Irish gunner wrote:
Quincy Abeyie wrote:

Can't you do it, I can see that you're a moderator!

Not Quincy shall be my name.

(To be fair, the other mistake you quoted me on, I edited like five seconds after I posted it. You work fast 🙁 )

He's not actually a mod, merely a poser 😆

I know.

Biggus fooled me a couple of days ago 🙂 🙁 

y va marquer wrote:

They lost.
Everything else is just smoke 🙂

Ah, I see what you did there Ms y Va... 🙂

But really. You watch the game, you may understand what I'm saying. It is extremely rare to see a team adapt to early adversity and set backs without skipping a beat the way Bayern did.

Very enjoyable viewing, and you could tell Pep was actually enjoying himself and the challenge of the situation.

ultimate_warrior wrote:

Chelsea are more likely than any other English side, but they're going to defend their way to any triumph.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Biggus wrote:
ultimate_warrior wrote:

Chelsea are more likely than any other English side, but they're going to defend their way to any triumph.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

No, it's certainly not. The Europeans, though, are another class above. We won't see another Liverpool from England again, I don't think.

United should be up there with the 3 big clubs in Europe, they've got all the ingredients to do it. They've just fucked up spectacularly in their rebuilding process but they'll get there eventually sadly. You just can't argue with that sort of spending power, especially when it's coupled with a big reputation and prestige.

These things go around in cycles, wasn't long ago when English teams were dominating in Europe and no one could see it ending.

Why doesn't the cycles involve us? 🙁

English teams weren't dominating.

Not unless you count Liverpool and Chelsea's victories as dominant. Only Man Utd won a convincing title. All of which was achieved by defensive football anyway.

Liverpool in their days were the best team in Europe and the English lot were the leading clubs in Europe. Nowadays, the Spanish duo and Bayern play at a level much higher than anything we might ever see in England.

In 8 seasons there were 8 English finalists, compared to 3 Italian, 3 Spanish and 2 German. I'm not sure how that can't be considered dominant.

otfgoon wrote:

In 8 seasons there were 8 English finalists, compared to 3 Italian, 3 Spanish and 2 German. I'm not sure how that can't be considered dominant.

I'm talking dominance like Bayern in the last couple of years, or Barcelona before. Where the team is the best in Europe and plays like the best in Europe.

I'm wondering whether we will see another English era with great teams like Liverpool, Forest and co. like in the late 70's til mid 80's. 

The 8 years you are referring to were all bog English finalists, with only the 2007/08 Man Utd side being of top quality. Even then, they were not great great, just very effective on the counter and rock solid at the back.

Bundesliga will never have four dominant teams like Premier League did, though. Bayern went out in a really humiliating way, they only "dominated" for one year. Maybe they will do it again this year. You can't just say "but they weren't top quality" to oftgoon's post. It doesn't matter if there were 8 English finalists because they were rock solid and effective on their counter. So what? Is it not one of the tactics you can do when dominating Europe?

Bayern reached the final 3 times in 4 years.

I'm not going to argue the merits of Arsenal in 2006, Liverpool in 2005 and 2009, Chelsea in 2008 and 2012 and Man Utd in 2008 and 2011 because frankly fuck them all, but none of those teams were great.

When I made my initial post, I was referring to dominance like the English 80's, Milan, Barcelona, you know a team that wins the CL, plays like the best that ever was and just dominates every team they happen to come across. I didn't have in mind the English performances several years back which were very lucky, by and large.

They were among the best in Europe. English teams didn't just fluke themselves to the final by luck seven out of eight times. I've seen teams dominated much more than any English teams did those years, but I've never seen a league dominate Europe like that.

Was a bit funny seeing the reigning PL champions not being able to borrow the ball for long stretches against 10 Bayern players. One could argue though that, in the end, the belief in their passing ability is what lost them the game. Needs to bear in mind that they played like that without Götze, Muller, Alaba and Lahm.

ultimate_warrior wrote:

Bayern reached the final 3 times in 4 years.

So did United. 

They had a terrific team too. The only reason they were not THE dominant team in Europe is because they happen to come up against one of the best sides in history in Barcelona.

And for the record, the Bayern team that actually won the CL didn't boss possession or dominate teams either, they were solid at the back and efficient going forward, much like United.

That Bayern side was also a lot more entertaining than Guardiola's current version.

That Bayern team did boss possession and dominate teams. They were ridiculously good.

They had less than 40% of the ball on average against Barcelona over two legs, 50% against us over two legs and around 55% against Juve over two legs. And half of that was probably down to Robben hogging the ball.

Hardly any team got 40% possession against Barca those days. And they won 7-0, how is that not a consideration?

It's not as if they defended their way to the title, in most games they are the ones creating chances.