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English Premier League has declined & five things we learned from the Champions League group stages
The sixth bout of matches has been completed and now we look back at the round of 32, with Real Madrid and Barcelona dominating as the two Manchester clubs crash out
8 Dec 2011 13:36:00
Getty Images
ANALYSIS
By Peter Staunton
Aside from their 2-0 win against Norwich in November, Manchester United have failed to score more than once in each of their Premier League matches since the middle of September. Sir Alex Ferguson's team have won only one of their last five matches in all competitions and that came in an insipid 1-0 victory over Aston Villa last weekend.
Yet despite their unappealing football, United are second in the Premier League table. They have been edging out teams like Swansea and Sunderland, like they always do, in the English top flight. It's perpetually been like that, psychologically, for United in their own domestic league. But that veneer of invincibility has been scuffed in Europe this season.
They will be playing their Europa League football, appropriately, in the Europa League. United claimed nine points in the group stages with six of them coming against group whipping boys Otelul Galati. Alas, they have been shown to be the Manchester United of the present and not the Manchester United of the recent past; a team whose reputation has been so masterfully cultivated by Ferguson. In sharp focus, an average team has been eliminated from the competition.
They have been able to extricate their way out of tough situations on the home front, owing in a large part to the diminished quality of the Premier League currently, but have been unable to do likewise in what was ostensibly an easy Champions League group.
Manchester City are out too. They currently lead the EPL standings at a canter. City paid the price for erroneous selections and naivety in their matches against Napoli and Bayern Munich. Roberto Mancini, a Champions League minnow of a manager, was again exposed by his choices. He assumed the pattern of play suitable to league duties, against teams like Wolves and Wigan, would transpose to the Champions League easily. How wrong he was.
The standard of play in the Premier League has given the Manchester clubs a false impression of their abilities and competences.
At the conclusion of the group stages of last season's Champions League all eight top-seeded teams qualified for the round of 16. This time around, with the elimination of recent winners Porto and Manchester United, only three quarters of the pot one teams remain destined for the draw next Friday.
Last time around, in the shape of Tottenham, Schalke and Copenhagen, only three teams from pot three made it to the knockout rounds while none from pot four made it past the group games.
In 2011-12 the number of teams to progress from the bottom two pots has risen to five with the inclusions of Zenit St Petersburg, Bayer Leverkusen and Basel from pot three and Napoli and APOEL from the lower echelons.
The breakdown of the qualification scenarios are also revealing. The gap between the group winners and the third-placed team last season stood at an average of 7.25 points. This term that median was cut to 4.25; group winners are a full win worse off, on average, this season than last.
Furthermore, the average goal difference of the last 16 participants has been shaved from 6.5 in the group stages last year to 4.3 this; on average, two and a bit goals fewer.
There is little doubt, then, that the Champions League has become a more hostile place for competing teams. There is no longer a margin for error for the big boys, as Manchester United and Porto found out to their detriment.
The round of 16 may have become a less attractive proposition on paper for fans and analysts but the qualifying teams have emerged from their respective listings on merit.
Teams like APOEL and Napoli have helped elevate the standard of the competition as a whole as complacency and error, on the part of the fancied sides, have been ruthlessly punished.
Nuri Sahin, Gervinho, Yohan Cabaye, Adil Rami, Radamel Falcao and Andre Villas-Boas were some of the most prominent names being discussed in football circles last season as Borussia Dortmund, Lille and Porto emerged as the most exciting and promising teams in Europe.
That sextet has moved on to pastures new and the teams they left behind could not conjure their magic of one season ago this term. It is hugely disappointing. The prospect of seeing BVB, LOSC and Porto in the Champions League was a mouth-watering one. With aggressive and talented players and an adherence to bright, attacking football, those three teams were supposed to disrupt the order in Europe's most prominent competition. Alas, it never came to pass and all three exit at the group stages with a whimper.
In 18 matches, they won four between them. All three failed to recover from the loss of key individuals. Furthermore, those remaining did not look as sharp or, more worryingly, as capable as they did last term.
The Champions League is an unforgiving environment. Dortmund have learned that basic defensive tenets need to be acknowledged. Lille have learned that in order to be competitive, intricate football needs to be converted into goals. And Porto know now what they knew before. You cannot continually sell your most important players, and, in this case, your manager, and expect to compete.
