*Official* English Football Season 2012-13

[Furball]

Michu falls in that box too, but as has been said there are as many successes as failures and much is cultural/style-related as skill-based.

Personally, the Premier League feels like it's the worst it's been since the early-mid 90s. So many top division sides being dumped out of cups by lower divisions (which seem equally poor: witness the amount of everyone-beats-each-other going on in every other tier of the national leagues) and the limp surrender of all our sides in Europe...

There's a complete dearth of genuinely world class talent in the Premier League IMO.

 

[The Sean]

Well, well. Milan have just made things a little more interesting.

 

[Pothas]

Milan 'doing a Chelsea' a hell of a lot more effectively than Chelsea did.

Barcelona really were a bit rubbish though.

 

[Cevno]

Portsmouth 2 Barcelona 0

****ing 75% possession. 1 Shot on goal and no saves from Abbiati.

Lol Barca.

 

[Pothas]

They were rubbish today but they could very easily win 3-0 at home, well actually they always concede so 4-1 then.

 

[Cevno]

https://twitter.com/SimonTorresPike/status/304203739970035713

https://twitter.com/Coral/status/304273961653518337

This guy must hate Barca right now.

All other results he got right.


Edit - Okay Coral are giving him a paid for trip and tickets for the second leg at the Camp Nou, so that's atleast something.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Barcelona
Real Madrid
Bayern Munich
Borussia Dortmund
Manchester United

is the top 5 IMO.

I don't entirely disagree with this list (though I'd definitely have United above Dortmund) but that doesn't really mean they're close, I think the gap from United to Dortmund is significant. Dortmund are a very good team who can't compete on two fronts, which they've proved in both of the last two seasons.

EDIT: I also think Juventus are better than Dortmund overall, when fit and playing decently.

 

[Cevno]

They were rubbish today but they could very easily win 3-0 at home, well actually they always concede so 4-1 then.

If Milan are organized like they were today and defend well, then it certainly won't be easy. They have good pacy runners on the counter too.

 

[Neil Pickup]

League Two feels really weak if I am honest; we have barely managed a settled attacking line-up, our best players are old stagers and/or cast-offs; we can't win at home... and yet we're right in the promotion mix. Teams go double-promo or double-rel on the back of momentum and loan signings (of which there are far too many in some sides).

Conversely players like Lambert, Austin and Le Fondre have made the transition from lower-league to top-level goalscoring fluidly, lots of these sides are turning premiership teams over, and teams are competing with higher level opposition when promoted with several players sticking the course from the lower tiers...

 

[Ikki]

Idiot fans here do love beating the "La Liga only has two teams" drum but they have twice as many teams in the CL last sixteen and generally do much, much better in the Europa League.

I've never seen Freiburg play so I can't have an opinion on that but Schalke are 9th in the Bundesliga and what they did to Arsenal most definitely constitutes a "dicking-on".

In a week's time La Liga could very easily have 1 in both the Champions league and Europa (Levante). I wouldn't say La Liga are a two-team league but they, like the EPL, have dropped in standard IMO.

Bundesliga is the best league in the world right now.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

I'm not exactly an expert, but I'd agree that the standard of the lower leagues is a lot better than it was a decade or so ago. You could say this for football - and probably most sports come to think of it - on the whole, but the general standard of athleticism and fitness strike me as being drastically better than it was around the turn of the century.

I thought upsets by lower division teams in the cup had been on a steady decline since the 1970s? Not a perfect proxy for talent, but a pretty good one...

 

[fredfertang]

I thought upsets by lower division teams in the cup had been on a steady decline since the 1970s? Not a perfect proxy for talent, but a pretty good one...

The "old" upsets were generally caused by the dreadful state of the pitches rather than the talent of the underdogs - nothing like a good old-fashioned quagmire to level things up

 

[Uppercut]

Now they're mostly caused by weakened/indifferent Premiership teams.

 

[Furball]

I don't entirely disagree with this list (though I'd definitely have United above Dortmund) but that doesn't really mean they're close, I think the gap from United to Dortmund is significant. Dortmund are a very good team who can't compete on two fronts, which they've proved in both of the last two seasons.

EDIT: I also think Juventus are better than Dortmund overall, when fit and playing decently.

Other than Barcelona being top there's no real order to it, Real appear 2nd because they pair up with Barcelona.

Don't watch enough Italian football to comment on Juve, they've been good any time I've seen them in the last year but that's usually against lower Serie A sides.

edit: also, when it comes to knockout cup football, I think how good a side can be on their day becomes far more important when ranking the teams. On the evidence of this season, Bayern Munich are a lot better than Dortmund; on their day, Dortmund are better than Bayern.

 

[Uppercut]

Yeah Dortmund have definitely been better in the 'big' games this year. Spread very thin though.

Of those six United could quite possibly have the weakest first XI but the most depth. It probably lends itself more to the league format but it does give us good tactical flexibility for CL away games.

 

[superkingdave]

Re the lower leagues. It's harder for the Lower league clubs now to raise talent, and more pertinently keep it. Anyone who looks very good in the youth teams is likely to get enticed to a bigger club before they get to any age to play in the first team - think guys like Micah Richards, and anyone who slips through the net and has a decent start to their first team career will then get snapped up pretty quickly as well.

On the other hand, in the past there was nowhere near the level of loans there are these days, there aren't many teams in the lower leagues without 2/3 players on loan from a higher division so they get more quality that way, but there is less continuity. The bulk of the players in the lower leagues are journeymen these days as well (in the past you'd see someone score on soccer saturday who used to play for Oldham it would make you notice, nowadays half the league seems to have played for us in the past). The combination of the loans and the journeymen also probably contributes to the level of performance/attitude in cup competitions compared to the league.

 

[Jarquis]

 

[vic_orthdox]

I don't think Brumby will ever click off this page.

 

[sledger]

Some of those can't be genuine, surely.

 

[sledger]

From Facebook:

At least Pistorious and Spurs have one thing in common, times running out on bail..
Oscar Pistorious he shoots who he wants

Shouldn't really laugh...but...