Football autism

[Marliini]

Neymar back to Barca?
https://www.sport-english.com/en/news/b ... er-7520496

Hopefully that's a canard. The little I saw PSG last season they were looking best with Neymar injured.

[McMokka]

Neymar back to Barca?
https://www.sport-english.com/en/news/b ... er-7520496

Hopefully that's a canard. The little I saw PSG last season they were looking best with Neymar injured.

When he is fit he might be on par with Mbappe. As long as he is not rolling around on the ground

Still, there are only a handful of attacking players of that calibre and Messi and Ronaldo are usually off limits for everyone. 300 Mio after the last season is still stupidly high, especially since the player wants to leave.
Tbh I cant wait for the day when PSG crumbles. Neymar wants to leave, there are rumors of Real wanting to close down Mbappe next year. Even at their strongest point they had no chance in CL and Cavanni/di Maria dont get younger.

Would be nice if the FFP would do what it is supposed to and strike down on clubs like PSG and ManCity. But that probably wont happen ever.

[McMokka]

For non-masterrace language people from left to right: Club ; Money spent ; Acquisitions ; Money earned ; Leaving players ; BOTTOM LINE

Im am willing to accept that Barca is able to balance that out. There is no team close to their sponsorship, etc. earnings.
But ManU and PSG didnt even have any success worth mentioning to compensate for that bottom line. And ManCity is just the icing on the stupid cake. How can that be ok.
Rant over

[McMokka]

Sooo, rumors are persistent that Dembele might go from Barca to Bayern. since ManCity plays coy with Bayern regarding the Sané-transfer, Barca seem to have offered Dembele to Bayern, partly because of plans regarding both Neymar and Griezmann. If they both join Barca it is not that unlikely that they need to make some cash plus a guy like Dembele, who is already struggling with playtime does not want to stand behind 2 additional worldclass-players.
From a pure skill-point of view this would be a huge deal for Bayern. There are concerns about the character of Dembele, but with that many frenchmen playing alongside him, he might finally fullfill the promises of his talent. And him taking over the legacy of Ribery... thats kind of romantic

[Mettkrieger]

Sooo how much did he get paid for that:

https://streamable.com/6hlxq

[Marliini]

Wonderful goal by Aduriz sees Bilbao win over Barca in the La Liga season opener. Not the ideal debut for Griezmann and De Jong.

What I'm worried about was the usual ineffective possession by Barca. Last season the ineffectiveness was broken by some magic from Messi or Suarez, but Messi is injured and Suarez had to be substituted because of some injury. I hope both get back and soon.

Anyway, just one game

[McMokka]

Yeah, one game shouldnt be enough to start drama.

What is your opinion on Coutinhos move to Bayern?

[Marliini]

Yeah, one game shouldnt be enough to start drama.

What is your opinion on Coutinhos move to Bayern?

It might be nice for Coutinho to play somewhere else. Change of scenery might do him good. His time at Barcelona wasn't a success. Just didn't happen to work, all the best in Bayern. Might be better for both teams and the player.

As long as this isn't making space for Neymar. I don't want him sitting on the grass of Camp Nou for half an hour per game.

What I didn't get was selling Malcom to St. Petersburg. Or why he was in the doghouse last season in the first place

[Marliini]

Gotta figure out where I can watch the Premier League. Pukki

[TheGamingBull]

Gotta figure out where I can watch the Premier League. Pukki

I can hook you up with some nice streams if you’re into that

[McMokka]

Yeah, one game shouldnt be enough to start drama.

What is your opinion on Coutinhos move to Bayern?

It might be nice for Coutinho to play somewhere else. Change of scenery might do him good. His time at Barcelona wasn't a success. Just didn't happen to work, all the best in Bayern. Might be better for both teams and the player.

As long as this isn't making space for Neymar. I don't want him sitting on the grass of Camp Nou for half an hour per game.

What I didn't get was selling Malcom to St. Petersburg. Or why he was in the doghouse last season in the first place

Imo Coutinho is perfect for Bayern at the moment. It is no big secret that they want to get Havertz next summer. Until then Hoeneß will work them for a year with stuff like "You are our main target, we wont give Coutinho a contract when you join our team". The 120 mio clause will be roughly what Havertz will be worth next year. If Havertz agrees, Bayern has a worldcass-midfielder this year who hopefully shows his old Liverpool-form and didnt block Havertz' position with someone. If he refuses they still have the option to buy Coutinho and have an amazing alternative.

[Gotma]

I honestly struggle to see the postion Coutinho fits in atm. You'd have to sacrifice Müller, which is a bad idea imho. Lewandowski profits from having a 2nd guy in the box. Looking back at the Hertha game the problem wasn't the creation of chances (which role Coutinho would fulfill mostly) but the consequent exploitation of the given opportunities. We'll see.

