2021-22 Prediction Thread (Year 1 A.M. - Anno Messi)

OK, we have not done this is a little while but trying to do a revival of the old prediction thread which ran for at least 11 years. I did not create the original format but am just starting the post.

The rules are simple, we each post our predictions on the topics below. We won't lock up the thread, as in earlier years, instead keeping it open to post results as different questions are answered. However, to be in the running for all the points you need to get your predictions in before the results are known; given that Liga kicks off this weekend, get your guesses in sooner than later. That said, in all likelihood only a few answers will be known after Jornada 1 (hopefully first goal and maybe first booking) so don't hesitate to enter whenever.

Same as the past seasons, there are two different categories of predictions:

The ones with points posted next to them are objective, fact-based predictions. These all tally up towards your finals score. The point system makes tougher predictions be worth more points. The ones without points posted next to them are subjective predictions, and can't really be objectively judged. These are just for fun.

Barça Predictions
Who will score the first goal? (50 pts)
Which defender will score first? (75 pts)
First own goal? (75 pts)
Who will receive the first booking? (75 pts)
Which player will be sent off first? (75 pts)
Will Koeman be sent off this season? (Yes 25 points/ No 50 pts)
Barca Pichichi: (25 pts)
How many goals will the team score in La Liga? (100 pts exact tally; 50 pts ±5 within exact tally; 25 pts ±10 within exact tally)
Will the team bring in a new player during the January window (includes cantera promotion)? (25 pts)
Five Barca players with most Liga minutes? (25 points each).

Subjective/Opinion-based re BARCA (no points will be awarded)
Best signing:
Most disappointing signing:
Best promoted player (cantera):
Most improved player:
OLE of the season:

La Liga Wide Predictions
Pichichi: (50 pts)
Goal tally of Pichichi winner: (100 pts for exact answer, 50 within 2 goals, 25 within 5 goals)
Scorer of most penalties: (75 pts)
Zamora: (50 pts)
First coaching change: (100 pts)
How many points will La Liga champion finish with?
(100 pts exact tally; 50 pts ±5 within exact tally)
UCL qualifiers (4 - intended to be top 4 Liga positions): (25 pts each)
Europa League qualifiers (3 - intended to be 5th and 6th Liga positions plus CdR winner or 7th place in Liga if CdR winner makes CL): (50 pts each)
Relegated teams (3 - intended to be 18th-20th in Liga standing ignoring financial relegation or points deductions): (50 pts each)
Four Copa del Rey semifinalists: (50 pts each)
How many Clasicos will be played this season overall: (50 pts)
Scoreline of the two Liga clasicos? (100 pts each)

Liga-wide Subjective/Opinion-based (no points will be awarded)

Best signing:
Biggest bust:
Breakthrough player:
Young player to look for:

Predictions outside La Liga:
UEFA Best Player in Europe Award(50 pts)
Balon d'Or shortlist (3) (25 pts each):
Balon d'Or winner: (75 pts)
FIFA The Best winner (75 pts)

In relation with La Liga / Premier League / Bundesliga / Serie A / Ligue 1:
• Which league will see the first coaching change(after August 24th)? (100 pts)
• Which league will have the last unbeaten side? (100 pts)
(Since the leagues have staggered opening dates, correct answer will be based on league matchday #.)

Premier League champions: (50 pts)
Premier League Golden Boot (50 pts)
Serie A champions: (50 pts)
Serie A Capocannoniere: (50 pts)
Bundesliga champions: (50 pts)
Bundesliga Torjägerkanone (50 pts)
Ligue 1 champions: (50 pts)
Ligue 1 Top scorer (50 pts)
Correct league of the Golden Boot winner (50 points)
CL semifinalists: (50 pts each)
EL semifinalists: (100 pts each)
Will Europa League be won by a CL third place team? (25 pts)
Will a team outside the "big 5 leagues (Spain, Germany, England, Italy & France)" make the CL quarterfinals (yes 50, no 25)?
Will a team outside the "big 5 leagues (Spain, Germany, England, Italy & France)" make the Europa semifinals (25)?
Will the Club World Championship feature the champs of Europe and South America in the final? (yes 25, no 50 pts)

EDIT - my old latin teacher would cringe at my A.M. translation, I should have written "After Messi", as "Anno Messi" is more like "in the year of Messi" but i cannot edit the title.

 

OK, guess I will try to get this started before the season kicks off, transfers/loans close, and the new signings are hopefully registered.

