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Liverpool’s season looks like going right down to the wire as they seek a first Premier League title.

The Reds have been superb in the main this term and Jurgen Klopp deserves a big chunk of credit for turning the Anfield club into contenders.

However, the January window passed them by without the addition of any new faces, and it could well be something which costs the club this season and into next.

The summer gives them the chance to act though, and we here in the Tavern feel that a new number nine might be the order of the day to take some of the pressure off of Roberto Firmino.

The Brazilian has been superb, but Liverpool sometimes lack that other option.

With that, we’ve looked at TWO strikers who Liverpool should be looking to sign come the summer…

Callum Wilson

The Bournemouth man has been in fine form once more in the Premier League, and a move to one of the big boys looks nailed on.

The former Coventry man has massively impressed with his speed, finishing, and movement at the top of the pitch.

Wilson would add yet another dimension to the Liverpool attack, and his signing would send a statement of intent to the rest of the league.

Timo Werner

The German has been in fine form for a number of seasons now and a move away from RB Leipzig is looking inevitable.

The young forward would no doubt see the link with fellow countryman Jurgen Klopp as a temptation of sorts, and he’d slot in well at Anfield.

Full of energy and excellent in front of goal, the impressive Werner would be a superb piece of business for the Reds if they could pull it off.

Plenty of Manchester City fans joined in a debate that was raised on Twitter by @City_Chief, who asked followers to pick their best signing under Pep Guardiola – with one man’s name in particular appearing abundantly.

In January 2018, the club broke their transfer record to bring in Aymeric Laporte from Athletic Bilbao for £57m (as per BBC) and within a few weeks of his arrival he had a Premier League winner’s medal, playing in nine games in City’s record-breaking 100-point campaign.

The French centre-back then enjoyed a magnificent first full season at the Etihad Stadium in which he won four trophies in total, achieved a 92.7% passing success rate, won 2.2 headers per game (putting him in the top four in City’s squad for both metrics) and started 34 league matches as they retained their domestic crown.

The 25-year-old was lauded by Guardiola last season after he set a 19-game record for the longest sequence of unbeaten Premier League starts since the beginning of his time in the division (as per mancity.com), while he has been badly missed this season with a long-term knee injury, with City on the brink of relinquishing their status as league champions to Liverpool.

These Manchester City fans on Twitter cited Laporte as the current manager’s best signing at the club ahead of the likes of Bernardo Silva, Ederson and Leroy Sane. Scroll down through a flavour of the Cityzens’ reactions below:

Man City fans, who do you think has been Guardiola’s best signing at the Etihad Stadium? Join in the discussion by commenting below!

Rangers’ shaky run of form since returning from the winter break in Dubai continued on Saturday afternoon as they were held to a 0-0 draw by Aberdeen.

The Gers have picked up seven points from an available 12 in 2020 and handed the initiative back to Celtic in the race for the SPFL title in the process.

The weekend display naturally raised fresh concerns about their title credentials while the form of a handful of individuals was also called into question.

One player who came in for stark criticism was Finland international Glen Kamara, who was replaced by Sheyi Ojo after 66 minutes.

The 24-year-old has proven to be a bargain signing since his £50k transfer from Dundee in January 2019, but fans are beginning to question the standard of his performances.

In light of his most recent display, these fans fired plenty of criticism in his direction, with one supporter slamming his form since the turn of the year.

Some fans went a step further in their assessment.

Kamara has been a regular in Steven Gerrard’s starting XI this season having been included from the outset in 16 SPFL fixtures.

But his recent form has prompted these fans to call for him to be dropped ahead of the clash against Hibernian on Wednesday.

Finally, this fan placed his career at the club so far into context by claiming the hype Kamara has received throughout his stint has been misplaced, and he even went as far to suggest that the midfielder is the club’s most overrated player.

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Swansea City should make an attempt to sign Newcastle United forward Elias Sorensen on loan for the second half of the 2018-19 campaign.

What’s the word, then?

Newcastle announced on Monday that Sorensen had penned a new three-and-a-half-year deal with the Magpies.

The 19-year-old’s previous contract with the Premier League club was due to expire at the end of the season and there was a lot of speculation surrounding the striker’s future.

