Latest posts of: Velvet78

PSG have been given @1.49 odds for the win against Monaco in Parc des Princes. I understand the thinking of bookmakers but I don't know. It still feels like this is lower than it should be. Because we are talking about an unbalanced team this season. But looking at the Ligue 1 table I can also see that impressive winning streak on one hand.

This is the main reason of these odds though. But Monaco have been a pain for PSG in their last three head-to-head games. They couldn't beat them in any of them. I wonder if we would see PSG breaking this cycle by a win this time.

Quote from: red4slash on November 17, 2023, 01:14:34 PM

Quote from: Velvet78 on November 17, 2023, 11:07:17 AM

I really admire the work Real Sociedad have done in Group D so far by the way. They have collected 10 points and they are the leading team as well in a group with teams like Inter and Benfica. I wasn't expecting Benfica to be this terrible of course before the group stage started. They just can't perform the same as they do in their domestic league. Sad

This has created an opportunity for Salzburg to move them out of their way to make it to the Europa League as well but let's see. There are still two more games for Benfica which can be seen as an opportunity to make it to the Europa League instead at least. But I can't trust them even as much as I do for Salzburg.

Yes they have done a good job so far in the Champions League group stages. They have confirmed themselves to be in the round of 16 with Inter Milan representing group D. In the last 2 matches they will play, they can be more relaxed because they can rotate players to anticipate things that are not desirable. Things like this are an advantage in itself, because they can breathe more in the midst of this very busy schedule.
La Liga is a bit of a struggle right now, which is inversely proportional to what they can do in the Champions League. The increased competition in La Liga is one of the causes in my opinion.

Real Sociedad sacrificed some games in the La Liga I'm afraid while they were trying to get maximum number of points in 4 games in the Champions League. Was it worth it? I think it was definitely.

From now on they can concentrate on upcoming La Liga games easier to get better results. But they wouldn't just shift all of their focus there of course. They would try to qualify as the leader in the Champions League as well. But I don't feel like they will make it considering the last game is away against Inter. Sad

There are rumours such as Manchester City will be looking for signing back Leroy Sane. Liverpool are also said to be interested in him on one hand. However he still has more than one and a half years on his contract with Bayern Munich now. In addition to that Bayern Munich would never want to let him go that easy while he is playing great.

Sane has made a really great duo with Harry Kane this season. It must be clear that there is a significant number of increase in his assisting productivity. For example he has already made more assists than the previous season in the Bundesliga.

Quote from: Oluwa-btc on November 16, 2023, 10:34:42 AM

Quote from: Velvet78 on November 16, 2023, 10:07:58 AM

I didn't know that Juventus were going to host Inter on their next game day. It is a nice coincidence thinking I was assessing the current situations of these two teams in my last post. Grin

Anyway for this game of course bookmakers are favouring Inter about which I don't have a different opinion either. There is only a gap of two points between these teams of course. However Inter are still a much more productive team than Juventus although both of them have strong defenses. However the problem is Inter haven't been able to beat them away very often. While Juventus are in this great form I wouldn't risk my bet by picking Inter to win here. Even both teams to score might be risky thinking how great Juventus are about keeping the advantage when they get ahead first.

Interesting game you know, whoever wins the game should and would go top of the league standing. If the game gets too difficult then it'll be a draw and Juventus would want that.

Inter Milan has the best attacking side so far but the bookmakers do not define who wins and who loses, you have to check the available players around and also the form at home and away games if they've both done well.
Myself, I have a different opinion about the game, I would want to see Juventus winning after all of the drama thryve gone through last season and this year.
They're better and have also won more when it comes to head to head between them both. Allegri also has the experience and shit to win this game, but maybe, not the goal scorers!!

It is nice of you to mention Juventus' striker problem right now. They aren't as productive as Inter already and the goals are rather evenly distributed between their players as well. Vlahovic is having a horrible time period these days. He couldn't score in his last 6 league game and his playing time was affected negatively too after he started to drop in form.

His bad time period has last too long in my opinion. He started the season really quick by scoring good amount of goals but that was it. If we don't see a good performance from him in general of the season I think he would leave the team next summer.

Next time I see that there is a Manchester City - Liverpool game in Etihad. It is around a week away from us and this is one of the games I have been expecting to watch. Because Liverpool are in a way better condition than the previous season. They are right behind Manchester City in the standings as well.

Sometimes I see Liverpool performing really badly as well of course like that Luton game. However as long as they don't reflect this onto most of their league games they should be fine. Both teams are really productive at scoring and have good defenses in general. The games between them have ended by many goals mostly too. I think over 2.5 goals and both teams to score are good options to bet on.

