFC Bournemouth for a player who’d made 151 appearances and recorded 85 direct goal contributions (41 goals, 44 assists).

Along with Christie, the Hoops also lost the likes of Odsonne Edouard, Kristoffer Ajer and Scott Brown during the summer transfer window.

Amid a series of injuries, Celtic have endured a tricky start to the new season. They were held at home by Dundee United on Sunday, leaving them sixth in the early table.

The latest

Addressing fans in The Athletic’s matchday discussion on Sunday, Devlin said that ‘along with Furuhashi and McGregor, this team really misses Christie too’.

He feels compelled to ‘say it every week’, but the ‘thinness of the squad’ is clear and it’s having a ‘massive impact’.

The verdict

Perhaps the real issue is not that Celtic allowed Christie to go, but that they failed to sign a quality replacement.

Indeed, the club could be accused of poor planning. It wasn’t until the final day of the transfer window that his move was sealed, even though he’d made clear that he saw his future elsewhere and the contract situation was known long before that.

This feels like yet another example of Ange Postecoglou being somewhat let down by the indecisiveness of the Hoops’ hierarchy.

In other news, read this intriguing Jack Wilshere transfer claim. 

With Valerien Ismael’s West Bromwich Albion side heading into Tuesday night’s Championship clash on a run of just one win in four games, the Frenchman would have undoubtedly been hoping for his team to reinforce their promotion credentials with a dominant display against an out of form Cardiff City side.

And that is exactly what the 45-year-old manager got, as strikes from Karlan Grant, Alex Mowatt, Matt Phillips and a Curtis Nelson own goal saw the Baggies run out 4-0 winners at the Cardiff City Stadium, a result that sent West Brom to the top of the Championship table.

As is to be expected in such an impressive display, a number of the Albion side turned in excellent performances in the fixture, none more so than summer signing Adam Reach.

Three key passes

Being deployed at left wing-back once again in the match, with Conor Townsend filling in at centre-back to cover the injured Matt Clarke and Dara O’Shea, the versatile midfielder proved to be an influential fixture of the Albion side against Cardiff, with his creative input helping the Baggies seal all three points in south Wales.

Indeed, over the course of his 90 minutes on the pitch, Reach provided one assist, made three key passes, as well as completing two crosses, four long balls, one dribble and 32 of his 39 attempted passes – a success rate of 82%.

The £23k-per-week man also impressed in a defensive capacity, making four tackles, one interception and winning seven duels, in addition to drawing one foul for his team.

These returns saw the 28-year-old who George Elek dubbed a “key” player receive a SofaScore match rating of 7.7 – the highest rating earned of anyone who featured in the match.

As such, while the result will undoubtedly have pleased Ismael the most, the performance of Reach will not have been that far behind, as the £2.25m-rated midfielder proved against Cardiff that he is more than a capable stand-in for Townsend at left wing-back, and perhaps even made a case in the Frenchman’s eyes that he should be the first choice in the position.

In other news: Fresh claim made about “exceptional” £28k-p/w West Brom ace, Ismael should be worried

Aston Villa and 18 other Premier League clubs have demanded answers following Newcastle United’s official takeover, according to The Guardian, and a number of Villa fans have been reacting to the update on social media.

Newcastle are now owned by Saudi-led consortium PIF, who purchased the club from Mike Ashley in a deal worth £300m which went through on Friday. The deal has been strongly criticised by human rights groups, with the PIF – the Middle Eastern country’s sovereign wealth fund – overseen by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The Guardian shared a report on Friday evening claiming that the other 19 top-flight clubs, including Villa, now want to know what changed for the Premier League to wave through a takeover with little notice.

The report claims that clubs have expressed their concern following the deal, with some who had no idea about the takeover already making complaints to Premier League chief executive Richard Masters and chairman Gary Hoffman.

Villa fans react

Well-known Villa account @villareport shared The Guardian’s claim on Twitter on Friday evening. Here is what these Villa fans had to say in reply, with many making their feelings known and one calling on CEO Christian Purslow to take the fight to the Premier League…

“Come on Purslow”

Credit: @Jackkay98

“HERE WE GO.”

Credit: @JackAVFC77

“Club should just fold”

Credit: @AVFC_Aston

“Someone grab the popcorn”

Credit: @Tom_Price_AVFC_

“Imagine the scenes”

Credit: @GW_94

“Gutted – the market will be even more inflated with people having to spend more in the Prem due to a “Newcastle tax” and that means buying players will get super costly and players will be an even bigger risk. I hope that an FFP plan get introduced to make it fair”

Credit: @bennyavfc

In other news: ‘Unreal’ – These Villa fans erupt after ‘mad’ news emerged

Liverpool have had an almost perfect start to their 2021/22 Premier League campaign with five wins and three draws in their opening eight league games of the season, scoring 22 and conceding six goals in the process.

One player that has had very little to do so far this season is midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who has only started one league game for the Reds which came on the opening day of the season in their 3-0 win at Norwich City.

Liverpool signed Oxlade-Chamberlain in the 2017 summer transfer window from fellow Premier League club Arsenal in a deal worth a reported fee of £35m.