Whether this trio of teams comes again remains to be seen. As devastating as the blow is for the clubs involved, their exits comes with regret and sadness on behalf of their fans and analysts.
They should have done better.
Out of sight in La Liga, are Real Madrid and Barcelona going to go out of sight in the Champions League too? Last season they were drawn together at the semi-final stage. It is difficult to see how any of the other teams left in the pot can pass either one of them over two legs.
Between them, the Clasico participants dropped two points, scored 39 goals and conceded six in the group stages. They were assured of their progress to the last 16 two thirds the way through their section fixtures.
Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola were afforded the opportunity to field their second string outfits for their final group encounters, meaning they could each keep their powder dry for this Saturday's Clasico in the Primera Division.
It's long been the case that the superior team from this elite band of two would win the Spanish title. Now, the day looms ever closer that the superior team of the two will win the Champions League too. At full strength, each side has defensive resolution, midfield creativity, ruthless finishing ability and options from the bench.
Spain's two super clubs are now Europe's super clubs. They can only stop each other. Saturday will be a useful indicator on which side has the upper hand. Until now, this season, it has been Real Madrid and the Special One's outfit remain narrow favourites to edge the Catalans out of all significant trophy contention this term.
The Champions League group stages have, in recent times, felt like a slow march towards inevitability. The seeded teams have been afforded the opportunity to field their second-string sides from as early as the fourth matchday and it's all too rare an occurrence that the sixth round of matches is an event to be anticipated with eagerness.
Nonetheless that was the scenario this time around with the final standings of seven out of the the eight groups going down to the wire. The last 16 qualification picture was not decided until the very last minute. Late goals in Dortmund for Marseille, in Milan for CSKA Moscow and for Basel at home contrived to alter the knockout participants right up to the final whistle.
It was genuinely exciting. The Champions League group stages has, at times, been a procession. It's been uninteresting and, more often than not, groups looked more like Barcelona's one this season than Manchester United's.
So thank you messrs Valbuena, Berezutskiy, Frei, and others, for making the Champions League group stages worth watching all the way to the bittersweet conclusion.
Follow Peter Staunton on
By Peter Staunton
| EPL NOT ADEQUATE PREPARATION FOR CHAMPIONS LEAGUE |
Aside from their 2-0 win against Norwich in November, Manchester United have failed to score more than once in each of their Premier League matches since the middle of September. Sir Alex Ferguson's team have won only one of their last five matches in all competitions and that came in an insipid 1-0 victory over Aston Villa last weekend. Yet despite their unappealing football, United are second in the Premier League table. They have been edging out teams like Swansea and Sunderland, like they always do, in the English top flight. It's perpetually been like that, psychologically, for United in their own domestic league. But that veneer of invincibility has been scuffed in Europe this season.
They will be playing their Europa League football, appropriately, in the Europa League. United claimed nine points in the group stages with six of them coming against group whipping boys Otelul Galati. Alas, they have been shown to be the Manchester United of the present and not the Manchester United of the recent past; a team whose reputation has been so masterfully cultivated by Ferguson. In sharp focus, an average team has been eliminated from the competition.
They have been able to extricate their way out of tough situations on the home front, owing in a large part to the diminished quality of the Premier League currently, but have been unable to do likewise in what was ostensibly an easy Champions League group.
Manchester City are out too. They currently lead the EPL standings at a canter. City paid the price for erroneous selections and naivety in their matches against Napoli and Bayern Munich. Roberto Mancini, a Champions League minnow of a manager, was again exposed by his choices. He assumed the pattern of play suitable to league duties, against teams like Wolves and Wigan, would transpose to the Champions League easily. How wrong he was.
The standard of play in the Premier League has given the Manchester clubs a false impression of their abilities and competences.
| THE GAP IS CLOSING |
At the conclusion of the group stages of last season's Champions League all eight top-seeded teams qualified for the round of 16. This time around, with the elimination of recent winners Porto and Manchester United, only three quarters of the pot one teams remain destined for the draw next Friday. Last time around, in the shape of Tottenham, Schalke and Copenhagen, only three teams from pot three made it to the knockout rounds while none from pot four made it past the group games.
In 2011-12 the number of teams to progress from the bottom two pots has risen to five with the inclusions of Zenit St Petersburg, Bayer Leverkusen and Basel from pot three and Napoli and APOEL from the lower echelons.
