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

Wolves’ next competitive fixture isn’t for over a week, but manager Nuno Santo is left with a particular dilemma that’ll remain until that very game passes.

Willy Boly was stupidly sent off in their defeat against Everton last weekend.

With the game only having seconds remaining, the 28-year-old shoved Richarlison off the pitch and duly received his second yellow of the match, meaning he will be a guaranteed absence in nine days.

The west Midlands club have leaked eight goals in their last four matches across both domestic and European competitions, meaning whoever does come in for Boly could certainly stake a claim on why he should be playing more regularly.

On the Chalkboard

Nuno has merely a few options.

The Portuguese boss has only utilised 17 different players in the Premier League this season, with nine of them playing some part in all four possible matches.

Boly is one of those, and his towering 6 foot 5 presence is going to be a monumental miss at the back as he is averaging 5.5 aerial duels won per match as well as the highest rating in the squad at 7.36, per WhoScored.

One option could be Romain Saiss, who has primarily been deployed as a defensive midfielder in the old gold shirt, but he’s just as adept at dropping into defence.

He’s been a regular in the Europa League, contributing to both clean sheets against Pyunik and his first Premier League start of the season garnered a goal against Everton – making his physical presence well known.

The other option may lie in a youngster – maybe Max Kilman. Nuno has been training him in the mould of club captain Conor Coady and his only appearance of the season saw him register a clean sheet. It still may be too soon for him, however.

Jesus Vallejo could become the most likely candidate, even though he is yet to feature in the league. The 6-foot defender played the full 90 minutes in three straight Europa League matches and should be ready to come in against Chelsea.

Following his debut at the club, his manager said:

“They were brilliant. We know the quality that Max and Jesus have – Jesus has come in from Real Madrid, and you know he’s a top, top player, but I think the way they fitted into the shape and the system was the most impressive thing.”

That’s as glowing a remark as you’ll get to suggest why the 22-year-old is ready to start against Chelsea.

Also, Adama Traore has been solid proof of why form outside of the Premier League can be trusted, so it’s about time they allowed his fellow countryman to show his worth.

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

Everton’s Jonjoe Kenny is adjusting to life at Schalke and refused to rule out a permanent move to the German club.

What’s the latest?

The 22-year-old has featured in every match under David Wagner so far and settled well despite conceding a penalty on his debut against Bayern Munich.

Despite his inexperience when it comes to playing regularly, let alone in a different country, Kenny has performed well so far. That was evidenced by a superb goal in a game against Hertha Berlin, which prompted questions regarding where his future lies.

The right-back is currently concentrating on his football, and on getting Schalke back where they belong, which he believes is in European competition.

On the subject of his future, he told Bundesliga.com that the club has already made him feel at home, but refuses to commit his future anywhere as it is ‘too early for that decision’, but did insist that he is ‘giving everything for Schalke’.

If he continues his current level of consistency a permanent move could be on the cards, but as a Liverpudlian he will also have an eye on impressing in order to work his way back into first-team plans at Everton.

Making the most of his opportunity

Not many young English players have made a move abroad but those who did have often found it to be a positive in their career development.

Jadon Sancho’s form at Borussia Dortmund has seen him win England caps whilst Reiss Nelson has found himself more involved with the Arsenal first-team after a loan spell at Hoffenheim last year.

Watch Everton Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

So far Kenny is proving himself to be a capable Bundesliga performer and such an experience is likely to serve him well on his return.

He will know what it takes to play to a high standard on a regular basis, in a competitive team aiming for the upper echelons of the division, and with that understanding he should become a more reliable option in the eyes of Marco Silva.

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“Don’t forget about Emile Smith Rowe” were the words muttered by Mesut Ozil over pre-season.

“We know his quality,” the German added. And who better to get praise from than a player who has won the World Cup and multiple major honours throughout his career.

For Smith Rowe, it’s been a difficult 2019. Put out on loan at RB Leipzig in January, he played just three times from the bench after sustaining a groin injury.

That same issue has kept him out of action in 2019/20 and on the theme of Ozil’s words, it might be easy to forget about him.

Certainly for Emery it felt like that at times last term. He was given game time in the Europa League, a tournament the teenager scored twice in.

A new contract was given to the academy graduate in 2018 too but when Arsenal needed wingers in the Premier League, he was a neglected figure.

Smith Rowe is still yet to play in the top-flight, something that’s perhaps rather surprising when you consider Emery’s attention to youth.

