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Former Leeds United striker Noel Whelan has stressed the importance of Raphinha’s availability to face Manchester United this weekend.

The Whites host Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side at Elland Road on Sunday afternoon, looking to kick on from their impressive recent results against Manchester City and Liverpool. There are fitness concerns over Raphinha ahead of the game, however, with Marcelo Bielsa seemingly ruling him out during his press conference on Friday.

There is still time for the Brazilian to prove his fitness on Saturday, though, and him being available would clearly be a huge boost for the Yorkshire outfit.

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Whelan desperate for Raphinha to face Man United

Speaking to Football Insider, Whelan claimed that the 24-year-old’s availability holds the key to Sunday’s game, with Leeds’ wingers tussles against Manchester United’s full-backs a mouthwatering prospect. The former Whites striker said:

“They’ve got fantastic full-backs in Shaw and Wan Bissaka.

“We know Shaw’s had a turn in fortunes the way he is playing. Meanwhile, Wan Bissaka is one of the best defenders in the Premier League.

“It’d be a great challenge for all the wingers against two fantastic full-backs.

“For Raphinha and for Leeds United, I think it’s massively important. We saw the other night how much we missed him.

“We desperately need Raphinha to be fit if we’re going to penetrate and hurt them at the back, that’s for sure.”

Transfer Tavern take

Raphinha has arguably been Leeds’ best player this season, enjoying 12 goal contributions in the league and being hailed for his ‘spontaneous’ qualities by Bielsa, and he has the quality to the scare the life out of Shaw if he is fit to feature on Sunday.

The Englishman has enjoyed an excellent campaign of his own, but he would have to think twice about his attacking forays with the 24-year-old looking to pounce at the other end.

It looks more likely that Helder Costa will again start, however, so there will be pressure on him to fill the Raphinha-shaped void against the Red Devils.

In other news, a pundit has talked up the idea of Leeds signing an experienced defender this summer. Find out who it is here.

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Contratado pelo Corinthians após o vice-campeonato do Paulistão com a camisa do Osasco Audax, o atacante Bruno Paulo ainda não estreou pelo novo clube e encarou nas últimas semanas a possibilidade de ser submetido a uma cirurgia por conta de uma lombalgia. Neste sábado, o Timão evidenciou que esta chance ficou mais remota e que o tratamento convencional está dando resultados: o atacante de 26 anos treinou com bola no gramado do CT Joaquim Grava e avançou a mais uma importante etapa de seu tratamento.

Bruno Paulo trabalhou primeiramente na academia e apareceu no campo cerca de uma hora após o início das atividades dos jogadores que estão à disposição do técnico Fabio Carille. O camisa 36 do Corinthians fez um trabalho de 30 minutos ao lado do fisioterapeuta Paulo Rogério Vieira, com deslocamentos, chutes e cabeceios dentro de um circuito limitado. O atacante não reclamou de dores e brincou com o profissional da comissão técnica e também os companheiros durante seu exercício no gramado.

Agora, Bruno Paulo intensificará a rotina de trabalhos nos próximos dias. Caso as dores nas costas não voltem a incomodar, ele voltará aos treinos com o restante do grupo e ficará novamente à disposição da comissão técnica para os jogos da Copa do Brasil e do Campeonato Brasileiro. Se em alguma dessas etapas houver incômodo, a chance de cirurgia voltará à tona para o atacante, que no início da passagem pelo Timão já operou uma ruptura de ligamentos do pé direito.

O Corinthians tem mais seis desfalques por lesão neste momento:Pedro Henrique (transição do departamento médico para o campo após lesão na coxa esquerda), Vilson (estiramento na coxa esquerda), Uendel (contratura muscular na coxa direita), Guilherme (edema na panturrilha direita), o garoto Rodrigo Figueiredo, recentemente promovido ao profissional, e Danilo, que fraturou dois ossos da perna direita e só volta em 2017.

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Abrindo a 16° rodada da Série C, neste sábado, Tombense e Juventude fizeram um confronto direto por uma vaga no G4 do Grupo B, em Tombos (MG). Os donos da casa, que passaram boa parte do jogo com um a mais, aproveitaram-se da vantagem numérica em campo e não tomaram conhecimento do Juve: 3 a 0.Daniel Amorim, Ewerton Maradona e Matheus Lopes fizeram os gols da partida.

