I take your point but I think you understand just how good real and Barcelona are. Messi and Ronaldo are two exceptional players in teams littered with amazing players. Not one premier league team can match that. They could easily make every bottom half Premier League team look rubbish if they played them every week.
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Champions League 2015/16
- Thread starter jaysea67
- Start date
I take your point but I think you understand just how good real and Barcelona are. Messi and Ronaldo are two exceptional players in teams littered with amazing players. Not one premier league team can match that. They could easily make every bottom half Premier League team look rubbish if they played them every week.
I think the EPL being so competitive is the main reason - no gimmies in this league for the big teams, leaves them at a disadvantage when playing in Europe
They don't dominate in the same way in Europe though. I think the bottom half of the PL is much harder to play against than the bottom half of the Spanish or Italian league.
They play against better teams in Europe. Your point is that bottom half premier league teams are better than la liga teams.
My point is that they're not that much better than the best English teams, but they have an easier league and can put more into their European campaigns. Ferguson used to rest players against the worst PL sides and scraped a lot of wins. You can't really do that any more.
milo
Jack L. Jones
I don't think that he's world class
Hidden
Luke Young
Ronaldo scored his 500 and 501th goal today. Also equaled Raul's goals for Real - they both have 323. Incredible numbers and records, aren't they? I'll answer: not really. The thing which is really incredible is Igor Akinfeev, who conceded in his 33rd appearance in CL in a row. Not sure if this "record" will be ever beaten. Of course by any other keeper, because CSKA face Man United next 
Robspur12
John Lacy
Stoke better than the double Europa league winning Sevilla? How have you come to that conclusion?
StephenH
David Ginola
Was bloody good last night - he is the best English goalkeeper. Up there with some of the best in Europe on his day. "World class" is far to emotive.
Superted
Jonathan Woodgate
Just behind Eric Dier for mine.
I'd say that he's consistently one of the best keepers in Europe right now.
His distribution lets him down a lot but he has all of the other attributes needed to keep goal for the top teams in Europe - not just technical, but mental as well.
Lost Mango
Allan Nielsen
A squad of 23 'top' players (plus emerging youth talent) can't manage 2 games a week between them? Really?
Didn't seem to be a problem a 5 or 6 years ago when we were getting 3 or 4 into the quarters and beyond. The EPL hasn't got significantly harder or more competitive in that time has it?
The league wasn't as competitive then - it's since the last TV deal that things have changed, the weaker teams in the Prem have more money than most teams in Europe and can therefore build stronger teams than ever before meaning our top teams face 30+ genuine challenges domestically each season compared to the top teams in France/Italy/Spain etc who probably have half the amount of difficult games, which leaves them fresher for European matches
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indianspur
Guest
our top teams simply arent as good as they were back then......if you put the Utd, Chels, Arsanal teams from lets say 2009-12 up against the 2013-15 versions i think the earlier teams would win 9 times out of 10
Seedy Ron
Frederic Kanoute
Could also be argued that constantly being tested should enable you to maintain form more easily, can't get into a domestic rut of cruising through games and then take it into Europe with you?
Lost Mango
Allan Nielsen
I agree. Think this is the issue more than poor scheduling or the extra domestic cup. The quality of the EPL I reckon has gone down despite the extra money. Not convinced the gap between the top 4 and the rest has actually narrowed due to the last TV deal. Not sure what
Also think that the quality of manager has gone down as well at the top. Mourinho has lost his zip, Wenger is a decade out of date, LVG is no Fergie, Brenton isn't fit to lace the boots of FSW or Houllier.
Lost Mango
Allan Nielsen
Always been the Scottish argument that domestic football was too easy so poor preparation for Europe.
glasgowspur
Dimitar Berbatov
And it's a bad one. Scots problem is poor quality homegrown players and bad attitude over fitness that leaks to any foreigner coming in.
I watched in the 90s with Walter smith at rangers. Yet rangers under souness and advocaat did well enough.