Gomez played another season for Stuttgart after they won the title and the team sucked by then. Plus, they desperately had to sell Gomez, because they were in debts big time. No other team would've payed that much for him. Neuer is a different story: He's without a doubt the best goalkeeper in the world. By far. Bayern didn't have a great keeper since Kahn retired, so they absolutely had to go after him. As Bayern Munich you just can't go for the second or third best. Schalke wasn't contending by the way. They won the domestic cup and made it to the Champions League semis, but it was kind of obvious, that they wouldn't really stand a chance to contend for the Bundesliga title or the Champions League itself. Neuer would've been gone sooner or late one way or another and he didn't want to leave Germany, so there was just this one option to improve. They were losing one important player each year, it's not like they had to rebuild within a summer. Meanwhile they got payed big time. 10m€ for Sahin, 16 for Kagawa, 37 for Götze and they could've gotten a lot for Lewandowski, too. I'm not saying it's easy to replace these quality players, but if you're having that much cash to spend and make that little out of it, you have to question your signing strategies and your scouting. By the way: Dortmund kept their - in my opionion - best and most important player in Hummels. But he's probably gonna leave next summer. Not to Bayern, I presume.
Bayern is actually the most fundamentally sound team in Europe from a financial perspective. Chelsea, Man U and Man City only have their money because they got rich foreign moguls to invest tons of money. So you have three moguls competing with each other...woop. That's a risky path to take. I don't see Liverpool and Tottenham competing financially with Chelsea. Real and Barca actually spend like drunken sailors, but will always be bailed out eventually...with money coming from Europe. Again, even though you claim nobody can compete with Bayern financially, there have been surprise champions like Wolfsburg, Stuttgart, Dortmund...in the past Kaiserslautern, Bremen, Cologne, Moenchengladbach, Hamburg, and so on and so on. Since 1996, the Bundesliga has had 6 different champions - the Premier League has had 4 (last 10 years: Bundesliga: 4, Premier League: 3). Okay, if you include 1994-95, you have the Blackburn Rovers. But since then, it's all Man U, Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea. And in the last 10 years, Arsenal hasn't really come close. So, basically, yes, Bayern is the strongest team financially in Germany, but I would even say that as far as all of Europe is concerned (if you don't count irrational bailouts in Spain, irrational mogul spending in England and France). Not sure what you are complaining about. The Bundesliga has still been competitive the last decades, with Bayern dominating the past two seasons, yes. But (sadly ), even this time will end, and someone else will win the title again.
Lol every year we have the same discussion. The way I see it is that ATW and Yung-T will have Bundesliga as the best, Ser Geving ( and others) will have EPL, Reeko and I La Liga. What happen to Ferrari? Simply because if our team wins that means we won in the best league. But in all honesty, the way I rank the leagues in terms of internal competition is as follows: EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, Seria A.
Damn brehs, I twice said my comment and the posts before were purely about performance vs. international competition, where it'S a fact that EPL teams stunk in recent years, while Spain dominated and now Germany is on an upswing. La Liga>Bundesliga>EPL
Come on now you imbecile. You are now claiming that Man Utd have gotten their money from their owners? The same owners that gave them a ton of debt? And I'm not talking about 40-50 years ago. I'm not bringing up Nottingham Forest in regards to "look here, other teams have won the league" My point still is, that the teams are more even, and you never know who will win in the BPL. Manchester City, United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool keep putting up decent teams that can contend for a title. Year in year out. And you have teams at the bottom of the league that can actually grab some points against the title contenders every weekend. It's not like in Germany where you can have one year contending and then fall completely off, like Stuttgart did a few years ago. Schalke, and this year it looks like Dortmund is heading down that road. It's not a testament to a strong and exciting league when you have one team constantly competing for a title with one year wonders. But in the BPL you have several teams becoming rivals, not because of geography, but because they keep going head to head for the title. That builds excitement for me. And not sure why you think I'm complaining. Like I've stated, this is my personal opinion about what is the best league.
Your statement is based on a flawed premise. How you can rate a whole league based on the performance of the top tier teams in the CL?. You're not looking at the other teams and how strong the league is from top to bottom. You're basically saying the top clubs from one league are better than the top clubs from another. Man City is just a nightmare in the CL right now. It isn't like they're losing to just Bayerns, Reals and Barcas, they're losing to ****ing Russian and Italian clubs. Bayern can play with 11 backups and still win the Bundesliga with one arm tied behind their backs. They don't even need to put full force squads out there every week like PL teams do because points are so vital in the PL you need to have a good starting 11 even against the middle tier clubs.
