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Lots of Crystal Palace fans have taken to Twitter in disagreement with the club’s alleged plans to offer Christian Benteke a new contract.

The Belgium international’s current deal expires next summer, and the Eagles are plotting to tie him down to ensure that his value is preserved as well as to make sure he does not leave on a free.

The 28-year-old has scored just four goals across the last two seasons following an impressive debut campaign in which he hit 15 Premier League goals, following a £27m move from Liverpool.

James Tomkins has also been earmarked for a new deal, which seems to be fine with some fans below who are more concerned by the fact that Benteke – who earns £120k-a-week – is in line for a new contract despite his dismal goalscoring form in the last two years.

Given his wages and lack of impact up top, you can certainly see why the Palace fans below are not happy with the news.

Let’s see what the Eagles supporters on Twitter have been saying about the worrying update…

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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 loanee Ben White has been hailed by Noel Whelan as the defender was set apart from Pontus Jansson by the pundit on Football Insider.

What’s he said?

White’s arrival at Elland Road was pretty understated. After all, this was a player who hadn’t yet featured in the Championship.

The 21-year-old’s parent club is Brighton but he’s previously enjoyed loan spells with Newport and Peterborough before getting the chance with the Whites.

It’s a giant leap for the defender but he’s taken to the division like a duck to water. Replacing Jansson was always going to be a hard task but Whelan has detailed one of the key qualities he possesses, one which even puts him above the Swede.

He told Football Insider:

“He gives the ball and then gets back into his position. Even when there’s space there for him to drive into, he will, but then he’ll get back into his position.

“That, going back to Pontus Jansson, is something he wanted to do a little bit too much. White’s first thought is: ‘I’m a defender.’

“That’s something you don’t see very much these days, you’ve centre-halves who want to be midfielders and that’s when they leave the space. His first thought is can I give it a midfielder and get back into my position. That is absolutely vital.”

White impressing

The centre-back came into competitive action this term after a rather shaky incident against Cagliari in pre-season stalled his first impressions.

However, he’s more than made up for it and his calming presence has been much-needed in the Leeds backline.

Marcelo Bielsa was said to be a huge fan of the youngster by Phil Hay and that is unlikely to have changed after his start to the new term.

He has stepped into Jansson’s shoes brilliantly and is already keeping Gaetano Berardi out of the side despite his early suspension.

White has started all three Championship matches in 2019/20, cementing himself as one of the first names on the team sheet in the early exchanges.

Thogden ranks all 24 Championship home kits in the video below…

He’s won 2.3 aerial duels per match whilst he also boasts a fantastic pass success rate of 85.6%. It’s that stat that shows how he likes to keep things simple, laying the ball into midfield.

But he can also go long, playing a fantastic ball over the top into Patrick Bamford against Nottingham Forest.

For someone so young, White seems to be a player beyond his years and even helped his team to a clean sheet last weekend.

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Ever since the 2002/03 season, the Spanish capital has consistently had two big clubs in the top-flight. A couple of years before that, just at the turn of the century, Atletico Madrid spent some time in the Segunda division before clawing their way back to the top.

And after those two years of a slight crisis at the club, the ship was once again steadied but still not on the right course. The first years back in La Liga were tough. Atletico were struggling to break into the upper places in the table and, apart from Abel Resino’s efforts that brought them to fourth in 2008/09, their upper limit was the fifth spot at best.

That meant going behind Barcelona and behind their city rivals, Real Madrid. But all of that changed for the better with the arrival of Diego Simeone, who became the head coach in 2011/12 and has been at the helm ever since. In that span, their neighbours changed manager three times while the Catalan giant burned through a total of five.

Simeone was the one who finally brought order and stability to Atletico Madrid and he has been working hard to keep it that way for the last eight years or so. But the times are once again changing or at least they seem to be as we approach the beginning of the 2019/20 La Liga season.

For the first time in countless years, Atletico look different and are close to Real in the matchbook betting.

Sure, it’s the same old Simeone on the sidelines and the Rojiblanco colours are still on their shirts, but yet there’s a different aura surrounding them and, perhaps more importantly there’s a different aura surrounding their city rivals as well. A change might be on the horizon and maybe the abandoning of the iconic Vicente Calderon was the domino that started the chain reaction. However, instead of all the pieces crumbling they somehow fell right into place.