Barça Predictions
Who will score the first goal? (50 pts) GRIEZMANN
Which defender will score first? (75 pts) ARAUJO
First own goal? (75 pts) LENGLET
Who will receive the first booking? (75 pts) BUSQUETS
Which player will be sent off first? (75 pts) LENGLET
Will Koeman be sent off this season? (Yes 25 points/ No 50 pts) NO
Barca Pichichi: (25 pts) DEPAY
How many goals will the team score in La Liga? (100 pts exact tally; 50 pts ±5 within exact tally; 25 pts ±10 within exact tally) 79
Will the team bring in a new player during the January window (includes cantera promotion)? (25 pts) NO
Five Barca players with most Liga minutes? (25 points each). DE JONG, PEDRI, GRIEZMANN, ALBA, TER STEGEN

Subjective/Opinion-based re BARCA (no points will be awarded)
Best signing: EMERSON ROYAL (PLUS BARCA B'S YUSUF DEMIR LOAN WITH OPTION TO BUY)
Most disappointing signing: MESSI WITH PSG
Best promoted player (cantera): GAVI BUT HE WON'T ACTUALLY BE PROMOTED; MINGUEZA OF THE ACTUALLY PROMOTED, BUT HE ALREADY SHOWED WHAT HE COULD DO LAST YEAR
Most improved player: PUIG
OLE of the season: TEBAS

La Liga Wide Predictions
Pichichi: (50 pts) BENZEMA
Goal tally of Pichichi winner: (100 pts for exact answer, 50 within 2 goals, 25 within 5 goals) 22
Scorer of most penalties: (75 pts) BENZEMA
Zamora: (50 pts) OBLAK
First coaching change: (100 pts) MALLORCA
How many points will La Liga champion finish with? 81
(100 pts exact tally; 50 pts ±5 within exact tally)
UCL qualifiers (4 - intended to be top 4 Liga positions): (25 pts each) ATLETICO, REAL, BARCA, SEVILLA
Europa League qualifiers (3 - intended to be 5th and 6th Liga positions plus CdR winner or 7th place in Liga if CdR winner makes CL): (50 pts each) VILLARREAL, REAL SOCIEDAD, BETIS
Relegated teams (3 - intended to be 18th-20th in Liga standing ignoring financial relegation or points deductions): (50 pts each) CADIZ, ELCHE, RAYO
Four Copa del Rey semifinalists: (50 pts each) BILBAO, BARCA, REAL, ATLETICO
How many Clasicos will be played this season overall: (50 pts) FOUR
Scoreline of the two Liga clasicos? (100 pts each) 2-2, 1-2

Liga-wide Subjective/Opinion-based (no points will be awarded)
SKIPPING, NOT FOLLOWING ENOUGH THIS SUMMER
Best signing:
Biggest bust:
Breakthrough player:
Young player to look for:

Predictions outside La Liga:
UEFA Best Player in Europe Award(50 pts) JORGINO
Balon d'Or shortlist (3) (25 pts each): MESSI, LEWA, JORGINHO
Balon d'Or winner: (75 pts) MESSI
FIFA The Best winner (75 pts) MESSI

In relation with La Liga / Premier League / Bundesliga / Serie A / Ligue 1:
• Which league will see the first coaching change(after August 24th)? (100 pts) PREMIER LEAGUE
• Which league will have the last unbeaten side? (100 pts) LIGUE 1
(Since the leagues have staggered opening dates, correct answer will be based on league matchday #.)

Premier League champions: (50 pts) CITY
Premier League Golden Boot (50 pts) LUKAKU
Serie A champions: (50 pts) JUVE
Serie A Capocannoniere: (50 pts) RONALDO
Bundesliga champions: (50 pts) BAYERN
Bundesliga Torjägerkanone (50 pts) LEWA
Ligue 1 champions: (50 pts) PSG
Ligue 1 Top scorer (50 pts) MESSI
Correct league of the Golden Boot winner (50 points) BUNDESLIGA
CL semifinalists: (50 pts each) BAYERN, CITY, PSG, CHELSEA
EL semifinalists: (100 pts each) NAPOLI, LEICESTER, LYON, BAYER LEVERKEUSEN
Will Europa League be won by a CL third place team? (25 pts) NO
Will a team outside the "big 5 leagues (Spain, Germany, England, Italy & France)" make the CL quarterfinals (yes 50, no 25)? YES
Will a team outside the "big 5 leagues (Spain, Germany, England, Italy & France)" make the Europa semifinals (25)? NO
Will the Club World Championship feature the champs of Europe and South America in the final? (yes 25, no 50 pts) NO

 

We have our first answers, both first goal and first defender to score, but NO ONE got either right. Pique scored off the lovely free kick from Depay.

