http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25718332 We have been told for years that Premier League is the best in the World. This is obviously not true as NO Premier League players made it into World X1. As usual we will have to listen to the likes of Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher,Gary Linekar etc etc telling us how lucky we are to see such top quality football week in week out. I for one are not convinced. None of our teams are major threats for Champions League that they were 4-5 yrs ago,and as for Euros and World Cups........NO CHANCE
I think we have best league in overall quality, and easiest on the eye. you take that best 11, they come from basically 4 sides, Barca, Real Madrid, PSG and Bayern Munich. other leagues are catching up for sure but i don't think the have our depth in talent.
Best league, not necessarily the best players, or arguably teams. Look at the Premier League this season, you've got 11 teams who could get dragged down. Over the last round of fixtures the league leader changed three times, with 7 teams in contention for 4 Champion's League spots. And whilst the gulf between the top and the bottom feels huge, the difference is nowhere near as great as it is in La Liga for example.
Really? I honestly think Man City could win the Champions League this year, they are simply awesome. I think some of the quality in the Premiership this season is as good as I can remember it - Aguero, Suarez, Toure, Hazard, Negredo, Ozil are absolutely superb footballers, and that is just rattling off half a dozen from the top of my head. Some great youngsters coming through as well such as Oscar, Januzaj, Barkley, Coutinho etc I must admit I don't watch a huge amount of football from foreign leagues, but I do know I see some cracking games in the PL with wonderful goals and fantastic pieces of individual brilliance - and some very tense, close run games that keep you on the edge of your seat. I think the our top flight is brilliant and I love it and am very pleased that we are part of it
At the moment, yes, the Prem is by far the most exciting and unpredictable in terms of results. As people have said on here, though, the quality of a lot of the football is getting dour due to desperation to stay in the league at all costs. I don't see enough Spanish or German football to know whether Osasuna vs Espanyol is just as grim. By the way, is this allowed? A thread which isn't about Chris Hughton?
I agree, though I think it's probably because of Man City's poor showing in Europe last year when Toure didn't have his best season. This year however he is playing as well as ever, an absolute beast and a fantastic footballer. I imagine Suarez probably has it wrapped up if he carries on as he is, but Toure would get my vote for player of the year this season based on what I've seen so far. He has got everything in his locker you would want from a midfielder and has scored a dozen or so goals already. Fabulous player
It used to be said that goals are what people most want to see. Over the years there has been a steady reduction in the average number of goals scored per game (due partly to more effective defensive strategies but also to a narrowing of the gap between the best and worst teams). The result is that goals have become rarer, but by the same token more valuable and potentially decisive to the outcome of the match. It turns out that rather than a goal fest every week, fans prefer nail-biting encounters the outcome of which is often still in the balance as the game enters the last minute of extra time. As DH says, the Premier League delivers these types of games week in week out in a way that no other top league does. In fact the Championship probably delivers better entertainment in that sense than some of Europe's top leagues.
Just to back up your post DH - In Spain the top 2 have only lost 1 game and drawn 2 and on 50 points are 14 points clear of the 4th team. In Italy the top team are 8 points clear of the 2nd club and 15 points clear of the 4th. Both leagues are after only 19 games instead of or 21. In France the top team are 5 points clear of the second club and 13 clear of the 4th. I don't have the German league to hand. In our league everybody can get points against anybody - and frequently do - which means there are no ' easy ' fixtures which is why our league is the best even if the experts tell us that the best 11 individuals are thinly spread elsewhere.
Know how you feel Warky having suffered our lot in the 1960's. Every year you think things will get better. Every year was the same - never seriously threatening going up or down and always finishing in mid-table obscurity. Sometimes you would get an unexpected cup win and you hoped that a corner had been turned but no - next round of the cup and out you would go and then back to dire, crap mediocrity. To make matters worse whenever we played our local rivals we usually got spanked. As I say, I know how you feel. Do I feel sorry for you - like f*ck I do!!!!!!
To be fair how many of us watch matches from other leagues? Are we qualified to judge? I think that the Premier League has teams like Man City and Chelsea which are obviously 'worth watching' but the Premier League's status (thanks to the big teams) means that every team gets more capital which has lead to teams like Southampton and Swansea being able to invest in top players (although there are still some boring teams like us and Stoke) so in theory the Premier League as a whole is improving. This season has been a lot more open at both ends of the table which I guess makes the league more exciting from a neutral perspective. I think Bastian Schweinstieger, Dante and David Alaba should have been named at the expense of Iniesta/Xavi, Sergio Ramos and Dani Alves respectively. I particularly disagree with Alves' inclusion but I gather that the voting is essentially a popularity contest chosen by coaches, players and journalists from around the world which explains the bias towards Barcelona. Sorry for the long-winded post, but I am glad to see Philip Lahm get some recognition this time around!