Looking at the squad now, you would barely recognise them at all. Most of the heavyweights of the dressing room are gone, with the likes of Diego Godin, Antoine Griezmann, Filipe Luis and Rodri moving on to pastures news, while new faces are starting to spring up and grace the pitch of the magnificent Wanda Metropolitano. This change in personnel, the stadium and the crisis at the other end of Madrid are all signs the time might be exactly right for the power to finally shift in the capital.

For years now, Atletico were considered to be in the top three of Spanish football but rarely would anyone put them at that number one spot. Even when they won the league in 2013/14 there wasn’t enough for people to talk about dominance or a genuine shift in power. A huge achievement? Sure, but not about an upcoming era of change. Even when they managed to finish ahead of their city rivals on numerous occasions, the last being in 2018/19, all we talked about was the Real Madrid crisis but not the Atletico Madrid resurgence.

Now it’s finally time to talk about that for a change. The pre-season, although it was just pre-season, was proof enough there’s something in the air and the Galacticos might not like it that much.

Everyone can get some slack in pre-season, sure, but losing 7-3 to the team you were supposed to be superior to cannot go unnoticed. And it didn’t.

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Atletico Madrid might have lost some of their key players but Simeone is putting the younger crop to good use already. Not only has the team been rejuvenated but they’ve also made a profit while doing it and have lost almost nothing in firepower. Griezmann is gone and, even though he was Atletico’s top scorer every season in La Liga since he joined the club from Real Sociedad, in Joao Felix the club may already have a solution to take the baton from the departed World Cup winner.

After living in the shadows of Real Madrid, however, Atletico’s time is right now and who knows for how long their neighbours’ crisis will last. Surely we haven’t seen the last of Los Blancos but the upcoming season for them very much feels like a broken record, playing the same gloomy song over and over again: they have the same coach, a similar squad albeit with some key additions and the same tactics.

That would’ve been fine if those things brought them success last year or the year before that for that matter. But they didn’t and they’re forcing the same old tricks again, hoping for a different result. That’s the difference between the two.

Atletico are certainly not the ones to talk when it comes to old tricks. All these years they’ve been playing the same football and it brought them similar results year upon year. They’re among the top dogs in Spain but never the top dog. And now when their rivals are stuck in a loophole, Atletico have a chance to overtake them in the race.

Can they even rival Barcelona for the throne itself? That remains to be seen but jumping over Real Madrid as the more dominant team would definitely be a start.

The time is now and it seems the Colchoneros are ready to take it up a notch.

And about time, too.

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Manchester United are set to offer striker Mason Greenwood a new contract at the club, which could be worth up to £25,000-a-week, according to The Athletic via the Daily Mail.

Greenwood is now one of only three strikers United have available to them in the first-team following the departure of Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan this summer, and has featured for the Red Devils off the substitutes’ bench in all four of their Premier League matches so far this term.

Greenwood has so far played a total of 47 minutes after scoring twice for United in pre-season. There is also an expectation that he’ll start some games in the Carabao Cup and the Europa League in the coming months.

Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer holds the recently-selected England U21 international in extremely high regard, saying (also via Daily Mail): “I think with his movement and his cleverness, he’s going to be a very good player, the young boy.”

“He can play all of the front-three positions, or across the front four, as he can play No 10, No 7, No 11 and No 9.

“He’s a natural footballer with his left foot, coming in, but he’s got two feet. He takes free kicks with his left, free kicks with his right.

“He must stay clear of injuries, be professional and I’m sure he’s going to grab his chance. Everything is there for him.”

The club are also expected to enter talks with the likes of Angel Gomes, James Garner, Tahith, Brandon Williams and Ethan Laird.

Although Greenwood is now a member of the first-team at Manchester United, handing a £25,000-a-week contract to a 17-year-old who is yet to make a Premier League start for the club could prove to be a dangerous move.

The young forward has a great deal of quality and potential, as Solskjaer alludes to, but firstly needs to prove himself at the very top level before earning a bumper contract worth that amount of money.

United would perhaps be sensible to integrate him fully into the first-team set-up as a regular and then, should everything go as planned, offer him an improved deal at the end of the campaign, or at least in January.

United fans, do you think offering Greenwood a contract worth this much so early on is a good idea? Let us know below!

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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…

Earlier this week, Turkish media outlet Sabah reported that Tottenham Hotspur scouted striker Vedat Muriqi in Kosovo’s 2-1 win against the Czech Republic at the weekend, so one would presume they took advantage of the chance to do the same when he came up against England at St Mary’s on Tuesday.

