Is this one of the worst PL seasons in recent times?

[EwanI Ted]

Definitely a very poor league this year, can't believe anyone can think otherwise. Two excellent teams at the top, with Leicester, Wolves and Sheff United at least exceeding expectations. Beyond that its very low quality indeed, lots of underperforming and inconsistent teams and almost every team from 13th place down is easily poor enough to go down.

 

[Bestietom]

No, I'm not talking about Liverpool winning the league after 30 years but it just seems to me that the quality especially at the top end is really low.

Every year we hear about the league reaching new heights but even discounting an expected fall off from City after winning back to back titles, Leicester are a pretty weak 2nd/3rd placed team. And then you have Chelsea and United forming the worst 4th and 5th placed sides I've seen for awhile. I mean, we've got our worst points tally at this stage for ages and we're potentially 3 points off 4th! That's incredible. Then you have Arsenal who are a traditionally good team but awful this year.

What does the caf make of the standard of the league this season? That at the top end and otherwise.

I think a lot of teams ( bar Liverpool ) suffered with some bad injuries this season, which is why Liverpool are running away with the title. If, say they were hit with some bad injuries to Van D and Salah/Mane, I wouldn't think they would have such a big lead. We ran them close last week despite our injuries.

 

[Zlatan 7]

We're still close to the top 4 despite having one of the worst United teams in modern times. That's how bad it is.

Plus, the fact that a Liverpool team with a midfield of Henderson, Wijnaldum and Fabinho could win the Champions League shows that the lack of quality isn't limited to England.

There are no great sides but the scousers will be called one by virtue of being the best of a very mediocre bunch.

This is my feeling too

 

[Daysleeper]

La Liga is boring. Crystal Palace prevented Liverpool in winning the title not so long ago after a comeback SAF wouldn't be ashamed of.

Bigger teams underestimating ultra defensive sides and being absolutely punished for that while small blips of form is what United can't even produce lately.

That was 5 years ago. La Liga often has title races going to the last day of the season, the EPL is just as much of a two horse race (and now one horse race) than any other league.

Barca and Madrid have blown plenty of leads, just because a midtable team did it 5 years ago in the EPL doesn't make La Liga boring.

And Chelsea did just as much to knock Liverpool off with Gerard's slip than Crystal Palace.

 

[matherto]

It has the feel of when Leicester won the league except lacking all of the romance and surprise that made that such a great season.

Liverpool have been magnificent of course so not to take away from their achievements but the other big teams are all having mares by their standards, just like In 2015-16

 

[Van Piorsing]

That was 5 years ago. La Liga often has title races going to the last day of the season, the EPL is just as much of a two horse race (and now one horse race) than any other league.

Barca and Madrid have blown plenty of leads, just because a midtable team did it 5 years ago in the EPL doesn't make La Liga boring.

And Chelsea did just as much to knock Liverpool off with Gerard's slip than Crystal Palace.

Palace made Suarez cry and Gerrard pushing off the camera which he loved to kiss. To this day people comparing that to Terry's breakdown in 2008 final. Palace game was far more a weight for Liverpool than Mourinho's masterpiece.

I see your point, but Barca or Real can play bad and still sustain 2nd place. Do that in EPL and even Europa League can be a distant place.

Standard in English league is still unforgiving in comparison, even with league visibly regressing at the top which I admit.

 

[Gio]

What metrics can we use to compare across leagues? Two obvious ones stand out. First is the UEFA coefficients. The Premier League has topped the European charts in 2017/18, 2018/19 and leads the current season. In May all 4 European club competition finalists were English which suggests the league is in a strong place. Second would be the financial resources available to clubs. The Premier League clearly commands the greatest shares of TV revenues and that sustained investment over many years increases the quality of its players.

I wouldn't confuse the anti-climax of no title race with the quality of the league. That is simply about Liverpool hitting unprecedented levels of consistency and City having a dip. The same scenario played out in 1999/00 and 2004-06 and the league was pretty bloody strong in those seasons as well.