Point is really that no one is being penalized for not getting their picks in yet.

 

OK, third answer is in and first points are on the board for Busquets with first booking. Still plenty of time to get your guesses in though!

 

We will learn tomorrow if this comes to pass but Jorginho is leaked to win UEFA Best Player in Europe, where the other finalists came down to Kante and De Bruyne:

Chelsea midfielder, Jorginho, will win the UEFA Player of the Year award ahead of teammate N’Golo Kante and Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne, according to leaks in the Italian media. Jorginho, Kante and De Bruyne are the final three on UEFA’s shortlist for the prize. The Italian is now expected to claim the award.


Tuttomercatoweb claims sources close have told them Jorginho will be named the winner during Thursday’s Champions League draw in Istanbul.

For the UEFA Women's Player of the Year award Barcelona has all 3 finalists The Netherlands' Lieke Martens and Spaniards Jennifer Hermoso and Alexia Putellas received the most voting points. Hermoso is the favorite, but that was not leaked, just that she co-led CL and led Liga in scoring, with Barca winning both.

 

UEFA Best Player in Europe - Jorginho - Chelsea/Italy

Goalie - Mendy - Chelsea/France
Defender - Dias - City/Portugal
Midfielder - Kante - Chelsea/France (we will just ignore that Jorginho is a mid too)
Forward - Haaland - Dortmund/Norway (we will just ignore that Lewa was one of 3 finalists for player of the year and the only one who was a forward, with Kante and Jorginho).
Coach - Tuchel - Chelsea (German too but no NT involvement of course)

Women's Player - Alexia Putellas - Barca/Spain (also mid of the year showing one can win both)
Goalie - Sandra Panos - Barca/Spain
Defender - Irene Paredes - now Barca on a Bosman but PSG last year/Spain
Mid - Putellas
Forward - Jenni Hermoso - Barca/Spain
Coach - Lluis Cortes - last year's Barca coach/from Spain (players despite last year's success insisted he had to go and they prevailed)

 

Lots of media are tipping that Messi has already been tipped off that he is winning the Ballon d'Or for an amazing 7th time. The leaks were right about Jorginho earlier, so I'm inclined to believe they are right here too, even though Lewa has done so much in 2021.

Getting sacked does not mean "Koeman was sent off" - I mean funny joke but don't count those points, he needed to get a red card for those points to count.

 

Ballon award ceremony is live https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2021/nov/29/ballon-dor-2021-live-updates. Pedri placed 24th, and is also in running for new Kopa trophy (young player), EDIT - PEDRI wins (maybe Gavi will be in running next year).

Also there's a new best goalie Yashin trophy but MATS not nominated in top 10 (Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid), Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG), Ederson (Manchester City), Samir Handanovic (Internazionale), Emiliano Martínez (Aston Villa), Edouard Mendy (Chelsea), Keylor Navas (PSG), Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Jan Oblak (Atletico Madrid), and Kasper Schmeichel (Leicester City)).
.
All but the final 10 have been named in order:

Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint-Germain)
Jorginho (Chelsea)
N’Golo Kante (Chelsea)
Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain)
Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)

Barca women dominate the short list for Women's Ballon with 5 of 20 finalists and Barcelona duo Alexia Putellas and Jennifer Hermoso are both heavily tipped to win.

 

For 75 points: Messi wins Ballon - thanks to Copa America win and Copa del Rey win and stats put up at Barca more than PSG (poor Lewa, deserving the last two years). Barca's Putellas wins for women. Lewa wins striker of the year. Donnarumma wins keeper of the year (Yashin), and Pedri wins young player of the year (Kopa).

7: Messi (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021)
5: Ronaldo (2008, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017)
3: Michel Platini, Johan Cryuff, Marco van Basten
2: Franz Beckenbauer, Ronaldo, Alfredo Di Stefano, Kevin Keegan, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge

For 25 points each the Ballon top 3 were: Messi, Lewa, and Jorginho though they did not do the shortlist thing this year, top 3 = shortlist of years past, so same points apply, 25 pts for each correct answer.

