When Pedro Caixinha made great changes to the Rangers squad this summer, few incoming players provoked as much excitement amongst the Ibrox support than Carlos Pena.

A Mexican international and in his prime at 27 years of age, he was the kind of signing that fans had been hoping to see on their promotion to the Scottish Premiership.

With the club reportedly spending £2.7m on him, it also hearkened back to more successful days when the Ibrox side could attract serious quality to Glasgow.

However, his signing is rapidly turning from excitement into concern after a number of faltering performances that have left fans wondering if he’ll ever have what it takes to live up to his billing and establish himself as a top Scottish Premiership talent.

Caixinha offered a fierce defence of his midfielder this weekend, claiming that he is overly criticised for fitness issues and performances because he isn’t Scottish.

While it is understandable that the Rangers boss would want to defend his player publicly, his comments betray a simple truth; Pena isn’t getting the job done so far and he has a lot to prove to Rangers fans.

Lack of readiness

The midfielder has attracted attention regarding fitness issues for a very simple reason and it has nothing to do with his nationality but the fact it took him until the middle of September to even be ready to start a match.

Pena signed for Rangers on 22nd June but didn’t make his first start for almost three months, that’s reason enough to question his ability to get himself ready for first-team football at the club.

While bedding in periods are natural, for high-profile, big money signings, there are minimum expectations.

He’s now made seven appearances and started Rangers’ last three matches, so excuses regarding match fitness and adjustment are increasingly wearing thin, especially as his performances are not actually getting any better.

Out of sync

Those performances are the key reason why there is so much speculation and discussion around him right now. Fitness issues aside he has appeared out of sync with his Rangers teammates and completely off the pace, mentally and physically, when it comes to the hustle and bustle that defines midfield battles in the Scottish top-flight.

Against Hamilton on Friday night he showed ill-discipline, a lack of motivation and a failure to even do the basics of the game right, often unable to retain possession.

Against Celtic last weekend he was tasked with shadowing Scott Brown but, aside from a brief five to ten minute spell in the first half, failed to get close to the Hoops captain.

In both of these matches he has been hauled off before the hour mark, so while Pedro Caixinha defends him publicly, it’s become clear the Portuguese has his own concerns about his ability to assert himself on the opposition.

Perhaps the only positive so far in his performances has been his positioning and desire to get into goalscoring positions, something that could prove fruitful in time.

The future

Despite everything that’s happened so far, there may still be hope about his future at Rangers, especially when you consider the player’s past.

The Mexican has won 19 caps for his national team and he’s a two-time title winner in his homeland, once commanding a transfer fee approaching £6m.

Pedro Caixinha knows that only too well, as manager of Santos Laguna he witnessed the midfielder as opposition when he was at the peak of his powers in 2013/14, a season he scored 12 goals in 38 league matches for Leon.

The worry for fans is that his best days are behind him and he’s a busted flush, the hope being that Caixinha has so much faith in his ability that in persevering, the Rangers boss will make a breakthrough and tap into that kind of form.

Regardless, only Pena himself can truly control what happens next.

First of all he needs to show he at least has the desire and passion to play for the club and their supporters, but with the patience of the Rangers fans already close to breaking point, something needs to change soon with or without him.

Some perceptions just stick. Whether it’s fair or not, when a Sam Allardyce plays a long ball, everyone picks up on it.

The same might be said for Pep Guardiola.

Seen as a sophisticate both inside and outside of football, the Manchester City coach gets tarred as arrogant if there’s even a whiff of snobbery. Accusations of disrespect are never far away when the public has that view of you.

This week, it happened again: an ungenerous reading of Pep Guardiola’s compliment to Harry Kane has led to accusations of disrespect aimed at the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager as well as headlines proclaiming jibes at title rivals. His crime? Referring to Tottenham as ‘the Harry Kane team’.