Best and most entertaining league in the world. No gimmick games. Every game is a fight from minute 1 to minute 90 and more. Fatigue plays a huge role in how teams fare in the UCL. Every game in the EPL is a dogfight and you cannot say it doesn't impact EPL teams performances in Europe. This is not the case with teams from other leagues in the UCL. Madrid, Barca and Bayern absolutely dominate their leagues and in most games have the match wrapped up by half time or the 60th minute. They can afford to take it lightly after that and even sub out their most important players = less fatigue and less likely injuries = fresher legs for the midweek.
I think most of the people commenting on PL being the best and most entertaining league in the world probably have never even seen any matches from La Liga and the Bundesliga outside of maybe El Clasico and some recaps of a Bayern match.
Atletico Madrid was a 'surprise champion' in your terms, an underdog in comparison to Real or Barca There were times when Atletico was a league bottom dweller. It happens outside of the Bundesliga. In England there are at least 4, 5 teams that have money. The games are more lucrative.
<iframe class="vine-embed" src="https://vine.co/v/OeEvX7rw0P6/embed/simple" width="600" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe><script async src="//platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Anyone else see Yaya Toure just demolish a little girl in the face with an errant shot? Her hands flying up in the air after the hit is her soul leaving the body and going to heaven. Gonna spend the rest of her days chasing Toure on horseback and throwing flaming soccer balls at him. Poor thing. Thoughts and Prayers for that little girl and I mean that in a completely serious way, I’m pretty sure she was knocked out standing up. Oh and what’s up with the parents and adults around her? Way to save your own face first. "Seemingly, seemingly. Was just a safety precaution!" <iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/URvMd-pjSMc?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I know it's still fairly early, but does anyone think Chelsea stands a chance at going unbeaten this season in League play?
They said she was fine, just a little dizzy after. Yaya called her and is giving her a jersey. It was a pretty brutal blow. Oh, and moes, how did you like that handball? Definite advantage for Aquero there. I concede it was otherwise great skill but man I hate that guy. He and Hart are the only ones keeping MC from complete embarrassment.
Meanwhile in Germany: <iframe class="vine-embed" src="https://vine.co/v/Oe0H0M6JBd7/embed/simple?related=0" width="600" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe><script async src="//platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
45 m own goal by a world champion. No idea what the hell he was thinking, if anything. <iframe class="vine-embed" src="https://vine.co/v/OiWMvOQ9veK/embed/simple?related=0" width="600" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe><script async src="//platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
LOL that's what I was thinking. Concussion, drugs, betting mafia...or just head in the clouds (it's the latter...I can rule drugs and betting mafia out!).
Something for freaks and stat nerds: http://11tegen11.net/ Quantifying ‘Gegenpressing’ 5 Replies For a moment, I thought I’d call this post ‘Just how weird a team do we think Bayern is?’. A catchy title helps to draw in a crowd, which you can then try and sell a smart point about footy analytics. Indeed, we will touch upon Bayern and see just how weird they are, but this post probably still won’t be one for the masses. We’ll dive into two advanced defensive metrics that have been set out in the analytics community recently and combine them to identify different defensive team styles. Gegenpressing Gegenpressing, or counter pressing, refers to what teams do when they don’t have the ball. One extreme would be to run back to their penalty box and park the bus there, wait for the opponent to arrive and try to limit space, and thereby the amount of damage done. This may results in quite a few shots conceded, but the idea would be to limit the quality of those attempts and thereby limit the odds of conceding. The other extreme would be to put aggressive pressure on the opposing player in possession of the ball, and try and knick it from him before any decent offensive move can be started. It will result in a lower amount of shots conceded, but once the opponent gets into scoring position, most defenders will probably be out of place, and high quality attempts could arise. To quantify this, we will use two advanced defensive metrics, put out originally by Gerry Gelade and Colin Trainor. Beware of some acronyms now. Average Defensive Distance – ADD This metric computes the average distance up the pitch where a team performs its defensive actions. For all tackles (failed and completed), interceptions and fouls we use the distance between event and the goal line of the defending team. The average of all of those is the Average Defensive Distance. Teams that perform their defensive actions high up the pitch (i.e. far away from their own goal), have a high ADD, those that defend primarily close to their own goal have a low ADD. In his original definition, Gerry only included own half events, but I’ve not applied this selection. I believe this limitation won’t change the outcome all that much, and it’s probably just easier to reproduce including all defensive actions. The highest ADD in the dataset for the 2013-14 season (Brazil, Bundesliga, EPL, Eredivisie, La Liga, Ligue 1, Mexico, MLS, Russia, Championship and A-League) is Bayern’s 46.7. This means that Bayern makes its defensive actions just over 17% further away from goal than the average team does. The average ADD is 39.9. The lowest ADD in the dataset is Crystal Palace, who under Tony