I am happy that Haaland is gone, all the talking about switching teams brings distraction, and to be honest he missed so many games due to being injured all the time, no wonder they have been inconsistent.
Dortmund now is a healthy club moneywise and of course they can't pay what all those clubs owned by rich Arabs or Russians can pay. All those wannabe stars like Haaland and co just see the money and want to go to a big team asap. Also Dortmund doesnt have a billion in debt like some teams from Spain. If uefa would actually enforce financial fairplay the champions league would probably see Dortmund and Bayern in the semis quite often.
Why be happy that he is gone? He adds quality to the league no matter how long he is injured for. Now we won't have as many goals in the league because we have lost one of the greatest scorers in the league history. Anyone that says they won't miss him or glad they are gone must be a rival fan  Haaland was great to watch and I will miss him and I am sure the Bundesliga will miss him. The problem with Haaland is does get injured but that might be a temporary thing with better medical care or better rotation he might be fit more often. I think Haaland is the type of player that you need to manage closely. He is like Gotze or Hazard both great players but they are injury prone. Gotze was managed well at Bayern Munich and started to get a good sequence of games together that proves that it can be done even if the player is injury prone. He was a big part of Dortmund, he also had a good contribution to the success of Dortmund. And there is no reason why any Dortmund fan should be happy because of his departure. The problem is with Dortmund, not him. I agree that he was injured for a long time but this is not the only case for Dortmund when they had to sell their best player. But I have to say one thing which is Haaland being injury prone and moving to English Premier League is probably not the best decision in my opinion. |
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Thinking the same because Bayern Munich is not a bad club, so Sadio Mane can still do his best in the Bundesliga if that happens, with rumors like this then of course Sadio Mane wants to go and find a new atmosphere, but I see Liverpool fans are a bit disappointed If Mane had to be sold, according to Liverpool fans, he would still be a player who fits and Salah because that is the best strength for them.
There must be negotiations, the transfer window is still long, Bayern and Liverpool still have time for the deal. Fans don't want Mane to be sold because they know Mane has made a big contribution to Liverpool. His form this season is fairly good where he managed to score 16 goals and 2 assists in 34 match in the Premier League and 5 goals in the Champions League in 13 matches. Obviously the fans still want him to be kept for the next few seasons especially because Mane is still able to maintain his good form every season. However, there is always the possibility that Mane will change jersey next season if Bayern Munchen are really serious about getting his services next season. Of course Liverpool want a higher price than the first offer as reported, maybe in the range of 40 million more. Only 40 million? I believe that is not enough for a player of the caliber of Mane. I don't think even Liverpool will want him to leave because he has been a great and very important player for Liverpool. He has a great contribution to Liverpool's success, fans will also not want him to go. I think he is still good for Premier League competition and if he does go to Bayern Munich he will have a lot less competition. Don't get me wrong he will still perform really well with Bayern Munich but I would rather see him play in the English Premier League compared to Germany. |
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There is some news like Inter are getting prepared to make an offer for Romelu Lukaku. They seem to be serious about having him back in the lineup soon but we don't know what Chelsea are going to think about this yet. Romelu Lukaku has been having tough days at Chelsea in the recent times. He lost his place in the starting eleven to Kai Havertz and this was like a bad signal for him to be sent from the team. I remember his statement related to Inter which created some problems between him and the team for a short time. In my opinion, it'd be better for him to return to Inter now.
His season in the Chelsea squad has been really rough. I think it is in the best interest of both the player and the club that he leaves. He came to the club with really big expectations but he failed miserably. I think him being really expensive was a big reason why he felt a lot of pressure. It is very obvious that he is not feeling at home in this club at all. I believe he should move to Inter because he had a lot of success with that team previously and I believe that League is also going to be favorable for him compared to the English Premier League. |
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as transfermarkt.co.uk just announced, the transfer of Ivan Perisic from inter milan to tottenham hotspur in the english premier league is now complete. he signs a 2-year contract with the english cl-participant.  Ivan Perisic became the first player to be recruited by Tottenham in this summer transfer market, Tottenham qualification to the Champions League next season is an attraction for players to join Tottenham, besides Conte, of course, doesn't want his team to just be underdog in champions league next season and that's why now conte is starting to target new players needed by the team, Perisic arrival to tottenham will certainly make tottenham game better because in the last two seasons after returning from loan at Bayern Munich, perisic played quite well with Inter and he often becomes a right-wing terror for the opponent's defense. Tottenham is going to play in the Champions League and they are really trying to make their squad strong but they will have to make some more changes because you know, this is not going to be enough for them. I believe they will have to make some more changes to have a strong squad and also be more competitive in the Champions League. There will be a lot of stronger teams compared to them. The teams in the English Premier League will be stronger than them, let alone the teams from other League. |
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Ukraine has got a lot of players from their national league in the national team - and these players haven't played football in a while. Nobody knows in what condition will they be - it is expected that they will not be fully ready in physical aspect.
