Gotta say, so far this season for the Premier League to be touted as the best league in the World is embarrassing. We currently have one team running away with it and ten teams fighting for three positions. We have been fortunate the past five years of great attacking seasons, but we reached our peak this season and it's going downhill. Mourinho has returned and shown the Premier League how to actually defend and not one team have a clue how to stop it. Spanish league is the most competitive league, Germany's has the most quality and like the England national side the Premier League is just not good enough, bar Chelsea.
Most entertaining is more fitting, long time since the PL could be considered the 'best', especially in regards to talent cos apart from the chavs the defending being shown each week is absolutely embarrassing
See my theory on defending is that, football is becoming more of an attacking threat. you see some of the tackles which are given as fouls these days compared to just 10-15 years ago. Yellow cards given for a tackle where you win the ball and take the man. That used to be a good tackle, win the ball and let the man know he's in a game. can't do that anymore so defenders are scared to tackle players knowing they're more likely to give away fouls and get booked. Players go down a lot easier as well creating more free kicks/penalties etc, as well as diving now as well. Feel sorry for defenders these days as not much you can do and get away with. Fans prefer goals so naturally, it's going to become more of an attackers game. Much like cricket which in recent years has become all about scoring runs because fans like seeing runs. It means new rule changes are done and most favour the batsmen, same can be said for football and strikers.
Except for ourselves and Aston Villa who have no attacking threat. There is a distinct lack of quality defenders in World football at the moment, even Germany as World Champions used the BFG who is a pretty poor defender. How many current World Class Centre Backs can people think of, Kompany, Hummels maybe Ramos, Varane and Silva?
Defending in the Premier League has been non-existent this season, every team have stopped the concept of defending but when a manager comes in and actually sorts it out we label it boring. And the poster who said I was contradicting myself, Spanish league have three/four fighting it out for the top spot, we have one runaway winner and ten others grasping to Champions League spots.
For me tackling should be a last resort for a defender, if the team is set up properly then tackling shouldn't be needed.
Was me. And depends what you mean by competitive. Apart from last season, Barca & Madrid have won the title about 10 times between them before anyone else had won it. Competitive to certain extent, but it was never competitive beyond that further down the league. Teams at the bottom very rarely beat them but how many times do you see teams in the relegation zone spring surprises and beat teams at the top?
People are coming to some conclusions based in these facts: One club running away at the top of the league Ten times fighting for three positions. Therefore the conclusions are that the premiership cannot be said to be the best league? The only way to compare our teams with others is via the CL and the Europa. Just looking at our teams positions in the league would not do that. In any case, depend on how a league would be defined as the best. Would you say la liga was the best BECAUSE Real and Barca were the best teams in Europe even though they steam roller other teams 5-0 on a regular basis? Would you go with excitement and unpredictability ? In this case there is a strong case for the premiership as there is competitiveness right across the league. Any team can beat (almost) any. Just because Chelsea is stronger so far than the others does it make it less valid. This so called one horse race is not a permanent feature and most years are different. In any case the CL places are as important and that 10 teams can get them makes it very exciting not less. In which league can we say that?
A competitive league is a league where multiple teams are fighjtng to win it, simple. If someone was to argue that the Premier League is competitive because of the teams fighting for the Champions League then you may as well not watch a sport, to take part in a sport you must have the attitude to win it not come forth.
Yes but the CL places ARE as prized as the title. That's the new reality we have to accept since the top 4 have been given a champions league place. The title is prestigious but the CL is all important for the clubs financial health and ability to maintain a competitive team.
So was last year not competitive with 3 teams in with a chance until last 5 games or so and still on the line in the final game? What about 2 years before that where the title was won in the last minute of the season? Just because this season, Chelsea have been the only team to perform consistently, doesn't mean that the league isn't competitive in my opinion.
Who have Southampton played though? We beat them 2-1 and Spurs got a clean sheet against them. At the moment there playing care free football and it shows. In the later stages IF they were to keep it up then you would see the real Southampton come out.
Last season was incredibly competitive, probably the most competitive I've seen. But ive said about this season and how one team has ran away for it and ten other teams and scrambling over a Champions League place.
