The Premier League was on fire over the course of this weekend.

Comeback wins, thrilling matches and surprise results, it almost had it all for anyone to have a blast watching it. However, one who wouldn’t be pleased with some of the developments is England manager Gareth Southgate. With the international break approaching, the gaffer has key decisions to make.

While England’s core is more or else settled for their UEFA Euro 2020 qualifiers, the goalkeeping department is still quite open. Southgate must’ve been hoping for some relief through a breakthrough performance from one of the contenders. Yet, Jordan Pickford’s horror-show and Tom Heaton conceding four at Anfield ruined his hopes.

Pickford let in poor goals through him, after conceding a penalty which should’ve resulted in a sending-off. Heaton was blown away at a windy Anfield by a Liverpool storm. While his priorities failed at their job, the other contender in Jack Butland impressed for Stoke City.

Butland gave a heroic performance against Queens Park Rangers, helping a 10-man Stoke side see through a point. Not only did he kept his second successive clean-sheet, yet he made some amazing saves with his towering presence to keep the Hoops at bay.

In current form, the Stoke City custodian looks clear favourite to start for England. However, lack of experience means that Pickford might get the chance. As polarizing performances deter his hopes of pre-selecting his side for the matches ahead, Southgate needs to be careful in selecting the most deserving candidates for what lies ahead.

England fans, who do you feel Southgate should select as the Three Lions goalkeeper? Join the discussion by commenting below. 

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Bournemouth returned to winning ways on Saturday as they emerged 2-0 victors over Huddersfield, with goals from Ryan Fraser and Callum Wilson enough to sink Jan Siewert’s side.

The former was full of praise for the latter, who was making his long-awaited comeback from injury, even saying that the former Coventry striker makes the rest of the team play better individually.

Here’s what Scotland international Fraser had to say via The Bournemouth Daily Echo:

“When you get your important players back, it makes the team feel a bit better. It gives you a bit of encouragement and spark again.

“Cal didn’t look like he had been out for seven weeks. He makes everyone around him better and that’s the kind of player you want in your team.”

The 27-year-old had been out since January with a knee problem and the Cherries have sorely missed him – February saw Eddie Howe’s side endure a woeful run of form in which they lost three out of four games.

Check out the below above to see football played as you’ve never seen it before… in a maze!

Wilson has chalked up 11 goals – of which his strike against the Terriers was most recent – and seven assists this season and Fraser is certainly right in that the speedster transforms the side when he’s in it.

The pair, plus David Brooks and Josh King, have the makings of a top-half strike-force and, if the south coast outfit are to finish in single digits this season, Wilson’s fitness will be crucial.

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According to The Sun, West Ham United midfielder Declan Rice is a summer target for Premier League champions Manchester City.

The report has claimed that City could expect to pay as much as £70m for the 20-year-old, who has been in impressive form for the Hammers this season.

Rice recently signed a new long-term contract with West Ham, meaning that he is contracted to the capital outfit until the summer of 2024.

As a result, the Hammers are in a very, very strong position to negotiate, should a huge bid arrive in this summer’s transfer window.

The West Ham fans have been on social media reacting to the transfer report.

And it would be fair to say that the supporters are absolutely desperate for their club to keep hold of the 6ft 1in midfielder.

Many even feel that £70m would not be enough to sign the London-born youngster.

A selection of the Twitter reaction can be seen below:

[ad_pod ]Newcastle United defender Florian Lejeune missed the first half of the 2018-19 season with a serious knee injury that he picked up last July.Initially it had been feared that the 27-year-old would miss the whole campaign.However, he returned for Newcastle’s 2-1 defeat to Chelsea last month and has since not missed a single minute of league football.The centre-back has been key in helping the Magpies lose just one of their last five in the top flight, recording three wins in the process.According to WhoScored, Lejeune had a pass success rate of 89% against Huddersfield Town at the weekend, whilst he had three shots and won five headers.Check out the harsh words the Playmaker FC squad had to say about Wayne Rooney’s England career in the video belowIt would be fair to say that the Newcastle fans were pleased with his performance in the 2-0 win.And a number have taken to social media to lavish praise on the 2017 arrival from Eibar – a selection of which can be seen below:

ألمح المدرب الألماني يورجن كلوب المدير الفني لنادي ليفربول، لاقتراب رحيل الدولي السويسري شيردان شاكيري صانع ألعاب الريدز في نافذة الانتقالات الصيفية.

شاكيري لم يُشارك في مباراة الأمس أمام آرسنال، والتي ودع فيها الريدز كأس كاراباو من دور الـ16، بعد السقوط أمام آرسنال بركلات الترجيح عقب انتهاء الوقت الأصلي للمباراة سلبيًا دون أهداف (طالع تقرير المباراة).

