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Birmingham host Middlesbrough tonight and it could be another battle of attrition for the Blues, with five of their ten Championship fixtures so far being decided by a one-goal margin.

Pep Clotet had a fairly good start to life at St Andrew’s with 13 points from six games but has now lost three games on the bounce, and unless they improve going forward their slide down the table could continue.

The Spaniard has often varied his formation choice but his preference for a defensive style has arguably held the Blues back, with only nine goals scored in ten games, so a switch back to 4-4-2 could be the way forward.

Here is how Birmingham could line up at St Andrew’s tonight.

Boro have looked shaky at the back on occasion with 14 goals conceded and playing with pace and intent could lift the home crowd, making it a difficult atmosphere for Jonathan Woodgate’s men to play in.

The only concern Clotet may have is Middlesbrough’s preference to play possession football, and therefore his side could lose out in the midfield battle. Gary Gardner particularly has struggled in regard to making interceptions, with an average of 0.3 per game.

However, what the Blues lose in the middle they make up for with two up front, and Lukas Jutkiewicz and Alvaro Gimenez need to start together in order to build-up an understanding which is yet to come to fruition, with only one goal for the Spaniard.

That is one less than the total 16-year-old Jude Bellingham has scored so far, and his hunger on the right-flank is the kind of attitude Clotet’s side will need to end their losing streak.

Villalba took his place against Wigan but failed to make a successful dribble in the match, and his three examples of bad control led attacks to break down, so the front two didn’t get the service they require.

Bellingham, by contrast, could have some joy using his pace against George Friend, and if Blues can keep things tight at the back they have a chance of getting back to winning ways.

Marc Roberts’ return to the side should also help in that aspect as Birmingham have only conceded nine goals in the eight league games the 6 foot 4 colossus has played, and that could be pivotal in keeping a lid on Britt Assombalonga and Ashley Fletcher in order to secure a win.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

It’s almost like a nightclub in a sense. One in, one out.

If you take a look at the current makeup of Nottingham Forest’s squad, you can see there’s a clear disparity at each end of the pitch.

They only have three out-and-out centre-forwards, and let’s face it having spent long parts of the summer essentially being told that he doesn’t have a future, you can remove Zach Clough from that list.

That leaves them really with just two. Whilst they do have Rafa Mir also as an option, he hasn’t exactly set the world alight when he has been allowed, claiming just one assist and failing to score. To cut a long story short, there’s not a lot of viable options when it comes to playing backup to Lewis Grabban.

If you contrast that to how well-stocked they are in central defence, they have seven players fighting it out for two spots.

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Joe Worrall and Michael Dawson are the two incumbents in the back four, which means that Chema, Tobias Figueiredo, Alexander Milosevic, Yohan Benalouane and Michael Hefele are all fighting it out just to be the one named on the substitutes bench.

Whilst Sabri Lamouchi has spoken about the importance of Grabban this term and how vital it is to keep him fit and firing throughout the season, it’s simply impossible to ask someone, especially at his age to carry the load for a full campaign.

Something has got to give and to help the situation out, Forest must consider shipping out one of the centre-backs.

Not just any centre-back though, someone who will bring in enough money to fund a move for a reliable backup centre-forward. Whilst he may be relatively close to the first-team, the club needs to bite the bullet and sell Figueiredo.

Despite being a first-team regular when he first joined in 2018, he has very much been frozen out of the side, with cup appearances sprinkled in here and there.

However, he is yet to feature under Lamouchi in the league with Chema and Milosevic getting the nod ahead when Michael Dawson went down recently, more or less signalling that his time could be up.

With a long time remaining on his contract, and still in his prime at 25, there should be no reason why they can’t command a decent fee for him in the winter window.

Whether it be used as a way of funding a transfer fee for a striker, or spending it on wages for one of the many free agents out there, there’s only one area that the club need to be spending money on in January, and only one source the money should come from.

Worrall could be the one that they eventually cash in on if a potential move to Newcastle materialises but it’s Figueiredo who is undoubtedly more expandable. They’ll now just have to hope a party is interested.

Everton fans have hit out at the club after The Athletic reported youth star Lewis Gibson could leave, with heavy interest for the 19-year-old from clubs in England, Scotland and Germany.

Gibson switched Newcastle for Merseyside at 16 years of age for a reported fee of £6m back in 2017. The teenager has since made a name for himself as one of English football’s brightest young talents after helping the England U17s win the World Cup, just weeks after he left Tyneside.

His performances for England earned him a regular spot for Everton’s Premier League 2 side, playing 17 times in his first campaign at the club. The following season, Gibson stepped out 10 times and registered one assist for the U23s as they were crowned Premier League 2 champions of that year.