This is the manager that has seemingly turned Matteo Guendouzi into a force to be reckoned with. He won his first call-up to the senior French national team at just 20, something that illuminates the progress made since he arrived at Arsenal.

The former PSG boss, coupled with Freddie Ljungberg, is seemingly using this season as a chance to blood the youth.

Joe Willock and Reiss Nelson started the opening two matches together whilst the likes of Bukayo Saka, Robbie Burton, Eddie Nketiah and James Olayinka got opportunities in pre-season.

Smith Rowe didn’t because he was injured but he cannot be further neglected as the season pans out.

Once he returns from injury there is a reason to believe he could challenge someone like Nelson for a starting berth, producing a rivalry for two young players hoping to profit from Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s loan departure.

The Armenian headed to Roma on deadline day of the European window just a day after he’d been utilised as a substitute on the flanks against Tottenham.

With the 30-year-old now out of the equation, there is a real chance for one of these young players to stake a claim.

Also at Emery’s disposal is Gabriel Martinelli who joined in the summer and scored against Colorado Rapids.

His frightening pace was in evidence when he made a late darting run from the halfway line against Fiorentina, demonstrating exactly why he was brought to London.

The Brazilian, Nelson and Saka are three players who could be utilised but seemingly now behind them in the pecking order is Smith Rowe.

His injury has played a major part in that but there was a time in 2018/19 when he might’ve been at the front of the queue instead.

The 19-year-old was mightily impressive in Europe last season, managing 2.3 shots per game according to WhoScored.

He was a regular goal threat and that’s something Arsenal didn’t have in wide areas too much last term, that’s unless Golden Boot winner Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang played there.

In the league, no Gunners wide man scored more than six times.

Nelson netted on seven occasions last term in the Bundesliga, again a healthy return, but there were also problems he had with Julian Nagelsmann when he was left out of the side as an educational measure.

Both players it seems have witnessed some sort of neglect but it is easy to forget about the youngster who had such an impact in the group stages of the Europa League last season.

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In an interview with the club recently, Emery said: “I want Emile Smith Rowe.”

It’s something that bodes well for the Croydon-born winger but there is still hard work to be done if he’s to get into the team.

Ljungberg has been brought into the Spaniard’s coaching setup to help integrate the younger members of the team into the senior side after his work with the U23s so Smith Rowe should be well placed if you bear that in mind.

This injury was a major setback in a what had been a breakthrough campaign but with Mkhitaryan now out of the question, a return to full fitness would be timely.

His potential rivalry with Nelson and co should be something to relish.

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It looked as though Arsenal would soon be back to full strength.

On Thursday, Hector Bellerin and Kieran Tierney returned to full training, while Rob Holding had also done so earlier in the week. Konstantinos Mavropanos, the only other member of the Arsenal squad recently in the treatment room, is also back with the first-team.

How do football vloggers afford to watch their team week in, week out? Find out in the video below…

However, there has been another setback for Unai Emery and co.

The club announced on Friday that Alexandre Lacazette is injured and will not return until October.

The statement issued confirmed that he has been playing with an injury for several weeks, and he has been advised to rest in order to return to full strength.

Fans of the Emirates Stadium outfit have been reacting to the news in their droves, and it is clear they are less than happy with the update.

They have taken to Twitter to share their thoughts, and you can see some of the best comments from the social media platform below.

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All aboard the ‘let’s-get-carried-away’ train. We’re six games into the new Premier League season, and already pundits and players alike are beginning to spout the usual ‘do-or-die’ drivel.

Just before the clash against Brighton, Newcastle captain Jamaal Lascelles came out and declared the game was a “six-pointer”. Naturally, the comment didn’t go down too well with Magpies fans.

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Now, Garth Crooks has joined in on the act by delivering an incredibly hyperbolic assessment of a key incident during the game.

Brighton forward Aaron Connolly thought he had sealed all three points for the Seagulls with a late effort, but saw his chip cleared off the line in dramatic fashion by Fabian Schar. Prompt ‘Mystic Garth’.

“The chip by Aaron Connolly was a certain goal and it needed something very special from a defender to clear the danger. That moment of magic came from Fabian Schar whose clearance off the line was nothing short of amazing. The clearance off the line by Schar could, come the end of the season, be Newcastle and Steve Bruce’s lifeline.”

Lifeline? Really? To put things into context at just how early things are at the moment, Newcastle find themselves three points off bottom, but also three points away from seventh.

