It’s been a season of experimentation for Jose Mourinho at Manchester United.

Whilst he’s one of the few Premier League managers yet to attempt an Antonio-Conte inspired 3-4-3 this season, he has utilised three different formations in the top flight and started 21 different players – essentially two starting XIs.

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As a consequence, square pegs have been pushed into round holes at times and that particularly rings true with summer signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan who, despite weaving his way back into Mourinho’s good books after a slow start to his Old Trafford career, has spent the vast majority of the campaign out wide.

That was the case last weekend when the United gaffer tested a 4-4-2 set-up against Leicester. But struggling for rhythm going forward, Mourinho quickly switched to a 4-2-3-1, with Mkhitaryan at the centre of the action in the No.10 role.

The Armenian attacker’s impact from then on was sensational, scoring United’s first and setting up their third via a cute one-two to release Juan Mata inside the box. With that in mind, we asked Red Devils fans earlier this week whether Mkhitaryan should continue in the No.10 berth for the rest of the campaign and as you can see from our poll below, the answer was a resounding yes.

However, applying that tactical switch permanently could spell trouble for another United favourite – Michael Carrick. The advanced engine room slot comes at the price of Carrick’s holding berth just behind Paul Pogba and Ander Herrera, so Mkhitaryan’s gain looks set to be the England veteran’s loss.

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Mauricio Pochettino is in the midst of building quite a legacy for himself as a manager. Having started his career at Espanyol, Pochettino got his big break in England at Southampton – and he gladly took it with both hands.

Transforming the Saints from a struggling Premier League outfit into a regular in the top flight, a lot changed within the space of a year at St Mary’s. By the end of the first season, Southampton had their highest ever Premier League finish, and they certainly had Pochettino to thank for that.

A year later, when Tottenham came calling, Pochettino had little choice but to move on. It was certainly a natural move for the Argentine: he had left Southampton in a far better state to what the club had been in when he arrived, so his tenure at the helm was undoubtedly a success. His spell at Tottenham has been even more successful, and in the near three-year spell that he has had at the helm, the Lilywhites are almost unrecognisable.

Now a regular feature in the top four with a hefty Premier League title chase last season behind them, Tottenham are certainly a club on the up. Pochettino has done everything right so far in his career, and he has always looked to move up both on a personal level and with regards to the team that he is managing. Now, with the 2016/17 season edging closer to its end, it’s time for Mauricio Pochettino to move up yet again. Conveniently, Barcelona are going to have a job opening at the end of the season, and that is a position that is perfectly suited to Pochettino.

Already on the shortlist and highly thought of at Barcelona, Pochettino would, in many ways, be the perfect man for the job.

Take his playing style for example. At Tottenham, he has utilised a system not too dissimilar to that which has been made famous at Camp Nou. Every player is often involved, passes are short and quick, and Tottenham have regularly been able to break at pace and score within an instant. His style would transition seamlessly to Barcelona, and so it is no surprise that Camp Nou brass are fond of the Argentine.

Beyond that, you also have his heightened focus on youth development. Barcelona’s famous La Masia academy has overseen the schooling of some of Europe’s most exciting footballers, and like managers before him, Pochettino would feel right at home making use of that system. Harry Winks has enjoyed an insurgence into the first team this season, and with the quality available in the Barcelona academy, the number of recuits is only going to go up with Pochettino in charge.

Now, certainly, the manager is building something of a legacy at White Hart Lane. The club are currently in the midst of building a new stadium, whilst they seem to be getting closer and closer to the Premier League title every year. Pochettino wouldn’t want to leave the club, but it might just be the best move for his career.  He might publicly deny his interest, and he might even personally want to stay, but for the betterment of his career, a Barcelona switch just makes sense.

Back in 2014, it was a very natural step for Mauricio Pochettino to swap Southampton for Tottenham. Now, a few years later, the natural step for the Argentine boss is to move once again. And Barcelona is the perfect destination.

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Liverpool are keen on bringing Pedro Obiang to Anfield from West Ham United this summer, The Sun reports.

What’s the word?

