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Having already gone through transfer deadline day, no additional reinforcements can be added until the window reopens in January; therefore Manchester United will have to do with the players at their disposal.

Despite being linked with a high profile centre-back throughout the summer, Louis van Gaal ended the clubs shopping spree with one of the biggest shocks after completing a season-long loan deal for Monaco striker Radamel Falcao.

Still, without a newly signed proper central defender, here is a predicted starting XI for the Red Devils this coming season, with reference to the usual 3-5-2 formation.

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CLICK ON WAYNE ROONEY TO REVEAL

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Goalkeeper

Name: David De Gea

Age: 23

Nationality: Spain

Reason for selection:

David De Gea is the current club number one and is the easiest pick for Louis van Gaal given he was one of the only players to perform last season prior to his arrival.

He currently has no competition as Manchester United’s man between the sticks.

Centre-Back Right

Name: Phil Jones

Age: 22

Nationality: England

Reason for selection:

Phil Jones looks to be the most solid of the current Manchester United defensive players and given his form in the first three matches, it looks as though he will most likely retain his place in the back three. His no nonsense hard-man tackling style is seen as a great asset in a rather weak United backline.

Centre-Back

Name: Jonny Evans

Age: 26

Nationality: Northern Ireland

Reason for selection:

With both Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic departing Manchester United in the summer, Jonny Evans became the senior centre-back at the club.

Despite his highly unconvincing display upon his return against MK Dons, Louis van Gaal will most likely keep to playing Evans at the centre of his back three.

Centre-Back Left

Name: Marcos Rojo

Age: 24

Nationality: Argentina

Reason for selection:

Given Manchester United can finalize his work permit troubles, Marcos Rojo will be the perfect fit for the last slot in the back three.

Although he normally plays as a left back, his change to a more central role will highlight the fact that he may need to focus a lot more on the defensive side of play.

Right Wing Back

Name: Angel Di Maria

Age: 26

Nationality: Argentina

Reason for selection:

Angel Di Maria is most effective on the flanks as Louis van Gaal will need to exploit his abilities in order to get the best out of his record breaking £59.7million signing.

Keeping in mind that he was out pacing everyone as a right winger for Real Madrid prior to the arrival of Gareth Bale, he could very well return to that role, with some added defensive responsibilities he may need to adapt to.

Left Wing Back

Name: Luke Shaw

Age: 19

Nationality: England

Reason for selection:

Once Luke Shaw returns to full fitness, he will easily be first choice left wing back due to his ability to attack as well as defend. Given his age, he has huge room for improvement as first-team experience will only make him a better player.

Plus, Manchester United would not have spent such a huge fee on him if he was just going to sit on the bench. With Angel Di Maria on the right and Shaw on the left, Louis van Gaal would have opened up two additional attacking outlets, taking the pressure off the more centrally positioned playmakers.

Central Midfielder

Name: Ander Herrera

Age: 25

Nationality: Spain

Reason for selection:

Manchester United bought in Ander Herrera because of his ability to control as well as dictate the pace of the game from a central midfield role.

He is seen as the player who will be keeping hold of the ball, maintain possession, as most importantly, linking the backline to the more attacking outlets, either down the two flanks, or straight down the middle.

Central Midfielder

Name: Daley Blind

Age: 24

Nationality: Netherlands

Reason for selection:

After failing to secure the services of a proper defensive midfielder, Daley Blind is the next best thing as he will most likely be given an anchorman’s role in the heart of the Manchester United midfield.

He should be seen playing deeper than Ander Herrera as he will be the one that tried to stop counter-attacks as well as been seen as a ball winner. However, if he is given a chance to roam forward, he could be just as effective in the attacking third as he is in his own defensive half.

Attacking Midfielder

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Name: Wayne Rooney

Age: 28

Nationality: England

Reason for selection:

Wayne Rooney is often seen dropping rather deep for a striker and trying to control the game from a more central position, hence with the arrival of Falcao, he could shine just behind the striking pair.

