There is an interesting poll going on right now on the Maisfutebol website i believe. It asks a very good and thought provoking question as a fan of Portuguese football. Is the rest of the Superliga teams catching up? Or are the 'Big 3' teams simply not as good as they once were? I feel that it is a little bit of both. The 'Big 3' have gone through some changes (especially Porto) and the adjustment period may be just taking longer than expected. But at the same time it seems that there is no real easy team to face in this league. Once in a while there is a blow-out score, but for the most part every match seems competitive. What do you think?
It is mainly that the big three aren't performing and the rest are exploiting it. Gone are the days when a team 'lies down' for the big three. You look at Porto who should of beat Beira-mar especially with all the chances Postiga blew. Beira Mar hung on and Quaresma showed off when he could of crossed or run in on goal. As for Benfica, well they have a team that SHOULD win all the time. But they are divers and whiners and expect the game to be handed to them. Sporting as of late have looked good but they started poor. I think the best way to gauge this is how the big 3 finish in europe. If for the most part they fair well than the superliga is getting better. If they fail (ie Benfica vs Anderlecht, Porto in the CL) than the big 3 are playing worse than they should.
my opinion is easy, the other teams are just getting better, and they lost all the respect for the big 3, they got better players and coaches, and mostly important better facilities.
in 10 games...everything is going to be back to normal... the top 3 are going to be where they belong.
i think its the players on the lower teams that are geting better its not that the big 3 are getting worse its just that the league is getting stronger.and that the players are getting much better.BUT the big 3 will begin to get much better except sporting cuz they just suck overall (no offence to sporting fans thats just how i feel)but we will see by the end of the season PS and GoodDead shut up man benfica arent divers and whiners thats porto benfica players dont dive
so you saying in the 20 game, they going to be where they belong, you my be right, but not to long ago, after the 4th or 5th week the championship or the top 3 spots were already decided, and that's why all the teams improved
This is a freak season and all the small clubs are hanging in there. In 10 more games things will be back to Normal. Porto, Sporting, Benfica will have 1,2,3 spots (not in order)
I think the big 3 are a little weaker this year compared to previous years and the rest of the league has gotten much stronger. All of the top Portuguese players end up at the big 3 and are later sold to bigger leagues, so the big 3 teams go through cycles of good and bad.
I think that statement is wrong... Other then Porto I believe the teams are relatively the same... Benifa lost Tiago but play M. Fernandez... And I believe Sporting have a better team this year then last. Porto on the other hand are a completely different team. But I don't think the big 3 are much weaker...
the degree of dominance will always fluctuate a bit; but as long as the big three continue to generate revenue at countless times the rate of all other clubs, they will continue to top the table. even when one of them seems to be floundering, it's generally only relative to the other two.
Interesting thread to reply to. I have a singular overview on this and don't expect many 'followers' on my side. In my point of view, the other superliga teams are not catching up more than they usually do. What they have 'new' this year that they didn't previosly, is better coaching/management. What I mean is, the other 15 teams have done a lot in reducing the gap between the 3 giants in the last 6/7 years. It happened once again this year(so, nothing new). However, bad coaching from Mr Fernadez, Mr Trap and Mr Peseiro has done more on ending the gap than ever before. All coaches are far fom being the best 3 superliga coaches. Their performance has not been good and if one 1 of them would have met some success, the other 2 whould be packing their bags to somewhere else. In the last 2 years we had 2 World Class Coaches (Mourinho and Camacho) and sporting had also a pretty good one (AEK knows it better? for God sake!!) Meanwhile, the small teams became better and better on those 2 years. But back then, so did the Big ones! (specially benfica) Concluding, the big teams have coaches without the 'superliga' experience, the same type of mediocre brazilians has the other 15 teams and so, under performance on european competitions is happening. -Ricardo-
personally, i think its a good thing cause with the big three dominating year after year it lets the other teams know that they have no chance. just like the epl its either arsenal or man u or chelsea and the other teams are not competive so in the superliga when we have 8 teams vying for a postion on top its exciting to see young talent and good young teams that have a shot for the title. so its going to benefit in the long run trust me. plus it generates more revenue for the smaller markets where as the big markets will always be making profit. still its sad to see superliga not getting that enough attention it deserves. its way better then the bundesliga or mexicana. and what pisses me off is to see young stars leave for greater pastures where as staying at home will fine tune their skills instead of heading for marketabilty and thats sad . money talks and bigger clubs will be the shadow of the superliga when the talent is looked upon as pawns. we sell for the riches. but still this league is in great shape and it will only get better. even ask other leagues theyll tell you its an exciting league with a mix of skill, passion, and the way soccer should be played. to me its one of the top three behind serie a and spanishliga. notice i didnt mention epl cause it just hurts to see our talent play for a scroggy league where their is a few talent and chelsea dominating with a portuguese head coach is where people will see we have made the league more diverse and skillfully more better with ronaldo, and mendes, boa morte and better defending with carvalho and ferreira. superliga is on the rise.
As far as I knew, the Big 3 consisted of SCP, SLB and FCP. So you are saying that all will get better, except for Sporting?!? When someone figures this one out, please let me know. Also, you can be a Benfiquista and still critique your team. Simao is no different than Liedson or Derlei. All 3 are great players who also swim in the box and complain to the refs when calls don't go their way. Trust me, you will get a lot of respect around here if your are an unbiased homer. My opinion is that the league is getting stronger overall. There is more fierce competition for spots in UEFA for next season, so that helps. Also, I feel that some teams that would've been scared sh!tless of the Big 3 in the past are coming to grips with playing them. This is why we see Setubal beating Sporting, Beira Mar beating Porto, and Leiria beating Benfica. In addition to this, the Big 3 are always worried about their European form, and they don't have the $$$ like other major European teams to field one squad to concentrate on their league and another set of guys who concentrate on Europe. Their is a lack of depth when it comes to the Big 3, so that also contributes to the poor form. Overall, the Big 3 will always carry weight in Portugal. It has been like this for over 50 years, and it will continue to be this way for another 50.
It's obvious to any thinking person that FCP is weaker now than last year. That I cannot deny. But could it be that both SCP and SLB have weakened more than FCP have? They should be much ahead of us at this time, since we still have the burden of representing the nation in continental and national competitions. There are some noticeable improvements among the other clubs but that has yet been evident at the European level (except for Boavista). This is new territory for Portugal. Even in the days of Eusebio, there's never been an expectation for success for more than one club. Then it slowly alternated between SLB and FCP. Now we're talking about 6, maybe 7 clubs that could go far in Europe? I'm a bit sceptical about six but four is now doable. If Boavista can show that three years ago wasn't a fluke then we will have a stronger league as the result.
I see Boavista play about 3 or 4 times this season, and they not better then Braga, Leiria or Maritimo they just got a coach the keeps theme motivated
I agree, but something about Pacheco....I guess when he says: "vamos embora a cacetada" his players listen
Jesualdo is just not a good motivated he could be leading the superliga, his got the talent to do it let's remember Braga, already played Benfica and Sporting away from home