However - they have an extra motivation to win and if they manage to score early while they still have the strength - maybe they will be able to defend throughout the rest of the game.
I do feel that Scotland is a big favorite here - but since I don't know in what condition the Ukrainians are it is really tough to call. I thought I'd bet on Scotland but I'll simply skip the game.
It seems to me more profitable to bet on Ukraine. Firstly, it is an underdog and the coefficient compensates for the risk. Secondly, fans in general expect a weaker performance of Ukraine than usual due to the ongoing war, but in my opinion, on average, athletes should not play much worse or better because of this (someone, on the contrary, will receive additional motivation to perform well for the national command). If we talk about the purely sporting strength of the teams, then I would never say that Ukraine is weaker than Scotland. If they are able to score early in the match Ukraine will still lose the match because first of all I think Scotland is better compared to them and obviously the Ukrainian defense is not strong enough to just sit back and defend a lead of one goal. Actually, I think it might be a good strategy for Ukraine to get aggressive and catch Scotland off guard because I think the last thing Scotland is going to expect from Ukraine is aggressive football. |
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-snip
As far as I can see, the midfield is Juventus' biggest weakness now. I'm really curious about the reason why they haven't still signed some solid midfielders. They must already be aware of this problem which is getting bigger for them. I wonder if it was money related and they didn't sign any big player as a result. They signed Vlahovic and spent a lot of money for him too. However I still expect to see them going for decent midfielders to strengthen the position. This can be very helpful for them next season. I am hearing some rumors about Pogba returning to Juventus and I believe if that happens the midfield will be a lot stronger. I think that is a reason why they are not spending money right now. They are waiting to see what happens, I think and obviously, they are a little bit restricted in terms of money and I think that's why they are waiting things out for now. The problem is that Juventus is not handling their players well. They have made some good transfers but they have turned out to be a little questionable over time. Recently the decision of letting Dybala go is also not a popular one.
Do you mean they sometimes decide carelessly regarding player transfers? In Dybala's case, he is no longer interested to play in Juventus, why does Juventus need to keep a player with no motivation to play? I think letting Dybala leave is the right way, but Juventus should find a new player that can fill his position properly. There is still a lot of time before the next season begins, I am sure Juventus will find out a new player that has a similar capability to Dybala. I believe that they're good to have asked Dybala to stay if they really wanted to but they did not even make any attempt to make him stay. He was a very important player for Juventus in my opinion. His staying in the club would have really helped but the club obviously thought otherwise. Juventus is trying to make the midfield really strong right now but I hope they don't weaken the defense trying to do that.
It is true that Juventus need quality midfielders, because one of Juventus weak points is in the midfield. Therefore, Juventus is currently trying
to bring back Paul Pogba, because Pogba proved to have played well with Juventus before deciding to move to Man United. According to rumors
Pogba is getting closer to rejoining Juventus. Moreover, there is news that Pogba is willing to take a big enough salary cut in order to rejoin Juventus.
Apart from Pogba, Juventus are also trying to bring in Angel Di Maria and Jorginho. If it is true that Juventus can get these three players,
next season the Juventus midfield is getting more solid and Juventus should be able to win the Serie A trophy.
Juventus also knows that their midfield is not the strongest and they are obviously trying to fix that by bringing in some good players in form of Pogba, and di Maria. I believe if they can bring these players successfully it will be really great for the midfield position of Juventus. And I also believe that these players are not going to cost too much. As Pogba has agreed to take pay cuts to play for Juventus. These guys might be old but I'm sure that they are not obsolete. |
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I believe Juventus will be able to improve their performance much more by the coming season. They started to perform better especially after they signed Vlahovic. He made their attacking line stronger than before.
