I don't think Spain are that dominant. Right now I would say Barca are clearly the best team in the world, but just below them Real, Bayern, Juve and maybe PSG are reasonably competitive.
Athletico Madrid
Juventus
Olympiakos
Malmo
Real Madrid
FC Basel
Liverpool
Ludogorets Razgrad
Benfica
Zenit St Petersburg
Bayer Leverkusen
Monaco
Arsenal
Borussia Dortmund
Galatasaray
Anderlecht
Bayern Munich
Manchester City
CSKA Moscow
Roma
Barcelona
Paris St-Germain
Ajax
Apoel Nicosia
Chelsea
Schalke
Sporting Lisbon
Maribor
Porto
Shaktar Donetsk
Athletico Bilbao
BATE Borisov
I don't think Spain are that dominant. Right now I would say Barca are clearly the best team in the world, but just below them Real, Bayern, Juve and maybe PSG are reasonably competitive.
You'll have more fun at a Glasgow stabbing than an Edinburgh wedding.
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Their defence sucks?
In the 37 matches needed to win La Liga, that defence conceded 19 goals.
In the 13 matches needed to win the Champions League, that defence conceded 11 goals, two of which came in the second half of the semi-final, when Bayern needed to score five. People forget, but the first leg at Camp Nou, Bayern finished the match without a shot on target.
In the 9 matches needed to win La Liga, that defence conceded 6 goals.
38 goals conceded in 60 matches overall, 33 clean sheets overall. That's a rate of 0.63 goals conceded per game.
Bayern has 0.69
Chelsea has 0.76
Real has 0.98.
Only Juventus are comparable, but their 38 goals conceded are from 56 matches, meaning 0.68 goals conceded. And they have 27 clean sheets.
No team has managed to score 4 past Barcelona and only PSG, Real and Bayern have managed to score three.
This is the greatest exaggeration, that somehow Barça's defence sucks.
not so sure about it. Luis enrique did better then Guardiola, on every account aparently, so they say. Still.In any case, football is getting weird lately. Almost no good players on the market and not even the top teams worldwide mentioned above are performing at a top level. It's like everyone became mediocre all of sudden, so to speak. Barcelona just won the Champions League almost with no competence and they are but a shade of the absurdly amazing team they were a few years ago.
Hum Portuguese teams have that for years as well.. B teams playing in Segunda liga. You might be right, it has some benefit for younglings. Players Like Jame rodriguez used to play In Porto B team for example.Spain is dominant because their youth system is better.
Barcelona B (or the others) doesn't play only against other B teams or youth teams,they play in the Segunda, competitive match against competitive teams at the age of 16-17. Of course Barcelona can add 1 or 2 quality players for free every season.
In the case of Young Portuguese talents that are now in valencia ( Andre Gomes, Cancelo etc) Used to play in Benfica B as well.
BTW I for one im having a great time watching the U20 world cup, what an amazing games i seen so far. Ghana, and Portugal national teams for instance are rocking as far as i know.
It always existed, even in english football even if in some countries is more noted ( Portugal Spain, South america specialy). But at the time no one realy cared about it as much as now for some reason. It was apart of football, and still is. You know as far im concern and as stereotypes go, as well generalizations, this can go both ways. English football knowned to be violent and tough in return.. But i think it is all a generalization.The reason that Spanish football has been so dominant over recent years is because contemporary interpretations of the rules favour their technical styles. As ever when watching European football I cringed at the diving and crying. Indeed, it's become so common place now that most people barely even notice it, despite the fact that players rolling around on the floor is humiliating to see.
Yep that is true. I think a lot of people always underated Spanish league because it is "dominated" by two giants. But the truth is some other teams, are equal contenders to manny big teams in europe.And what about Atlético, a team a lot closer to Chelsea than it is to either Real or Barça.
bets stats then guardiola era so they say on TV.Their defence sucks?
In the 37 matches needed to win La Liga, that defence conceded 19 goals.
In the 13 matches needed to win the Champions League, that defence conceded 11 goals, two of which came in the second half of the semi-final, when Bayern needed to score five. People forget, but the first leg at Camp Nou, Bayern finished the match without a shot on target.
In the 9 matches needed to win La Liga, that defence conceded 6 goals.
38 goals conceded in 60 matches overall, 33 clean sheets overall. That's a rate of 0.63 goals conceded per game.
Bayern has 0.69
Chelsea has 0.76
Real has 0.98.
Only Juventus are comparable, but their 38 goals conceded are from 56 matches, meaning 0.68 goals conceded. And they have 27 clean sheets.
