UEFA CL contenders: Stronger/same/weaker compare to last year (also...post your fav team XIs)

Who said anything like that?

This is about whether teams have improved improved or not. Since we can't wait till the season is over, we have to look at what they have done during the summer.

Bayern has done absolutely nothing to improve on their weaknesses, hence, they aren't stronger.

If you had actually read what I wrote, you would have noticed that I put Bayern and Wolsburg as the main contenders for the title, so it's not like I predicted failure. But hey, why bother

 

I think now, after capturing Sneijder, Inter have become "a lot stronger." They have upgraded their defense, shedding Burdisso for Lucio. Their midfield has strengthened considerably with the additions of Thiago Motta and Sneijder (their desperately needed a CAM). And, despite losing Ibrahimovic, they have replaced him with Eto'o who, I consider, is still a World Top 5 Forward. Besides that, they have gotten rid of forwards like Crespo and added a top marksman with Diego Milito. They have strengthened in every area of the field. This could be a year when Inter makes a dent in the CL...

 

Hmmmmm DM out of all our weaknesses was our biggest weak link. We got Tymoschuk for that position. We only 2 aging strikers last season and a spoiled kid as bench when he sucked, now we changed that with Olic, Gomez and even Muller. Braafheid > Oddo/Lell, at least defensively he's quite a bit better. He's an ok player but that's better than the garbage we had 1-2 seasons ago. Also added a few other players for depth. We were weakened in 1 position and improved in a lot more. Do we still have weaknesses? Hell yes we do. However once Demichellis gets back, we may not miss Lucio at all if Demi and Badstuber form a good partnership. Maybe Rensing will pull his head out of his ass and perform better than last season, considering it was his first ever season as a keeper.

If you knew this, you wouldn't put that failed argument so the only thing you could have done is rate them on their first 3 games. Whether you put Bayern as title contenders or not is totally irrelevant, this is about whether they got stronger or weaker and so far, you haven't proved anything but given me more ammunition to throw your arguments straight to the trash can.

 

LOL...is it just me or you people only remember the key players that Porto lost and never which ones came in?

Porto is definitely not weaker.
Falcao is already doing Lisandro's work, Belluschi is slowly showing his great skils and no Porto fan admits losing Lucho was bad. Plus, Porto is about to have more quality depth to their offensive power if Kléber (labelled as a very good striker in Brazil by Cruzeiro) is signed.

 

Now I really disagree with that. Demichelis wasn't any good last season, and as far as I remember, before his injury in preseason, van Gaal played with van Buyten more often than with him. It's really nowhere certain that Demichelis can improve the defense at all. Also, Braafheid > Oddo/Lell is based on what exactly? Lell is certainly not CL winning quality, but if Braafheid is, he has yet to prove it. Up front, Gomez is certainly an improvement, but I really believe the money could have been spent better elsewhere. Klose/Toni/Olic/Müller/Baumjohann would have been enough. It's the defense where they were desperately in need for a world class right back and later a replacement for Lucio, and they didn't get one.

However I do admit that Robben was a good transfer despite not filling the obvious gaps in the back. In the last couple of seasons Bayern again and again proved that in Ribérys abscence, they lacked creativity and danger from the midfield, with Robben they now have a second world class player to provide that. If their defense can stabilize a bit more (against Wolfsburg they still allowed a lot of chances in the short period that Wolfsburg actually tried), I'd count them as improved now.

 

Stronger
Real Madrid - good coach, great new players
Juventus - coach is questionable but new players improve the squad signifacantly
Lyon - very well balanced new team. Not depending on juninho anymore
Inter - best transfers this summer. Fantastic coach. I rate them as the highest improved

Same
Barce - only marginal adjustments
Arsenal - great new players start in cl, but important also left
Bayern - attack got much stronger but defense weaker. Van gaal will have a lot of work to balance the team
Chelsea - see barca

Weaker
Liverpool - lost xabi, no great signings Milan - decline is obvious
Man Utd - lost CR, need time to adjust but has the spirit to play a great role again

 

Forget the Robben transfer, this argument started before so he doesn't count.

