Recent content by Demyanenko_square_jaw

  1. Why no High level Indian players?

    It might be the "world's game", but football's a glacially slow moving, borderline entirely stagnant sport for the regions/countries that didn't get seriously into it in the early decades of development and make it a way of life. Since the Dutch of the late 60s/early 70s, no country has got...

  2. The relative strength of the Premier League

    :lol: Wasn't even intentional.

  3. The relative strength of the Premier League

    The championship probably isn't any better than the spanish second tier. There's far too many British players in it for it to be much better.

  4. Henrikh Mkhitaryan

    Mkhitaryan's problem was mainly his confidence issues causing inconsistency, he showed that in every league he played in pre-Italy, but those issues have probably lessened as he's got older and more experienced. I don't think it was about certain leagues being too fast...he had success and bad...

  5. The relative strength of the Premier League

    Teams having a mediocre/bad domestic season yet also managing to do well in Europe is probably almost as old as European club competition itself. Especially with bigger name clubs that still have fear/nerves around playing them regardless of their current quality.

  6. Graham Taylor - England Manager - A Retrospective

    France still had loads of talent through that bad period. It just didn't come together for them.

  7. Match Compilations

    Allofs two goals and a great sliderule assist vs Bayern Not that fast for a wide/roaming forward player, but really smart and elegantly skilled.

  8. Scott McTominay | Napoli

    I don't think this is about Italian vs English league. He's a very specific player and with an ability level that means it would come down to tactics most of the time regarding him being useful enough to be a regular starter/key player no matter where he goes in a top league.

  9. Most unexpected meteoric rises to the top levels in football?

    He was already a recognised excellent talent/player that had been player of the year in France for Bordeaux and that Aime Jacquet had placed his faith in as a key player for the national team. He wasn't a young phenom or dominant league legend in France and had disappointed at Euro 96, so it...

  10. Most unexpected meteoric rises to the top levels in football?

    Good choice. He was a noted talent with great dribbling stats in the rpl, but hardly tearing up the league and was emerging during a time when the standard seemed to be dropping and most teams had gone 2-3 seasons of barely getting a win in europe. From a country perspective, I think...

  11. Weird feelings of football

    They've not had the sort of wealth and stability that would enable them to fullly take advantage of that population, even though the sport is like a religion there. And even more importantly, football's a sport where smaller countries can compete well if they have a similarly strong culture for...

  12. Top 10 greatest players of all time

    Sounds like you just want to downplay the factors that might have made it tougher for creative types, and emphasise the ones that suited them. The overall conditions of '80s football weren't exactly obvious for creative players to thrive to the extent that they did. And quite a lot didn't...

  13. Top 10 greatest players of all time

    The odd thing about the '80s defensiveness and brutality was the amount of good attacking creative players it produced despite that. It wasn't just Maradona/Zico/Platini being way ahead of their time and then a bunch of cloggers and box-to-box types...They were the best overall, but the next...

  14. Top 5 biggest Football clubs in the world.

    It's during this century that the bigger south american clubs have fallen behind. If it was a 20th century list a top fifteen would be much more of a mix.

  15. Top 10 greatest players of all time

    And yet there were always plenty of players in any era with loads of technical ability that failed to look consistently great. I'd say space in 80s games was more chaotic and inconsistent, with larger potential for big gaps and stretched games to appear, but certainly not always abundant...
See more