No team has managed to score 4 past Barcelona and only PSG, Real and Bayern have managed to score three.
This is the greatest exaggeration, that somehow Barça's defence sucks.
And yeah Barca defense realy doesnt suck. I dont know where he got that ideia.
Last edited by Knight of Heaven; June 07, 2015 at 07:23 AM.
Dominant midfield makes sure Barcelona doesn't really concede many goals, simply because they don't concede much offensive playing at all. Their defense is good but obviously not their strenght as it is the midfield or the attackers.
I dont know if they play more beautifully or not, but they do have better stats then in the guardiola era. That is what im saying.
Dominant midfield has nothing to do with exemplary set-piece/corner defending by Europe's shortest defense(Pique is 1.92, Mascherano 1.74, Alves 1.7, Alba 1.65). A clear example are the Atletico matches: Barcelona conceded 3 goals in four matches against Atletico, two from penalties and one from open play. Atletico are masters of set pieces and corner plays, and by the second match overall they were going exclusively for short corners in order to conserve possession. How many corners did Juve get last night? And how many of them achieved something? The third goal came from a Juve free kick high ball, which Pique won with two successful air duels to give the ball to Messi, who started the offensive play. Defense is also marking the opposing strikers so well and anticipating their movement, so that the opposing midfield and defense has to spend too much time looking for options and loses the ball.
And if "Dominant midfield" is the real reason, why then did Bayern finish without a shot on goal at Camp Nou? Barcelona lost the possession in that match and it still finished 3-0. Benatia was the first opponent to score against Barça since the first leg of the Round of 16, when Aguero scored late in the game. Those were four matches against City, PSG(two times) and Bayern in which no opposing player scored a goal. Benatia's was also the first goal Barça conceded from a corner/set piece since October 2014, against Real. And that Real goal(by Pepe) was the ONLY header/goal from corner Barça conceded during the whole La Liga season.
In La Liga Barça received less shots per game than anybody else, 7.89 per game on average. Yet the second best team in that aspect is Atletico, who received 8.34 shots per game(that's 17 more for the duration of the season), but conceded 29 goals compared to 21 for Barcelona.
As for number of saves and saves per goal in the domestic leagues, there's not even one top team which exceeds Barcelona's balance. Not one. Not even Bayern with Neuer.
Though honestly Ter Stegen did at least 2 horrendous interventions on corners, luckily for him, Juventus didn't do anything with it.
I don't watch every Barcelona game, but I can't say I was impressed by their defending. I'm a Milan fan and during the Guardiola era Milan faced Barcelona almost every year and often managed to score 1-2 goals (despite eventually losing or tying).
I recall perfectly a game with Milan scoring at the first minute, with Pato walking through Mascherano and Piqué, then spending 90 minutes defending, conceding 2 goals and eventually equalizing in extra time with Thiago Silva heading in a corner. 2 shots on goal, 2 goals. That is hardly impressive defending. A case? Maybe.
Bayern lacked Robben and Ribery though.
All of this could easily support the ''dominant midfield'' theory as well.
Bayern's defense got praised the whole year, they aren't really that impressive either. They concede few goals, but that's because they control the ball almost all the time. The few times they faced an equally strong midfield, the defenders didn't look so good at all. Actually Neuer saved their ass on multiple occasions.
Btw 10 bets goals of champions league this year, according to UEFA.
Dez melhores golos de 2014/15
1 Cristiano Ronaldo (Liverpool 0-3 Real Madrid)
2 Ivan Rakitić (Juventus 1-3 FC Barcelona)
3 Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona 3-0 Bayern Munique)
4 Luis Suárez (Paris Saint-Germain 1-3 Barcelona)
5 Ivan Rakitić (FC Barcelona 1-0 Manchester City)
6 Marco Reus (Galatasaray AŞ 0-4 Borussia Dortmund)
7 Karim Benzema (Real Madrid CF 5-1 Basileia)
8 Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain 3-2 Barcelona)
9 Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern Munique 6-1 FC Porto)
10 Vincent Aboubakar (FC Porto 4-0 Basileia)
That Vincent Aboubakar, will be a a name knowned in World of football, in the future. ( If any of you play FM you would know what im talking about , That guy is world class striker there, a machine )
Btw best Free kick goals of the season
1 Son Heung-Min (FC Zenit 1-2 Bayer Leverkusen)
2 Aaron Ramsey (Galatasaray AŞ 1-4 Arsenal)
3 Steven Gerrard (Liverpool FC 1-1 Basileia)
4 Casemiro (FC Porto 4-0 Basileia)
5 Andrea Pirlo (Juventus 3-2 Olympiacos)