Topic: UEFA Champions League 2023/24 Season - page 540. (Read 141809 times)

Different conditions make the way of working and the results will be different too. Pep is supported because they have unlimited resources until now so Pep can do whatever he wants to Manchesrer City including reshuffling again and again but the difference occurs with Xavi here where he is indeed supported but his resources are inadequate so that his support is only what he can from Barcelona because they do not have enough resources but the demands of the fans and management are always excessive actually for Xavi because he is demanded by the fans and management. have sufficient resources even until now their financial situation seems very lacking but the demands of the fans and management are always excessive actually for Xavi because he is required to perform perfectly in improving Barcelona's performance with minimal financial problems that make him unable to do much to make the changes he wants.
This is a differentiator that makes the results will also be significant in the end and I agree with what you said because with this seeing the situation that happened Pep and Xavi cannot be compared just like that because even though they are both coaches of big clubs but the current situation is very different.

Yeah of course real Madrid has a lot of young and talented players and they may likely win the trophy this season, and however we cannot consider the performance of Manchester City last season with there performance this season because the difference is clear because there last season they were able to beat real Madrid and win the trophy but I don't think there performance this season is enough to win the trophy again because the major clubs that has the best chance of this champions League currently is real Madrid and Bayern Munich but with the poor performance of Bayern Munich lately I doubt if they could last long if they are not able to peak form again and however even if Manchester City should manage to scale through the finals they will not be able to win real Madrid.

The most interesting fact is all of the favorite teams e.g. Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan are currently not stand in the first position in their respective domestic leagues. I guess it will be unpredictable, but both of Manchester City and Bayern Munich have a big gap points difference, unlike Real Madrid and Inter that are behind one point.

Since I want to see a new name, I hope Inter will become a champion lol.

I agree with you. Comparisons between Guardiola and Xavi should not be made now. Because the financial capacity of these two club is now much different. Manchester city management is very rich. And they have given Guardiola complete freedom to build his squad as he sees fit. And for this Manchester City is ready to spend big amount. On the other hand, Barcelona's finances are now very weak. They are not able to buy players at high prices. More importantly, Barcelona management is not able to pay high wages to the players. This is why star players are now reluctant to come to Barcelona. If Xavi gets enough funding, and gets the chance to build the squad he wants, I think he can change the overall situation of Barcelona.

There are lots of strong clubs in UCL but bookies were only taking some which have become the most potential clubs to win UCL this season. I can even call all of clubs participated in UCL are strong caused by this league is for best of the best.
The thing that makes me feel curious sometimes bookies were overrating the club that was only performing good without won even a single UCL trophy. This sounds very strange but this is the fact.

It's difficult to determine which team will dominate the competition, but I am confident that there will be several strong contenders, such as Manchester City, Real Madrid, and even Inter Milan. I
The UCL is just around the corner and I am filled with an overwhelming sense of excitement and impatience. I hope that i will be seeing the big match after top 16.

I would like to see real madrid to have a strong club as its next opponent like city or bayern munich.

Champions League will never be separated from the name Real Madrid which is the only most successful team with more than 10 titles they have won, Real Madrid has 14 UCL trophies which they have managed to collect so far and Real Madrid has the nickname as the king of European football.
There are indeed threats from other teams for this season and also in the next few seasons, one threat comes from Manchester City who were champions last season and of course there are other teams such as Bayern Munich which might be threat to Real Madrid.
If Ancelotti can consistently make Real Madrid performance stable and develop then there will be a chance for them to reach the final, but we won't know because this is still in the last 16 and we will see when they enter the last 8.
In the round of 8, of course, only the strong team remain and in this round each team will beat each other in order to advance to the semifinals, some people still consider Real Madrid and Manchester City to be quite strong candidates in for the title.
And it will be quite difficult to predict who will actually succeed in bringing home the championship trophy for this season, considering that the performance of each team is increasing.

If the coach is supported by management in spending on players then the coach can provide the best for the team, and indeed Pep Guardiola and Xavi's situation is different because Man City has sufficient finances and can easily buy the players they need so Pep can maximize performance because he is supported of the team's finances.  Meanwhile, Xavi is in Barcelona's difficult times and Xavi also can't buy the players he needs, so it's only natural that currently Barcelona isn't performing as well as it did during its glory days. I'm sure sooner or later there will be investors coming to the team so Barcelona can return to his best performance and will continue to be Real Madrid's eternal rival in the league and also compete in the UCL.

