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When Arne Slot spoke in his pre-match press conference ahead of Liverpool’s trip to Elland Road to face Leeds United, it was pretty sobering for the head coach to suggest that the focus is on securing a place in next year’s Champions League proper, and not battling to defend their hard-won Premier League title.

Slot’s right, of course, with Liverpool so far removed from last year’s indomitable success that talk of mounting a challenge against high-flying Arsenal would be scoffed at by even the most ardent supporters.

Among Liverpool’s biggest problems this season has been a struggle in the build-up, especially on the right side. Trent Alexander-Arnold’s absence is keenly felt, and sporting director Richard Hughes is looking to replace the former vice-captain’s creativity.

Liverpool looking to replace Alexander-Arnold

Liverpool have technically replaced Alexander-Arnold already, signing Jeremie Frimpong for £29.5m this summer. However, neither Frimpong or Conor Bradley boast the same playmaking ability as the 27-year-old, who plies his craft for Real Madrid after leaving Anfield at the end of his contract in June.

The £116m signing of Florian Wirtz was meant to help the passing of the creative torch, but Wirtz’s struggles have been well-documented this season, and, as analyst Raj Chohan puts it, “the build-up combination is horrible” on Liverpool’s right-hand side this season.

Those around him know Wirtz has world-class potential in the Premier League and could become a superstar playmaker, a poster boy. However, he doesn’t really operate down the right lane, and this is where Slot and Hughes need to fix Liverpool’s progressive passing.

Perhaps that’s why FSG are showing an interest in signing Bayern Munich winger Michael Olise, having shortlisted the France international this week, according to German outlet BILD.

Olise, 23, has only gone from strength to strength since swapping Crystal Palace for the Allianz Arena in 2024, and if Liverpool want to secure his signature, ostensibly as Mohamed Salah’s long-term replacement, they will need to pay over £100m.

BILD believe that Liverpool have placed Olise back onto their shortlist despite Bayern’s not-for-sale stance.

What Olise would bring to Liverpool

Alexander-Arnold’s influence at Liverpool cannot be understated. Quite simply, he is a one-of-a-kind type of player, and his departure to Santiago Bernabeu was always going to be more than just a blow to the Anfield side’s pride.

1

Trent Alexander-Arnold

64

2

Andy Robertson

60

3

Leighton Baines

53

4

Graeme Le Saux

44

5

Kieran Trippier

38

Olise might not be a right-back, but he would prove the perfect Salah replacement at right wing in that he would not try to mimic the Egyptian’s clinical output, and instead bring his own flavour to Merseyside.

At Bayern, the former Palace star has posted 29 goals and 34 assists across 76 matches. He is regarded as “one of the best players in the world” by teammate Serge Gnabry.

Physical and athletic, Olise is also near matchless when it comes to creating for his peers, setting up passing patterns and adding pressure in the final third with unplayable passing.

As per FBref, he ranks among the top 1% of attacking midfielders and wingers across Europe’s top five leagues over the past year for assists and shot-creating actions, the top 4% for progressive passes, the top 12% for progressive carries and the top 5% for successful take-ons per 90.

That is not to say he’s a one-trick pony, with fearsome ball-striking qualities that the Premier League’s many defenders and goalkeepers know only too well.

He has proven himself to be a superstar in the English game, and since levelling up in Germany, Olise has fostered the playmaking brilliance that would see him reinvent Slot’s right flank and rekindle the presence of Trent at Anfield.

Huge Gakpo upgrade: £70m "superstar" now keen to join Liverpool in January

Arne Slot’s Liverpool frontline is not quite right this season.

1 ByAngus Sinclair 7 days ago

Their warring fans have united and are now railing together against the team management, while we wait, series on series, to see if they can make it to the 2027 ODI World Cup

Sidharth Monga17-Oct-20252:16

What to expect from Rohit, Kohli in this phase of their careers?

If you are the type that follows cricket for cricket’s sake, you have surely missed them. If, on the other hand, you fiendishly go looking for cricketers’ holiday photos or training photos or reassurance that they matter, you have had your fix.Actually, for once, forget social media, forget the smattering of promotional “content” reminding you how they are getting ready for the “2027 World Cup”. Forget anything that makes you cynical. This is bigger than all the cynicism and PR and pettiness and fan wars.Seven months after they last played international cricket, nearly five months after they were seen playing in the IPL, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are coming back to do what we love them for, in their best format, now their only format for India, against a team that provided the highest purpose in their working lives, in a country that proved to be the scene of their last Tests. It is hard not to be emotional.Related

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Axar: 'It's perfect that Rohit and Virat are here to help with the transition'

Will Ro-Ko play 2027 WC? 'Stay in the present,' says Gambhir

Green ruled out of ODI series against India with side soreness, Labuschagne called up

