Is the Italian league still the best (1 Viewer)

[denco]

With the recent bad performances and results in Europe by Italian sides and the Nt, i have thought about why i believe, sadly the Italian league is no more the best. The biggest problem is the calibre of players that we have now in italy. In the 80s and the 90s the amount of world class players were mostly in the italian league, in fact thats what attracted me to it, there was maradona, platini, zico, socrates, passarella, then there was matthaeus, gullit rikjard, van basten, baresi, baggio etc.
Now lets go thru the teams that are now in the cl
Juventus world class players imo are Montero, Thuram*, Buffon,Davids*,Nedved, Dp and Trez.
Roma Samuel, Cafu, Candela, Totti, Emerson and Batistuta(barely)
Inter Toldo, Zanetti(j), Dalmat, Recoba, Ronaldo and Vieri
Milan Maldini(barely nowadays),Sheva, Rui Costa
In Uefa
Lazio Nesta* Crespo*
Chievo none
* not sure they will be there next season
Now if you asked for the current best players in the world
You will find apart from Ronaldo and Vieri, you wont get a lot of votes from current serieA players.
Players in real madrid will figure highly like raul, zz, figo, carlos, and the rest aint that bad, Manchester united have Beckham, Keane, veron, giggs will also have their say, liverpool have the current european footballer of the year.
Arsenal have Viera, Pires and Henry who will figure highly etc
Thats why when Italian teams come against teams form England or Spain they come up short.
No matter how much tactical you get u cant beat world class performers which Italian teams seem to be lacking.
Then you have the negative approach that is the bane if Italian football, always wanting to win matches with the minimum effort as the Nt showed in the wc. Sitting back and waiting for opponents to make mistakes instead of taking the initiative to win matches

 

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[Martin]

I have to say I consider the current players in Serie A to be the best in the world. And quite contrary to your proposition, I don't believe it's their inferiority skill wise that leaves them short. I would lean towards the inadequate tactics that have put them out of the reckoning lately.

It's true that the arguably best (argued by MANY ) left and that leaves a bit of a stain on the Serie A as a sanctuary for the world elite. But many of the best still remain, as you pointed out. I would also expect that the average sub in Serie A is better than that of the EPL for instance.

What has changed certainly is the gap between "our" league and some of the others. In the early-mid 90s, the English league had literally none of the world's best players. And when the transfers of the likes of Juninho, Vialli, Gullit, Zola, Di Matteo came through, as the first few players to step down from Serie A to end their careers in England it was a BIG DEAL. And noticable they were on the pitch (they showed a lot of EPL in Norway at the time)! The Spanish league at the time harbored some of the best but the ratio of stars to average players was much less than it is today. Times have changed and you can find some of the best players spread around a bit now.

But the supremacy of the Serie A still stands and shall be proven sooner or later

 

[Dj Juve]

Serie A isnt the best league anymore, not by a long shoot IMO...La Liga have clearly overtoken us, and EPL is soon threatening, and i wont be suprised if the do overtake the way things are going :groan:

 

[nina]

It might not be as entertaining as La Liga, but it still has something to offer:

1. they still have the most stars and better players than any other league

2. the way smaller clubs always try to do their best against the bigger ones and therefor quite often make the games interesting although on paper it looks like the game was already decided

3. imho the derbies have a far bigger meaning in Italy than they do in Spain or England and I'm a fan of derbies so ...

4. the most BIG clubs

La Liga is becoming more popular because their clubs are doing great in european championships. But those 4 or 6 clubs are not the whole league!

 

[Martin]

If I may... I'd like to add that

5. The league is still the toughest among all the contenders. Juve only lost 2 games last year, Roma only 1. If you look to the others, there is more room for error and you can afford to mess up a few more times and still win it.

 

[denco]

Alex and Nina i agree with your points up until the point you say have the best players, i have to disagree on that because if you think of the top 20 players in the world, i am not sure a lot will come fron serieA. Now Alex you say Roma only lost 2 games in the league but they did lose the same amount in the cl, juve lost 3 times in the league in 34 matches but 4 in 8 matches in cl. Real madrid lost about 6 0r 7 in the league but once in the cl to bayern munich, Manu united lost 8 in the league but i am 1 or 2 in the cl so how can you conclude that the serie A is the toughest. Do u guys remember when milan were all conquering both at home and away and when the uefa was almost the commodity of serieA, when juve were unbeatable in europe and serie a but not they only seem to be unbeatable in SerieA but do nothing in Europe. Few years ago will Feyernord be beating inter away or juve losing 4-0 at celta vigo, milan losing 1-0 to roda it goes on and on. No much as it pains me to admit and i will only admit it in an Italian forum, as any other place i will argue the merits of serieA anywhere else, Seria is no more the best

 

[Dj Juve]

i agree with denco here.

if Serie A has around 6-7 big clubs(4. the most BIG clubs), how come none of them did any good in Europe, where else german sides, english and spanish all did better when they only have an average of 4-5 big clubs in each league.

nobody cares if the competitiveness in local leagues are high, its what the club and nation achieve in european competitions and worldwide.