Too early to judge they will improve their performance. The problem in Juventus isn't only about the attacking line, but they also have problems in both midfield and defend lines. So, the problem is quite complicated. Another problem, the players have no good mentality as the winning team anymore. The coach must fix this if Juventus wants to improve their performance in the next season. Juventus has certainly lost their dominance in the Italian league. Now they are not the best team but they still are one of the better without any doubt. The problem is that Juventus is not handling their players well. They have made some good transfers but they have turned out to be a little questionable over time. Recently the decision of letting Dybala go is also not a popular one. And obviously, I agree that the defense and midfield are also not one of the best. They need to make changes in the squad. At least at a level so that they will be able to compete with the current better teams in the league like Inter and Milan. |
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snip
Yes his ability to read his opponents so well and even try to confuse them with his mind games keeps him at the top..he has the history of playing with opposition managers psychologically..and put them under some kind of pressure, he tries to absorb the opposition attacking pressure and hit them on a counter..he is also known for coaching one of the fastest counter attacking team in history which is the Real Madrid side of 2012 season with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo,Karim BENZEMA, Higuin, Di'Maria, Mesuit Ozil their transition from defense to attack was something special..strong physically and fast and the turned defense into attacks and scored goals too..his defensive approach started from his Chelsea days because he had the likes or Arsenal and Manchester United to deal with ..his playing style in his Porto days was not defending until he got to the round of 16 in the champions League against Manchester United and other great team which his Porto side wouldn't have won had it not been his defensive approach to the game Yes, I actually remember a match against Real Madrid. I think it was in 2013. Real Madrid was winning the match 3-0. And they had only 37% of possession of the ball. All they did was counter-attacking and convert small chances into goals. But the problem is in this era of football, you have to be the aggressor because if you sit behind and try to defend everything you will eventually leave gaps in your defense. The type of pace current footballers have is really hard to defend. To me, it seems like his style is a little outdated. |
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Real Madrid seem to be in search of a strong player for their attacking line. It could be a centre-forward too even if they have Benzema now. Benzema is doing amazing this season but he wouldn't perform like this every season from now on. He would play decently for two more season or something and then he might retire. And a team like Real Madrid should be investing in the future for certain. Mbappe was their main target but they couldn't bring him for now. After he extended his contract, it seems like they are thinking of Milan striker Rafael Leao. The 22-year-old striker is a promising one indeed but I wonder if he would adapt to the league quickly.
I really don't understand why the priority of Real Madrid is currently attacking players because the weakest point of Real Madrid is their defense right now and I believe they should look for defenders instead of attackers first. I believe they have a good attacking lineup. I think Benzema is going to give his service for at least two more years. Leao is obviously a very talented player and can be a good fit for Real Madrid in my opinion but I really think the first priority of Real Madrid should be getting better defenders right now. |
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Jose Mourinho is truly a great coach, despite his controversial predicate. Mourinho has proven his magic at several clubs he has handled. In Italy, The Special One is also very special, he has successfully carved gold ink in the history of AS Roma after winning the Conference League and 12 years ago this Portuguese man also made history for Inter Milan. The Nerazzurri were successfully orbited by Mourinho into a treble-winning club, the Serie A champions, the Coppa Italia and the Champions League.
He has made his name over the Europe from Portugal to England, Italy and Spain. Now he is back to Italy and has his best time in last few years. The only big league Mourinho has yet had any experience is Bundesliga, next is Ligue 1. The lazt one is managing a national team. So far Mourinho wins many titles from clubs with limited financial resources like Porto and Roma to rich clubs like Chelsea and Real Madrid. He is a very successful coach. I believe he is a coach with great game sense. I have seen some clips of him telling his team what to do and what might happen on the field and in the match, exactly that thing happened what he said would happen. so, I believe he is someone who has a very good understanding of this game and he is very good at predicting his opponents. so far he has been very successful even though a lot of his methods are not very popular. |
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Mohamed Salah will see this as an revenge mission after missing out the last time around they meet each other due to injury he had in the first few minutes of the game after a professional foul from Sergio Ramos, he did well to come back from injury and played the last game of the season against wolves,but this time around they have equipped there selves more better by adding more attacking players than before,they have Luis Diaz and jota in their rank now.
