Topic: ⚽ Premier League 2023/2024 Discussion Thread ⚽ - page 342. (Read 59188 times)

That's right and we as the judges and the audience often talk about a team measuring it by its peak performances.

It reminds of Messi and how people said he had a bad season when he scored only 32 goals in La Liga because one time he scored 50 goals in La Liga. That's almost close to being a downside of setting new sky high records because most likely you can't repeat that performance and then people say your performance is declining, which solely based on numbers is true but still not quite right.

No matter how strong the condition of any club at the moment, it will definitely find bad things in the end and that is one of the surprises that we have to understand, like Manchester City was very strong before but everything went bad when a player got injured and this problem cannot be avoided and other examples like Tottenham started the season with an extraordinary performance but everything went very bad when a player suffered an injury.
From this discussion it is very clear that situations or conditions like this often occur, it's just a matter of how a coach will handle it and I am sure that Pep Guardiola will overcome all of this and return to his strongest performance like before.

Arteta is planning to make the team stronger with new transfers in January. I would like to see him signing a much more productive striker than Gabriel Jesus and Nketiah. I think the absence of a solid finisher is one of the factors dragging them down from their title chance in the Premier League. There is an option available in the transfer market too actually - Guirassy. 

Guirassy is a wonderful striker about whom people have been talking in the first half of the season in the Bundesliga. He is already monitored by some bigger teams.

Arsenal can actually go for him and try their chance while he has a release clause which can be activated by paying only 17.5 million euros.

Im also doubting rodri to play against huddersfield too. The latest news told me that if rodri's grandmother death. So, he may be missing the clash against this huddersfield club in FA cup. I have no problem caused city is going to face a weak team.
I may be complaining a lot of city was facing a strong club in the la liga right now. In fact, missing rodri can make the performance of manchester city decreased significanty. There will be so many players to miss this match. yet secondary squad was not as good as the first player stat.
 
I would prefer to see bruyne to be available when the clash against copenhagen to come soon. I don't really care so much of the key players will be missing the game against huddersfield as it was not that important.
As long as de bruyne will comeback along with haaland and it's enough to make other clubs in various competition quite scary to face manchester city as their next opponent. The game against huddersfield will be another importnt agmeto come soon.

Of course they are supposed to take their time and come back when they feel 100% healthy and not 99% healthy, but Pep Guardiola has always been a coach who pays close attention to the medical condition of his players. I remember how he got into arguments with the head of the medical team at Bayern Munich because Pep Guardiola understands a lot about treatment and recovery and how to distribute the workload of a whole season on all the shoulders he has available in his team.

That's why they won't take any risks with Haaland or De Bruyne or any other player. Guardiola understands very well that having all players available can be incredibly important when the final phase in all competitions begin. Every player is needed on the best level possible.

In regards to De Bruyne everyone is alarmed already because this is the second time he has this injury within a short period of time.

If you look at their games, I think the general impression that Manchester City is not quite as sharp in their games as they used to be half a year ago is not misleading. Manchester City is a nuance weaker than they were before. They still dominate the game in terms of ball possession, but I am missing the dominance in all aspects of their game. They are sometimes really close to failing or losing control over the game and that is something they are not used to.

Still the quality they have is indisputable and it makes them the favorite in all competitions they play.

The players need to go through various observations to make sure they will be back in their best condition. I have heard that if there were some players like haaland, bruyne and doku have become the main topic by so many people. According to the confirmation from manchester city if the club can't really sure if those players will able to play in the match against huddersfield. There will be guarantee whether they will be playing soon. I hope those players will able to recover before the most important schedules which is coming on february.

De bruyne has been reportedly joining in the training sessions. This is a good news for all of city fans and i can't wait him to play in the field again together with all of best players in the manchester city. City will be ready to win UCL two times in a row as long as de bruyne and haaland will be playing. The strongest club like real madrid may be nothing as long as those guys will be playing. Im still hoping that de bruyne can recover as soon as possible caused by he was amazing player.