Com o resultado, os mineiros vão dormir na quarta colocação, com 26 pontos. O complemento da rodada amanhã, pode, porém, tirá-los de lá. Isso porque o Boa Esporte, atual quinto, também com 26, joga neste domingo contra a Portuguesa, no Canindé. Já os gaúchos, que não perdiam há dez jogos, caíram para sexto, com 24 pontos, mas continuam sonhando com o avanço à fase mata-mata.

Na próxima rodada, o time mineiro vai até Ribeirão Preto, no sábado, onde pega o Botafogo-SP. O Juve pega o Macaé, em casa, no domingo.

O jogo

Foi uma tarde para ser esquecida no Juventude. Ou para ser lembrada(para que os jogadores não cometam os mesmos erros) por muito tempo. Tudo depende do ponto de vista. Certo, porém, é que logo aos sete minutos, o Juve ficou com um a menos:Bruninho puxou Ewerton Maradona e foi expulso.

A maré de azar continuou logo na sequência com duas bolas no travessão no mesmo lance, finalizadas por Pará e Hugo. Ainda na mesma jogada, Klaus isolou a bola. Ainda antes dos 15 minutos, mais duas expulsões: Klaus e Alex se estranham após dividida e foram mais cedo para o chuveiro.

Não demorou muito para que o Tombense conseguisse se aproveitar da vantagem numérica em campo. Daniel Amorim abriu o placar aos 29. Um pouco antes da ida para o intervalo, Ewerthon Maradona ampliou.

No segundo tempo, uma confusão generalizada:o árbitro Paulo Henrique de Melo Salmazio expulsou mais um jogador do Juventude. Desta vez, foi Pará. A expulsão não foi muito bem engolida pelos dirigentes do time visitante. Com a pressão, o juiz voltou revogou a decisão e deu só o amarelo.O Tombense aproveitou-se da fragilidade psicológica do rival e ampliou com Felipe Alves: 3 a 0.

RelacionadasPortuguesaNa zona de rebaixamento, Lusa recebe Boa EsportePortuguesa03/09/2016

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.

A fresh update over the future of Dele Alli at Tottenham Hotspur has emerged as the 11pm transfer deadline rapidly approaches…

What’s the word?

According to Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano, the 24-year-old’s move to Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain is definitely ‘not happening’ despite the player pushing to leave north London this window.

It’s claimed that Spurs have refused to let him go as they couldn’t find a suitable replacement.

“It’s over,” said Romano on Twitter.

Another Levy masterclass?

It has been quite the January transfer saga with Alli.

Mauricio Pochettino’s PSG had been interested in the summer and reignited their pursuit earlier this month, but there had been a contrast in views in the Spurs camp over his potential departure.

On the one hand, manager Jose Mourinho was happy to sanction his exit – it’s easy to see why given he’s restricted him to only 472 minutes all season – whilst chairman Daniel Levy was completely opposed to it.

That was the word from talkSPORT’s Jim White earlier today.

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This stance is almost a mirror image to the Tanguy Ndombele situation throughout the end of last season and into the summer, as reported by the Express.

So, Romano’s latest update should have the tough-negotiator delighted as he’s once again fought against a key Mourinho decision and now it’ll be on him to convince the 58-year-old into playing him more often.

No one could have predicted the sheer turnaround in form from the club-record £55m Frenchman as he now ranks among Spurs’ best players, he’s joint-third for average WhoScored rating this term (7.03).

He’s also already surpassed his two-goal tally from last season too.

Spurs remain in all league and cup competitions, of which they have a Carabao Cup final and the Europa League knockout stages to contend with, so Mourinho is going to need plenty of options throughout the remainder of the season.

An injury to Ndombele could certainly open the door to Alli becoming involved more often, especially with Giovani Lo Celso still on the treatment table.

If that does occur at some point, then Mourinho can thank Levy for keeping hold of the English attacking midfielder.

Even then, Spurs’ recent performances leave you pondering if Alli could make an impact. Alasdair Gold at football.london believes “Tottenham could do with a firing Dele Alli right now” – and indeed they could after two successive defeats in the league.

Now valued at €40m (£36m), Alli must repay Levy’s faith in him by putting his head down and delivering in training even despite the likely disappointment of not sealing a reunion with Pochettino.

AND in other news, £35m-rated monster could become Jose Mourinho’s Van Dijk

For Celtic, not even a sensational transfer window would likely allow them to be able to bridge the gap to Rangers.

The Gers are currently 21 points ahead of Neil Lennon’s team who are seemingly sinking without a trace.

The late goal that Celtic conceded to Hibernian on Monday evening just about summed things up. With 13 players and Neil Lennon self-isolating as a precautionary measure following a positive test, they, once again, dropped points.

