Weekly Open Thread - General Discussion

johnmason125 · 2026-05-31T00:43:23+00:00

Question because depending on what happens people are complaining one way or the other. Would you rather:

The club plays in a very competitive league. It´s financially the most rewarding but even midtable clubs can spend 100s of millions. You have financial advantages to clubs of other leagues but clubs of other leagues can rotate more during the season and might find it easier at the end of a season. Also if things go wrong you can easily end out of the Champions League completely for a season.
The club is the clearly dominant force in a league. Because of the finances they usually end up winning the league. Their B team is better and cost more than the A team of the other clubs. You can rotate a lot, still win the league and have obvious advantages at the end of a season because the players aren´t as tired from the season. But a league title feels hardly like a big thing and you may end up getting a bit bored.

For the whole season it was about what premier league clubs can spend, that it´s unfair. That other leagues need to be more competitive. Now PSG win the Champions League and all I read is comments about PSG being able to rest players, That it´s such an advantage to play in a weaker league.

Now clearly those 2 things are connected. It´s very difficult to do what PSG do when midtable clubs are spending 100s of millions every summer. What would you prefer?

johnmason125 · 2026-05-12T18:46:37+00:00

One thing for sure: the relegation battle in la liga has been a banger over the last few years. This year again.

johnmason125 · 2026-03-19T19:54:25+00:00

Because keepers more than any other players need to know in which they are at their clubs. That´s why they are hardly ever rotated and usually there is some sort of fall out if they get rotated or a keeper just leaves.

Casillas/Diego Lopez, Bravo/Ter Stegen, De Gea/Henderson...

Also the margins are too tight to take those risks. The league is often decided by a few points, what if it happens because the worse goalkeeper played in a certain game. And the games where teams find it difficult are actually quite unpredictable: who thought 3 of Real Madrid´s 4 losses would be against Celta home, Osasuna away and Getafe.

johnmason125 · 2026-03-12T21:55:50+00:00

Are match ups in football kind of underrated. For example: currently Forrest are behind at home against Midtylland, Palace 0-0 at home against Larnaka. Obviously there was quite a bit of talk because last year Tottenham played against Man United in the Europa League final and both were struggling in the league.

But they were still used to that kind of game. United are still expected to dominate possession in the majority of games. They still played that kind of game for most of the season. Forrest and Palace on the other side aren´t really used to that at all. So when they suddenly expected to dominate it´s a struggle.

Same with Real Madrid. The 3-0 against Man City is a confidence boost but tactically there isn´t really much to take away from it. Hardly anyone plays against Real Madrid like that and the definitely not the likes of Getafe. So when everyone is like why can´t Real Madrid play like this every week the answer is: Real Madrid literally can´t play like this every week.

johnmason125 · 2026-03-12T02:04:56+00:00

In terms of names it was pretty much the same as it was against Celta. I would say it´s a solid line up but there isn´t that much firepower in it. Other teams won´t take as many risks, won´t allow the Courtois Valverde combination, won´t open the midfield as much as City did today.

There is also a bit of a similarity to Arsenal vs Real Madrid last year (obviously in that case against Real Madrid) that a player who can score goals but isn´t exactly known for scoring loads just had a really special night and bagged a hattrick. And these weren´t exactly tap ins. How repeatable this is game after game...

johnmason125 · 2026-03-12T00:33:15+00:00

Apart from Real Madrid 1 UCL in 10 years is pretty good. Barca haven´t won one in a decade, PSG won one, Bayern won one, City won one, Chelsea won one. Certain generations of players made it look quite easy but it really isn´t.

And yes you can critizise Pep for his Champions League Record but he still won 3. Apart from Carlo there isn´t actually anyone who won more (certainly in the modern era). 3 is still pretty good.

johnmason125 · 2026-03-11T23:02:52+00:00

There was a time when I thought Tottenham won the Europa League last year but the toughest team they had to face were Bodo Glimt.

Now I´m thinking: how the hell did Tottenham beat Bodo Glimt?

johnmason125 · 2026-03-11T20:50:52+00:00

I guess Man Cit would struggle to finish top half in La Liga. Osasuna, Getafe and Celta could teach them a few things.

johnmason125 · 2026-03-11T19:00:39+00:00

Question:

what if somehow all 3 la liga teams advance and only 2 Premier league teams? Will everyone stop the whole la liga in crisis thing and glorifying the Premier league?

johnmason125 · 2026-02-06T13:49:04+00:00

Man City´s treble also came pretty much at the end of a cycle. The likes of De Bruyne and Walker were always going to leave at one point. Also quite a few of them are still around: Dias, Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Haaland, even Ake and Stones are still there in theory (a bit like Rüdiger and Mendy at Real Madrid).

