Should English clubs prepare differently in Europe? or do they?
- Thread starter mo9204
- Start date
It depends who you are against.
If you try and play 'normal' football against Barcelona, you will lose. This applies to all teams, not just English ones.
Taking Man Utd v Real Madrid as an example, we were far more disciplined than normal, as well as defensively minded. If we played as we usually do, we would have given them far too much space and quite simply lost.
Considering an English team are currently the Champions League holders (despite their pitiful defence of their title), I wouldn't say we aren't a force in Europe.
If you try and play 'normal' football against Barcelona, you will lose. This applies to all teams, not just English ones.
Taking Man Utd v Real Madrid as an example, we were far more disciplined than normal, as well as defensively minded. If we played as we usually do, we would have given them far too much space and quite simply lost.
Considering an English team are currently the Champions League holders (despite their pitiful defence of their title), I wouldn't say we aren't a force in Europe.
World wide fans may enjoy the premiership as a whole (if for nothing else than the new tv deals coming through - unless a lot of media/tv companies are buying it up on a whim lol) but imo the most skillful players in Europe and Worldwide (South American /Brazilian mainly) are less interested in England than Spain/Germany /Italy
Whether its money /taxes (which I cant believe is the primary factor for the most skilled), weather, or personal choices re particular clubs, English clubs can really only compete for players on relatively even playing field with Barca/Real etc with players who are either not (yet) 1st choice for their country, or are from smaller European nations who have less affiliations /affection for their own league as a permanent place to play (rather than as a youngster).
In general however every club prepares for each game differently, it doesnt matter whether its QPR, Stoke, Chelsea or Real / Inter etc, tactics and therefore player choices is primarily what its about. Obviously the better players in the top clubs can "do a job" which help their team in different positions to where/how they normally play - but its fair to say even a single loss against City (for example) possibly isnt felt as badly in a top club in England when compared to a defeat in Europe. Europe / CL (sorry but only for mid-table EPL teams does the Europa even mean anything significant) games will always mean more, and its only right imo that this is the case.
City (imo) has always been an expensive collection of individuals and imo this seasion is proving that, until they truelly gel CL will always be an impossible challange. 2007/08 England had three CL teams in the semi's I think, but that was a one off, I cant see two or more English teams getting that far again for a good while. Even before the Arsenal game, Bayern are a phenomenal team who have just been reasonably unlucky in the last couple of seasons , Barca and Real are usually impossible to beat in one off games (despite RM's "failures" this season) without even considering the quirks of the draw etc.
Ignoring the all too rare home-grown talent, the EPL has occasional super stars like Viera (and Keane), Ronaldo, Fabregas, Cech, etc etc - but considering the "top" clubs England have, they have been relatively few and far between, and even then the EPL gets them at a young age and loses them to their "boyhood" club as they mature for the most part.
I think EPL will always be favoured by majority of the punters because on any given day anyone can beat any other club, which isnt usually the case in Spain or Germany particularly. Players unfortunately however will usually prefer the latter two.
Whether its money /taxes (which I cant believe is the primary factor for the most skilled), weather, or personal choices re particular clubs, English clubs can really only compete for players on relatively even playing field with Barca/Real etc with players who are either not (yet) 1st choice for their country, or are from smaller European nations who have less affiliations /affection for their own league as a permanent place to play (rather than as a youngster).
In general however every club prepares for each game differently, it doesnt matter whether its QPR, Stoke, Chelsea or Real / Inter etc, tactics and therefore player choices is primarily what its about. Obviously the better players in the top clubs can "do a job" which help their team in different positions to where/how they normally play - but its fair to say even a single loss against City (for example) possibly isnt felt as badly in a top club in England when compared to a defeat in Europe. Europe / CL (sorry but only for mid-table EPL teams does the Europa even mean anything significant) games will always mean more, and its only right imo that this is the case.
