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Sunderland are firmly back in the hunt for promotion with Lee Johnson’s appointment as manager sparking a magnificent revival.

Gone are the days of the boring football that Phil Parkinson brought to the Stadium of Light, and as a result, there is now a swagger to the Mackems’ attacking play. Aiden McGeady’s ten assists in 14 matches is enough to testify that.

On the chalkboard

McGeady has been superb on the left-hand side in recent months but he’s been let down time and time again by the man playing behind him.

Since Denver Hume was injured back in early December, the Black Cats have had difficulties when it’s come to the left-back position.

They tried to eradicate those worries by signing Jake Vokins in January but he’s not had an encouraging start to life in the north-east. In fact, the Southampton loanee has been pretty disastrous.

He had what Sunderland blog Roker Report described as one of the worst debuts in a Sunderland shirt before he was at fault for one of the goals in the defeat to Shrewsbury. Vokins failed to track his man at the back post which allowed for a simple tap in.

With that in mind, it doesn’t seem as though there is an easy solution to their woes.

What needs to happen?

Johnson brought McFadzean back into the fray following his bout with concussion last weekend but as he has been in recent months, was relatively disappointing.

He was largely anonymous down the left, completing just 70% of his passes and losing the ball on 23 occasions. Those were the worst tallies for both statistics of anyone in the red and white of Sunderland.

Offensively he was particularly poor, failing to pick a teammate out with any of his three crosses. Though, we should hardly be surprised by this performance. He gave away a penalty against Wimbledon and then let both of the goals in the defeat to Plymouth come down his side.

The warning signs were there for Johnson but he continues to pick him. Thus, the £2.4k-per-week earner has to be axed from the starting XI.

If Johnson operates with a three-man defence – something he did against Burton and Fleetwood – it would allow them to play Jordan Jones.

The Rangers loanee has started only twice since signing for the club in January but from the small glimpses we’ve seen, he’s been lively.

One of Jones’ best performances came from left wing back when he was introduced against the Brewers. The winger was on the field for just 23 minutes but created three key passes – the second-highest number of anyone in a Black Cats jersey. Jones also finished the clash with a pass success rate of 100%.

Blessed with real pace and creativity, he could conjure quite the partnership alongside McGeady on the left.

With a clash against 11th-placed Crewe to come on Saturday, Jones simply has to play. McFadzean has been letting his team down and there is only so long that Johnson can withstand his inconsistent displays.

AND in other news, Maja 2.0: Sunderland must rue losing 16-goal “top striker”, he’s shades of Harry Kane…

Many Everton fans were left to slam the display of Andre Gomes despite their 2-0 away win over Liverpool in the Premier League on Saturday evening.

The Goodison Park club earned their first win over their bitter rivals at Anfield in the division for over two decades with a goal from Richarlison and a Gylfi Sigurdsson penalty to inflict Jurgen Klopp’s fourth loss at home in a row.

While there were some very good performances for Carlo Ancelotti’s team, Gomes’ flattered to deceive, picking up a booking fairly late on in the first half and making some needless fouls that could well have accumulated to get himself a second bookable offence and thus a red card.

The central midfield player lost out on around 92% of his duels and also failed to record a single shot, successful dribble, interception, key pass or accurate cross in the game, earning him a very measly 5.7 overall rating on Sofascore as he was substituted off just short of the hour mark.

Everton fan reaction to Gomes display

These Toffees supporters slammed his performance on Twitter, with one Blue even going as far as to call the former FC Barcelona man a ‘liability’:

“Get Gomes out… too timid defensively #LIVEVE”

Credit: @mmcguriman

“Cannot sit back for 90 minutes and hang on. Gomes off, just giving the ball away and offers no protection at all #LIVEVE”

Credit: @taylor_rich1978

“Is Ancelotti not seeing the same game as the rest of us? This ain’t working lad #LIVEVE get some grafters on. Doucoure garbage. Gomes garbage. No tackles going in. Garbage”

Credit: @DjAnt1B

“Glad he’s been subbed, had a poor game all round and was a red card in waiting #Gomes #EFC”

Credit: @Trev_EFC1878

“Gomes off and also sold #efc”

Credit: @MaisOuiMaisOui_

“Gomes becoming a liability out there #EFC”

Credit: @SchneiderErnie

In other news, find out why a Merseyside derby preview left fans fuming here!

According to Football Insider, Everton are eager to complete the permanent signing of Josh King this summer.

Toffees want King

King moved to Goodison Park on loan from Bournemouth during the January transfer window and has so far made five appearances in the Premier League under Carlo Ancelotti (Transfermarkt).

This report suggests that the Toffees are already eager to sign the 29-year-old permanently, with the Merseyside outfit already parting with £2m to sign him on a temporary basis.

Solid back-up

Although he has yet to score for his new club, King should provide solid back-up to Dominic Calvert-Lewin. With the Cherries, he managed 48 goals in the Premier League, and has picked up 65 goals during his professional career.

