Latest posts of: Velvet78

For the upcoming games of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid I can say that I'm confident about the first and last one to win. However I'm not confident about Barcelona as much as them in their next game. Because it is an away game against Vallecano. Barcelona lost to them 3 times and got a draw in their last 4 head-to-head games in the La Liga.

Vallecano are holding a psychological advantage in hand because of that. In addition to that Real Madrid couldn't do better than drawing with Vallecano not long ago as well. Combining all of this it seems a little risky to bet on Barcelona here. Sad

Chelsea have such a challenging fixture these days. They are going to play away against Newcastle next time after leaving other big games behind consecutively. However Chelsea seemed really promising in those games. I'm not sure about whether they would have beaten Tottenham anyway if Tottenham didn't get any red card though. But especially that effort against Manchester City under bad weather conditions was marvelous!

Can they maintain this effort against Newcastle as well? I say why not. Because Newcastle are quite unbalanced recently. They are still one of the best home teams in the league though but it is the same for Chelsea in away games too. I think Chelsea will leave by at least one point here.

Manchester United are said to have plans to sign Antoine Griezmann in January by offering a really profitable deal for him. They are said to be planning to offer 435k euros per week which would be nearly double his weekly salary now. Marca says like it is triple the amount he earns now but as far as I can see he earns 240k euros per week.

Anyway even if this attracts Griezmann's attention I don't feel like Atletico Madrid would let him go in the first place. Because he is at home now and showing a really valuable performance to the team. I don't even expect Griezmann to leave in January while Atletico Madrid are in a much better condition than the Red Devils.

Quote from: Oluwa-btc on November 19, 2023, 06:41:09 PM

Quote from: Velvet78 on November 19, 2023, 01:38:45 PM

Dortmund have had some significant decline in their results for a couple of weeks in the Bundesliga. It is normal to see such time periods for big teams of course. But the key point is to put an end to that bad streak at once. Dortmund have a home game against Gladbach next time. I think this could be the opportunity for them to do this.

First of all they have been really dominant in home games against Gladbach in the recent years. We have watched many games ending up with very comfortable victories. I don't know if we would see such result but I expect Dorttmund to win here to put an end to this.

They have a worse point accumulation than the club they want to face over the weekend coming ( Borrussia Monchengladbach )
Borrussia Monchengladbach have seen three game won, a draw and a lose in the last five accumulation of 10 points in the last five, I'm also suspecting a surprise win against Borrussia Dortmund at home. They won't be the first they'll lose to gor they've done against Stuggart and Bayern Munich.

They should do well to take chances, defend well and make sure they wrap three points ahead of the Champions League fixture against Ac Milan. Who wins would be hard to say, Ac Milan wins and they'll go higher over Borrussia Dortmund. PSG gets a win against Newcastle United and it'll be case settled. We'll know though, these are just my thoughts!

When it comes to their Champions League fixture it is really tough. Milan have gained some confidence after that very valuable win over PSG. As the game is going to be played in San Siro as well it is going to be an extra difficult game for Dortmund. But their progress so far there is impressive.

I mean they are the leader in this group of death. They played really well against Newcastle in both games. However they couldn't beat Milan in Signal Iduna Park before. I doubt them to do better away. Sad

When it comes to the Atalanta - Napoli game it is a matchup between two very close teams. Bookmakers are thinking the same as well by giving nearly the same odds to these teams for the win. It would be a huge risk to bet on a side here. Because it is open for every kind of result. These teams have nearly the same statistics in the standings at the same time.

Napoli are a really solid scorer team in away games so far. Maybe this could help the game become more delightful to watch. If I decide to bet on this game my choice would probably be both teams to score. I don't expect the opposite from two very productive teams here.

I don't feel positive about Liverpool to win against Manchester City honestly. They couldn't do this in the Premier League since November 2015. I won't be surprised if this series continues for Manchester City as well. Because they are having their brightest years these days. No matter how much Liverpool have made progress since the previous season Manchester City are still seriously favourite side.

The thing Liverpool can try to do is to get a draw at least. If Chelsea can do that why wouldn't Liverpool do it? However that game was in Stamford Bridge. We can see a way different performance from Manchester City in Etihad in a big game.

It must be a really sad ending for Poland to the qualifiers. Because they needed to win their last game which was against Czech Republic and hope for them to lose points against Moldova after that as well. However Poland couldn't even manage to beat Czech Republic and this is the end of the road for them unfortunately.

