Man City lead Liverpool in race for Bayern Munich star and ‘Real Madrid’s Mbappe alternative’
Manchester City are ‘the most interested’ in pursuing a summer move for Bayern Munich star Jamal Musiala.
The Germany attacker is among the most-wanted young players across the continent as he prepares to enter the final two years of his contract.
The Independent says Musiala wants assurances over Bayern’s future direction at a time of uncertainty for the Bavarian giants.
Bayer Leverkusen can take the Bundesliga crown away from Munich for the first time in a dozen years this weekend while the Champions League quarter-finalists conduct their search for a new manager ahead of Thomas Tuchel’s departure at the end of the season.
With little sign of a contract renewal on the cards – Bayern have more pressing concerns over three other major stars – Musiala is attracting interest from a number of big clubs.
According to The Independent, ‘there is a belief among other clubs that he may be buyable this year or next, with City the most interested’.
Apparently, Pep Guardiola wants two versatile attackers this summer, with Kevin De Bruyne’s long-term future uncertain.
Liverpool have also been linked with Musiala, who was said to be Real Madrid’s primary alternative if Kylian Mbappe could not be secured on a free transfer this summer. Barcelona and PSG are also said to be interested.
Related video: Real Madrid held at home in six-goal thriller against Man City (Reuters)
Stuttgart-born Musiala is understood to favour a Premier League move, having grown up in west London, where he played at Chelsea as an academy player before moving to Bayern aged 17.
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Last month, it was reported that Liverpool would want to be “would want to be in the conversation” if Musiala leaves Bayern this summer.
Neil Jones, who has covered Liverpool for years as a journalist, wrote on March 20 that Musiala is one player the Reds are interested in but he poured cold water on rumours of some other Bayern Munich players moving to Anfield.
Jones wrote in his Caught Offside column: “Bayern Munich look like they are going to have a summer of real change, in the dugout and within their squad, and there are certainly a few players that could be in the minds of a lot of top clubs. Joshua Kimmich, for example, is being linked away, although from a Liverpool perspective I’d be giving that one a wide berth.
“Serge Gnabry, too, seems like a far-fetched link when it comes to Liverpool. He’ll be 29 in July and has not played an awful lot of football over the past few months. Liverpool are not in the business of spending big money and dishing out big contracts to such players. The same goes for Leroy Sane, who turned 28 in January.
“Musiala is different. At 21 he has his best years ahead of him, and he absolutely has the potential to be one of the very best in his position. I know that from a Bayern point of view, they are desperate to retain him, and I also know that pretty much every other top club in Europe, Liverpool included, would want to be in the conversation should he leave. I don’t imagine Manchester City or Real Madrid would be sitting on their hands there!”
Straight to the comments! Which club needs Musiala most – City or Liverpool? Join the debate here
More on: Jamal Musiala | Manchester City | Liverpool
Jurgen Klopp should ignore Jamie Carragher’s Liverpool advice after Europa League thumping
Jamie Carragher has posited the notion that Liverpool should rest key first-team players for their trip to face Atalanta in the second leg of their Europa League quarter-final after an awful showing at Anfield resulted in a 0-3 defeat for the Reds.
The former Liverpool defender wrote on X: ‘Awful result & performance from Liverpool, the only consolation about getting beat so heavily is Jurgen should play a full second string in the second leg & go all in for the league!’
Liverpool’s Premier League desperation should be no distraction from Europa League uphill battle
Liverpool’s obsession with the league is understandable. Despite their vast improvement under Jurgen Klopp, they have still added just one English title to the then-record-setting tally of 18 they brought up under Kenny Dalglish in 1990.
They will be desperate to draw parity with Manchester United, who perched top of English football’s domestic honours list with the new benchmark of 20 top-flight triumphs.
We say this with the greatest of respect, but you can’t overlook that the Premier League trophy was the one bit of silverware that eluded one-club man Carragher at club level, either.
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When I spoke to former Reds boss Roy Evans a few years ago, there was a palpable sense of sadness to him that he had never been able to deliver that league title himself in the 1990s, despite looking at times like they might get close.Related video: Klopp on Liverpool's shock 3-0 defeat to Atalanta (English Football Channel)Having won everything else in a Liverpool shirt, and missed out so narrowly in 2008/09 perhaps Carragher feels a sense of unfinished business that he would now like to see played out vicariously.
But…sacking off a cup to concentrate on the league? That’s the kind of thing fans of Championship clubs say when they’ve just been knocked out of the FA Cup by Manchester City, not what you’d expect from a club that has serious ambitions of competing for silverware on every front possible.