Since then, the 28-year-old, who is currently earning a weekly wage of £120k-per-week according to Spotrac, has made 110 appearances for the Merseyside club in which he has managed to score 14 goals and provide 12 assists along the way across all competitions.

In terms of his market value, in October 2017, a few months after joining Jurgen Klopp’s side it was listed as £27m according to Transfermarkt, whereas it now stands at £16.2m, highlighting a significant drop of £18.8m. That’s despite the manager’s appraisals, with the German even describing him as “outstanding.”

In fairness to Oxlade-Chamberlain, the Englishman has suffered his fair share of injury issues that have impacted his playing time with the Reds over the years. That includes a cruciate ligament rupture he suffered back in April 2018 that kept him out of action until March 2019, which will have played some part in the drop in his market value.

In addition to that, he also suffered a knee injury that kept him out for 20 games between August and December last year.

However, with his lack of game time this season, even with no injury worries, it does seem that he is not a vital figure in Klopp’s squad.

Looking ahead to the future, with it recently being reported that Oxlade-Chamberlain could be looking for the exit door at Liverpool to try and join a club where he would be given more playing time, it seems as though the club have a decision on their hands to make about his future at the club.

In our view, if he would be guaranteed regular playing time elsewhere at a club that would be willing to pay Liverpool what they would see as a suitable transfer fee for him, then the Merseyside club should give him what he wants.

If he were to leave and play regularly again in the future with no injury issues, we see no reason why his market value couldn’t then go on and get back to where it was around the time he joined Liverpool.

In other news: Forget Firmino: “Phenomenal” Liverpool ace who made 2 key passes was on fire yesterday – opinion

After cruising to a 5-1 victory in midweek against Club Brugge in the Champions League, Manchester City are back in Premier League action this evening with a trip to face Brighton & Hove Albion, who are currently just two points behind Pep Guardiola’s side in the league table.

Ahead of the match at the Amex Stadium, it appears that only Ferran Torres will miss the game for City due to a foot injury.

Taking this into account, here’s how we feel City could line up later this evening to take on Graham Potter’s high-flying Seagulls.

In goal, we think Guardiola will stick with Ederson after he returned to the side in midweek, despite Zack Steffen managing to keep a clean sheet in his absence in their 2-0 win over Burnley after the 28-year-old was involved with Brazil shortly before their previous Premier League outing.

In defence, we think City should stick with the same back four which started against Brugge, with Joao Cancelo and Kyle Walker – who were both on the scoresheet in midweek – occupying the full-back roles, and Ruben Dias and Aymeric Laporte in the middle.

In midfield, with Guardiola praising the pairing of Bernardo Silva and Rodri after the Burnley game, we feel that he will stick with these two against Brighton, with Kevin De Bruyne alongside the duo after the Belgian picked up an assist against Brugge.

For City’s attacking front three, we think Gabriel Jesus, currently valued at £54m by Transfermarkt, will return to the starting XI after being an unused substitute in midweek, potentially to get him fully ready for this game ahead of Riyad Mahrez, despite the Algerian scoring two goals on Tuesday.

Finally, we think Jack Grealish and Phil Foden – who both also impressed against Brugge – will keep their places in the team to see if they can help City secure another win and move closer to the top of the Premier League table.

Given how close the two teams are in the table, we feel that this is a must-win game for the Citizens to avoid any potential doubts over their capability to defend their title this season.

In other news: Guardiola must unleash “fantastic” £67.5m-rated ace this evening, he could terrify Brighton

Sheffield Wednesday’s previous League One match saw them secure a third consecutive draw with a 1-1 result against Lincoln City at Hillsborough.

Their next league outing sees Darren Moore’s side take a trip to face Cheltenham Town on Saturday to try and secure a win rather than another draw or even worse, a defeat.

On the chalkboard

Looking ahead to the weekend, one player that was in the starting XI against Lincoln that we feel should not be in the team to face Cheltenham is 28-year-old centre-forward Saido Berahino.

During the 62 minutes he was on the pitch against Lincoln before being replaced by Theo Corbeanu, Berahino only managed to have one shot at goal, complete just 12 passes of the 19 he attempted, failed to make one accurate cross or long ball, lost possession on 14 occasions and ultimately earn himself a rather uninspiring overall match rating of 6.6, according to SofaScore.

Not only this, but Berahino, who is currently valued at £1.35m according to Transfermarkt, has only managed to score one goal and provide one assist in eight League One appearances, which isn’t the best record at this moment in time.

In addition to this, Berahino, who has been accused of having the “wrong mentality” in the past by former Stoke City teammate Glen Johnson, has only managed to rack up an average of 0.5 shots on target per game in League One so far this season, as well as just 0.6 key passes per game and an average passing accuracy percentage of 69% per game, which suggests to us that he hasn’t been a particularly useful attacking figure for the Owls yet.

Looking ahead to the Cheltenham game, Wednesday would probably have a better chance of securing all three points on Saturday if Moore took Berahino out of the starting XI on this occasion.

In terms of who could replace the striker on Saturday if Moore decides to take him out of the team,  adding Callum Paterson in, who has two goals and one assist under his belt in the league so far this season, could be the way forward for this encounter.

In other news: Moore must now unleash Sheff Weds’ 22 y/o beast who has “great energy”, he needs him – opinion