The worst Premier League. Ever?

[TightEnd]

been meaning to write this for weeks


Manchester city spend fortunes and are already 1/3 shots to win the title

Arsenal are inconsistent, and have real issues spending money to strengthen what they have from who is available

Man U rebuilding

Liverpool permanently rebuilding..sell suarez, spend  sell sterling, spend. spend badly, it might be said

Chelsea trouble behind the scenes?

that leaves space for the likes of Palace, Swansea etc to fill into the top 6 perhaps temporarily

at the other end there are bad teams

sunderland, newcastle, villa, west brom, three promoted teams grappling to adapt..jury out on stoke


performance in europe has been bad for 3 years, and the co-efficient that gets us 4 teams in the champions league must be in trouble


is this cyclical, an accident of so many teams with issues in the short term only?

or is it structural? overpaying average talent, a transfer of wealth from tv deals to players that means they have little incentive to perform?

[DungBeetle]

Surely it is cyclical.  The money available surely means they can't fail to assemble the best talent in the medium term.  I think last season was just as poor apart from Man City were in Chelsea's spot.  Personally I think Watford/Bournemouth/Norwich will add more than Hull/QPR/Burnley did.

What is embarrassing is the continual failure in Europe.   To be honest though, I'm not really fussed if we go from 4 to 3 teams in Champ League and one of the big boys has to miss out.

[The Camel]

Surely it is cyclical.  The money available surely means they can't fail to assemble the best talent in the medium term.  I think last season was just as poor apart from Man City were in Chelsea's spot.  Personally I think Watford/Bournemouth/Norwich will add more than Hull/QPR/Burnley did.

What is embarrassing is the continual failure in Europe.   To be honest though, I'm not really fussed if we go from 4 to 3 teams in Champ League and one of the big boys has to miss out.

I think this will be good for English football.

Too much complacency at some clubs.

[The Camel]

been meaning to write this for weeks


Manchester city spend fortunes and are already 1/3 shots to win the title

Arsenal are inconsistent, and have real issues spending money to strengthen what they have from who is available

Man U rebuilding

Liverpool permanently rebuilding..sell suarez, spend  sell sterling, spend. spend badly, it might be said

Chelsea trouble behind the scenes?

that leaves space for the likes of Palace, Swansea etc to fill into the top 6 perhaps temporarily

at the other end there are bad teams

sunderland, newcastle, villa, west brom, three promoted teams grappling to adapt..jury out on stoke


performance in europe has been bad for 3 years, and the co-efficient that gets us 4 teams in the champions league must be in trouble


is this cyclical, an accident of so many teams with issues in the short term only?

or is it structural? overpaying average talent, a transfer of wealth from tv deals to players that means they have little incentive to perform?

It was only one game (sample size etc) and Aguero wasn't playing, but FML City were poor last night. And Juve should be significantly weaker this season than last.

It's telling that many of the best players in this country are cast offs from Real and Barca.

[Archer]

been meaning to write this for weeks


Manchester city spend fortunes and are already 1/3 shots to win the title

Arsenal are inconsistent, and have real issues spending money to strengthen what they have from who is available

Man U rebuilding

Liverpool permanently rebuilding..sell suarez, spend  sell sterling, spend. spend badly, it might be said

Chelsea trouble behind the scenes?

that leaves space for the likes of Palace, Swansea etc to fill into the top 6 perhaps temporarily

at the other end there are bad teams

sunderland, newcastle, villa, west brom, three promoted teams grappling to adapt..jury out on stoke


performance in europe has been bad for 3 years, and the co-efficient that gets us 4 teams in the champions league must be in trouble


is this cyclical, an accident of so many teams with issues in the short term only?

or is it structural? overpaying average talent, a transfer of wealth from tv deals to players that means they have little incentive to perform?

City are stronger now than than at any point in the last 5 years including their 2 title winning years. Despite last night, I'd would say it is an inevitability that they will bridge the gap in the next few years to the Big 3 of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern.

Arsenal likewise IMO are stronger than they were 5 years ago.

Chelsea were the real deal just over a month ago before  the season started.

United  post Ferguson have not been great. I'd say it is inevitable they will become a major force again when the rebuild is complete. The problem now of course is they have been so dull - before the Liverpool game at the weekend they had only scored 6 times in their last 10 league games. That is unheard of for United and whilst personally I'm enjoying their struggles it is not what we are used to or good for the Premier League.

