Toughest European League (minus top 2)

Will I Amnt

So this is narrowed down to what are generally considered to be the 4 "biggest" leagues in Europe.
It's not about which league has the best players or even the best few teams, it's not about how technically good the standard of football is.

Strict criteria for this one. To give a better idea of the strength in depth, we're going to leave out the top 2 in each league and rate the league from 3rd place down

For me, as much as the football hipsters will tell you you're being brainwashed by Sky Sports, it's got to be the English Premier League, followed closely by La Liga, then Bundesliga and lastly Serie A.

Edit: Is it possible for a mod to make the poll public??? I ticked the box to make it public, don't know what happened there

I am pie

Bundesliga

I'd say Serie A. Who are you calling the big 2? It changes, I don't see a side with a massive financial advantage. Juve, Inter, Milan, Lazio, Napoli, Fiorentina, Roma, Torino, Sampdoria & Parma are all pretty big clubs. It's not my favourite league to watch, but there is a pretty consistent high standard, much more depth than the German or French leagues.

Toss up between the premier league or Serie A in terms of depth. Outside of Europe i'd look at the brazilian league...really tough to play in as with the national league and state championships and various regional cups you can rack up 70 games a season easily.

(ps...if we're going to say "Serie A", "La Liga" and Eredivisie etc...can we drop this "EPL" or English Premier League nonsense!...unless its the La Liga Español, Eredivisie Nederlands (or whatever).

Will I Amnt

Serie A

I am pie wrote: »

I'd say Serie A. Who are you calling the big 2? It changes, I don't see a side with a massive financial advantage. Juve, Inter, Milan, Lazio, Napoli, Fiorentina, Roma, Torino, Sampdoria & Parma are all pretty big clubs. It's not my favourite league to watch, but there is a pretty consistent high standard, much more depth than the German or French leagues.

Toss up between the premier league or Serie A in terms of depth. Outside of Europe i'd look at the brazilian league...really tough to play in as with the national league and state championships and various regional cups you can rack up 70 games a season easily.

(ps...if we're going to say "Serie A", "La Liga" and Eredivisie etc...can we drop this "EPL" or English Premier League nonsense!...unless its the La Liga Español, Eredivisie Nederlands (or whatever).

I said top 2, the 2 teams currently occupying those positions in their respective league. In this case Juventus and Roma.

hefferboi

La Liga

I think Bundesliga wins, then Premier league, Serie A and La liga

Its a tough one between the first 2. Both have very good teams after the top 2 and are regularly competitive in Europe. Also the football being played is good, even lower down the table for both leagues.

Serie A has a few good teams but they'd be behind Germany and England for me as the league is dominated by Juventus. If Milan and Inter can get their act together, the league will be back to a higher standard.

La Liga, for me is the most boring league the lower down you go. The football being played in a relegation battle is usually terrible compared with the top 2. Take out Barca, Real and Athletico and you're not left with much.


Also, make the poll public?

I am pie

Bundesliga

Will I Amnt wrote: »

I said top 2, the 2 teams currently occupying those positions in their respective league. In this case Juventus and Roma.

That's a very temporary criteria, however, it nearly strengthens what I samying given the list of big clubs who are not in the top 2 in Italy currently. You'd get a better view if you looked at the variation in clubs who have finished in the top 4 over the last X number of years to understand how competitive a legaue is.

Taking a way the current top 2, before the end of the season, and looking down is very arbitrary.

Blatter

Serie A

It's definitely the Premier League, no question imo.

Will I Amnt

Serie A

hefferboi wrote: »

Also, make the poll public?

I thought I did, ticked the box anyway for sure. I've requested in the OP for a mod to change it if they can.

Will I Amnt

Serie A

I am pie wrote: »

That's a very temporary criteria, however, it nearly strengthens what I samying given the list of big clubs who are not in the top 2 in Italy currently. You'd get a better view if you looked at the variation in clubs who have finished in the top 4 over the last X number of years to understand how competitive a legaue is.

Taking a way the current top 2, before the end of the season, and looking down is very arbitrary.

I used the top 2 to avoid any ambiguity and subsequent arguments there might be as to who the best 2 are in each league.

elefant

hefferboi wrote: »

La Liga, for me is the most boring league the lower down you go. The football being played in a relegation battle is usually terrible compared with the top 2. Take out Barca, Real and Athletico and you're not left with much.


Also, make the poll public?

Atletico, Athletic, Socidedad, Sevilla, Valencia, Villareal are all very good sides. Recently, of course, Malaga were also a side challenging the best in Europe. Hardly 'not much' outside the top two!

cson

Will I Amnt wrote: »

I used the top 2 to avoid any ambiguity and subsequent arguments there might be as to who the best 2 are in each league.