Seeing him to comeback will bring another hype for all of manchester city fans. There will be so many important schedules in the EPL. Let them all to focus onto the FA cup match before city will face newcastle after that.

Hypotically 2 points ( 5 points + 1 game in hand) gap doesnt really show something bad happening to Manchester City, that's something normal every season, unless the expectation for Manchester City is too high. I think the absence of Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland, and previously Rodri due to suspension, is the reason for them to not collect best results. I dont see any sign of mental fatigue or burnout.

Rodri, Haaland and De Bruyne are pivotal to the success of Manchester City, both in terms of creating goal-scoring opportunities and influencing the overall dynamics of the game. Having these players back in the lineup can inject fresh energy and quality into the team. But out of all names, Kevin de Bruyne has the biggest impact on the team. Haaland become less effective without him on the pitch. The skill set and ability of De Bruyne to impact the game can be akin to a new signing. If he can contribute consistently without being hampered by injuries, it can significantly elevate the team's performance.

Mental fatigue isn't really the issue I think. Or maybe it is but only a little bit I would say. I don't think they are close to being burned out or something like that. It's a fact that their most important players are missing for now and that they will soon return. I guess that their performance will improve upon the return of Haaland and De Bruyne. I know that they haven't been playing that well when Haaland was around, but still De Bruyne could be like a new transfer if he stays free of injuries for the rest of the season.

Manchester City won all three trophies in the last season, including the Champions League which they had been pursuing for a long time. However, they seem to be experiencing mental fatigue currently. Having achieved everything they aimed for, they appear to have hit a saturation point. As of now, I believe that teams like Liverpool and Arsenal are the top contenders. Although Arsenal hasn't performed as well this season as they did last season, they still have the potential to bounce back. If Liverpool manages to perform well even without Salah, then they will be the strongest contenders for the title.

Isn't it too early for us to suspect that Liverpool and Aston Villa can win the trophy this season? We admit that Liverpool is playing quite well this season, but unfortunately if we look at many of their matches they only get a draw, apart from that the factor of core players like Salah who plays in the national team will of course also affect their performance in the next match, so at the moment I think it's difficult to say if Liverpool will be able to be championship the English league, as well as Aston Villa who have surprised many people this season by being in the top four, I also not think they will be able to win the trophy because after all we will see big teams trying to improve their squad in the transfer market and Of course, it will again provide competition to Aston Villa.

i was wondering about that as well as at first they said Haaland only missed the second game at the FIFA Club World Cup because he was missing in the first game due to an injury and then couldn't be nominated for the second game because of the regulations. But now it seems that he has a more severe injury than was initially communicated in public. Otherwise he would have long been back I think. Hopefully he won't miss any of the important games that are about to take place especially during February.

Yeah there is a possibility for Mbappe to even stay PSG for at least one more year by activating a clause existing on his contract. But rather than that I would like to see him joining Real Madrid or Liverpool. But if the situation about Liverpool is like you said then he had better join Real Madrid instead of wasting his years at PSG for no reason. 

By saying no reason I mean they just can't win a Champions League title. Mbappe is a world star now so he shouldn't go on without a Champions League title just as Harry Kane has done until this age. 

I don't have a full overview at the moment which team is losing which players because of the Africa Cup, but Salah can't be replaced by anyone and is the biggest loss for Liverpool in this game. Considering how important and prestigious this competition is, I can understand Klopp who has been complaining quite often about the consequences for his team when players like Salah and Mane are gone. That was when Mane still played for Liverpool and was the second top striker. That's really a bad situation if a team loses their entire world class attack line because of the African Cup, but everyone knows about it and it's part of the deal Liverpool is accepting when they use these players.

Do you think Manchester city are going to top the table? Personally it is of a lesser chance to happen because there is no way  Aston villa are ready to loosing to Everton or neither Newcastle loosing to Manchester city, so it will be very tough for them at this point, it may also happen but the possibility is very low.