Liverpool’s widespread injury problems are well-documented, and there was a palpable legginess to their performance on Thursday evening. Fatigue clogs not just the muscles, but the mind as well; this was a side that looked like it needed a nice long sleep in a hyperbaric chamber.
Liverpool’s track record of great European comebacks is irrelevant
It’s tempting at this stage to reel off a list of great unlikely Liverpool comebacks – some of which Carragher himself was involved in.
There’s the 1976 UEFA Cup final, when they came from two down to beat Brugge 3-2 in the first leg. The 2001 FA Cup final, when Michael Owen turned Arsenal upside down in just five minutes late on. Steven Gerrard’s late strike against Olympiacos, followed later that season by… I dunno, something about AC Milan and Turkey? We forget.
Klopp is no stranger to masterminding those moments, either. He may have come to Liverpool in 2015, but he really arrived with the stunning comeback victory to beat Borussia Dortmund 4-3 in… well, would you look at that, it says it was in the Europa League quarter-finals. Most remarkable of all: overturning a three-goal first-leg deficit to beat bloody Barcelona 4-0 in the Champions League semi-finals in 2019.
If that kind of play to history helps Klopp to inspire Liverpool’s players, then fine, by all means, talk about them. Personally, we’re not sure it’s relevant; it’s trivia for media types like us to chat about, misty-eyed old narrative fans as we are.
When it comes to the players, though, we are unconvinced that Liverpool’s badge is in some way enchanted, and that the spirit of Bob Paisley is personally visiting kindly words of inspiration into the players’ ears from a quiet corner of the dressing room.
It’s simpler than that: great teams find a way to overcome adversity, and Liverpool have simply had more great teams than most. Klopp, too, has built a very successful career out of it.
This season’s edition of Liverpool are not the finished article, and they remain a step or two behind where they were four years ago; they have simply been fortunate that Manchester City have been oddly below their own par this season, at least in the league.
But if they have aspirations of becoming undeniably great again, this is the kind of challenge they need to prove they came face up to.
More pertinently to their league aspirations: if they were to pull it off, or even go close, the regenerative effects of adrenalin could be a vital nitro-boost to a side sitting second only on goal difference. Carragher surely remembers how that works?
None of this is to say that Liverpool should expect anything out of that second leg. The odds are undoubtedly stacked against them, and the likelihood is that even with a full-strength line-up, their European exploits are effectively over this season.
But title-winning sides are not made out of a willingness to throw in the towel – and injuries or not, if Liverpool’s squad cannot cope with fighting it out in Europe as well as domestically, just like Arsenal and Manchester City are as well, then they simply do not deserve to be champions.
STRAIGHT TO THE COMMENTS! Should Liverpool chuck in the towel or keep the faith? Join the debate here.
READ MORE: Former Liverpool teammates disagree on Europa League approach after Atalanta debacle
Xabi Alonso responds after Moyes labels Leverkusen a ‘disgrace’
Xabi Alonso has dismissed David Moyes’ criticism after the West Ham manager described Bayer Leverkusen’s conduct as ‘disgraceful’ in the Europa League quarter-final first-leg.
The Hammers defended heroically for 83 minutes of a one-sided encounter against the Bundesliga leaders in Germany.
But late goals from substitutes Jonas Hoffman and Victor Boniface left West Ham with it all to do in next week’s second leg against a team yet to lose any of their 42 matches this season. And they can clinch the Bundesliga title this weekend.
West Ham’s second-leg task was made all the more difficult by Lucas Paqueta’s suspension after the Brazilian was cautioned for a challenge on Amine Adli in front of the benches.
Moyes was left fuming by Leverkusen’s conduct and accused Alonso’s staff and players of influencing the referee.
“Paqueta will be a huge miss but I thought their bench was a disgrace,” said Moyes.
“He [the referee] got surrounded. I thought it was disgraceful and was really disappointing. You should let the referee make the decision and not the way they reacted to the incident.
“I thought it was a rule all the way through. We would not all run off and surround him. It was a poor thing for them to do and they are a good side and they didn’t need to react like that.”Related video: Moyes: Playing unbeaten Leverkusen "is great opportunity" (SNTV)
I see it as a great opportunity,
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When Moyes’ assertion was put to Alonso, the Leverkusen boss, who remains open to a Premier League job, suggested the visitors are guilty of similar tactics.
“Oh no, I think it was a tackle that deserved a yellow card. It was fully deserved,” said Alonso.
