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2015/16 Football/Soccer thread
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The Dortmund vs Spurs game shows how lucky Spurs has been with them avoiding major injuries to key players all season. One game without Dier, Alli and Kane starting and they were completely out of their depth against European teams (OK, Dortmund is a Champions League standard team so it might be an unfair comparison but Spurs are second in the Premier League right now!). It further highlights the gulf in standard between EPL and the rest of Europe. I'd back Dortmund as favourites for Europa with the La Liga team also being good shouts. No comment on Shaktar since I haven't watched them.
As for our game, it was pleasing to see we got a good result against LvG at last. We always battered them but somehow lost the game but not today. Without World Number 2 Goalkeeper DDG in goal, it could easily have been 5-0. Utd were just that bad. No game plan. When they made a cross into the box, the only one challenging for a header was Mata. Yeah, go figure. Lack of leadership and direction also shows the bad situation at MU; Martial looks tired, he has played a lot of games this season - you guys need to manage him better or he'll be another Michael Owen. Overall, I am pleased but we need to finish the job at Old Trafford.
As for our game, it was pleasing to see we got a good result against LvG at last. We always battered them but somehow lost the game but not today. Without World Number 2 Goalkeeper DDG in goal, it could easily have been 5-0. Utd were just that bad. No game plan. When they made a cross into the box, the only one challenging for a header was Mata. Yeah, go figure. Lack of leadership and direction also shows the bad situation at MU; Martial looks tired, he has played a lot of games this season - you guys need to manage him better or he'll be another Michael Owen. Overall, I am pleased but we need to finish the job at Old Trafford.
People complain and are worried about a european super league, then PSG just win the french league with 8 games remaining by beating up a team 9-0. There has to be a middle ground here
lets not act like this current Barca side wouldn't run through the Premier league just like they have La Liga. PSG, Real Madrid and Bayern would all win it as well obviously not by such a huge margin, possibly throw Dortmund, Juventus and Atlético on that list as well.
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Not really. The mid table teams in La Liga (like Villareal, Sevilla, etc.) are pretty decent as shown by their performance in the Europa League. Its just that the big clubs there are too strong while the big clubs in England are mediocre and underperforming. This is why you have teams like Leicester, Spurs, West Ham being relatively high in the table. This wouldn't happen had clubs like Madrid, Barca, Bayern or PSG are in EPL as they will still be miles ahead of the other teams.
How is the EPL title race even closer that the Bundesliga's? Bayern is leading the league 5 points ahead of Dortmund, just as Leicester is 5 points ahead of the Spurs.
And assuming Dortmund and Bayern would perform as badly as United and Chelsea do we would have the exactly same situation in Germany with Berlin topping the league ahead of Gladbach. But no one would consider that a sign of quality. Other leagues also have overperfmoning teams like Berlin in Germany or Villarreal in Spain. Those teams just can't make more than a top 4 finish, not because Leicester is so much better than Berlin or Villarreal are, but because the actual top teams in those leagues are not underperforming.
Also I doubt that the english top teams will continue underperforming and we will see a similiar situation in England in the future and english teams back in the competition for the CL trophy.
Also regarding PSG's 9-0 trashing against Troyes: Troyes is just way too bad for the french first league, this is probably by far the wrost team in a european top 5 league lol
And assuming Dortmund and Bayern would perform as badly as United and Chelsea do we would have the exactly same situation in Germany with Berlin topping the league ahead of Gladbach. But no one would consider that a sign of quality. Other leagues also have overperfmoning teams like Berlin in Germany or Villarreal in Spain. Those teams just can't make more than a top 4 finish, not because Leicester is so much better than Berlin or Villarreal are, but because the actual top teams in those leagues are not underperforming.
Also I doubt that the english top teams will continue underperforming and we will see a similiar situation in England in the future and english teams back in the competition for the CL trophy.
Also regarding PSG's 9-0 trashing against Troyes: Troyes is just way too bad for the french first league, this is probably by far the wrost team in a european top 5 league lol
The reason champions league is so huge for some of these clubs is because its actually an even playing field competition. A league with these teams wouldn't be the worst thing, if they didnt cut off the possibility of these domestic clubs getting into the leagues. Like a first and second league in europe with promotion and relegation and then if you are the lowest team from your country in the second european league, you would get relegated to domestic league and the top team from that league would go into the european league. It could be done way better, but at least the league format would be interesting again instead of waiting early december to february/march for a good game between top sides
I don't think that's a good idea because most of the smaller clubs depend on the money gained by publicity when playing a big club to stay afloat. If they formed a so-called elite league, then interest in domestic matches will plummet so smaller clubs like Exeter City and MK Dons will suffer because not much people will be watching their games (and they have no TV coverage).