I remember that time too, after few minutes to the begining of the match, Mohamed Salah was injured, he still wanted to play but the injury make him unable to play and left the field and was substituted. Immediately he left the match, the match changed and Real Madrid later got upper hand. Even if Salah played full match as at that time, very possible Liverpool could have won, but that is just a guess, anything can still happen and it can still be the same way around as it happened. Let us see what is going to happen, Real Madrid are very strong, they have that Champions League experience and can also emerge as the winner. I understand that Liverpool are very strong than before, but they are hyped than what they are. Man City won the EPL league already, Liverpool won FA Cup but they went extra time with Chelsea and finally played penalty. I would not hype this again this time around like they are better than what they are, it is possible that Liverpool can win but also possible that Real Madrid can win because Real Madrid has been very better in this season Champions League too and had more obstacles than Liverpool. This match is obviously going to be a 50 - 50 chance for both teams to win unless something like an injury happens to any important players during the match. I obviously hope that nothing like it happens. I honestly want to believe that Liverpool is going to win this Champions League final but when I look at the Real Madrid squad and when I think about the teams that they had to beat to get here I wanna sleep and start thinking that this has to be a Real Madrid win. |
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Deserved or not, it came down to the single last game (2nd leg) of the relegation match vs Hertha and they lost. Hertha has played a bad season and they will play against relegation next year. Of course it is disappointing for Hamburg as well, but until now they always messed up their relegation into the Bundesliga just in the last few games of the season. Hamburg needs to me more consistent thoughout the whole season and then they won't have to rely on luck anymore.
However both deserve to be in the Bundesliga next season but unfortunately, one of them has to lose. If next season there are no big changes made by Hertha Berlin then they deserve to be relegated next season, with them still having this opportunity they have to make improvements which of course to make their performance even better. At least targeting to be able to compete in the middle table would be better, when compared to fighting to get out of the relegation zone next season then it is the same as repeating mistakes. They have been in the Bundesliga five times consecutively now it is time that they start playing better and they have to stop ending in the relegation zone. They have to try and end at least in the top 10. I think they will be able to finish in the mid-table position at least. I believe some changes are important to be made for this team to do better. I also agree that if they can't do any better they should not be in the Bundesliga next season. |
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If they actually care about cricket itself I think they would have increased the number of teams that are playing cricket regularly by now. At least there have been 20 teams playing in the world cup.
They already tried this once in past and burned their hands badly (Big teams got knocked out early). It was epic financial disaster for the ICC that they dropped this idea for good. I am in favour of 16-20 teams WC competition. It has many challenges as well which we already discussed many time in every cricketing thread. Well, then why just ICC don't take any steps about making cricket popular in smaller countries? If they are interested in cricket the revenue is not going to be a problem. I think if ICC thinks that playing a small number of teams in the world cup is going to be the solution to their """"revenue"""" problem I am going to say they are delusional and they are not thinking straight. If they think that the smaller teams are not going to be interested in cricket because the people of those countries watching cricket for a long time will hamper productivity in those countries? then why don't ICC just takes some states about making cricket popular to economically rich countries? They tried with a 16-team competition in 2007. In terms of competitiveness, that tournament was a grand success. There were a lot of upsets and the matches were very interesting. But the problem was that in financial terms the tournament was a failure. That was the main reason why they went back to the 10-team setup. Now it is a difficult choice. Sports bodies such as FIFA can afford teams such as Italy and Brazil not playing in their world cup, or getting kicked out in the group stage. But ICC can't afford to lose the Indian team in the group phase of the world cup. If that happens, the TV broadcasters will be up in arms and will refuse to bid for the next tournament.
Well, I guess then the teams have to just play better and prepare better, right? If they arranged the world cup as they did in 2007 a lot more teams would have been playing cricket regularly and competitively. Eventually, by now the revenue would have been better. |
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My expectation level for Barcelona in next season has increased quite highly. They have really improved their game very much and they seem to be promising for the La Liga championship next time. But first, they need to bring some new and right players to the team I think. I don't believe that this squad is qualified enough to reach bigger successes in the future. They are in the Champions League too next season and they can perform much better with a more solid lineup. I assume that they are looking for a top striker for now.
