This is the worst quality PL season since?

RobinLFC said:
I could obviously be way off here but this seems to be a classic response of a person who grew up in the 90s and picked United as his favourite team only to see them win trophy after trophy, and now has gotten disinterested and disassociated with football in general a bit because Utd have been shite for over a decade now. While football has lost a bit of its appeal to me as well (I'm in my early 30s) because of VAR, and simply because it's not how it used to be, I can say I've never enjoyed watching Liverpool play more than I have done over the last five years - so how you feel towards it is definitely influenced a lot by your own team's performances.

Kids growing up these days will find football as interesting as we did when we were young, they haven't known it in any other capacity anywayT
Click to expand...
United are the only team I'll watch no matter what, so it's nothing to do with them winning or not, it's just football in general, football is more athletic and tactical than it's ever been, where as I grew up watching flair players and speedy wingers, getting the ball forward. Now it's playing out from the back, teams can be playing in there own half for minutes at a time trying to keep the ball, and this type of play has led to so many goal being scored not through pure skill just by giving the ball away, like Hojlund yesterday if he wasn't so bad

Obviously there's more reasons like VAR, over saturation of football, money bridging the gap even further between division, this will be the first time in PL history the three promoted teams have got relegated two years in a row
 
Fortitude said:
A very ordinary Liverpool, being carried by Salah, are 15pts clear of their nearest challenger - a rubbish Arsenal side - in the starting third of March.

The run-in hasn't even started yet and the league is wrapped up.

Rubbish quality abounds with one well-spirited story of Forest capitalising.

What PL season(s) has/have been of par or worse quality than this one?
Click to expand...
Completely disagree with this which is surprising. I think the the top 5 is weaker than normal, but Liverpool also spanked everyone in groups in the UCL as well.

But the depth of quality in the mid/lower levels of the league is higher for me than ever. Point totals won’t show it because the math and nature of a league won’t allow it to, but I feel like there are very few teams that are just free 3 points and lacking any sort of ability to hurt you or play good football like there was a decade ago. Every side has at least a couple of players or more that I watch and think can help a top team.
 
justsomebloke said:
It's weird that, with Liverpool. Not only are they 15 points clear, they're on pace for 92 points, which is a great season by any measure. But still, no one seems to think this is a great team. I don't feel they are either. I just don't understand why.
Click to expand...
Rival fans don't think it's a great team

Neutrals very much do, and they are
 
giorno said:
Rival fans don't think it's a great team

Neutrals very much do, and they are
Click to expand...
Topped the CL group phase, into a domestic cup final, on course for a 90+ point season, beat the defending champions twice without conceding a goal, into the top 10 of longest unbeaten streaks in PL history.

"A very ordinary Liverpool"
 
RobinLFC said:
Topped the CL group phase, into a domestic cup final, on course for a 90+ point season, beat the defending champions twice without conceding a goal, into the top 10 of longest unbeaten streaks in PL history.

"A very ordinary Liverpool"
Click to expand...
Think a big part of it is also recency bias working against them. Because City and Klopp's Liverpool have raised the bar of what the best teams look like to such a ridiculous level that people's expectations of what a great team looks like have changed. Few years of "best teams" looking more like this Liverpool should correct it, again.

It's curious that the previous iteration of this(04-09) didn't cause the same reaction at the time but I think the PL media-narrative blinded a lot of fans to what was happening until much later on
 
giorno said:
Think a big part of it is also recency bias working against them. Because City and Klopp's Liverpool have raised the bar of what the best teams look like to such a ridiculous level that people's expectations of what a great team looks like have changed
Click to expand...
I think it's also due to the way they play and the management of Slot. They're a more measured side that fluctuates from game to game and with the opponent. They're not gung-ho like a Klopp side or overly dominant like a Pep side. Perception can be everything.
 
giorno said:
Rival fans don't think it's a great team

Neutrals very much do, and they are
Click to expand...

Do they? Not my impression, but okay, if that's so maybe it's just a media thing. It is weird - I don't disagree at all that by any reasonable objective measure, they are a great team. I'm not so emotional about Liverpool that I have internal barriers to acknowledging that.
 
They were debating this on talkshite that it's a poor quality season. I think it's a view that is slowly making its way around online.

I struggle to watch many games nowadays and when I do, I honestly find the majority a bit shite. A lot of sideways passing and back to the goalkeeper.

