Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi?

[Woodchuck]

Not-so-fun fact: EPL "popularity" is actually just a massive casual circle-jerk following of MU (and more recently oil money). It's not significantly better than most European leagues.

That's the thing, though. It's a cycle: EPL teams get more revenue via TV or whatever, giving them more money to lure better players. "EPL is better" is a self-fulfilling prophecy. And I think it'd be hard to find a more competitive top-flight league from top to bottom.
From what I've heard, EPL has the "best" bad teams (as in, the relegation-zone teams are less bad than those of other leagues) while Bundesliga has the best midtable.

 

[reyscarface]

the distinction to make is what we mean by "best" as best is completely subjective.

to me this is how it is:

the best league is the league with not the most "better lower tier teams" but the one in which the top teams are the best in the world. for this reason la liga is, to me, the best league in the world from a "high level" standpoint

on the other hand i feel what most people here are saying is that the epl is the most COMPETITIVE league, which i agree with. some people relate competitive with being the best though, so to them the epl would be the best league

its just semantics

 

[phalanx]

Bundesliga has the best relegation teams >.> *cough*Dortmund*cough*

 

[destinyunknown]

I do recall latinoheat (who has always struck me as the most knowledgeable and long-serving La Liga fan here) commenting that La Liga was basically 4 or 5 good clubs and then 15 clubs the standard of Sunderland or West Brom (do correct me if I'm mis-remembering, latinoheat).

It hasn't always been like that, and this season (and last season too) there are at least 8 legitimately great teams in La Liga, which are better than the EPL's top8. However, in the period of time between 2008 and 2013, La Liga's level was awful, and there wasn't a single decent team besides Madrid and Barcelona. You couldn't even say there were 4 good clubs, the 3rd one (usually Valencia) was just a mediocre team.

So basically, that description was accurate for the past 5 years, but it's not like that currently (and if you go further in the past it wasn't like that either)

 

[latinoheat]

Its absolutely picked up in quality last couple of seasons. I would still take the bottom 10 of EPL over la liga.

Back to the question would Messi get 40 goals in EPL... No, not his style anymore. Put Ronaldo at Chelsea, City or United neither would he.

Would he get say a combined 40 goals and assists... Yes, though these stats overate players, David Silva and Matic arguably the best players in the league. A half fit Ozil would hit an easy 15 assists he wouldn't break the top 15 imo.

Messi would be the best player in the League.