EPL You're Having A Laugh!

[handsofclay]

Is the English Premier League all it's cracked up to be? I watched the Man City v Juventus match in vision only while listening to City at Preston and having watched Juventus in their 3 Serie A matches I can quite honestly say that Chievo and Udinese gave Juventus a better fight than Man City and Roma, Sorry Spudski, pulverized them. What with the other Manchester club flopping too and British clubs getting nowhere in Europe these past few seasons it makes one wonder what all the hype about the EPL is about. I actually think the French League is better than ours now. When we signed Kodjia from the French level 2 people wondered if he'd be able to step up to level 2 in England. Seems like it's a step down to me!

[JoeAman08]

Well the EPL seems to just be good for spending money. You look at some of the moves made or the prices quoted. It is silly. Think EPL get caught on the hype train way too much. Charlie Austin quoted at £15m is ridiculous(without getting started on championship spending). Had a good year for a bad team. Not a bad player but you look at one of Juve's goal scorers last night in Manzukic. He cost about 20m €. So right in the same range as Austin and I know who I would rather have. 

 

To be fair to Man City, Juve is the strongest team in that group other than themselves. Though dropping points at home is a no no. They're not out of it yet. Man U losing at PSV is a much worse result. Maybe hangover from the Shaw injury which was awful. 

 

I think you'll see Man City most likely advance to at least a quarter final depending on draws. England are at risk of losing a champions league spot so I hope they all do well. They should be but for some odd reason Euro teams seem to give English ones trouble. I personally think it's because Euro teams tend to take more risks. A few more long shots and passes that tear teams apart when they work. EPL teams seem to want to walk the ball into the back of the net.

[cider-manc]

The EPL has many tag lines- It did used to be the best league (IMO) but it has been a long way short for around the past 5-6 years.

Consider that at one point that Man U had Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez up front and they now have Rooney and some French kid who no one had heard of 2 months ago. 

At a similar time Liverpool's central midfield was Mascherano, Alonso, and Gerrard, now it's Henderson, Allen and Coutinho.

Arsenal had Henry- Giourd? Not even close.

The list goes on.

There are obvious exceptions- Manchester City for example have improved beyond their fans wildest dreams. But the last truly world class player in the league was Suarez and he very nearly single handedly won the league (when he wasn't being racist or biting people that is) as he was just so much better than everyone else!

It's no coincidence that more promoted teams are, not only staying up, but also pushing into the top half nowadays, the standard just isn't as high.

Every league has it's day and I'm sure the English top flight will be back as the pinnacle at some point, but truth be told you can't even argue that the prem is the most exciting league any more- which was it's main selling point.