It's a pretty weak distinction though given you've Arsenal, Roma, Leverkusen and Atleti (=2) occupying the second positions in each of their respective leagues. I doubt many would consider any of those clubs to be "Top 2" in their league.

Fwiw Serie A would be the toughest to win there imo. That League is a great watch this year.

Will I Amnt

Serie A

cson wrote: »

It's a pretty weak distinction though given you've Arsenal, Roma, Leverkusen and Atleti (=2) occupying the second positions in each of their respective leagues. I doubt many would consider any of those clubs to be "Top 2" in their league.

Fwiw Serie A would be the toughest to win there imo. That League is a great watch this year.

We're almost in March, any team in second place now is there on merit.

CSF

Serie A

It's a tossup between the Premiership and La Liga for me. The La Liga teams outside of Barca and Real get an awfully harsh time, and when you look at what Barca and Real have done away in Europe this round (small sample size I know) it gives an insight into how hard the rest of the teams have it.

The strength of the Premier League's top 8 cannot be ignored either. Super strong even if that doesn't always translate in European competition.

Id have Serie A 3rd with Bundesliga 4th even though it's my favourite league in which to attend matches.

Gonna give it to the Premiership by a whisker, almost by virtue of the fact that when their teams outside the top 2 have a good player, they are much better able to keep the player than their La Liga equivalent, down to finances I suppose.

hefferboi

La Liga

elefant wrote: »

Atletico, Athletic, Socidedad, Sevilla, Valencia, Villareal are all very good sides. Recently, of course, Malaga were also a side challenging the best in Europe. Hardly 'not much' outside the top two!

I said Atletico, Sociedad are a side I like too and the rest have some quality as well, but go lower down and the quality is shocking compared with the other 3 leagues.

GTR63

Probably the Premier League but honestly I always feel about 7 teams deserve to go down in that league every year but get saved by others incompetence. The budgets the top 7/8 clubs in England are more than any team in Italy or anybody in Spain outside the big spending 2.

I do prefer to watch Serie A this year a lot of good teams to watch (Milan ain`t one of them though )even the likes of Parma & Torino play nice stuff, I can`t watch La Liga at this stage it makes me sad tbh The league just hemorrhages more players year on year.

Germany now seems to be Bayern`s play thing, taking Gotze & Lewandowski (maybe Draxler in the summer too) has damaged the image of the league a bit for me. Schalke & Leverkusen getting annihilated at home in the Champ League last 16 makes me wonder why they merit a 4th spot too.

CSF

Serie A

hefferboi wrote: »

I said Atletico, Sociedad are a side I like too and the rest have some quality as well, but go lower down and the quality is shocking compared with the other 3 leagues.

The quality dips pretty low in Germany and Italy too to be fair.

EuropeanSon

Serie A

What is the question exactly? I don't think it's very clear what "toughest" means here...

Is it which league is more unpredictable? Which has the highest average standard of team? Which has the lowest standard deviation of points per team?

All of these have different answers.

For me the least predictable (which I think is what you're asking) is probably Serie A.

Will I Amnt

Serie A

EuropeanSon wrote: »

What is the question exactly? I don't think it's very clear what "toughest" means here...

Is it which league is more unpredictable? Which has the highest average standard of team? Which has the lowest standard deviation of points per team?

All of these have different answers.

For me the least predictable (which I think is what you're asking) is probably Serie A.

The league that contains the better teams right the way down through it. Comparing the upper mid table/ mid table/ lower mid table etc. to their foreign counterparts.

dfx-

Toughest league suggests to me hardest to survive...which is the PL, mainly because half the teams are scared stiff of relegation because of finance (doping). You then have the ludicrous situation of 10th down only considering safety talking about 40 points. You also have the likes of Newcastle who have no intention of improving beyond staying up. Then there's the rest above 8th who are a long way ahead of those below them and always finish ahead of them.

Close between Ligue 1 that throws up Montpellier, Nantes and Lille as champions and La Liga. As an often visitor to 2. Bundesliga games, that's probably third..

EuropeanSon

Serie A

Will I Amnt wrote: »

The league that contains the better teams right the way down through it. Comparing the upper mid table/ mid table/ lower mid table etc. to their foreign counterparts.

Fair enough, in that case I'd think it's the Premier League, followed by La Liga.

bucketybuck

Serie A

Italy might have "bigger" teams in terms of history, but the question is the toughest and in my opinion thats the Premier league.

Many of the teams may not be of the highest quality but its always a slog to win games in the Premier league, few teams lie down for you. If I had a team and we had to finish 3rd on pain of death, then no chance I'd choose the Premier league to compete in.