Nordsjælland are not 4th tire, but is among the very best in Europe regarding developing Academy players that they are able to sell for several millions of $ .. and they regard Amon to be a huge sales object ... FCN are comparable to Ajax in the Netherlands ...just go read the Amon thread : https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/jonathan-amon-fc-nordsjælland-in-denmark.2052223/page-5#post-36133680
people need to realize first that denmark is a terrible league first of all. I hope Amon turns out to be messi but he is young and lets let him play in a decent league and a decent level before we start talking about first team usmnt. 2nd...its impossible to list people by position. first you don't even know what formation you are going to use so you cant just list 11 generic positions. 3)someone like pulisic is the best winger/best attacking mid and also the best cm...so where do you list him...at 'wing' because there are less there lol...then ur list is tainted.
I can't wait to have anyone attempt to tell me denmark is anything but a bad league. also if you think pulisic isn't the best at a number of positions for the us then well it sums up ur understanding of the sport.
mls isn't a good league but that has nothing to do with the topic...which is amos and denmark not being a good league.
Not when it comes to developing young talents... and that is really what matters here ... Nordsjælland is the best club in all of Denmark at developing youth NT players .. in fact they have they youngest squad in all of Western Europe and are in reality a reinforced youth NT playing in the Superliga... or in other words, the Danish league is not a league for journeymen and older foreigners ... that would be a terrible league for a young talented player in my opinion ...
its a bad league..meaning if they put the entire league in with a good league...the teams from denmark would be at the bottom.
Not true at all ... As the match stats also clearly show, FC København were equal in the physical aspects of the game and way better at passing the ball and had more possession both home and away against Leicester in the CL group stage last season ... the only advantage Leicester seemed to have, was a bit more pace and a better keeper ... but if FCK were playing in the EPL they would obviously also adjust to a higher pace.. http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2017/matches/round=2000783/match=2019318/index.html http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2017/matches/round=2000783/match=2019342/index.html The Superliga table so far this season . https://www.bold.dk/fodbold/danmark/superligaen/
just and FYI...they finished third in that group...leicester won that group lol. Leicester finished...12th in the premier league that year. they were hardly a good club last year. read the stats all you want...I'll take man city you can have any team from denmark lol. its shocking that they are 24th according to uefa...where do you have them? I thought it was funny that you mentioned last year...why not this year? Could that be because they didn't even make it to the group stage? they got knocked out of the playoff by a team from...Azerbaijan? A team that then in the group stage had a -12 goal differential in finishing last in its group?
FCK only finished 3rd because Leicester send their B team to Porto in the last game of the group and lost 0-5, otherwise FCK would have progressed from the group in 2nd place, because they were better than Porto on away goals (0-0 at home, 1-1 away against Porto) ... it was just that close .. had FCK scored just 1 goal at home against Leicester, then FCK would have won the group and not Leicester. FCK sold half their starting 11 before this season, while several of their other regular starters got long-term injured, which is also why they are so far behind in the Superliga this season, while trying to build up a new team ... though they still qualified for the Europa League group stage and have also progressed from their group to the round of 32 where they are going to face an Atlético Madrid team that was not able to get a win against Qarabag (1-1 and 0-0) in their CL group, unlike FCK (2-1 and 0-1) against Qarabag in the CL play-off's.... so perhaps Qarabag is not quite as bad as you make them out to be, when Atlético were not able to beat them... or perhaps Atlético is just as poor as FCK ...
UEFA are always slow to update their rankings ... as far as i can see man city are in 8th place over the past 5 years, according to their latest results : https://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/data/method5/trank2018.html or if you only count this season they are in shared 2nd place... As for Danish teams vs. English teams in the Europa Cups, Danish teams usually do fairly well against EPL teams ... like Midtjylland knocking out Southampton (1-1 away, 1-0 at home) in the Europa league back in 2015-16 , they then got beaten by Manchester United (2-1 win at home 1-5 loss away) in the Round of 32, but at that point in time Midtjylland were still on winter break and obviously very rusty, while Man U were in season and in top shape... and this is the usual problem for Scandinavian teams when they get past a group stage and play in the Round of 32 ... they are on winter break and face teams in top shape from the top leagues... Midtjylland btw faced Man City in the Europa League back in 2008-09 where they beat Man City 1-0 away, but then lost the return leg at home by 0-1 through an owngoal by Danny Califf in the 89th minute .. and then went out on penalties ... they will never forget Califf for that loss... in the Round of 16 that year, Man City then faced yet another Danish team ... AaB Aalborg and also that tie was won narrowly by Man City 4-3 on penalties, with City beating Aalborg 2-0 at home but losing 0-2 in Denmark ... Aalborg btw had reached the Round of 32 that year through playing CL, where they had managed a 2-2 draw away against Man United in the CL group stage.. the Danish league may not be among the very best, but it's not quite as bad as you seem to believe...a very long winter break unfortunately do limit how far they can reach in Europe ...
this really proves my point. two years ago...the best team in denmark beat southampton lol but they then lost to man united...so losing to a team makes them good, thats good. faced man city...8 years ago...and lost but again losing is a sign of being good. I mean they are really upset at the kid so that means its a good league. then man city beat another team from denmark..sealing denmarks leagues brilliance. They also lost to man u...so 0-3 against english teams really a sign of being an equal or close. their talent limits what they can reach in europe.