A goal against the Czechs followed on from two goals in three Super Lig appearances for new employers Fenerbahce – form which already appears to have gained admiring glances from elsewhere, including Spurs.

If scouts from the north London outfit were watching on, it wouldn’t have taken them long to have something to write down in their notepads, when the 25-year-old provided the assist for Valon Berisha’s goal just 36 seconds in.

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That pass set the tone for the 6 foot 4 attacker, and he continued to impress throughout the encounter in the final third, even if the defending by his teammates left a lot to be desired with the visitors finding themselves 5-1 down at the break.

Muriqi certainly wasn’t down and out at that point though, and having set up Berisha again, he then won a penalty following a tackle in the area by Harry Maguire, before picking himself up to convert the spot-kick past Jordan Pickford.

As well as his generally smart centre-forward play, he also won six out of the eight duels he faced on the night, and successfully completed both of the dribbles he attempted, as per SofaScore.

The great thing about the 25-year-old is that based on this display, there is far more to his game than simply being a goalscorer, and he is clearly a creator who is aware of what is going on around him, too – as shown by the three key passes he made.

If Tottenham are looking for a back-up striker for Harry Kane either in the New Year or next summer following the departures of Vincent Janssen and Fernando Llorente during the summer, this was certainly a positive dress rehearsal from Muriqi.

He contributed more than the England captain did at St Mary’s in terms of goals, and he scored from the penalty spot unlike the 26-year-old as he ended the game with a higher rating than his opponent, as per SofaScore.

It might be time to dust that chequebook off again, Daniel Levy.

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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…

Arsenal will face Watford on Sunday in their fifth Premier League match of the season and the battle between Ismaila Sarr and Sead Kolasinac could have a telling influence on the match.

On the chalkboard

It has been a mixed start for the Gunners this term. They won their first two games, against Newcastle and Burnley, but followed that up with a loss against Liverpool and a draw against Tottenham Hotspur.

That, however, is considerably better than their opponents’ latest form. The Hornets lost each of their first three games and, while there was enough improvement in the fourth to earn a point against Newcastle, it did not save Javi Gracia’s job. The 49-year-old has been relieved of his duties, with Quique Sanches Flores returning to Vicarage Road for a second spell.

Both sides are in need of three points this weekend, and there is one battle in particularly that could decide the match’s outcome.

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

Two attack-minded players

The departure of Nacho Monreal and Kieran Tierney’s injury is good news for Sead Kolasinac. As the only available left-back, he is almost guaranteed to start against the Premier League’s bottom side.

Ismaila Sarr, meanwhile, is in contention to make his first start after signing from Ligue 1 outfit Stade Rennais. He could well be their secret weapon this weekend.

With the 23-year-old being a right winger, the two should line-up against each other. As such, it is a match-up that could have huge implications on the final result.

Sarr had an impressive season in France last term, scoring eight goals and providing six assists in the league from 32 starts. He was particularly successful in drawing fouls from the opposition. The 2.8 times per match he did so was the third-most in Ligue 1 last term. Rennes scored 21.82% of their goals from set-pieces, which indicates that they were helped by the Senegal international’s ability to worry defenders.

Kolasinac, meanwhile, made 0.9 fouls per game last term, which put him at number seven amongst his Arsenal teammates. The 26-year-old was, however, only dribbled past 0.6 times per match. Sarr completed 1.8 dribbles per game in the previous campaign which, while enough to give the Bosnia international something to think about, did not put him in the top 20 in France.

The former Metz man will also need to be aware of his adversary’s attacking threat. The five assists the latter contributed in the 18/19 campaign was the joint-fourth in the Arsenal squad, and he created an impressive 1.3 chances per game, which was only bettered by two of his teammates. Sarr’s 1 tackle per game last season did not stand out amongst his teammates.

All in all, this should be a clash between two attack-minded players. Whoever can make the most out of their offensive abilities against their opposite number could give their side the advantage in their next match.

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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… 

It was an afternoon to forget at Molineux for Nuno Santo and Wolves.

They were put to the sword by Chelsea on Saturday as they stuck five past the Premier League strugglers, who now go second-bottom in the table.

Tammy Abraham smashed in three goals as well as one of Wolves’ two as the young striker clearly had the home side’s defence on strings in the absence of both Willy Boly and Ryan Bennett.

