Sure, I mean negotiations are an integral part of any transfer obviously, but to take the time and trying to push the price a bit makes sense for as long as Pavard isn't part of the line up that Bayern is bringing on day after day.

They should be careful with exchanging their players when they actually count on them right now. I think Pavard has been a reliable defender for a long time. Considering that Upamecano is very prone to making errors, Bayern would be better off to keep some of their substitutes in case they have to make some adjustments during the season.

But I think I have also heard that it is Pavard's desire to leave the club, but why would he be so unsatisfied with his situation? He made 43 games last season and played every single Champions League game. It can't be that bad for him.

So solidly played by Juventus and I think that that was expected by most. They are putting their focus where it belongs for now and it pays off. I believe that we are going to see an incredibly strong Juventus for this season and they are just getting going. Their offensive line with Vlahovic and Chiesa is quite promising as well. Last season they only scored 56 goals, which is about 1.5 goals per game and I think for a club like Juventus Turin that is by far not enough, but Vlahovic so far hasn't really delivered. It feels like he is still waiting for his final breakthrough because those statistics he had last season aren't really that great. Chiesa also needs to step up his game quite a bit, but I wonder what is holding them back. Both Vlahovic and Chiesa have amazing talents, but they still can't use their quality to its full extent and become the strikers they could be.

It really depends on how you look at the same. Frosinone is hardly able to create chances, let alone dangerous attacks. The ball equally in possession of both teams more or less, but Napoli is more diligent in thriving for the finish. But I think that's normal as not that much has changed about the Napoli team and they have already had a great offense last season. I was rather interested in seeing how they will do without the best defender of the Serie A who now plays for Bayern Munich, but it seems that they are getting the job done. Although this is certainly not the hardest test for them to see how their defense plays against strong attacks.

Haaland is far more than an additional striking strength. When Haaland plays the other team has to dedicate defensive capabilities to stop him, which impacts the team as a whole. Having a really strong striker within your line-up is more impactful than just having this striker. An opponent is forced to think about it and come up with a match plan that includes this striker of course.

But the discussion whether De Bruyne is more important or Haaland, I think that also depends. There will be days when Haaland scores that one goal needed for the win and there have been days when De Bruyne scored it, like against Real Madrid in the Champions League. But one thing is for sure and that is De Bruyne's injury is among the worst issues that Manchester City could now have.

It does surprise me because I never thought that Pavard is a player with severe weaknesses and he has been quite stable whenever he played. I am not sure but maybe anyone here has a more differentiated opinion on him. He also has some offensive qualities, which doesn't happen very often, but did pay off in the past for Bayern Munich as well as in the national team. Mazraoui is young, but I think that he is still quite insecure and when there is a lot of space for him that he could make use of, more often than not does he make the wrong decision. It can almost be felt how he hesitates and isn't sure what pass to go for or what shot to take. Pavard is quite solid as a defender.

But this isn't really a strategic element that Pep Guardiola is deliberately including into his game. It is rather the genius of Haaland that forces the opponent to keep him covered for the full distance and in every position because he knows how to strikes from everywhere within a blink of an eye. This is what Guardiola and Manchester City bought when they paid the transfer fee for him. There is no magic or genius on behalf of Guardiola that Haaland forces several players at the same time to prevent him from scoring. But I think this is what extraordinarily good players are all about.

You can also take Mbappe here and guess what, the opponent is forced to play defensively more careful than if a team attacks without Mbappe being part of their offense. But I agree that this is so impressive how Haaland is effective even when he doesn't score a goal because all other players get chances they would otherwise not have gotten.

There is good reason to have doubts but regarding what? That Rudi Garcia is a bad coach altogether or that he will not achieve what Spalletti achieved? Because it is important to be exact here. Who did believe that Spalletti would play an astounding season like the last one with Napoli before the season actually started? Nobody thought that Napoli would cut through the season like a hot knife cuts through butter. But this makes it so hard for Garcia to copy the success. It is already hard to get close to it as the Serie A teams are quite even in the quality of their teams.