The breakdown of the qualification scenarios are also revealing. The gap between the group winners and the third-placed team last season stood at an average of 7.25 points. This term that median was cut to 4.25; group winners are a full win worse off, on average, this season than last.
Furthermore, the average goal difference of the last 16 participants has been shaved from 6.5 in the group stages last year to 4.3 this; on average, two and a bit goals fewer.
There is little doubt, then, that the Champions League has become a more hostile place for competing teams. There is no longer a margin for error for the big boys, as Manchester United and Porto found out to their detriment.
The round of 16 may have become a less attractive proposition on paper for fans and analysts but the qualifying teams have emerged from their respective listings on merit.
Teams like APOEL and Napoli have helped elevate the standard of the competition as a whole as complacency and error, on the part of the fancied sides, have been ruthlessly punished.
| DORTMUND, LILLE AND PORTO FAILED TO LIVE UP TO EXPECTATIONS |
Nuri Sahin, Gervinho, Yohan Cabaye, Adil Rami, Radamel Falcao and Andre Villas-Boas were some of the most prominent names being discussed in football circles last season as Borussia Dortmund, Lille and Porto emerged as the most exciting and promising teams in Europe. That sextet has moved on to pastures new and the teams they left behind could not conjure their magic of one season ago this term. It is hugely disappointing. The prospect of seeing BVB, LOSC and Porto in the Champions League was a mouth-watering one. With aggressive and talented players and an adherence to bright, attacking football, those three teams were supposed to disrupt the order in Europe's most prominent competition. Alas, it never came to pass and all three exit at the group stages with a whimper.
In 18 matches, they won four between them. All three failed to recover from the loss of key individuals. Furthermore, those remaining did not look as sharp or, more worryingly, as capable as they did last term.
The Champions League is an unforgiving environment. Dortmund have learned that basic defensive tenets need to be acknowledged. Lille have learned that in order to be competitive, intricate football needs to be converted into goals. And Porto know now what they knew before. You cannot continually sell your most important players, and, in this case, your manager, and expect to compete.
Whether this trio of teams comes again remains to be seen. As devastating as the blow is for the clubs involved, their exits comes with regret and sadness on behalf of their fans and analysts.
They should have done better.
| REAL MADRID AND BARCELONA CAN ONLY STOP EACH OTHER |
Out of sight in La Liga, are Real Madrid and Barcelona going to go out of sight in the Champions League too? Last season they were drawn together at the semi-final stage. It is difficult to see how any of the other teams left in the pot can pass either one of them over two legs. Between them, the Clasico participants dropped two points, scored 39 goals and conceded six in the group stages. They were assured of their progress to the last 16 two thirds the way through their section fixtures.
Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola were afforded the opportunity to field their second string outfits for their final group encounters, meaning they could each keep their powder dry for this Saturday's Clasico in the Primera Division.
It's long been the case that the superior team from this elite band of two would win the Spanish title. Now, the day looms ever closer that the superior team of the two will win the Champions League too. At full strength, each side has defensive resolution, midfield creativity, ruthless finishing ability and options from the bench.
Spain's two super clubs are now Europe's super clubs. They can only stop each other. Saturday will be a useful indicator on which side has the upper hand. Until now, this season, it has been Real Madrid and the Special One's outfit remain narrow favourites to edge the Catalans out of all significant trophy contention this term.
| YOU CAN'T BEAT A BIT OF LAST-MINUTE DRAMA |
The Champions League group stages have, in recent times, felt like a slow march towards inevitability. The seeded teams have been afforded the opportunity to field their second-string sides from as early as the fourth matchday and it's all too rare an occurrence that the sixth round of matches is an event to be anticipated with eagerness. Nonetheless that was the scenario this time around with the final standings of seven out of the the eight groups going down to the wire. The last 16 qualification picture was not decided until the very last minute. Late goals in Dortmund for Marseille, in Milan for CSKA Moscow and for Basel at home contrived to alter the knockout participants right up to the final whistle.
It was genuinely exciting. The Champions League group stages has, at times, been a procession. It's been uninteresting and, more often than not, groups looked more like Barcelona's one this season than Manchester United's.
So thank you messrs Valbuena, Berezutskiy, Frei, and others, for making the Champions League group stages worth watching all the way to the bittersweet conclusion.
Follow Peter Staunton on
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