Turkish Football Season 2023/24

[bjkman1903]

Galatasaray 2-2 København
Fenerbahçe 3-1 Nordsjælland
Club Brugge 1-1 Besiktas

An OK matchday for Turkish clubs

Galatasaray's draw at home was somehow compensated by Besiktas's draw at Brugge (I expected Galatasaray to win and Besiktas to lose)
Looking at the scenarios of the games, in which both Gala & Besiktas were a lot more closer to the defeat than to the win, both draws can be considered as great results.

Fenerbahçe easily won at home while rotating players and must be the big favorites for first place in their group.

[apurvdanke]

Galatasaray definitely have a lot of goal scoring options and will contend for yet another Super Lig title. They need to make some of those goal scoring chances count more often. However, their defensive weakness wont be exposed much by Super Lig sides. In the Champions League it is a different story altogether. Bayern, Man Utd and Copenhagen will definitely pounce on their defensive frailties. Having said that I think they are quite capable of taking 1 point (or even 3) off Man Utd who are having a poor run right now. I don't expect anything against Bayern. I expect at least a draw against Copenhagen in the away game, maybe even a win. I believe 2nd place will still be fought between Galatasaray and Man Utd. Man Utd also lost to Bayern, ultimately they lost by 4-3, but it could easily have been a much bigger margin. I expect Bayern to win at Old Trafford as well.

[apurvdanke]

Coming to Fenerbahce and Besiktas, they should easily progress beyond the ECL group stage. Fenerbahce should top their group. It is a golden opportunity for easy coefficient points. Fener could get 4 or 5 wins. Similar for Besiktas, but the top spot would be a fight with Brugge. Still I expect 4 wins from them. That can lead the Turkish country coefficient to an all time high, but it wont be good enough to overtake Belgium, they are some way ahead and have 5 teams.

Looks like finally Turkish sides realized the importance of coefficient points after going down to 20th place.

Even though in last few years, Turkish sides have made it past group stage in EL and ECL lately, they haven't gone deep like semi final or final. I would expect it to happen some time soon.

[bjkman1903]

Standings after MD6 :

18 pts Fenerbahce
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16 pts Galatasaray
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11 pts Adana Demirspor & Rizespor
10 pts Hatayspor & Besiktas
9 pts Trabzonspor & Kayserispor & Konyaspor & Kasimpasa
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There is already a big gap between Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray & the others. This reflects the difference in quality between top 2 and the remaining teams in the league.
Special mention to Fenerbahçe which did win every single game they played so far this season, awesome performance.

[bjkman1903]

Coming to Fenerbahce and Besiktas, they should easily progress beyond the ECL group stage. Fenerbahce should top their group. It is a golden opportunity for easy coefficient points. Fener could get 4 or 5 wins. Similar for Besiktas, but the top spot would be a fight with Brugge. Still I expect 4 wins from them. That can lead the Turkish country coefficient to an all time high, but it wont be good enough to overtake Belgium, they are some way ahead and have 5 teams.

Looks like finally Turkish sides realized the importance of coefficient points after going down to 20th place.

Even though in last few years, Turkish sides have made it past group stage in EL and ECL lately, they haven't gone deep like semi final or final. I would expect it to happen some time soon.

Fenerbahçe can have a deep run in ECL this season, I wouldn't be surprised if they go until the semi-finals. They have the quality & experience and the depth to achieve it.

On the other hand, it's hard to be optimistic about Besiktas at the moment. Two heavy losses in the league (3-0 at Trabzon, 4-2 at Adana) and Club Brugge did complety outmatch us. First place is out of reach and I don't know if we will even beat Lugano & Bodo.
I hope you are right about those 4 wins because I only see 1 or 2 wins and a 3rd place if Besiktas continue to play like this.

[Jua Ferreira]

I have said in almost every post in this topic that Besiktas needed quality transfers. As an ordinary football follower I could detect this, but it seems Beşiktaş management couldnt notice the situation.

Quality transfer aside, Beşiktaş does not even have enough squad depth. At this point today, it is really bad that Besiktas left the championship race early. There are still 32 matches to be played, but as the Turkish saying goes, "the visible village does not want a guide".

Last year, Galatasaray did not start the league very well, but they became champions with the absence of a European matches and the superior performance of Icardi. I cannot see the same light in Beşiktaş. That's why I don't think it's too early to say that Beşiktaş has left the race.