Liverpool/Spurs. Hmmm.

Looking at the teams City have played this year, we have had big battles with Everton and Palace, both very imprssive  and, to a lesser extent,  Watford.  Comfortable wins only against WBA (very poor) and Chelsea. Of the games I've seen on TV not involving City  I've also been very impressed with Swansea and, just for you, Leicester!


Sure, recent performance in Europe has not been the best. I don't think this is due to a lack of quality and it strikes me we play a completely different game. Using a poker analogy, the Premier  League 90 minutes is like a "super turbo" and many European games are "slow structures".

The risk of losing the 4th spot to Italy is real. Ironically, this is due more to poor performance by English teams in the Europa League than the Champions League.

[DungBeetle]

Arsenal hitting a new low for the English clubs this week.  Total lack of application so far and poor discipline against the group minnow.  Wenger will deflect by blaming the ref I imagine.

[Ant040689]

The Prem is missing the big name players that it once had as well imo. Namely, Suarez, Bale and Ronaldo of recent times. The types of players that you would watch a game just because you knew they were not too far away from doing something special. Not sure I can name one with a similar feel now, maybe Silva? It is a shame Hazard has started slowly.

[Ironside]

Aguero?

[buzzharvey22]

Aguero?

Normally i'd say yes, but he's looked awful the start of this season. When i say awful, i mean not match fit.

[nirvana]

Not so bothered about individuals - just hard to find a team playing at anything like the tempo and cohesion of the best European sides. City on their day, Arsenal sporadically

[buzzharvey22]

Think Premier League teams are about 4 times behind the rest of Europe. A winning style now seems to be defend really well and be shit hot on the counter attack. Bayern Munich began this trend when they were dominating Europe, Robben and Ribery with blistering pace on the attack. Real Madrid then carried this on with Ronaldo being the main man, bags of pace and an engine that can go for days.

Barcelona had to change their tactics. The whole "Tika taka" was no longer working. So this went with a top 3 with blistering pace and lightening movement in Saurez Neymar and Messi. And they're back to winning everything.

Now it seems the premier league big boys are all trying to play their on version of "tika taka" which works in the premier league because the defences arn't as good as other European sides. When they come up against the big boys of Europe they have no chance.

Even teams in the premier league who are having success play this counter attacking football. Namely Leicester and West Ham.

[exstream]

Think Premier League teams are about 4 times behind the rest of Europe. A winning style now seems to be defend really well and be shit hot on the counter attack. Bayern Munich began this trend when they were dominating Europe, Robben and Ribery with blistering pace on the attack. Real Madrid then carried this on with Ronaldo being the main man, bags of pace and an engine that can go for days.

Barcelona had to change their tactics. The whole "Tika taka" was no longer working. So this went with a top 3 with blistering pace and lightening movement in Saurez Neymar and Messi. And they're back to winning everything.

Now it seems the premier league big boys are all trying to play their on version of "tika taka" which works in the premier league because the defences arn't as good as other European sides. When they come up against the big boys of Europe they have no chance.

Even teams in the premier league who are having success play this counter attacking football. Namely Leicester and West Ham.

4 times behind? I'd say either 3 or 4 mate.

[aaron1867]

Do you not think that the new Tv deal for next season has got anything to do with it? Perhaps the top teams are focusing on next season and the the reality in rebuilding during this season in terms of compeiting in the CL, then have a more valid attempt next season with the more money?

But is it really worst PL ever? Away from the top 6, the league looks really competitive.

[DungBeetle]

Not sure about that.  Man City have spent £100 million on two players.  Man Utd have spent absolute fortunes under Van Gaal and barely improved.  Ditto Liverpool who have gone backwards.

I don't think they are biding their time. (apart from old Arsene of course and possibly Spurs due to the new stadium)

[arbboy]

I think people forget this 'record' EPL tv deal is equally balanced between all 20 clubs (barring additional payments for each game shown - these are marginal compared to the flat fee lump all 20 teams get).  This is what is making the middle 10 clubs so much more competitive as they have real buying power to attract champions league players wages wise who they would never have been able to attract in the past.  Palace/Stoke/Newcastle signings this summer are all evidence of this.

In turn this doesn't make the top teams relatively more competitive against the Spanish giants.  The big two in Spain mop up virtually all the tv money under their tv deal.