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In terms of results, it’s all quite gloomy on the red side of Manchester at the moment. United sit eighth in the Premier League table, behind Watford, and they have accumulated fewer goals at this stage of the campaign than they previously had under David Moyes and Louis Van Gaal.

This comes despite the fact that the squad includes £90m midfielder Paul Pogba and superstars Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who were all signed this summer.

However, in terms of performances, United have, arguably, been unlucky. Last weekend, the Red Devils smashed more than 35 shots against Burnley and still couldn’t beat Tom Heaton in goal.

On another day, United might’ve won three or four nil and people would have claimed that they were back on track but, as it is, United are eight points off first and, more worryingly, seven points off the top four.

For the self-proclaimed biggest team in England, if not in the world, that is simply not good enough.

Mourinho has a lot to answer for, and here are FOUR issues he needs to address before Swansea away this weekend…

Is Bastian Schweinsteiger back the fold?

On Monday afternoon the experienced German midfielder, who had previously been axed from Mourinho’s plans, appeared to be training with the first-team once again.

Earlier in the season, he was working with the U-23s before being made to train individually.

‘Schweini’ has still been supporting United on Twitter but apart from that, there has been little sign of the German until now.

There’s a long way to go before he might become part of the first XI, but this was the first step. Mourinho needs to decide, though, if he’s a player he can use in a bid to turn things around.

Should Ibrahimovic keep his place?

Ibrahimovic got off to a great start in England, scoring four goals in his first four Premier League matches.

It appeared he had simply carried his momentum on from his record-breaking season at PSG across the Channel, but the drought has arrived, and it’s arrived in spectacular style.

The Swede hasn’t hasn’t scored in six matches – his longest barren spell since his days at Inter in 2007.

Not only is he not scoring, but he is missing chances, and some good ones, too.

He’s always been a player who scores great goals out of nothing but if you’re struggling to finish off standard chances, your place in the first XI must come into question, right?

Is Wayne Rooney back in the first-team picture?

Since Manchester United’s victory against Leicester City this season, Rooney has been dropped to the bench for the Red Devils.

His performances have come into question over the past three years but the Merseyside-born striker was yet to be dropped until this season.

After dismantling Leicester, everyone seemed to think that the reason for United’s early fragility was due to Rooney’s slowing presence in the team.

However, the Red Devils are now winless in three matches in the Premier League and Rooney has been out of the XI for all of those games.

Whilst he did make short cameo appearances, it would appear that blaming Rooney was premature.

There’s obviously a bigger problem at Old Trafford, so does Rooney deserve another go?

What to do with the defence?

Manchester United’s only defensive signing this summer, Eric Bailly (pictured above), was injured in their humiliation at the hands of Chelsea a couple of weeks ago.

With recent injuries to Chris Smalling and Antonio Valencia, as well as Phil Jones being a long-term absentee, whether or not United need defensive reinforcements seems to be a debate.

Whilst they have defended well so far with Daley Blind and Marcos Rojo, there is no way that can be the long-term solution.

United are in desperate need for significant defensive strengthening, although it’s not the only position they could improve in.

Mourinho needs to settle on a system in the meantime and weight up his options going forward.

After a blistering start to the season with 10 straight wins in all competitions, easing past teams with a superb style of football, Pep Guardiola is beginning to get the feel of why the Premier League is regarded as the most difficult league in the world.

Still suffering from the hang over of losing 3-1 to  Chelsea, the Catalan then suffered yet another loss at the hands of a Leicester City side that had not won a League game in five..

Even without the services of key players like Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho, City were expected to get a result given the superiority in quality between both sides. But Jamie Vardy had other ideas, scoring a hat-trick to condemn the Etihad giants to a disappointing 4-2 defeat. Up until the two late goals, Pep was heading towards his worst defeat of his managerial career.