Ivan Toney seems really determined about leaving Brentford as soon as possible. He is said to be even demanding a release clause in case of signing a contract extension with his team. Because according to rumours there are already some big Premier League teams monitoring him. They can't monitor him these days though as he is suspended for many months. Grin

It seems like Brentford will have a really hard time convincing him for a contract with their conditions. But if they don't want to lose him earlier they have no other choice than getting along with his demands. Honestly after this long-term suspension I wouldn't take the risk if I were in place of top teams interested in him.

Quote from: len01 on November 16, 2023, 07:26:47 AM

from what I have seen, Lewandowski actually has a big influence on Barcelona performance because after all he is a striker who is relied on at Barcelona and I not blame him, but its just that Lewandowski has experienced a decline in performance since the minor injury he suffered.
however, all of this is not just Lewandowski fault, but like Felix, who in the early stages of this season looked very strong and was very enthusiastic about making his contribution, but lately Felix has also experienced a decline in performance, which is not certain what the cause is, but I am sure that Xavi is a very wise coach and he was able to condition this bad situation.

Felix is better in the Champions League now. In the La Liga he couldn't score a goal for so many games. His performance rating dropped quite much as well. But every good player has this kind of poorer time periods as well. The important thing is to prevent it from continuing for a much longer time.

It has been Felix's dream to play for Barcelona. He even accepted a ridiculous amount of money for a year just to make his dream come true. Therefore I think they will get more ambitious in the league soon too. He would do his best in his time here.

Quote from: Oluwa-btc on November 16, 2023, 05:42:17 AM

Quote from: Velvet78 on November 15, 2023, 09:58:57 PM

Teams until Aston Villa are in a really nice competition for the lead in the standings. However after Aston Villa there is some decent point gap with the remaining teams. If Manchester United didn't have a bad start they would have been in a better position now. Even though they have lost many points they are still 4 points behind Aston Villa.

The board are still believing in Erik ten Hag to make this team better. He had better take advantage of this chance well and find a way to improve the form. They need to be effective and consistent in defense especially. Because they concede really simple goals.

At least the defenders, if Manchester United had Lisandro Martinez and Luke Shaw it and ready, they shouldn't have resulted to all of these situations. Bad times are there so they could appreciate the good times,Yes?
Manchester United players and fans should accept the pain with time they'll be rewarded. They've seen the incoming of Jim Radcliffe already being effective, players not worthy would be sent out.

There's no better candidate for the Manchester United job, asides Erik Ten Hag, I can only see Pep Guardiola as tue manager with capacity to coach Manchester United. But Pep Guardiola? Grin

These are just little fantasies up in my head. To sum things up, Erik Ten Hag would do a better and perfect job for Manchester United with the right players!

When it comes to Pep Guardiola I don't expect him to manage another Premier League team ever after leaving Manchester City in the future. Because we have matched him with Manchester City so much that I can't think of him as a manager for another English team. Maybe he would return to one of his old teams later on who knows.

Those teams are Barcelona and Bayern Munich though. Both of them must be contented with their current managers but Guardiola is also not going anywhere now in the end. Maybe in the future this might really happen.

I don't think Lyon can beat Lille in such condition. I mean they had huge difficulties in doing that even while they were having a better season previously. Lille were the better playing side in that game but Lyon still won by 1-0 home. But now the situation is really worrisome for Lyon. That win over Rennes wasn't even easy one.

Because despite Rennes' getting a very early red card Lyon still had big difficulties. They even let the game become more balanced in the second half. I can't trust this Lyon for betting as a result. But I wouldn't bet on Lille either as a similar scenario might happen and it would find me. Grin

I didn't know that Juventus were going to host Inter on their next game day. It is a nice coincidence thinking I was assessing the current situations of these two teams in my last post. Grin

I mentioned Leipzig's situation in my last post and now it has come to my mind how great Openda has been performing at the same time. He came here from a lower tier team like Lens after having a pretty awesome season in the Ligue 1. I had doubts about whether we would see him adapting and showing as good performance as that when he comes to Leipzig.

But now we clearly see that he is really impressive. He doesn't only make do with scoring 9 goals in the Bundesliga. He is a good scorer in the Champions League on one hand too. This leap in his career could bring about offers from even bigger teams in the near future in my opinion. Do you think as well that he has a brighter future?

Quote from: bering on November 16, 2023, 07:58:24 AM

Arsenal was surprisingly lose from Lens few weeks ago and after international break they will try to get revenge from Lens in the 5th match and if Arsenal win from Lens they will be automatically qualified and most likely finish at first position but Lens also had same ambition because if they can able to beat Arsenal then Lens has just open their opportunity to qualified and after beated PSV last week Lens can able to bounce back and won from Marseille with narrow scores at Ligue 1 even so with Arsenal that recently they got 2 consecutive wins in all competitions so this is interesting who will be the winner of this match and i assume as a host Arsenal will being an the favourite

Arsenal's odds are around 1.26 to win the next game against Lens. Honestly I'm not surprised with that at all. Because technically they are a huge favourite to win this game despite the loss in France against them before. Arsenal weren't having a good day back then and Lens took advantage of it really nicely.