Liverpool’s midfield has been rather suspect once again this season and Jurgen Klopp seems intent to bolster his side further this summer by bringing fresh faces to Anfield- and Pedro Obiang has emerged on his radar.

The Spanish midfielder has impressed from his base-role in West Ham’s side this season, with his performances in the past few months specifically attracting interest from Jurgen Klopp- who will be keen to add more young talent to his side.

With fierce competition for targets in Europe, switching his attention to domestic-based talent could be a wise move for Klopp and Obiang would find it difficult to turn down Liverpool, who can offer European football.

Will West Ham sell?

West Ham’s debut season at the Olympic Stadium hasn’t quite been what many would have hoped but the Hammers have fought back in recent months, despite the loss of star-man Dimitri Payet, pushing the East London side into mid-table and away from the threat of relegation.

With West Ham unable to offer European football, there’s a strong possibility that important players could be moved-on this summer but Slaven Bilic’s side do not have the financial need to approve an exit for anyone, which will drive Obiang’s price up.

If Obiang pushes for a move though, he’s likely to get it and he could become Liverpool’s equivalent of N’Golo Kante.

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As reported by The Sun, multiple giants of European football are ready to travel to Glasgow on Sunday to track the progress of Celtic’s goalscoring superstar Moussa Dembele against Rangers.

What’s the story?

Since speculation in January linking him with a whole host of clubs, Dembele hasn’t slowed down with his goalscoring exploits, if anything he’s becoming more lethal.

No surprise then that The Sun report that the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City and Paris Saint-Germain are all heading to Celtic Park on Sunday to take in the big derby against their city rivals and scout the striker.

It’s not as if any extra motivation is needed on these occasions but perhaps the presence of these scouts will fire the young Frenchman up even more to put on a performance, which could be dreadful news for Rangers.

How good is he?

Dembele has been nothing short of a sensation in Scottish football this season, scoring 32 goals and contributing 6 assists in 44 appearances so far this season.

He’s scored 5 or more goals in every competition he’s played in – the Scottish Premiership, Scottish League Cup, Scottish Cup and UEFA Champions League – highlighting his importance to Celtic’s quest for the treble but also underlining he can do it at all levels and on the big occasions.

Given the fact scouts are taking in his game against Rangers, it’s worth pointing out how good his form has been in those games too, scoring 5 in 3 matches against the Ibrox side including a hat-trick the last time the two sides met at Celtic Park.

The stage is set for him to put on another massive performance this Sunday. The question is – can he deliver?

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Everton manager Ronald Koeman announced on Friday that midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin will not be fit for the Merseyside derby on Saturday.

It will be a big blow for the Dutchman in what is set to be a huge clash against Liverpool at Anfield –just six points separate the fourth-placed Reds and the seventh-placed Toffees – as both teams eye a top four finish this term.

Schneiderlin has quickly become a key player in the middle of the park for the club following his January transfer window move from Manchester United, but he suffered a slight calf injury in the 4-0 success against Hull City before the international break.

With Seamus Coleman, James McCarthy and Ramiro Funes Mori also picking up injuries while on duty with their countries last week, Koeman won’t have his strongest squad available at Anfield.

Everton fans were quick to have their say via social media on yet another blow before the derby, and they were less than optimistic about their chances of getting a result at the weekend.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction to the story…

According to reports in the Daily Star, Everton manager Ronald Koeman is said to be keen on signing Southampton outcast Cuco Martina.

The Dutchman is keen to bring in a new right-back with Seamus Coleman set to miss the rest of the year after suffering a double leg break in the Republic of Ireland’s 2018 World Cup qualifier with Wales last month.

Martina’s contract at St Mary’s runs out in the summer and after he has fallen out of favour under Claude Puel in recent months – and with no new deal on the table – he looks set to leave the south coast outfit on a free transfer at the end of the season.

That news has caught the attentions of Koeman, who brought the Curacao international to Saints from FC Twente in the summer of 2015.

The versatile defender came close to linking up with the Dutchman at Goodison Park in August, but the move was put on hold after Southampton summer signing Jeremy Pied injured knee ligaments, which left them with little cover for Euro 2016 winner Cedric Soares.