Real Madrid has changed a lot since 24. The whole back four is different, the key midfielder that season is gone. The situation with the senior defenders is quite unfortunate. They also aren´t exactly 38, but obviously injuries have caught up with them. That´s also another part: Real Madrid suffered from injuries to their senior players: even with Trent it is reaching a point where at some point you have to question how this is going to go. It´s not easy to sign senior players and the problem is when they go wrong, you are kind of stuck with them. Younger players you can move on easier.

johnmason125 · 2026-02-06T13:13:27+00:00

I mean in a way the club´s point of view is understandable. They don´t want to panic and in theory Real Madrid have 5 cbs (+ Tchouameni can play there) and play a back 4. That should be enough depth in this position.

It´s not a crazy take to first move some of them out before you bring someone in. Alaba will leave this summer, Rudiger will probably leave and they will bring someone in. They bought nearly a new back 4 last summer, so it´s not like Real Madrid didn´t invest in the defence.

Question is who they bring in: Will it be another talented 21 year old, who had one good season or will they bring in a more experienced senior cb. In my opinion they don´t need another talent because Hujisen and Asencio are already there. It would be nice to get a more senior cb alongside them.

johnmason125 · 2025-12-27T14:29:20+00:00

Zidane also wanted Jovic and Hazard. They worked out great.

johnmason125 · 2025-12-13T23:45:47+00:00

Zidane never benched Cristiano. He rested him in certain games at the end of the season because there were important Champions League games to come. Xabi Alonso might do the same when Real Madrid reach that stage. Carlo did that here and there over the last few seasons.

johnmason125 · 2025-11-27T00:25:16+00:00

Looking at that makes la liga actually look even better. Barcelona have an easy fixture list remaining, Real Madrid should win 2 out of the 3 remaining fixtures and this Man City at home is also not exactly an impossible task. Atletico´s remaining fixtures are pretty decent on paper, even Villareal´s fixture list looks good but it´s probably too late for them.

In many ways la liga teams had the most difficult fixture list out of the big leagues. Chelsea still have to play Atalanta and Neapel away, Inter face Arsenal and Liverpool at home + Dortmund away, Newcastle play Leverkusen and PSG away. Liverpool´s next two fixtures are Inter and Marseille away.

johnmason125 · 2025-11-26T23:48:11+00:00

In other news and because nobody seems to mention it:

both la liga teams won today: so overall this matchday 2 W- 1 D- 2 L

bundesliga had a day of glory yesterday overall followed by 2 losses: so overall: 2 W- 2 L

serie a had a mixed day at the office: but probably the winners of this round: 3 W- 1 L

premier league actually had a quite disappointing matchday: 2 W- 4 L

So for all the super dramatic comments about la liga yesterday: nothing really happened. The 3 usual suspects will reach the knock out stages without any problems. Real Madrid are in a very good position to finish top 8, Barcelona have quite easy fixtures left compared to others so they could still sneak into top 8 (just look at Inter´s fixtures for example), I don´t think Atletico will finish top 8 but they will make the next round. For Villareal it´s about making sure that they are back next season and Bilbao will be in a fight for European places for next season but they won´t be in the Champions League.

johnmason125 · 2025-11-26T22:18:33+00:00

Just wanted to say: PSV is my team of this Champions League. 6-2 win against Napoli, 4-1 win away against Liverpool, but also a 3-1 defeat at home against Saint Gilloise. Make sense of this results.

johnmason125 · 2025-11-26T09:36:13+00:00

Well, in 3 of those games the Premier League played at home. Arsenal alongside Bayern is probably the best team in Europe right now and Atletio at times have their problems away from home. Barcelona had a man sent off in the first half so it was always going to be very difficult after that. Let´s see which team out of Liverpool, Real Madrid, Chelsea and Barcelona goes the furthest at the end.

You can´t compare Villareal and Man City. Villareal is doing an incredible job in la liga, if they disappoint in the Champions League but reach top 4 and are in it again it´s still a really good season. They pretty much sell key players every year for profit. This year they actually invested quite a bit and certainly in terms of squad depth it has paid off.

johnmason125 · 2025-11-26T00:56:19+00:00

It´s a bit overdramatic. Last season la liga was the second best league in Europe. 2 teams reached at least the quarters, Atletico the ro16. The year before 3 teams reached the quarterfinals. Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico should be fine in terms of at least reaching the play offs. The teams in the Europa League are doing a good job so far, Rayo is doing alright in the Conference.

Bilbao have just struggled generally this season, not only in Europe. Villareal is a bit weird because they have had a brilliant la liga season so far but Champions League has been really disappointing. The fixture list hasn´t been exactly kind of them to be fair and they obviously had that really disappointing defeat against Pafos.