City (imo) has always been an expensive collection of individuals and imo this seasion is proving that, until they truelly gel CL will always be an impossible challange. 2007/08 England had three CL teams in the semi's I think, but that was a one off, I cant see two or more English teams getting that far again for a good while. Even before the Arsenal game, Bayern are a phenomenal team who have just been reasonably unlucky in the last couple of seasons , Barca and Real are usually impossible to beat in one off games (despite RM's "failures" this season) without even considering the quirks of the draw etc.
Ignoring the all too rare home-grown talent, the EPL has occasional super stars like Viera (and Keane), Ronaldo, Fabregas, Cech, etc etc - but considering the "top" clubs England have, they have been relatively few and far between, and even then the EPL gets them at a young age and loses them to their "boyhood" club as they mature for the most part.
I think EPL will always be favoured by majority of the punters because on any given day anyone can beat any other club, which isnt usually the case in Spain or Germany particularly. Players unfortunately however will usually prefer the latter two.
I think it's harder for EPL teams to adapt to European football because our style of football is a lot more physical and less chess like/methodical.
This season EPL referees have been (impressively imo) letting a lot of fouls go and playing the advantage to keep the game flowing, whereas in Spain for example you usually only need to have a player fall down with a player near him and a FK is awarded, officiating in the Champions League is similar.
Plus other top European teams play in less competitive leagues so they have more opportunity to experiment with and practice new formations/systems.
This season EPL referees have been (impressively imo) letting a lot of fouls go and playing the advantage to keep the game flowing, whereas in Spain for example you usually only need to have a player fall down with a player near him and a FK is awarded, officiating in the Champions League is similar.
Plus other top European teams play in less competitive leagues so they have more opportunity to experiment with and practice new formations/systems.
They don't don't give the opposition players too much respect.
They do approach games with a different mentality I feel but the same applies for certain domestic games too so it isn't unique to european competition i.e. Arsenal will set up differently at home to Villa compared to away to MU for example.
As for 2007/8 being a 'one off' it certainly wasn't as the same happened in e.g. 06/07 and 08/09. Whether it will happen again in the near future who can say, but to be fair it isn't as though any other countries have had 3 semi-finalists since as you'd have to get pretty lucky draws for that to happen. In fact in terms of "3 semifinalists ranking" we are literally (c) Jamie Redknapp wiping the floor with every single league in Europe in recent years; nobody can get remotely close to the EPL as from 2006 onwards we've managed it a staggering THREE times compared to ZERO times from Spain, Italy, Germany or any other league you care to mention.
They do approach games with a different mentality I feel but the same applies for certain domestic games too so it isn't unique to european competition i.e. Arsenal will set up differently at home to Villa compared to away to MU for example.
As for 2007/8 being a 'one off' it certainly wasn't as the same happened in e.g. 06/07 and 08/09. Whether it will happen again in the near future who can say, but to be fair it isn't as though any other countries have had 3 semi-finalists since as you'd have to get pretty lucky draws for that to happen. In fact in terms of "3 semifinalists ranking" we are literally (c) Jamie Redknapp wiping the floor with every single league in Europe in recent years; nobody can get remotely close to the EPL as from 2006 onwards we've managed it a staggering THREE times compared to ZERO times from Spain, Italy, Germany or any other league you care to mention.
Based on the official UEFA coefficients (based on previous 5 seasons) England is the strongest country in Europe for producing club teams, although next season we are likely to fall behind Spain (due to 07/08 which was pretty good for us 'dropping off' the list of seasons that count).
While Chelski won last season, as Utd and City dropped out so early (cant honestly remember where Arsenal got to), Im wondering if 11/12 season damages the coefficent somewhat as well
.This is the ranking (don't be fooled by the fact it is on a private website, I've been using it for about 10 years and never known it to be wrong or out of date): http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/data/method4/crank2012.html
So in 11/12 Spain gained about 5pts on us as it was an exceptionally good year for them.
Another thing to consider is looking at the latest published fair play rankings England are doing much worse than usual so I don't think we are going to blag an extra Europa league spot for next season like we normally do.
So in 11/12 Spain gained about 5pts on us as it was an exceptionally good year for them.
Another thing to consider is looking at the latest published fair play rankings England are doing much worse than usual so I don't think we are going to blag an extra Europa league spot for next season like we normally do.