However we must have all seen how ambitious they were against Sevilla in Emirates the last time.

I'm expecting to see the same ambition here as well. In addition to that winning this game means they are securing the lead at the same time. Therefore I don't expect a big mistake from Arsenal.

Such news like Chelsea will make an offer for Osimhen in January has been refuted. However it was already meaningless honestly. Because they already have Nkunku even though he is injured. When he recovers they would go on with him and then decide whether there is a need for another striker. But of course we don't know when Nkunku will recover for now. Sad

I think Chelsea should sign a better goalkeeper rather than signing a striker now. I don't like Robert Sanchez now. He isn't a player who is at Chelsea's level at the moment. Kepa is also not coming back at least until the end of the season and I doubt his future at Chelsea later as well.

Lewandowski is still quite useful for Barcelona. So far his statistics are like 7 goals and 3 assists in 11 games in the La Liga. I think this is quite good when we think he is 35 years old now. The main problem with him is inconsistency now. Because they haven't been scoring for 6 games in a row including the Champions League games as well until the Alaves one.

He put a really good end to that bad streak by scoring 2 goals there. However his contribution will be more valuable in bigger games. Especially in the Champions League he is needed quite much.

Quote from: Richbased on November 13, 2023, 04:58:30 PM

Quote from: Velvet78 on November 13, 2023, 04:34:10 PM

Tottenham continue to surprise us. First the huge loss against Chelsea after being shown 2 red cards and now this loss against Wolves... I really don't know how they managed to lose this game honestly. It was like an epic ending for Wolves side for certain. Because both goals came in the stoppage time and the winning goal was even in the last moments.

One thing you need to understand in football is that no matter how strong or in-form a club is, there are some certain club that they always finds it difficult to win or even if they are to win them it will be a narrow win.

Wolverhampton wanderers may seen as though they ain't visible in the league but check out since they were promoted to the premier league in 2018 most of the big clubs finds it very difficult to win wolves and if we take a look at the match they won Manchester city 2:1 you will understand that this club is good and within some time they might start being visible in the league and competing with the bigger clubs.

Though the injuries woes that Tottenham suffered also contributed to their current drop in form but that shouldn't be a prerequisite to undermine the opponent they faced as their opponent were tactical and played good football in other to win Tottenham.

Of course I know that mate.

But still when a team are doing great in the league and start losing points for two games in a row it is natural to become surprised. But it isn't like I'm saying "Oh no! This is impossible!". Cheesy

I just really love to watch Ange Postecoglou's system here and I want to see it as much as possible. In short I would like to see Tottenham competing for the Premier League title this season. Because this poor team haven't been able to win a single title here for many many years. This is like the best season they have had in so many years.

There is an Israel - Switzerland game tonight which is the only game of the day at the same time. Israel played an away game against Kosovo three days ago and got a disappointing result like a 1-0 loss. This even included Kosovo in the race for qualifying for Euro 2024. Now they are hosting Switzerland which got a really solid result against themselves by 3-0 before.

Maybe Israel don't concede so many goals. Their defending is similar to Switzerland now. However when it comes to scoring productivity they are really bad. 7 goals in 7 games against 20 goals in 7 games here. Considering their previous head-to-head as well I don't expect Switzerland to lose here.

Inter and Juventus are on a great streak at the moment. Even Juventus are away from the closest opponent in the standings by 6 points now. These two teams seem really promising for the Serie A title at least for now. I don't have much doubt about Inter to maintain a good form in general. But when it comes to Juventus I start having doubts. Sad

They are indeed way better than the previous season. And they are winning in their usual style which is like wins by one goal. However it has been a long time since we saw Juventus this solid. Therefore I can't be sure about whether they would be consistent during most of the season.

Leipzig are trying to regain momentum currently. That loss against Mainz was quite unpredictable honestly and I doubted them against Freiburg after that. However Leipzig didn't upset their fans as well and won by 3-1 home. I'm not a Leipzig fan by the way I meant other people. Grin

Anyway now they have started a winning streak again.

The fight for top 4 would be quite fierce in my opinion. Because Leverkusen are also in this area and they are even the leader. In addition to that we have Stuttgart here as a new team. It is mostly thanks to Guirassy's incredible effort of course. In this situation Dortmund and Leipzig would need to fight harder for top 4.