Currently, Madrid players have a lot of talented young players, which is why Manchester City might consider their meeting in the UCL this season, even though in the UCL match last season Manchester City beat Madrid with a landslide score, it doesn't mean that this season their meeting will get the same result. Madrid's strength is quite good this season, which is why I don't expect Manchester City to meet Madrid in the UCL quarter-finals or semi-finals this season.

I think it would be better for them to meet in the UCL final because it determines the strength of both of them better. I still see Manchester City looking quite good since the return of their players from injury. That's what makes Manchester City come back into consideration now, but if in the future they will meet again in semi-finals or quarter-finals, of course Manchester City will have difficulty against Madrid this time because as far as I can see they have performed very well in several matches, even in the domestic league, with talented young players who have been put forward to be quite a good force in terms of stamina and performance. I am sure that Madrid and Manchester City will win the title this season, no other club is the favorite.

Source: Wikipedia

These are the teams that have won the Champions League title so far.

Real Madrid's domination is just enormous though. The year is 2024 and they are still competitive in the Champions League as always.    They are the most consistent team here. However I wonder whether this can change in the future. Because there is especially a threat like Manchester City for the upcoming years including this one. They became the champions for the first time previously and they are going for a back-to-back now.

What do you think about Real Madrid this season? Can they stop Manchester City from a back-to-back title? Or do you have another favourite in your mind to win the title?

Yes, all coaches need support from management and this support only provides freedom to bring in players who suit the coach's goals, but we cannot compare Pep Guardiola with Xavi because the two coaches have different club conditions and if Xavi has a club condition with the same finances Like Manchester City, Barcelona will definitely return to its former glory because only with the existing players, Xavi will be able to take this club far from bad and be able to successfully compete with other strong clubs in the Champions League.
One of the best ways to assess Barcelona is not to blame anyone but to wait for big investors to provide funds for Barcelona to return to its glory days and Xavi has become a great coach and does not deserve to be blamed.

Perhaps it is rare for a coach to still be able to bring a team to the best when the club's financial condition is not good. But as you said, Xavi Hernandez has basically fought well and was able to make Barcelona win the title in Laliga last season. It's just that last season Xavi was unable to bring Barcelona to qualify from the UCL group stage and also failed in the Europa League. So I personally suspect that last season Xavi wanted to focus more on Laliga. And it worked. but this season it seems that Xavi will be serious about the UCL. Although many doubt Barcelona this season. But I think the chances are pretty good to get through from the round of 16. Because Napoli are also not in good form this season. In fact, it is much worse than Barcelona, ​​which is still strong in 3rd place in Laliga. Meanwhile, Napoli is currently slumped in 9th place in Serie A. So Barcelona should have a less difficult opponent in the round of 16.

 Pep Guardiola might indeed be much better than Xavi but it seems impossible for Pep to come back to Barcelona. Because he is the type of coach who wants to set a new record at a different club.

And about a coach who can continue to produce good results even though the club is experiencing financial problems and is even experiencing a lot of problems. Starting from sanctions received by clubs, even player injuries and sanctions against players. Actually, there are coaches who can keep their club's performance good. He is Allegri at Juventus.

Pep Guardiola has made his name as a coach who has a brilliant history as a coach at Barcelona and also as a former Barcelona player. He has contributed many trophies to Barcelona during his time as coach there. So it is impossible for him to dare to return there because it would potentially ruin his own good record there. Because being a coach at a club that has financial problems is not an easy thing. Only a handful of coaches are able to bring a club that is in financial trouble but can still win a championship trophy. And actually Xavi is also a good coach. But we know that even Xavi has to hold back to be able to get good players. Even the condition of Barcelona's front line is not good enough after Lewandowski aged and was no longer productive. So Barcelona could only borrow a player from Atletico Madrid, namely Felix, to cover this problem. And yes this is not an easy thing for a coach.

Indeed, Barcelona's problem is in the attack line and that is why many parties doubt they can qualify for the next round. Moreover, the opponent was the defending champion of Serie A last season, namely Napoli, but Napoli themselves were also in poor performance. Maybe for Barcelona's attack line they can temporarily entrust this role to Ferran Torres, especially since this player has just recorded a hat trick in the previous domestic league match. Barcelona's new striker who just arrived this winter, Vitor Roque, is also not very convincing and is not the same as he displayed at the previous club.

Maybe we can't expect much more from Barcelona and if they manage to overcome their shortcomings in attack before the first leg starts then that will be quite promising. It's not easy and they have to do extra rigorous training so that the target can be achieved and Xavi has to be correct in responding to this.