Whilst factually true – Tottenham is, indeed, the team Kane plays for – surely everyone can see how, in isolation, this could be seen as a dig: no one likes to be thought of as a one man team. But the written word is not the same as the spoken one, and just as everyone can see how it could come across as a jibe in one way, surely it takes a thoroughly ungenerous being to accuse Guardiola of disrespect after actually watching him speak.

It made for a cold-sounding quote when reduced to text ink, and may also have been clumsily worded, but if we’re genuinely going to criticise a foreign man’s misuse of the vagaries of the English language’s use of possessive apostrophes, then that’s a particularly callous way of weaving a narrative, even for football media.

Guardiola’s smile is warm at the mention of a young goalscorer performing at the highest level of football is clear. It’s also unavoidable: not only does Kane score in most games, but in 2017, he’s scored more braces and triples than he has done single goals in each match. His stats are so crazily prolific that you can’t help but be amazed. He surely deserves special praise, and when it comes to opposition managers, special fear. Is there anything really wrong with that?

Despite the fact that Guardiola has had to deal with similar criticisms of his own managerial ability from large sections of English football’s fandom and other onlookers, who routinely brand him a ‘fraud’, this isn’t a case of an irked manager responding in kind to a seemingly random and wholly undeserving bystander. He hasn’t lashed out here. Indeed, if there’s one team in the league who don’t rely on one man, and who are instead built mostly upon work rate and ethic, creating a whole that’s more than the sum of its parts, it’s Tottenham: they are not, and under Pochettino can not be, a one-man team.

In addition to that, if anyone knows what a threat they are, then it’s surely Pep Guardiola. His first defeat as Manchester City manager came away from home against Spurs, when he saw first hand what the high-pressing and ruthless north London team were like, and when he saw his own team destroyed in a way that would dog them through the rest of the season. That Spurs victory was sealed without Harry Kane in the side.

Guardiola has also seen his side draw a game they maybe should have won at the Etihad last season against Spurs, too. A Kyle Walker push on Raheem Sterling went unpunished leaving City fuming in January, but it was Pep’s side who were to blame in some ways, letting a two-goal lead slip. Kane played that day, but didn’t score, as goals from Dele Alli and Heung Son-Min showed the spirit and quality that Spurs have in their side.

So how could Pep possibly think that Spurs a one-man team? Would it not make a lot more sense to see this as a professional compliment towards a goalscorer whose stats are up there with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, mixed with a hint of fear that his side will struggle to contain him? But clearly not, it’s better to use Pep’s broken English to create a storm of fury.

Perhaps most people saw the comments as a written quote rather than hearing the spoken word or seeing the footage. That’s understandable, but avoidable if those reporting the quote reported more than the words themselves. Self-expression – especially in a foreign language as anyone who’s ever tried to order a beer in a different country will tell you – is often about more than the words that come out of your mouth.

More insidiously, though, it’s a standard of the internet age that bad faith is always assumed. Ever tried to make a harmless point on Twitter only to be made out to be a someone who’s out to get the original poster? Has a harmless compliment you’ve made found its way into newspapers and blogs who accuse you of disrespect and arrogance? That’s the sort of thing we’re dealing with here: an ungenerous reading of a generous professional compliment.

Sometimes public perceptions are so ingrained that anything which reinforces it sticks and looks like it should be true. The reality is almost always more nuanced – but it’s dangerous that nobody seems to care about that.

A resolute Manchester United gained a point away to Liverpool on Saturday in the biggest fixture of the English Premier League weekend.

A much-hyped encounter, it wasn’t exactly the most thrilling ninety minutes for neutrals but Jose Mourinho and his side will likely be happy with a solid point from a match they could’ve lost on another day.

A world class save from David De Gea to deny Joel Matip was the highlight, his outstretched boot denying a certain goal for the home side.

It was a day of frustration for some Man United players with Romelu Lukaku looking particularly out of sorts after his superb start to the season. All eyes were on him to put in a big performance but he managed just one shot on target throughout the entire game, which was saved by Simon Mignolet.