The Spanish boss surely has a lot of thinking to do or risk enduring the worst league season of his career. With 15 games played, Claudio Bravo has more often than not been in the news for all the wrong reasons. The Chilean has kept just one clean sheet in his last 13 league outings.

But the blame can’t all go to the ex-Barcelona stopper as the four in front of him have not helped matters. Nicholas Otamendi was pushed off the ball far too easily by Diego Costa for Chelsea’s equaliser two weekends ago, while Alexandar Kolarov has found it difficult adapting to an unfamiliar centre-back role.

Out of the side mostly due to injuries, what the City fans would give for the return of Vincent Kompany. His presence has surely been missed throughout the period that he has been out. And what about John Stones? We all know he is an incredible footballer, but so often GE reminds us of the old David Luiz.

He is increasingly becoming prone to errors, costing his team with his lack of concentration and over-confident style of play, always trying to be too clever. At fault for Vardy’s third, the ex-Everton player has directly cost his team on five occasionS leading to goalS – the most by any defender in the division this season.

Guardiola  has won only three league games since his side’s 2-0 loss to Tottenham at White Hart Lane. City are currently short of confidence at the moment and are not helped by the current double suspension of star striker Sergio Aguero and midfield enforcer Fernandinho.

Pep has failed to win the league title just once in his last seven years as a manager but with damaging defeats in the last two games, coupled with difficult festive games against Arsenal and Liverpool coming up, once could become twice unless he addresses the issues surrounding his team’s form sooner rather than later.

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Manchester City’s season has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride, with the Citizens excelling in the first month or so before starting to struggle, but they were at their best on Friday evening to sweep aside West Ham United.

Securing a 5-0 victory to seal their place in the FA Cup fourth-round, Manchester City showed why they’re a team to fear in the competition this season but Pep Guardiola reiterated it’s his responsibility when his side doesn’t perform.

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Quoted by The Daily Mail, Guardiola admitted his side had suffered at times this season.

“In the first part of the season some really good games and good performances. But the moment we felt mistakes, especially in defence — at White Hart Lane, at Celtic — we lost our confidence to play a little bit.”

“And of course at times my ideas were not good, because I’m still in the process to know the players; what is the best position, the best way to play, to adapt to them. Sometimes I have an idea; three at the back, or play a player like this. And sometimes it didn’t work and when that happens it is always the manager.”

“I never complain to the players because, when I see them training, how they suffer and what they did in the last game against Burnley, after 65, 70 minutes with 10 against 11, two days after the game at Anfield, they want to do it.”

“You have to look at yourself and see what you have to do to help them find each other and play to each other more fluently, not all the time with aggression. And that’s my job. I have to help them. And I tell them. And most of the times we were not good, it was my responsibility.”

Manchester City travel to Everton this weekend, before facing Tottenham Hotspur in a crucial battle in the Champions League race.

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As reported in an exclusive by The Sun, West Ham are eyeing a shock move for England international goalkeeper Joe Hart this summer.

What’s the word?

West Ham’s first choice goalkeeper Adrian’s contract expires at the end of the season, with the Hammers holding an option to extend for a further two years.

However, The Sun report that Bilic is willing to listen to reasonable offers for the Spanish goalkeeper in the summer.

The paper reckons that West Ham are seeking an elite goalkeeper to join their ranks and have put Manchester City’s Joe Hart, currently on loan at Torino is Serie A, at the top of their wishlist.

The Sun says that West Ham are willing to meet City’s £15m valuation of the shot stopper.

Still good enough for the Premier League?

A lot has been said about Joe Hart over the last 18 months. A few high profile errors have coloured people’s opinion of him and there are some who reckon he might not have what it takes to either play for England or for an ambitious Premier League clubs.

Hart has been in excellent form for Torino this season. He’s helped the Italian club to 5 clean sheets this season with two of those coming in the last two fixtures.

A return home would bring a lot of media attention and speculation but if he can get back to making excellent saves again, that would soon die down.

