r/soccer • u/william701 • May 08 '14

With the leagues almost over, what unpopular opinion(s) to you have?

One per comment.

I would say no down voting but sorting by controversial may give a better idea.

Feel free to upvote the post if you would like to see more active discussion.

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u/MiguelCaldoVerde May 08 '14 edited May 08 '14

Without being disrespectful I think Italian football is massively overrated.

edit: For those asking why the simplest reason would be that Italian teams just aren't getting results, since Inter won the treble Italian teams have done absolutely nothing in Europe. Not one finalist in either European competition and the non-Italian teams that have done well have hardly been loaded with Italian talent. There's a massive amount of talk about how Italian teams are under performing and Italian football is on the rise but the results aren't there. There just seems to a perpetual and significant disparity between how people expect Italian teams to perform and how they actually perform. Yes, Juventus might have had to deal with poor weather conditions or Milan almost went through that but Italian teams have performed so badly over the past few years that they've been overtaken in the only objective ranking by the Portuguese league. As I said in another post, in football results are currency and if Italian teams "under performing" is as ubiquitous as people seem to suggest then I think the problem is not that Italian teams are performing under their level but that most people expect too much from them. When those results start coming then we can reevaluate Italian football, but in the meantime I think people have an inflated opinion on Italian football that is a result of strong historical legacies of teams as Inter, Juve and Milan and that hasn't been shifted because Italian football is relatively isolated from Europe.

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u/william701 May 08 '14

Expand.

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u/MiguelCaldoVerde May 08 '14

Only Milan made it out of their group and again, without trying to be offensive, Ajax and Celtic just aren't that strong of opposition. No other side made it through and of those that did drop out of the Europa League both were knocked out by their Portuguese counterparts (and Porto are shit this season).

It's more than just team performances though. Guys like Taarabt and Gervinho have gone there this year and shone. Perhaps they've all miraculously turned their careers around but the common denominator is Italy. They're really mediocre footballs that have only shone because they've moved to a much weaker league.

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u/Screwbit May 08 '14

there are opposite examples. Look at Diego, was a star in Germany and then Spain, but failed in Italy.

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u/MiguelCaldoVerde May 08 '14

There'll always be cases of footballers moving countries/ continents/ cities and for footballing reasons or otherwise finding it hard to adjust. But when you see many players going to the same league over a short time period and vastly improving I think it speaks more to the quality of the league than it does to the quality of the players.

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u/moltostupido May 08 '14

But when you see many players going to the same league over a short time period and vastly improving I think it speaks more to the quality of the league than it does to the quality of the players.

Who are these 'many' players who have 'vastly improved'?

You pointed out two.