Btw reading all those critical comments on Bayern's performance in that game just reasures me that 90% of the people watching football are too dumb to understand what is going on.

[McMokka]

Dont think that Müller will start any longer as soon as Coutinho and/or Perisic are ready to play. Bayern creates chances, but more often than not those chances are started by Coman and Gnabry. If you shut them down they struggle really hard. I also dont know how long Kovac will start Tolisso, since he didnt play that well the last few times. I guess the top team will be

Neuer
Kimmich - Süle - Hernandez - Alaba
Thiago - Goretzka(Tolisso)
Gnabry - Coutinho - Coman
Lewandowski

I would also like an alternative with Perisic or Coutinho as winger and Gnabry as false 9 or 10 in the middle, since he really fucked teams up when he played there in Hoffenheim. Hoeneß recently said they are done with transfers for this period, so that seems to mean that they wont buy another DM to play 4-1-4-1. But I am looking forward to Bayern having another creative type on the pitch to make the attacking movement more unpredictable. Müller is both limited by speed and technique and I dont think his qualities as "raumdeuter" work well for Bayerns current system and the fact that teams park the bus against them.

[Gotma]

Teams are parking the bus for Müller's whole career at Bayern already. Playing guys like James, Müller or now Coutinho on the wings did just not work out in the past, why would you put Gnabry in the middle where everything is tight as fuck then?
Chances aren't created by Coman or Gnabry for the most part, it's diagonal balls across the pitch at them, chips from defenders or defensive midfielders in the space behind the enemy lines or something similar that makes them utilize their speed and technique.
I honestly miss Javi in your lineup. With an offensive minded team like that a real 6 is mandatory imo. Thiago doesn't cut it. You need someone that wins balls and is not afraid to play an easy pass afterwards, Thiago always looks for the special thing and fucked up quite some times in the past doing so.
I am not saying Coutinho won't help the team, but if he brings the same attitude as James, while being really similar in his skill set, I doubt he'll play a more important role than said fellow.

[McMokka]

Yes, teams have been parking the bus all of Müllers career, but as the defensive strategies got better and better Müllers effectiveness got worse and worse in my opinion. He is still a player who can shake things up with his unusual skillset after being swapped in in the last third of the match, but for the starting eleven I dont see him as favorite anymore. And while Coutinho is a completely different type than James, he still possesses the ability of deadly passes the opposing site cant predict, which would be a massive asset for the Bayern-game. That is obviously if he can get back to his PL-form, since he wasnt that great with Barca.
And Martinez is a good player when Bayern is forced to play more defensively, but I dont see the ability in him to hold "the fort" in the defensive midfield on his own when Bayern plays the usual game. He got slower and more injury-prone over time. Rodrigo would have been amazing, but I am sure Bayern will find someone to fill the role in the transfer windows to come. As long as they dont use Kimmich for it

[Gotma]

Kimmich should persue that role for sure imho. He is a leader, that needs to be as central as it gets.

To the whole defensive fort thingy: most goals Bayern conceived in the last couple of years followed the same scheme, loosing the ball in the midfield while all midfielders (Thiago, Goretzka, Müller, James, whoever played at the occassion) were already offensive minded leading to the gap between last midfielder and the centerbacks being massive. A pure bred defensive midfielder like Javi, Effenberg, van Bommel fills that gap and provides your team with another line of defense. I agree on Javi not getting younger. Hernandez could play that role as well, that is the beauty of him and Pavard being able to play more positions than just centerback. This position needs continuity though, changing that part of your team every other match will result in chaos. Ngolo Kanté is a prime example for the type of player an offensive thinking team needs. Not sure why Chelsea keeps a hold of him, their whole roster consists of all-out defensive morons

[McMokka]

I agree with you that Bayern needs one defensively minded midfielder especially if they want to switch to an 4-1-4-1, which was kind of obvious this transfer period. But Kimmich 1) doesnt have that defensive mindset and 2) is WAY too valuable as right back. He is at this point in time one of the, if not the best in the world (together with Alexander-Arnold, depending on what skillset one values more)
I would have loved to see a true DM so Thiago could play on the 8 rather than on the 6, but it is what it is.

[Paris_Hilton]

and there you need a schweinsteiger !!!

i never got why actually martinez was put as defender... i always saw him as a defensive midfielder

[McMokka]

Did someone watch RB Salzburg vs Genk yesterday? I only watched the highlights, but Salzburg seems to be the Ajax of last year
early to tell, but especially Haaland is an absolute monster. 3 goals on his CL debut, 11 goals and 5 assists in 7 league matches, fast and good control even though he is 1,94m (!) and amazing positioning even though the dude is 19 years old
Can't wait to see more of him and Salzburg might be the surprise team this CL-season

[Paris_Hilton]

imba barca, juventus or city buys him for like 70M