If he is moved into an attacking midfield role, it will give him a lot of freedom in the attacking third to try and be the playmaker while also opting to create trouble with his long ranged shooting ability.

Striker

Name: Robin van Persie

Age: 31

Nationality: Netherlands

Reason for selection:

Robin van Persie is a proven goal-scorer if he can return to full fitness and begin taking his chances once more. Having already worked with Louis van Gaal, the Dutch manager will know exactly how he should deploy Van Persie in order to get the best of him.

A link up with Radamel Falcao can mean Manchester United might be well on their way to having the most lethal attacking force in the English Premier League.

Striker

Name: Radamel Falcao

Age: 28

Nationality: Colombia

Reason for selection:

Excluding his injury stricken career with Monaco last season, Radamel Falcao netted 52 goals in 68 games for Atletico Madrid prior to his move to Ligue 1, showing exactly why scoring shouldn’t be a problem.

Falcao will definitely play and will simply be put in the striking position with the sole purpose of being the main scoring outlet all the Manchester United players should look to get the ball to.

http://lineupbuilder.com/350×500/?p=11&a=1&t=&c=dc0000&1=GK_David%20De%20Gea__388_174&2=DC_Jonny%20Evans__341_172&3=DC_Marcos%20Rojo__323_109&4=DC_Phil%20Jones__325_234&5=DR_Angel%20Di%20Maria__263_293&6=DL_Luke%20Shaw__263_51&7=MC_Daley%20Blind__202_126&8=MC_Ander%20Herrera__202_221&9=AC_Wayne%20Rooney__132_170&10=FC_Radamel%20Falcao__56_120&11=FC_Robin%20van%20Persie__56_226&c2=ffffff&c3=ffffff&output=embed

Fulham manager Martin Jol has expressed little worry over losing Moussa Dembele over the next few days, as he insists it would take a large sum for Fulham to part with the Belgian international.

Dembele has reportedly attracted attention from other clubs after a series of impressive performances for the Cottagers over the past couple of years. He has started the new season in fine style, posing plenty of problems for Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday in a 3-2 defeat. The way he played could lead to some late interest in the transfer market, but Jol doubts whether anyone will lodge a bid that would tempt Fulham to sell.

Dembele has always stressed that he is happy at Craven Cottage and remains a key part of Jol’s plans, unlike somebody such as Clint Dempsey who has been left out so far this term after declaring a wish to move on. Asked about Dembele, Jol told Sky Sports: “He plays and he likes the club, so there’s no problem. You have to pay a lot of money to get Dembele. There won’t be a lot of clubs putting that sort of money on the table, so I think we are fine.”

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Swansea welcome Everton to the Liberty Stadium on Saturday lunchtime looking to recover from their first defeat of the season suffered at Aston Villa last weekend.

Swansea defender Ashley Williams faces a race to be fit for the game having been suffering with an ankle injury. His loss would be a blow to Michael Laudrup who is already without the injured Neil Taylor, Kyle Bartley and Gary Monk. Chico Flores will also serve the second of his three match suspension.

Everton will be without Darron Gibson, who is suffering with a thigh injury. Nikita Jelavic is an injury concern after he was hurt in a collision with his own teammate Leon Osman during Monday’s draw with Newcastle.

Despite last weeks defeat, its been a superb start to the season for Swansea. Only Manchester United and Fulham (10) have scored as many goals as the Swans this season, who are infact unbeaten in their last five home games.

Summer signing Michu has been the star of the show so far for Laudrup’s men, and will be looking to score in his third consecutive home game for the club.

David Moyes brings his side to Wales in decent form also. His side have in fact lost just one of their last 13 Premier League matches.

Leighton Baines was on the scoresheet during Everton’s 2-2 draw with Newcastle on Monday night. It was the fullbacks tenth goal since August 2010, making him the highest scoring defender in the Premier League during that period.