Here are three reasons Everton should steer clear of signing Martina…

He isn’t good enough

With Coleman set to miss the rest of 2017, if Koeman does sign a right-back this summer then he needs one that will be good enough to play half of the Premier League season next term.

Having made just nine appearances in the top flight for Southampton during the current campaign, it wouldn’t seem as though Martina isn’t the answer to Everton’s problems.

The Curacao skipper has also often shown that he can be vulnerable from a defensive point of view – something that won’t impress Toffees supporters.

He lacks an attacking threat

Coleman adds another dimension to Everton attacks with his ability to get forward and deliver dangerous crosses into the box or find himself in dangerous areas, and it’s something that we haven’t seen from Martina at Southampton.

The 27-year-old appears to lack the confidence to get to the by-line, and he often crosses from a deeper position.

Koeman should perhaps be looking for a more incisive right-back that would fit in with his side’s style of play.

They’ve got Holgate

If Koeman is looking for a short-term option at right-back before Coleman makes his return from injury, then he would be better off sticking with Mason Holgate rather than bringing Cuco Martina to Goodison Park in the summer.

The Toffees pride themselves on being a club that brings young players through and gives them an opportunity in the first team.

While Holgate’s preferred position is at centre-back, he has shown in his previous three Premier League appearances that he is more than capable of filling in at right-back too.

He will only get better with more experience, and that will come as he spends more time on the pitch.

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

After a long bank holiday for many of our readers here at Football FanCast, a return to the pub as the week drags on will be the source of much excitement to those going back to work recently.

So, what better way to get ready for the weekend with your mates in the local than sourcing some rather interesting football facts to excite and enlighten your fellow drinkers.

Ready to provide you with all you need to know on that front, we here are FFC have compiled some insight to arm you with.

Presented by the fact-obsessed Rafa Benitez during his infamous rant about his Liverpool side back in 2009, the likes of Chelsea and Real Madrid feature. Meanwhile, former Arsenal men Tony Adams (now in charge of Granada, bizarrely) and Jermaine Pennant make an appearance.

Elsewhere, there’s a mention for Blues legend John Terry, who recently announced he’d be leaving west London.

So, rather than read about them, watch the video below!

As the end of the season nears and Manchester United are still alive in two competitions and battling for the only European trophy yet to grace their cabinet, and Champions League qualification for next season, the games come thick and fast. But so too do injuries.

At present, injuries to key players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Juan Mata and Marcos Rojo seem to have come at a terrible time for the club as they seek to challenge Manchester City and Liverpool for their top four spots, as well as win the Europa League for the first time in the club’s history.

Jose Mourinho has already asked Chris Smalling and Phil Jones to be brave and play through the pain barrier against Manchester City on Thursday evening. Needs must, clearly, though the last thing United need is to aggravate injuries or risk new ones by rushing players back into the first team.

Recently, Sky Sports assessed the number of days of injuries suffered by each of the clubs who have constantly been in the Premier League since the 2011/12 season. Whilst Arsenal were the team whose players spent the most time out injured, Manchester United came a close second.

Interestingly, for two and a half of those five years Sky analysed, Jose Mourinho was the manager of Chelsea, the team who come rock bottom of that list: their players were injured for well below half the time of Arsenal and United. That may be the biggest indicator of the overhaul Mourinho will undertake at the Old Trafford club. And whilst the manager’s attitude to injuries often verges on the tough love, you can see why he’d operate in such a way.

The Mourinho likes his players to be physically robust in every way. It’s obvious that he favours tall and imposing players all over the pitch, but the fact that he also tends to rotate his squad only sparingly puts extra physical demands on his team. Asking players to be brave and play through the pain is quite typically Mourinho, and his threshold for injury-prone players has always been quite low – just ask Arjen Robben, who once told the Guardian that Mourinho ‘doesn’t like players who are injured’.

His treatment of Luke Shaw could be another case in point: the left-back has found it hard to get himself back to his usual high level since his horror leg-break in 2015, but that hasn’t stopped Mourinho from becoming frustrated and singling out the England man for some scathing criticism in the press.