One point I would add though is it doesn't appear the managerial quality is quite as high as it was 18 months ago when Guardiola, Klopp, Pochettino, Mourinho, Emery, Conte/Sarri were all in charge of the top clubs. There's been a slight dip there as we gamble into the next generation.

 

[Daysleeper]

Palace made Suarez cry and Gerrard pushing off the camera which he loved to kiss. To this day people comparing that to Terry's breakdown in 2008 final. Palace game was far more a weight for Liverpool than Mourinho's masterpiece.

I see your point, but Barca or Real can play bad and still sustain 2nd place. Do that in EPL and even Europa League can be a distant place.

Standard in English league is still unforgiving in comparison, even with league visibly regressing at the top which I admit.

And atletico beat Barca on the final day of the 2014 to win the league that season despite having 15% of the Financial squad value Barca had. And this was in a league that had the two greatest players of all time.

Madrid played bad in 2018 and only finished 3 points ahead of fourth place Valencia with a dire 76 points.

Epl is turning into the new la liga. City and Liverpool will continue to be a two horse
Race for the next 2-3 years. This is poorest point total for a united squad at this point of the season of the past ten years, had a month where they only scored two goals (one from a penalty) and yet are
Only 6 points back of a CL spot.

This is a very dire era of the EPL as a whole, even if Liverpool and city are some of the better teams of the past ten years. The rest of the league is very overrated.

 

[nore1975]

It's not a shit standard of PL it's just the top teams are all in transition (bar City and Liverpool).

Most rationale United fans understood this season was all part of the process to clear out previous signings, develop and promote a young squad, reduce the wage bill and move on some older players. With regards to league position the goal had to be top 4 but realistically we were underdogs for it. Liverpool, City and Spurs were all nailed on leaving United fighting for one spot. As it stands we've dropped plenty of points this season at places we shouldn't have (and at home) yet we are still in the conversation for top 4 and ahead of both Spurs and Arsenal who before the start of the season most would have put ahead of us.

If United had a fit Pogba (he's basically missed the whole season) and Mctominay, I think we'd be knocking on the door for 3rd. We really shouldn't be. That says it all.

Pogba wants out and has had an injury interrupted season. The question needs to be asked whether Ole should have bought a creative midfielder in lieu of Maguire and used Smalling as centre back? Maguire isn’t bad but he will never be Van Dijk. United overpaid by 30 million in my opinion

 

[matherto]

And atletico beat Barca on the final day of the 2014 to win the league that season despite having 15% of the Financial squad value Barca had. And this was in a league that had the two greatest players of all time.

Madrid played bad in 2018 and only finished 3 points ahead of fourth place Valencia with a dire 76 points.

Epl is turning into the new la liga. City and Liverpool will continue to be a two horse
Race for the next 2-3 years. This is poorest point total for a united squad at this point of the season of the past ten years, had a month where they only scored two goals (one from a penalty) and yet are
Only 6 points back of a CL spot.

This is a very dire era of the EPL as a whole, even if Liverpool and city are some of the better teams of the past ten years. The rest of the league is very overrated.

It's pretty much always been a two horse race when there has been an actual race..

United vs one of Aston Villa, Blackburn, Newcastle, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool or City
Liverpool v City
Leicester v Spurs (and Poch fecked that up and came third)

Every other year one team has run away with it.

 

[Van Piorsing]

And atletico beat Barca on the final day of the 2014 season despite having 15% of the Financial squad value Barca had.

Madrid played bad in 2018 and only finished 3 points ahead of fourth place Valencia with a dire 76 points.

Epl is turning into the new la liga. City and Liverpool will continue to be a two horse
Race for the next 2-3 years. This is poorest point total for a united squad at this point of the season of the past ten years, had a month where they only scored two goals (one from a penalty) and yet are
Only 6 points back of a CL spot.

This is a very dire era of the EPL as a whole, even if Liverpool and city are some of the better teams of the past ten years. The rest of the league is very overrated.