Even if the Magpies had lost against Brighton, there are still 96 points left to be won in the season. Granted, Bruce’s side probably won’t be getting even half of that, but the age-old cliche of there still being a lot of football to play stands.

Perhaps Crooks simply wanted to highlight the torrent of ill-feeling that would have come Bruce’s way had the Tyneside club slipped to a home defeat. But even still, after getting rid of Rafa Benitez and installing his own man in charge, there is no way Mike Ashley would be looking to throw the towel in just yet. The Newcastle owner would gladly watch the Magpies’ suffering last even longer.

In our Loan Watch feature, the Transfer Tavern takes a look at how a selection of players from a particular club are doing whilst they are away from their home and provide a brief update regarding their progress.

We continue this section after a two-week break from our last Leicester update. The Foxes currently have Adrien Silva, Islam Slimani, Rachid Ghezzal, Fousseni Diabate and Andy King out on loan. Now, we shall be reviewing all of them over the past week apart from Ghezzal as he has not featured since joining Fiorentina on deadline day.
Islam Slimani
Let’s start with the positives.
In the past week, Slimani has played just the one game after sitting out their match on the weekend versus Stade Reims – a scoreless draw. However, he was back in the starting line-up against Nice and he was able to help them record their first league win of the campaign in a 3-1 win.
WhoScored’s algorithm scored him a rating of 7.7 as he managed to chip in with an assist as well as five shots. So far he has played four league matches, scored three goals and created one; he leads the average rating scores on WhoScored for the squad with a rating of 7.93/10.
Adrien Silva
Unlike Slimani, Adrien Silva featured in the two games for Monaco in the past week, though he only started one of them.
The Portuguese defensive midfielder played 85 minutes in their 0-0 draw with Stade Reims, picking up a rating of 6.5 in the match as well as one yellow card. He seemingly had a decent game, boasting a respectable successful pass percentage of 86% as well as making 56 passes, according to WhoScored. Defensively, he only recorded one tackle out of an attempted two and was dribbled past once, so there is room for improvement.
He only played two minutes in Monaco’s 3-1 win over Nice.
It’s been a pretty indifferent start for Silva, with the player averaging 6.52 (WhoScored) from his first five matches – the 10th-highest in the Monaco squad.
Fousseni Diabate
Staying in France and Ligue 1, Fousseni Diabate has made one appearance in the last week and took to the field in Amiens’ loss to Bordeaux last night, playing 53 minutes in a 1-3 loss, where he managed just one dribble.
The winger started Saturday’s match versus FC Metz at left-wing, playing 67 minutes in their 2-1 away win.
WhoScored gave him a rating of 6.7 for the match, equating to a pretty average game for the recent loanee. The pacey winger could only record two dribbles out of an attempted four, so no doubt he will be looking to improve that for next week.
It’s not been a good start, but it’s only been three games. He has an average rating of 6.31 in them – the 17th-highest in the Amiens squad (WhoScored).

Verdict

It’s been a pretty underwhelming start for Leicester’s loanees.
Slimani is obviously showing signs of the player that Leicester bought from Sporting Lisbon, however, Silva and Diabate have made pretty slow starts.
It’s still early days for the loanees and they will still be adjusting both to their environments and the tactics, but they will want to start improving soon if they are going to catch the eye of their full-time employers.
Foxes fans, miss any of these players? Join the discussion by commenting below…

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

QPR travel to Wales on Wednesday evening to take on Neil Warnock’s Cardiff, as Mark Warburton’s side look to quickly bounce back from the 2-0 defeat to West Brom on Saturday.

The loss against Slaven Bilic’s men ended a run of four straight Championship wins for the R’s, so they were going pretty strongly until the Baggies put them to the sword.

With Warnock’s Bluebirds, they have only won three league games so far amid a campaign littered with draws – they have ended four out of nine matches with a single point to show for their efforts.

When the Londoners head to the Cardiff City Stadium, however, they must avoid doing one thing.

What is it?

Warburton must instruct his side to keep the ball on the floor and avoid going long where they can, due to the aerial prowess of Cardiff’s two centre-backs Sean Morrison and Aden Flint.

Flint is the highest-rated player at the club so far this season, with WhoScored handing him an average rating of 7.11 – Morrison is closely behind him with a 7.01 rating.

What we’ll focus on more specifically – as aforesaid – is the pair’s dominance in the air.

How good are they?

Well, Morrison wins a whopping 5.7 aerial duels per game on average in the Championship this season, with the 6 foot 4 colossus’ physical ability proving to be effective when it comes to winning his headers.