Mancity and Real are names that are mentioned a lot for this year's UCL championship, but I personally think that the team that needs the most attention this year is Bayern Munich. They are in extremely stable form this season, their players are in extremely good form, especially Harry Kane - a player who is a terror to defenders. It can be seen that Bayern's playing style is less dependent on a specific individual like Mancity or Real. Their midfield is also formidable with Kimmich and rising young star Musiala, giving their midfield depth and good support for the attack above.
Overall, Barca is not weak, but the important factor to end the match is the attack. They are lacking a really sharp striker. They can play a dominant style of play well, holding the ball a lot thanks to a pretty good midfield, but if they don't score, they can't finish the match. Therefore, I think it is difficult for Barca to go far in the upcoming UCL.

All coaches need strong support from management to bring in players who suit their coaching characteristics, Pep Guardiola is a coach who has good qualities and he also has experience, Pep Guardiola has shown enough proof and no one doubts him anymore.
Likewise with Xavi Hernandez, who brought Barcelona out of its downturn when he first arrived, but now what is happening is not entirely Xavi's fault because management is not providing sufficient support for Xavi to bring in quality players.

We shouldn't just look at the results that Barcelona got, but overall their performance has really decreased compared to last season and I think with Barcelona's current quality and performance they are not worthy of competing in the UCL this season, I think Barcelona will not go any further in the course of the UCL this season.

There is no doubt about Pep Guardiola because the performance of this coach is truly extraordinary. As long as he has coached big clubs, he has achieved satisfactory results and won many titles. If he returns to Barcelona he will definitely be able to achieve good results as before, he has provided 14 title to Barcelona but Barcelona now has financial problems so Pep Guardiola can't buy the players he needs to strengthen Barcelona's performance. Even Xavi is actually no less good than Pep Guardiola but because of financial problems the coach can't do much with changing players.

In my opinion, Barcelona still has a good squad, it's just that their performance has decreased a little, but this doesn't cause a drastic decline because Barcelona can still fight in the top 4 of La Liga. The defeat against Girona was a little painful, but Girona is on fire so the defeat can still still acceptable this can be corrected by winning other matches and that is what Barcelona has done so far.
It is true that Barcelona's attack and Barcelona defense are quite weak and they must immediately improve it. However, because Xavi couldn't do much because of Barcelona's poor financial condition, Xavi could only do what he could.

Nothing can be foretold for sure, but some teams can definitely be singled out in terms of performance. I have tried to distinguish four groups in terms of performance. And I believe that the four teams that I have singled out for the Champions League are definitely much better than the other teams that have qualified for the Champions League and the four teams that I have selected will be favored by most of the fans who follow the Champions League or other leagues. However, the four teams that have been singled out have some weak points of their own. As each team has weak points, the competition between these four teams will be almost equal. 

Manchester City is the defending champion they will want to retain the title again, Real Madrid could not win the Champions League trophy last season they will definitely try their best to win the Champions League trophy this season.  On the other hand, Bayern Munich have made several changes to their team in order to win the Champions League, they will not let any team down.

If the champion league champion still has a long way to go. besides Manchester City there are also strong teams from Germany that can become champions, namely Bayern Munich.
If for the Spanish league champions, maybe it can be said that it has 1 foot stepping champion. because its strongest competitor is only Girona.

I disagree with you that last season's UEFA Champions League was less with competitive clubs that made Manchester City win last season's UEFA Champions League trophy. Manchester City knocked out Bayern Munich and Madrid to get to the UEFA Champions League final. Manchester City was so good last season that no club would stop them from winning the UEFA Champions League trophy.

This season obsolutely harder compared to the last season. City was not getting easy route to win the UCL after the match against copenhagen. The club needs to perpare everything but im feeling happy with de bruyne and haaland that may comeback again next month. It was also adding more spirit in the attacking line. Im thinking the club will be going to the final again. I hope city will be facing madrid in the final. The club has been trying so hard to survive once so many of its key players were injured.

The chance of city to go to the final is still there and city will make it happen soon. There will be none to stop it. Intermilan is also being favored as strong candidate to win UCl as well but the odds quite strategy to put arsenal among the strongest team while this club never won UCL. It was not also able winning europa league last season. Overrated club. Manchester city still holds the biggest chance to win the competition.

Pep has been fully preparing his club now. The thing will be even easier for manchester to win the competition as long as other big clubs will be losing against it. Everything is changing so fast.