Football autism

[Gotma]

He might be a decent lad, but him performing in the Austrian (wtf is that even ) league means nothing. RB pulling something this year in CL would mean Napoli or Liverpool not making it out of the groups, that would be interdasting indeed.

On another note what do we make of this first few match days in Europe + Brexitland?

Germany: The table is sorted already, no surprises, it'll depend on RB and dortmund not slipping too much, as Bayern won't throw as many points as last season imho.

Brexitland: Liverpool has the early edge but this is a war of attrition and the squad of ManCity is so deep that I'd give them the better chances over the whole season, rooting for Liv though. Arsenal and Chelsea are in a transition period, so I'd give Leicester a good shot at top4. ManU is just a meme at this point, there is no quality in the squad even though they spent a fortune. A team with a competent manager and the money of ManU would comfortably sit in 3rd place in the PL this season I reckon.

Spain: What a time to be alive, it might be not boring as fuck for once in a while. Every team can beat any other it seems. Barca playing shite. Zidane is being found out, as in it wasn't him winning the CL 3 times in a row but Ronaldo + Modric, Kroos etc in their prime. Athleti just scoring too few goals to really capitalize on the slip ups.

Italy: Watched the Milan derby yesterday. Inter has quite a nice squad and with Juve not getting any younger, Napoli staying strong hopefully it will become the most interesting SerieA season since 10 years.

As for CL predictions: Liverpool wont win PL and CL. Their squad is not deep enough. Especially the midfield lacks creativity + if one of their front three gets injured the construction might crumble. Barca and Real will pick it up during the season. Real is lacking solid starpower though and Barca depends on healthy and fit Messi as always. ManCity will find a way to slip again hopefully. PSG falls in the same category. Bayern has the squad, but I won't predict anything before they played the games against Tottenham. Those guys overperformed last CL season and won't play a big role this time I guess. Juve is too old. A lot of potential for a dark horse like Napoli or Dortmund thriving this season I guess. Very promising.

[McMokka]

Regarding Haaland: Sure, it is only in austria. But the man is 19 years old and overperforms not only in the league but also in CL, even if it was a rather weak opponent. I wouldnt predict him scoring 2 goals on average in one of the big leagues, but the amount and the way he scores in his debut season for a noteworthy club is very interesting.

Tbh the few games of the spanish league I followed where underwhelming. all favorites underperform greatly, but tbh the results in the past didnt match the ability imo. From a neutral pov Real wasnt good enough to win CL 3 times in a row, Barcas Top11 is too old and the very expensive prospects and talents only somewhat work out. Though it must be said that it is fun watching Ansu Fati rising to the occasion.

In germany Dortmund continue their weakness of last year, not having the stomach in some matches to dig in until the 3rd minute of overtime, getting 2 late goals. Sancho is still in amazing form, so he seems to have more than just one season of glory. Reus is not even at 70% of the quality he showed last season. the comparison might be a bit over the top, but Reus is to Dortmund what Messi is to Barca. The glue which holds the team together. When he underperforms(or if he is missing) it affects the whole team and they have no one to compensate him not being up to speed.
Leipizg play great football in my opinion though it became less flashy than in the first few games. Still they continue to be amazing defensively and deadly in the offense, being with lightning fast counters, high quality combinations or, like yesterday in Sabitzers case, single actions which lead to goals. They could also be a dark horse candidate.
Bayern is beginning to get in the groove. Goretzka is missing imo since he would do the central midfielder role a bit more defensively than Tolisso and with more physical ability, which is needed to give Thiago more freedom to be expressive. Martinez is the better option compared to Tolisso atm but I cant wait for Bayern to return to the 4-2-3-1. Kimmich. does. not. belong. in. the. midfield. Pavard is limited as attacking fullback, Kimmich is way better as FB compared to DM. Hernandez gets better with every match but in my opinion is already the best center back Bayern has. As it seems Coutinho has finally arrived, he was everywhere yesterday and basically unstoppable. Lewandowski is like a fine wine and gets better every season apparently. I would also wish that Kovac wouldnt rotate as much with the wingers. Coman and Gnabry bring way more to the table than Perisic. Everything he does on the wing seems slow and clunky, he is more like a striker.

Favorites for CL this season: ManCity or Bayern. Clubs I see as dark horses or would like to see proceed: Ajax, both RB clubs, Napoli, Leverkusen, Atletico.