At the other end of the pitch, Raul Jimenez was rather ineffective managing a rating of just 6.21 and firing both of his two shots off target, per WhoScored.

That had to be expected to some extent as the Mexican striker only returned from international duty just 48 hours earlier.

So with Diogo Jota also out of form, managing a rating of just 6.46 in the league, perhaps it is time that Nuno takes a big decision and places more faith into his rotational options, especially after strengthening in the summer.

On the Chalkboard

Patrick Cutrone was introduced at half-time having started just two of his eight appearances in a gold and black shirt.

He joined the club for £16m in the summer and has found regular game time hard to come by, but his involvement in the Chelsea match was subliminal in defeat.

Not that he would have altered the result by much, but the 21-year-old showed he’s ready for a more regular berth.

Frank Lampard made a change of his own for the second half by bringing Kurt Zouma on for Antonio Rudiger, who made his first start of the season.

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The Wolves substitute quickly gained the better of the Frenchman, recording three shots – one of which resulted in a goal.

Cutrone also beat his man by winning two aerial duels while the 6 foot 3 defender could only manage one.

Chelsea were more on the back foot in the second period; if the final 45 minutes alone counted, the result would be a reasonable 2-2 draw.

That was emphasised by Zouma’s four clearances, two blocks and three dispossessions – something Cutrone appeared to capitalise on by managing a successful tackle, per WhoScored.

This performance proved that Nuno now has a dilemma on his hands. Does he continue with Jota and Jimenez or go with Cutrone? Only time will tell.

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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…

What a difference a win can make. Arsenal went into last night’s game against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League on the back of a winless three-game run. Going to one of the most raucous stadiums in Germany is never an easy experience for the opposition, and many would have expected a difficult match against last season’s semi-finalists.

In the end, though, there need not have been such concern, and the future once again looks brighter. The Gunners ran out 3-0 winners thanks to a clinical performance, with the goals coming from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Joe Willock and Bukaya Sako.

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The display of the latter, in particular, was breathtaking, and he stood head and shoulders above his teammates on the night. Not only did he get himself on the scoresheet, but he also provided the assists for the other two strikes.

His showing cannot be reduced solely to his goal contribution, either. Saka was essential to everything positive Unai Emery’s side produced. He laid on five key passes, the most of anyone on the pitch, and completed three dribbles, which was more than any player present other than Joe Willock.

It was a powerful performance from an up and coming youngster, and he fully deserved the 9.4 WhoScored rating he was awarded. Such was his quality, only Ludogorets’ Claudiu Keseru and AS Roma’s Nicolo Zaniolo were deemed to have done better during the competition’s first matchday.

The implications of his showing could be an awful lot bigger than just the result it contributed to.

On the left-wing, the Emirates outfit have appeared to struggle this campaign, especially after the exits of Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi. So much so, striker Aubameyang has been asked to play out of position to fill in there on one occasion.

Saka, while just 18, could be the solution to Emery’s problem.

Here, he was dominant against a tricky opponent, and whilst it is important not to pile too much expectation on to the youngster, there is no reason why he can’t already begin to stake a claim for a regular first-team spot.

After all, Reiss Nelson, who is just one year older, started the first two matches of the season before dropping to the bench after failing to make his mark. If the former Hoffenheim loanee deserved the chance to prove his worth, then so does Arsenal’s latest prodigy.

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…

Patrick van Aanholt is a bit of an enigma at Selhurst Park.

On the one hand, the Dutchman pops up with a number of important goals and often finishes the campaign with some pretty impressive goalscoring figures – the left-back has 12 goals in 88 games for the Eagles.

On the flip side, however, he often sacrifices defensive discipline.

The man who cost Palace £14m can often rely on Jeffrey Schlupp for some help, whereas his performance against Tottenham recently drew fierce criticism from some of the club’s supporters.

One thing is certain, however – the 29-year-old is a far worse defender under current boss Roy Hodgson than he was under his former Sunderland manager, Sam Allardyce.

The Athletic’s Crystal Palace correspondent Matt Woosnam recently got some interesting snippets from Allardyce, who signed van Aanholt for Palace in his six months at Selhurst Park.

Interestingly, the former England manager cited the former Chelsea man’s defensive abilities as his “major problem” and added to that with some intriguing words.