‘I think David’s talking with the fourth official a lot of times, we all do, I do as well. It’s nothing to talk about disgraceful. I think that we have all the right, he has to see his bench as well.
“I have respect for David but I thought it was the right decision from the referee. We did our thing, we didn’t focus on the other bench.”
Moyes insists West Ham still have “half a chance” to reach the semi-finals despite two-goal defeat at Bayer Leverkusen.
He told TNT Sports: “Leverkusen have a good record of scoring late. We were aware of that. We did a great job but we played against a Champions League side and we’re not quite at that level.
“We’re still in the tie and we have half a chance in the second leg.
“We’d like to have played more attacking. The players did a brilliant job with the structure. We got done by two corner kicks. The second one was really poor from our point of view.
“It’s going to take some performance because they’re a really good team. You never know what’s going to happen. Let’s try to get one and then see if we can get two. We’ll pick ourselves up for next week and hopefully get the crowd behind us.
“This team we’re playing will be Champions League next year. We have to recognise what we’re playing against. We’ll have to do exceptionally well to get that result.”
More on: Xabi Alonso | West Ham
Straight to the comments! Have West Ham got a prayer of overturning their deficit? Join the debate here
Van Dijk is ‘not a captain’ and his worst Liverpool trait has become ‘contagious’
If that was the response Liverpool could muster to a disappointing Manchester United result then their season peaked with contagiously ‘casual’ Van Dijk.
Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.
One conclusion
A team that couldn’t beat this abject Man Utd side doesn’t deserve to win the Europa League or the Premier LeagueYusuf, Abuja
And a few more
Kelleher might’ve saved early on with his face, but there was no saving face for the club tonight. Wow. This was a sleepwalking performance of stunning proportions, just an absolutely inept, incoherent showing for a side suddenly fraying at every seam and billowing directionless in high-force winds.Tsimikas was incredibly dire as he so often is, Darwin Nunez woeful in front of goal yet again, Szoboslai unforgivably, epically lazy, Van Dijk casual and uninspired, and Salah so out of form as to become the most conspicuous embodiment of the myriad shapeless amoeba floating about in this side.
Alarm bells at deafening levels for the visit of Palace at the weekend. Such is football and we may not have known at the time, but our season likely peaked with Van Dijk’s extra-time header at Wembley in February. Surely we go again in seasons to come, but Jurgen Klopp certainly deserved a much gentler denouement than this.
Eric, Los Angeles CA (There will be no Istanbul claw back in Bergamo, it isn’t happening)
Arrogance
Holy sh*t.What did I say a few days ago? Obviously you can add that we cannot learn to our steaming pile of woes. VVD is not a captain. We can’t change play in-match and his continued casualness is contagious.
Klopp is right about one thing: he’s out of energy. Until he goes to his next club, of course.
Elliott can never be a starter, ever. Super subs can have a career: it’s ok. Our front three. Well. So far inferior to their great predecessors (yes, Mo was one, but he’s a shadow of his former self.) Further: none of our front three have a brain cell to share between them. I’d have Jota replace them all and play two attacking kids behind.Related video: Liverpool still fighting in Premier League title race as hunt for trophy ending reign for Jurgen Klopp continues (Dailymotion)
You’d think THAT game last Sunday would mean a thrashing for whomever was next, but nope. Thought we’d rock up and murder them, is it?
I’d give no fewer than four of our starters 3/10s. Four. Unacceptable but seems to be the new standard. Nunez, Jones, Tsimikas, Elliott. And maybe a 4 for Gomez. No, make that a 5th 3.
Pathetic.
Scott, LFC, Toronto. Planning a murder.
READ MORE: Van Dijk’s Liverpool ‘have a staggeringly misplaced confidence they can control games’
Not fun
I’m a big believer in ‘not complaining about the result when you were one of the fortunate XX thousand to get a ticket’.But that was not fun, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise!
Oliver Dziggel, Geneva Switzerland
Who bottled it?
So Bayern Munich who are second in the Bundesliga having scored the most goals are a nothing team even though they’ve held an amazing unbeaten Leverkusen to a draw are below par (according mainly to plastic scoucers, reading social media…especially before Liverpool’s game, where they were stuffed by the almighty Atalanta at home (whom have lost 10 games domestically this season).Did all their young heroes bottle it (that term ain’t nice is it?). Are Liverpool still in the Europa league? Are Arsenal still in the Champions League?
Hmmmm? By the way, don’t ask John Cross!