If they managed to win here I think their chance would be quite much. Because Moldova are also fighting for Euro 2024 now. They can even still join the main tournament by beating Czech Republic next time. However their job is going to be really tough.

Quote from: Oluwa-btc on November 18, 2023, 11:18:54 PM

Quote from: Velvet78 on November 18, 2023, 10:41:37 PM

Sevilla still maintain this horrible form in the La Liga. They can't win a game for 6 weeks and the last 5 ones ended up with a draw. At least they could have been better in the Champions League but there is no much hope there either. It is even doubtful they would continue on their way with the Europa League.

If they go on like this they might part ways with Diego Alonso at the end of the season at worst as well. They are already accustomed to changing managers very often in the end. It wouldn't be any surprise to see as a result.

Embarrassing, this have been tough times for Sevilla, I would say signing Sergio Ramos would improve them defense but it didn't, I will day signing a new coach would bring some updates and improvements and consistency but still he couldn't.
Sevilla now remain at the thirteenth position on the La Liga standing. Which is similar to what we saw last season. The only impressive game they've played was to draw points with Real Madrid.

They may be back in the Europa League or out forever this season, do you also think that they shouldn't have sacked the coach that won them the Europa League Competition? He had a poor performance though, I feel like the club made a good decision. Yet, they'll need to looking at pressing matters more right now!

Sergio Ramos got really emotional when he returned to his home. He was understood really ambitious as well from his statements at the first times. His performance can be considered as average for now. I remember him saying that he would like to score against Barcelona in the La Liga game before as well. But he scored an unfortunate own goal instead. Sad

Anyway when it comes to your question about the decision to sack their previous manager I think they did wrong there. They should have given Mendilibar more time to help the team recover. In the end they won the Europa League with him. His credit should have been bigger than this.

Montpellier were the team to put an end to Nice's great winning streak unexpectedly. I didn't expect that because Montpellier didn't look much good until then. But they were really great at defending. Anyway now people must be curious about whether Nice will bounce back from that point loss quickly.

Honestly I believe they will do so. Because their next game is against Toulouse home. Bookmakers have given them reasonable odds to win as well which must be around 1.50. I won't bet on Nice anyway though but I feel like they will win this by one goal. I hope they can break the series of drawing with Toulouse in head-to-head games too.

Quote from: shogun47 on November 18, 2023, 02:28:35 PM

Quote from: Velvet78 on November 18, 2023, 01:59:40 PM

Richarlison has started to be linked with Saudi Arabia as a possible January transfer according to news. However I wouldn't expect this to happen. I mean Tottenham wouldn't like to let him go in the middle of the season in the first place. Even next summer they would think twice before letting this transfer happen.

Because they would need to find another good striker to fill his place in the squad. He is also one of the important members of the attacking line now. They would need to find the best replacement for him to make it worth for letting him go. But I'm curious about whether they have had any such alternative in mind so far.

This would be a shame if a 26 years old Brazilian top player goes to Saudi Arabia, but nothing is impossible anymore and I think if the offer is high enough, he will go there. His form for Tottenham has never been great, but it is so weird because he has a pretty good record for Brazil national team and can't play on the same level for his club Tottenham. I guess his conclusion will be that it is a good time to leave and earn as much money as possible. From a career perspective I think he should not yet give up and still try to make it in one of the top leagues.

I think the same as you about that. But when it comes to earning much more money I don't know what Richarlison would think about that despite being at young age. Huh

Maybe he would like to make a short-term deal with a Saudi Arabia team to add a lot more money into his savings and then return to Europe.

But until it comes to Richarlison's decision Tottenham wouldn't like to lose a valuable player like I said. They would also surely be offered an insane amount to let him go. But as long as they can't find anyone to spend that money on efficiently I don't see him leaving.

Tottenham look quite problematic for two game weeks. I won't say much about the Chelsea game though. Because those red cards in the defense line brought Tottenham's end. However that loss against Wolves is really unacceptable for them. Only one game was enough to maintain a losing streak. Wolves have been a challenging opponent for them maybe but this Tottenham are normally way better than those ones.