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Prediction: Swansea 2-2 Everton

The Daily Mirror are reporting that Premier League Champions Manchester City are keen to launch a stunning £7 million bid for Alen Halilovic, touted by many as “the best young player in the world”.

At just 16, Halilovic has already broken into the first team at Dinamo Zagreb, becoming the youngest player and goalscorer in Croatian League history. Only breaking into the first team this year, the youngster, born in 1996, has become a sensation in his country, with comparisons to Luka Modric already prevelant. Dinamo are renowned for producing young talents with former Arsenal man Eduardo, the aforementioned Modric and Lyon defender Dejan Lovren all products of the academy. However, expectatiuons of Halilovic are high and the Croatian media have dubbed him as the best player in the world in his age group.

Rumours of interest from Manchester United and Real Madrid became public over summer, before the youngster had even kicked a ball in the professional game. However, his handful of first team appearances this season have been impressive enough to garner interest from Man City, who are willing to splash out up to £7 million on the 16 year old.

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Halilovic’s father Sejad was also a professional footballer, earning 15 caps for Bosnia during a 13 year career and will be hoping that his son can live up to the enormous expectations that lay before him.

Wigan have doubts over the fitness of Antolin Alcaraz after the defender picked up a hamstring injury at the weekend.

Alcaraz has only just returned to the first team following a lengthy spell out with a groin injury and any more time on the sidelines will come as a huge blow to Latics.

The return of Alcaraz coincided with an upturn in results as Latics have won five out of the last nine games but there is still plenty of hard work to do if they are to beat the drop and they need the defender fit.

Roberto Martinez is now waiting to hear the full extent of the damage and will be hoping and praying that it is nothing serious, with just five games of the season remaining.

“The injury to Antolin made for a very difficult afternoon for us at West Ham,” he told the Wigan Evening Post. “He’s got a soft tissue injury to the back of his hamstring, and so we’ll assess him this week before discovering exactly how long he’ll be out for.

“It’s obviously a real negative note, and had an effect on how we wanted to play.”

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After a difficult start at Anfield, Brendan Rodgers has gone from strength to strength, and has successfully guided Liverpool back into the Champions League. In fact, Rodgers was inches away from bringing the title back to Merseyside for the first time since 1990.

During his current tenure, the Northern Irishman has made some incredible changes to the squad, and the players that he has coached and signed are arguably within the ‘world class’ bracket. Most Liverpool fans will undoubtedly agree that the former Reading and Swansea boss is doing a remarkable job, however, the way in which he is doing it and his philosophy is somewhat intriguing, with some questions still needing to be answered.

One problem could well be the striker position at Anfield. Over the years Liverpool have been blessed with top attackers. Ian Rush, Kenny Dalglish, Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen and Fernando Torres are just a few that have highly impressed for the Reds. However, since Rodgers took over, the key factor for the Reds is to play ‘attractive’ football. Because of this, the Northern Irishman tends not to play with a tall and strong frontman that is easily found in the box. Not long after Rodgers was brought in, Andy Carroll was quickly sold to West Ham, purely to make a statement of his vision for the club. In this summer’s transfer window, Liverpool recently signed Mario Balotelli from AC Milan and Rickie Lambert from Southampton, two big and powerful target men. So why did Rodgers sell Carroll in the first place?

Despite Carroll failing to resurrect his career at the Hammers, surely Rodgers could have got the best out of him rather than sell him to a club where he is surrounded by less talented players. Put both Lambert and Carroll together, when both strikers are fully fit, there’s not much difference between them. Balotelli was brought in to replace £75m man Luis Suarez; however, it could be argued that Balotelli will score more goals with his head than he would with his feet on his return to the Premier league.

