I think that players like Keane, Viera, Pires, Beckham, Giggs, Scholes, Lampard, Adams, Sol, Carvalho, Rio, Vidic, Desailly, Petit, Henry, RVN, Essien, Gallas, Ashley Cole, Torres, Drogba, Terry, Gerrard, Alonso set this high expectation which we all thought was normal. It's now we realise just how much better they really were bcos they pretty much pi55 on 90% of the players in the top clubs today. And they're just those off the top of my head. Who do we have now? Scratch around and we see Sanchez, Ozil, Yaya when he feels like it, Aguero, Kompany who is still not as good as any of the CBs mentioned at their peak imo. That's it fellas.
Don't worry too much about yesterday, didn't you lose 5-0 to Stoke in your double winning year of 1971?
It's a weak league, perpetuated as being the best because the quality (or lack thereof) is spread thinly over many teams making it more competitive. Not helped by no real top class managers either to instill consistently achieving tactics. United and Arsenal managed by hasbeens relying on past glories. Chelsea and City managed by, well, whoever fancies going there for the paycheck and being bossed around by mercenaries who sometimes try. Liverpool managed by someone who could be a great but jury out and managing none of his own choice players. The rest are just poor to quite good. If this is the best team that Wenger can build by 2015 then jeez.
It's not a weak league at all, it's the complete converse. The incremental TV revenue has allowed the middle order to buy players of a quality that they hadn't been able to before. The gap has closed between the traditional Sky 4 plus the oil clubs, and the rest.... Villa aside, every club is capable of beating any other, it's making for a truly competitive league and it's all the better for it.
The number of top quality PL players has dropped. They are spread more than. The best teams are weaker. Just look at Europe. A competitive league doesn't mean the best teams have remained top quality. There's just less of a head and less of a tail nowadays.
This. The top teams set the benchmark and it's bloody low at the moment. What I do like is the mentality of the (no disrespect) lesser clubs. Thank fck there are managers like Koeman, Bilic, Martinez, Ranieri, Hughes, even Monk, who are trying to play attacking football rather than the Allardyce route 1 sh1te that became the bible for many clubs as the only way to play if you wanted to survive in the PL. Thank fck football has moved on a bit since then.
How can you say the number of top players in the league has dropped when the likes of Stoke have players of the quality of Bojan and Shaqiri? If you look across the PL clubs virtually everyone now has players of top drawer quality. The top sides not dominating in Europe has as much to do withthe levelling of the playing field in the PL as it has with the very best in Europe cruising their domestic games because of their piss poor leagues. The top sides have spent more than ever, they've just not done it particularly well, and the chasing pack have invested their resources better pro rata. You're confusing quality with inconsistency and the latter is caused by the gap being significantly closed.
So the very best in Europe have achieved that because they play in piss poor leagues but our best are **** in Europe because they are the best in a top/tough league?
How can I say that? Maybe because Bojan and Shaqiri are not top class? Very good players, and ones that didn't used to play for midtable teams but not top class. Name checking good but not great players like them further confirms the notion that the very, very best players (who could compete with the very best in Spain, Germany, Italy etc) are fewer and further between at the moment in the prem.
The lesser sides have improved and are being managed better and with more money. But its obvious that the top sides have regressed. Our top Premiership sides haven't done anything in Europe for quite some time and will do nothing this season too. Arsenal is the inform Premiership team and placed 2nd in the league butthey got their asses handed to them by a 12th place team, with a form record of LLLLDLL.
So you agree with me that mid table sides have now got better players and this therefore makes them better sides no???
Playing in leagues that are piss poor in quality aside from the top 3 or 4 clubs is a massive benefit to the top sides playing in those leagues when it comes to the CL. As they can rest players before and after the midweek games without much concern about whether they're weakened sides are good enough to win those league games. The issue of whether the very best sides in Germany and Spain are currently better than our top sides, is a different conversation. The point was about the strength of the PL and across the league it's now as strong as it's ever been, driven by the levelling of the playing field
Surprised nobody mentioned Heskey? Now there was a proper striker, they don't make them like that anymore.
There's also the issue of the winter break, or lack of it in England. By the time the knockout stages of the Champions League have started, English teams are coming off the back of a busy Christmas and January, with the 3rd round of the FA cup thrown in for good measure.
Yes. My point is that the TOP quality is not there in as much abundance anymore. I think we're arguing different points.
I would strongly recommend a winter break. What is even more bizarre is they've stuck a shed load of game at the end of the year, when players need time to rest and recuperate from injuries. We played on Sat and will play again today, what do they want, more bloody injuries to players? The conditions are cold and playing surfaces are more demanding, which will increase the likelihood of injuries. I swear, sometimes I wonder if the FA are being led by the stupid or by the greedy...
It depends on which top team. Man U, Arsenal and Liverpool are the most obvious teams who have gone down in quality. But City and Chelsea are a lot better. Man U had the last top team around 2008, Arsenal around 2004, and Liverpool at around 2008.
