The winter break is upon us. It accompanies mixed feelings for me.

For one, the football we all love is going to be taking a very prolonged break, which makes any footballer sad. On the other hand, depending how your team has done in the first half - this can serve as either the time to pepper over any cracks, try to deepen up a squad if a team is plagued with injuries and so on.

For the clubs and its fans who are performing very well, it’d be hard not to be vary about it. Of course, keeping the squad in-tack is a first priority and perhaps even adding a bench player or two that might come in handy heading towards the business end of the season. However, having said that, more often than not the teams that are performing at such a high level in the first half enter the business end of the season ridden with injuries and tired players.

PSG and Manchester City are clearly the top performers of the first half, regardless what happens in the games between now and the break. PSG have produced a level that was more or less expected of them while City has definitely over-performed and Guardiola has begun to show many why he’s so highly viewed in the football community. Although if they fail to carry on this performance against the big clubs in Europe or fail to reach the final of CL, he will still not be considered to be delivering on the promises made. If they fail to deliver on that promise however, I’m sure the Etihad decision makers surely believe that Guardiola deserves to be given more time based on what we’ve seen this half a season alone.

It will be unfair to talk about over-performers without mentioning Barcelona and Tottenham. Spurs have beaten and drew the CL double-holders, and completely outplayed them. It definitely was no fluke, and the football they are playing is breathtaking - reminiscent of Borussia Dortmund a few years back when they reached the CL final. Liverpool is doing fantastic as well, with Salah proving to easily be the transfer of the season.

Even though it was said that this was going to be one of worst seasons in recent history for Barcelona, they hit the ground running and do not look like slowing down. They already have one hand on the La Liga, although there’s still a lot to play. It is their trophy to lose, however.

I am glad, personally to be going into the transfer window positively with Real Madrid. They’ve managed to win the CWC two consecutive season, which (just like modern CL) had never been done before. Even if our performances haven't been reassuring this season, I would not definitely write off Real though. I think when we arrive to the business end of the season, Real becomes a completely different animal.

During the window, I hope we bring in a striker. That's been our biggest problem this season.

What kind of business you guys hope your club completes this window, if any?

Of course, let's not forget that football at least leaves us with some spectacles before the break.

On Wednesday we have the Bundesliga Der Klassiker:

Bayern Munich v Borussia Dortmund

On the weekend, I'll have to check exactly which days these two games will be to make sure. I'd rather omit the info than out something wrong, knowing this community. :)

We have Arsenal v Liverpool in England

And last, but not least: the biggest one of them all. Spanish El Classico.

Real Madrid v Barcelona

Some great games heading our way.

Meh, break is gonna be boring without Bundesliga for me. PL is there to save the day though. Whole Christmas-New Year period is best time of year, atleast for me. You can sit and enjoy the atmosphere, talk with family/friends, infinite time to think lmao.

Since we bought Wagner, we don't need anyone else in our squad in the winter window. In summer, I expect a new winger.

@Amerr The Classico and the Klassiker for sure will be interesting to watch. Would be great to see Stoger manage to get a point of such a game in his first shot. And Madrid need to win the Classico if they want to keep competing with Barca.

Well, we already have 2 wins over them this season. I really hope that the team that showed up against them in Super Cup shows up again and as they've proved numerous of times - this team is different coming up against strong teams with something on the line.

I do (hope) think that is the reason we played so poorly against Spurs. Although we should've won at Bernabeu given the amount of chances we had.

Der Klassiker isn't as fun (unpredictable) as it used to be but it's still two good teams going head to head with more than just points on offer. Although with Borussia appointing a new manager, they have started to play better. Who knows, they might spring a surprise.

@Amerr 2-1 for Bayern and to be fair, if BVB would have had a better keeper, maybe it would have been different, he made poor choice especially on the second goal, from what I seen anyway which isn't much. Still, thats not a terrible results for Stoger in his first Klassiker.

@Emo: Man, you should predict scores for money. :)

@Amerr Hardly, I posted my answer after the game. I was trying to make an analysis. XD