The easiest way to decide which clubs would compete in such a league would be to just use the Uefa Team Coefficient which is also used for seeding in the CL and EL.
Assuming the top 20 clubs would join such a league that would include:
Obviously this wouldn't be used and soft factors like tradition and marketing would be used too, maybe also a limit of teams per country would be taken into account. And - considering the integrity of the Uefa - corruption might be a huge factor lol
Still I don't think that the english teams have any intereset in leaving the Premier League, but this might become a thing for the continental european teams. There are just too few teams in the Italian, French, German and even Spanish league competing for the title and adding the pressure that comes from the new PL TV Deal this might become a thing for them in the future.
Assuming the top 20 clubs would join such a league that would include:
Real Madrid
FC Barcelona
FC Bayern
FC Chelsea
Atletico Madrid
Benfica Lissabon
Paris St. Germain
Juventus Turin
Borussia Dortmund
FC Arsenal
FC Schalke 04
Valencia CF
Zenit St. Petersburg
FC Porto
Manchester City
Napoli
FC Basel
Bayer Leverkusen
FC Sevilla
Manchester United
FC Barcelona
FC Bayern
FC Chelsea
Atletico Madrid
Benfica Lissabon
Paris St. Germain
Juventus Turin
Borussia Dortmund
FC Arsenal
FC Schalke 04
Valencia CF
Zenit St. Petersburg
FC Porto
Manchester City
Napoli
FC Basel
Bayer Leverkusen
FC Sevilla
Manchester United
Obviously this wouldn't be used and soft factors like tradition and marketing would be used too, maybe also a limit of teams per country would be taken into account. And - considering the integrity of the Uefa - corruption might be a huge factor lol
Still I don't think that the english teams have any intereset in leaving the Premier League, but this might become a thing for the continental european teams. There are just too few teams in the Italian, French, German and even Spanish league competing for the title and adding the pressure that comes from the new PL TV Deal this might become a thing for them in the future.
Why would Liverpool be in their? I never said they would be in the top league. Maybe second league where the europa league teams are in but I never said they would get into the top league based on tradition.
Domestic cups would still be a thing. You might get 3 or 4 cup competitions per country which could match up smaller teams with larger teams. But the low level teams don't get any team watching them anyways.
I think the bigger thing is playing 210 minutes and still have a draw, step up for penalties and having that go 8-7. How agonizing must that be
This is a beautiful article about Leicester and how excited everyone is about how close they are of achieving sporting legend.
It is also why I must agree with mandelrey and others that while the whole Super League thingy is very exciting, you cannot just go around and make it closed (relegation and promotions are a must) or choose based on recent success (Milan and Ajax along with Benfica and Liverpool had Europe like their bitches for long stretches of time).
The fact that an American is spearheading the project is making everyone very worried, the thing is just don't dismiss the idea outright, make it your own.
It is also why I must agree with mandelrey and others that while the whole Super League thingy is very exciting, you cannot just go around and make it closed (relegation and promotions are a must) or choose based on recent success (Milan and Ajax along with Benfica and Liverpool had Europe like their bitches for long stretches of time).
The fact that an American is spearheading the project is making everyone very worried, the thing is just don't dismiss the idea outright, make it your own.
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If they make the super league with 2 separate leagues and find a way to open it so that teams can enter and leave depending on their success domestically and in the super league, then it should work out well
http://www.theguardian.com/football...-leicester-relevent-sports-charlie-stillitano
interesting article with interview with the american who wants the super league created, he sounds like a bit of a prick imo. super league just seems like a bad idea, all it will do is increase the wealth gap between top teams and other teams and creates a safety net for teams like man united and chelsea who underperform in a season. if they underperform then they should pay the price of not qualifying for the champions league
interesting article with interview with the american who wants the super league created, he sounds like a bit of a prick imo. super league just seems like a bad idea, all it will do is increase the wealth gap between top teams and other teams and creates a safety net for teams like man united and chelsea who underperform in a season. if they underperform then they should pay the price of not qualifying for the champions league
If you bring relegation out of the super league and force teams back into the domestic leagues for under performing then the super league isn't a bad idea. That Juventus Bayern round of 16 match, who wouldnt want to see a clash like that every weekend?
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