I believe Liverpool and Chelsea both will leave these bad days behind sooner or later.

I'm hopeful about especially Liverpool considering their potential. The squad is just amazing already and they only need to play more focused from now on. Klopp will need to use the right game plan to start a lasting winning streak as well. As for Chelsea maybe they might need more time than Liverpool to fix their issues. They have had weaknesses and they are trying to get rid of them by signing new players. But a good game plan preference will be important for Potter just as Klopp.

In my opinion, Real Madrid won't give up to try signing Mbappe. He is the most potential striker, especially after Mbappe performed brilliantly in the world cup tournament. Sure, PSG won't let Mbappe to leave before the season ends. Real Madrid only has a chance to make an offer after Mbappe finishes this season with PSG. As far as I know, Mbappe still has a dream to be a part of Real Madrid squad. It is his dream since he was a kid, he won't forget about it.

Hopefully, Potter can change the narrative in their first match after the World Cup break. It's not about not wanting Potter fired. As a manager, you must produce good results. When a manager is underperforming, the Chelsea we know is not patient when it comes to sacking a manager that is not producing good results for the team. Despite speculation that Graham Potter is a close friend of Chelsea's new owner, he could face the same fate as other previous coaches who were fired from the team.

after winning the world cup it is very possible for Lionel Messi to improve his performance, of course there will be more motivation and confidence from him to show his best game, and the problem with Mbappe I think it has nothing to do with Lionel Messi for what the goalkeeper does Argentina at the time they celebrated, maybe it was a form of excessive joy because they won the world cup and Mbappe is a player that Argentine players have counted on so it's only natural that they celebrate it with their own version.

Honestly,  I really pitty Chelsea in that position they're currently occupying in the Premier league. Chelsea needs do lots of job and needs stay consistency in their winings to get out of that position, hence they are definitely gonna lose the ticket for the next Champions League competition if time is not taken.

I never knew that the world cup trophy is such a unique thing and that no one can touch it.
I read on instagram that Salt Bea is banned - because he touched the trophy.
That's is very new thing for me.

I think Juventus is also one of the big threats for Napoli to win the title this season in a friendly match. Napoli lost even though they didn't play with their best players, but that makes speculation that Napoli can be beaten, especially since the two of them will meet Napoli and Juventus in the first half of next year.

Interestingly Manchester United also have started to be interested in Emiliano Martinez recently.

https://www.footballinsider247.com/sources-man-united-have-concrete-interest-in-signing-aston-villa-star-emiliano-martinez/

I wonder whether this is related to the De Gea situation in the team now. Because his future at the team is still ambiguous now. He is about to have only six months left on his contract and there is still no agreement between two sides yet. I think De Gea would like to stay now. Many years ago, he was ready to sign for Real Madrid but that time is long gone. They have Courtois now and they are contented with his performance also. I don't see De Gea joining a bigger team these days.

I wonder if Manchester United are really thinking of replacing him with Martinez depending on the credibility of this news. Because Martinez is not a goalkeeper who should be among the substitutes.

After it continues to look like Benjamin Pavard will leave FC Bayern in the summer, FC Bayern is still looking for a new right-back. Here, 19-year-old Malo Gusto from Olympic Lyon could be a promising player who has attracted the interest of FC Bayern. The 19-year-old has a market value of €15m and would therefore fit in well with FC Bayern's target list.


Source: https://twitter.com/iMiaSanMia/status/1605691709223931904

IMHO a good player who could certainly help FC Bayern in the coming years. I hope that the Pavard issue can be resolved quickly so that a replacement for his position can be found quickly. If they will sign Gusto in the end, I would be fine with that. Let's see...

Liverpool still fail to win although their previous victories vs City, this time in EFL Cup, the final result is 3-2.
City score every time then Liverpool get the draw until Ake last goal. Didn't follow the match in full but from what I saw, City was better.

Schalke's situation surprised me. He's promoted again in the Bundesliga this year, but they seem to have learned nothing from his relegation from the Bundesliga and are still fighting relegation. The Bundesliga, like other European leagues, does not start right away. The second half will start with the game of Leipzig and Bayern Munich on January 20 and Schalke will face away against E.Frankfurt on January 21. Schalke drew 2-2 in the last minutes of the friendly match against Osnabrück. They urgently need to strengthen the team with quality transfers or they will return to Bundesliga 2.