EPL is far more demanding physically, more matches, more competitions while La Liga looks overrated here with Liverpool about to dominate the Champions League. No such thing as dire era for EPL incoming if team Leicester can win the league and despite losing it's players can still be close to City which is still power and can spend even more than usually if they'll feel need to.

Pool setting a high league standard which Chelsea, United and maybe Spurs can follow and take back the title, I doubt someone will dethrone Real and Barca from their title winning runs anytime soon. La Liga is boring.

 

[Daysleeper]

EPL is far more demanding physically, more matches, more competitions while La Liga looks overrated here with Liverpool about to dominate the Champions League. No such thing as dire era for EPL incoming if team Leicester can win the league and despite losing it's players can still be close to City which is still power and can spend even more than usually if they'll feel need to.

Pool setting a high league standard which Chelsea, United and maybe Spurs can follow and take back the title, I doubt someone will dethrone Real and Barca from their title winning runs anytime soon. La Liga is boring.

Chelsea, United and Spurs are FAR from taking the title. This is the worst Tottenham and United team in years. United and Tottenham need a LOT of work and hardly anyone of note wants to play for those teams right now.

This Leicester side is far from anything special and still managed to be third despite coming back down to earth lately. Pool and City will dominate the league for years to come. Leicester is only "close" to city because city have been wrecked with injuries. As the season progresses City will have a 15+ point gap on Leicester. And again, this with key injuries to Laporte and Aguero.

It is absolutely a dire era for the EPL and has been for quite some time. The year Leicester won the league (which was an amazing achievement) was still probably the weakest year of the EPL by a wide margin.

La Liga is far more advanced technically than the EPL, and was why La Liga was dominating the CL for most of the past ten years while the EPL was stuck in mediocrity in CL for most of the decade only picking the pace back up recently. EPL teams were gotten knocked out very early for several years because they didn't have the technical ability to punish the other teams in europe consistently.

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

Don't think so. Just because Liverpool are too bloody good doesn't make the league bad.
I think the top was stronger last year though apart from Liverpool who are as strong as then.
Although last year we had a PL champions league final and PL europa league final so that could be seen as the best season ever for PL sides.
Under LVGs years the league was very weak I feel near the top. Leicester did well to win it, but all sides failed in europe. A big part why Leicester won it was due to all the big sides struggling.
Chelsea under Mourinhos last win was not that great even when they won it although they deserved to win it. Hazard made all the magic and they mostly played boring football apart from that.

I don't think the bottom sides played better in the past. I enjoyed watching Pulis and big Sam teams once or twice per season against say Arsenal or Pool, but noone wanted to watch them every week.
I think sides like Wolves and Sheffield plays really well and deserves credit for it, but few gives them that.

For me this is one of the better PL seasons I can remember to be honest. With that said I enjoyed it more when we dominated, but that didn't make the rest of the league better than it is now.

 

[Stocar]

Barca and Madrid have consistently had the best squads in world football for a decade. That's why they managed to accumulate all those European titles, and why they win the league while on autopilot. Not because La Liga is weak. Bayern had their period of excellence, City have played sublime football in the last couple of seasons, and Juventus have some kind of sorcery going on for multiple years, which Liverpool managed to replicate recently. But none of these teams ever had the combination of squad quality and depth that those two teams consistently have.

 

[TheReligion]

Pogba wants out and has had an injury interrupted season. The question needs to be asked whether Ole should have bought a creative midfielder in lieu of Maguire and used Smalling as centre back? Maguire isn’t bad but he will never be Van Dijk. United overpaid by 30 million in my opinion

I assume your asking me about how Ole has done? Well as I say arguably our three most important players are injured. Pogba, Mctominay and Rashford. Imagine no VVD, Salah and Mane or City without Aguero, KDB and Sterling etc..

That aside though he's cleared Smalling, Darmian, Young, Valencia, Fellaini, Sanchez, Lukaku, Blind from the squad to date with Rojo, Matic and possibly Jones soon to follow. He's also promoted Williams, Greenwood and Tuanzebe who all look very capable whilst bringing in Wan Bissaka and James to add to the young squad strategy. Finally he's bought Maguire who is now club captain and whilst he's not worth 80m generally to United he probably is given what he brings as a leader and how difficult it is to fill the CB position. Just ask City and Arsenal - I'm sure both would love Harry Maguire.