“His ability can never be questioned, with his touch, his tackling, his crossing, and his goal-scoring is very good — he normally provides four or five goals a year. But he will switch off.

“Whether he will ever deal with that now is entirely up to him. In my time, I was always talking to him about it. Whether managers do that now or he just drifts away into not taking that responsibility, I don’t know, but it is something that has held him back from being one of the top left backs in the Premier League.”

It is a sentiment that another of his former coaches Gus Poyet also echoed in the same article, and the numbers do not lie in regards to the impact Allardyce had on the goalscoring full-back.

It must be noted that van Aanholt spent less than one season with Allardyce at the Stadium of Light, as the 64-year-old was appointed as Dick Advocaat’s replacement after just eight games of the 2015/16 campaign – nevertheless, seeing as the pair were together for the bulk of that term, the numbers should contain enough accuracy.

Van Aanholt averaged 2.6 tackles per game in that 2015/16 season, as well as 1.9 interceptions and 3.1 clearances – he was handed a 7.11 average rating from WhoScored for his efforts that year.

However, the Holland international has since regressed in his defensive numbers under Hodgson at Selhurst Park.

Under yet another former England manager in the 2018/19 campaign, the Palace No.3 recorded 1.3 tackles per game, 1.3 less than he managed under Allardyce on Wearside three years earlier.

Van Aanholt also managed just 1.1 interceptions per game – 0.8 down on his previous average – whereas his clearances per game were also down 0.8 in comparison to his 2015/16 Premier League return.

Unsurprisingly, in these two highlighted campaigns, the left-back scored seven goals and recorded five assists.

Goal scoring has never been a problem for him – it can often be helpful for Hodgson’s misfiring side who are currently the joint-lowest scorers in the Premier League this term.

In the 72-year-old’s ‘defend-first, attack second’ system, however, defensive negligence and naivety will often stand out like a sore thumb as it has done with van Aanholt throughout Hodgson’s tenure.

Whether or not Hodgson needs to take a leaf out of Allardyce’s book and drill this side of the game into his left-back is a question for another day, but having spent a long time as van Aanholt’s manager already, the lack of defensive improvement – and frankly, amount of regression – is alarming.

The experienced manager’s qualities in that department cannot be questioned with his side sixth in the Premier League clean sheet table for last season, but he must find a way to instil this mindset into his left-back – something that Allardyce managed to do effectively.

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 are back in Europa League action this week, 14 days after their disappointing defeat to Braga at Molineux which kickstarted the group stages.

They have worked ever so hard to reach this point by winning all six qualification games, and that run started before the Premier League season had even got underway – a time where plenty of other clubs were still enjoying pre-season.

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Now they set out on their first away day of the group campaign with a trip to Besiktas, who themselves will be looking to put behind an embarrassing defeat as Slovan Bratislava netted twice in injury time to clinch all three points.

Most shockingly, their domestic form has taken a gigantic hit with just one win in six matches this term, putting them in one of the three relegation places.

But that doesn’t mean they won’t have a threat. In fact, there is one man Wolves will need to be very wary of.

On the Chalkboard

Adem Ljajic has been the Black Eagles’ dangerman so far this season.

The 28-year-old has netted two goals across the Super Lig and the Europa League while also providing three assists.

In the league alone, he averages 49 passes per game, 3.4 of which are key passes, meaning he is at the focal point of pretty much everything they do – particularly in attack where he is recording 1.8 dribbles and 2.2 shots per match, via WhoScored.

His primary position is as a central attacking midfielder, but he can sometimes line up on either flank.

With him being the crucial instigator to Beskitas’ attack, it makes sense for Conor Coady to be the man that can thwart his advances.

The Wolves skipper plays a crucial role in the centre of defence which allows him to come forward slightly as the ball-playing defender or even drop back as a sweeper.

A lot of Nuno Santo’s system runs through the 26-year-old, and that’s reflected in his 41.3 average passes per game – not too much of a surprise considering he used to be a midfielder himself.

Coady has been a mainstay in defence for the last few seasons having made a minimum of 37 league appearances each year at Molineux.

This term he is averaging 3.9 clearances and 1.7 tackles per match which could suggest he’s more than capable of battling it out with Ljajic.

Another thing on his side is his ability to not concede so many fouls at 0.6 per game, but he can be exposed to the odd dribble – 1.1 times per match on average, so he will need to be very, very careful on Thursday night.