Football League Comparison Thread

[Ted Lasso]

so i am bringing this thread back up. To me, these discussions never get old and opinions change every few months or so.

The FIFA XI was announced...with much criticism as usual. but theres hardly anyone complaining that any EPL players should be there.

I know that a league is not based solely upon the top two teams, but it doesn't seem that the likes of City/Arsenal/Chelsea can be considered better than Real/Barca/Atletico..or Dortmund/Bayern...in any way. I think this year's Villareal and Athletic are better than Everton and Tottenham (and United )
England is where the money is at but now it seems the world's best players are just as likely to go to France than the EPL.

With that being said, despite being in lesser leagues: Galatasaray are the best...followed by Juve who are obviously inferior to Gala and only Gala.

Many of the Premier League's chief candidates (such as Van Persie, Rooney, Aguero, Suarez, Kompany, etc) didn't turn in thorough years. Yaya Toure could/should have been included, but he's the only one i can think of.

Also, English clubs had a very, very poor showing in the Champions League last season and considering how much people value team success in determining individual awards - ridiculous as that is, in general - what's happened is no surprise.

[5DOM]

First of all, I think this FIFPro World XI is a joke. Some of the Barca and Real players should not have been there, and I heard Casillas made the second team smh. IMO it would have been a better team if the entire XI was made up of Bayern players. That said, PL teams and players didn't turn up, so I think it's fair no one made the team. Bale probably could have made it, but he's now a La Liga player ofc.

I think City can definitely play with any team in the world, but Bayern are clearly the strongest side at the moment. We'll see how City fare against Barcelona in a month. Dortmund? They are 4th in their league, 5 points behind Leverkusen, so I wouldn't include them here. They need more depth. Bundesliga also got destroyed by PL in CL, and second-placed Leverkusen are perhaps the only side United managed to look good against this whole season. Same thing with Chelsea and Schalke. Comfortable for 180 minutes.

I haven't seen much of Athletic and Villareal, so I can't really comment on them, but I have enough confidence in Liverpool, Everton, Tottenham and United.

I do agree about the best players not being in PL though. It's worsened by big clubs refusing to sell each other.

[magik9113]

Dortmund did finish first in Arsenal's group. I've seen a handful of Villareal games and they surprised me every time, but they still are 14 pts behind Real Madrid. I am a huge fan Gio Dos Santos, Uche, and Cani though.
and I know the FIFA team is a joke, my post was really just an attempt at sparking some debates

[Ted Lasso]

Dortmund did finish first in Arsenal's group.

They were also 3 minutes away from getting knocked out of the Champions League, which is a wonderful example of why this sort of thing shouldn't hinge on team success.

[magik9113]

and it was a fortunate victory too...but a win is a win....just ask Juve and Napoli

[Effercon]

Putting together a list of the top 10 leagues in the world might be a good challenge.

1) Premier League - England
2) La Liga - Spain
3) Bundesliga - Germany
4) Serie A - Italy
5) Ligue 1 - France
6) Eredivisie - Netherlands
7) Campeonato Brasileiro Série A - Brazil
8) Süper Lig - Turkey
9) Premier League - Russia
10) Primera Division - Mexico

#nope (in my opinion)

1) Bundesliga - Germany
2) Premier League - England
3) La Liga - Spain
4) Ligue 1 - France
5) Serie A - Italy
6) Campeonato Brasileiro Série A - Brazil
7) Süper Lig - Turkey
8) Primeira Liga - Portugal
9) Premier League - Russia
10) Eredivisie - Netherlands

[Ted Lasso]

Just noticed something interesting. In statistics compiled from Europe's top five leagues, the category of Aerial duels won per game is led by 12(!) German teams. 17 of the league's 18 teams rank in the top 21, with Bayern and their passing ways coming in at number 33. I suppose teams play the ball off the ground so often that even Bayern have to participate in duels to some degree.

England are led by the three teams anyone would have predicted; Stoke, Crystal Palace, and West Ham. And yet betwixt the German headballers, they can only rank 13th, 18th, and 26th, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Spanish, the Italians, and the French appear to be equally uninterested in playing the ball off the ground.

[Foye]

Just noticed something interesting. In statistics compiled from Europe's top five leagues, the category of Aerial duels won per game is led by 12(!) German teams. 17 of the league's 18 teams rank in the top 21, with Bayern and their passing ways coming in at number 33. I suppose teams play the ball off the ground so often that even Bayern have to participate in duels to some degree.

England are led by the three teams anyone would have predicted; Stoke, Crystal Palace, and West Ham. And yet betwixt the German headballers, they can only rank 13th, 18th, and 26th, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Spanish, the Italians, and the French appear to be equally uninterested in playing the ball off the ground.

I would be interested in that statistic. Would be nice if you could provide me with a link.
I figure a huge part of this can be explained by BL coaches approach to basically cross every free kick (in the opposing half) towards the opposing penalty area. It's not a pretty tactic but an easy opportunity to get a shot on goal if the free kick is taken well.

[Ted Lasso]

Just noticed something interesting. In statistics compiled from Europe's top five leagues, the category of Aerial duels won per game is led by 12(!) German teams. 17 of the league's 18 teams rank in the top 21, with Bayern and their passing ways coming in at number 33. I suppose teams play the ball off the ground so often that even Bayern have to participate in duels to some degree.

England are led by the three teams anyone would have predicted; Stoke, Crystal Palace, and West Ham. And yet betwixt the German headballers, they can only rank 13th, 18th, and 26th, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Spanish, the Italians, and the French appear to be equally uninterested in playing the ball off the ground.