No it does not ... Playing in the Europa cups and playing league games at the same time is much tougher than people may think, Leicester learned that the hard way last season when they were playing in Europe for the first time and were giving CL their full focus ... because it really hurt them in the league because of their lack of depth, lack of experience and ability to focus on two "leagues" at the same time ... Scandinavian teams have 4 major disadvantages in Europe and league quality is not really one of them... 1) For a club to climb to around top 50 in the UEFA club ranking where you will be top-seeded all the way through the qualifiers, you practically need to qualify for a CL or EL group stage every year, and only miss perhaps 1 group stage ever 10 years or so, which is why only FC København are among the top seeded Scandinavian clubs in the qualifiers. 2) As written above, you both need the experience and more depth than most people understand, to both qualify for Europe through finishing at the top of your league and then also do well in Europe at the same time ... FC København have a squad of what you in MLS would consider to be 19 designated NT players, each earning around a minimum $500k or more a year ... and this they need just to be able to focus on being a success in the league as well as qualifiyng for a group stage just about every year. 3) Getting past a group stage is actually the easiest part when you manage to qualify, but getting past the Round of 32 is almost impossible for a Scandinavian team due to the very long winter break.. it does happen from time to time, like last season when FC København went from the CL group stage to the Europa League, Round of 32, and because of being top seeded had the "luck" of getting the Bulgarian Champions Ludogorets, who they had no problem beating inspte of being on winter break ... in the Round of 16 FCK then narrowly were eliminated by Ajax that then went on to reach the Final against Man U . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016–17_UEFA_Europa_League#Knockout_phase 4) .. which lead me to the 4th obstacle, which is that every time a Scandinavian team reach a CL or EL group stage and also reach as far as the Round of 32, the top leagues will queue up and stand in line to buy their best players, so that they often have to build up a new team the following season,...FCK are not really in the business of selling their best players, or usually only 1 each ½ season, but at the end of last season they sold several key players and at the same time they got struck by several long-term injuries among the key players they did not sell, which is why this season has been their worst season ever, even though they have still managed to reach the Round of 32 in the Europa League, but I dont see them finishing in top 3 in the Danish Superliga this season. : https://www.bold.dk/fodbold/danmark/superligaen/
I think its great you've latched onto a lesser league, I am sure watching just that league you think thats a very good league and I understand that. although I am going to beat up ur point again. 1)you say the first disadvantage is that for denmark to rise in the rankings that they need to perform well and that is somehow unfair...truth is thats as fair as it gets. getting to the group stage shouldnt be so difficult if they are a good league. 2)I have a complete understanding of what it takes to do well in europe and domestic league at the same time. Teams in denmark have an advantage because their league doesn't require near the talent to compete in both that it takes for a team like man city to compete in the premier league and champions league at the same time. 3)we are in agreement that small leagues like denmark don't have the financial backing to compete with the big boys and that is a big disadvantage and that is why I am correct in saying they are not on par with them. 4)that happens to everyone; teams come in for players its not a rarity for a bigger club to buy a player from a smaller club and of course they want their best players. that is again why I am correct in saying the league is not on par or even close to the top leagues.
1) I did not mention Denmark, but that the individual club teams have the disadvantage of having to both do well in the league every season and also need to rise to top 50 in the European club ranking by reaching a group stage every year ... an inexperienced EPL team like Leicester , that was no better than FC København, did not have to play qualifiers at all, but went straight to the group stage even though they had never played in Europe before and their ranking was below top 100 .. 2) Even an Italian Serie A team only need to finish 4th in the league to go straigh to the CL group stage without having to play any qualifiers, if they are Cup winners or finish 5th in the league, they are also sure to go straight to the Europa league group stage without playing any qualifiers ... so they dont really need to do well in the league or in Europe every season to keep a top 50 ranking, they just need to finish in top 5 (or 6) in the league or win the Cup final and they go straight in, should they miss 9 out of 10 seasons, they will still go straight to the group stage if they finish in top 6 in the league that one season they qualify. 3+4) I never said that the leagues are on pair, but that a team like FCK is on pair with Bundesliga or EPL teams and so are most other Danish top teams that manage to go into the CL or EL qualifiers as unseeded (unless it's an inexperienced Danish team doing a "Leicester"), perhaps they only knock out a "Southampton", a "Hertha Berlin" (that got knocked out by both Brøndby and Swedish Östersunds this and last year) or they only look and play better than a "Leicester", and do not quite manage to beat a Man City over two games, but they are hardly going to be run over by teams from the top leagues, unless perhaps when they are on winter break... You first wrote that the Danish league is a terrible league ... my point is, that it's not half as poor as you probably think, though it's obviously not among the very best of leagues in Europe ... but for a young inexperienced but highly talented player like Amon, Nordsjælland is the perfect match, considering that they are excellent at developing young youth NT players ... as written earlier, they got the youngest top-flight squad in all of Western Europe.
