24 Sep 2022 14:47:25
Anyone watch ghana vs Brazil. Scary how good this brazil team is and just so much talent all over the pitch and the bench is so so deep. Must be a difficult job who to pick for doha and who starts. Brilliant to watch.
24 Sep 2022 20:39:15
Big squad full of talent. Hope them or Argentina win wc.
24 Sep 2022 22:38:12
Guess that Alex Telles isn’t too bad if he starts for the world champion elects.
25 Sep 2022 08:41:51
Spenno, Telles looked great in Portugal and has been decent in Spain so far. But he was poor in the more demanding EPL.
International football is in my opinion a step down from the EPL standard.
Case in point Fred looks good for Brazil and still flatters to deceive in the EPL under his 4th manager at United.
International football suffers from two main issues. The first being the restrictions of who you can play. If the best LB you can call up is league 1 standard then you will be fielding at least one substandard player. Whereas as club football doesn't have this limitation, if a player isn't up to standard you replace him and you have a much wider pool of talent to pick from.
The second issue is the limited amount of time they get to train together. International sides might only have 8 weeks of training together a year on average. Even then because of the fragmented nature of when they get to train the squad might be very different each time depending on form and injuries.
It's no surprise that the best, most complete performances at international level often come when a national side is made up of 5-6 players from the same club side. Players who train together every week and know each others game inside and out.
For these reasons I rarely put much stock in a players international performances. Playing against disjointed opposition, often made up of players who aren't at the same standard as the EPL, along with the chance they could just be hitting a purple patch of form means it's hard to really understand how good a player really is just off of their international performances often in one tournament.
Kleberson was integral to an excellent world cup winning Brazil side. But at Old Trafford his performances were more suited to a side battling relegation rather than fighting for titles.
25 Sep 2022 08:58:12
Kleberson won a wc I'm not sure what your point is.
Telles is a good football player. Not ideally suited to epl.
25 Sep 2022 09:31:46
They are a great watch and my pick to win it with a lot of ease. They can put 7/ 8/ 10 goals away against teams on the right night.
25 Sep 2022 13:26:37
Ken, I thought the point was fairly obvious.
Players who aren't good enough to put in consistently good performances in the EPL have been able to win major international honours.
Thus it's a bad idea judging players on their international performances.
25 Sep 2022 15:43:12
No shappy it's a bad idea to judge players solely on their epl performances.
There is a lot more to football than the epl.
The epl is not all that and it's not standard bearer for a footballing players ability.
25 Sep 2022 15:51:35
Has Telles been decent this season? The games I’ve seen him he’s been terrible.
25 Sep 2022 17:28:38
Ken, currently I'd consider the EPL the top league in Europe if not the world. I'd say the standard of the league is greater than any other league.
Certainly driven by the wealth the EPL has. This summer alone the EPL spent more money that Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 combined.
Teams that finish in the bottom half of the EPL still make the top 20 wealthiest teams in the world.
Obviously money isn't the be all and end all. But that sort of income allows many sides to bring in the best talent from around the world.
25 Sep 2022 18:25:46
I prefer football in most other leagues.
The epl is played at an intensity that means technique plays second fiddle to pace power and strength.
Outside the top 6 clubs in epl the rest don't usually compete in the European comps where the 2nd tier Spanish and German teams dominate the epl teams f I r trophy wins, and the epl sides don't dominate any of the European comps.
Sure it's the wealthiest league but it's not a league to judge the best players and its not a place to judge whether a player is good or not.
Lots of really good players proven internationally and in other European leagues as great players fail in the epl.
Epl football is like another sport to play compared to most other leagues.
All the best English players typically play in the epl yet they can't win a tournament for England as they are exposed technically time and time again by players from all over world that play in all those inferior leagues.
It may be more exciting but that does not mean the football is better.
26 Sep 2022 07:56:36
Because players have so little time to work together at International levels, they need to know their roles and structure quickly; so those teams that have this (plus talented players who want to put a shift in for their country) tend to do well.
26 Sep 2022 08:39:37
shappy- I went to school with a guy who is a multi millionaire- been divorced 4 times, has no proper freinds and keeps on getting a smack in the teeth because he is a knobhead- money doesn't make things better.
26 Sep 2022 09:48:18
How many times has the epl dominated the worlds best player list.