[Gotma]

I see your point on Kimmich. Imo it's just building him up at that position earlier than Lahm or Schweinsteiger. He'll lack the explosiveness, speed and lung to play fullback in 3-4 years. So giving him time to adapt to the next logical position is a smart move.
With Coutinho in the mix Bayern might not play that heavily relying on their wings anyway. Pavard and Hernandez showed their flexibility already, playing whatever is needed.
Perisic is a great alternative, as he allows to give Gnabry and Coman much needed breaks to prevent injuries. He scored 2 and set up 2 in like 5 games now, not bad for him being there for a few weeks only.
The depth in this team improved immensely this year imho. So many multi-purpose players and star power on board.

[Paris_Hilton]

Zidane is being found out, as in it wasn't him winning the CL 3 times in a row but Ronaldo + Modric, Kroos etc in their prime

just as Pep did in Barca.. imoh i always found him overrated and when people talk about his "philisophy".. well, that ain't his.. in fact i would argue that Van Gaal initiated the possession game. When Pep took over he had the players in their prime that kind of played that technical football !

Lewandowski is like a fine wine and gets better every season

To me he should have shown more.. scoring in the bundesliga should not be hard for a guy like him. He had to prove himself in CL in big games where unfortunately he often never achieved his status


Perisic has been doing great and i think that guy was underrated because he always was a silent dude so did not get that huge media coverage. Maybe a bit like Dzeko who is one of the most underrated player

[McMokka]

Zidane is being found out, as in it wasn't him winning the CL 3 times in a row but Ronaldo + Modric, Kroos etc in their prime

just as Pep did in Barca.. imoh i always found him overrated and when people talk about his "philisophy".. well, that ain't his.. in fact i would argue that Van Gaal initiated the possession game. When Pep took over he had the players in their prime that kind of played that technical football !

Lewandowski is like a fine wine and gets better every season

To me he should have shown more.. scoring in the bundesliga should not be hard for a guy like him. He had to prove himself in CL in big games where unfortunately he often never achieved his status


Perisic has been doing great and i think that guy was underrated because he always was a silent dude so did not get that huge media coverage. Maybe a bit like Dzeko who is one of the most underrated player

https://youtu.be/dNtRo9LGiUU

This video nicely explains guardiolas playstyle. I don't think you do him justice with your assessment.
Speaking of unfair assessment: Lewandowski just put up a new all time record with 10 goals in 6 games in the Bundesliga, even beating Gerd Müller. And that is after he gave away a penalty to coutinho last match. And him being too bad in CL is just a myth. The only 2 players more dangerous on average in the present are Messi and Ronaldo. Lewandowski being directly involved in 70 goals in 84 matches (54 goals, 16 assists) is nothing to be frowned upon. Him being not effective in "important" matches is a misconception mainly being pushed by the media.

[Paris_Hilton]

i am just saying that he won the CL back with a full completed team that was the best of the world during that era (spain won everything) and he is not the mastermind of philosophy like people like to make it. But that is my opinion


about RL9
i have been watching the games and to me that is not a myth but is reality... yes he scores against freiburg or paderborn but unfortunatly he is often too absent in the games against a bigger teams... i cannot recall myself of ever seeing him being a game changer like some other players are.

just look here the stats.. most of his goals come during the group stages and nearly no goal when you need the balls. To me he has a weak mental and that is the issue i always had with him. He is not the type of guy a la effenberg. To me he has not the killer instinct

https://www.transfermarkt.com/robert-le ... rt=&stand=

[Gotma]

Him being a striker and therefore being highly dependent on the team is where the cookie crumbles. If he was in the CL-winning team of Bayern, he would've scored 10 goals against Barca combined in those 2 games alone.
Like really, Bayern obviously didn't perform well the last years. But that wasn't due to Lewa missing a lot of chances or anything. He is the last piece of the puzzle, if the rest falls apart no striker alive will save your team against worthy CL opponents.
I remember him obliterating Real with 4 goals the season Bayern and Dortmund played the final. But even then it was the team around him making him able to do that.