Above all, the one key ingredient that is missing from Liverpool is silverware. It was fundamental that Rodgers brought Champions League football back to Anfield, which he achieved with great affect, however, a trophy is exactly what Liverpool need, and with Rodgers record, it seems Liverpool could still be a long way off. With their last taste of success being the League Cup in 2012 via a penalty shoot-out against Championship outfit Cardiff City, the last time the former Reading man put his hands on a trophy was the play-off final win with Swansea in 2011. It seems when the pressure is on, a Brendan Rodgers Liverpool side fail to deliver the goods. One good example of this is last season’s agonising defeat at home to Chelsea. With Jose Mourinho’s side having to deal with a plethora of suspensions and injuries, resulting in fielding a so called ‘B team’ the Blues still showed Liverpool they’re nowhere near the finished article… yet.

It’s about time Liverpool fans had a reality check. The fact that Rodgers’ philosophy has become confused during the latest transfer window means the best they can hope for is a fourth-placed finish. And even that is under threat.

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Jobi McAnuff says he will hold talks with Reading at the end of the season and is refusing to make a decision on his future just yet.

The Royals are heading for a swift return to the Championship following Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Norwich and if that is the case then there will be big changes in the summer.

One or two players will want to move on while new Royals boss Nigel Adkins will also be looking to clear the decks a little bit in order to make way for new blood.

McAnuff, who has a contract until 2014, could be one of the players asking to leave, but for now he would rather focus on seeing out the remainder of the season.

“We’ll have a look at it, obviously, once that time comes,” McAnuff revealed. “We’ve got a few games here to make the most of it – we have to try to dig in and get results.

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“We’ve all got our own pride and we don’t want to finish bottom, that’s for sure. So we’ll be trying to pick up as many points as we can between now and the end of the season and address things then.”

Liverpool youngster Suso has revealed he wishes to stay at Anfield and does not want to leave under the Bosman ruling when his deal expires at the end of this season.

The Spanish teenager was brought to the club in 2009 by ex-Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez. The winger admits he feared for his chances at the club following Benitez’s exit in the summer of 2010.

“Rafa was the one that called me and convinced me to go to Liverpool when I was at Cádiz but soon after he left. The truth is, I thought that might be a problem and that things might get worse,” he said.

Three bosses later, Suso has finally progressed to finding a role in the first team under Brendan Rodgers, who has fielded the talented youngster three times in the Premier League so far this season.

The Spaniard appears to be enjoying life under Rodgers, and is happy at Liverpool.

“Brendan Rodgers is a coach that if you prove to him that you can perform, if you work hard, he has no problem in putting young players in the team. I have started three times and things are going well.

“I’m happy here, very comfortable. This is the ideal club for me in every sense. This is like a dream for me.

“We have been talking about a contract since the start of the season. We’re nearly there – we’ll sign soon” he added.

The Liverpool manager clearly rates Suso highly, and admits he rejected offers for the winger over the summer.

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“We did have a couple of offers for Suso in the summer, but I always said I didn’t want him to go.

“He’s in the last year of his contract, and it’s something we will look at,” said Rodgers.

Former Liverpool winger Steve McManaman believes Luis Suarez will stay at the club for years to come, reports the Daily Star.

The Uruguayan signed a new long term contract worth a reported £200k a week in December, and McManaman believes he is set to honour it despite continued interest from Arsenal and Real Madrid.

“I think he will stay. He’s signed a new contract,” McManaman said.

“It’s important for superstars to play in the Champions League every week. It is the over-riding fact that they want to test themselves against the best players.

“Liverpool are on the right track. If they finish suddenly finish sixth in the league there will be question marks but if they win the league or second or third and are in the Champions League there won’t be any assumptions about whether he stays or goes.

“He will stay and it will be up to Liverpool whether they want to sell him rather than the other way round.”

Liverpool closed the gap on league leaders Chelsea to just one point after a 2-1 win over Sunderland last night, and McManaman believes they can challenge all the way in the title race.

“They have got real strength in depth,” headded.

“Like Arsenal everybody was expecting Liverpool during March to drop points but they go to Old Trafford and won, go to Cardiff and won and suddenly everybody starts to think that they are quietly chipping away.

“It would be great if they did but it will be hard with Man City at Anfield, Chelsea at Anfield.