I thought that Nottingham would present a better gameplay than this as their performance against Arsenal wasn't outstanding, but it was still much better than many expected them to play. As Nottingham Forest losing only 1-2 against Arsenal and even getting into the position to making the game exciting again and end with just one goal difference between them in an away game was still a promising result.

If Nottingham Forest aims at staying in the Premier League, which they obviously do, the number one job they have to do is to beat their competitors from the lower table area. Sheffield is definitely one of them and losing points against those teams could be very costly in the end. It is also a home game and that is where they should collect their points above all.

I wouldn't compare Lewandowski to Haaland anymore. Those times when Lewandowski was the craziest goal machine in Europe are over. He is not a player who is going to break any records in Spain whereas Haaland is set to pulverize whatever records there are left both in the Premier League and in the Champions League.

Benzema wasn't that big of a loss to Real Madrid because he was on a decline anyway as he got more often injured and he also got to feel the consequences of aging. No doubt that he was an amazing offender for many seasons, but last season it became obvious that his best time is over. He could have still been a valuable player for Real Madrid, but I don't think that he would have had the form to get close to what he achieved when he became the world's best player.

But I think in general you don't get a 1.64 on Manchester City for a home game very often throughout the season. I think if Newcastle didn't win the first game scoring 5 goals, the odds would be worse than that for Manchester City.

But at the same time I believe that Manchester City does have an issue when De Bruyne is missing in their game and the midfield usually is where most of the game takes place for Manchester City. If they don't have a unit that works perfectly and smoothly, that might open the door for some chances to opponents like Newcastle which obviously have no issues in their offense so far.

It is certainly the match that everyone wants to know the result of already. I also think Manchester City will do it.

Stefan Ortega would probably only be allowed to leave Manchester City if they had some negotiations going on with another goalkeeper who could take his place and Pep Guardiola would feel comfortable with. I haven't seen him playing so far I think or did Ortega play a lot of games for Manchester City in the cups? Bayern would have to do quite some mediation when Neuer fully recovered and a goalkeeper like De Gea would also be there. I believe that De Gea is still motivated enough to claim the number 1 in any club that he'd be playing for.

I think Werder Bremen is in a great position for this first game as nobody expects them to win that game while Bayern Munich has shown that they are anything but invulnerable. For Bremen that's good because there is no need to hide their ambitions on the one hand, but also to not be afraid to disappoint anyone if they lose on the other hand. Of course they should not lose the game with a five goal difference and then still be happy, but I don't think an overwhelming victory for Bayern Munich is a likely outcome. Werder Bremen has to focus on not conceding a fast goal in the first half. That could kind of break their neck early and give Bayern a dangerous drive for the rest of the game.

This is definitely true and I am a huge fan of Messi and have been for a long time, but I would not draw a comparison between the two based on the two leagues they are now playing in. If Messi scores 30 goals a season and Ronaldo scores 20 goals or 40 goals, there is really not much to be made out of that which doesn't lack substance. Messi is doing amazing in the MLS and I saw some of the action and it was still the Messi he has always been, but it is not the same opponents there. There is one thing that will always be unique to Messi no matter which league he plays is and that is his sniper precision at free kicks.

But how often did we think last season that Bayern Munich should be the easy winner of the game? They have disappointed everyone who counted on them numerous times and the game against RB Leipzig wasn't something that could just be ignored, there were several unbelievable situations when RB Leipzig outnumbered Bayern's defense. That is a sign of bad organization and coordination within the squad.

But it's true that both Kane and the defender from Napoli couldn't really contribute yet. Though new players also means adaptive effort for the team as a whole, which again means that it can't be expected that everything works perfectly smooth in the first Bundesliga game. I agree that it could be a big win for Bayern, but I think there is a window of opportunity for Bremen.

