₦airaland Forum

Diademk07:
Take the Dortmund friendly match for example, where all the average players were assembled..

We were not only camped in our half but were well spanked in that game! Same happened vs Galatasaray in the 1st half.

That could have happened a lot in the league if Van gaal had dared to take one foot off his possession tactic like he did vs Pool in the Europa 1st leg match.

SailorXY:
style of play my ass.
Give me 3 points & keep your style of play.

Diademk07:
The team played as a functional unit though but lacked the quality. That's the key point..

If we had set out relying on individual brilliance, we would've been battling relegation like those small teams as soon as those individual moments weren't forth coming..

Exactly what happened at Chelsea last season when attacking teams such as Everton, Southampton etc were toying with them..

bykebyke:
Hope everybody hold their ignore buttons?

Ibime:
That mean say he no trust the guy defending.

I have never seen a manager talking about improving a 29 year old before

Diademk07:
Most of them still camped and countered against us though..

No doubt we shoulda break them down and done better but we lacked the pacey quality individuals both upfront and in the middle to do that. We were a lot better with Rash and Linggard for example.

Which all boils down to the blunders Van gaal had in the transfer market.. For example, Depay whose acceleration and agility were/are non-existent or the crock, Schweini who looked sluggish and unfit..

And there were Rojo and Darmain who looked garbage on the flanks.

Diademk07:
Such as?

Most of the match lost vs small teams were either 1-0 or 2-1.

Apart from the Westham match who capitalised on Herrera's stupid fouls while bombarding us with their aeriel threats from the resulting free-kicks and the 3-3 draw in the Newcastle game where all the goals scored resulted from Smalling mistakes..

I don't know of any..

Also, most of the match lost vs this small team either had Fellaini, the average Rooney or Martial as the strikers...

We hardly lost any match after Rashford emerged together with Lingard pace on the flank..

Diademk07:
We hardly looked poor though.. We were just non-threatening due to our lack of good strikers.. We dominated the middle and looked good but lacked the pace in the middle and upfront nor the creativity to actually break the opponent..

The moment Rashford and Lingard got more involved in the second half of the season, we looked better vs most side except some good side such as Liverpool, Spurs etc which all had better numerical quality upfront as opposed to ours etc..

We never played cowardly like Mourinho had us play vs Southampton or the way Hull bossed us in the 1st half.. Considering the no of qualities in Mourinho's side..

The small teams that defeated us did that by parking the bus while relying on pure luck on the counter..

We were hardly outplayed!

Griffon:
Mind mentioning a single deal that isn't absurd in today's market?

Griffon:
Short term fix. We're short of numbers at the back and we needed an addition.

Like someone rightly said, Cristensen and Zouma are the future, that is if all goes as planned.

Maccoy1:
yea...are also a fan of bayern

Maccoy1:
u mean

GloryIsaac:
I'm so happy about this news , i hope Barca too gets banned , Btw, De Gea and Ibrahimovic are both rated 90 in the new Fifa 17, this is for those who say Courtouis is better than DDG... Neuer is 92 though, thanks to BayernMunich and Champions League

MrTA:
This 2 transfer window ban for Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid is something serious oh.

Maccoy1:
Bayern

chrisley024:
Explain

elrony:
Bro...how na?...

chrisley024:
In other news, Nigerians must first change their own attitudes before demanding to see the changes he promised them according to Buhari.

Smh. This country don fail break.

raumdeuter:
Why last decade? The more recent it is the more relevant it is

If they ask you what are the current strongest teams in EUrope would you say AC Milan, Liverpool Lyon and Inter? Since they were very strong about a decade ago

if they ask you who are the current best Nigerian artistes would you say Ruggedman, Azadus 9ice because they were the best a decade ago?

raumdeuter:
In recent times after the La Liga, the bundesliga has gotten close more than the EPL. Since 2010 there has always been a Bundesliga team in the semi finals

Thats 7 straight seasons while some yrs we wont even get an EPL team beyond second round or quarter finals

raumdeuter:
Did Porto win it consistently like the Spanish league has been doing? Did Portuguese league teams make the final or semi finals consistently

Last 3 CL has been won by Spanish teams if this isnt evidence that they have the strongest league then what is?

dmcdad:
To be candid with you, they count. Although they are not the deciding factors, yet admittedly they count ultimately. But then, this is not an excuse to not state categorically that EPL has been far below par in recent years.

The truth is; between 2005 and 2012, EPL were worthy contenders in European Football. Now my humble question for you is; were they not playing the aforementioned competitions at the time? Of course they were! Why the nosedive then? That's because the top guns in EPL have been shiit in recent times. No? And let's even clear up this issue of competitiveness especially with lowly placed teams; the classical argument that the EPL is the best league because of parity is garbage. The only reason there is parity is because the top of the league simply isn't good enough. That's what you guys fail to take cognizance of. The top is garbage (at least in recent years), hence the struggle with lowly placed teams.