This season has been a disastrous one for the Hoops, and Peter Lawwell could inflict further misery on the club by sanctioning a transfer for Adam Reach.

Reach, who currently plays for Sheffield Wednesday, is available on a free transfer with his contract expiring this summer. As alluded to earlier this week on FFC, he’d represent a bargain, but there are negatives to this potential deal going through.

Celtic and Rangers are reportedly both monitoring his situation with a view to offering Reach a contract. However, it’s difficult to suggest for one moment that this would be a good signing for The Hoops.

All you need to do is look at the stats. The winger may have contributed to four goals this campaign but beyond that, there is a lack of consistent threat and penetration in the final third.

As a winger, your primary job should be to create opportunities and beat your marker, but Reach regularly fails to do either of those on a regular basis. For the Owls this season, he’s managed just 0.5 key passes per match and only 0.5 dribbles per game.

For context, those tallies are both below both Scott Brown, a midfielder, and Kristoffer Ajer, a centre-back, in the Celtic side. That’s incredibly damning when you consider they both play in defensive roles. Furthermore, the number of dribbles he manages per game is identical to the aforementioned Celtic players.

Now, with that in mind, we needn’t say much more. Reach is a winger but he lacks consistency and at times, it looks like he can’t even manage the basic fundamentals of someone that plays on the flanks.

Yes, the Hoops enjoy more possession in the SPFL than Sheff Wed do in the Championships but it speaks volumes about how average the Wednesday winger is as an attacking force when his stats equate to those of Brown and Ajer.

Reach did score against Exeter in the FA Cup last weekend but his performance beyond that was pretty poor, especially against a League Two side. He lost possession an inexcusable 21 times – the fourth highest on his team – and completed just 73% of his passes. Not exactly great numbers against a League Two club.

Even though he’d cost Lawwell absolutely nothing, this would still be a poor acquisition. Reach, who earns £23k-per-week, isn’t good enough and he has done little this term to convince us that he’d be consistent enough to deliver the goods at Parkhead.

If Celtic want to close the gap at the top and rediscover their dominance, they must forget about the Wednesday attacker and look at better options.

AND in other news, “Huge disappointment” – Exclusive: Pundit reacts to massive Celtic injury blow for Neil Lennon…

Chelsea will look to kickstart 2021 in style when they play host to Manchester City in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon.

After tasting defeat at Arsenal, the Blues bounced back with a hard-fought draw at home to Aston Villa and Frank Lampard’s side will want to get back to winning ways when they take on the Citizens in a crunch clash in the top half of the table.

Lampard has confirmed Reece James has been ruled out due to injury. However, the Blues boss is hopeful Hakim Ziyech will be in contention to start on Sunday after working his way back to fitness.

Here is Football FanCast’s predicted starting line-up for this afternoon’s action, which sees Lampard make four changes to the team that drew with Dean Smith’s side.

Lampard faces some tough decisions as he’ll be desperate to start the year with a bang and will not want to let the disappointment from the defeat to Arsenal fester for any longer.

It’s hard to tell exactly where the changes will be made, but what’s certain is he’ll likely bring first-team regular starters Thiago Silva and Kurt Zouma back into the fold after Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger were noticeably poor at the back.

Despite the fact he has failed to keep a clean sheet in his past two appearances, new summer recruit Edouard Mendy will keep his place in goal at the Bridge behind a back four of Ben Chilwell, Cesar Azpilicueta, Silva and Zouma.

Lampard will probably deploy a midfield three consisting of Mason Mount, Jorginho and N’Golo Kante.

Maybe Ziyech could come back in, but Callum Hudson-Odoi has been in such fine form in recent weeks, we’ve given the Blues academy graduate our backing, with the ever-reliable Christian Pulisic keeping his place on the left wing.

Upfront, things get a little more interesting, as Tammy Abraham is likely to lead the line, which means there is no room for Olivier Giroud despite the Frenchman getting on the scoresheet against Villa. Both Giroud and Timo Werner will have to settle for a spot on the bench, such is the strength in Lampard’s squad.

Leeds United have been linked with a move for Barcelona outcast Riqui Puig as the end of the January transfer window draws near, according to Leeds Live. The 21-year-old has fallen drastically down the pecking order at the Camp Nou, with Ronald Koeman favouring other midfielders over the rising talent.

Puig is out of contract in the summer, which means that Victor Orta will be able to work his magic on negotiating pre-contract terms with the Spaniard.

Would Puig suit Leeds?

