We’re covering the latest Premier League sports news from across the week with Wolves’ struggle, Liverpool’s contracts, Everton’s standout players and Erik ten Hag’s situation at Manchester United.
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00:00Coming up, we're covering the latest Premier League sports news from across the week with Wolves' struggle, Liverpool's contracts, Everton's standout players and Eric Ten Hag's situation at Manchester United.
00:16Starting in the black country and as Wolves have endured a poor and pressurised start to the Premier League campaign, we're looking at the fans' reaction following the full-time whistle at Brentford to look into the situation and find out what Gary O'Neill and his side must focus on to turn their fortunes around.
00:35I live 25 minutes from this ground. I go every week home and away. That club, answer the question. We're benchmarking against who? We're benchmarking against who? Because when it's prices, we want to benchmark against these lads. When it's centre-half, we don't want to talk about that. We'll talk about every other team. Be honest.
01:02This is the club's fault. This is the club's fault. The club's a joke.
01:08It's just shocking. The first whistle from last, we just looked like the second-best team. It just didn't seem like we were giving it a go. The football was just shocking. It's like a Sunday league team.
01:20Can't defend. How is it? How is it when they go one down and they puggle it back and then straight away they give another goal? What's the problem? What are they doing? I don't honestly know. There was one or two out there. I'm in La Mina for the third goal. What was he doing?
01:38So, Charlie, starting with Wolves. Obviously, we've touched on their real tough start and their fixtures will eventually get easier, but that sort of puts more pressure on them when you've had such a bad start.
01:47Then you have a run of games, which you see on paper are more winnable. Then the pressure sort of ramps up to get those wins over the line.
01:55What needs to change from what you've seen so far this season? Obviously, they've had a real low xG in terms of getting the goals and they're really not very ruthless up top, maybe down to the fact of losing Pedro Neto in the summer.
02:11Yeah, it's been a really difficult start for Wolves. Obviously, right at the bottom of the league standings, conceding far too many goals and then obviously the issue as well of not scoring enough. One goal a game, it could be a lot worse.
02:22We've seen in previous seasons under Bruno Large, in particular, it was a real struggle getting in the back of the net. Last season, a much improved Wolves side in terms of their attacking output.
02:32Gary O'Neill, we've seen such a positive way of playing, trying to press players high up the pitch and create as many opportunities as possible, but that just hasn't been the case.
02:41I reckon maybe it's the fixture schedule that hasn't helped on that front. It has been a very difficult start for Wolves. All six opponents so far are currently in the top half of the Premier League.
02:51The only real winnable game there was essentially Nottingham Forest away and that was a draw at a point game. I think if you add a bit more context to it, the situation isn't as bleak as it might seem on the surface.
03:03But yeah, as you mentioned, going forward, not ruthless enough, a little bit toothless. Jorgen Strand-Larsen, I think he's had promising moments, but he's not quite been that goal-scoring hero that Wolves fans would have hoped.
03:15But you've got to give him time. He's only just arrived in the Premier League for the first time and it's a bit of a change in system as well because having a bit of a target man up top, it's very different to last year when it was a little bit more fluid.
03:25So when the fixtures do improve, you'd expect Wolves to start scoring more goals. But the initial signs, of course, have been quite frustrating for fans.
03:34One player that's sort of missed out on a number of games so far, especially just having to come off the bench, is Tommy Doyle, obviously signed for a permanent from Manchester City.
03:46In a great deal, I mean, on paper, he was fantastic for moments last season. He really sort of took to the fans and the fans took to him well and he sort of embraced the culture at the club.
03:57Does he deserve a start? I mean, I see a lot of murmurs from Wolves fans, especially on social media, saying that he's certainly in the running and he certainly deserves to start in the Wolves shirt.
04:07Yeah, I think it's quite difficult because midfield is actually an area where Wolves are very strong.
04:12You might not see that from the results, but Andre coming in at the base of midfield for £21m looks like a star of the future and already is settling in very strongly indeed.
04:21Mario Lamina, of course, the club captain, you can't drop him. You can't win matches just purely based on energy and passion in midfield.
04:27That's what Gomez offers more of, but maybe the cutting edge from Doyle is going to be a bit more evenly matched. I think it could be a good decision to bring him in.
04:34Starting with Liverpool, obviously we've discussed their contract situation and a number of key players are still here and there with a contract at the club.
04:50What's the latest you can tell us? Obviously, a few players are set to sign new deals. Who are they and how close are we to seeing some of the bigger names sign a new deal as well?
05:02It looks like Ibrahimo Kanate and Gerald Quantzer are close to penning fresh terms. Are those the players that Liverpool fans firstly wanted to sign contracts?