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The centre-back is out of contract at the end of the season and has yet to make his senior appearance with the Merseysiders. First-team chances have been far away for the former Newcastle man, mainly because of Yerry Mina and Michael Keane’s long stints in the side, whilst Mason Holgate has been there for backup on the bench.

Situations as such shed a light on Marco Silva’s lack of attempts at bringing in young players through the system. Silva has handed Holgate just 17 minutes of league action this season and Tom Davies just 20 minutes, whilst no other academy graduate has come close to the first-team so far.

If the Portuguese continues on in this manner, he and Marcel Brands are going to lose many potential future stars and therefore, force them into the transfer market to spend even more money.

Here’s what Toffees fans have been saying…

Arsenal fans want Arsene Wenger back at the club.

The legendary ex-manager left The Emirates in 2018 following a reign of almost 22 years.

Of course, he won three Premier League titles as well as seven FA Cups during his time at the Gunners, as well as guiding them to one Champions League final.

In the final few years of his reign, fans railed against his management, with a number of protests taking place.

Last season, the Gunners finished fifth under Unai Emery, missing out on qualification for the Champions League, and are currently in the same position following their 1-0 defeat to Sheffield United on Monday.

Indeed, they have won four games this season but fans are already growing tired of Emery, with some calling for him to leave the club.

Notably, Mesut Ozil has been repeatedly left out of the starting XI, while Granit Xhaka has been awarded the club’s captaincy.

And a number of fans want to see Wenger’s return in the near future.

Take a look at the best of the reaction below!

Newcastle United fans have been reacting after their U23s beat Sunderland 2-0 in the Premier League 2.

The young Magpies bypassed their arch-rivals at the Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground, with goals from Luke Charman and Victor Fernandez helping to seal the three points in the Tyne-Wear derby.

The Newcastle youngsters hadn’t picked up a victory in three games after injury-time losses to the likes of West Bromwich Albion and Swansea City previously.

After the triumph over their hated neighbours, the youth team moved up to 9th in the Premier League 2 table after eight games, leaving the Black Cats on one point after the defeat as a result.

Supporters mocked Sunderland after the win in the reserves match, with one fan suggesting that the club should demote the Brazilian striker Joelinton from the first team and promote Luke Charman after scoring his spot-kick.

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The 21-year-old is yet to play for the Magpies’ senior team but is an experienced youth team player who has scored 14 goals in 52 games for the U23s.

Here you will find some of the best responses from Newcastle fans:

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Leeds United fans have been worried this week about the prospect of Eddie Nketiah being recalled from his loan and heading off to Bristol City.

The striker hasn’t played regularly for Leeds since joining this summer from Arsenal, and with the Robins waiting in the wings, there has been a discussion about the possibility of Nketiah going back to the Gunners and then down to Ashton Gate.

Of course, this is a big concern, but there is another loanee who is in danger of being recalled.

What’s been said then?

In his Q&A session on The Athletic, Phil Hay was asked whether or not Leeds are in danger of losing Nketiah.

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He replied his honest thoughts about the 20-year-old, but he also gave his view on Jack Clarke’s current situation.

“Yes if he doesn’t play enough.

“That’s the same with all loan deals like this – and the basis on which Jack Clarke will surely go back to Spurs.”

Let him go

Leeds’ position in this situation is both fortunate and unfortunate at the same time.

Unfortunately, Hay is right. Spurs won’t want Clarke’s development halted like this, and they will likely recall him at the first possible opportunity as he’s yet to play a single minute of league football for the Whites this season.

After all, it’s already been reported that could be the case.

The upside to this is that the teenager’s departure won’t affect the team all that much – especially given his lack of game time.

United are in such a strong position in the fact that they can allow a £10m winger leave the club without raising an eyebrow, but of course, they’d rather have him as an option than not.

However, they shouldn’t change anything about the way they want to lineup just to appease Spurs, so for that reason, they may be best off letting Clarke return to the London club.

The 18-year-old won’t be missed.

Crystal Palace fans have taken to Twitter following a report from Sky Sports revealing Jose Mourinho’s reported intentions for his next job, and they seem excited by the news.

The report states that Mourinho, who last managed Manchester United, wants to return to England due to his desire to win major trophies with a third English club.

The Portuguese coach won three Premier League titles during his stint with Chelsea, as well as the League Cup and the FA Cup, while the 56-year-old also won the League Cup and the Europa League whilst with Manchester United.

Mourinho has been out of work since the Red Devils sacked him back in December, and reportedly rejected Benfica’s advances in January as well as a staggering £88m offer from China in the summer.

