06-13 is way too big of a sample size though, a team’s typical cycle is around three to four seasons. United of 06-07 and 12-13 is no more the same side as City 11-12 and 18-19 are the same side. There are common links but they are very different teams.
What!!!!!!!!!!!
I think De Bruyne would comfortably be seen as a top 10 player in the world if he could stay fit. Can run with the ball and dribble very well, if not at the level of wingers, but also passes and crosses at an elite level. Add to that the high tempo he likes to play at and he is like an evolved version of Beckham, just an exceptional footballer.
Torres and Rooney were absolutely the best, or one of, in the world. Both were better than current Aguero.
The league or the gulf between the top and bottom sides?
2000s? No CL finalist from 99/00 to 03/04, English teams were quite unimpressive in Europe in that period, far behind Spain and Italy and probably behind Germany as well. The irony is that you have the Invincibles as better than this City team but the PL was in one of its worst periods regarding European competitions back then. The Invincibles had no competition in the league in 03/04 and folded once Jose took over Chelsea. Arsenal won 173 pts in 03-05 - that's 25 pts less than City 17-19. The latter's numbers are on a completely different level in a period when English teams are actually reaching finals in Europe.
Doping Kings. If a team that spends this ridiculously cannot achieve what they have, I wonder....I disagree. Chelsea was an instant european force taking out the likes of Barcelona etc. City chokes when it has faced a strong opponent. Monaco, Lpool and Tottenham were the outsiders but outplayed them.
All of this....
True that City are yet to crack the CL. But that's because there's an Islamophobic UEFA conspiracy against the club. Check out their forums to learn the truth.
What? They got knocked out by a mediocre Liverpool side in 04-05 that out-cynical'd them, and the eventual winners, Barcelona, the following season.
Djimi Traore would disagree
I don’t think it’s a plausible thought to think they would achieve their points tally of this year in any year pre 2013/14. I don’t even think this Liverpool side is any better than the 2008/09 one.
Aguero ‘much better’ than Rooney? I’m beginning to think you didn’t start watching football until about 2012.
Liverpool reaching 2 finals in a space of 3 years proves, imo, that it was not a mediocre team.
Finishing with only 58 pts from 38 league games in 2005 when they won the CL proves the opposite.
If anything it proves how much more difficult the Premier League was during that time, Liverpool in 05 & 07 achieved only 58 & 68 points in the league whilst reaching the Champions League final. 2 Champions League finals in 3 years is no fluke, that was a good team.
They were a hard to beat cup team. It proves nothing about the difficulty of the league.
It does not. It proves they were a good cup team.
I dunno, i would consider them a really good team (not among the topt5) woth obvious shortcomings. A mediocre team in my eyes is more something like Arsenal in this decade (or us post fergie..)
Ok maybe it is just terminology differences. That Liverpool side was not elite. This Liverpool side would wipe the floor with that side. And my opinion wouldn't change if this Liverpool lost to Spurs in the final.
What has comparing the PL to say La Liga got to do with anything. We are talking about solely the PL.
It proves that points in the league were much harder to come by back then. A team who gets 58 pts in the Premier League these days would not be good enough to compete in the Champions League, let alone beat an all time great AC Milan side.
I disagree that the Current Liverpool team would ‘wipe the floor’ with Liverpool of 10/15 years ago, I think if they played 10 games against each other it would be fairly even.
So you think the current City side is as good as arguably the greatest club side of all time? I don’t think it’s any better than Peps Bayern.
Seen both from a young age. Rooney when he broke through at Everton and Agüero since his move to Atlético.
The 2005 team was definitely a mediocre team. 2007 was a much better side. They’d already established the Alonso-Mascherano-Gerrard axis, and Agger, Reina, Kuyt and Aurélio had come into the side. It was only Torres away from being their 2008-09 team.
Strongly disagree. It's not a top 6 in any sense of the word other than literal. Technically United/Arsenal/Chelsea are part of the 'top 6'. Standings wise. But calling them a 'top 6' indicate they are on some elite tier. They are not. Aston Villa and Everton in 08 could have easily taken points off of Arsenal/Chelsea/ and United. In fact, I will favor both clubs to beat United of 2019 7 out of 10 times. City's run have been helped by the incredible decline of United/Chelsea/Arsenal.