Tottenham are hosting Aston Villa next time. The odds are telling us that a close game is expected. I don't think the opposite either. However Aston Villa don't look good in away games as much as home ones so far. Therefore maybe Tottenham would find a way to win to end this streak. I hope Son's injury isn't serious otherwise it would change things a lot. Sad

Quote from: shogun47 on November 17, 2023, 11:45:53 PM

They sacrificed La Liga games? How did they do that or where did you find that our or read that? I think I missed any public statement from the Real Sociedad coach where he said that they will be sacrificing La Liga games for the Champions League. This seems to be a new thing then because I never heard of any team that sacrificed league games at the start of the season to win the group games in the Champions League. If you like please share a source where that has been confirmed by Real Sociedad.

You misunderstood me. Of course I don't mean that they did it intentionally. I mean they lost some points in the La Liga matches while they were doing amazing things in the Champions League. Why would they do this intentionally? Why would I mean such thing man? Cheesy

Anyway I don't know how much longer they can go on in the Champions League. But remembering what Villarreal did a couple of seasons ago here I wonder whether we would see a similar success by Real Sociedad as well. Grin

Quote from: ginsan on November 18, 2023, 09:08:00 PM

Liverpool has a higher quality squad compared to other teams in the European league. Of course, that is one of the advantages they have in the European League this season and it seems Liverpool will not have too much difficulty beating their opponents. However, they also cannot underestimate their opponents this season because many teams have big ambitions to become champions in the European league this season. The competition is tight when we have entered round 16 where each team must appear efficient in achieving victory in order to qualify for the next round.

Leverkusen, Roma and several other teams are also very strong this season so winning the title is believed to require quite a hard performance. The 2 remaining matches in the group phase will be utilized as best as possible by several teams in securing their ranking to qualify for the next round. Roma, who were runners up last season, also had to fight harder to win the top position from Slavia Prague.

Liverpool are indeed the strongest team in the Europa League at the moment. As long as they play with their full lineup after the group stage there is really numbered team which can really make difficulties for them. I assume Klopp would like to use his usual lineup as much as possible to go for the title here as well.

Liverpool didn't have a good season previously. Klopp would like to do his best to make up for that. The board must be really trusting him after all these years. There has been a really strong bond between the players and Klopp so far.

It must be really frustrating for Everton officials to see that only they are getting this punishment. Because in the past Manchester City faced this punishment "threat" many times but didn't get any officially. Double standard is being applied clearly when it comes to top teams in the Premier League. This is so wrong.

Now after this decision Everton are in the relegation zone. Sad

The season was already not going on easy for them and now it has become much more difficult because of this reason.

Ferrari had a great day in qualifying today. I was expecting them to be competitive though. Because Ferrari are known by being better on straights compared to their performance at turns. Leclerc and Sainz took advantage of that very nicely as a result. It was nice to see Sainz being right behind Leclerc despite having a rough weekend so far.

However he is going to be starting at the 12th position of course. But I still am confident he will climb many positions. Verstappen is starting right behind Leclerc and I wonder how much time it will take him to overtake Leclerc.

Quote from: Oluwa-btc on November 17, 2023, 01:14:47 PM

Preciate it. Juventus some years back with Allegri have always been this way, they barely score more than three good goals in a game, this happened before then take over of Antonio Conte.
This season they have defended well but have found it difficult to score, both Moise Kean and Dusan Vlahovic ain't having a great season and same goes with Weah Junior.
Who should be blamed for it? The coach, failure of the midfielder's to link up with the attackers or lack of creativity? There'll definitely be difficulty when they eventually face a side that defends better than em.

Dusan has also been linked with a move to both Arsenal and Chelsea, I don't know if that would be happening this upcoming transfer window!

Indeed Vlahovic has been linked with such teams. Actually the links with Arsenal have existed for a long time so far. But I don't know if Arsenal have plans to sign another striker at the moment. Gabriel Jesus has newly got injured and he isn't expected to be back until late November. However after that Arsenal should still be good to go.

Because I think Arteta is contented with the contribution from their forward players now. Especially Nketiah has scored more goals than I would imagine. I don't know whether Arsenal would like to spend a lot of money to sign Vlahovic in January now.

Atletico Madrid maybe surprised and disappointed their fans by losing the Las Palmas game but I was expecting a point loss honestly after seeing those odds. However it didn't take them much time to recover from that either. That win over Villarreal was really a nice one to bounce back from a loss against Las Palmas.

Griezmann is still performing really nicely and showing that he belongs with Atletico Madrid. He has made a serious contribution with his goals so far in the season too. He has always been in his best form while he is playing for Atletico Madrid as well. This is really his home because of that.