I don't even understand why somebody broad up this specific graphic with that comparison. It doesn't make sense to compare two scores that have been achieved with a different number of games obviously. I think the comparison between Messi in the MLS and Ronaldo in the Saudi league isn't that insightful anyway because what do you gain from it when one player scores more than the other on average. But I think what can be said is that Messi is really enjoying his time and also the whole environment he finds himself playing in at the moment. I am not sure whether Ronaldo feels the same happiness playing for Al-Nassr that Messi feels playing for Inter Miami. He has Busquets there, Jordi Alba, it is a free country with modern worldviews and habits. I guess it suits Messi much better than other places outside of Europe and of course his home country / area.

I know what you are talking about and I think that is what many officials from the UEFA are also concerned about. The Arab clubs have access to essentially unlimited resources and I am not sure if I got this right from what I found out, but I think everything these clubs do is also backed by the government. This is a new and powerful approach that the European football hasn't been confronted with before ever.

The strategy of the Arab clubs also has some tremendous side effects besides players leaving the European continent. They set new price levels and new expectations for higher wages for all players. Not only those who decide to go to an Arab club, but also those who stay in Europe but threaten to leave Europe in case their requirements are not met so to say. It is concerning, but as you said FFP won't do much because it doesn't apply to them.

I concur with you and I think the fun about betting often is that it is not about any AI technology we could be using, but about our own intuition and knowledge we gathered over time. Of course if it is all about making money and you are in it and would be willing to use algorithms to tell you what is the best pick under which circumstances, that is a different situation maybe. But those who gamble for fun (they also don't want to lose of course), also do it because the way sometimes is the fun and the goal. Sitting together with some friends, placing some bets and one guy says this will happen and another guy says that will happen.

If I am convinced that an injury has a certain impact on the team and I feel that the favorite might lose the game because of an injury and AI tells me otherwise, I would still go with my own opinion. I think that gambling would become less attractive if everyone only had to punch in some ideas into a calculator and then gets the answers what to pick. I think that the total volume generated through gambling could even decline when algorithms were available that do everything for the gambler. It would also significantly decrease the margins for the providers as everyone would have access to the same technology and come closer to the spot/spread where the betting providers make the money from.

There is something at risk for Werder Bremen and for Bayern Munich in the first game. For Bayern there is always something at risk as every loss means disturbance for the whole club, but now there is a tad more motivation for Werder Bremen to not mess it up on the coming Friday because they were eliminated from the DFB Pokal in Germany.

Kane won't need too long to become a part of the team, but against RB Leipzig the problem was not the lack of a striker. They revealed blatant weaknesses in their backwards movement. When RB Leipzig played a counter attack, how is it possible that they have had a few situations where they outnumbered the defense of Bayern Munich? This is not acceptable for a top team and instead of minor mistakes, this highlights problems that have been lingering on for quite some time now.

There isn't too much reason to be euphoric about this result at this point. Or put differently, about the performance. It was well played and it also was against a team that we know can also destroy other teams, but it can't be denied that this was just a draw eventually and if they fail to win the next game, I think for both Liverpool and Chelsea it could be considered a bad start into the season. If they win their next game, it is ok to have 4 points after 2 games when the first one was against a strong team. But both feel the risk and the pressure here that they could fall behind after matchday 2 already.

There are a few examples now of players who resisted an offer from Saudi Arabia. Messi is not the best example as he went to the MLS instead, but still it shows that the Saudi Professional League has competition as well.

But a good example is Lewandowski who is said to have refused a gigantic offer and if I am not mistaken, I think that Modric was also one of those players who were offered a lot of money that many thought could not be resisted by someone who is as old as Modric. But they did.

However, the concern is real and justified. It is more a hand full of players who refused to accept a lot of money and give up their career in Europe in exchange for it. It is more likely that the number of players going to Saudi Arabia will increase over time. The more players go there, the more it feels like home for those who also consider joining the league there.