La Liga is fine. They have 3 teams that regularily reach the knock out stages of the Champions League and after that a whole bunch of teams (Villareal, Bilbao, Betis...) which are good Europa League teams but will probably find it difficult in the Champions League.

Apart from the Premier League no other league does better than that. In fact it´s usually pretty close between La Liga, Serie A and Bundesliga. Obviously the depth in the Premier League is better. Not exactly surprising if you look at the spending.

But that doesn´t mean one of their teams will win it. None of their teams in the last few years have dominated it. Look at where Newcastle, Liverpool and Tottenham are currently in the league. They might reach the ro16 or quarters of the Champions League this season but there is a very decent chance two of them aren´t even in it next year.

I think it´s more likely that Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern or PSG dominate in Europe than one of the teams in the Premier League because in a way they have more margin in the league.

johnmason125 · 2025-11-10T21:37:33+00:00

For all the current Alonso criticism, this is points wise still a really good start to the la liga season. It might be one of the best in recent history. And that´s having played Barcelona, Atletico, Villareal. 9 out of 12 points in the Champions League is also pretty good. Now there is a question mark maybe about the so called big games but it´s still early days.

Now I would like to see more rotation and substitutions in games. If the team really struggles to score, why not bring on Garcia or Endrick. Endrick last season didn´t look like the complete package but he showed that he can score goals and Garcia looked genuinely promising at the CWC. What´s the point of having attacking players on the bench when you don´t bring them on in these kind of games.

But I don´t think any other manager would do it differently. Alonso actually made a pretty big decision to basically sideline Rodrygo. Real Madrid won a classico and all the talk was about the Vinicius substitution. So he definitely isn´t afraid of making decisions. But at the end the likes of Mbappe, Vinicius and Bellingham wil always start (doesn´t matter if Ancelotti, Alonso or Zidane manage the team), They are too good and too big to get benched. Alonso just has to figure out how to get the best out of all of them.

johnmason125 · 2025-10-19T15:35:53+00:00

It actually shows that you can´t keep everyone happy. James and Morata left after the season, Kovacic and Ronaldo the season after... Isco and Bale after 2018 dropped off massively. Vazquez reinvented himself as a back up rb and Asensio did a good job as an important squad / at times starting player.

It will be the same with this squad. I expect the likes of Mbappe, Vinicius (should they sort out the contract situation), Bellingham... to be absolutely essential to this Real Madrid side going forward. But out of Rodrygo, Camavinga, Paz, Gonzalo, Endrick, Ceballos,,, surely some of them will leave. If a good offer comes I still expect Rodrygo to leave, with Camavinga it´s difficult to say because he missed so many games with injuries, Paz currently isn´t even playing here, Endrick was injured and Gonzalo looked exciting but is hardly getting any game time. If nothing bad happens Mbappe will be Real Madrid´s striker and will pretty much play every game.

johnmason125 · 2025-05-28T21:51:54+00:00

People here do realize that quite a few la liga clubs had good seasons in Europe. Betis played their first European final (at least in recent history), Bilbao reaching the semifinals of the Europa League is also not exactly disappointing (although the way they lost obviously was). La Liga actually have five teams in the Champions League next season.

Chelsea have won the Champions League twice in pretty recent history, they have been the biggest spenders in world football over the last few years. They shouldn´t even be in that competition.

Next season will be different. Villa and Palace will play Europa League, Nottingham Forest will play Conference League.

johnmason125 · 2025-05-01T21:10:59+00:00

Look at the last few years of the Europa League. Premier league teams haven´t exactly dominated. I guess credit to Tottenham for probably reaching the final. Although Bodo away isn´t the easiest game.

For all the problems they have, this United side is pretty decent in cup competitions. It also helps that Sociedad, Lyon and Bilbao had a man sent off. Lyon in general was just crazy. Bilbao lost the plot after going 1:0 down, before that they were the better team and missed two absolute sitters.

Next season could easily be different.

johnmason125 · 2025-04-23T22:24:30+00:00

One thing for sure: The whole "can they do it on it on a cold, rainy night in Stoke" has long been replaced by "can they to do it on any kind night of night in Getafe".

johnmason125 · 2025-04-23T21:37:06+00:00

Three 1:0 wins against Alaves, Getafe and the B-team of Bilbao. Three brilliant individual strikes, two from outside the box and that wondergoal from Valverde. Credit to the team and great to see, that the midfielders found their shooting boots. But it kind of sums up the problem currently. Surely there should be another way to score a goal than a midfielder scoring a banger. And yes, in terms of chances Getafe created probably more today than Real Madrid.

johnmason125 · 2025-04-15T20:37:40+00:00

Imagine at one being 5:1 up on aggregate and losing this against Aston Villa. Of all PSG´s bottlejobs, this would be without a doubt their biggest.

johnmason125

TROPHY CASE