05:14No, because when you've got Virgil van Dijk, Mo Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold all out of contracts at the end of the season, those would be sometimes the priority.
05:26But I think the nature of the deals with Kanate and Quantzer, they were maybe easier to do. Certainly with Gerald Quantzer, he's 21. He hasn't played a lot this season, but he had a fantastic breakthrough campaign last term.
05:41For a 21-year-old, where else would you want to go? There's always going to be rewards with a new bunker deal. Ibrahimo Kanate has had a really good start to the season.
05:53A bit of an up-and-down campaign last term, ended out of the team in Jürgen Klopp's final few games and had injury problems. But I think so far this campaign has shown just what an asset he can be.
06:09He's very much been Virgil van Dijk's partner in crime and in central defence. The big challenge for him is to stay fit now. He's been playing two games a week, to be fair, and that was a big question mark around him.
06:24But the ones that Liverpool fans want to get teams on are Virgil van Dijk, Mo Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold. They are more difficult, for obvious reasons, with fans like Salah. They're both in their 30s and Liverpool may be hesitant to give them long-term deals or the sort of wages that they might be looking for.
06:46Trent Alexander-Arnold will obviously want a contract that reflects his stature in the Liverpool team. He's vice-captain. I think he's just turned 26, so very much in his peak years. And of course, there's those Real Madrid links that continue to linger.
07:05So that one is maybe a little bit more niche for different reasons. And yeah, that's a big challenge with the Sporting Director Richard Hughes. No doubt Arnaud Slott will keep getting asked about those contract situations throughout the campaign.
07:22But you've got to take the positives that Liverpool are tying down Canarsie and Kwanzaa and maybe the next one they might look at is Luis Diaz. Potentially he's got two and a half years left on his deal if Liverpool are following that policy.
07:53How are Everton feeling after these few results that sort of take the sting off it a bit?
08:01Yeah, I think you're spot on there. I think you're right, it takes the sting off it. I don't think all fans are still completely happy. But a point against Newcastle is a good result, especially when you consider that they had a penalty to score from and a miss.
08:18And the Leicester game, albeit Everton were poor in the final 20 minutes, they were put under pressure. But they played well for a lot of that in the Crystal Palace game. They didn't play well in the first half.
08:34But I think Sean Dyche has seen some of the signs that, especially defensively, he hasn't seen for much of the campaign. As you say, when they're back in action after the international break, they go to Ipswich. I think that's a winnable game. They've got Southampton at home, they've got Brentford. So you're looking at these games, I think Everton can get results from these and they're going to need to definitely.
08:58Looking at Everton throughout the season so far, obviously we touched it wasn't the best of starts, but they are beaten in three in the Premier League now. Who's been their sort of player of the season so far? Obviously you've had a few games where it's been wonder performances from the likes of Dwight McNeil. He's certainly stood out from a neutral perspective, I think. But who do you sort of see? Obviously you know more, you see more of Everton. Who's maybe been towards that award so far this season for them?
09:26Yeah, Dwight McNeil's right up there, isn't he? As you say, some of his performances have been excellent. He was a little bit subdued against Newcastle, but all the attackers were. But in that number 10 role, he seems to be really thriving and I think his stats are right up there among the best forwards in the Premier League. So yeah, definitely you have to tip your hat to him.
09:50Eileanon Dye has a really good start to his Everton career. Again, not on his best against Newcastle, probably the best of the attackers though, I must say. And he's just a little bit of a street footballer, someone who adds, you know, something that Everton haven't had really. He gets fans off the feet, he can get Everton up the pitch and now he's a lot fitter than when he come in. According to Sean's IQ, he can complete 90 minutes.
10:17I think in the start of the season, you're looking at Tim Iribarum, who has a really good opening to his Everton career after joining from Aston Villa. Surprised that a couple of people are looking at him as a long-term project. He's found himself out of the team now. Sean Dye has been leaning on experience, but his early performances haven't been forgotten yet.
10:41And you would think that there are going to be some calls from supporters for Iribarum to get back into the midfield. But yeah, Dwight McNeil and Eileanon Dye for me are the standouts.
11:11It's more of the same really for United. As you said there, we've come to expect that during Ten Hag's reign. He insists that he will be given the time to turn things around. He talks about this long-term process and he said after the Villa game last time out that he was in open and transparent talks with the leadership group. That signals another season of stagnation really.
11:38In their third season under Ten Hag, who's been backed with over £600m in the transfer window, there has to be a lot more accountability now for the manager. But he insists he will remain in charge. United will have to decide this international break. So we will see. They remain in talks every single day and right now I guess it would be quite tough to sack him on the back of two drawers.