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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…

Leeds United have been touted to have a quiet January transfer window by Victor Orta in recent weeks, but Noel Whelan’s latest transfer hint reveals just how quiet the window might be.

What’s the story?

Speaking to Football Insider, Whelan stated that his sources from inside Elland Road have told him that the club aren’t looking to sign anyone in the January transfer window.

We were never expecting a flurry of activity from the Yorkshire club once the window opens, but hearing that no incomings are expected is still rather disheartening.

Not only does it make for a boring transfer window, but the Whites’ lack of activity may negatively affect their promotion chances.

Same story

It’s the same story as last season, the Whites didn’t strengthen enough in January and in the end, it cost them their shot at promotion.

Based on that, supporters would have every right to moan at Andrea Radrizzani if it happens again.

Marcelo Bielsa’s teams are renowned for losing steam towards the back end of a season, so having strength in depth will undoubtedly be key if Leeds want to continue challenging at the top end of the table. Last campaign, the Whites failed to win any of their final four league games and then lost in the playoffs against Derby too.

United currently don’t have the depth, and with their injury problems continuing to mount the Whites may be in trouble once fatigue sets in further towards the back end of the season. After all, Bielsa has used the fewest number of players of any team in the Championship – 19.

The last thing any Leeds fan wants is a repeat performance of what happened last term, but it seems as if the club aren’t taking the right precautionary measures to ensure that doesn’t happen.

It could just cost them their chance of making a reappearance in the promised land of the Premier League.

The Sky Bet Championship is back at the end of the week and the bonus is that there are no more international breaks for a few months now.

The second tier is looking as tight as ever right now, as well, but it does seem as though a couple of sides down near the bottom need to improve their form and fast before they get cut adrift.

Barnsley, promoted from League One last year, are one of those sides and the Tykes will be hoping their new manager can help steer them to safety.

Indeed, it’s been a while since Daniel Stendel left the club but it seems as though the men from Oakwell are edging towards a new appointment now.

This comes from Ronan Murphy:

It’s caused a fair bit of reaction on Twitter, too – and not just from Barnsley fans – so let’s take a look at what has been said on the social media site:

This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…

Having seen Luke Shaw be a part of the side that trounced Chelsea 4-0 in Manchester United’s opening Premier League game of the season, Brandon Williams may have been forgiven for feeling his time in the first-team squad would have been limited.

But Shaw’s injury – surprise, surprise – has given the Red Devils academy prospect the chance to shine in recent weeks, and boy has he taken it. The 19-year-old played the full 90 minutes against both AZ Alkmaar and Partizan Belgrade in the Europa League, picking up an assist, and completed the full game in the Carabao Cup victory over Chelsea.

And on Sunday afternoon, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer gave Williams his first start in the Premier League, and in a commanding team performance, the teenager did not disappoint at all.

Lining up at left-back instead of the suspended Ashley Young, the starlet showed United exactly what they stand to benefit from over the coming years. The 19-year-old blended his attacking and defensive duties superbly, and his extra pace and quality on the ball compared to some of the Red Devils’ other options really marks him out.

Coming up against Brighton winger Steven Alzate, Williams didn’t give his opponent anything over the course of the match. He won five duels and made four tackles – with the latter stat putting him only behind Aaron Wan-Bissaka who had six from the opposite flank. But quite crucially for the Red Devils, the youngster showed he can contribute significantly going forward.

His 55 touches of the ball was two more than Marcus Rashford, and seven more than Daniel James, and showed just how confident the side were in getting him involved in the game. Williams provided one key pass and completed one dribble too as he sought to take the game to the Seagulls, and was denied opening his goal-scoring account for the senior side by a stop from Mathew Ryan in the Brighton goal.

It was therefore unsurprising to hear Solskjaer insist the “excellent” teenager is “making it hard to leave him out”. At such a young age, Williams has the chance to become a true Old Trafford stalwart.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Hakim Ziyech turned in a masterclass performance as Ajax drew 4-4 with Chelsea in the Champions League on Tuesday evening.

On the chalkboard

Ex-Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rafael van der Vaart has recommended the Ajax schemer to club chairman Daniel Levy, per Voetbal Primeur, and fans will surely have taken notice of his exceptional showing in west London.