Why I don't believe it's nostalgia bias is that I felt the same way during our success in the early 2000s. I stopped watching United and EPL games around 2001-2004 because I found the league to be quite dull.
 
justsomebloke said:
Do they? Not my impression, but okay, if that's so maybe it's just a media thing. It is weird - I don't disagree at all that by any reasonable objective measure, they are a great team. I'm not so emotional about Liverpool that I have internal barriers to acknowledging that.
Click to expand...
See my follow up on this
 
I think the 15/16 Leicester-winning year was worse. All the elite teams just dropped off a cliff that year and were outright bad, at least this year I think it's down to the overall quality of the league increasing.

But it's one of the duller ones - title race already decided and most likely the bottom 3 as well and we're only at the start of March.
 
Watched Ipswich there at the weekend and I thought they were a good side, very well coached by McKenna but just lost narrowly again. Ultimately they don’t have good enough players for this level, Greaves got a doing a few times by Sarr for example. Hard for the promoted teams to get enough points on the board when the middle class is so strong.
 
I've been impressed with how many teams have good quality players and clubs like United will have to really up their game in recruitment to become top 4. To me it's a strong season and era we're seeing.

Whether it's enjoyable or the football is better is a different argument some seem to be making, there's other threads for more more flair etc in pervious decades.
 
Fortitude said:
A very ordinary Liverpool, being carried by Salah, are 15pts clear of their nearest challenger - a rubbish Arsenal side - in the starting third of March.

The run-in hasn't even started yet and the league is wrapped up.

Rubbish quality abounds with one well-spirited story of Forest capitalising.

What PL season(s) has/have been of par or worse quality than this one?
Click to expand...
Liverpool are not "very ordinary" as seen in every CL game so far except the one against PSG.
Just because you dont like them doesnt mean they arent very good.
 
English teams have so far been doing pretty decently in Europe, if it holds there will be 3 English teams in the quarter finals for example.

Maybe it's just a continental downturn.
 
BayernFan87 said:
Liverpool are not "very ordinary" as seen in every CL game so far except the one against PSG.
Just because you dont like them doesnt mean they arent very good.
Click to expand...
What has happened thus far in the CL isn't a barometer for what's going to happen. On top of that, PSG absolutely battered them and had a good goal disallowed as well as a sending off denied them.

Salah is carrying that team. Whether that matters or not is a debate in itself.

---

I've stayed out of this thread because people are going to think any post I make is centered around jealousy or some kind of sour grapes. If it were the case, though, as a supporter of a club who have been rubbish for years now, I would/could have made the thread in any given season we've been rubbish in, but it would be hogwash whilst Liverpool and City were flying, or even last year before Arsenal capitulated.

For the record, surely you judge a league from the top down and through to the bottom, not by a few middling teams sat squarely between rubbish on either side of them?
 
Last edited:
Fortitude said:
What has happened thus far in the CL isn't a barometer for what's going to happen. On top of that, PSG absolutely battered them and had a good goal disallowed as well as a sending off denied them.

Saha is carrying that team. Whether that matters or not is a debate in itself.

---

I've stayed out of this thread because people are going to think any post I make is centered around jealousy or some kind of sour grapes. If it were the case, though, as a supporter of a club who have been rubbish for years now, I would/could have made the thread in any given season we've been rubbish in, but it would be hogwash whilst Liverpool and City were flying, or even last year before Arsenal capitulated.

For the record, surely you judge a league from the top down and through to the bottom, not by a few middling teams sat squarely between rubbish on either side of them?
Click to expand...
I'd argue it is judged through to the bottom. The fact that two seasons in a row could see all Championship promoted sides instantly relegated is testament to the growth, quality and strength of the PL in comparison.
 
BayernFan87 said:
Liverpool are not "very ordinary" as seen in every CL game so far except the one against PSG.
Just because you dont like them doesnt mean they arent very good.
Click to expand...
They are very good, just not that great to walk the PL if it were as strong as it's claimed in this thread.

They looked great against a depleted Madrid side and rubbish against PSG, the only two elite teams they've met in the CL. Those two performances don't prove much either way.
 