 

[Desmond]

i think many are just ex-big clubs,like milan,lazio,parma.

the really big clubs are:juve(naturally),roma,inter.no more than that.

 

[Anastacia]

i'd also like to add some points:

6. The title is always decided on the last day with so much DRAMA !! unlike eng where man utd won the title officially before 5 weeks and arsenal before 1 week of the end of the season.

7. There are new faces each year in the challenge to the scudetto (lazio-milan 1999,lazio-juve2000, Roma-Juve2001, Juve-Inter-Roma2002, etc.) unlike eng where the title is always between arsenal and man utd.

 

[Sivori]

I can accept that the spanish league is better- if you buy better mean more entertaining football that also wins titles.

but I will NEVER, and I do mean NEVER be convinced that premier league is better than Serie A.

NP: hellacopters - Soulseller

 

[denco]

Its not better but its more entertaining in its own way. But I will say its time the Italian teams step up in Europe.
Another thing that is bugging me is that all the managers in Serie a are Italians and the only exception is Cuper who is even more Italian in his approach to football. I long for the days of ppl like Zeman whom at least brought something different.
It doesnt help every week when you are constantly pitting your wits against the same type of mentality each week.
Every manager thinking how to out negative the other

 

[Sivori]

You may find the EPL entertaining,I, however do not share that viewpoint.
Amongst other things it is, for me, impossible to watch a match without getting annyoed at the teams hopeless defences.

It's hard to enjoy an attack when the finisher was completely free in the box because three of the defenders went for the guy with the ball in the beginning of the attack. It doesn't take zidane to give the ball to guy who comes rushing in towards goal with a freeway of open space in front of him.

 

[Ian]

No Serie A is not the best league in the world. The EPL has was last year, and before the La Liga was for a few years.

 

[denco]

Not until Italian teams start producing in Europe and most of the matches produce exciting football like yesteryears then its no more the best

 

[Juve Boy]

of coures the Italian league is the best league in the world

 

[Dj Juve]

++ [ originally posted by Sivori ] ++
You may find the EPL entertaining,I, however do not share that viewpoint.
Amongst other things it is, for me, impossible to watch a match without getting annyoed at the teams hopeless defences.

It's hard to enjoy an attack when the finisher was completely free in the box because three of the defenders went for the guy with the ball in the beginning of the attack. It doesn't take zidane to give the ball to guy who comes rushing in towards goal with a freeway of open space in front of him.

that is one of the few downfalls of EPL.
but Serie A has more IMO

somehow, Spanish La Liga have managed to stay both defensively quite solid and brilliant attacking football, better than EPL..that's why they are the best

 

[Evelyn8]

The ITalian League will always be the best as long as Juventus play in it........

 

[the phoenix]

The other leagues may be catching up with us, but I would like to see any team play in Serie A week in and week out. In Serie A is no longer such thing as an easy match. The last place team can be just as tough to beat as the second place team.

Just remember Zidane himself said that he is finding goals easier to come by in La Liga than in Serie A. Serie A is so rigoruos that I would like to see how long Reak Madrid or Man United would last.

 

[denco]

There is a huge difference between being defensive minded and being rigorous. I seem to be reading in defence of the Italian league how this team can beat that team.

Well i do not remember any Italian champs for the last 7 years or so losing more than 4 games in a season

I also do not remember Real Madrid losing to too many Italian teams in recent memory

Zidane normally is not a goal scorer anyways and if you cannot score in a team which has Raul, Figo, Morientes, Carlos, then when will you score

Last season Real Soceildad defeated Real Madrid 3-0, Man united lost 6 games at home and Juve lost only 3 games all season to Lazio, Parma and Roma

Venezia did not defeat anyone of note,Verona Lecce and Fiorentina also fared very badly in SerieA last season with no notable results to speak of

 

[Ian]

++ [ originally posted by Evelyn8 ] ++
The ITalian League will always be the best as long as Juventus play in it........

Well said. [clapping]