There will be so much going through our minds and hearts during these three ODIs against Australia in Perth, Adelaide and Sydney. It is a chance to watch again two of the greatest ODI batters of all time. The effortless, almost risk-free accumulation of Kohli, and the joyful explosiveness of Rohit in the back half. Okay, let’s not give in to nostalgia too much. For about three years now, Kohli has been taking risks but with the same efficiency, and Rohit has taken on such high-risk starts that he rarely ever bats into the back half.We will be looking for changes in their appearance, in their fitness, in their games to imagine what they have been up to all this time. For more than a decade, they never went away for this long except during Covid. For more than a decade, our times have been shared. We have given them our hours, they have given us theirs.Now time is what they are running out of. Not just we, but the selectors and the team management will be looking for signs to see if they can last till the 2027 ODI World Cup.Not long ago, these two were making such decisions for others.Neither, arguably, had to make such big calls.Just imagine, Kohli tweets something that is not an ad and news channels end up doing shows deciphering the meaning and significance of the tweet only for him to reveal that it was a teaser for an ad. This happened on Thursday.5:49

Agarkar on Kohli-Rohit: ‘Too early to think about 2027 ODI World Cup’

These are huge names. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Ro-Ko is how this series is being sold everywhere. At some point, without us noticing, these two supposedly bitter rivals became hyphenated. At first, it was just a media creation, but look at them now. One gets selected for the T20 World Cup because the other is the captain and you can’t drop just one of them. They end up winning the title, and retiring together. Their Test career ends in the same series. Now their “fan armies” are united in their hatred for the team management.A part of that team management is a young man, who has already benefitted immensely from these two. Kohli has always been a barometer for Shubman Gill, somebody whose scores at the same age the kid Shubman used to check to measure up to. Rohit’s new incarnation of a fiery opener has allowed Gill the ODI opener the time to be able to play a more sedate role and accumulate relatively risk-free runs.Now Gill has to be part of the decision on whether his trusted Test opener Yashasvi Jaiswal will serve him better than Rohit. Not just in this series and the next, but two years down the line. He has to decide whether the hyphen is fair on Kohli, who might have arguably benefitted from it in T20Is.We will watch not knowing if any given series could be the last for one or both of them. We will wait for every ODI series selection. For now, though, we will savour the three full ODIs. For we have missed them. And there the hyphen is okay.

There wasn’t much turn or bounce in the game where India toiled over 200 overs straight, following their decision to enforce the follow-on

Karthik Krishnaswamy13-Oct-20253:50

Washington Sundar: ‘Important to not chase the result’

If the Chennai defeat to England in 2021 made India switch from flat home pitches that took turn in the second innings to square turners, the shock 3-0 reverse to New Zealand last year made them rethink the latter strategy.During the ongoing two-Test series against West Indies, India have stated their desire to play on balanced pitches that give batters the chance of scoring big runs, particularly in the first innings.The plan worked out perfectly in the first Test against West Indies in Ahmedabad, where India rushed to an innings win in three days, but it may have hit a bit of a snag in Delhi, where India are poised to take the series 2-0 going into day five, but only after their bowlers slogged for nearly 200 overs — all in one go following their decision to enforce the follow-on — to bowl West Indies out twice.Related

• 'It's about taking the right options' – Gill on first series win as Test captain

• Kuldeep's stump vision defies flat Delhi pitch

• India 58 runs away from 2-0 sweep of West Indies

• Centuries and time at the crease ease West Indies' crisis

Could this prompt another rethink? India allrounder Washington Sundar isn’t thinking about all that; for now he’s happy to experience the variety of challenges that different venues throw up.”It’s quite different in different venues, isn’t it?” he said in his press conference at the end of day four. “This I would say is a typical Delhi wicket, where there’s not much bounce, and obviously there wasn’t a lot of turn on offer in this game. But yeah, different venues play quite differently, and that’s the beauty of this format in particular.India were on the field for over 200 overs in Delhi after enforcing the follow-on against West Indies•Associated Press

“We play in a lot of different conditions, be it home or away, and obviously all those conditions and the opposition challenge our skillsets, and that’s the beauty of this format. We keep going. We try and assess what’s really required in those conditions and really be on top of a game and do something special for the team.”India’s spin trio of Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington bowled 143.5 overs across the two West Indies innings, and picked up 13 wickets between them.”On this kind of a wicket you just need to be patient and try and hit those [good] areas more consistently, and that’s the only challenge,” Washington said. “It’s good to be bowling long spells, and it’s very heartening to have actually taken 20 wickets on a wicket like this. All of the bowlers bowled really well, even the fast bowlers bowled their heart out every single spell, so it’s very heartening.”John Campbell and Shai Hope led West Indies’ fight in their follow-on innings, scoring centuries and putting on 177 for the third wicket. Washington praised them for settling into their partnership by taking calculated risks to spread the field.”Honestly, Campbell and Hope played really well,” Washington said. “They took their chances, and once the field was spread out they were really sensible with their game as well.”India, Washington felt, were well-prepared for spending long hours on the field, having played their last Test series in England, where all five Tests went into the fifth day. “The England series definitely made us understand what it actually feels like to be on the field for five days, because even in England we fielded for about 180-200 overs every game, so this definitely isn’t something very new to us.”2:43