Ludens the Red said:
Some Liverpool fans don’t even think it’s a great team:
Click to expand...
Which ones :lol:
Fortitude said:
What has happened thus far in the CL isn't a barometer for what's going to happen. On top of that, PSG absolutely battered them and had a good goal disallowed as well as a sending off denied them.
Click to expand...
You're not entirely wrong but performance in europe is the only barometer we have to compare a league's strenght year to year.

As for PSG battering them - in 18/19 Liverpool won the CL. Remember their "performance" away at Napoli?(something like 0 shots) or indeed, the fact that had VAR been available at the group stage, they would have been most likely eliminated there

Barcelona, the great side everybody talks about like the best team ever, in 08/09 got outplayed by Chelsea at SB. City's CL final vs Inter? It's the Champions League. You face a great team away on a bad night, you get battered. It happens. PSG may genuinely be a better team than Liverpool right now, in March 2025. They frankly look incredible. Doesn't mean they'd be a better team over a season. Hell it doesn't even mean they'll be a better team tonight. None of that means Liverpool aren't a special side in their own right
Fortitude said:
Saha is carrying that team. Whether that matters or not is a debate in itself.
Click to expand...
Salah is their star player. Of course he's carrying them, that's what they pay him for
Fortitude said:
For the record, surely you judge a league from the top down and through to the bottom, not by a few middling teams sat squarely between rubbish on either side of them?
Click to expand...
This I agree with. Mostly because I think the middle of the pack tends to stay roughly at the same level year to year - when it doesn't it's because of changes either at the top or bottom. The PL may be super rich and everything but its middle class still can't compete with the big sides from the continent for players and managers. If they're so good it's partly because the teamd that are supposed to be above them - City, United, Chelsea, Spurs - aren't
Idxomer said:
They are very good, just not that great to walk the PL if it were as strong as it's claimed in this thread.
Click to expand...
Agreed and disagree. By this point last season they were 5 points worse, while having dealt with a massive injury crisis and some bad luck(Michael Oliver anyone?). Arsenal were 3 points worse. This team is absolutely on the level of Arsenal and City of last season, at the very least. The problem is Arsenal and City got significantly worse
 
giorno said:
This I agree with. Mostly because I think the middle of the pack tends to stay roughly at the same level year to year - when it doesn't it's because of changes either at the top or bottom. The PL may be super rich and everything but its middle class still can't compete with the big sides from the continent for players and managers. If they're so good it's partly because the teamd that are supposed to be above them - City, United, Chelsea, Spurs - aren't
Click to expand...
The big sides on the continent that can compete for players and managers are getting thinner and thinner.
 
SilentWitness said:
The big sides on the continent that can compete for players and managers are getting thinner and thinner.
Click to expand...
Yes, but we're not yet at a point were the PL middle class can get significantly better than it is right now - has been for the past 4-5 years
 
OverratedOpinion said:
Nah dominance over that amount of time requires a real top side.

A couple of league titles in 30 years are more of a fluke.
Click to expand...
But it took Liverpool to disappear for United to develop their winning record, seeing title races against Villa and Norwich. Surely Liverpool’s decline left a vacuum for another dominant side?

Am I still doing it wrong?
 
PickledRed said:
But it took Liverpool to disappear for United to develop their winning record, seeing title races against Villa and Norwich. Surely Liverpool’s decline left a vacuum for another dominant side?

Am I still doing it wrong?
Click to expand...

Nah the Utd side in the 90s would batter the Liverpool side of the 80s.

We've already seen this Liverpool side against the recent City team and they won 4 in a row.
 
Best team in the league looked ordinary against some farmers. Physically and technically looked behind PSG.
 
PickledRed said:
But it took Liverpool to disappear for United to develop their winning record, seeing title races against Villa and Norwich. Surely Liverpool’s decline left a vacuum for another dominant side?

Am I still doing it wrong?
Click to expand...
More like the back pass rule broke Liverpool and Arsenal’s business model of boring other teams into submission, and United were the first to adapt to the (much better) era of football
 
giorno said:
Think a big part of it is also recency bias working against them. Because City and Klopp's Liverpool have raised the bar of what the best teams look like to such a ridiculous level that people's expectations of what a great team looks like have changed. Few years of "best teams" looking more like this Liverpool should correct it, again.

It's curious that the previous iteration of this(04-09) didn't cause the same reaction at the time but I think the PL media-narrative blinded a lot of fans to what was happening until much later on
Click to expand...
Most of klopps seasons Liverpool were not this good
 
You must log in or register to reply here.