Kranjcar puts pressure on Traoré, Nordtveit recalled from Salamanca spell

Armand Traoré started again for Portsmouth last night as the South Coast side went down 1-0 to league leaders Liverpool at Anfield in new manager Tony Adams’ first game in charge of Pompey. As with the draw with Fulham on Saturday, Armand was withdrawn during the second-half, this time on 56 minutes, and replaced by Nico Kranjcar who is back after an injury lay off which delayed his start to the season. Traoré had an average game last night and wasn’t given many opportunities to get forward and also seemed to be lacking his usual confidence. It remains to be seen whether he will retain his place for the next game against Wigan on Saturday.

 In other loan news, Spanish link club Salamanca have confirmed that Havard Nordtveit will return to Arsenal after the Gunners cancelled the Norweigan defender’s loan spell as they were frustrated at his lack of game time. Havard has only made a handful of appearances for the Union and most of them have been out of position in central-midfield, where he has struggled to adapt. Havard has now returned to Arsenal and subsequently could feature for the Reserves against Fulham on Monday although it is expected that another loan spell could be in the pipeline before too long.

 Finally, The Sun reports that Sunderland are set to rival us for 17 year old Leeds midfielder Fabian Delph. He’s a highly-rated prospect in Yorkshire but it remains to be seen where his long-term future lies.

 More tomorrow, including an in-depth preview of the under-18s trip to Ipswich.