Never is answer.
Never.
The best players according to the coaches and players all over world play in other leagues.
But of course you know better than everybody employed in football.
26 Sep 2022 10:38:15
Ken, I watch a lot of football from other European leagues, many games are enjoyable and each league has a different style/ feel to it.
Ultimately football for fans is a source of entertainment, so in that regard the most entertaining league will be considered the best.
I disagree that technique plays second fiddle in the EPL. For a start to be able to play a highly intense, fast paced style requires great technique. Both in terms of attack and in defence.
Like anything in life doing a task slowly doesn't require as much skill and technique as doing the same task at a greater speed.
English players historically may have lacked some technique compared to others, but I don't think that gap is as big as it used to be.
For me the two things that hold back the English national side are both mental aspects of the game. English players lack confidence and are mentally fragile. Being superstitious and believing they are destined to fail. That is more a part of the wider English culture, with many fans feeling the same way. The second issue is that our managers tend to be tactically naive, and slow to read the game and react.
English club sides in Europe I feel have typically struggled for two main reasons. The first is that they have to adjust their style of play in European competitions as the intensity just isn't permitted. If you played a UCL or Europa league game as you would an EPL game you'd probably end every match with 10 men at most.
The second issue is that the pace and demands of the EPL along with not having a winter break means players from EPL clubs have less left in the tank come the latter stages of European competitions.
As for your argument of "worlds best player lists". Firstly these are more about popularity than a actual measure of ability.
Secondly, if Fred played in League 1 he'd look world class. The same logic can be transferred to players playing in other European leagues. How good you look is relative to how good the competition you are up against.
You're a tidy Golfer, and against rank amateurs you'd probably look like a great player, clearly the best player on the course.
Do you think you'd look the same if you were playing on the PGA tour?
Players like Diego Forlan, Freddie Konute and Sebastian Haller looked like average players at best in the EPL.
Yet all went on to win golden boots in other leagues.
This is a pattern consistently repeated, where players leaving the EPL look significantly better in other leagues, while often players performances drop when moving in to the EPL from other leagues.
You see it all the time.
You take any side that finishes 7th or 8th in the EPL and you put them in any of the other top European leagues and they would finish in the top four pretty much guaranteed.
26 Sep 2022 10:50:27
Funky, I'm not suggesting money is the solution to all life's problem. I am well aware of the pitfalls of money.
I was speaking entirely in the context of a football clubs ability to bring in the best players. More often than not the best players go to the club that can pay the most money and the highest wages.
Nottingham Forest spent 150m this summer, and will probably still be relegated. Whereas teams that finished in UCL places in other leagues have had to sell some of their best players to balance the books.
Money if football of course makes a difference. I'm sure you'd be crying out in fury if the Glazers restricted our spending in the summer to 20m.
Which is more the point I'm making. The recent global issues have hit most clubs around Europe but has just further widened the gap between the EPL clubs and the rest of Europe in terms of spending power.
26 Sep 2022 12:36:42
If you think wolves would finish top 4 in la liga shappy I'd think you need taking away by men in white coats.
If any epl team wasplaying in la liga they would have la liga money.
You are not making any sense except in your own head.
26 Sep 2022 13:33:57
Ken, Wolves finished 10th and not 7th or 8th.
Obviously I was talking about and EPL team with EPL money playing in a league like La Liga, the Bundesliga, Lique 1 or Serie A.
Which is kind of the whole point of the argument. EPL teams have a better standard of player on average across the league BECAUSE they have more money and are able to bring in the best.
Take Wolves for example, they signed Matheus Nunes this summer, a top young talent watched by many sides around Europe. Many sides that have either EL or UCL football to offer. Yet none could match the £42m or 47m euros that Wolves offered for him.
That's the buying power of the EPL and why the EPL has the strongest and most competitive league.
It's a simple logic so surely you must understand.
The team with the better players typically are the better team. In order to buy the best players you need money. Therefore the teams with the most money will typically be able to buy the better players and thus be the better team.
Not an exact rule, as there are always exceptions, but typically that rule holds up the majority of the time.
26 Sep 2022 14:05:07
Shappy, what colour is the sky again lol? :D.
26 Sep 2022 22:05:07
I think the EPL is the best league,
I think Man City are the best team in the world right now.
