"Where's DL to tell us how strong the Bundesliga is?" The top two in Germany/Spain are better than their PL counterparts. But that doesn't imply tis true for the entire leagues.
Like, surely it was obvious to any thinking Utd fan that your squad was in decline. I'm not sure how much of last season was down to the Fergie factor, and how much down to the lack of a credible challenger, it's not entirely clear. O.k. RVP was on fire - and relatively injury free! But it was becoming clear that your defence, especially, was creaking big time! Major investment in the squad was clearly needed a while ago. Why that never occurred, maybe you would know more about than us.
Luke there are many fans on here who openly hate fergie or view him as being a nasty hypocrite but even they realise tthe impact he had as a manager so yes one man can make such a difference, even if it shouldn't make much sense.
"That was ages ago" There was always a fools' hope (just like Spurs just about have) . And just as ours should go at the weekend, yours went today.
I think the answer is that the EPL is more competitive. In that the disparity between the best and the rest is not as great as in the respective German and Spanish leagues. Whether that means that the overall standard is higher in the EPL, I'm not so sure.
" Whether that means that the overall standard is higher in the EPL, I'm not so sure." The general technical ability in those leagues is better than the PL, IMHO. This season the PL has been unusually weaker than expected.
It's largely irrelevant as Freiburg are not likely to play Hull and Real Mallorca won't play West Ham. There is no objective way of measuring the standard. The number of international players, the money available to pay transfer fees and and wages and the competitive nature of every fixture - even if the leading teams tend to prevail more often than not - are all quality marks for me for the PL.
I gave up on a top 4 spot the minute Levy appointed AVB, and I gave up on a top 5 spot the minute he appointed Sherwoodie. However, I do have great hope that Everton will continue their surge and take 4th from Arsenal, who are clearly in the midst of a massive bottle-job. Jesus! They couldn't even beat Swansea at home!
The game with Southampton was much more enjoyable because I'd given up hope for fourth already. No constant worrying until the inevitable disappointment, just two teams playing a very entertaining game of football. I'm not letting hope creep back in. I know if we do get back in the race it will only mean losing out on the last CL spot the last day of the season or later for the third year in a row.
If you watch the Bundesliga the football in general is more expansive and technical and is much of the reason the German national team is a success as the young players coming through are playing in expansive teams which prepare them for the national game. But that doesn't mean the domestic league is stronger than ours in terms of being competitive and overall quality so I'll also look at the PL as being the strongest. Plus when Man Utd completely thumped Bayer Leverkusen, that didn't say much for their second team!
There is no doubt that the gap in quality between the top teams in the EPL and the top teams in La Liga & The Bundesliga is significant. Both City and The Goons were effectively brushed aside by Barca and Bayern. The rest is very hard to judge. You can pick selective games that can demonstrate that any of these leagues is the strongest overall. But, as you, say, unless they were ever to compete on a week by week basis, it's impossible to be sure.
The only issues with that are that City were reduced to 10 men against Barca and that Arsenal have also been smashed by the best teams in England this season. They've won lots of games, but they've been annihilated by City, Liverpool and Chelsea. The Goons basically matched Dortmund in their group, too.
Personally, I think Barca would have beaten City 11v11. I would have expected Bayern to beat The Goons, just as I think they will dispose of Utd. I would still maintain that the top echelons of those leagues are stronger than those of the EPL. Overall strength of the different leagues is hard to measure relatively.
"Bayern gave up against Arsenal in that second match, as they knew they had the tie in the bag." Just like when Get real Madrid played Spurs at WHL in the CL. They could go up into higher gears if they needed to. And they knew it.
Yeah agree. That's where it's easy to separate the good sides to the world class sides. You could tell Bayern weren't really out of 2nd gear against Arsenal and the same for Madrid and us at WHL. ****ing talented bastards!
"You could tell Bayern weren't really out of 2nd gear against Arsenal and the same for Madrid and us at WHL." And Jose also showed why he is a superior manager. With job done he could have sent the B team. But he still fielded a strong side rather than take the risk of Bale doing another Inter Milan etc.