وقال كلوب في تصريحات لوسائل الإعلام عقب نهاية المباراة: “شاكيري؟ نحن في وقت من العام حيث تحدث الأشياء خلف الكواليس، وعلينا التعامل مع ذلك”.

وأضاف: “أنا لا أريد أن أقول شيئًا عن مستقبله، إنه غير مصاب ولم يرتكب أي خطأ، إنه فقط الوقت من العام الذي يحصل فيه المدير على بعض المعلومات ثم يتعين علينا التصرف”.

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According to Noticias de Gipuzkoa, Everton and Liverpool are both interested in signing Real Sociedad defender Diego Llorente.

If the Reds’ interest is serious, then Everton would do well to win the race for the 25-year-old’s signature. However, if there is a chance of the Toffees being able to bring the Spaniard to Goodison Park this summer, then he is a target the Merseyside club should pursue.

Considering the two-cap Spain international has a Transfermarkt valuation of just £15.75 million, he ought to be well within Everton’s financial reach. However, bringing Llorente to Goodison to join Marco Silva’s squad would certainly have knock-on effects. We consider the potential consequences below…

No deal for Zouma

Kurt Zouma is currently on loan at Everton from Chelsea. The Frenchman has impressed generally this season and has been a regular starter under Silva. If they were able to, Everton would probably want to make the 24-year-old’s move to Merseyside a permanent one. 

However, a move for Llorente would suggest that Everton are resigned to the fate of losing Zouma this summer, something that may well be tied to the fact Chelsea won’t be able to recruit players in the next two transfer windows due to their transfer ban.

Jagielka finally forced out

Another player whose future would be cast into doubt by the arrival of Llorente is Phi Jagielka. The 36-year-old club-captain is out of contract anyway at the end of this campaign, but Silva has shown that he is open to extending the veteran former England international’s terms, or at least he hasn’t yet decided against it.

Yet, the acquisition of Llorente would surely eliminate the need to keep Jagielka at the club. After more than a decade at with Everton, fans will be sad to see the centre-back go, but it would likely be the inevitable outcome of Llorente’s arrival.

A move to a back three

If Llorente were to be signed, then he would join Michael Keane and Yerry Mina – both also signed within the last couple of years – in battling for a starting berth in the heart of the Toffees’ defence. As things stand, the Portuguese manager generally lines his side up with a back four. However, with three talented centre-backs on his books, he may be tempted to switch to a back three.

This move may offset some of his side’s frailties in the middle of the park. Aside from Idrissa Gueya, Everton lack steely, battling defensive-midfielders capable of breaking up opposition attacks. With an extra centre-back behind them, though, this may well matter less and make the team less vulnerable defensively – it will also allow Seamus Coleman and Lucas Digne to get a little further forward, where their qualities stand out the most.

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Everton fans have called on their club’s director of football Marcel Brands to attempt to re-sign Romelu Lukaku from Manchester United in this summer’s transfer window.

Lukaku managed 87 goals in 166 appearances for Everton between 2013 and 2017 before moving to United ahead of the 2017-18 season.

The Belgium international struck 27 goals in all competitions for United last term, but has netted just nine this season.

Marcus Rashford has been preferred in the centre-forward position since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer replaced Jose Mourinho as head coach in December.

As a result, Lukaku has mainly been restricted to a bit-part role.

The 25-year-old did start his team’s 2-0 win over Chelsea in the fifth round of the FA Cup on Monday, though, and put in a decent-enough performance.

Pl>ymaker FC’s Matchday with Max caught up with Jamaica’s women’s team. See what happened when he met the history makers in the video below…

Rashford’s excellent form could well end Lukaku’s United career, however, and a number of Everton fans have called on their club to re-sign the powerful forward.

A selection of the Twitter reaction can be seen below:

Liverpool must move to bolster their options in defence when the transfer window opens in the summer.

After an injury crisis in the New Year, there were suggestions amongst certain sections of support that Jurgen Klopp would sign a defender in the January window. However, the German resisted the urge to panic buy a new defender and instead opted to use Fabinho in central defence. Injuries also allowed Ki-Jana Hoever to make his Liverpool debut after joining from Ajax – becoming the club’s youngest ever player to appear in the FA Cup.

With Joe Gomez picking up another long-term impact injury, both Dejan Lovren and Joel Matip has missed far too many games in the past few seasons to be reliable back up options. Liverpool can’t afford to lose Fabinho’s dynamism in the engine room and an injury to Virgil van Dijk could prove costly next season. Adding quality defensive reinforcements should be a priority for sporting director Michael Edwards.