The issue we have is depth and the injuries have really hurt us. That said when you look at what the club is doing it's certainly heading in a clear direction and sticking to a model. This makes me feel pretty positive.

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

What metrics can we use to compare across leagues? Two obvious ones stand out. First is the UEFA coefficients. The Premier League has topped the European charts in 2017/18, 2018/19 and leads the current season. In May all 4 European club competition finalists were English which suggests the league is in a strong place. Second would be the financial resources available to clubs. The Premier League clearly commands the greatest shares of TV revenues and that sustained investment over many years increases the quality of its players.

I wouldn't confuse the anti-climax of no title race with the quality of the league. That is simply about Liverpool hitting unprecedented levels of consistency and City having a dip. The same scenario played out in 1999/00 and 2004-06 and the league was pretty bloody strong in those seasons as well.

One point I would add though is it doesn't appear the managerial quality is quite as high as it was 18 months ago when Guardiola, Klopp, Pochettino, Mourinho, Emery, Conte/Sarri were all in charge of the top clubs. There's been a slight dip there as we gamble into the next generation.

Agree there . People are upset to see Liverpool win and thus claim the league is week.
I am upset too and they have got lots of help from the officials/VAR, but they are bloody good too.

 

[Van Piorsing]

Chelsea, United and Spurs are FAR from taking the title. This is the worst Tottenham and United team in years. United and tottenhan need a LOT of work and hardly anyone of note wants to play for those teams right now.

This Leicester side is far from anything special and still managed to be third despite coming back down to earth lately. Pool and CIty will dominate the league for years to come. Leicester is only "close" to city because city have been wrecked with injuries. As the season progresses City will have a 15+ point gap on Leicester. And again, this with key injuries to Laporte and Aguero.

It is absolutely a dire era for the EPL and has been for quite some time. The year Leicester won the league (which was an amazing achievement) was still probably the weakest year of the EPL by a wide margin.

It's not era if it's so far only a year of top sides rebuilding. United and Chelsea despite their problems can spend similar amounts, I see Pool fans talking about next year in PL as a very demanding with Africa Nations Cup and players not regenerating fully if they'll go full speed trying win everything this season. Just like Pep, Klopp can be struck with injuries, it happens every season and this particular factor is another thing makes EPL far more unpredictable and exciting in the same time.

You seem to rate Leicester quite low when City's bench could win with current United and Chelsea.

Real and Barca will dominate for next decade and it will be same story every year.

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

The sad reality is that Liverpool is the best team in Europe right now and might bloody win it all.
We have the resources to push for the top, but our owners does nothing and we have a mid table manager in charge of us.

 

[Daysleeper]

It's not era if it's so far only a year of top sides rebuilding. United and Chelsea despite their problems can spend similar amounts, I see Pool fans talking about next year in PL as a very demanding with Africa Nations Cup and players not regenerating fully if they'll go full speed trying win everything this season. Just like Pep, Klopp can be struck with injuries, it happens every season and this particular factor is another thing makes EPL far more unpredictable and exciting in the same time.

You seem to rate Leicester quite low when City's bench could win with current United and Chelsea.

Real and Barca will dominate for next decade and it will be same story every year.

Once Messi is gone, Barca won't be nearly as dominant. Even now Barca and Madrid are on pace for their lowest point

It's not era if it's so far only a year of top sides rebuilding. United and Chelsea despite their problems can spend similar amounts, I see Pool fans talking about next year in PL as a very demanding with Africa Nations Cup and players not regenerating fully if they'll go full speed trying win everything this season. Just like Pep, Klopp can be struck with injuries, it happens every season and this particular factor is another thing makes EPL far more unpredictable and exciting in the same time.

You seem to rate Leicester quite low when City's bench could win with current United and Chelsea.

Real and Barca will dominate for next decade and it will be same story every year.

