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Premier League v the World Cup

I think people need to differentiate between 'best' and 'exciting'. I dont watch other leagues but from hearing peoples ramblings it seems that we dont have the best league per se but we have the most exciting league. Anyways ive digressed slightly.
 
as a general rule, it is correct to say that england has the best leagues in world football. the premier league, as well as the championship can offer some of the best wages in world football. and so naturally, the best players come to england to play their football.
 
To answer the article's headline question of: How come ‘best league in the world’ has hardly featured at Brazil 2014?

in one word, variance.

the worldcup is a 6 week competition, and to make conclusions such as those in the article is quite simply macaronic. in 2004, was the greek league stronger than the premier league because they had more players in the euro 2004 final than england? was the same the case with the korean league in 2002? the costa rican league will also have had many more players represented in the quater finals than many other stronger euopean leagues too.

the best english players play in england because the money is the best here. as a result, a poor england performance will mean that the premier league will naturally lose a lot of representation in the worldcup. this guardian article is just another example of rubbish football journalism that has become prevalent in recent times
 
Agreed, that is a bit of a hack job. For the numbers where the PL only has a few top 10/15 representatives, how do other leagues fare? The players are distributed over English, Spanish, Italian, German, French, Dutch and Brasilian leagues, so obviously the PL will not dominate. Spain and Germany will do well but that is just as much to do with the strength of a few top clubs than the strength of the league. Even where an PL-based player (Howard) excels this is discounted.

Also the article states how many starters there might be in the semifinals. The German and Dutch leagues do well because their national teams are still in the competition, but the PL fares better than La Liga despite the natural draw of that league for South Americans. And again it is no surprise the top three clubs in the world have the most players.
 
@GuardianUS: Interactive: After #GER's victory, Bundesliga has the most players left in the #WorldCup http://trib.al/qwIL8TU

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Neymar said:
as a general rule, it is correct to say that england has the best leagues in world football. the premier league, as well as the championship can offer some of the best wages in world football. and so naturally, the best players come to england to play their football.
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I don't know if that's true tbh. We don't seem to get the absolute best foreigners e.g. Messi, Falcao, Bale, Ronaldo, fat Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Zidane etc in their prime, we get players like Shevchenko when they have past their peaks. The fact is 5 years ago we regularly had 2-3 teams in the CL quarters and Semis and pointed to that as proof of how strong our league is, now we aren't doing so well it's a bit contradictory to still say we have the best league.
 
DHSF said:
I think people need to differentiate between 'best' and 'exciting'. I dont watch other leagues but from hearing peoples ramblings it seems that we dont have the best league per se but we have the most exciting league. Anyways ive digressed slightly.
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Exactly, most exciting doesn't always equal the best. It really depends what you like I guess.
 
For me the winter break (or lack of) has a lot to do with the players under performing.

Also, the Premier League is a franchise. The people who run the Premier League, the same people who tell us that it is the best league in the world, have no interest in the players doing well outside the league. They service themselves first and foremost, international football is just something that gets in the way.
 
Jurgen the German said:
I don't know if that's true tbh. We don't seem to get the absolute best foreigners e.g. Messi, Falcao, Bale, Ronaldo, fat Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Zidane etc in their prime, we get players like Shevchenko when they have past their peaks. The fact is 5 years ago we regularly had 2-3 teams in the CL quarters and Semis and pointed to that as proof of how strong our league is, now we aren't doing so well it's a bit contradictory to still say we have the best league.
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By the same token the dominance by German teams one year and Spanish teams another year can't be evidence that they are best. The PL had CL finalists every year for quite stretch and is now going through a poorer period which may be a lull or a long-term decline. The German league looked very competitive for a few years until Bayern got their act (and cheque-book) together. Spain are up now, but is Barca in decline and can Atletico maintain their success? We can't really tell until we look back with a bit of hindsight, where we can see different periods in the CL era where the Italian, Spanish and English leagues were the best.

I don't think it really matters. The PL is clearly one of the best and it is the most popular with the global TV audience.
 