Who are the best away fans in the Championship? Pl>ymaker FC’s Thogden gives his top 10 in the video below…

Newcastle have now tied Sorensen to a new deal, but it does not appear that he is currently in the plans of first-team boss Rafael Benitez despite an incredible season.

Indeed, Sorensen has netted 19 times for Newcastle’s Under-23 outfit this term, but was somewhat surprisingly left out of the squad for the team’s FA Cup third-round clash with Blackburn Rovers at the weekend.

It seems likely that Sorensen could be available on loan this month and Swansea should make an attempt to bring the teenager to the Championship.

Why should Swansea move for Sorensen?

Realistically, Sorensen is not going to see much – if any – Premier League football this term, but he has already shown that he is too good for the Premier League 2.

Players with scoring records like Sorensen’s do not come around every day of the week and the chance to play senior football in the second half of the campaign will surely appeal to the Dane.

Oliver McBurnie has scored 10 Championship goals for Swansea this season, including a double in the 4-1 win at Reading on New Year’s Day.

And there is no question that the 22-year-old would benefit from playing alongside Sorensen as more space would certainly open up for the in-form striker.

Swansea are only actually seven points off the playoff positions in the Championship and a January move for Sorensen could push them towards the top six.

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The Daily Star reported earlier this month that Tottenham Hotspur were interested in signing Bournemouth centre-back Nathan Ake, with continued doubts over the future of Toby Alderweireld.

The Cherries star is one of the most in-form players in his position in the Premier League right now, having played a big part in their rise to sixth position in the top-flight table.

The Daily Star reports that the south coast outfit would likely demand at least £40m – double what they paid to sign him from Chelsea in 2017 – to even consider selling him, and it remains to be seen whether Daniel Levy and the club would be willing to pay that fee.

Meanwhile, Chelsea fringe man Andreas Christensen has been expressing his frustrations over a lack of first-team football under Maurizio Sarr, and suggested that he will need to evaluate his future if he continues to not be picked in the starting XI – he hasn’t played a single minute of Prmeier League football this term.

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The 22-year-old showed during the previous campaign under Antonio Conte – as well as during a loan spell with Borussia Monchengladbach – the defensive qualities that he has and how good he is in possession, and he would surely be a brilliant buy for someone if he did end up leaving Stamford Bridge.

We at Football FanCast suggested that he would be a better signing for the north London club than Ake and wanted Spurs fans to vote on our poll to tell us whether they agreed with our view, but remarkably a majority 55% would rather get the Dutchman, as you can see from the results below.

It is certainly confusing in many ways given Christensen has plenty of Champions League experience in his locker, but Tottenham supporters obviously like what they have seen from Ake and feel he has a bigger future ahead of him.

Steven Gerrard has been incredibly productive in the transfer market since he joined the club earlier in the summer, but a recent report from the Daily Record suggests he is far from finished despite already welcoming 10 new signings to Ibrox . 

According to the report, Rangers are preparing a second bid worth £300,000 for Kyle Lafferty after their opening offer of £200,000 was rejected by Hearts – an offer which was described as “disappointing” by Craig Levein. With the signature of Umar Sadiq already secured, the acquisition of a new striker is not a burning necessity for the Gers, but the arrival of Lafferty is certainly a deal which could make the difference between a genuine title-challenge and another season of living in Celtic’s shadow.

Following a season in which Alfredo Morelos bagged an impressive 14 goals from 31 appearances, Gerrard is certainly not struggling for quality options at centre-forward, especially with the arrival of Umar Sadiq to consider.

However, whilst Sadiq remains something of an unknown entity with no previous experience in Scottish football, Gerrard would be wise to add a proven attacking talent to his ranks to ensure his side are well prepared ahead of the new season.

With that in mind, there’s no doubt that Rangers’ interest in Lafferty, a player with 134 appearances in the SPFL – including 104 with the Gers – is certainly well placed. A versatile attacking player by trade with the ability to slot into a handful of positions across the front-three, Lafferty would provide Gerrard with the opportunity to experiment with different combinations in forward positions.