With the future of Adrian now reported to be uncertain and Darren Randolph not an ideal long-term solution to the position, perhaps a move to West Ham would be beneficial to all parties. Joe Hart can prove he still has what it takes and West Ham get a fine international goalkeeper on their hands that is an improvement on what they have.

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Everton midfielder Tom Cleverley is on the verge of finalising a loan move to Watford, reports Sky Sports News.

What’s the word?

The 13-capped England international has failed to hold down a place in Everton’s first team.

In fact, the 27-year-old has started just four Premier League games under Ronald Koeman this season.

He has made 10 appearances altogether in the top flight, and two in the EFL Cup, but it seems as though his role as a squad player could change.

Sky Sports claim that the midfielder will have a medical today after Everton and Watford agreed on a loan deal, which could turn permanent at the end of the season.

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Cleverley joined the Merseyside outfit from Manchester United in June 2015 and made 22 league appearances, scoring two goals and creating four assists in his first season.

Does Cleverley suit Watford?

Well, for one, he will get more game time at Vicarage Road and consistency from him could help the Hornets retain their top-flight status.

At Manchester United and Everton, Cleverley struggled to become first choice, meaning that he had brief spells in the team, which can stunt development.

At the age of 27, the Englishman should have the ability to perform, but he has not been given much of a chance by Koeman.

Expectations are high on any homegrown talent coming through the ranks at United, and it was no different for Cleverley, but he made the right call in leaving when he realised his game time was limited.

He seems to be in a similar situation at Goodison Park, so a fresh start at Watford could be what he needs, particularly as he has played for the Hornets before.

Cleverley won the player of the season award after making more than 30 appearances during a loan spell at Watford during the 2009-10 campaign.

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It’s been a tough season for Daniel Sturridge at Liverpool.

Far from ripping apart Premier League defences in tandem with Luis Suarez on a weekly basis in 2013/14, the England international has managed just six goals across all competitions, four of which came in the EFL Cup against Championship outfit Burton and a severely weakened Spurs side.

The 27-year-old was in EFL Cup action once again at Anfield on Wednesday night, but two fantastic chances passed him by as Southampton marched onwards to Wembley with an impressive 2-0 aggregate win – a real masterclass in counter-attacking football.

Needless to say, Sturridge has had up plenty of stick since the final whistle, with Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher even claiming it’s like the Reds are playing with ten men when he’s on the pitch sometimes.

Undoubtedly, Sturridge is a shadow of the striker we saw at Anfield a few years ago – and here are THREE key statistics that sum up his ongoing Liverpool plight.

Performance against Southampton

Sturridge was by no means the only culprit as Liverpool were dumped out of the EFL Cup but nonetheless, the performance epitomised how he’s struggled this season.

Throughout the 90 minutes, in addition to passing up two glorious opportunities to score, the England forward managed just one shot on target, two successful dribbles and one created chance. Perhaps most worryingly, he finished up with the fewest touches and fewest passes of any Reds player.

A tough evening amid a very tough season for the former Manchester City and Chelsea starlet.

Sturridge vs. the best in the Prem

To give credit where it’s due, Carragher’s claims don’t quite stand up against the statistics.

Indeed, when compared on per-90-minute metrics rather than per-appearance, Sturridge’s all-round contribution is pretty much in line with the Premier League’s top performing forwards this season, namely Diego Costa, Harry Kane, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alexis Sanchez. In fact, he ranks first in terms of shots and duels won and second for successful dribbles – only bettered by the Arsenal talisman, who’s had the benefit of room out wide for significant portions of the campaign.

Inevitably, however, it’s hard to overlook Sturridge’s modest return of goals and assists.

Life under Klopp

That being said, it’s quite clear Sturridge just doesn’t fit into this Liverpool team under Klopp.

His strike-rate has dropped from better than one-in-two and his win rate has slumped by a very significant 10%. Of course, injuries have been a factor and some argue the England international simply isn’t the player he once was, but these statistics suggest a more accommodating manager, such as Brendan Rodgers, could quickly bring out the best in Sturridge once again. Time to move on?