However, he is unlikely to ever be a regular starter – if Everton  want to reach the Champions League, they will need more quality than what King has to offer. As such, Marcel Brands must make sure he negotiates a price which matches the status the Norway international will have in the squad. If he does that, King could be a very valuable player for Everton for a good few years to come.

In other news, some Everton fans were far from happy with the performance of one man during their 1-0 victory over Southampton on Monday.

Speaking exclusively to Football FanCast, former Premier League midfielder Carlton Palmer has suggested that Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is probably not too pleased with how his club have dealt with Virgil van Dijk’s injury.

Van Dijk has been out injured since October following a challenge from Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and is expected to miss the rest of the season, with Liverpool unable to put a time frame on the defender’s return.

Since then, the Reds have gone on to sign Ben Davies from Preston North End and Ozan Kabak from Schalke in an effort to bolster an injury-plagued defence.

Palmer, however, believes Klopp would have been disappointed with the club’s failure to bring in a replacement of a similar calibre to Van Dijk during the January transfer window.

In an exclusive interview with FFC, the retired England international said:

“There are certain people that just can’t be out your team, and Virgil van Dijk is one of those players for Liverpool. He’s an outstanding defender. And so, you know, should they have replaced him at Christmas?

“From the way Klopp was speaking, I don’t think funds were available for him to do that. So I think he wasn’t too pleased about that.”

Given Van Dijk’s influence since arriving at Liverpool from Southampton, helping the Merseyside club to a Premier League title and Champions League trophy, Klopp certainly could have done with an elite centre-back coming in.

RB Leipzig’s Dayot Upamecano, who will join Bayern Munich in the summer, was one central defender that Liverpool were said to be interested in, with club legend Jamie Carragher having previously urged his old side to snap him up.

Whilst Filip Helander scored the all-important equaliser for Steven Gerrard’s Rangers side against Slavia Prague on Thursday evening, he was the standout performer for the Ibrox outfit for more reasons than one at the Sinobo Stadium.

The Swedish centre-back was in the right place at the right time to turn in Ianis Hagi’s cut back in the first half but he also performed superbly from a defensive point of view.

As per SofaScore, the defender would earn an impressive 7.4/10 for his performance, which was the highest of any Rangers player on the night. During the game, Helander made three clearances and one interception as he helped Rangers withstand dangerous Slavia attacks, particularly in the first half.

It was a physical battle for a lot of Rangers players on Thursday night but the 28-year-old centre-back regularly came out on top against Slavia’s attackers, as he impressively won all four of his ground duels, and four out of six of his aerial duels, resulting in an overall success rate of 80% – comfortably the best of any Rangers player, as per SofaScore.

The centre-back, who reportedly earns £10k per week at Rangers, also won four free kicks during the game, which helped to alleviate the pressure under which Gerrard’s side regularly found themselves; and he and Goldson worked well together to limit Slavia striker Jan Kuchta’s influence on the game, as he completed just seven passes during his time on the pitch.

It was important that Rangers didn’t gift possession back to the hosts, and Helander’s long passing was solid as four out of eight of his efforts found a teammate, whereas only two of Goldson’s nine efforts found a Rangers shirt, which gives the Swede the edge over his centre-back partner.

Therefore, whilst Helander will be lauded for his equalising goal, he was extremely solid at the back for Gerrard’s side and was arguably the star performer for a number of reasons.

In other news… Dribbled past 5 times: Rangers gem still has a lot to learn despite Gerrard praise

Noel Whelan believes Kemar Roofe let Glasgow Rangers down with his challenge on Slavia Prague’s Ondrej Kolar in the Europa League on Thursday.

Whelan blames Roofe

The Gers were knocked out of the Europa League on Thursday after losing 2-0 at Ibrox to Czechia champions Slavia. They were outplayed, but they weren’t helped by Roofe, who made a terrible late challenge on goalkeeper Kolar.

Talking to Football Insider, Whelan blamed Roofe, saying his dismissal killed his side’s chances of getting a result. He said:

“Look, it’s a striker’s challenge.

“That’s the problem. Sometimes you get that enthusiasm and you want to change the momentum of a game. You’ve got to find that happy medium of control and controlled aggression.

“Last night, that was just rash, it was stupid and it killed their whole chance of getting anything out of the game. It really did.

“It’s moments of madness like that which lets the side down. It lets the manager down them but more importantly, lets the own player down as well.

“Not a great introduction to the game for Kemar. I’m sure he’ll look at that maybe curb his kung fu, karate kid from now on.”

Silly

It is hard to disagree with Whelan in this case. Roofe had only been on the pitch for six minutes when he launched his boot into Kolar’s face, and the score was only 1-0 to Slavia at the time. His sending off made it hard for the 55-time Scottish champions to get back onto level terms, and it soon became 2-0 after that.