It is insane how hard it is to win the EPL title, yet last season Leicester CIty won the League. What does that say about the top four or five in that League? Are Leicester City on the same level as Barça, Bayern or Real Madrid? NO they are not and never will be. This proves beyond every shadow of doubt that the quality of football and/or players by the top teams has been at low ebb recently.

If you put 20 equally shite teams together, it'll be super competitive, but what's your point? The EPL-is-hard-to-win argument has nothing to do with how good the teams are. On the contrary even, it shows how bad the top has been in recent years.

As regards the extra competition they play, that also is not an excuse I would say. Most teams have enough squad depth to cover for that. Did you know Barça played a game almost every 3 days from September last year till March or April this year? Combining the league, Champions League, Copa del Rey, Club World Cup (in Japan) until January. And in January played the League and Copa matches all through (every 3 days) till February when the Champions League KO began. It continued that way till Barça were knocked out of The UCL and and it ended when Barça played their semifinal Copa match. Calculate it and it would amount to about 60 matches. Not to forget that Barça had an unbeaten run in that very tough period. Now tell me, how many EPL teams did play up to 60 games last season? And this was the same thing 2 seasons ago when we won the treble. Our only issue last season was squad depth. If we had it last season, I guess the UCL final would have been an El-Clasico final. Regardless of the the fact that we were knocked out of the UCL, we won a double which was a success nonetheless. So you see? If you have enough quality, regardless of the number of matches, your squad quality would prevail.

Moreover, toughest football doesnt mean quality football. It is all about winning tittles and not hype and money only. If you have all the money and coaches and you can't compete with the weak teams, then it is considerd a failure. Excuses, excuses, excuses; not having a winter break is not the fault of other leagues, that is your problem. If you are that tough then come out and show your toughness. Besides, how come PSG that literally strolls to the Ligue 1 title yearly haven't dominated the UCL since they face weak opposition? If playing easier teams makes you a champions league winner or top contender, then Juventus, Bayern and PSG [/b]could have dominated the CL, so find another excuse as we are used to this already. Although among those 3, Bayern is an exception; not because they face weaker oppositions, but because they are a top quality side themselves.

Juve had won the Serie A months before the 2015 Champions League final, while Barça won La Liga in the last week of the season. Did that give Juventus any sort of edge in the final? Of course you knew what happened. [b]Bayern were in pole position of retaining the Bundesliga title prior to playing Barça in 2015, while Barça were still struggling it out with Atletico and Real. Did that make the contest any easier for Bayern since they would have rested more players prior to the fixtures? So Frankly, these arguments are flawed.

Quality, like I earlier pointed out, prevails!

raumdeuter:
So if performance in Europe doesnt denote the strenght of the league then what denotes?

Is it failure in Europe?

Its possible that Cyprus league since they are the ones who fail the most in Europe is the strongest league abi?

raumdeuter:
How does Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid issue affect the weakness of the EPL and the 2 times Atletico and Madrid met in the finals, It was always a close game, one decided on penalties and one in extra time

Spurs knock out Villareal where?

raumdeuter:
WHat is energy sapping about playing Everton Spurs or Liverpool? Are those not the same teams that Sevilla, Valencia and co molest for fum in Europa league?

Abi is it a different Liverpool from the one Sevilla beat black and blue for Europa finals?

dmcdad:
Honestly, this is nothing but the truth albeit EPL fanboys won't wanna admit it.

Given, EPL is the most watched and most entertaining (whatever that means) and maybe the most competitive too, but that doesn't make it any better than the rest. As far as quality is concerned, EPL is very low and highly overrated. For all the fuss created by the English media, EPL is ridiculously subpar in terms of the quality of play and even the quality of players. Funny enough though, EPL boasts of the best deals as far as finances are concerned. Also, they boast of very goos coaches very now and then, yet, they are very poor in terms f competing amongst Europe's bests.

I mean, anybody wey say him get power, shey na to dey beat him younger brothers and sisters inside house him go take prove him power? Of course not! He would need to challenge others outside the confinement of his house to prove his mettle.

So, the earlier they realise they seldom play good football and start learning while also reducing the amount of hype, the better for them.

hensben:
One of the reason I don't have regard for manure urinated and I believe so many football fans out there don't as well. They dominated epl in the last through bullying of ref and opposition and I strongly believe English Fa have a hand in all this. If you observe very well it's hunting them already,most times players reject them for other big clubs. A lot of shady things were going on under Ferguson. Giggs slept with his brothers wife for good eight years the medias never emphasize on this in fact, it was swept under the carpet but was it so in Terry's case? The answer is no. To even think terry slept with his formal team mate ex.