One man the Liverpool hierarchy should be targeting is Fiorentina wonderkid – Nikola Milenkovic. Valued at £31.5m by Transfermarkt, the 21-year-old has developed into a key player for his side since joining from Partizan Belgrade in the summer of 2017. Milenkovic is enjoying a fine season in the Serie A and has been subject of interest (according to La Republica via the Sun) from Manchester United who were looking to add a quality defender to their ranks.

The youngster is an excellent defender whose versatility will no doubt appeal to Klopp. Comfortable at both centre back or right back, he will provide quality cover for a variety of positions. Calm and composed on the ball, Milenkovic would have no issues adapting to Liverpool’s system. Winning three aerial duels per game in Italy, the physicality of life in England shouldn’t faze the Serbia international.

Still improving and developing, the Reds should do whatever they can to lure him to Anfield.

Liverpool fans, thoughts?

Manchester United handed rivals City a big favour as they held Liverpool to a goalless draw at Old Trafford yesterday afternoon.

The Red Devils overcame the odds somewhat in a bizarre game which saw injury after injury for United, including one for Jesse Lingard, who was only introduced himself in the first period.

However, the 0-0 scoreline was just reward for a dogged and determined display which left it all to play for at the top of the table and gave cross-city rivals City improved hopes of making it a second successive Premier League title.

Of course, the focus should be on United though, and in particular manager Solksjaer, who has been superb since stepping into the fold following the sacking of Jose Mourinho.

His ability today to get the best out of a team which was seemingly being torn apart by injuries was to be admired, and it showed that he is not simply all about attacking and expansive football just to go about pleasing the fans at Old Trafford.

The assured way his players went about their business was testament to just how well Solskjaer has done at the club, and we think that the job is his in the summer barring an absolute disaster of events.

The Norwegian has earned his keep so to speak within the confines of the United supporters, and he will no doubt be impressing at board level too.

If he can keep getting the results, secure Champions League football, and deny Liverpool the title in any way he can, then he’ll be the man to take United forward 100%.

Where has it all gone wrong for Rangers this season? Flashback to the start of the season, and everything was looking rather rosy at Ibrox. A strong start to the SPFL season increased momentum, whilst good runs in domestic and continental cups were the cherry on top. It quickly began to appear as though Steven Gerrard was turning the Gers into the team that fans had been craving for years previously. 

Since that point, there have been more than a few highs. The most significant of these came back in December when Rangers were able to break the curse and defeat Celtic in the Old Firm derby. If nothing else, that game signified that Rangers were back in the big time.

However, whilst the season has had its moments, when you take off the Rangers-tinted lens, it’s actually been a pretty poor campaign for the Gers.

They’re going to finish the season without a trophy in all likelihood, with Celtic running away with the SPFL title at present, whilst the less said about their cup conquests the better. Knocked out by Aberdeen in both domestic cups and failing to get out of the Europa League group stage, Rangers have nothing to show for what admittedly were a few encouraging games in cup fixtures.

And that’s the real problem for Rangers. Nobody can deny that they’ve made progress this season, but the fact of the matter is that isn’t good enough. Nobody is going to remember the season in which Rangers nearly got close to Celtic in the title race and got to the latter stages of a couple of domestic cups. They might remember the early promise, sure, but that will only be followed by the disappointment that has engulfed 2019 so far for Rangers.

And who must take the blame for this? Well, it’s hard to look past Steven Gerrard. For all of the positive takeaways from his first season in charge, there have been more than a few negatives. These began before the campaign began, with the arrival of a number of below par talents, like Umar Sadiq and Ovie Ejaria, which really reduced the overall quality of the team at Ibrox.

Since then, Gerrard’s lack of managerial experience has been on full display. He’s made a few questionable selection decisions, including a refusal to rely on Nikola Katic for much of the season, whilst a lack of versatility has also prevented his team from being able to adapt to more challenging situations.

It’s important to put this criticism in context, of course. Most Rangers fans would agree that Gerrard is still the right man for the job, and he’s had some good moments. Almost all fans will want him to continue in the role long-term, too, and so all told, that’s a good outcome from his first season. He’ll also likely get better next season as he continues to pick up experience, and that’s important.

However, that can’t all take away from the failings that the manager has made this season. He simply must improve, as at present, it’s just not good enough. Patience is needed, but if the Gers don’t recognise how quickly this season has fallen off, they’ll be doomed to repeat the same errors next term.

Rangers fans – do you agree? Does Gerrard deserve more credit? Let us know below!