Leeds United will be under no illusion of the importance of their performance when they head to east London this afternoon for their Premier League clash with West Ham United.

The Whites are in a precarious position in the top flight table as they are two points from safety ahead of their penultimate fixture, and Sam Allardyce must find the perfect recipe to take all three points from their opponents to keep the survival chances as high as possible.

Indeed, Leeds showed promising signs of their capabilities in their fight to retain their Premier League status when they took a point away from their Elland Road outing against Newcastle United last weekend, but there is still a lot of work left to be done to escape the bottom three over the remaining two games.

Goals are going to be the key for all the teams fighting off the drop into the Championship, something Allardyce will be all too familiar with having expertly led the likes of Sunderland, Bolton Wanderers and Crystal Palace to survival in the past to name a few.

As a result, the Leeds boss must carefully consider who can be relied upon to deliver those moments of magic in front of goal in the dying days of the season and boldly ditching Patrick Bamford could in fact be the move that saves their season.

Will Patrick Bamford start vs West Ham?

The £70k-per-week striker has been a huge disappointment over the campaign and displayed once again against the Magpies that he is lacking confidence and quality in the final third.

Over his 89-minute performance, Bamford had just one shot on target, completed only 14 accurate passes and lost five duels, but it was his penalty miss that really summed up the centre-forward's struggles.

The game-defining penalty miss that would've put the West Yorkshire club 2-0 up in front of the home support led to heavy criticism, with BBC Sport Pundit Matt Kilgallon claiming on BBC Radio Leeds (via MOT Leeds News) that the striker needs to be dropped:

"I said for the Leicester game, I think we should’ve taken him out. And you saw it in the game, he did two kicks out of his hands. He’s never done that before in his life. In training, he’d be able to hit a sign from 60 yards away with no problem."

"Just with Bamford now, for his own good, I’m not saying he might be wishing he’s taken out. But maybe, that penalty today, could someone have taken that off him and taken that pressure off him?"

In fact, the Leeds striker – dubbed "anonymous" by journalist Beren Cross – has only scored four league goals this season in 27 appearances, with a goal scored every 371 minutes which is just not consistent enough if the side are going to have any hope of staying up.

Luckily, Allardyce has some sound attacking players to lean on as Rodrigo thrived in the centre-forward role over the first half of the season during Bamford's absence through injury, tallying up a total of 14 goals and two assists in all competitions so far.

With that being said, the former England manager has a huge decision to make in his attacking threat as the starting eleven he selects this afternoon could ultimately be season-defining for the Whites.

Leeds United youngster Wilfried Gnonto could potentially make a return to Serie A in the summer transfer window, according to a fresh rumour regarding his future.

Has Gnonto shone in a Leeds shirt?

The £20,000-a-week attacker has become an exciting figure at Elland Road during his short time at the club, having joined from FC Zurich last year – with the Italian chipping in with two goals and four assists in the Premier League this season.

The Whites are struggling badly to remain in the top flight, however, and they need results to go hugely in their favour this weekend if they are to avoid playing Championship football for the first time since the 2019/20 campaign.

Should Leeds go down, it could lead to an exodus involving a number of key players, and Gnonto could be one of them, even though his current deal doesn't expire until the summer of 2027.

Could Gnonto return to Serie A?

According to Calcio Web [via Sport Witness], "there is an agreement" for Gnonto to return to Serie A at the end of the season, with Leeds currently facing the prospect of demotion. Sassuolo are name-checked in the report and are planning to take the "decisive shot" to sign the 19-year-old, and a deal in the region of €10-15m (£8.6-13m) "could be concluded".

In truth, it would be hard to begrudge Gnonto wanting to leave the Whites if they get relegated this weekend, with the youngster unlikely to be keen on playing Championship football next term. This is a player who already has 10 caps to his name for Italy despite his tender years, as well as being hailed as "very direct" by Gary Neville – and someone he is a "huge admirer" of.