As for the reflection of the situation on the European cups, I did not expect them to beat Club Brugge and finish as the leader of the group from the very beginning, but their current performance is also insufficient for 2nd place. Let's hope that Beşiktaş's performance will increase with the support of the fans in the matches in Turkey.

[bjkman1903]

I have said in almost every post in this topic that Besiktas needed quality transfers. As an ordinary football follower I could detect this, but it seems Beşiktaş management couldnt notice the situation.

Quality transfer aside, Beşiktaş does not even have enough squad depth. At this point today, it is really bad that Besiktas left the championship race early. There are still 32 matches to be played, but as the Turkish saying goes, "the visible village does not want a guide".

Last year, Galatasaray did not start the league very well, but they became champions with the absence of a European matches and the superior performance of Icardi. I cannot see the same light in Beşiktaş. That's why I don't think it's too early to say that Beşiktaş has left the race.

As for the reflection of the situation on the European cups, I did not expect them to beat Club Brugge and finish as the leader of the group from the very beginning, but their current performance is also insufficient for 2nd place. Let's hope that Beşiktaş's performance will increase with the support of the fans in the matches in Turkey.

Even without quality transfers, Besiktas did keep most of their best players from last season and it should have been enough for at least a decent performance. What's more worrying is that the team regressed - the same team that didn't lose for 6 months now gets a beating from Trabzon and Adana in a row.

Yes, the title race is already over. But for me it was over before even the league started since we are far behind Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe in terms of budget, quality and depth. My only hope for this season was 3rd place in the league and a good campaign in ECL (especially to get enough points to be at least seeded in ECL PO next season)

[Jua Ferreira]

As for the reflection of the situation on the European cups, I did not expect them to beat Club Brugge and finish as the leader of the group from the very beginning, but their current performance is also insufficient for 2nd place. Let's hope that Beşiktaş's performance will increase with the support of the fans in the matches in Turkey.

At the preseason the only thing I trusted in was head coach Şenol Güneş, but he was the first person to leave the team after the bad results.

The management also decided to hold a general assembly and election.

The resignation of these names may change the atmosphere, but not the lack of quality. Aboubakar is the only player in the squad that Galatasaray or Fenerbahçe would want right now.

It's a season that's clearly being thrown away. I hope they can at least get 3rd place in the league. Being able to stay in the spring for Europe is a dream for now. New coach needs to pull a rabbit out of the hat.

[bjkman1903]

At the preseason the only thing I trusted in was head coach Şenol Güneş, but he was the first person to leave the team after the bad results.

The management also decided to hold a general assembly and election.

Senol Güneş was extremely disappointing this season, most of his choices and tactics were questionnable. And on top of that, he couldn't manage to prepare the team physically and motivate his players.

We definitely needed new blood and this is the first big step.

Now if we could get rid of the management too, it would be the best thing that could happen for Besiktas.

[bjkman1903]

Standings after MD8 :

1. Fenerbahce 24 pts
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2. Galatasaray 22 pts
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3. Adana Demirspor 17 pts
4. Besiktas 16 pts
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5. Hatayspor & Rizespor 14 pts
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7. Trabzonspor & Kasimpasa 12 pts
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Perfect start of the season for Fenerbahçe - they won every single game they played so far.
Galatasaray are following Fenerbahçe and the title will likely be fought between these 2 teams.

[--staradam--]

[Lorric]

All Turk football has been indefinitely suspended after MKE Ankaragucu president Faruk Koca punched a referee to the ground, then others laid in some boots on him. He ended up in hospital with a small fracture.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67688071

[Polak]

Here is a video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URQfmfd ... anFootball

Absolute madness. I suspect Ankaragucu are going to get a big fine and points deduction, if they don't get kicked out of the league altogether.

[bjkman1903]

It was a sad night for Turkish football.

Unfortunately, it was bound to happen someday because many clubs (if not all) were not happy about refereeing in Turkey.

Turkish Football Federation must take heavy measures so that this situation never happens again.

[bjkman1903]

A few days after that incident with the referee who got punched by Ankaragucu president, another incident happened today in the game between İstanbulspor v Trabzonspor.

1 minute before Trabzonspor's second goal, İstanbulspor expected a penalty. The goal was given with VAR. Then İstanbulspor president told his players to leave the pitch in order to protest that decision.
They left, 15 minutes before the end of the regular time.

Turkish league is becoming a circus.