The saga of Mark Warburton’s management at Rangers reached a dramatic climax on Friday night after a series of bizarre developments made it clear he would no longer be the man to take the Ibrox side forward.

The club themselves started it all off by announcing that they’d accepted the resignation of the management team at Rangers.

However, that was soon refuted in media reports afterwards, with Mark Warburton himself telling BBC reporters that he was unaware of the Rangers statement regarding his resignation. As you can imagine it prompted much speculation about what was actually happening, from hacked websites to disgruntled employees.

What actually happened?

It soon became apparent that Warburton had in fact left his post after a week of behind the scenes drama involving resignations, cancelled resignations and a vacant manager position at Nottingham Forest.

As reported by The Telegraph, Warburton’s representative Dave Lockwood had indeed asked the club to release the management team from their contracts on Tuesday, during a period when Warburton was linked heavily to the Forest job.

After the Rangers board accepted this request on Wednesday, Lockwood then approached the Rangers hierarchy on Thursday night hoping that Warburton and his management team could keep their positions at Ibrox, according to the paper.

Meanwhile Nottingham Forest announced Gary Brazil would be the man to take the Championship club forward.

The Telegraph says that the Rangers board then convened again on Friday but decided there should be no change in their initial decision to accept Warburton’s resignation.

It all means that Rangers are without a manager and are now seeking to fill the post.

How have fans reacted?

As you can imagine, the circumstances here meant that there was a significant fan reaction to this news, both from Rangers supporters and the wider Scottish football community.

Warburton wasn’t the most popular man around Ibrox in recent weeks after a series of poor results left Gers fans wondering whether he was the right man to take their team forward.

Whether his departure is a positive remains to be seen. The next appointment at Ibrox is a massive one for the club.

Football fans North of the border took to Twitter to share their thoughts on the matter…

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Everton stretched their unbeaten Premier League run to nine matches on Saturday with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Sunderland at Goodison Park. It’s a win that sees them close important ground on Manchester United who don’t feature in league action this weekend.The win came courtesy of Idrissa Gueye and Romelu Lukaku, two of the club’s top performers this season and all round fan favourites.Romelu Lukaku in particular has become a massive Toffees hero over the years and that goal was his 79th in 154 appearances for the club in all competitions. That’s an average better than one goal every two games, a fine return at the top level.As this stat from Squawka shows, it was also a goal that represented a major milestone for the player.

Duncan Ferguson was a bit of an icon himself at the club so for Lukaku to match that record and have the opportunity to surpass it in the coming weeks must mean a lot to the Belgian striker.

He’ll get the chance to streak ahead of that 60 total when Everton take on Tottenham Hotspur next Sunday at White Hart Lane.

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The news that shocked the footballing world on the night it was announced doesn’t get any less shocking in the cold light of the following morning. As Leicester City sacked Claudio Ranieri, the first thoughts turned to sadness and – almost – disbelief. And they seem to have stayed there.On a calculating, business level, you can see Leicester’s predicament: their team is in a relegation battle, quite a few of the clubs around them have changed their manager and enjoyed a bounce from it, and there’s enough time left in the season for the Foxes to do the same.[ad_pod id=’now-tv’ align=’centre’]On a human level, though, this is jarring. A man who was mocked during his time at Chelsea was mocked again when he first arrived at the King Power Stadium only to take a team of what looked like relegation no-hopers to the Premier League title. It’s the stuff of films, of course, and Hollywood hasn’t been too far away from The Leicester City Story. But rather than blockbuster biopic of Jamie Vardy, this felt more like a coming-of-age story about a teacher with unusual methods arriving at an inner-city school and turning the struggling kids into winners. Everything, from Ranieri’s genial, ’aw grandad’ demeanour to Jamie Vardy’s struggles with ankle monitors and incidents in casinos, seemed to fit so perfectly.It wasn’t meant to end like this.And yet, how exactly did we expect it to end? Leicester are doing pretty much exactly what any other club would do in their current situation. The only difference is that they’ve just won the league title. That makes the disloyalty to their manager all the more unnerving, but had they simply had a decent season and finished in eighth last time around, this would feel like the logical and correct decision.The wider point, though, will always be about loyalty. Over the last five seasons, Manuel Pellegrini is the only title-winning manager to have finished the following season in his job. He was then ditched in favour of Pep Guardiola at the end of the season after that.

