Just for the record, I don't buy the best league stuff. Definitely the fastest league and roughest league. Last 8 in CL are 3 Spanish teams, 2 German teams, 2 EPL teams and one French.
There’s always some variance from year to year but there’s a decent shot that the EPL wins all three European competitions this year and there’s a reason they consistently top the UEFA coefficient and any other statistical measure. There’s not really any argument that the EPL isn’t the best league in the world and merely counting up the number of teams in the quarterfinals in a single year isn’t really indicative of anything.
We had this discussion a year ago and the data case was weak that the EPL is the best. Richest, fastest, etc. But you have to take a pretty selective look to call it the best
There’s no data that exists that points to anyone else being better and the English teams consistently do the best in European competition. If you look at the last five years of Champion League finalists for instance 6 are from the EPL, 1 from Spain, 1 from Germany, 1 from France, and 1 from Italy. One example of one data point but look at the UEFA coefficients, look at ELO rankings, look at any other data point you want there’s no other league who has an argument.
Started and played all 90 min as Genk helped Union St. Gilloise out as they beat Anderlecht 2-1. YA Thomas Delaney scored for Anderlecht to level the match, but Genk scored a very late PK. They have 10 points out of 12 in the playoffs and have moved into striking distance of the top. If they were to win this season, it would be an amazing playoff run.
Starts: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒚𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒕𝒆. ⚪#krcgenk #mijnploeg pic.twitter.com/Mr4XvWZsah— KRC Genk (@KRCGenkofficial) April 24, 2024 Down 1-0 in the 18th. Match is on ESPN+.
McKenzie started and played decent in a 2-1 loss to Anderlecht. The manager of Genk is leaving for Gent. I think this could be the summer McKenzie moves on. There is still a chance that Genk secures 4th spot and a spot in the Europa League Play-offs.
Called up for the pre Cops America camp. https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...ne-2024-colombia-washington-dc-brazil-orlando
Match finished up 1-0 for Genk and moves them into 4th place. One more match and they will finish in a Europe spot again.
Highlights from the match vs Antwerp start at 11:50. McKenzie was captain and had some good moments, but was crossed up pretty bad one time, could have had a PK called on him among other things.
Genk are expected to announce Thorsten Fink as their new manager. The current St. Truiden mangerr (think YA Zion Suzuki and Kahveh Zahiroleslam) He mostly played with a 3 back system which would be a significant change for McKenzie. It would be interesting to see if McKenzie would fit in a three back system. He has really only played in a four back system.
I think he should be ok with a 3 back system. He is fairly mobile and two footed so could play either RCB or LCB. He could play in the middle as well but Genk may want a taller player there.
Agree. He may even be better in a three back system as the LCB and RCB do need to be very mobil and he is. Also has that CB covering for any mistakes and he seems to be a guy does that a couple times a game so those mistakes could be wiped away.
I mean I’m sure the EPL will be back in full force next year. Man City for instance very much clearly outplayed Real Madrid, but was unluckily as sometimes happens in a knockout tournament. You could take just this seasons results or more logically you can look at the last ten years of results which are fairly clear the EPL is far and away the best league.
I say nonsense. EPL is definitely one of the best leagues but they dont dominate the CL like Mexico dominates the CONCACAF CL. Please remember I said this BEFORE the EPL teams shit the bed this year
I mean prior to this year 6 of the last ten Champions League finalists were EPL teams (over the last five years). If you include this year where EPL teams didn’t do great in Europe they still had the best UEFA coefficient 5 out of the last 7 years (and often by a good amount). It’s very clearly the best league in the world and there’s no real argument or debate on that (or really any statistical model that one can point to that says otherwise). It’s a logical fallacy to rely on a single year’s results in tournament play (which has a high level of variance) to prove anything. It’s the sort of thing that you look at over a period of years. And Real Madrid who is a finalist this year is a team who can compete with EPL teams financially compared to others as last year they were the highest revenue generating club in the world (though 6 of the top ten were EPL teams). Where the difference really shows however is the financial muscle of the teams lower down the table and one of the things a number of coaches mention when they first move to the EPL is how much better the lower half of the table is compared to where they were coming from. And it’s a different argument to say they haven’t been as dominant as Mexico in CCL, which was not your initial argument (when you pushed back on the notion that it’s the best league in the world).