I think Liverpool or Aston villa deserves the trophy this season but the fact remains that Liverpool are not yet  ready to give up the top of the table so we just have to conclude on them having it for  this season.

The main problem is salah will not be playing against arsenal caused by he has been participating in the AFCON. This is also making the situation to be even more difficult. Even though FA cup was not as prestigious as EPL or UCL but it's still very important to win it caused by it will help the club to add more achievements. FA cup will be running soon and liverpool needs to be even more careful once it will meet arsenal soon. Salah was always become the won who was consistently carrying the club in so many matches. The current composition will not be so good without him.

That's very bad to miss him while arsenal will be coming with the strongest squad against it. it seems to me that if losing salah will be one of important reason why liverpool was not able to make it. Im thinking to take double chance rather than 1x2.
It's caused by liverpool will have less chance to win against arsenal soon. Im not convincing by seeing the current condition of liverpool. The news about salah will not help liverpool to face liverpool is making me feel very disappointed with it.

The match against arsenal can be considered as one of most important match in this season. It will be determining the chance owned by liverpool to win FA cup this season. Liverpool really needs to get the new trophy soon.

Manchester City are back in the title race and could cause some worries for other of their English counterparts especially as they’re now going to have the full squad back and in good shape. The points between them, Aston Villa and Liverpool is just a matter of a match to decide. I think it would take very long before they're catch up and begin to dominate the league as expected, I trust Pep Guardiola to do all he could in this 2nd half of the season to get to the very top of the league.

 Manchester City are pretty good when chasing for the title and they’re very determined to retain this title again. The EPL competition will be to much for Young Aston Villa but I think they might mot be able to contain the pressure from Tottenham and probably Manchester United. Manchester City has never been written off the league race rather I think other teams should be scared of their current form, especially now that KDB has turned, including Haaland as well.

Mohammed Salah is undoubtedly Liverpool's most important player and his performance and contributions to the club this season can not be overemphasized. As the club's top scorer this season, there's no doubt that Mohammed Salah will be greatly missed during the one month period that he'll be representing his country Egypt in the African Cup Of Nations but there's nothing the club can do about his temporary departure since he's going to play in a very important tournament.

That being said, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is one of the most experienced managers in world football and I believe he'll know what to do with the team now that Salah wouldn't be available four at least a minimum of three weeks. The club is currently at the top of the league table and I don't expect them to drop from the top during the time that the Egyptian will be away

Salah is one of the players who is agile and has skills in scoring goals and if Liverpool loses Salah against Arsenal Liverpool's condition will definitely be very bad because after all Salah has made a huge contribution to Liverpool to this day being able to get a temporary position in first place in the table. Even though the points are only temporary, this is all thanks to the help of Salah who always tries to score so that his club can win.
If during Liverpool's match against Arsenal, Salah could appear with his club on the field, I'm sure Liverpool's chances of winning are very big compared to Arsenal, but I'm not saying that Arsenal is bad, it's just that the current conditions are superior to Liverpool and I really hope that Liverpool can beat Arsenal so that they can continue competing to maintain first position with Manchester City.

That's true, Manchester City is not too late to catch up because the top 3 clubs have a small point difference so Manchester City still has the opportunity to reclaim the first position currently occupied by Liverpool because Manchester City still has 1 match remaining and if Manchester City is able to win the match then the difference in points with Liverpool is only 2 points and can shift Aston Villa in 2nd place so we shouldn't underestimate Manchester City just because they have lost a lot of points because they have had too many draws recently but in their last 2 matches Manchester City has returned to winning path so they are very ready to compete with Liverpool and Arsenal for the Premier League title.

Yes, the competitive nature of the Premier League is a big pressure for other clubs such as Aston Villa, Tottemham, West Ham, Brighton, Manchester United and Newcastle in competing for the top 5 positions, so they will struggle hard to achieve satisfactory results, but Manchester City is still quite stable in the league top position so it is not easy to displace Manchester City in the top position.