A few days ago Barcelona officially announced their recruitment, they signed 2 players (Andreas Christense and Franck Kessie) for free. Then it was also heard that they were eyeing Lewandowski to make their attacking layer even better. I personally don't think that Barcelona will play better next season, the dominance will still be held by Real Madrid, and only Atletico Madrid will be their competitors next season. I believe Barcelona is playing well and they will also continue that in the next season. But I am really worried about their defense because I don't think it is good enough to compete against the likes of Real Madrid. Barcelona seems to be worried about their attacking side a lot right now but I think the attacking of Barcelona is decent. And I think the main problem is going to be defending. We have seen Real Madrid do very well without having a solid defense this season but I think that same thing is not going to work for Barcelona. |
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The final match will be a difficult match for both teams and I hope we will see both teams will put all their abilities into making the match really fierce, I personally am not a Liverpool fan, but hope that Liverpool can end this season with a trophy champions league after their failure to win the English league, Salah who is the spearhead of Liverpool attack so far is still in doubt will appear after the injury he got in the last game, it will be a big loss if Salah misses the match, but I think if later Salah is absent, of course, Klopp still has the right solution in destroying the madrid defense. Without Salah I think Liverpool will be difficult to win a game against Real Madrid. Indeed, several other players can still be used to fill the void in Liverpool's attack, but it is completely different when compared to Salah. The situation may be difficult if Liverpool have to lose their two main pillars in the final match, but there is still a possibility they can be played. Mohammed Salah is going to play in the final against Real Madrid. I don't think there is any case for any team about injuries. If I have to make any predictions I am going to say that both teams are going to play really aggressively. I expect Real Madrid to play more aggressively compared to Liverpool because if they sit back and try to defend, they lose. This is going to be a great match from anyone's perspective. |
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The question is are they up for the challenge in the 1st Bundesliga, last season if I am not wrong Schalke and Bremen were in the 1st division and failed to keep up with the other teams, so they have fallen down to the 2nd Division this time but I think they would need to fill in the gap on some players or they will need players that even though not the level of Lewandowski of Haaland, can particularly keep up to the expectation to survive the 1st Division next season,
Exactly and yes you are right on that. We have seen that this season from Stuttgart also lucky they managed to stay in the first German League. Its always hard for Teams that coming from the second league into the first , even it was only a year. Schalke and Bremen will dont have it easy and they have to work hard on it to keep them into the first league next season. New players are mostly needed . It is obviously a lot harder in the Bundesliga compared to the second Bundesliga. There is obviously a lot of change in the competition. And it is hard for the teams that get promoted to the Bundesliga to cope up with the situation. On another note, we can understand how the competition is different from the top of the Bundesliga to the bottom. There are teams that find it hard to stay after getting promoted and meanwhile we have Bayern Munich which takes the trophies almost every year. |
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There is nothing wrong with Inzaghi, even I initially thought that Inter would find it difficult to compete after the board appointed Inzaghi as their coach at the start of the season was 100% wrong. Inzaghi has done his job very well this season, it's just there have been a few games where the results have been surprising. even Milan felt the same way, lucky for Milan, they was able to provide good performance when facing a strong team, including when they beat Inter in a Serie A derby. In the last few seasons, Milan presented a fierce competition for the Serie A title. They still failed last season, but they managed to do it this season. It was a perfect achievement for both the coach and his players, it was a pleasure to see Milan's players celebrate the title this season. Next season, Milan will definitely have a tougher task where they are expected to defend their title. Milan will be competing in the Champions League as well so I think some new players should be brought in during this transfer window. I think Milan will have a good chance of defending their title. They have been playing well in recent seasons but the problem was they were really inconsistent in the previous seasons. I can also not say that they are very consistent in this season but they have done the job. I think they will show a good performance in the next season also. But as I said that I will also admit that they will have tougher competition in the next season. I think they are going to make some important changes in the squad in this transfer window. |
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What is the need for the smaller boards to appease BCCI? As per the schedule, BCCI needs to reciprocate the tours. The case with Pakistan is understandable. But they can't refuse to tour other countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, West Indies or South Africa. Now it may be true that if the boards are hostile then the BCCI may agree only to a bare minimum of matches. Then it is up to the opposite side to decide, whether they want to go for monetary gain or self respect. And once again, the real reason why revenues are so concentrated in India is due to the fact that ICC refused to popularize the game.
It's a give or take relationship instead of Appeasement. In my experience BCCI hardly play hardballs with smaller boards in context of bilateral series (unless their plans are clashing with IPL), mainly Ban + SL + WI + SA. One of the reason their relationship with the BCCI are very friendly in comparison to Aus and Eng ( Ex: Aus cancelling the SA's tour and ENG pulling out) As a sports body, I don't think ICC should have any favorites. But ICC is doing the absolute opposite. As a sports body ICC should have favored the countries that are really struggling and not those countries which have better money. To be honest I think India knows very well how to please the ICC. But it should not be anything like that. And we all know that ICC is also corrupted and they just want money. If they actually care about cricket itself I think they would have increased the number of teams that are playing cricket regularly by now. At least there have been 20 teams playing in the world cup. |
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