Per WhoScored, he had 57 touches of the ball and used them to good effect. He laid on two key passes, leading to two assists, and also took the free-kick that cannoned off the post, into the face of Kepa Arrizabalaga and into the net.

Ziyech also completed two dribbles and won two tackles as he attempted to help his side to a major victory.

As it was, Ajax took a 4-1 lead but were pegged back following two quick-fire red cards to Daley Blind and Joel Veltman.

Take it seriously

While Ziyech signed a new contract with the Dutch side in the summer, Van der Vaart’s recommendation suddenly looks all the more shrewd.

With Christian Eriksen appearing to sulk his way through the campaign – Ziyech registered more assists on one night than the Dane has all season – one feels that the Morocco international could be an excellent replacement for the playmaker.

It is not like Spurs don’t know about him, of course. Ziyech scored against them in the semi-final of the Champions League last season and netted a total of 21 goals while registering 24 assists in all competitions in 2018/19.

This season, already, the 26-year-old has six goals to his name and a staggering 14 assists.

If Spurs are to take Van der Vaart’s advice, they will not be able to trigger the €30m (£25.8m) release clause that did exist within Ziyech’s contract prior to his extension.

But on Tuesday, he showed that he could well be worth every penny of what will likely be a much larger eventual transfer fee. Levy ought to make some calls.

Saturday’s victory against Aston Villa could be called a performance of champions by Liverpool.

With just three minutes left on the clock, the Reds were 1-0 down to the Villans away from home, who had taken the lead through Mohamed Trezeguet. However, Jurgen Klopp’s side didn’t give up and ended up prevailing 2-1 thanks to goals from Andrew Robertson and Sadio Mane, who bagged the winner in the fourth minute of injury time.

“The worst we’ve played all season” but “our most straightforward final since 2003” – a Liverpool fan reflects on the UCL final in the video below…

It now means that, after the first 11 games, the Anfield outfit have won 10 and drawn one, and lead the current champions Manchester City by six points. After such a heroic turnaround, you would have thought that the club’s supporters would have spared their players from any criticism, but that was not the case in regards to 34-time England international Adam Lallana.

The 31-year-old was slammed by the Merseyside faithful, who took to Twitter to do so. You can see some of the best comments from the social media platform below.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Off the Bench series, which places in-game managerial decisions and squad selections under FFC’s microscope.

Tottenham suffered a 2-1 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday, despite taking an early lead through Harry Kane’s header.

The result leaves Mauricio Pochettino’s men languishing in 11th place in the Premier League, after what has been an extremely disappointing start to the campaign – the north Londoners have won just three of the opening 10 games.

Against the European champions, the former Southampton boss could only watch on as Jordan Henderson and Mohamed Salah took the points away, although his use of the bench in the dying stages left a lot to be desired.

Snapshot

As aforesaid, Henderson and Salah scored second-half goals to win the game for the Reds.

The latter’s firm penalty after Serge Aurier had fouled Sadio Mane found the back of the net in the 75th minute, leaving Pochettino with 15 minutes to react.

A whole nine minutes went by before the Argentine decided to throw Lucas Moura into the fold in the 84th minute, before Pochettino also decided to introduce Giovani Lo Celso in the 88th minute.

Pointless use of his bench

What on earth was Pochettino expecting his two subs to do with such little time to make an impact?

Surely as soon as the Spurs boss saw Liverpool take the lead – a side who have now gone 45 games unbeaten at Anfield – he should immediately have thought that the Reds would manage the game accordingly and grind the win out.

As a result, instant action should have been taken after Salah’s goal – Lo Celso and Lucas should’ve already been ready to enter proceedings before the Egyptian had even finished celebrating.

It’s not like it would’ve been tough to chose a player to depart the pitch – Dele Alli failed to record a single shot, key pass or dribble, while Christian Eriksen had just one shot and that was all.

Pochettino delivered a moment of madness by giving his substitutes such little time to trouble a solid backline.

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…

Paul Merson has launched into a passionate rant insisting that nobody was surprised by Arsenal’s defeat to Sheffield United, per Sky Sports.

What’s he said?

The Gunners fell to a disappointing loss at Bramall Lane, as Lys Mousset’s goal capped a fine result for Chris Wilder’s men.

