I thought this would be interesting to see others perspectives on this. Here goes something to start this thread off with... 1. Barcelona 1a. Real Madrid 3. Juventus 3a. Milan 3b. Bayern Munich 6. Man City 7. Man United 8. Napoli 9-12 Dortmund / Tottenham / Valencia / Udinese Analysis: -Real and Barca are interchangeable at the top. These are the best attacking sides and are nearly unbeatable at home. Both offer solid defensive play as well. Madrid would be first given their huge lead in the league, but they have yet to beat Barcelona. -Juve having a 2-1 record against Milan while being the only undefeated team left in Europe. With that said, Milan has given Barcelona the best game since Inter eliminated them in 2010. It is arguable that Milan have the third most talented team in Europe. -Bayern is currently battling for first in Bundesliga, with one of the most impressive defensive records in Europe along with Juve, Barcelona, Dortmund, and Man City. Despite losing to Basel, they were by far the best team in the group of death in the CL (beating Man City and Napoli). -Man City will go third being slightly ahead of Man United in the BPL. They are the only team in the BPL that has a defensive record of allowing less than a goal a game while scoring 67. With that said, they were second best to both Napoli and Bayern in the CL. If it weren't for a late Kolarov strike, they could have lost twice to Napoli in group play. -Man United still offer a balanced side, but do not look capable of beating any of the teams mentioned above consistently. They are still one of the best sides at getting the necessary results. -Napoli have regained their form after only managing one win in their first 6 Serie A matches following the winter break. However, their run of form has improved greatly since tying Milan away. In this current run they handily beat Inter 1-0 as well as Chelsea 3-1. Despite this they are still only 5th in Serie A, but only 5 points from 3rd. -Dortmund/ Tottenham / Valencia / Udinese
I guess u made a ranking about which clubs sells the most merchandise. Otherwise i dont see how u can rate Real over Bayern and Juventus and Milan on the same level. 1.Barcelona 2.Bayern 3.Milan/Real 4.Chelsea/Manu/ManC
The BigSoccer forum needs a specialized force of "Troll" moderators. I am sick of seeing these arbitary patronizing posts.
No English team in the top 5 despite dominating Champions League for the last 10 yrs. I think you need to start again. Real Madrid out of top 5, they haven't been to a champions League final in the last 10 years let alone win one (LIverpool, Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea have) Italian teams suck, take them out of the top 5 Only one decent German side in Europe (Bayern Munich) Top 5 should look like this: 1) Barcelona 2)Man Utd 3)Chelsea 4)Arsenal 5)Liverpool/Bayern Munich
Lol it's about 2012! The list should look like this: 1. Bayern 2. Real Madrid 3. Barcelona 4. ManC 5. ManU 6. Chelsea 7. Juventus 8. Dortmund 9. Tottenham
It's not Epl top five we are talking about damn it.... Man u, chelsea, arsenal, liverpool hahaa... Include westbrom, southampton, leeds united in top 10, if there is a chance..
I didn't mean to offend anyone when making this list. Remember this was a Feb 2012 ranking based on that season alone. European soccer seems to endure cycles where some leagues seem to do much better on average than others. The rankings were not intended to capture such a scope as they were discussing that year's worth of football. Also, the perception that English teams dominated Europe for 10 years has very little evidence to support it (message me as I rounded up info on this). England had a spell in later part of the last decade where teams did quite well. That said, only two European Teams have stood out in terms of winning finals. -Barcelona won 3 finals in 6 years (between 2005/6-2010/2011). -AC Milan went to 3 finals in 5 years winning two between (2002/3- 2006/2007). -Man United went to the 3 finals in 4 years, winning only one between (2007/8- 2010/11). -Liverpool went to 2 finals in 3 years, winning only one between (2004/5 -2006/2007). -Inter under Mourinho won a title where they beat the 3 defending domestic champions in Chelsea, Barca, & Bayern (2009/10). -Chelsea had bookend appearances in 5 years between (2007/8 - 20011/12) winning a memorable final over Bayern. -Bayern Munich have contested finals 2 out of the last 3 years, but lost both (2009/10-2011/12). The Bayern story is possibly still being written considering their current form. So in that sense, I also do not agree with your longer dated rankings either. I also do not appreciate being implicitly labeled a troll. I am a fan of all leagues and appreciate the diversity offered. This is not the EPL of Europe. The EPL is part of CL just as much as Germany, Italy, and Spain. They are a big four. To perceive it any other way comes off as a tad bias and unrespectful given the history behind each league and their teams. That said, the list didn't hold up so badly considering the developments over the last 18 months or so. In 2013, there could be a German, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Turkish quarterfinal. Still too early to tell clearly (aside form Germany/Spain).