At 6ft 3in, Lafferty also possesses the aerial presence to give Rangers an outlet in fixtures where a more direct approach may be necessary to unlock the opposition.

And with 20 international goals from 67 appearances for Northern Ireland to his name, there’s no doubt that Lafferty has both the club and international pedigree to help the relatively inexperienced pairing of Sadiq and Morelos enhance their development, so there’s no doubt that his presence at the club would make a huge difference to Rangers’ ambitions ahead of the new season.

6 years after his departure from Rangers it could well be the perfect time for Lafferty to reunite with his former club and, considering Gerrard’s options at centre-forward are relatively scarce ahead of the new season, the potential deal could represent the final piece of his summer jigsaw.

Rangers fans  – thoughts? Let us know below!

With 25 years of Premier League action behind us there have been many records and landmarks set.  Here’s a look at the records you can expect to be broken and landmarks you can expect to be set during the 2017-18 season…

Record Premier League Attendance

More than a decade ago Manchester United set the Premier League record attendance at Old Trafford in a game versus Blackburn Rovers. 76,069 turned out to see the Red Devils thrash Blackburn 4-1 on 31 March 2007.

Tottenham Hotspur will be playing at Wembley Stadium this season which has a capacity of 90,000.  They start their home campaign against rivals Chelsea on Sunday 20 August – you can expect that capacity to break the record. If that doesn’t sell out you can certainly expect the north London derby to break the Premier League attendance record in mid-February.

10,000th Game

The Premier League started in August 1992 with 22 clubs for the first three seasons.  At the end of last season there had been 9,746 games played, meaning that game number 10,000 will take place in 2017-18.

This match is currently scheduled to take place in gameweek 26 at the beginning of February and be a Saturday 3pm kickoff. But FA Cup matches and replays could shake up the fixture list so there’s still a possibility it will be a televised game for Sky Sports to hype up.

Appearances

Heading into the new season Ryan Giggs holds the Premier League record for most appearances with 632.  Only four behind him is Everton midfielder Gareth Barry, whose move to West Brom will likely get him over the line at some point this season.

Yellow Cards

One chart that Gareth Barry already tops is the yellow card list. The Everton midfielder has collected 119 in all – that’s 20 more than Lee Bowyer and Kevin Davies, who are next on the list. The second highest active player is Wayne Rooney with 97.

As Barry has collected his fair share of yellow cards each season you can expect him to increase his Premier League record over the duration of the campaign.

200 Goals

Alan Shearer (260) is the only player in Premier League history to score a double century of goals. However, Wayne Rooney can be expected to break into the 200s this season after scoring his 199th on the opening day in a 1-0 win over Stoke City.

The next highest active player on the goalscoring list is Jermain Defoe who has scored 158 in his Premier League career.

As reported by The Mirror, Celtic are facing fresh interest from one of Europe’s biggest clubs for the signature of their star striker Moussa Dembele.

What’s the story?

A week barely goes by without a new club throwing their hat in the ring on Dembele’s future and this Sunday is no different.

The Mirror reckon that German giants Bayern Munich are the latest interested in signing the young Frenchman and have signalled their intent to make a move in the summer.

Carlo Ancelotti and the money men at Bayern rate him at around £30m, according to the paper, which would prove very tempting indeed for Celtic this summer. Should they sell?

The key to Europe

Keeping Moussa Dembele must rank high on Brendan Rodgers’ wishlist this summer as he plans another assault on the UEFA Champions League. Qualifying for the group stages is the main and basic aim of Celtic’s European adventures but their ambitions lie beyond that. What they want more than anything is qualification through the groups for either the last 16 of the Champions League or last 32 of the Europa League.

Dembele, who scored five European goals in his first few months at the club, is absolutely key to those ambitions and if at all possible Celtic should hold on to him, at least for another year.

Yes, the reported £30m is massive money to receive as a Scottish club but in a changing and increasingly bloated transfer market, Dembele’s value could rise even higher with more Champions League goals under his belt. Those goals could well fire them to where they want to be as a club.

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Given the recent injury to Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne, who will be out of action for 10 weeks, every Fantasy Premier League player will need to consider suitable replacements.