I would be interested in that statistic. Would be nice if you could provide me with a link.
I figure a huge part of this can be explained by BL coaches approach to basically cross every free kick (in the opposing half) towards the opposing penalty area. It's not a pretty tactic but an easy opportunity to get a shot on goal if the free kick is taken well.

http://www.whoscored.com/Statistics

[Foye]

http://www.whoscored.com/Statistics

Bundesliga teams also lead the category dribbles per game by miles.

Either the tempo/intensity is higher (which doesn't have to be a sign of better quality btw.) or these statistics are recorded differently.

I could imagine that Bundesliga counts every successful header as an aerial duel won and maybe Ligue 1 only count headers when there are actually two guys involved.

[Ted Lasso]

I was inspired by the We are half of Europe! article on Marca to do something for **** and giggles.

http://www.marca.com/2014/04/10/futbol/1397165800.html

- Past five CL and EL seasons
- 2 points to a country for every CL semi-final participant
- 1 point to a country for every EL semi-final participant

Code: Select all

Spain      25
Germany    13
England     9
Portugal    6
Italy       3
France      2
Switzerland 1
Turkey      1

The results are pretty damning for England and Italy.

[magik9113]

Italy is at the bottom, so there is only up from here.

For the past couple of years I have had no trouble admitting they are inferior to the other top 3 leagues, but next year things change

[No_20]

The best players play in Spain.

[Doormatt]

Italy is at the bottom, so there is only up from here.

For the past couple of years I have had no trouble admitting they are inferior to the other top 3 leagues, but next year things change

And thankfully for Italy it has everything to do with infrastructure, which can be easily changed. New stadiums, new owners, and new financial policies are already being introduced for a lot of top team and mid tier Italian teams. Italy still produces quality players and quality teams despite being far behind the other leagues financially, which is a really good sign imo. Once the money starts flowing again Italy will be back on top, cuz top players will have a desire to play there.

[Doormatt]

The best players play in Spain.

...no. Just no. The two best players in the world play in Spain, but the top talent in the world is dispersed throughout Spain, Germany and England.

[cgf]

Putting together a list of the top 10 leagues in the world might be a good challenge.

1) Premier League - England
2) La Liga - Spain
3) Bundesliga - Germany
4) Serie A - Italy
5) Ligue 1 - France
6) Eredivisie - Netherlands
7) Campeonato Brasileiro Série A - Brazil
8) Süper Lig - Turkey
9) Premier League - Russia
10) Primera Division - Mexico

#nope (in my opinion)

1) Bundesliga - Germany
2) Premier League - England
3) La Liga - Spain
4) Ligue 1 - France
5) Serie A - Italy
6) Campeonato Brasileiro Série A - Brazil
7) Süper Lig - Turkey
8) Primeira Liga - Portugal
9) Premier League - Russia
10) Eredivisie - Netherlands

lol wut? The Brazilian league over the portuguese league, russian league or even the turkish/dutch leagues? What? That's crazier than putting spain in third or the french league over the Italians.

Just noticed something interesting. In statistics compiled from Europe's top five leagues, the category of Aerial duels won per game is led by 12(!) German teams. 17 of the league's 18 teams rank in the top 21, with Bayern and their passing ways coming in at number 33. I suppose teams play the ball off the ground so often that even Bayern have to participate in duels to some degree.

England are led by the three teams anyone would have predicted; Stoke, Crystal Palace, and West Ham. And yet betwixt the German headballers, they can only rank 13th, 18th, and 26th, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Spanish, the Italians, and the French appear to be equally uninterested in playing the ball off the ground.

You see a lot of long diagonal balls hit from the many gifted long passers in the BuLi to send wingers into space on the break. Plus a lot of side that do play possession switch flanks multiple times in an attack. But I doubt that has such a profound effect. Foye's explanation about the different way of counting seems the most reasonable explanation.

[Man of Steel]

Spain continues to develop some of the best footballing talents, but it's not an exclusive thing- Germany are doing just as good of a job, while there are a lot of high profile players in England and Italy as well. Like Doormatt said, the majority of the top 20-30 players in the world are spread out amongst Spain, Germany, and England (imho at least a couple still play in Italy).

If Spain is underrated for anything, it's the quality of the coaching; Guys like Simeone, Bielsa, Emery, Luis Enrique, and Arrasate all do fantastic jobs. The main problem is in the upper management of a lot of Spanish clubs. Hell, just a few days ago the ex-President of Valencia was charged with kidnapping his successor. Can't make that **** up.

[Doormatt]

really sad that valencia are in so much debt, really love that city, its where my dad went to university. also that villa/silva team was one of my favorites of the mid decade. david villa and torres were probably my two favorite non Serie A players at that time.

[DD12]

Spanish League has the most talent for sure. Then Premier League.

Also, Man of Steel has a good point about coaches. Emery, Bielsa, Simeone, Ancelotti are great coaches.

[Ted Lasso]

Spain continues to develop some of the best footballing talents, but it's not an exclusive thing- Germany are doing just as good of a job, while there are a lot of high profile players in England and Italy as well. Like Doormatt said, the majority of the top 20-30 players in the world are spread out amongst Spain, Germany, and England (imho at least a couple still play in Italy).

If Spain is underrated for anything, it's the quality of the coaching; Guys like Simeone, Bielsa, Emery, Luis Enrique, and Arrasate all do fantastic jobs. The main problem is in the upper management of a lot of Spanish clubs. Hell, just a few days ago the ex-President of Valencia was charged with kidnapping his successor. Can't make that **** up.

I think what's underrated about the Spanish league is the consistent strength of the teams that occupy spots 3-8. I'm pretty sure any of those teams would make light work of Tottenham tomorrow.

I actually disagree about the individual coaches. I can't see how they're being underrated. Luis Enrique and Emery have crashed and burned abroad recently, and Bielsa is a crazy person; akin to a well-informed and inventive scientist who can't actually hold down a non-research job in his field.