To lose such a talented young footballer so soon would be a massive blow for Leeds and highlight how disappointing this season has been for them, and if the Italian does demand to return to his homeland in the summer, it is essential that the club get as much money as possible for him.

Should the Whites pull off the impossible on Sunday afternoon and remain in the Premier League, the situation could certainly change, but for now, supporters may have to accept that this weekend could be the final time they get to see Gnonto in a Leeds shirt.

Liverpool's campaign has been turbulent at best, calamitous at worst.

Jurgen Klopp has bathed in adulation since taking the reins on Merseyside and rightly so, but he must now weather the storm and criticism after the Reds failed to clamber back from their dismal form and salvage top four, ending a six-year streak of qualifying for the competition which no other English outfit boasts better exploits within.

Change is afoot, however, with the summer exodus comprised of Roberto Firmino, James Milner, Naby Keita, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain forthcoming – stricken loanee Arthur will also leave with 13 competitive minutes to his name.

The Premier League outfit have consequently been at the centre of a melange of transfer rumours of late, with none more prominent than the pursuit of Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder Alexis Mac Allister, with the Seagulls reportedly demanding £70m for his signature.

However, Klopp and co could actually forget about the Argentine by unleashing a precocious talent already on Anfield's books; Fabio Carvalho has looked promising this season but has yet to cement his place in the match-day squad with regularity, despite some big moments.

Speaking exclusively to Football FanCast, The Redmen TV's Paul Machin waxed lyrical over the 20-year-old, highlighting his burgeoning qualities and insinuating that he could play a major role under Klopp's wing across the coming years.

Machin said: "He's small, he's technical, he's actually quite quick. I think he's a tremendous little player. He's got a great eye for goal, he's got an uncanny knack to arrive in the right place at the right time, in terms of scoring goals.

"The best example of that? Well, two great examples are the late winner against Newcastle at Anfield, and [his goal] against Manchester City in the League Cup quarter-finals as well. Two really instinctive goals."

How good could Fabio Carvalho be at Liverpool?

Liverpool signed the Portuguese starlet for £5m plus add-ons from Fulham last summer after missing out on the talent the previous winter, and despite playing a largely peripheral role has popped up with some big moments for the Reds, hailed as a "special player" by Klopp.

Notably, his seasonal highlight came against high-fliers Newcastle United, scoring a late winner at Anfield in the early phases of the campaign after netting against Bournemouth in the previous match, Liverpool winning that one by a record-equalling 9-0.

Netting against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup too, albeit this one ending in defeat, Carvalho certainly seems to have that 'knack' for sniffing out goals, but his game is not determined by his goal-scoring feats.

Indeed, as per FBref, the £40k-per-week gem ranks among the top 1% of midfielders across Europe's top five leagues for rate of non-penalty goals and the top 1% for total shots per 90, but he also ranks among the top 11% for progressive carries, 1% for touches in the attacking box and the top 9% for rate of blocks per 90, and considering his lack of minutes on Merseyside this term, this underscored his burgeoning threat as a positive, box-crashing force from the centre.

He could indeed displace plans to secure the signing of Mac Allister, who has scored 12 goals and supplied three assists across all competitions for Albion this term and gleaned the World Cup with Argentina, heralded as his side's "golden boy" by content creator Ryan Adsett.

But Mac Allister is a midfielder who thrives upon an associative style, instigating swift forward transitions, driving forward like a charging ram and utilising his crisp short passing to unlock defences.

This is not unlike Carvalho, who is already demonstrating his aptitude at carrying the ball up-field and slotting himself into pockets of space.

He's a gem, unrefined, but glistening all the same, and with apt work in nurturing him to the fore of his capacity, he could emerge as a key component to Klopp's Liverpool team – a blitzing presence in the centre.

كشفت تقارير صحفية عن موقف الألماني يورجن كلوب من تدريب برشلونة، بعد الرحيل عن صفوف ليفربول.

