Claudius wrote:

Lol. Defending in La Liga is diabolical.  It's a far cry from the uber-competitive league it was 10-15 years ago, in the heyday of Depor, Sevilla and Valencia. Even Villareal. People don't put in tackles, and too often there is a gap between midfield and defense that attackers just exploit, and there is little physicality. Ronaldo and Messi would score about 20 goals less a season in England and Italy. It would still be more than everyone else, but they wouldn't find things nearly as easy as they do in La Liga.

It's the truth. Plus everyone in Spain is piss poor apart from the two giants. Aston Villa made more money from tv deals last season than Atletico Madrid. And Villa were almost relegated while Atletico won La Liga. Economic inequality has wrecked the whole league. The difference between Barca and most of their opposition is the same as between Arsenal and your average Championship team. And that's the difference between La Liga and Premier League in a nutshell: The top teams are a bit better and everyone else is a whole lot worse. Just look at sad stories like Soldado and Aspas. These guys scored plenty in Spain, and they're pathetic.

y va marquer wrote:

Nearly.......

And yet Spanish usually do well in Europe.

Athletic taught Manu a footballing lesson a few years ago.

Watching Villarreal - Barcelona on a second screen. Good on Campbell, gets more game time than here and plays for a better side

Hasn't he been starting every single match since joining Villarreal? Don't think he has missed any match.

He didn't start today, that's all I know.

No, he hasn't started every game. He has been wank from what I've seen. Totally pointless for them, and done nothing of note.

Thank God we got rid of him and Poldi, the less they played, the better they got according to our fans. At one point I was beggining to wonder if they indeed were world class.

He's started most games, including all four league matches since he's joined. He's doing pretty well for a kid who's been there a couple weeks, "pointless and wank" is extremely harsh on him.

You're right, probably a bit harsh. Think the overrating of him when he was here got the better of me. But, I actually quite like him, which is why I've tried to watch some of Villarreal's games. He hasn't done much though.

Claudius wrote:

Lol. Defending in La Liga is diabolical.  It's a far cry from the uber-competitive league it was 10-15 years ago, in the heyday of Depor, Sevilla and Valencia. Even Villareal. People don't put in tackles, and too often there is a gap between midfield and defense that attackers just exploit, and there is little physicality. Ronaldo and Messi would score about 20 goals less a season in England and Italy. It would still be more than everyone else, but they wouldn't find things nearly as easy as they do in La Liga.

Have you not seen Messi and Ronaldo's scoring record in the CL over the last few years? They have no trouble taking the best English sides apart in Europe, so i reckon they would be ok against midtable PL sides.

I don't agree that its a lot weaker defensively either. In general their teams are a lot smarter and technically much better. Obviously its not as physical but overall their average teams are a lot better than England's average teams. As for competitiveness, well its a weird complaint to make given last season they had 3 genuine challengers and 2/3 this year as Chelsea stroll to the PL title.

The Spanish League is so much better than ours, that it's sad given the amount of money that exists within our league. The overly physical, long ball and set piece qualities that persist in England will forever be it's downfall.

tackles aren't the mark of good defense. gilberto was a rock defensively and he rarely made tackles.

anyway when it comes to the premier league vs other leagues i adopt the same approach that i have when it comes to the "let's laugh at X club" threads: people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. it's not all about money, the rest of la liga has proven that. a rising tide lifts all boats and barca and real being so dominant financially has forced the other la liga clubs to be committed to excellence in other areas. the premier league has a lot of money and think just spending money on players is the answer and they are basically committed to failure in every other area except the financial: shitty coaching, horrible tactics, bad player development, etc. la liga teams do well in european competition because the non-barca and madrid teams can actually play football, have great coaching and great player development. while the premier league goes out and embarasses itself in europe doing the opposite.

La Liga has been great the past two seasons, I think At. Madrid have definitely shown 'lesser' teams the way.

Meatwad wrote:

tackles aren't the mark of good defense. gilberto was a rock defensively and he rarely made tackles.

anyway when it comes to the premier league vs other leagues i adopt the same approach that i have when it comes to the "let's laugh at X club" threads: people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. it's not all about money, the rest of la liga has proven that. a rising tide lifts all boats and barca and real being so dominant financially has forced the other la liga clubs to be committed to excellence in other areas. the premier league has a lot of money and think just spending money on players is the answer and they are basically committed to failure in every other area except the financial: shitty coaching, horrible tactics, bad player development, etc. la liga teams do well in european competition because the non-barca and madrid teams can actually play football, have great coaching and great player development. while the premier league goes out and embarasses itself in europe doing the opposite.

Top post.

Red card and dodgy penalty call then Messi has a penalty saved, then dodgy ref asks him to take it again to make sure he scores. You can almost guarantee the same call would not have been made if it was against Barca.

The defending is atrocious.

crazy how ronaldo was ahead, and how messi has caught up with him along with his assists. CRazy. Don't they get sick of hitting the net at some point.

Rayman wrote:

Red card and dodgy penalty call then Messi has a penalty saved, then dodgy ref asks him to take it again to make sure he scores. You can almost guarantee the same call would not have been made if it was against Barca.

The defending is atrocious.

How ironic that Rayo got a way more dodgy penalty and red card for Alves later in the game. The refs in Spain are shit. They're shit in the matches between two bottom teams too,  or just when Barca or Real are playing. 

Also, what the fuck has happened to Messi's penalties? He's the best player in the world, but his penalties have gone to shit. 

He was never particularly good at taking penalties - it's quite odd actually, since he's got fantastic technique and doesn't let nerves affect him most of the time.

As a side note:

As at November 2014
Messi 7 goals - Ronaldo 20 goals

As at March 2015
Messi 30 goals - Ronaldo 30 goals

crazy. I believe he has caught up with ronaldo's hat tricks too? Plus I haven't watched madrid much but I've read in various places that ronaldo has gone to shit except for his goals, hard to imagine but is that true?