Chris, Croydon
The Saka discourse continues
I think football fans are too quick to assume that decisions are black or white. Saka may have stuck his leg out to sell a foul or he may have just been placing his right leg there for balance. It’s a movement that happens so fast that judging it at slow motion is facile. Players have to make split second decisions and muscle memory can often kick in. Anyone who’s actually played football should know that you may have to make a movement like that to stay balanced while trying to go around the other player.I’ll happily admit I don’t know what the decision should be. There just isn’t a perfectly correct decision here. It’s up to our speculation. Only Saka truly knows what he did. This moment is far too murky for us to decide, that’s why we leave it to the refs who have more expertise. I respect the referees’ decision in this situation, if a collision in the box is too ambiguous then it probably shouldn’t be a pen.
It’s time you all realised that not every collision in football can be objectively analysed. Sometimes it’s just too obscure like in this situation. This is why I’m turning into a more casual fan of the game. Modern football discussions (arguments) are too often about deconstructing every player’s movement during controversial decisions, obsessively gathering and posting mundane stats and endlessly droning on about transfer fees and wages (i.e. who’s winning economically). Suddenly we’re all data analysts and financial experts.
F*** all that, I miss just watching the game and having a good time. I suggest you all switch off from football from time to time. I’m hoping for the best from Arsenal in the second leg, all to play for still.
Vish (AFC), Melbourne, Australia
I wasn’t going to reengage with the Saka debate, but since I’ve seen a new line of defence emerge I thought it was worth commenting. The argument is essentially that Saka doesn’t have to move to avoid contact with Neuer, and it best summarised by MAW, LA Gooner who says that ‘ Saka is clearly altering his route, taking a touch laterally (when he’s already directly on goal) to avoid the path of Neuer who (and I think this is pretty relevant) gets nowhere near the ball.’
Firstly, I love MAWs phrasing that seems to imply that neuer has done something wrong by making Saka alter his route when he is heading directly towards the goal, as if he should just wave him on like a bullfighter. But ignoring that, what maw actually does is highlight why it was definitely not a penalty. Saka has indeed taken a touch laterally, so is no longer entitled to just run straight towards the goal as he would no longer be in possession of or attempting to keep possession of the ball if he does so, he’s just deliberately initiating contact with the player. The idea that Saka doesn’t hang a leg out is absolutely hilarious, but even if we accept that you only have to look at where his right foot is going to land and see that it would be absolutely nowhere near the ball. This is the vital flaw in the Arsenal argument – if Saka is taking a route that would allow him to play the ball then he wouldn’t have to avoid contact. But he isn’t. He’s deliberately running a line that takes him away from the ball (and let’s face it, kicks his leg out in a completely unnatural way) purely so contact can be made.
And just a hint, when 50% of your own fans and 90+% of pundits and neutrals don’t agree with you, you’re probably wrong.
Phil, London
City slickers
Reading the past two mailboxes, Man City fans come across as out of touch billionaires.“We don’t care and have no worries, why aren’t you as care free as us you lazy, bitter and ungrateful plebs?!”
Erm, maybe you feel that way because Man City have won almost all titles in recent memory, have a complete financial advantage over almost every club, and like all true billionaires, are completely and willfully ignoring the cheating and crimes that got you there.
Or maybe it’s more similar to late OJ. Famous, a winner, adored by some, and allowed to carry on despite everyone knowing what he really did.
Calvino (if you’re a pre-2007 City fan, you get a pass)
Gav, Edinburgh’s mail certainly gave me a chuckle. City fans are not mature, they only ever write into the mailbox when people are attacking them for cheating because people stating reality reality hurts their feelings. Why would they write in about winning when they know it means nothing because they are cheats. There is zero to celebrate, supporting City is like reloading the game every time you lose on Football Manager, then telling everyone you won Champions League with Doncaster Rovers and shouting at anyone who calls you a cheater. The success means nothing but people questioning your success is still triggering.
City are a small club, they don’t have a large fanbase domestically never mind internationally. I live abroad and no matter how many trophies they win you never see anybody wearing a City shirt. You see a lot of Arsenal, Utd and Chelsea shirts despite those three barely winning anything in recent seasons.
If City are actually punished sufficiently for their 115 FFP violations I wouldn’t be surprised if fans stayed silent like murderer who’s got caught and is sitting in a cell. There is no point in protesting, you committing the crime and know you deserve the punishment.
Grow up City fans, everyone is bored of all 15 of you pretending you enjoy your empty successes.
Morris