 

Well it was a disappointing year and also low turnout in our prediction poll but here are the answers I found online

RESULTS:
Barça Predictions
Who will score the first goal? (50 pts) PIQUE
Which defender will score first? (75 pts) PIQUE
First own goal? (75 pts) NO OWN GOAL SCORED ALL SEASON (none for us either in Liga play, none by us in all competitions)
Who will receive the first booking? (75 pts) BUSQUETS
Which player will be sent off first? (75 pts) ERIC GARCIA
Will Koeman be sent off this season? (Yes 25 points/ No 50 pts) YES (VS. CADIZ)
Barca Pichichi: (25 pts) DEPAY
How many goals will the team score in La Liga? (100 pts exact tally; 50 pts ±5 within exact tally; 25 pts ±10 within exact tally) 68 GOALS
Will the team bring in a new player during the January window (includes cantera promotion)? (25 pts) YES, TORRES IN JANUARY (AUBA ADDED IN FEB AFTER CONTRACT TERMINATED)
Five Barca players with most Liga minutes? (25 points each). BUSQUETS, TER STEGEN, ALBA, F. DE JONG, GAVI

La Liga Wide Predictions
Pichichi: (50 pts) BENZEMA
Goal tally of Pichichi winner: (100 pts for exact answer, 50 within 2 goals, 25 within 5 goals) 27
Scorer of most penalties: (75 pts) SOLER WITH 7 (AND 7 FOR 7 ACCURACY)
Zamora: (50 pts) BOUNOU (SEVILLA)
First coaching change: (100 pts) BARCELONA!
How many points will La Liga champion finish with?
(100 pts exact tally; 50 pts ±5 within exact tally) 86 POINTS FOR REAL MADRID
UCL qualifiers (4 - intended to be top 4 Liga positions): (25 pts each) REAL MADRID, BARCELONA, ATLETICO, SEVILLA
Europa League qualifiers (3 - intended to be 5th and 6th Liga positions plus CdR winner or 7th place in Liga if CdR winner makes CL): (50 pts each) BETIS 5TH + CDR WINNER, REAL SOCIEDAD 6TH, VILLARREAL 7TH (WHICH ACTUALLY GOES TO EUROPA CONF. NOW)
Relegated teams (3 - intended to be 18th-20th in Liga standing ignoring financial relegation or points deductions): (50 pts each) GRANADA, LEVANTE, ALAVES
Four Copa del Rey semifinalists: (50 pts each) BETIS, VALENCIA, RAYO V, ATHLETIC BILBAO
How many Clasicos will be played this season overall: (50 pts) THREE, THE EXTRA ONE WAS THE SPANISH SUPER COPA SEMIFINAL
Scoreline of the two Liga clasicos? (100 pts each) 1-2 AT BARCA, 0-4 AT REAL

Predictions outside La Liga:
UEFA Best Player in Europe Award(50 pts) JORGINHO
Balon d'Or shortlist (3) (25 pts each): MESSI, LEWANDOWSKI, JORGINHO
Balon d'Or winner: (75 pts) MESSI
FIFA The Best winner (75 pts) LEWANDOWSKI

In relation with La Liga / Premier League / Bundesliga / Serie A / Ligue 1:
• Which league will see the first coaching change(after August 24th)? (100 pts) SERIE A
• Which league will have the last unbeaten side? (100 pts) SERIE A
(Since the leagues have staggered opening dates, correct answer will be based on league matchday #.)

Premier League champions: (50 pts) MAN CITY
Premier League Golden Boot (50 pts) SALAH & HEUNG MIN
Serie A champions: (50 pts) AC MILAN
Serie A Capocannoniere: (50 pts) IMMOBILE
Bundesliga champions: (50 pts) BAYERN
Bundesliga Torjägerkanone (50 pts) LEWANDOWSKI
Ligue 1 champions: (50 pts) PSG
Ligue 1 Top scorer (50 pts) MBAPPE
Correct league of the Golden Boot winner (50 points) BUNDESLIGA
CL semifinalists: (50 pts each) REAL MADRID, LIVERPOOL, MAN CITY, VILLARREAL
EL semifinalists: (100 pts each) EINTRACHT FRANKFURT, WEST HAM, RANGERS, RB LEIPZIG
Will Europa League be won by a CL third place team? (25 pts) NO
Will a team outside the "big 5 leagues (Spain, Germany, England, Italy & France)" make the CL quarterfinals (yes 50, no 25)? YES, BENFICA
Will a team outside the "big 5 leagues (Spain, Germany, England, Italy & France)" make the Europa semifinals (25)? YES, RANGERS
Will the Club World Championship feature the champs of Europe and South America in the final? (yes 25, no 50 pts) YES, CHELSEA BEAT PALMEIRAS 2-1

 

I got 1175, not terrible but I'm pretty sure one of you did better.