I rate Leicester low because their hot start is coming to an end. And the the rest of the league is nothing to write home about. This is the worst Arsenal/Tottenham/United side of the past 5 years, probably more.

City and Liverpool will dominate for years to come, Liverpool are so far ahead from scouting with the rest of the league, and City have such big wallets EPL will be just like La Liga. Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal are a good 5 years away from being legit title contenders. United has been rebuilding since 2013 and are having their worst season in decades.

 

[TheOx]

We're still close to the top 4 despite having one of the worst United teams in modern times. That's how bad it is.

Plus, the fact that a Liverpool team with a midfield of Henderson, Wijnaldum and Fabinho could win the Champions League shows that the lack of quality isn't limited to England.

There are no great sides but the scousers will be called one by virtue of being the best of a very mediocre bunch.

This means feck all. Literally.
Did you see our line-up in the Champions League of '05? No, I'm not saying our midfield... I mean our entire team. You could never say we would win the champions league. And we beat a team in the final of Schevchenko, Crespo, Kaka, Maldini, Pirlo... shall I go on?


We had a worst team back there. And we won.. does it mean the lack of quality was already showing it's face back in 2005?

Fabinho is one of the best DMs in the world. Wijnaldum and Henderson are extremely underrated.

 

[Stocar]

The sad reality is that Liverpool is the best team in Europe right now and might bloody win it all.
We have the resources to push for the top, but our owners does nothing and we have a mid table manager in charge of us.

They're really not that special. They are indeed like Juventus of recent years: a top team that somehow manages to grind out ridiculous amount of wins, playing essentially soulless and industrial football. Juventus have managed to do it for many years, but in a much more comfortable context.

 

[Lay]

Ourselves, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs and city have all regressed. Wolves and Leicester are the only improvements. The rest are quite poor.

We can say anyone can beat one so that means the league is strong but I disagree. It’s mainly due to teams not having the quality to see out games in attack and defence.

 

[Van Piorsing]

Once Messi is gone, Barca won't be nearly as dominant. Even now Barca and Madrid are on pace for their lowest point


I rate Leicester low because their hot start is coming to an end. And the the rest of the league is nothing to write home about. This is the worst Arsenal/Tottenham/United side of the past 5 years, probably more.

City and Liverpool will dominate for years to come, Liverpool are so far ahead from scouting with the rest of the league, and City have such big wallets EPL will be just like La Liga. Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal are a good 5 years away from being legit title contenders. United has been rebuilding since 2013 and are having their worst season in decades.

The thing is Real and Barca will always get their needed players. Real scooped Hazard and Barca got Griezmann who was supposedly staying forever in Atleti. They can get the highest quality available in the world in matter of two or three years maximum. Barca can simply find next big thing faster than everyone else.

The probability of Pool and City staying on top in league like EPL for a decade looks far lower to me than Barca and Real in La Liga conceding title to Atleti, Sevilla or Valencia who doesn't even have budgets as big as Chelsea and United.

I think Chelsea will have a chance to win the title again in about 5 years, United... everything depends on current decisions from inside the club.

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

They're really not that special. They are indeed like Juventus of recent years: a top team that somehow manages to grind out ridiculous amount of wins, playing essentially soulless and industrial football. Juventus have managed to do it for many years, but in a much more comfortable context.

They are the best defensive side in europe. They got no Messi, Kevin De bruyne or Ronaldo, but functions well as a team.
Mentally strong and have an ability to raise themselfes for big moments.

I guess what they got is amazing management. All those players would not standout for us I think. Maybe Mane who can do a lot on his own. Allison who is a keeper would be much better than De Gea at the moment and Van Dijk would probably still look very good.
Salah I think would look much worse for us without the service and the midfield too.

 

[Borussin]

It's no different to most seasons.. If United where in Liverpool's position now, we know for sure this thread would not exist.

In the years United dominated, Liverpool where often floundering behind in the league, yet the league wasn't considered weak then. For a lot of those years too Chelsea where not the factor they are these days (and yes they are still a good team), same with Manchester City. But again - no one would have been claiming it a weak league then.