Partizan had another big win tonight. Obradovic showed his greatness yet again. As he pointed out after the game, Partizan beat the leader of the Euroleague at the moment. Really great job from Partizan.

Fenerbahce team is in incredible decline. Okay, there are injuries, but injuries are part of this game. Every team has injured players. They lost 4 of the last 5 matches including local league. If it continues like this, they might find themselves outside the playoff hoop in 3-4 weeks. Fenerbahce is already a fragile team. Things are going bad for them and their coach Dimitris Itoudis. It was a good game for beginning the week. Always fun to watch Serbian teams.

Looking at the lineups of Manchester City and Liverpool, I can say that both teams have their usual starting eleven players on the field now. I see Palmer and Bajcetic as not regulars. The goalkeepers are also different for both teams. This must be one of the reasons why the odds were given like that. However I saw the odds being in favour of Manchester City even more in time. I saw their odd even around 1.40-1.50 before the match started. My favourite is also them. Manchester City have dominated the EFL Cup also for long years.

By the way, Manchester City have just scored and got 1-0 ahead in the 10th minute by Haaland. It looks like Haaland is fully ready for this half of the season.  

I think it will most probably be Messi's last year with PSG next season after signing a one-year contract extension now. Because I don't see any reason for Messi not to extend his contract at least for two more years. He is already very accustomed to PSG's game plan. His performance has been very impressive here comparing to his current age as well. It is obvious that Barcelona won't be making any offer to sign him back anytime soon either. Hence there is nothing holding Messi back from playing for PSG more years.

But maybe he might have some other plans for the future. We might see him playing outside Europe before his retirement maybe. We don't know when he thinks of retiring in the end. For example he might want to go back to where he started which is Argentina.

The result of my pick Yesterday

Charlotte Hornets VS Atlanta Hawks SCORE 106 - 125 - LOST

Lamelo Ball is back but wasn't enough against the Hawks, the Atlanta Hawks did fairly enough at the start of the game, and Trae Young did redeem himself the difference is Trae Young having Bogdan Bogdanovic backing him up, with Bogdanovic having 28 points, and Young getting 31 points,

Detroit Pistons VS Sacramento Kings SCORE 113 - 122 - WIN

It seems that the Piston is really having a hard time they are the lower team in the standings even though they got a good point spread it wasn't enough with Sacramento's big guns that will catch fire, every game at the start I thought that the Piston can win but the Sacramento was great in the 2nd half and made a fair game catching up,

Toronto Raptors VS Brooklyn Nets SCORE 116 - 119 - WIN

A very close game indeed, those injuries have proven crucial for the team and they are badly needed for this game but Pascal Siakam, Scottie Barnes, and Fred VanVleet made a great struggle in winning the game with the limited player rotation they have, while the Brooklyn Nets Still struggle from the start of the game but recovers in the 2nd half thanks to their Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving,

Los Angeles Lakers VS Denver Nuggets SCORE 126 - 108 - WIN

Well, the moment I have seen Anthony Davis on the court I immediately switch my bet, at first it was a fairly close game but when it comes to the 2nd half all hell let loose when Lebron James exploded, the Los Angeles Lakers from a good enough player rotation than with the Denver Nuggets that mostly all have done a great job, in averaging 2 digit points,

Because of this exact reason people usually compare them at their age. So if Mbappe is 23, then they compare what Messi did until 23 and that is just unreal, dude has been a force of football for nearly 2 decades, in a year or two it will be 2 decades to be fair.

And by age 23 he already achieved more than what Mbappe did, and by 35 or so Mbappe will probably not have what Messi has neither. The type of dominance Barcelona had for a while is the key to what Messi did of course, and Mbappe doesn't have that because with all the money in the world you could not build a La Masia and players like Xavi and Iniesta and Puyol and Pique, and many others who contributed to Messis amazing career.

We have only 1 game left tomorrow, France v Argentina. And that could end in a very boring final and an easy victory over France. If you look at the results of the last few years, France has done considerably better than Argentina. Argentina's last World Cup title was in 1986, and France's in 2018. And there was no luck involved. From an individual point of view, I also think that France is much further ahead than Argentina, which is mainly due to Messi and his form of the day.

Even though Morocco didn't win today, they played very well. The match was very competitive and enjoyable. The performance of both the teams was excellent. Morocco's attack is not strong enough. They won the previous matches only because of strong defense and excellent match strategy. African teams should now look for talented players for their attack. If the attack is strong, they will be able to challenge any European or American teams in the next World Cup.