Sometimes injuries are down to the medical staff and the training regime that the club puts in place, or how they plan for the demanding schedules like United have at the moment. But sometimes it’s also down to the players themselves. Some players, like Robben, are just injury prone. Others, who would seem to be more ‘Mourinho’ players – like the ironically injured Zlatan Ibrahimovic – have gone most of their careers without injuries, and when they do eventually get them, they shrug them off and don’t relapse.

There’s nothing you can do about knee ligament damage or a broken leg, of course, but what Mourinho doesn’t like is when a player isn’t ready to play to the same level as before upon their stated date of return. And you get the feeling that Mourinho won’t have been thrilled that United have posted 66 injuries since the start of the August, according to PhysioRoom.com.

The fact that the number is so high – United currently find themselves nursing a squad with eight injuries, the highest in the Premier League at present – is perhaps down to Mourinho’s relentlessness, but may also be a sign that a summer clear-out is on its way. After all, the players United signed in the summer haven’t been of the injury prone types. New signings Eric Bailly and Henrikh Mkhitaryan have both missed games through injury this season, neither have succumbed to numerous different layoffs: Bailly missed four games before Christmas before coming back into the team good as new, whilst Mkhitaryan has only missed one game, against Bournemouth in March, since his return to the team. He played in the Manchester derby, was subbed off and didn’t reappear until around Christmas: if he was injured during that period, it hardly seemed to matter anyway.

Manchester United’s hopes of winning another trophy this season as well as finishing in the top four – and perhaps pushing one of their big north west rivals out of the Champions League as an added bonus – could well rest on their players’ fitness rather than performances. You get the feeling that might well be Mourinho’s criteria for the hiring and firing of players this summer, too.

According to reports in the Evening Standard, Tottenham Hotspur are ready to listen to offers in excess of £35m for unsettled right-back Kyle Walker.

What’s the word, then?

Well, the England international has been linked with moves away to a number of clubs in recent weeks including Manchester City, and he is said to be ready to leave White Hart Lane this summer.

The rumours have intensified in recent weeks after Kieran Trippier was preferred on the right for the FA Cup semi-final defeat to Chelsea and the 2-0 success against Arsenal in the last ever north London derby at White Hart Lane last weekend.

However, he did start the clash against West Ham on Friday night to perhaps show that his future isn’t decided just yet.

Why would he want to leave?

There are a couple of reasons.

Firstly, he may feel that he is more likely to win trophies under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City in the long-term, than perhaps he will if he stays with Spurs.

Secondly, he will also know that he could earn significantly more if he did leave White Hart Lane, and that could have some bearing on his decision.

Could they yet keep him?

Of course they could.

If they were to offer him a bumper new contract and show the ambition during the summer that they can be Premier League title contenders for years to come, it could persuade Walker that he doesn’t need to leave the club to fulfil his ambitions.

Would they be happy with £35m?

They probably would, yes.

Trippier has already impressed when he has been on the pitch this term, and Pochettino may feel that he can use the money to strengthen his squad in other areas if the former Burnley man is ready to become a first team regular.

What’s the verdict, then?

Despite Walker starting against the Irons, the fact that he was on the bench against Chelsea and Arsenal has certainly raised suspicions over his future, and it could be an interesting summer.

According to reports in The Times, Everton are believed to be closing in on a £5.1m deal for Malaga forward Sandro Ramirez.

Ronald Koeman is keen to strengthen his Toffees squad in order for them to challenge for the top four in the Premier League next season, and he looks to be on the verge of making his first signing of the summer.

With Arouna Kone on his way out, Enner Valencia set to return to West Ham following a loan spell and Romelu Lukaku’s future still in doubt, the Merseyside outfit certainly need some attacking reinforcements.

The 21-year-old has been in fine form for the La Liga outfit this term following a move from Barcelona last summer, and he has scored 16 goals and provided a further four assists in 29 appearances in all competitions.

Everton supporters were quick to have their say on the latest rumour via social media, and they believe the Spaniard could prove to be a bargain buy.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

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