Chopra: Credit to West Indies for pushing India into day five

Since his return to the Test team during the New Zealand series last year, Washington has often played as one of three allrounders in India’s line-up. This has meant he’s ended up playing more of a batting-heavy role in some games and a bowling-heavy role in others; in this series, he’s only got to bat once so far in three innings, with India declaring after he had faced 13 balls in that one innings.”It’s just been a blessing, honestly,” Washington said. “To be an allrounder is really heartening, because you’re always in the game, either with the ball or bat, and you have a great opportunity with both skillsets to make an impact for the team and eventually win the game for the team. I’ve got to thank god for all the skills he’s blessed me with.”In Test cricket it’s better to have as many allrounders [as possible], because if you go back and see, most of the teams who have dominated Test cricket for many years, I think they’ve had good-quality allrounders in their line-up, and I’d say we’ve got some really quality allrounders in our team as well.”While this is not necessarily true of the West Indies teams that dominated world cricket in the 1970s and 80s or the Australia team of the 2000s, it is certainly true of the India sides that won every home series they played from 2013 until the loss to New Zealand last year, with spin-bowling allrounders Jadeja, R Ashwin and later Axar Patel and Washington himself adding depth and heft to both the bowling and batting.Starting their fourth-innings pursuit of 121 late on Monday evening, India began as if they were looking to end the game on day four itself, with Yashasvi Jaiswal hitting two fours in the first over before falling in the second while attempting a big hit down the ground. They knuckled down thereafter to ensure no other wicket fell, with KL Rahul and B Sai Sudharsan putting on an unbroken 54 to take India into day five needing a further 58 runs to win.”A lot of you all also would have liked it if the game got over today,” Washington joked to the assembled mediapersons. “Jaiswal did his best — on another day he would have definitely finished [it] today.”

The Milwaukee Brewers suddenly find themselves with one of the best records in baseball, and they are reportedly acting the part.

The Brewers are finalizing the acquisition of catcher Danny Jansen from the Tampa Bay Rays, according to a Monday afternoon report from Jeff Passan of ESPN. Jansen, a 30-year-old native of Elmhurst, Ill., has spent his entire eight-year career in the American League East division with the Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox and Rays.

Jansen has played in 73 games for Tampa Bay this season, slashing .204/.314/.389 with 11 home runs and 29 RBIs. He remains better known for his glove, with his 1.2 defensive bWAR exceeding his 1.1 offensive bWAR.

According to Will Sammon of , the Rays will take back High-A infielder Jadher Areinamo in the deal. Tampa Bay is also reportedly acquiring catcher Nick Fortes from the Miami Marlins to spell Jansen, per Ken Rosenthal of .

His current one-year contract carries a mutual option for 2026. The Rays are 53-53, and sit three games back of the AL's final wild-card slot.

Milwaukee, on the other hand, is on a protracted tear that has the team tied with the Chicago Cubs for the NL Central lead.

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O Palmeiras vive certamente a fase mais vitoriosa de sua história e junto com ela, o clube consegue consolidar um trabalho de base que nasceu lá em 2013 e hoje, 10 anos depois, rende frutos mais do que mágicos e milionários ao Verdão.

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Luís Guilherme, Endrick e Estevão brigam por titularidade no atual bicampeão brasileiro, mas o prazo para a torcida ver os três atuando juntos já está se esgotando.

Abel Ferreira jamais escalou os três como titulares para jogarem juntos, e só tem mais nove jogos para fazer isso, uma vez que Endrick está de malas prontas para o Real Madrid.

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Endrick e Estevão já se tornaram titulares do time e Luís Guilherme vai pedindo passagem por uma vaga entre os 11 do Verdão, seja no Brasileiro, Libertadores ou Copa do Brasil.

O trio de meninos canhotos que encantou a torcida alviverde nos últimos jogos é prova viva da mudança dos olhares do clube pra sua categoria de base, que pode render 1 bilhão de reais aos cofres do clube com somente com essas três vendas.

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O Palmeiras hoje é um clube que vence, mas que também forma, e ver esses três juntos em campo seria como um sonho pra quem jamais imaginava ver a categoria de base do clube com o protagonismo que ela tem hoje.

➡️ A boa do Lance! Betting: vamos dobrar seu primeiro depósito, até R$200! Basta abrir sua conta!

Faz essa por nós e por eles, Abel.