Read on Twitter
Why this is the strongest the Premier league has ever been. A thread...
At no time in the past has the Premier League had 4 different Champions League winning managers. Ancelotti, Klopp, Mourinho and Pep boast 8 UCL titles among them. The closest was 2009-10 when Ancelotti, Fergie and Benitez had a combined 5 UCLs among them.
Among the remaining managers, Lampard, Nuno and Solksjaer are Champions league winners. In the past 2 decades, Ancelotti, Pep, Rijkaard and Zidane have shown that Champions winning players can claim it as a coach.
And all three coaches have shown that they are able to take the game to the most expensively assembled team of all time, Man City.
They’ve struggled against Liverpool because of Liverpool’s, ‘there’s no tomorrow’ mentality. But then again there’s no English team like Liverpool who lost a European final and claimed it the following year. The closest is Chelsea, who lost in 2008 and won in 2012.
In fact AC Milan 94 and Bayern 13 are the only teams that have done so in the past. And we know what those teams represent.
Now onto the Premier League. There’s only one other season where the league had 2 managers who had successfully defended the title, 2006-07. (Mou left too early in 2007-08 to consider it). Liverpool have a terrific record against both of them.
The only time the Premier League had six Golden boot winners operate in one season was 03-04. In Aguero, Kane, Vardy, Auba, Salah and, Mane the league has never been blessed with so many high performing goal scorers. Not to mention Son and Fernandes.
The league was at its poorest between 09-18, when an aging United, winning with the likes of Phil Jones, and a hit or miss Chelsea were the only true contenders for money bags Man City, who were able to clinch titles with Mancini and Pellegrini who’ve gone on to do f*** all.
They wouldn’t make top four in the current era. The fact that no big club even attempted to get them is a testament to that.
Defensively, Van Dijk, Laporte, Alderweireld, Dias, Vestegaard and Thiago Silva represent a generation of defenders who are capable of dominating aerially and playing out from the back in a high line. Very few defenders in the past were capable of this.
Then there are defenders like Maguire, Soyuncu, Matip and Mina who are a throwback to the old guard, that were brilliant in positioning but not too great on the ball.
In terms of full backs, there’s never been so many amazing full backs in the league, ever. Trent, Robertson, Chillwell, Walker, Perreira, James, AWB and Digne are some of the best the league has ever seen.
In midfield we have the likes of De Bruyne, Fernandes, Grealish and Madisson who can create and score goals at will. Kante, Fabinho and Ndidi who can break any attack. And excellent playmakers like Tielemans and Neves.
Alisson, Lloris, De Gea, Ederson are top 10 best goalkeepers of this generation. Gone are the days where a 40 year old goalie was able to boss the league comfortably. Making top 4 with the likes of Almunia, Fabinho and Gomes are out of the question.
And I haven’t even gone over how 8 teams can attract the best of talents with the financial resources available to them. Everton and Leicester being able to outspend the big 6 on a signing was unimaginable until recently.
[End thread]
[End thread]
