Guest Article – The Next Big 5 Leagues

For all you football hipsters out there, here are the top 5 leagues outside of the top 5; commonly known to be Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 (that last one’s debatable).

A quick preface before we get going, a top league in this list is ranked first and foremost on entertainment value, so we’re looking for goals, competitiveness and excitement. That means for a league to make this list you don’t have to have ‘top players’ either, but it helps.

So we’re now saying the English second tier of football is better that anything Portugal, Russia or Argentina has to offer? They may have Slimani, Hulk, Jonas and Tevez, but the Championship more than makes up for it in competitiveness. You’ll find that 1/4 of all teams have a good chance of promotion at the same time. That’s almost unheard of, in any league let alone the top 5. Despite the lack of goals with a 1.19 goals per game (GPG) ratio, the quality is there. Even in the premier league we’re seeing newly promoted teams like Bournemouth and Watford more than holding their own against any opposition. Heck even Leicester, the odds on favourite to win the league were promoted only 2 seasons ago.

The 1.13 GPG ratio doesn’t do justice to how good this league is. Even though goals aren’t flowing as you’d expect, it’s a breath of fresh air. Football is bread and butter for Brazilians, while the league is not as great as it once was, they still hold onto the spontaneity, creativity and passion we’ve come to associate with. It also serves as a hotbed of the up and coming Brazilian talent that go onto greatness. The most recent example is Neymar, tearing up defences with skills that you’d only usually see while playing FIFA (the Brazilians aren’t exactly astute defenders) but think about all the great Brazilian talent over the years. Point proven.

It’s true. The Dutch league is not what it used to be. With Netherlands failing to qualify for Euro 2016 questions are even being asked about the state of Dutch football in general. Nevertheless what we’re seeing in the Eredivisie is a aggressive league with a very high GPG ratio of 1.48; including it’s fair share of exiting youth talent. It’s basically an unwritten rule that a team follows the ‘Total Football’ system brought to fruition at Ajax by Rinus Michels. The system’s based on a 4-3-3 attacking high pressure style, with out and out wingers and a fluid change in position. Reasons like this are why the Eredivisie is so enjoyable to watch; winning isn’t enough, you have to win with style.

Often labelled the retirement home for ageing superstars, in recent years the league is flourishing and definitely on the up. The increase in investment and spotlight is paying it’s dividends; with a huge 1.55 GPG the MLS as most teams adopt the ‘attack first, worry about defending later… or not, just attack’ strategy. This season has me hooked: precision free kicks, wonder strikes, awful defending and drama. If your a casual fan, the MLS is a good shout for a quick fix of football.

At first I didn’t even realise this league even existed (you’re looking at the next Ian Macintosh here) but after delving a bit deeper I think i’ve stumbled onto football’s equivalent of Hell’s Kitchen. With 3 domestic cups to play for, and 2 internationals as they’re eligible for Copa Libertadores and CONCACAF, they’re already stretched for time. This whole operation is one big joke. You have no league owner (great start) so the club owners take it upon themselves, resulting in less than adequate results. Often organisations own multiple clubs and such owners like Grupo Carlos have has their fair share of scandals. What the hell. How does anything get done? Well the football is definitely entertaining, with a rich football culture.

Thanks Anirudh for an excellent article, you can also follow him on the  Twitter account @TheFixtureScout

If you would like to have any content posted on here then please feel free to contact me at realfootballmanwordpress@gmail.com and hopefully we can get something of yours up as well.

 

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