ويغادر كلوب منصبه كمدير فني لليفربول بنهاية الموسم الجاري، حيث سبق وأعلن ذلك بصفة رسمية في يناير الماضي.

وفي الوقت ذاته، أعلن تشافي هيرنانديز مدرب برشلونة، أنه لن يستمر مدربًا للفريق بعد نهاية الموسم الحالي.

ووفقًا لـ “راديو كاتالونيا” كلوب هو رغبة خوان لابورتا رئيس برشلونة، لتدريب الفريق خلفًا لتشافي.

وعلى الرغم من ذلك، لا يعتزم كلوب تدريب برشلونة حيث يرغب المدرب الألماني في فترة من الراحة.

اقرأ أيضًا | أوباميانج: كلوب يمنحك كل شيء وأتمنى أن يكون مدربًا لـ برشلونة

ويوضح التقرير أن نية الرئيس خوان لابورتا كانت إجراء مكالمة مع كلوب لمحاولة إقناعه بقبول تحدي برشلونة والتخلي عن فكرة فترة الراحة.

ويُستبعد كلوب أن يكون مدربًا لبرشلونة الموسم المقبل، ولن تغير دعوة لابورتا ولا أي مشروع آخر رأيه الآن.

ويؤكد المقربون من المدرب الألماني أنه لا يوجد خيار أمام كلوب لتدريب برشلونة العام المقبل.

Even though the result of the first Test between New Zealand and Zimbabwe was decided before Sunday, captains Kane Williamson and Graeme Cremer did not expect the match to end without a fight

Firdose Moonda in Bulawayo31-Jul-2016

Even though the result of the first Test between New Zealand and Zimbabwe was decided before Sunday, captains Kane Williamson and Graeme Cremer did not expect the match to end without a fight. Williamson already saw signs of it on the first day; Cremer was preparing to be in the thick of it on the fourth.The Zimbabwe captain had already bowled 53 overs, including a marathon spell of 26 on the second day, batted for half an hour to drag the game out a little longer at the end of the third but he knew the fourth day would bring it’s greatest challenge: to ensure that even though Zimbabwe were going to lose, they would lose with some respectability.”We spoke about it after the first innings. We thought we were a little bit soft upfront but being in the field for so long, we realised what Test cricket is about,” Cremer said. “We watched them (New Zealand) bat. They didn’t play any shots out of frustration or anger and we wanted to do the same.”Despite the frustration of being so far behind the game and the anger that his men had not executed themselves as well as they could have, Cremer did not let that bleed into his batting. For five minutes short of three hours, he stoically saw off a New Zealand attack that was pushing for a quick result. He accepted the body blows that included being hit in the ribs, on the shoulder and on the arm he broke just before the World T20, which still has a plate in it. He let his team-mate Sean Williams, who had spent the past two days in the grip of a flu that has spread to more than half the Zimbabwean squad, have his moment in the sun.”I knew batting with Sean, he scored quite freely anyway, so I knew I had to play the supporting role. He was hitting a boundary an over and we didn’t need to score quicker than that. I just needed to stay there,” Cremer said. “He was feeling quite ill but credit to him. He was a little bit loose when he got out to bat and got a bit lucky but there he dominated. The player that he is, he can do that on wickets like this. He has got good hands and good eyes.”Williams’ century, the fastest by a Zimbabwean in Tests and decorated with 21 fours that included cover drives, sweeps and a ramp shot, will overshadow Cremer’s silent resistance at the other end, Craig Ervine’s first fifty, Donald Tiripano’s unbeaten 49 and Prince Masvaure’s impressive 42 on debut, and it should. But collectively, all those performances speak to a Zimbabwean batting line-up that is not as fragile as it looked when twin collapses saw it fall to 72 for 8 in the first innings and a top-order meltdown reduced them to 17 for 4 in the second.As the game progressed, the batsmen’s long-format muscle memory kicked in. At the same time, the New Zealand attack could not sustain the level of aggression that had seen them surge into the advantage earlier. Neil Wagner could not keep banging in the short ball, the hint of movement Tim Southee found was eventually lost and Trent Boult reached a top speed of 132kph but kept his average at 128.2kph. Williamson had expected all of that to happen.”The way we bowled in the first innings was a huge part of how we got ahead. When you are tying to bowl that again, it’s going to be extremely challenging,” he said. “Sometimes, on surfaces like this one, you need to try and be a little bit creative. You want to try and make things hostile and difficult but you also need to be patent and build pressure. It was a very good effort to get 20 wickets. We knew it was going to be tough. We had to fight very hard to pick up the wickets that we did.”Williamson had to use creative field placings, his spinners and a lot of patience while he waited for Wagner to find reverse-swing as the ball reached the end of it’s lifetime. He understood that things would happen slower than they had in the first innings but trusted that they would eventually happen. “Neil has showed us he can be pretty creative with the older ball which is useful on surfaces that are not offering swing,” Williamson said.Ross Taylor was preferred as the Man of the Match over Wagner but it was clear that even Williamson thought his left-armer was the man who changed the game. “That first innings put us ahead of the game. It was extremely important to have some hostile bowling on a surface that didn’t offer much,” he said.In the end, Zimbabwe lost the real fight on the first morning but they will take heart from knowing they picked themselves out to compete in the smaller battles that came later on.

