• Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara

Balloon d'Or

Andy Booth could have managed to score one of the three nominated to goal of the year.
Which one? The winner!

Messi's suit was fab
 
FIFPRO XI: Casillas, Dani Alves, Pique, Ramos, Marcelo, Xabi Alonso, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Falcao, Ronaldo

Coach of the year: Vicente Del Bosque

The only one I don't agree with there is Pique. I know he had a good Euros, but he was poor for Barca.

Klopp should be a lot higher in the managers list too.
 
No doubt that the very best players are in Spain, but overall the Premier League has a much higher standard.

Can't agree with that. I think the PL has been in decline since Ronaldo left, just look at our teams performances in Europe. Spain have so much talent it's ridiculous! I bet most people in England hadn't heard of Santi Cazorla until this season, they have so many players that are largely unknown over here.

Plus none of the top 4 teams in Europe are English IMO.
 
Can't agree with that. I think the PL has been in decline since Ronaldo left, just look at our teams performances in Europe. Spain have so much talent it's ridiculous! I bet most people in England hadn't heard of Santi Cazorla until this season, they have so many players that are largely unknown over here.

Plus none of the top 4 teams in Europe are English IMO.

The problem with Spanish League is after #4, the rest for the most part would struggle in the Championship ...

Seeing sides being beaten 6-0 and 8-0 every week isn't very entertaining to be honest.
 
The problem with Spanish League is after #4, the rest for the most part would struggle in the Championship ...

Seeing sides being beaten 6-0 and 8-0 every week isn't very entertaining to be honest.

no need to exaggerate

there are some very good teams in La Liga besides the current top 4 and could more than handle themselves in the Premier League

6 nill and 8 nill every week??? results this season prove you are well wide off the mark.....in fact, if you want high scoring results of that nature, they are more likely in the Premier League
 
disgusting to have alves, marcelo and pique anywhere near a toty.

glOiO.jpg
 
disgusting to have alves, marcelo and pique anywhere near a toty.

glOiO.jpg

Alves especially has been much worse than he was a couple of years ago, pretty sure he lost his first time place to the left-sided Adriano at one point too...
 
They do and they can. Just seems like he doesn't give a brick. He rather shows his style with the ball on the pitch.

Well done him.

Sorry to disagree but you either have style or you don't and money won't buy it, a case in point is Gold and Sullivan (the porno twins). They have loads of cash but they have absolutely no style, they are just so bling and crass but perhaps that is just a question of taste.
As for Messi, he has bagfuls of footballing style but sorry the suit doesn't cut it for me, maybe thats just my aversion to spotty suits. Don't think its classy and if he is going for the eccentric look then i don't think he quite pulls that off either. But if he doesn't give a brick then good on him.
 
Ronaldo's little build-up clip was very nice - many people are unaware of his humble personality and beginnings

Also - Falcao's goal should have won the Puskas award for me
 
Last edited:
I look at the lists for team of the year and manager of the year and it just seems lazy. Its just a list of players and managers who are best known and no thought has gone into it. As great a manager as he is, why is Fergie on there? What did he achieve last year?
 
The problem with Spanish League is after #4, the rest for the most part would struggle in the Championship ...

Seeing sides being beaten 6-0 and 8-0 every week isn't very entertaining to be honest.

I honestly think teams like Valencia, Levante and Sevilla are much better sides than the teams that occupy say 6th to 14th in the PL i.e. Stoke, West Brom and Swansea to name a few.

And didn't Aston Villa get beat 8-0 recently and concede 15 goals over the Christmas period?
 
I honestly think teams like Valencia, Levante and Sevilla are much better sides than the teams that occupy say 6th to 14th in the PL i.e. Stoke, West Brom and Swansea to name a few.

And didn't Aston Villa get beat 8-0 recently and concede 15 goals over the Christmas period?


Which is why they are likely to occupy one of the relegation spots, or there abouts.
 
Which is why they are likely to occupy one of the relegation spots, or there abouts.

Very true, all I meant was it's not just teams in Spain that get gubbed by scores of 8-0 or 6-0. Barca would destroy teams in our league too. Arsenal put 7 past Reading, who knows how many Messi would score past that defence!
 
Who from the Premier League would get into that World XI?

Falcao Messi and Cristiano are the best three forwards.
Xavi, Xabi Alonso, Iniesta all performed better than any midfielder in the prem last year
Marcelo - the only debate, couldve been Cole IMO, some of his performances in the CL were pretty phenomenal (c**t), Pique, Ramos, Dani Alves - Alves seems like he shouldnt be in there, but again, which PL RB can say they were better?
Casillas - The best.

Overall, no stand out PL performers above the XI picked IMO.
 
Very true, all I meant was it's not just teams in Spain that get gubbed by scores of 8-0 or 6-0. Barca would destroy teams in our league too. Arsenal put 7 past Reading, who knows how many Messi would score past that defence!

Just to add some numbers to the debate...

Last season Real scored 121, Barca scored 114. By comparison City scored 93 and United 89.

Two seasons before that:

Barca: 95, Real: 102. United: 78, Chelsea: 69

Barca: 98, Real: 102. Chelsea: 103, United: 86

----------

Across the 3 previous seasons total goals scored by the top two teams in Spain: 632

Across the 3 previous seasons total goals scored by the top two teams in England: 518

So the top two teams in England have scored approximately 82% as many goals as the top two teams in Spain.

I would say that Barca and Real have been considerably better than the top teams in England during that time. Of course it's impossible to estimate by how much or how much of a difference that would make. If the lower ranked Spanish teams are worse defensively than the lower ranked English teams I would say it's probably not by much. Leading me to the conclusion that it's probably not by enough to compensate for the two top teams being clearly better than the top English sides. To me this would indicate that the Spanish league is stronger overall. That's not the same as being "the best" or "the most entertaining" of course.
 
Back