For years it was a 'big 4', how it's the 'big 6', so that suggests the league is stronger in recent years, or else why the need to change it to accomodate more teams.

The premier league like most leagues has it's negatives, but it's still a very strong league, even the smaller teams can often compete at a high level and have quality players. Plus teams like Leicester and Wolves are now very strong and pushing some of the bigger names as well, so that's surely a positive, and not a sign of a weak league.

The league is still very strong, just that 2 teams are exceptional - and that is something to aspire to, rather than ignore, although maybe not City's way of doing it, as that would require unlimited funds, which most teams don't have the pleasure of.

 

[Stocar]

They are the best defensive side in Europe.

As were Juventus for the last half of decade. They're that kind of team, functional but not really spectacular or dominant at the highest level. Juventus are also remarkable for managing to consistently exceed their expected points by large margins. I don't think Liverpool will manage to emulate that in a more difficult league, but at least they won the European trophy.

 

[billybee99]

Yep, the worst EPL season, and we're having 34 points from 22 games.

I'd say the EPL this year is the strongest ever, bar Liverpool running with it it's a dog eat dog year for the rest

We are on pace for 50 something points this season and could still make top 4. It's rancid after the top 3. I can't believe we could only be 3 points off 4th after today's game.

 

[golden_blunder]

I think we can all agree that the best thing would be to just stop talking about this season and never mention it again

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

As were Juventus for the last half of decade. They're that kind of team, functional but not really spectacular or dominant at the highest level. Juventus are also remarkable for managing to consistently exceed their expected points by large margins. I don't think Liverpool will manage to emulate that in a more difficult league, but at least they won the European trophy.

They are doing it in the best league around and Serie A is probably the third best league. They would do the same in Spain too at the moment. Which league do you really think about?

 

[Daysleeper]

The thing is Real and Barca will always get their needed players. Real scooped Hazard and Barca got Griezmann who was supposedly staying forever in Atleti. They can get the highest quality available in the world in matter of two or three years maximum. Barca can simply find next big thing faster than everyone else.

The probability of Pool and City staying on top in league like EPL for a decade looks far lower to me than Barca and Real in La Liga conceding title to Atleti, Sevilla or Valencia who doesn't even have budgets as big as Chelsea and United.

I think Chelsea will have a chance to win the title again in about 5 years, United... everything depends on current decisions from inside the club.

We both seem to agree that it’ll be another 5 years for Chelsea, and I feel similarly about United and arsenal and Tottenham.

But I hear you, if you told me Madrid and Barca were the top 2 teams in 2027 I wouldn’t be surprised

 

[Daysleeper]

They are doing it in the best league around and Serie A is probably the third best league. They would do the same in Spain too at the moment. Which league do you really think about?

Liverpool struggled against Napoli, I think they’d win the league in Spain and serie a but I don’t think it would be as easy as it has been for them in the EPL.

 

[Stocar]

They are doing it in the best league around and Serie A is probably the third best league. They would do the same in Spain too at the moment. Which league do you really think about?

That's why I think they won't keep doing it as consistently as Juventus did. English league is significantly tougher. And while I consider La Liga to be of the same quality level as EPL, I don't think Liverpool would be able to catch this ridiculous momentum they've been carrying for two seasons, if they played there. Most Spanish teams have less expensive stars, but are generally more tactically and technically sound than English ones.

 

[SirAnderson]

For being lazy and not reading everyone else post, hope I'm not repeating anyone, but here's my 2 cents.

It feels like its back to normal for me? In terms of top teams losing here and there and not utterly dominating. City and Pool have been setting an incredible high bar. Excluding the Leicester miracle, which was another on of those off seasons for the top 4, I feel like if Liverpool where not blitzing like there are, it would have been a close top 4 battle, but right now its 1 horse race. If they were "normal" it would have been at least a 3 horse race. But granted, some are reaaaaally underperforming, aka Arsenal, Spurs and us.

 

[SirAnderson]

Liverpool struggled against Napoli, I think they’d win the league in Spain and serie a but I don’t think it would be as easy as it has been for them in the EPL.