Manchester United fans weren’t pleased with the performance of their summer signing, believing him to be missing from the match for long periods and ineffective when he did get the ball.

Supporters took to Twitter to share their thoughts…

Manchester United’s unbeaten start to the English Premier League season came to a crashing end on Saturday away to top-flight newcomers Huddersfield Town.

In one of the shock results of the season so far, Jose Mourinho’s side looked well below the heights have reached so far this term, conceding goals that were the result of individual errors from the likes of Victor Lindelof and Juan Mata, punished by Huddersfield heroes Aaron Mooy and Laurent Depoitre.

In attack they were mostly toothless too and Mata could not make up for his defensive woes with an accomplished creative performance, angering fans and leaving many wondering what his role in the team is.

The Spaniard has made 11 appearances for the Red Devils so far this season but with just one goal and no assists, he has work to do to make an attacking contribution that will ensure he remains in Mourinho’s starting eleven.

Fans took to Twitter to share their thoughts on his performance…

[ad_pod id=’leo-vegas’]

According to reports in The Chronicle, Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez could be ready to offload Aleksandar Mitrovic during the January transfer window.

The Serbia international arrived at St James’ Park from Anderlecht in 2015 with a decent goalscoring record in Belgium and for his country, but his poor temperament has certainly overshadowed his spell with the Magpies.

The 23-year-old has already missed three of his club’s Premier League matches this season after he was retrospectively handed a three-match ban for elbowing West Ham United’s Manuel Lanzini.

The centre-forward is Rafa Benitez’s third-choice in that position right now – behind Joselu and Dwight Gayle – and he has played a total of just 30 minutes in the top flight this term, with his future looking to be in serious doubt in the New Year.

Meanwhile, after a promising start to their Championship campaign Leeds have lost six of their last eight league games, and manager Thomas Christiansen could look to strengthen his attacking options when the transfer window opens.

Here are three reasons the Yorkshire outfit should make a January move for Mitrovic…

Competition up top

Both Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani and manager Thomas Christiansen knew that they needed to act at the end of the summer transfer window following the departure of Chris Wood to Burnley, but they might not have done enough to replace the goals the New Zealand international brought to the team with the signings they made.

With Caleb Ekuban missing the majority of the campaign through injury and Jay-Roy Grot and Pawel Cibicki struggling to make an impact, it has been left up to Hamburg loanee Pierre-Michel Lasogga to get the goals.

While he has netted a repspectable five times in nine Championship games, the 25-year-old has sometimes lacked the mobility and stamina to effectively play on his own in the 4-2-3-1 formation, and signing Mitrovic would certainly provide the German with some much-needed competition.

The fans would love him

While he may not be too popular with Newcastle boss Rafa Benitez because of the mistakes he has made and the naivety he has sometimes shown on the pitch, the St James’ Park faithful still love him.

The Serbia international is passionate, willing to battle and he has an almost cult-hero status among the supporters, and there is no doubt that he would effortlessly make that transition to the Leeds fans if he joined the Championship outfit.

The Yorkshire outfit’s supporters are known for their backing and loyalty, and their potential relationship could prove to be a match made in heaven and one that proves to be the catalyst of their promotion push in the second half of the season.

Point to prove

If Mitrovic does depart Newcastle in the New Year, he will certainly have a big point to prove at his next club.

Despite the problems with his discipline, the 23-year-old will probably feel that he hasn’t been given the opportunities he has perhaps deserved considering he has scored 10 goals in 36 Premier League games in total for the Tyneside outfit, with many of those coming when the Magpies were struggling at the bottom of the table.

With the 2018 World Cup just around the corner and with Serbia qualifying automatically, the centre-forward will want to be playing regularly and finding the net on a consistent basis and that would only prove to be a benefit for a potential suitor like Leeds.

Do you agree, Leeds fans? Let us know below.