“Anybody who has been involved with Liverpool does not expect miracles this year. You don’t expect to jump from seventh last year, 20 points behind Manchester United, to winning the league.

“You just want progression and we have had it in bucketloads this year.

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“If Liverpool can qualify for the Champions League without having a qualifying game, finishing first or second, that would be even better.

“If they win the league that would be incredible.”

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Liverpool midfielder Joe Cole appears to be attracting interest from French outfit Lille once more after a successful loan spell there last term, but should Brendan Rodgers consider letting him go given the paucity of options within his squad or is the fallen former England star simply destined to never realise his potential on Merseyside?

The French club’s boss Rudi Garcia told RMC this week, hinting at a future move for Cole: “Joe is not only a great person, but also a great footballer. But financially it was not possible to save him. This can be prohibitive for the return of Joe to Lille. Sportingly and humanly, I’d love to see him back.”

While something may have been lost in translation, that Garcia is supposed to have said ‘save him’ couldn’t be closer to the truth after falling even further down the pecking order since returning to Liverpool in the summer and Rodgers criticism of his display against Swansea in the 3-1 defeat at home in the Capital One Cup marks his lowest point since arriving at the club.

It’s worth remembering that Cole is still just 30 years of age and as such should be seen as one of the senior members of the squad at Anfield, but he’s currently sat behind teenagers Raheem Sterling and Suso in terms of a first-team place, while Stewart Downing is quickly becoming Rodgers go-to attacking substitute.

Rodgers commented on Cole’s performance against Swansea: “Joe Cole had an opportunity, the club has invested an astronomical sum of money in a talented player and he has to seize his opportunities. It [Liverpool’s approach] was too slow, it just was not what I would expect from a team I had set up to be dynamic so I think it was a difficult night for him.” While it may have been a tad on the harsh side, for the whole team underperformed that evening, that he was singled out points to a fractious relationship similar to the one that Rodgers shares with Downing.

The senior set-up currently just has 19 players in it and the manager has talked about the need to invest in January and that it’s unlikely that many people will be leaving in the opposite direction, but Cole’s struggles, coupled with his ‘astronomical’ wages makes him an ideal candidate to shift on.

It was reported at the time of his move to Lille that Liverpool were willing to pay as much as 60% of Cole’s £100,000 per week wages such was their insistence on getting him some regular football. However, his prospects appeared to improve in the summer after the departures of Dirk Kuyt, Maxi Rodriguez and Craig Bellamy all left for various reasons and the lack of attacking depth, with the side overly-reliant on Luis Suarez at present is clear for all to see as a result.

On the face of it, a lack of depth and a new manager should all point to more playing time for Cole, who lest we forget, has three Premier League winner’s medals, three FA Cup winner’s medals, and 56 England caps to his name. Yet he’s struggled with injury and two successive hamstring strains have disrupted his season so far.

When looking at Rodgers preferred system, the 4-3-3 formation would seem to lend itself to Cole’s talents – an appreciation of working the ball around in tight spaces, the ability to glide past a man in the middle of the park and the vision to spot a pass in the final third. Of course, these were the characteristics which he used to be lauded for, but weight and form issues have dogged his time at Liverpool.

Balancing the books has been a major concern of FSG’s for some time now and was the motivating factor behind allowing the fringe trio of Bellamy, Kuyt and Maxi to all leave the club. The suspicion that Cole’s strong ties to previous club Chelsea, coupled with the realisation that the club are getting a particularly bum deal considering their outlay on the midfielder has always meant he’s not been highly regarded on the terraces and remains something of an easy target for the boo boys, so it’s not as if there would be much opposition from either side at his departure.

Any movement out of the club is entirely dependent on how much Rodgers has to spend, with a figure around the £10m mark mooted for January business, but his wages and his lack of playing time only point to a role which will become even more marginalised in the future and it’s hard to see a way back for him at Liverpool now.

Should Liverpool let Joe Cole leave in January? Or should they retain his service and grant him a more prominent role?

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You can follow me on Twitter @JamesMcManus1

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