Guys, this is the player pool thread. Let’s try to keep discussion simply on the player pool. Discussion if Denmark is a good league or not needs to be in a different thread. @bungadiri please note.
Had Amon not been discovered at the local Academy in Charleston at the age of 14 by the technical director at Global Football School, Kenn Schmidt Nielsen and offered a trip to Denmark, to go through a few trials and then later (at the age of 16) been offered to study at the KIES Sports Academy (boarding school) in Copenhagen and had the FCN assistant coach Søren Krogh not also been working both at KIES as a teacher and as U19 coach at FCN, then we would not even have had this debate in the first place, because then Amon would not have been playing in Europe at all ... He only came here because he was offered this opportunity a bit by chance... Considering that he is still only 18, I suspect that he probably would be about to play his first season for Charleston Battery in the USL, had he not been offered this opportunity to improve his skills at the FCN Academy (including their Right to Dream Academy abroad) which is among the top Academies in Europe ... Here is a few highlights from a game he played in the Danish U19 league, before he got to play any games in the Danish league :
I'm updating this and had a question: if I was to add a level above Big 4 UCL regular playing time, what would it be? Top 5 club as per 538? More clubs or less? My thinking is that there is a tier that BVB would sell to and that's the most elite level (i.e., WC contenders will have significant representation at this most elite level). Big 4 UCL regular playing time Pulisic/BVB Big 4 non-UCL regular McKennie/Schalke FJ/Gladbach Chandler/Eintracht Brooks/Wolfsburg Williams/Huddersfield Wood/Hamburg Yedlin/Newcastle Cameron/Stoke 3rd Tier regular (about leagues 5-15) Miazga/Vitesse JGonzalez/Monterrey CCV/Sheffield United Villafana/Santos (not sure he has regular minutes) Saeif/Gent Robinson/Bolton (had to look him up....) 4th Tier regular (about leagues 16-25 ~ MLS) Amon/FC Nordsjælland Siebatcheau/Reims Green/Furth Morales/Ingolstadt Not sure how to slot these players relative to the list above. Big 4 UCL Irregular/Reserve EPB/ManCity Big 4 non-UCL Irregular/Reserve Shaq/Levante (very close to regular minutes?) Stanko/Freiburg (very close to regular minutes?) Sargent/Bremen Klinnsman/Hertha Hyndman/Bournemouth Johanssen/Bremen Zelalem/Arsenal 3rd Tier Irregular/Reserve (about leagues 5-15) Parks/Benefica Gooch/Sunderland 4th Tier Reserve (about leagues 16-25 ~ MLS) Wright/Sandhausen Horvath/Brugge Green = potential to rise to higher level Red = risk of falling to a lower level or getting benched Italics = American born/raised outside of the US, whose USMNT success apparently indicates that the US' "developmental system fails to produce good players"[/QUOTE]
[/QUOTE] I like the tiers... if you wanted to do 5 tiers instead of 4: Tier 1: Your premier clubs in the world that are UCL title contenders Tier 2: your top European level, UCL and Europa clubs. I’d say your Schalke, Benfica, Tottenham types. Tier 3: your mid-lower club top level clubs Your Stoke City, Leicester City, Levante, etc types Tier 4: your top middle league clubs and top clubs in lower leagues in the big leagues. Your Aston Villa, West Bromwich, types. Tier 5: your weak clubs in the middle and weak clubs in lower leagues. Your Furth types.
I like the tiers... if you wanted to do 5 tiers instead of 4: Tier 1: Your premier clubs in the world that are UCL title contenders Tier 2: your top European level, UCL and Europa clubs. I’d say your Schalke, Benfica, Tottenham types. Tier 3: your mid-lower club top level clubs Your Stoke City, Leicester City, Levante, etc types Tier 4: your top middle league clubs and top clubs in lower leagues in the big leagues. Your Aston Villa, West Bromwich, types. Tier 5: your weak clubs in the middle and weak clubs in lower leagues. Your Furth types.[/QUOTE] Thanks. I'm loath to break apart the various leagues by teams (even though I agree that's a better reflection on where teams stand) as it's much easier to rank by leagues and just add the super-tiers at the top. How many clubs do you think are actual contenders for UCL? maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the Big Four UCL qualifiers?
Thanks. I'm loath to break apart the various leagues by teams (even though I agree that's a better reflection on where teams stand) as it's much easier to rank by leagues and just add the super-tiers at the top. How many clubs do you think are actual contenders for UCL? maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the Big Four UCL qualifiers?[/QUOTE] crazy question why does this list exist and what is it supposed to mean/do?
After much thought & speaking w/ my family, it pains me to announce my retirement from International Soccer today w/ the US Men's National Team. I'm taking my name out of the hat so the younger guys can have their chance to shine!!— Bobby Boswell (@bobbyboswell) January 2, 2018 One less player.