His partner Flint averages 0.2 more successful aerials duels with 5.9 per game in the Championship, and as the former Bristol City man stands at a towering 6 foot 6, the pair truly are a formidable duo with 11.6 successful aerial duels combined.

Jordan Hugill and the 5 foot 7 Nahki Wells will almost certainly struggle to match Flint and Morrison in the air, so Warburton must demand his side to keep the ball on the floor and exploit the Bluebirds that way.

If he tries a long-ball approach, the numbers suggest QPR won’t have an enjoyable Wednesday evening in Wales.

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

Yan Valery is certainly not one of the first names on Ralph Hasenhuttl’s teamsheet right now.

That much was evidenced when Cedric Soares was forced to pull out of the 2-1 defeat to Tottenham during the warm up, and instead of calling on a natural right-sided defender in Valery to replace him, Hasenhuttl instead turned to James Ward-Prowse, a centre-midfielder by trade.

Southampton fans called for the young Frenchman’s inclusion for the next game against Chelsea, and the former RB Leipzig boss duly obliged by handing the 20-year-old a fourth Premier League start of the season.

Valery’s position in the team is far from a concrete one, as he made 22 appearances at right-back last term but also made 15 as a right wing-back.

And while he didn’t set the world alight in the 4-1 loss, there were two moments that suggested Valery may be better suited to a wing-back role, rather than a right-back in a flat back four…

Brilliant surge to set up Danny Ings

We saw the France Under-18 international at his attacking best in the build-up to Southampton’s one and only goal against the Blues.

Valery embarked on a brave but mesmeric dribble to beat six Chelsea players in total down the right flank – one of three completed dribbles from the youngster – before crossing with accuracy towards the feet of Ings, who gratefully prodded home.

Rush of blood at the back

After his moment of brilliance, we saw a moment of stark contrast in which Valery showed why he can be a defensive liability.

In the build-up to N’Golo Kante’s goal, Jorginho clipped a ball out to Marcos Alonso, who was in an unbelievable amount of space on the left wing.

Why? Because Valery had surged out of his position to get tight to Callum Hudson-Odoi – we can only presume that the Southampton man thought Jorginho was going to play it into the England international’s feet.

The rush of blood allowed Alonso to stroll forward and play the ball to Kante, who found the net via a deflection.

All in all, these two moments sum up why Valery would be much better suited to a wing-back role rather than on the right of a flat back four – his attacking qualities would shine and his defensive negligence would be better hidden if he was consistently played as a wing-back with three central defenders covering.

When it rains, it pours. Manchester United have had major struggles with injuries since the start of the current campaign, and unfortunately for them, it’s been largely centred around the area they could least afford it.

Having sold Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez in the summer transfer window, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side have very few options at the centre-forward position. Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial have had their injury problems already, and the latter has remained out of action since missing the game against Southampton.

Now, things appear to be going from bad to worse, with the Red Devils confirming via their official Twitter account, that rising prospect Mason Greenwood has withdrawn from the England U21s squad due to a back problem.

It adds “he will remain at the Aon Training Complex” ahead of the clash against Liverpool on October 20, but there is no word as to whether he will be fit in time for the match.

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After hearing the injury update on the teenager, United fans flooded to Twitter to voice their frustrations with the situation.

Many supporters of the Manchester side appeared to be in meltdown, and one fan in particular simply insisted the club are heading for relegation this season.

Check out some of the reaction of United fans below:

Perhaps he needs to take the hint.

Leeds United’s owner Andrea Radrizzani recently spoke to The Times about how he is open to investment at Elland Road when he thinks the time is right.

In the interview, he claimed that Leeds could be in a position to challenge the likes of Manchester City if the club were to accept offers of investment from Qatar Sports Investments, the same group that owns Paris St-Germain.

“They have the possibility to bring this club to compete with Manchester City, so for the fans that could be a fantastic opportunity.”

But he was keen to stress that he isn’t exactly in any major rush to sell the club, and that he wants to see Leeds back in the top flight before he considers opening the door to offers.

“When I will open the door to others I don’t know, hopefully when we are in the Premier League. The financial support would be more important in the Premier League.”

However, Leeds United fans weren’t exactly best pleased when they saw what he had to say.

They seem to think that the lack of investment from the Italian himself might mean the dream of being promoted and then taking on money from new parties ends up dead before it even gets off the ground.

Here’s a look at what Leeds fans have been saying on Twitter…