Best League behind "Big 5"(Europe)

Which League is the best behind "Big 5"

  • Belgium(Jupiler Pro League)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Ukraine(Premjer Liha)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    20

Havre

Registered User
Jul 24, 2011
8,459
1,733
I only watch the odd Championship games and none of these other leagues so can't really comment. The quality in the Championship though has improved immensely the last years. Gone are the crap pitches and the hoofing. Teams like Leeds, Reading (under Stam) etc. are all fairly possession oriented passing the ball properly. Still the intensity is there. Biggest issue with the Championship is in my opinion the number of games. Which means the quality varies a lot from game to game depending on the energy level.

Clearly the top teams from these leagues are better than the Championship teams, but by the time you get to mid table it would surprise me if the Championship isn't better than all of these. Unfortunately the English game is just so ridiculously dominant in terms of money that even if they don't spend wisely it still trickles down.

Based on how Norwegian players have performed in those leagues over the last years Turkey and Belgium is certainly nothing special. I am also surprised how well fairly average Norwegian players have performed in Holland. It wouldn't surprise me if the Russian league is the best among those, but it is more or less a pure guess from my side. Not that anyone on here would have good knowledge about all these leagues anyway. We might think the Dutch league is good because Ajax does well one year, but I have seen IFK Gothenburg, Rosenborg etc. do well in Europe coming from Sweden and Norway without the leagues being good at all (one year Norway had two teams in the CL group stages - the league was still fairly crap).
 

HajdukSplit

Registered User
Nov 9, 2005
11,035
762
NJ
Portugal is way too top heavy, the teams below the likes of Benfica, Porto and Sporting for the most part are small clubs who draw less than 5K in the crowd. Russian league is more competitive but they have regressed last few years in Europe. With respect to the Eredivisie they are barely top 10 in Europe for me (though I stress European results when judging leagues) and although Ajax made the semis this league also lost their automatic CL spot recently

I voted Russian League slightly over Portuguese based on the competitiveness, more teams in Russia are capable of winning the league and the bottom clubs seem more competive too
 

MaxV

Registered User
Nov 6, 2006
4,888
590
New York, NY
Last year it was definitely Portugal, but it seems to vary year to year.

Russia took a step backwards the last couple of seasons but I actually like the reason, top teams are pushing their young guys and giving them opportunities. This was a major criticism towards Russian clubs in the past, as they often preferred “proven veterans” even if their game was average.

Time will tell, but I believe this approach will have positive consequences in the future.

Another development about Russian League that could also be a significant boost is the fact that Dinamo and Rubin, two clubs who have fallen because of finances, seem to be climbing back up. At the moment, there are 5 clear “top clubs” in the league, but that could change next season.
 
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Dr Salt

Bedard saved me
Feb 26, 2019
1,588
867
ym
When you say the best, in what? In terms of club-quality from a sporting perspective and not viewership or how good the title/cl/relegation races are I would feel Portugal would be the right answer. In terms of all the other good stuff it feels like it varies year to year but the Super Lïg was setting up with an interesting title race + relegation fight in terms of this season.
 

Lambo

Registered User
Jan 10, 2019
1,579
531
When you say the best, in what? In terms of club-quality from a sporting perspective and not viewership or how good the title/cl/relegation races are I would feel Portugal would be the right answer. In terms of all the other good stuff it feels like it varies year to year but the Super Lïg was setting up with an interesting title race + relegation fight in terms of this season.
I think you must regard the whole league and the results in EC. Both are important. Portugal has good Top-Teams like Benfica, Porto or Sporting but the middle and bottom tier are weak.
 

MaxV

Registered User
Nov 6, 2006
4,888
590
New York, NY
Is it really “big 5”?

I don’t know, to me France is closer to Portugal and Russia then to England/Spain/Germany/Italy.

Sure they have one monster club, but the rest...
 

Gecklund

Registered User
Jul 17, 2012
25,142
11,717
California
Is it really “big 5”?

I don’t know, to me France is closer to Portugal and Russia then to England/Spain/Germany/Italy.

Sure they have one monster club, but the rest...
I mean they do have the likes of Lyon and Monaco who are historically good. The way I see it there’s tiers

England/Spain
Germany
Italy/France
Portugal/Netherlands
Russia/Belgium/Turkey/etc
 
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Lambo

Registered User
Jan 10, 2019
1,579
531
Is it really “big 5”?

I don’t know, to me France is closer to Portugal and Russia then to England/Spain/Germany/Italy.

Sure they have one monster club, but the rest...
Yes i know! The Big 5 is generally spoken of. But clearly the French league in particular is dropping somewhat.

My Ranking(Big 5 pecking order):

La Liga
PL
Bundesliga

Serie A

Lique1
 
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