Manchester United are believed to be stepping up their interest in Napoli ace, Kim Min-jae, with the Red Devils seemingly ready to engage in negotiations regarding a move for the South Korean defender.

What's the latest on Kim Min-jae to Man United?

That's according to journalist Rudi Galetti, with the transfer insider revealing on Twitter that the Old Trafford outfit have already made contact with the player's representatives and are now keen to "open talks" with the Serie A champions.

He revealed: "MUFC want to strengthen the defence in the summer, confirmed. Kim (Napoli) is in their list: first contacts with the [Korean's] agents already done, now Man Utd are ready to open talks with Napoli.

"The [English] club – to speed things up – could pay the release clause".

As Galetti noted above, Erik ten Hag and co could seemingly trigger the 26-year-old's reported €50m (£43m) release clause this summer, with new defensive reinforcements likely to be needed amid reports that club captain, Harry Maguire could be allowed to depart.

What is Kim Min-jae's style of play?

Interestingly – as per Forbes – the former Fenerbahce centre-back has been 'compared' to United legend Nemanja Vidic due to his steely defensive approach, with the hope being that Kim can go on to prove an ideal heir to the now-retired titan.

In truth, the Red Devils have been longing for a consistent defensive partnership since the days of Vidic and Rio Ferdinand, with the likes of Eric Bailly, Marcos Rojo, Victor Lindelof and Maguire having all failed to truly cement their place in the backline in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era.

In the case of the Serbian colossus, the 36-cap ace – who arrived in Manchester in 2006 – would ultimately rack up five Premier League titles and make 300 appearances during his stint at the club, having been hailed by ex-teammate Ryan Giggs as "probably the best defender" that the Welshman played with.

The dominant brute was particularly lauded due to his no-nonsense approach to defending, with another former colleague – Gary Neville – having previously stated: "He has been an outstanding performer, a good old-fashioned defender who loves to head the ball and loves to tackle.

"He is infectious in the way he makes everybody around him want to defend in the same manner."

That imposing nature is undoubtedly similar to that of Kim, with the 6 foot 3 sensation having been hailed as "extraordinary" and like an "iron barrel" by teammate Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, having also been described as a "leader" by compatriot and former United man, Park Ji-sung.

The £54k-per-week machine has proven integral in helping to guide his current side to Scudetto glory this season, keeping 14 clean sheets in 33 league starts to date, while also averaging 1.6 tackles and 1.2 interceptions per game as a marker of his defensive prowess.