Merson, though, was unsurprised and has passionately called for the club to change their ways, making a particular point that he cannot imagine any player “going ballistic” in a bid to change their fortunes.

He said: “It’s accepted. Nobody is going to work the next morning and saying: ‘Oh my God, did you see Arsenal getting beat by Sheffield United?’ Those days are gone. It’s accepted through the club, the fans, the manager, everyone.

“Sheffield United played as much football as Arsenal. They didn’t kick them off the pitch.

“What has improved? Really, what has improved? Not a lot, at all.”

He added: “Even at the end, with four minutes to go, I’m thinking: ‘Do they know how long is left?’ I’m sure there’s an electric clock at Sheffield United, there was when I played there! ‘Is there going to be a bit of urgency?’

“It was rolled along the back, back to the goalkeeper, and then back again. I thought there were 20 minutes to go!

“Overall, it was poor. This was a very difficult game, but there are ways to lose football matches, and this wasn’t it. I didn’t see the urgency, and I can’t imagine anyone in that dressing room going ballistic. It’s just accepted: ‘Who have we got next week?’ It drives me up the wall. It’s so frustrating.”

Spot on

Merson has nailed it.

He might be something of a figure of fun because of his performances on Soccer Saturday, where he all too regularly mispronounces names and comes out with the odd left-field opinion.

But here, when talking about his club, it becomes patently obvious that he cares deeply about Arsenal.

And he was forced to sit and watch as 90 minutes slipped by at Bramall Lane, along with three points.

Unai Emery is in his second season at the club and, yet, the same old failings are rearing their ugly heads: the lack of desire, the lack of energy, the lack of passion.

Of course, simply adding a few players who would shout and scream in the dressing room isn’t going to improve things overnight.

But one has to believe that there is a need to have more leaders in that squad than it currently has.

As Merson says, very few people will have been surprised by Monday’s result.

That is perhaps the Gunners’ major failing.

England beat Bulgaria 6-0 on Monday evening, but despite the great result for the Three Lions you’d be hard pushed to find a happy face after the match.There were some disgusting scenes in Sofia during the game, as a number of England players were racially abused by the home fans.Watch Liverpool Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

To make matters worse, the Bulgarian manager claimed that he didn’t hear any of the abuse from the stands, despite the fact that it was so loud and clear even ITV’s pundits were left visibly stunned.

Luckily, the victims of the abuse weren’t willing to let this lie, and Trent Alexander-Arnold took to Twitter to fire back at the opposition manager.

The right-back’s tweet perfectly encapsulates how everyone felt after hearing Krasimir Balakov’s comments.

The fact that he has come out and said that he didn’t hear any of the chanting is ridiculous, and these sorts of issue won’t be solved until high-profile figures such as managers begin holding the fans to account, rather than sweeping it under the rug.

Fortunately, there are others who are more willing to punish those responsible, as the country’s Prime Minister has called for the head of their FA to resign.

Tottenham Hotspur fans have urged Harry Kane to lead the team out of their dire run of form.

Spurs drew 1-1 with Watford on Saturday thanks to an 86th-minute goal from Dele Alli.

The Hornets, of course, have yet to win in the Premier League this season and were beaten 8-0 by Manchester City prior to the international break.

Following the poor result, the second league game in a row in which Kane has failed to score, the striker took to Twitter to insist that he and his team-mates will stick together as they attempt to get some points on the board.

He wrote: “A point but still below the standards we set ourselves. Got to stick together to improve this run of results.”

And fans have reacted well to the message, insisting that he has the talent to lead Mauricio Pochettino’s men up the table.

Of course, Spurs will want to hit form soon; they face Liverpool at Anfield next week after a must-win Champions League encounter with Red Star Belgrade.

Take a look at the best of the reaction below!

He uploaded an image of him with the match ball while holding three fingers up, and he captioned the post ‘First ever hat-trick’.

The 24-year-old didn’t state that he was buzzing or that he was over the moon, his post was straight to the point and didn’t have much emotion attached to it – maybe he’s just becoming such a goalscoring machine he’s just used to it now?

With all due respect, San Marino aren’t the best of opposition, so perhaps that’s why McGinn’s post after netting three times was so subdued.