GWT: Champions League - League Stage

[Cloned]

So Mbappe is absolutely cooked right in the prime of his career? Seems like it.

 

[Power Man]

 

[JoVel]

Bensebaini has really turned his form around from last season. He was, without sugarcoating it one bit, really bad. He was always decent for Gladbach so might've just taken some time to get used to things.

 

[Corto]

Still don't understand how this is any different from the old format. There were blow out matches every round back then as well. Now at least we don't have dumb groups that ensure a mediocre team advances, or that a top team will have to play EL

You had groups of 4 where everyone plays everyone. Twice.
99% of the time, the 2 best teams had a fair chance to go through, based purely on their own performances.

The schedule plays a stupidly important role in any league where everyone doesn't play everyone, there's a much better chance that an inferior team gets a favorable schedule and takes advantage of it.

Just look at this season.

PSG has 4 pts so far. PSG's schedule: Girona, Atleti, Arsenal, City, Stuttgart, Bayern, PSV, Salzburg.
2 La Liga, 2 EPL, 2 BuLi - 2 from non-top-4 leagues.

Dinamo Zagreb has Celtic, Salzburg and Slovan Bratislava.

There's a fair chance that Dinamo gets more points than PSG just by winning those 3 winnable games (they've won 2 and are still to play Celtic).

At the same time, I watch the Dinamo games cause it's a Croatian team.
(though tbf I only watched bits yesterday vs BVB as Dinamo had their entire midfield out, starting GK, half the defence and the #1 striker... it was never gonna happen, was just a case of how many they concede... had to play a 17 year old with zero appearences at senior level in midfield).

But I also don't watch Sturm-Crvena Zvezda. And games like that. Nor do I expect neutrals to watch Dinamo - Slovan.

Dinamo is a Croatian team and I'll take it if they go into the next phase, but in no serious world are they in any way comparable to PSG - and there's a realistic chance that happens, based purely on luck and schedule.

They fairness and integrity of the competition suffers because UEFA wanted more money.


So, IMO, there's a MUCH bigger chance of mid teams advancing and serious teams suffering to schedule, than in the prior format.

 

[luiginb]

He's better defensively but that's about it

 

[Incubajerks]

Lol. Didn't Bologna beat Napoli this year in the "most dangerous" category?

I don't understand what you mean but the two cities are not comparable, one is the sewer of Italy, the other is not.

 

[JoVel]

You had groups of 4 where everyone plays everyone. Twice.
99% of the time, the 2 best teams had a fair chance to go through, based purely on their own performances.

The two best teams most often went through, yes, but often the 3rd in group X was better than the 2nd in group Y. I don't see how that is really any different to what we have now.

 

[Evilo]

What we have a now is a clownish schedule.
When teams from the same group don't play the same teams, you're bound to have ridiculous schedules when compared and unfair draws.
There was a study of strength of schedule and some teams had REALLY easy paths while others had REALLY harsh ones.
That is not fair.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

What you have is a super league. Just a different administration. The games are too much and we are seeing more injuries.

 

[These Are The Days]

So Mbappe is absolutely cooked right in the prime of his career? Seems like it.

That would be something else

 

[cgf]

The two best teams most often went through, yes, but often the 3rd in group X was better than the 2nd in group Y. I don't see how that is really any different to what we have now.

Bingo. If a big team s*** the bed in the old format they were still screwed, but sometimes they'd be screwed even if they didn't s*** the bed just because of their group. Is being screwed by your schedule worse than being screwed by your group?

Given how many teams move on to the next round, I'd say it was clearly worse to get screwed by your group...