Pulis had an ADD of just 36.6. On an average pitch of say 100 meters, this mean Palace defends 3.3 meters deeper than the average team, and 10.1 meters deeper than Bayern. Obviously, not all of this metric represents a conscious tactical choice. Poor teams will generally be playing more in their own half, as their superior opponents lay their will on them. Therefore, this metric needs to be interpreted with care, and in the light of team strength. The extremes like Bayern and Palace are easy, but the less extreme ADD’s are more difficult to interpret. I tend to think of it more as representing a certain style, and not so much as a performance metric. Passes allowed Per Defensive Action – PPDA The second metric we’ll use is Colin Trainor’s Passes allowed per Defensive Action. Again, getting used to the acronym probably takes more time than understanding the metric, as it’s quite straightforward actually. To compute PPDA we divide the amount of passes that a team allows (i.e. passes that the opponent attempts), and divide that number by the amount of defensive actions made. By convenience, we compute this metric over the passes and defensive actions made at least 40 meters from the goal line (OPTA’s 40 coordinate on the x-axis). Colin has explained the reasoning behind this choice very well, so I’ll just refer to his original work here. Teams that sit back and allow their opponent possession of the ball in their own half and around the halfway line, will note a high PPDA. Lots of opponent passes will be divided by a low number of defensive actions that far from the own goal line. In reverse, teams that aggressively pressure their opponent will note a low PPDA. A low amount of opponent passes will be divided by a high number of defensive actions high up the pitch. The lowest PPDA (i.e. the highest amount of pressure) in the dataset is again noted by Bayern at 6.9. So, for every 6.9 passes that their opponents make in that zone further than 40 meters from the Bayern goal, Bayern make one defensive action. The highest PPDA (i.e. the lowest amount of pressure) in the dataset is noted by Mexico’s Atlante for 16.6. Within the top-5 leagues, the highest PPDA was for… Crystal Palace. I hear you thinking. Doesn’t this mean that ADD and PPDA are essentially the same thing? Combining ADD and PPDA Both metrics share common ground, but I’d make the case they are different enough to be valuable. What’s more, they can bring even more insight when combined. ADD tells you where teams performed their defense, PPDA tells you how much defense away from goal they performed. ADD is how high their defensive line was, PPDA is how intense the press was. In part, both go hand in hand. Generally, teams that play high defensive lines also use intense press (Bayern), and teams that play deep defensive lines use low press (Palace). The regression line runs in inverse direction. The R-squared is just 0.46 though, so there is significant variation: teams play high defensive lines with only moderate pressure (Twente), teams that play low defensive lines with high pressure (Cruzeiro), teams that play very deep with moderately low pressure (Queretaro, Montreal), teams that play average defensive lines without defensive pressure (Morelia, Lorient). Oh, and don’t forget to note Bayern stretching the plot in the upper left corner with their absurdly high line and intense press. There is a lot of work to be done with these metrics. We’ll need to check repeatability (but from face value this should be okay), study teams that get a new manager (to separate player effects from tactical choices), assess potential league effect (cultural differences in defending style), etc. For now, I’ll leave you with the big plot, where teams further than 1.5 standard deviation from the regression line have been tagged. Click for the full version. --------------------- I recently watched a Bayern match with a Bayern player who is injured. We made a bet - he said the opposing team would not manage during the whole game to pass the ball to each other 10 times in a row. He won...easily.
Aaaaand...something for rox1 and REEKO. http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/nov/11/pep-guardiola-will-never-return-barcelona-manager Pep Guardiola says he will never return to Barcelona manager role • Bayern Munich coach says that ‘cycle in life’ has finished • Guardiola lashed out at Barça during sabbatical from football Pep Guardiola, the Bayern Munich coach, says he will never return to take charge of former club Barcelona. “In principle I won’t coach Barça again,” he told Mundo Deportivo. “I think that there are cycles in life and that mine [at the club] finished.” Guardiola, who was in Catalonia last weekend to vote in an informal consultation on the region’s independence, managed at Camp Nou from 2008 until 2012 after a playing career which included 11 years at the club. During his time in charge his side won La Liga three times, two Champions League titles, two Copa del Reys, and two each of the Uefa Super Cup and Fifa Club World Cup. His tenure in charge of Barcelona ended when he announced a 12-month sabbatical from football in spring 2012 to “recharge his batteries”. In July 2013 he lashed out at his former employers, saying: “I told them [the president and his directors] I was going 6,000km away and asked them to leave me in peace – but they haven’t kept their word.” Guardiola emerged from his year away from the sport when he was appointed the Bayern manager in January 2013, going on to win the Bundesliga in his first season. However, speculation has persisted he could return to his former club. The 43-year-old says he might eventually return to Catalonia permanently but it will be to reside with his wife Cristina Serra, who he married earlier this year, and not to return to Barça: “My wife has her work and the idea is to come back and live here [in Barcelona]. But I don’t know when that will be.”