1. Barcelona 2. Bayern Munich 3. Juventus 4. Manchester United 5. Real Madrid 6. Borussia Dortmund 7. PSG 8. Manchester City 9. AC Milan 10. Athletico Madrid ---------------------- 11. Tottenham Hotspur 12. Napoli
the arrogance of you english fans has no end to it, does it? 2 years in a row your champions have been booted out of GROUP stages, that NEVER happens to Italy, Spain and Germany This year your CL champs booted out and lost to Juve 5-2 agg. Napoli beats man city, Milan beats Arsenal, Lazio tottenham tie, Udinese beats Liverpool....list goes on and on And after Bayern takes care of Arsenal you wont have any teams in QF.....so wtf is all this hype about?? u guys can write whatever u want in your media and feed bs but the game speaks on the pitch. You had like 2 years of dominance while Italy was at its lowest point, your teams are done buddy.
There is so little evidence to support any argument that states that one of the big four leagues is superior to others. Use CL results and domestic results combined and there is not huge edge to any of the leagues that I've been able to find. There does seem to be be cyclicality involved which sort of makes sense give that team building takes time and the teams age and then turnover. I would never be disrespectful enough to suggest that the EPL is much worse off now just because their teams are going through a cyclical down swing. Chelsea's victory last year (very merited not taking ANYTHING AWAY) masked this a bit. The EPL have had only 1 quarterfinalist in 2 years. If Bayern take care of business there will be zero EPL teams this year. Think about each EPL team that were quite high last cycle. Arsenal? Liverpool? Both were heavy weights and now are not competitive at the highest level (THIS CAN CHANGE!). Man City and Man United both have been unable to beat the very top teams in Europe recently. Chelsea squad today does not resemble the teams from the last cycle. If you look at Champions League era results, what is happening now to the EPL has happened to many other leagues and many other teams. Look at Juventus, Dortmund, AC Milan, and PSG. They are starting to enjoy their moment. If you are a true fan of the sport you will allow the supports of these teams to enjoy their teams moments. No point in ruining it for them by being disrespectful or overly bias. Otherwise, when your team or set of teams do well again, you won't be afforded the same treatment.
Right now, I'd rate Bayern as the strongest side. I suppose the Spanish "Old Firm" then follows - notwithstanding the very possible CL exit for Barca.
1. Bayern 2. Real 3. Barca (even though they are probably out) 4. Dortmund 5. Shakhtar Donetsk (even though they are out) 6. ManU (even though they are out) 7. Paris 8. Juventus 9. Milan 10. Schalke Bayern are logical first they are all dominating. Barca would challenge for first but I doubt that they will come back in the CL, therefore I place Real ahead of them. Dortmund are a real beast in this years Champions League and they could very well win the title. Shakhtar was for me the dark horse, the club has such an amazing potential this is especially highlighted in this article: http://futbolgrad.com/the-shakhtar-donetskcode/ and for me it will only be a matter of time until they win. ManU would be normally in the top 5 but they failed to make the next round and the squad looks to be on a downward trajectory.
Yes we know. I'll update my list 1 Bayern 2 Dortmund 3 Real Madrid 4 Juventus 5 Barcelona 6 PSG 7 Malaga
For me it's more like 1. Bayern 2. Barcelona 3. Dortmund 3. Real Madrid 3. Manchester United 6. Juventus 6. Manchester City 6. Chelsea
Tier 1 Bayern Tier 2 Dortmund, Barca, Real, Juventus, United, PSG Tier 3 Man City, Chelsea, Tottenham, Porto, Benfica, Napoli, Milan, Atletico, Valencia, Malaga, Marseille, Schalke, Leverkusen As long as Bayern win the final, they could be considered head and shoulders above the other squads. Than there seems to be a distinct set of teams that are all roughly equal to one another which could make a move to challenge Bayern in the next year or so.
Did you forget Arsenal or do you think that they're not among the best 20 clubs? They're sixth in the UEFA coefficients.
Although the UEFA coefficient is definitely not something that was used to come to that conclusion as I find it to be flawed.