The attacker has picked up a good points tally (105) in his debut campaign so far with five goals and another nine assists as he is the highest earning midfielder in the squad.

However, with De Bruyne out for such a long time, selling him will earn you quite a bit of money to further your options in search of the perfect alternative.

It’s too bad the Belgium international will be unavailable given that City face 19th place Sunderland, with the match likely to see goals.

There are a few straightforward replacements and some risky choices, but all that depends on how much you want to gamble in order to see your selection pay off.

So, here are five Fantasy Premier League players you should consider as an alternative to injured Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne.

David Silva

The first choice is none other than Kevin De Bruyne’s teammate David Silva (9.9), who is likely to become the main attacking playmaker with the Belgian star unavailable for selection.

Given that De Bruyne is now worth (10.6), his sale will likely reward you with enough points to make a like-for-like trade for Silva. With a match against Sunderland coming up, this could be a very beneficial choice.

Christian Eriksen

Tottenham Hotspur star Christian Eriksen (8.4) could be another good shout given his form from his previous two matches. He picked up 15 points two weeks ago and was rewarded with another seven this past weekend.

He also has very similar stats to Kevin De Bruyne, with the Denmark international scoring four goals while providing another eight assists. Eriksen will be hoping he can continue his performance when Spurs travel to face Norwich in the next round of fixtures.

Willian

Chelsea star Willian (7.1) has been one of the standout performers for his side this season despite their shocking form so far. With the Blues slowly finding their form in recent weeks, Willian could play a key role in their revival.

The Brazilian attacker has already scored three goals while providing another seven assists this term and is a much cheaper alternative to Kevin De Bruyne who is now worth (10.6). Willian will see his side take on Watford away from home as they look to pick up another three points.

Roberto Firmino

Liverpool attacker Roberto Firmino (7.9) is a very interesting selection given that manager Jurgen Klopp has been playing him as a forward in recent weeks. He racked up 18 points in Gameweek 23, adding to his tally of five goals and five assists so far.

Despite the fact that his side will face league leaders Leicester City, having him in your team could be a safe bet given that the Reds play 19th place Sunderland and 20th place Aston Villa following their trip to the King Power Stadium.

Alexis Sanchez

Finally, Arsenal star Alexis Sanchez (10.8) could be a tough transfer if you don’t have any funds left in your bank given that he is worth (0.2) more than Kevin De Bruyne.

The Chilean attacker will be keen on getting back to his scoring ways after finally returning to full fitness following an injury spell. He featured for 34 minutes against Chelsea at the weekend and was a constant threat for the Gunners. Sanchez has so far registered six goals while providing another two assists this season.

Bayern Munich boss Thomas Tuchel has given his team some time off to clear their heads after losing three games in a row.

• Bayern suffer three straight defeats
• Now eight points behind Leverkusen
• Take on RB Leipzig next

• Getty
  

  WHAT HAPPENED?

  Bayern are enduring a nightmare run of form which has hurt their hopes of winning silverware this season. However, after Sunday's shock defeat to Bochum, Tuchel has made a key decision and has opted to give his players some time off to spend with their families and clear their heads, according to Sky reporter Kerry Hau. The players are not due back to work until Wednesday when they will start preparations for a crunch clash against RB Leipzig on Saturday at Allianz Arena.

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• THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Bayern have slipped eight points behind Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga table after losing to Xabi Alonso's side and Bochum. Tuchel's men are also in trouble in the Champions League after slumping to a 1-0 loss to Lazio in the first leg of their last 16 tie. The results have led to scrutiny of Tuchel's position and speculation the club could look to replace him with Alonso. Kane has also come in for criticism for his recent performances for the Bavarian giants despite scoring 25 Bundesliga goals already this season.

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  DID YOU KNOW?

  Kane scored his 25th goal in his 22nd Bundesliga game – the fewest games any player has played in the competition to reach 25 goals.

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  WHAT NEXT FOR BAYERN

  Tuchel will be hoping his players can clear their heads and get back on track next time out against Leipzig. The Bavarians surely can't afford to drop any more points if they are to pip Leverkusen to the title but face a tough test against Marco Rose's men.