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The other night, on TV, there was a moment of sublime football skill displayed by one of the three Barca forwards on the nearside touchline when he flicked a ball over the head of the defender, danced around the other side, collected his own pass and stormed off towards goal. The crowd audibly gasped. These moments of pure football invention are rarely if ever seen in bread and butter Premiership games. The Albion, and similar clubs, have to cut their cloth according to their abilities and concentrate on plain skills well executed in the search for hard won points. Should we now acknowledge that we watch two very different games; the Premiership struggle where 90% of the football is percentage play with little sentiment for flair and the European games where the 10-20 best players in the World sometimes have a chance to show their true abilities to the delight of the audience?
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14-05-2015, 22:16
(This post was last modified: 15-05-2015, 09:57 by drewks.)
That's an interesting question, meanbren - the PL MAY be lauded as 'the best league in the world', but what does that mean? The most competitive, I'd say - but not necessarily teams with the most skillful players.
And what sort of game is the best to watch - a team with great individuals who can show their skills against (maybe) more mediocre opposition, or 2 pretty well matched teams who - to use an old fashioned expression - 'go for it'?
Personally, it's a bit of both for me - I like the cut & thrust of our league (but wish that it was even MORE robust in terms of players not faking, and actual bodily contact still being allowed) and get tired of watching tippy tappy possession stuff where 30 passes end with the ball with the keeper, but absolutely love the thrill of a Ronaldo, a Messi etc running at the opposition with the ball at his feet!
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The attraction of the PL is the fact that at the start of a season more than 1 or 2 teams could concievably win it. Sure the top 4 is fairly static but when you add the likes of Liverpool, Spurs and maybe one or two others, it is the most competitive league in Europe. Obviously as the season plays out sometimes we get a year like this one where Chelsea really weren't challenged, but its still more competitive that the others.