According to reports in the Daily Mail, Manchester United striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic could make a shock return to the squad for the Premier League fixture against Newcastle United at Old Trafford on Saturday.

The veteran centre-forward ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in the Red Devils’ Champions League quarter-final tie back in April, and it was feared that not only could the 36-year-old’s United career have been over, but it was an injury that could have forced him to retire.

The Swede’s contract at Old Trafford also ran out at the end of last season, but he signed a new one-year deal in August to hint at the progress he was making behind the scenes.

The Daily Mail says that while he was expected to be out of action until 2018 at the earliest, he could return to the 18-man squad for the visit of the Magpies this weekend having trained with the rest of his teammates this week.

The news will certainly be a big boost for manager Jose Mourinho, who has seen Romelu Lukaku hit a bit of a dry spell in front of goal recently following an impressive start to the campaign.

Ibrahimovic made a huge first impression in his first season with United, scoring 28 goals in 46 appearances in all competitions.

[ad_pod ]

Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce recently warned fans that Jonathan Kodjia could be out of action for a lengthy period of time.

Now, it has been revealed that the forward will undergo surgery later this week on an injured ankle.

While speaking to the media about Kodjia’s condition, Bruce described it as the “worst possible news”.

The former Birmingham City manager also claimed that the Ivory Coast international, who was struck down after aggravating the same injury that he suffered at the end of the 2016-17 campaign, may not play again this season.

Given that Kodjia spent five months on the treatment table the first time around, the forward might be able to work his way back to fitness for the closing stages of the season.

It could prove to be a massive boost at that time if Villa are challenging for promotion.

Before the former Bristol City player suffered injury, he had scored once and provided two assists in eight Championship outings.

Villa fans took to Twitter after learning of the devastating blow.

[ad_pod ]

It was last February when Manchester City finally started to turn a corner.

They looked untouchable for the opening six games of last season, winning all their games, scoring 18 goals and just generally looking like a threatening force under Pep Guardiola, who was beginning to make English football sit up and take notice.

Only, they were taking notice: and Spurs were the first team to find a formula to beat the league leaders, who had won all their games up until that point.

That point was October 2nd, and between then and the end of January, City would lose five times in a rocky period. But it was this period that Guardiola seemed to finally learn about English football.

Last season, City’s performances can probably quite neatly be categorised as before the Everton game at Goodison Park, where Guardiola’s side lost humiliatingly, and after it. The very next game was at home to Tottenham.

Looking back, you might think the turning point started sometime just after the darkest moment, the 4-0 loss in Liverpool. In reality, it was the Spurs game.

The context going into the game was one of intense pressure on the team and the new manager. By this point, it was clear that City’s squad was in need of a severe overhaul, and one that came in the summer. But Guardiola wasn’t getting off lightly himself. The tide had started to turn somewhat, and many were wondering if the Catalan’s attacking ethos, filled with short, sharp passes and small, jinky players could really compete in England, with its physicality and demanding winter schedule.

But that’s when the best dig in.

That afternoon, the midfield three of Yaya Toure, David Silva and Kevin de Bruyne selected by Guardiola seemed almost suicidal on the back of a 4-0 defeat away at Everton and up against the form team in the league. But it proved to be a master stroke, as City blitzed their visitors and took a two goal lead.

They let Spurs back into the game, of course. Or rather, Mauricio Pochettino’s side dug deep and found enough within themselves to nick two goals back. But with the score at 2-1, and with Raheem Sterling clean through on goal, Kyle Walker pushed his soon-to-be teammate and should have conceded a penalty and seen red. That would have changed the game and City surely would have won from that position. But no matter the result, the performance changed things for Guardiola’s City.

If it weren’t for that performance, if it weren’t for the proof that the manager’s attacking principles weren’t obsolete in the Premier League, we might not be enjoying the privilege of witnessing a record-breaking team this season. But whereas City lost five league games between October and mid-January last season, they’ve lost only one game since then.