Football, of late, seems to have become less about winning and more about ticking boxes. The never-ending flow of the football stream means seasons roll into each other and the gap between them blurs.

Two examples stand out already this week. For Manchester United, winning the Europa League won’t be seen as an achievement in itself but rather a route into next season’s Champions League, especially if the club don’t finish in the Premier League’s top four.

Similarly Tottenham Hotspur didn’t seem to put up much of a fight in the Champions League, content to crash out in the group stages if that means finishing in the top four in the league, just so they can get back into the money again next season.

And there’s the rub for Ranieri. The rewards for staying in the Premier League actually matter more than winning it. Just the same as getting into the Champions League actually matters more than competing in it.

In a way, though, Ranieri’s crime was going against that grain. If the Foxes had prioritised the Premier League over the Champions League at the start of the season, perhaps they’d be gearing up for a Europa League tie after finishing third in their group, but would probably also be sitting comfortably in mid-table under no threat of relegation.

In the end, though, Leicester City – this fairytale club turned cautionary tale – don’t do things in moderation or measurement. They lean to extremes. Great escape, followed by title triumph, followed by all-out disaster. Did we really expect calm?

If we are shocked now, though, remember how shocked we were when Leicester stayed up under Nigel Pearson; how shocked we were when Pearson’s sacking was precipitated by unspeakable scandal on a pre-season tour; how shocked we were when they appointed Ranieri as manager. Remember how shocked we were at their rise, and how shocked we were by their fall.

But when you think about it, after all the shocks that the Foxes have sprung, their final one sacking Claudio Ranieri really ought not to be that shocking at all. Welcome to modern football, it’s where you’ve been living this whole time.

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Southampton duo James Ward-Prowse and Nathan Redmond were called up to the England senior squad for the first time when Gareth Southgate named his Three Lions squad for the upcoming fixtures against Germany and Lithuania.

What’s the story, then?

Well, after a number of injury withdrawals from the likes of Harry Kane, Wayne Rooney, Jordan Henderson and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, it opened the doors for a number of new players to be called into the squad.

Saints duo Ward-Prowse and Redmond were among those, and they must make the most of their opportunity.

Do they deserve the call?

Yes, they do.

The duo have cemented their spots in the starting XI at St Mary’s this season and the pair have been particularly impressive in recent weeks for the Saints, who have enjoyed an upturn in form.

Ward-Prowse picked up an assist for Manolo Gabbiadini’s opening goal in the EFL Cup final defeat last month, and he has been impressing on the right-hand side for Claude Puel’s side.

Meanwhile, Redmond has been situated on the opposite flank and seems to be performing better than when he was asked to play as a striker earlier in the campaign.

The 23-year-old scored two brilliant goals in the 4-3 win against Watford last time out – taking his tally to five for the season in the Premier League.

Where will they fit in?

It will really depend on what formation Southgate plans to play.

Ideally, a formation that incorporated wide players would work better for Redmond, while Ward-Prowse would probably be more comfortable as part of a central midfield three.

Can they cope with the pressure and make an impact?

They should do, yes.

Both players have extensive experience with the Under-21 side – with Ward-Prowse captaining the team – while they were two of the standout performers for Saints in the EFL Cup final, showing little fear on what was a huge occasion for the club.

Three Lions fans should look forward to Ward-Prowse’s exquisite set piece delivery too, if he does make it on to the pitch.