Crystal Palace don’t seem like an obvious choice to fulfil Mourinho’s desire of winning major honours, although some fans seem excited by the news, perhaps because of the former Porto boss’ fondness for the south London side – he has been full of praise for the Eagles and their supporters on numerous occasions over the years.

Let’s take a look at what some Palace fans on Twitter have been saying…

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

At least it’s good to hear someone being honest, but is that necessarily a good thing?

We spoke on FFC a few days ago about how assistant manager Chris Davies was trying to keep the club’s feet on the ground, and whether or not he was just trying to give the ‘diplomatic answer’.

It looks like it was a case of the latter because left-back Ben Chilwell has revealed that ambitions around the King Power have changed in recent weeks.

What’s he said?

Speaking to Leicestershire Live, Chilwell admitted that there has been talk of Champions League football around the dressing room and that the squad can reach those heights if they build on their current form.

Talking highly ambitiously, the England international said.

“It’s in the back of everyone’s minds. I’d be lying if I said we weren’t all thinking about getting top four because we want to aim high. We’re training hard every week. We’ll go into the Arsenal game fully confident. We’re quite happy to go along and keep getting wins. Hopefully we can keep improving.”

This is what happens when you sing about Jamie Vardy’s wife…

Time to deliver

This is where the difference comes into play with what Davies and Chilwell are saying.

Whilst Davies is trying to bring expectations down, Chilwell has gone out and ramped them up, saying that it’s been talked about inside the dressing room means that it’s now become acceptable for fans to start talking about it as well.

A victory over Arsenal could leave them between seven and ten points clear of fifth-place depending on how results go across the weekend, and whilst it is far too early to start talking about whether or not that’s enough of a gap to see them through to the end of the season, it would certainly give them a pretty sizeable cushion.

Lose though and it’s down to three, and that’s a different task altogether to hold off that challenge throughout the season.

This is why it’s always best to follow the lead that Davies tried to lay down. Best to set your expectations at a reasonable level and then end up exceeding them, rather than setting them at a level that can’t be achieved and then end up disappointing the fan base.

It’s been a great start to the season, but that’s the keyword, start. Let’s wait at least until they’ve played every team in the league before making any rash predictions.

Leeds United fans on Twitter seem to think that Luke Ayling will be missing this weekend’s clash against Blackburn Rovers after an image of him looking under the weather emerged on his partner’s Snapchat.

We feel bad for Ayling as it isn’t the most flattering of pictures, and now thousands of people will have seen it, but that wasn’t the main concern of the supporters.

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Indeed, the main talking point around the fanbase was whether or not the right-back will be ready to play on Sunday.

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to diagnose the 28-year-old based off just one picture, but hearing that a key man is poorly just a couple of days before a match isn’t the most encouraging of signs.

Some fans weren’t too fussed about the former Bristol City man’s ailments as they’d be happy to see Stuart Dallas back in the defence, but others were devastated after seeing this picture.

It remains to be seen whether or not Ayling will be able to play this weekend, but things aren’t looking too good for him at the moment.

Here’s what the Elland Road faithful have been saying on Twitter…

Liverpool face Premier League title rivals Manchester City on Sunday with the chance to put clear distance between themselves and the Sky Blues, but some Reds supporters have felt the need to demand that Mohamed Salah improves his game ahead of the key tie.

Salah had taken to Twitter ahead of the crunch clash to share a selection of images of the winger in training, as the Egyptian worked on his balance at the Anfield outfit’s Melwood facilities.

Some supporters have replied to the post by suggesting that the 5 ft 8 forward should be working on his shooting instead, following a number of fans slamming Salah for his efforts in front of goal against KRC Genk in the Champions League on Tuesday night.

Re-live the moment Sadio Mane robbed Leicester City of a point at Anfield through the eyes of the Foxes fans in the video below…

Fans were left disgruntled despite Jurgen Klopp’s men beating the Belgian side, as Salah attempted a joint-game-high five shots but only managed to direct one on target.

His shooting is not the only thing some Liverpool fans appear to be concerned about ahead of facing Man City, though, as supporters have also suggested the 27-year-old must work on his ball retention.

Only Sadio Mane has been dispossessed by an opponent more often in the Premier League than Salah of those called upon by Klopp thus far, with the Senegal forward losing the ball 24 times to the Egyptian’s 19 instances, per WhoScored data.

Mane is also the only Liverpool player to give away possession more often through unsuccessful touches, as the former Southampton star has gifted the opponent control 33 times in 11 games to Salah’s 32 in 10 appearances.

Here are some of the messages shared in response to Salah’s post of the winger working on his balance…