Much like Vidic – who scored 21 times during his spell at the Theatre of Dreams – Kim is also a real threat in an attacking sense having scored twice and contributed two assists in Serie A this season, ensuring he could be a real weapon in both boxes for Ten Hag's side.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsRemember the way this series began? Angelo Mathews won the toss and chose to bat in Pallekele, and his men were bundled out for 117. They failed even to survive 35 overs. Eight days of cricket later, the series has been decided, and one of these two teams has been completely humiliated. And it’s not Sri Lanka. What a turnaround it has been. Mathews will lift the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy, and Sri Lanka could hardly have won it more comprehensively.In Pallekele, rain and bad light conspired to drag the first Test into its fifth day, but in Galle Australia could not even reach the scheduled halfway point of the match. In less than two and a half days, they had lost an eighth consecutive Test in Asia. The No.1 team in the world had been beaten – crushed, in fact – by No.7. Sri Lanka’s spinners have embarrassed Australia’s batsmen this series, and in Galle it was Dilruwan Perera who starred.Perera picked up 6 for 70 in Australia’s second innings of 183 and became the first Sri Lankan to take 10 wickets and score a half-century in the same Test. Only 25 times in all of Test history has a player achieved that remarkable feat. Along the way, he also became the fastest Sri Lankan to reach the mark of 50 Test wickets, reaching the milestone in this his 11th Test. Perera and Rangana Herath proved unreadable to the Australians, their sliders as dangerous as their spinners.The statistics of note did not end there. Only once in the past 87 years had Australia survived for fewer balls in a Test match they had lost: in Galle they lasted for 501 deliveries across the match, two more than the 499 they faced against West Indies in Port-of-Spain in 1995. It was thus their second-worst performance in that regard since the advent of covered pitches. And for the first time in 19 years, no Australian scored a fifty in a Test.The Sri Lankans were understandably jubilant when the result was confirmed, the final wicket coming from a brilliant run-out effected by Kusal Mendis at bat-pad. Peter Nevill, who had fought off the inevitable for 38 balls, flicked Herath off his pads and took a couple of steps out of his crease, but with remarkable reflexes Mendis managed to get the ball back onto the stumps to find Nevill short.It meant a 229-run win for Sri Lanka and an unassailable 2-0 series lead heading into the third and final Test in Colombo. The result was effectively certain when both teams arrived at the ground on the third morning, the only questions being the margin and the time that Sri Lanka would take to run through Australia’s final seven wickets. Australia started the day at 25 for 3, and before drinks in the second session they were bowled out for 183.David Warner was the first to depart, lbw to Perera when he missed a ball that failed to turn as he expected. Given out on field, Warner asked for a review but received no satisfaction, with replays showing the ball would have hit the leg stump. Steven Smith then departed on 30, caught at bat-pad off Perera, a not-out decision on-field overturned on review.It has been a match full of referrals, and Mathews has proven himself a five-star reviewer. Perhaps his best came when Richard Kettleborough turned down an appeal for lbw against Mitchell Marsh, who thrust his pad well outside off against Lakshan Sandakan. Marsh was not playing a shot, so being struck outside the line did not matter, and Sandakan’s big turn was enough to have the ball hitting the stumps.Marsh was out for 18, and the last of Australia’s specialist batsmen followed not far behind. Adam Voges had employed the reverse sweep liberally throughout his innings, without ever quite looking like he had it perfected, and on 28 the shot brought him undone when he failed to get bat on ball and was bowled by Perera. Sri Lanka were three wickets from triumph at lunch.After the break, it was only a matter of time. Mitchell Starc whacked a six and three fours before he was bowled by Herath trying another big shot, and Josh Hazlewood prodded a return catch to Perera to complete the spinner’s ten-wicket game. Then came the run-out, the celebrations, the glory. Sri Lanka had done it. A new generation had not only won the series but dominated it. And who’d have guessed that after day one in Pallekele?