Despite the fact the youngster has featured just four times in Barcelona’s last ten fixtures, he has shown great promise from the engine room. In his most recent appearance against Real Sociedad, Puig played just 30 minutes but maintained a 92% passing rate and completed 100% of his dribbles, as per Sofascore.

The Spanish youth international completed the same amount of dribbles as Antoine Griezmann in the win over their La Liga rivals. This goes someway to highlight just how good Puig is with the ball at his feet and he has ability to pick out the right pass almost every time.

Leeds would really benefit from signing another creative midfielder. In their most recent loss against Brighton, the Whites’ engine room was pretty stagnant as they struggled to threaten the opposition’s backline. According to Sofascore, no midfielder managed to complete more than 79% accurate passes and a combined three successful crosses were recorded from all four midfield starters.

The demand for goals lies heavily on Patrick Bamford, who is way out in front as Leeds’ top scorer with ten goals. This is seven more than the player with the next highest, who is Mateusz Klich with three, according to BBC Sport.

For a team still buzzing off the back of their Championship-winning season, this dip in form must be damaging for morale. Orta must roll up his sleeves and recruit some smart new options in the transfer window and Puig should be seriously considered.

At just 21-years-old, he has a lot to learn but also also, a lot to give. He will also be free to sign so long as Leeds can make him a decent contract offer, one worth more than his current £25,000 per week deal, which shouldn’t be a problem considering summer signing Rodrigo earns a hefty £120,000 per week.

Puig would flourish at Leeds, a side in a position to give him regular minutes to really showcase his worth.

In other news, Signing Elkan Baggott is no-brainer for Radrizzani…

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O imbróglio envolvendo CBF, Ferj e Primeira Liga não passará em branco também nas arquibancadas. Pela Internet, torcedores de Flamengo e Fluminense iniciaram uma campanha para realizar um protesto em frente à sede da Federação de Futebol do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Ferj) nesta sexta-feira, a partir das 11h.

A escolha da sexta-feira para realizar o protesto pacífico ocorreu em virtude do calendário da Primeira Liga. A manifestação acontecerá um dia depois da primeira rodada da competição.

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A atitude ocorreu no dia seguinte à decisão da CBF em vetar a realização da Primeira Liga. Segundo comunicado emitido na tarde de segunda-feira pela entidade de futebol nacional, só serão permitidas partidas até o dia 30 de janeiro, data na qual encerra a temporada.

Porém, a Liga Sul-Minas-Rio afirma que tem respaldo legal para realizar a competição.

Glasgow Rangers may have brought in backup for Borna Barisic in the shape of Calvin Bassey, but they may well have another long-term replacement lined up for a future move to Ibrox if recent reports are to be believed.

What’s the story?

According to The Daily Record, Rangers are interested in signing Croatian left-back Marijan Cabraja from Gorica.

It’s claimed that the 54-time Scottish champions are closely monitoring his situation, with his agent Miroslav Bicanic adding that there is interest from Italy, Poland, Russia and the United States as well as from the Ibrox outfit.

Cabraja said: “It is true that Rangers are following me, contact has been established but it all depends on how the situation with Borna Barisic develops.

“I don’t believe that the Scots will pay as much as Gorica are asking for, but let’s leave that aside now, the only thing that matters to me is how we will play in Split on Sunday.”

Ross Wilson would be wise to secure his services as not only would the former Croatia U21 international be able to provide cover and competition for his fellow countryman and he’d also add an alternative threat in attack

Papac 2.0?

Ibrox has borne witness to some of the best full-backs ever to grace the Scottish game, but that hasn’t always been the case.

For every Arthur Newman, there’s an Agnestis Argyriou, although it looks like the club could land an absolute bargain in the 23-year-old defender.

Standing at 5 foot 9 inches, Cabraja is cut from a similar cloth to former Rangers left-back Sasa Papac, who spent six years with the Govan-based Glaswegian giants.

The Bosnian defensive stalwart, who stands slightly taller at 1.85m tall, was also known for his unflappable style of play, having scored six goals and supplied 14 assists in all competitions for the club, via Transfermarkt.

In 13 appearances in the HNL, the Pula-born left-back has bagged one goal and two assists in total, whilst he has played in every minute of every single game so far this season.

This kind of calm presence and confidence on the ball would be most welcome in Glasgow as the Gers crashed out of the League Cup after Calvin Bassey conceded a sloppy penalty.

To sign a player with Cabraja’s obvious potential, whose market value is estimated at as little as £585,000, to provide injury cover for Barisic, could be a shrewd bit of business.

AND in other news, Glasgow Rangers must cash in on Greg Stewart in January…