As for international football, England right now have serious defensive problems, and I think that our issues at CB affect how Sputhgate plays, I just don't think he trusts them at all to play a more attacking game and from everything I have seen he's probably right, whilst everyone eamts him to go hung ho, I would not trust his back 5 if I were him. I wonder if he just doesn't think the CB are good enough to play TAA, he would be o e of the first names on the teamsheet for me.
I expect us in the World Cup in the knockout stage to basically start hard, pressing high look to grab an early goal and then using our speed up top to try and counter.
Brazil have beaten a lot of second rate teams of late over the last few years and then lose to Argentina 1-0.
I haven't been that impressed with what I have seen, I think Argentina will be there or thereabouts come the final.
France for me have key players ageing, Belgium are basically Spurs, Germany isn't strong right now.
I think an African side in the heat might do very well, maybe Senegal
, outside of England I would like to see an African side win, I think it would be great for the sport as a hole.
27 Sep 2022 09:10:16
England have lots of solid options at rightback, I think it might be a disservice to Reece James to assume TAA should be starting.
27 Sep 2022 10:51:04
Oakbark, I think like most years the world cup is fairly open and hard to predict.
Germany, Belgium, Argentina, Brazil and France will all be there or there abouts most likely.
However there are three nations I think you might have overlooked.
Spain with Luis Enrique have a strong squad with arguably the best manager. Several top keepers, solid defenders, fantastic midfielders maybe lacking a top striker.
Then there are the Netherlands, really solid defence, great midfielders and some really good young attackers. LvG as their manager seems to be the only thing that might hold them back as he has a tendency to be a little too conservative at times.
However my pick would be Portugal, they have absolutely ridiculous squad depth in pretty much all areas.
Keepers: Patricio, Sa, Lopes and Costa
Defence: Cancelo, Dias, Pereira, Mendes, Dalot, Pepe, Rui, Guerriro, Semedo, Fonte, Carmo, Inacio and Cedric.
Midfield: Carvalho, Neves, Bruno, Moutinho, Palhinha, Sanches, Nunes and Vitinha.
Forwards: Ronaldo, Bernardo, Felix, Andre Silva, Jota, Leao, Pedro Neto, Ramos, Guedes, Trincao, Podence and Paulinho.
They could probably name three teams of 11 that would all stand a good chance of making it to the semi-finals. When your third choice 11 are that good then you stand a great chance of being able to win any tournament.
27 Sep 2022 11:45:46
Portugal do look strong. Very young squad with great depth.
Not convinced the likes of Holland or Belgium will go all the way any time soon. Just lacking that killer instinct in my opinion.
I would be surprised if a European side went all the way. I expect it to be one of the South American countries.
As for England, on present form, I imagine another fall-out similar to what happened with Hodgson / Iceland costing Southgate his job. We'll scrape through with one win and a draw and tumble to a weak team.
27 Sep 2022 12:51:04
Did Portugal not just scrape through qualifying with that squad?
I will be interesting to see which league all the winning players play in.
27 Sep 2022 12:21:04
Shappy, I understand results.
Teams that finish below top 4 in Europe all play in same tournament.
The epl teams don't do as well as the other teams because they are not as good a winning football matches. Ergo they are better teams.
27 Sep 2022 12:41:23
The Dutch might be the surprise team of the tournament. The rest of the pack England, Belgium, Argentina, Spain, Portugal will advance to make up the numbers.
Brazil to win it all.
28 Sep 2022 07:48:25
I can’t see England doing much unless Southgate tells them they are 2 nil down at the start and to be more expansive, chase the game. OGS (Ole Gunnar Southgate in this instance) is a don’t lose first and build from there attrition merchant, World Cup winners need more. There can’t be a tired after long season excuse, so the timing is definitely to our advantage, can OGS grasp it? His Fear of losing needs to be overcome.
LvG may take the Dutch to the Semi finals. Winners, you can almost see the Messi or Ronaldo swan song story coming out.
28 Sep 2022 08:21:00
Growing up circa 88 I was nuts about the Dutch team. I had that cool patterned orange shirt that you were never allowed to wear in crappy 5 a side games as it clashed with the bibs :D
They have a handful of very good, even great players at the minute, but I don't see too much up top in terms of a lethal match-winning striker. Gapko? Jury still out, who knows. Depay? Even Maguire can take him.