But although City did indeed dig in and go even deeper into the Guardiola philosophy, it would be wrong to suggest that the manager hasn’t adapted his style this season, and to stunning effect. The Blues may well have had the lion’s share of possession in all of their games, but there’s still something more direct about their approach with so much pace on the counter-attack. And they can score scrappy goals, too, just like we saw in the Manchester derby last weekend.

The addition of Ederson has also been of vital importance, not just because of his ability on the ball, positioning himself towards the centre circle and cutting off the opposition’s ability to play balls over the top of City’s pushed-up defence, but also because of his kicking ability. Ederson’s incredible accuracy on long kicks, both out of his hands and from the ground, has given City the option of going long when under pressure even without a target man to hit.

Last season, City tried to play out from the back even when they were marked man for man from goal kicks. This season, if the opposition do that, they’ll leave space further up the pitch, and Ederson can find it.

So City have adapted this season and seem to have found the magic formula at present. But it all started with the last time Tottenham came to the Etihad.

This time, it’ll be a different game, between a team two teams who are on form. It’s just that City are on the best form of any team English football has ever produced. But if Spurs were the start of City’s decline a year ago, and the start of their revival at the start of this calendar year, would it really be all that surprising if they were the start of their descent back to mortality again?

[ad_pod ]

According to reports in Italian media outlet La Stampa, via Tuttomercatoweb, Liverpool have been told they must pay €60m (approximately £53m) if they want to sign Fiorentina winger Federico Chiesa in the summer.

What’s the word, then?

Well, La Stampa, via Tuttomercatoweb, says that the Serie A outfit view the attacker as the jewel in their crown, and Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Inter Milan, Juventus, Napoli, Roma and Paris Saint-Germain are all monitoring the 20-year-old.

However La Stampa, via Tuttomercatoweb, says that because the forward has only recently extended his stay with the Viola until 2022, it will take at least £53m to prise him away.

How has Chiesa done this season?

Despite only turning 20 years of age in October, the winger is already a regular in the Fiorentina side.

In 15 Serie A appearances this term, the versatile attacker has scored four goals and provided a further three assists.

Chiesa has shown his attacking abilities and threat in the final third and according to Squawka he has created 16 chances, winning 25 fouls and successfully completing 18 of the 33 take-ons he has attempted.

Would he be a good signing for Liverpool?

He certainly could be in the future, yes.

The 20-year-old looks to have plenty of potential and quality, but you would have to question whether the Reds need him considering the wealth of attacking options they already have.

With Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, Philippe Coutinho and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain just some of the options available to Jurgen Klopp right now, you wouldn’t think that they need Chiesa – especially for what would be a club-record fee.

If he is to cost more than £50m, you would expect the Merseyside outfit to steer clear and expect to concentrate on strengthening their backline next summer.

[ad_pod ]

Uruguay international striker Edinson Cavani has been made available for transfer by Paris Saint-Germain, according to Sport.

What’s the story, then?

The report claims that PSG talisman Neymar would prefer that Cavani left the club this summer as their relationship suffered irreparable damage when they fell out last season.

It goes on to say that as a result, the French champions have made the striker available for transfer as his days at the club are numbered without the approval of Neymar.

They also report that they want Luis Suarez – Cavani’s international strike partner and Neymar’s former Barcelona team-mate – to replace Cavani.

[ad_pod ]

Man United should pounce

Manchester United have been linked with a summer move for another target man in Mario Mandzukic but Cavani is another two or three levels up from the Juventus man.

His speed, work-rate and finishing are all on another level to the ponderous Croatian, and valued at £54m by Transfermarkt, Cavani could provide genuine competition for Romelu Lukaku at Old Trafford.

Mandzukic would be little more than an uninspiring backup option, brought in to maintain Jose Mourinho’s ability to get his side to play direct football when Lukaku is out, but Cavani would spark off the entire attack.

Now that he’s on the market, United simply must be right at the front of the queue.