If I just look at the points across the big 6 league, I think they would be dominating in each of them, but yeah its a big guesstimate.

 

[baskinginthesun]

What metrics can we use to compare across leagues? Two obvious ones stand out. First is the UEFA coefficients. The Premier League has topped the European charts in 2017/18, 2018/19 and leads the current season. In May all 4 European club competition finalists were English which suggests the league is in a strong place. Second would be the financial resources available to clubs. The Premier League clearly commands the greatest shares of TV revenues and that sustained investment over many years increases the quality of its players.

I wouldn't confuse the anti-climax of no title race with the quality of the league. That is simply about Liverpool hitting unprecedented levels of consistency and City having a dip. The same scenario played out in 1999/00 and 2004-06 and the league was pretty bloody strong in those seasons as well.

One point I would add though is it doesn't appear the managerial quality is quite as high as it was 18 months ago when Guardiola, Klopp, Pochettino, Mourinho, Emery, Conte/Sarri were all in charge of the top clubs. There's been a slight dip there as we gamble into the next generation.

Not that the Europa League is the signal of strength but, English teams have won a few in recent seasons and consistently been in the latter stages of that tournament as well.

I would argue that the same managers are still here though. Barring, Emery and Conte, Poch could possibly pop back up in England again with another club. However, I do feel the smaller clubs are using the next generation of managers. Southampton, Bournemouth, Norwich and Brighton all seem to have a relatively youthful coaching staff. Even Nuno at Wolves could be considered the next gen, in some places.

Like you have suggested, I would like to see some more metrics so we can get an analytical view of the European leagues.

 

[Chipper]

I don't think football is particularly good anywhere right now.

The worst City side in 3 years, Spurs in 5, Chelsea in 15+, Arsenal in 20+, United in 25+.

Then in Europe Real Madrid are nothing like what they were in the Ronaldo years, Barcelona nothing like the Xavi/Iniesta years, Bayern are crap by their standards etc.

Now the big names have no automatic right to be at the top and if they were being replaced by teams producing great quality football then it wouldn't be a case of football being poor right now, it would just be that less fashionable names got better. I don't think we're seeing that though. From watching the games Leicester don't strike as being better than many a 3rd place team from other years, and Leipzig aren't as good as the Dortmund team that was contesting the title when Klopp was there. Even with their obvious drop-off and not being as good as they were a few years back Barca and Real are still managing to rule in Spain.

This isn't about Liverpool, I think they are a good a team and as good as many a champion.

 

[giorno]

Liverpool struggled against Napoli, I think they’d win the league in Spain and serie a but I don’t think it would be as easy as it has been for them in the EPL.

In serie A it would be even easier all things being equal. 3/4 of the teams wouldn't be able to complete 2 consecutive passes against them

 

[redman5]

In terms of lack of overall quality surely 2015/16 takes some beating. Yeah it was a nice story seeing a 1,000-1 outsider win the title, but it tells you how poor the other sides were when Arsenal finished runners-up with just 71 points. You'd have to go back to 2000/01 to find a lower points total by the 2nd placed side. ironically enough that was Arsenal again with 70 points. City & United finished 4th & 5th respectively both on 66 points, whilst we finished 8th with just 60 points. Amazing to think that less than 4 years later we're 4 points better off with 16 games still left to play.

 

[Van Piorsing]

We both seem to agree that it’ll be another 5 years for Chelsea, and I feel similarly about United and arsenal and Tottenham.

But I hear you, if you told me Madrid and Barca were the top 2 teams in 2027 I wouldn’t be surprised

Honestly everything is possible in such long distance of time All it takes is finding huge investors to take control of Valencia or Atleti and we could have quite easy shake of power in probably less than 5 years in La Liga, especially in time when Messi will slowly start retiring.

I admit finding another Messi is definitely not a matter of 3 years. It took long after Maradona to find someone like him.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Who were the top teams in 06-07?

They declined then too, but the Premier League had 4 very good teams versus just 1(or 2 now).