Buyten has always been an average defender, this is my point. Van Gaal used Buyten and Badstuber as starter, he also started Rensing and then changed his mind. Unlike him, we know how good each player was before the season. He was still testing players out to see how good one is and who is the best. Once Demichellis is back, he should slot in the starting line-up. Point is he didn't know which team was the best starting XI and he even confirmed this, he said it will take a while before he knows which players are the best. So this whole Buyten started in pre-season is utterly irrelevant and useless in this debate when we know Demichellis is better player, Badstuber seems to be a better player than Daniella as well already..

Demichellis didn't have a good season last year I agree, he was also the major reason Bayern had the best defensive record ever in the Bundesliga 2 seasons ago though, he was by far the best player defensively out of everyone. Perhaps with a more experienced coach (unlike Klinsmann) who knows how to organize defense more, he can play like he did 2 seasons ago rather than last year. He is an improvement over Buyten, every Bayern fan should tell you this. I'm not surprised you don't know this, if you knew this you wouldn't start the argument in the first place.

This whole Braafheid is better than Lell and Oddo is just plain retarded, as cruel as that may sound. Oddo and Lell are garbage, utterly useless players but especially Lell who is just the definition of a hopeless and crap player. It also shows how little you know of Bayern considering that Pranjic is starter for LB now rather than Braafheid. I agree the Gomez money should of been spent elswhere but at the end of the day it wasn't so what can you do? Defense improved at the full-back position yet it got weaker on the CB position. IF Demichellis can play like the 07/08 season, it won't even get weaker imo as Badstuber already looks like a player who will play for Bayern and start for them for a decade. He will need to improve though obviously, but the kid is freaking 19 years old and already at least our 2nd best CB. Depending on the form Demichellis shows this season depends if we even get weaker in defense while in midfield and attack we have only gotten stronger (without the accuisition of Robben, with him even more so). So even if we got weaker in defense, we improved more in midfield and attack to make us a stronger team than last season.

 

The main reason for Bayern conceeding the least against goals was Olli Kahn.
But I agree, Demichelis played a class season two years ago.

 

Real Madrid, Inter: stronger
Man Utd, Liverpool, Milan: weaker

I always like to have an advantage so I've chosen 12 players instead of 11 for my favorite team lol:

........................Casillas
Maicon.......... Terry....... Gallas........... Zanetti
Kaka/Ribery...... Xavi..... Mascherano.... C. Ronaldo
Messi............ Ibrahimovic/Drogba...... Eto'o/Torres

 

Gallas over Nesta? Zanetti over Evra? And Casillas..?

C'mon man everybody knows Buffon is in sensational form despite his knee. Ribery and Kaka have been playing like shit, I think you have to put either Arshavin or Pato in there. Mascherano hasn't been showing me anything this season while players like Cambiasso, Yaya Toure and Mikel have been paramount for their sides.

 

When Casillas makes a mistake he falls down to the level of Buffon.

 

Bump

How do your predictions look so far? Things we know already:

Stronger
Arsenal
Bordeaux


Weaker
Liverpool

Much weaker
Juventus

Totally depends on remainder of season
Barcelona
Man United
Chelsea
Inter
AC Milan
Lyon
Bayern
Real Madrid


So we don't know much, but the major surprise was Juve. I really mis-calculated their quality. I thought they'd be stronger for sure. They are absolute rubbish.
OTOH, most people correctly predicted Liverpool would be weaker.

 

The people who considered Man Utd to be weaker failed to consider that the sale of Ronaldo would change the dynamic of the team leading to a more balanced system that released Rooney.

 

He's been horrible this season though, his worst in 3-4 years and he's had average seasons before. Buyten is making up for his failures by playing the best season of his career.

 

That's true. Van Buyten played really good, I am surprised, because I always rated him as a butcher.

 

people, there are some really good previews here. Just take a look:

http://www.isport.in/site/index.php...rentina&catid=86:european-football&Itemid=267

http://www.isport.in/site/index.php...ing-tie&catid=86:european-football&Itemid=267

 

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