Regardless of your allegiance, there is no defending Roofe’s challenge. It was reckless and dangerous, and the red card was fully deserved. The defeat wasn’t only down to the £5.4m-valued striker (Transfermarkt) – Leon Balogun was also sent off and was poor throughout, and the Gers were unable to cause their opponents too many problems even before Roofe left the pitch – but the first red card may well have been the turning point.

In other news, Alan Hutton suggests this ace could leave.

Glasgow Rangers may be Scottish champions, but that didn’t stop plenty of their fans from hammering the performance of Joe Aribo this afternoon.

After crashing out of the Europa League to Slavia Prague on Thursday, the Gers travelled to Parkhead to face their fierce city rivals Celtic and, although they went behind to an effort from Mohamed Elyounoussi, Alfredo Morelos was on hard to score his first goal in this fixture (Transfermarkt).

However, Aribo was far from at his best for the newly-crowned champions. He spent much of the game on the periphery, failing to influence matters in the final third, and was unable to have a telling impact on the match. Steven Gerrard will have been hoping for more in what is always a big game despite the league title already being won.

These fans were quick to share their displeasure with Aribo’s display – one even dubbed him a ‘waste of a jersey’ – and they took to social media platform Twitter to share their thoughts.

Let’s see what the fans had to say about Aribo below

“Aribo definitely been a passenger, and not for the first time in this fixture. Questions will begin to get asked if he is up for it.”

Credit: @kennyfergie1984

“I would consider taking Aribo off as he’s been woeful again”

Credit: @WATPDUNC

“Joe Aribo is so frustrating”

Credit: @GilmertonLoyal

“Aribo is very poor today. Arfield on”

Credit: @runawayrfc

“Aribo and Hagi. Miles off it”

Credit: @ShankillBear

“If I was Hagi I’d be asking why Aribo is allowed to stay on. Aribo has been horrendous, a waste of a jersey.”

Credit: @MitzisLapdog

In other news, some Rangers fans slam this BBC pundit’s comments.

Loads of Everton fans have been left to hail a transfer update involving their former player Oumar Niasse.

As per the official Twitter page of Huddersfield Town, the Senegal international has signed for the EFL Championship club.

Several members of the Goodison Park faithful still have some fond memories of Niasse and so flocked to the post to show their appreciation for the 30-year-old.

He scored nine goals and made a further four assists in 42 games in total over all competitions across four separate terms for the Merseyside club (Transfermarkt), but now the striker will want to write a new chapter in his footballing story with the Terriers as they look to ease off any potential fears of relegation down to League One come the end of the 2020/21 term.

Everton fan reaction to Niasse transfer update

These Toffees hailed the transfer update on Twitter, with one Blues supporter even going as far as to claim that they were ‘absolutely delighted’:

“Love this. Go on Oumar lad”

Credit: @adxm1878

“Absolutely delighted for the lad. Gives his all every game and will do well in that league.”

Credit: @B3Bell

“Made up for him”

Credit: @LouisMeliaEFC

“Yesssss Oumar !!!!!”

Credit: @Ryanlowe1878

“Oh my the prince has arrived”

Credit: @Kie36117663

“Get in Oumar.”

Credit: @Stirla1878

In other news, find out what EFC man has been slammed by fans as transfer news has emerged here!

In a recent interview with Give Me Sport, Fabrizio Romano dropped an update on Jesse Lingard’s future at West Ham United.

Since arriving at West Ham on a five-month loan deal in January, Lingard has been in sensational form over his seven Premier League appearances for David Moyes’ side, bagging five goals and providing two assists, as well as averaging a SofaScore match rating of 7.34 – ranking him as the Hammers’ best performer in the top flight.

Rather unsurprisingly, the £13.5 million-rated 28-year-old’s impressive displays have resulted in Moyes being keen to make the attacking midfielder’s loan deal a more permanent move in the summer transfer window.

However, speaking recently to Give Me Sport, Romano claimed that a deal for Lingard is not likely to be an easy one to get over the line for the Hammers this summer.

He said: “At the moment, Manchester United are saying the player is coming back. [They] are in a win-win situation. It won’t be easy for West Ham to negotiate with Manchester United because now the price is totally different.”

He explained: “[West Ham] are really happy with him, but they know that Manchester United are waiting for the player back, and that’s why it won’t be an easy negotiation.”

Transfer Tavern Take

Considering the fact that the typically reliable West Ham source, ExWHUemployee, has stated that the Hammers are confident of signing Lingard permanently this summer, in addition to claiming that the 28-year-old himself has expressed a desire to remain in east London, Romano’s comments suggesting otherwise certainly come as something of a surprise.

Given the England international’s fantastic form, it would certainly be a blow for the Irons if Romano turns out to be correct – fans will be hoping ExWHUemployee has the last laugh.

You can view the full interview with Fabrizio Romano on Give Me Sport here!