Jurgen the German said:
I don't know if that's true tbh. We don't seem to get the absolute best foreigners e.g. Messi, Falcao, Bale, Ronaldo, fat Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Zidane etc in their prime, we get players like Shevchenko when they have past their peaks. The fact is 5 years ago we regularly had 2-3 teams in the CL quarters and Semis and pointed to that as proof of how strong our league is, now we aren't doing so well it's a bit contradictory to still say we have the best league.
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your point that the premier league doesnt seem to get the very best players might be true. but what is undisputable is that the average salary of a senior premier league player on avergae is much higher than la liga.

but going back to your point on the very best players, ie. messi and ronaldo. i think in the premier league, its almost impossible for players to post the kind of goals stats that those two get. in spain, messi and ronaldo get hatfuls against teams that are championship standard. the competition is too intense in england for an individual player to do that imo. therefore, a player playing in england will be at a disadvantage in terms of getting the global recognition that top spanish players get, as he simply cannot post stats like 40 goals in 40 games, whilst playing in england.

and although messi and ronaldo havent played in the epl at their prime (i would argue, ronaldo kind of did), i don't agree that the likes of falcao, rivaldo, shevchenko haven't. for me the following guys are at the shevchenko level in their respective positions and played in the epl over the past decade:

rio ferdinand, john terry, lampard, gerrard, scholes, beckham, thierry henry, van nistelrooy, roy keane, vieira, pires, bergkamp, drogba, carvalho, giggs, rooney
 
Neymar said:
your point that the premier league doesnt seem to get the very best players might be true. but what is undisputable is that the average salary of a senior premier league player on avergae is much higher than la liga.

but going back to your point on the very best players, ie. messi and ronaldo. i think in the premier league, its almost impossible for players to post the kind of goals stats that those two get. in spain, messi and ronaldo get hatfuls against teams that are championship standard. the competition is too intense in england for an individual player to do that imo. therefore, a player playing in england will be at a disadvantage in terms of getting the global recognition that top spanish players get, as he simply cannot post stats like 40 goals in 40 games, whilst playing in england.

and although messi and ronaldo havent played in the epl at their prime (i would argue, ronaldo kind of did), i don't agree that the likes of falcao, rivaldo, shevchenko haven't. for me the following guys are at the shevchenko level in their respective positions and played in the epl over the past decade:

rio ferdinand, john terry, lampard, gerrard, scholes, beckham, thierry henry, van nistelrooy, roy keane, vieira, pires, bergkamp, drogba, carvalho, giggs, rooney
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Ronaldo has already scored a hatful of goals against English sides when he played in the premier league, Messi would do exactly the same against our clubs. Hell, both of them do it every season in the CL against the best teams in Europe so I think they'd manage against Stoke, West Brom, QPR etc.
 
Jurgen the German said:
Ronaldo has already scored a hatful of goals against English sides when he played in the premier league, Messi would do exactly the same against our clubs. Hell, both of them do it every season in the CL against the best teams in Europe so I think they'd manage against Stoke, West Brom, QPR etc.
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i agree that ronaldo scored hatfuls, and that messi would too. as did bale and thierry henry. none of them would be able to get the "a goal a game" ratio that messi and ronaldo are getting basically year in year out in la liga. and i expect diego costa's goals ratio to drop in the premier league too, even though he is playing for the better team in chelsea now.
 
I agree with a lot of what Jurgen was arguing. One way of putting the question would be: how many inarguably world class (definition - would start in a world 11) players are currently playing in the Premier League?
 
milo said:
I agree with a lot of what Jurgen was arguing. One way of putting the question would be: how many inarguably world class (definition - would start in a world 11) players are currently playing in the Premier League?
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Would depend greatly on formation but the only one I can think off that might squeek in is Suarez.
 
milo said:
I agree with a lot of what Jurgen was arguing. One way of putting the question would be: how many inarguably world class (definition - would start in a world 11) players are currently playing in the Premier League?
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Kompany and no one else. Aguero and maybe Courtouis would make a squad.
 
galeforce said:
Kompany, Toure, Aguero
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I don't think that Aguero would start in a world 11, I would have agreed on You're at the end of the season but now I am not so sure (although it is understandable that his form has suffered).
 
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