[Paris_Hilton]

come on, there were games that were close.. we had close games last 2 CLs where he should have shown why he is worth the money, but he didn't.
to me it ain't important if he scores 5 goals against hannover.. even gomez could do that

i am just saying that when the games are tight.. he rarely shines.. and he should shine in those games given his "calibre"

[Paris_Hilton]

I would say... RIP Zidane

[McMokka]

I would say RIP Pochettino

[Paris_Hilton]

[TheGamingLion]

Bayern :^)

[Bronn1]

RIP Niko Kovacs, but i'm still waiting for Valverde.
Interesting weekend: PSG, Barca and Bayern losing against way worst (on paper) opponents and also Liverpool and Man City coming from 1 down to win in the last minutes of the game.

[McMokka]

Was about time that he had to go. Bayerns playstyle is abysmal the last few weeks. And has left much to be desired for a whole lot longer. I am hoping for ten hag or van Bommel as new coaches. Both know the club very well and speak German, furthermore the play refreshing attacking football. Ten hag especially seems to be able to evolve players and make the collective even better than the separate players already are.

I am afraid that "the special one" might join bayern though... If that happens I might watch a lot less football the coming months. Mourinhos approach to football might be successful at times but it is not nice to watch. And looking at the recent problems Bayern had defensively they might really consider him. Then they can't get rid of him for 3 years because his payout is so high

[Gotma]

I was pro-Kovac for quite a while. These last few weeks changed that though. And I still don't think he is a bad manager.
Bayern played shit for weeks now, so many passes going nowhere near the target player, so many bad tackles and quick decisions made. If you look into that, those are clearly player-sided and not tactical management-sided issues. So Kovac was kinda right with the criticism he put on the players. You just don't do that over weeks. He had his fair share of fuckups as well (Müller-situation, playing Coman on the right wing, not defining Coutinho's role etc.) and never took responsibility for them. This is how you loose the respect of world-class players, which Bayern's first 17-20 players all are. I mean look at the amount of world champions in the squad.
So the kick was justified and came at the right time.

I really hope Flick will have two successful games vs Piräus and Dortmund. He has potential, experience and knowledge. Don't know how he will deal with the media obligations and overall surroundings, but he is a top notch "pure-trainer" imho.

As far as other options go:
Ten Hag: very promising and amazing style of football
Van Bommel: a real "mia san mia" character, with deep understanding of Bayern mentality
Wenger: multi-lingual with great understanding of offensive football, never saw him at another club than Arsenal though...
Mou: fuck off
Tuchel: no thx, go eat you vegan stuff on your own, boy

I'd like to see Flick finishing the season while the follow up is planned carefully. Rushing this won't bring any good.

[McMokka]

the last season final was amazing to watch, but during all of kovacs time as coach at bayern there was never a certain style. Almost everytime it just looked like the players are assigned a certain position and then "go out and play". Like if you compare what Klopp and Guardiola have made with Liverpool and ManCity, making them play their idea of football. Not even judging if they are winning or not, but one was able to identify the idea and the ideal behind it. With Kovac it always seemed like "Play how you like"

[Paris_Hilton]

yeah ok but kloppo or guardiola spent 1 billion.. try doing that with bayern.. they bought a hernandez for 80m (god knows why) and they said we completed the transfers.. then they suck some balls to get some players on loan

To me there is clear fuck up in the management of the club with no real strategy behind. Either you let the coach do his job and try to get players he wants or gtfo.. kloppo would have not worked out in bayern because he would not be able to get what he wants and has temperament.. something our beloved management does not like.

[McMokka]

Kovac just wanted to bring half the Frankfurt squad with him. He wanted rebic, jovic, kostic and 2 or 3 others. At least those were the names mentioned the last 2 summers. He also wanted mandzukic and perisic, not because their ability, but to have a Croatian lobby in the dressing room to hang on to the job for a longer time

The no-spending policy of bayern is over. And tbh Hernandez is worth those 80million if he is up to speed. When he was playing as centre back he was really good(given the circumstances that the whole team completely underperformed)

[Paris_Hilton]

i would say rip Favre

[Gotma]

So many people complaining about the starting 11, laughing my ass off. They wanted to see Coutinho and Thiago, who both were shit for weeks now. I actually predicted that Tolisso was not getting many games when Goretzka was getting fit again, he just does everything that Coco does, but better.
All in all we have seen Bayern winning without a true center back and only one guy on his main position in the back four, which didn't matter because the midfield was dominated by my lads.