Is Premier League Boring?

[Mitch Ward's Minder]

Yep. I think footy is over saturated to the point I don't watch it on TV when it's on, which is constantly. European ties were a treat, Super Sunday etc, now I can't be bothered. Change all league games back to Sat 3pm for a start and reduce the subs back down to 5, I think then we might see a bit more competitiveness particularly as players wouldn't want to be a non match day squad player. Following that UEFA should impose a salary cap across all the leagues

 

[MACCA75]

Some odd contradictions in this thread:

‘The quality is rubbish’ - yet it’s increasingly difficult for promoted teams to stay up.
‘It’s not competitive’ - yet the defending champions are 5th/6th.

The league has deep quality and lots of the best players in the world. The team in 17th has 3 Brazilian internationals.

VAR is a big spoiler admittedly.

 

[Papa Shango]

Some odd contradictions in this thread:

‘The quality is rubbish’ - yet it’s increasingly difficult for promoted teams to stay up.
‘It’s not competitive’ - yet the defending champions are 5th/6th.

The league has deep quality and lots of the best players in the world. The team in 17th has 3 Brazilian internationals.

VAR is a big spoiler admittedly.

Jo has 20 caps for Brazil...

Actually that's kind of a reason why football isn't as special for me these days.

Watching Brazil used to be an event. Got to see them once every blue moon and you saw almost mythical figures like Socrates, Zico, Careca etc, now loads of these players play over here and you see them every week.

It's just a sign of the times really how things have changed, there is no fixing it.

 

[MACCA75]

Jo has 20 caps for Brazil...

Cunha is a good player though eh.

 

[Librarian]

Some odd contradictions in this thread:

‘The quality is rubbish’ - yet it’s increasingly difficult for promoted teams to stay up.
‘It’s not competitive’ - yet the defending champions are 5th/6th.

The league has deep quality and lots of the best players in the world. The team in 17th has 3 Brazilian internationals.

VAR is a big spoiler admittedly.

It’s not all about that
It’s not combative enough and it all seems a bit sanitised and tactical

I think there was something to be said for having matchups in different parts of the field, it’s less about individual contests now and I think it loses something by the way coaches set their teams up

 

[Papa Shango]

Cunha is a good player though eh.

He's alright. He's no Bernard though.

 

[Gallaeo]

I think hes a lot more central for them than them mate.

City will be the team to beat, but suspect the league becomes more even.

Depends. They got a 100m to replace cuntinho and a few bob for mane.

Losing Sarah frees up a whole lot of wages alright bit unless he signs a two,yr desl,and Saudis pay,a shed load in summer 26 then it’s a different scenario

 

[Gallaeo]

It’s not all about that
It’s not combative enough and it all seems a bit sanitised and tactical

I think there was something to be said for having matchups in different parts of the field, it’s less about individual contests now and I think it loses something by the way coaches set their teams up

That’s putting it mildly. 90%of the free kicks are for nothing contact that’s not a foul in basketball. Feel a touch, fall over, free.

As a kid I was slagged by the footy lads as I played basketball and it was supposedly non contact (it’s not). But footy largely is these days

 

[9LeagueTitles5FACups]

Certain matches involving particular teams are boring.

I enjoyed watching Man City a few seasons back, but now I find them to be a dull team to watch, in desperate need of a rebuild. Mind you, I hope they are punished for their wrongdoings before they get the chance. I watched the Manchester Derby last weekend and my word it was boring. In the last fifteen minutes of the first half of that match, there was only one minute which was remotely entertaining (when there were two shots on goal).

Other teams are especially poor too. How can an Arsenal team, sitting in second place, have so many minor injuries in one match? At the weekend, it was quite apparent that they were faking a few injuries.

I must admit that seeing teams like Bournemouth and Brighton doing well annoys me. For some reason, I have never liked Bournemouth. They just don't seem like they should be a top flight club. Apologies if I seem to be going off on a tangent, but I just can't stand to see them doing well and potentially qualifying for Europe.

For me, these thoughts mostly stem from having never seen us win a trophy and that irks me, like many of our supporters (young and old). Whilst I adore our history, hearing stories of past triumphs angers me when I know that the chances of us winning major honours in my life time are going to be slim.

If you look back on clubs which have had success in the past, you will see some teams that built themselves up from scratch going on to win trophies. Furthermore, the league title changed hands fairly regularly. Nowadays, those things feel like a fantasy. The only way these problems can be fixed, in my opinion, is a salary cap. However, there are some obvious issues with implementing this, as you'd imagine that it would have to be installed in every major league and not just the Premier League.

For what it's worth, I would also scrap VAR - it has made the sport much less enjoyable to watch and probably aids corruption or at least enhances bias.

 

[JelavicBrate2]

Some odd contradictions in this thread:

‘The quality is rubbish’ - yet it’s increasingly difficult for promoted teams to stay up.
‘It’s not competitive’ - yet the defending champions are 5th/6th.

The league has deep quality and lots of the best players in the world. The team in 17th has 3 Brazilian internationals.

VAR is a big spoiler admittedly.

Quality isn't great, it just promoted teams try to play like City and end up like Southampton. All 3 goals they conceded against RS at St Mary's were completely avoidable. Guardiolas tactics are completely reliant on having an Iniesta, Xavi or KDB in team. RS, without Salah would be 5th or 6th. As I've said on here before Beckford was more clinical in front of goal than DCL is now, yet DCL was at one stage considered fantastic by some on here. DCL is a typical example on an athlete not a player, he's good at getting on end of crosses, but give him anything to think about he's useless, see his misses against Villa as an example. Average players like Naismith and James Vaughan would only need 1 chance to score, because they were natural strikers. DCL doesn't have that ruthlessness, because he's an athlete.

 

[TheBigIguana]

For me it has gotten a little stale. That's a combination of things. First I think it just gets old having the same teams at the top year after year. We've had close to a decade now of some combo of City/Liverpool/Arsenal/Chelsea and the occasional Spurs or United playing the games that really matter. It's gotten a little better the last couple of years with Villa pushing on and this Forest season but they're not competing to actually win the thing, just finish higher than usual. When you've seen the same "massive" fixture year after year it just feels less massive.

The other piece for me is the style of play from a lot of teams just isn't enjoyable. City, Arsenal and Chelsea have all gone to this really conservative, low risk, suffocate the other team style and it just is so boring to watch at times. On top of that is the gamesmanship that is just overwhelming. Every competent team dives constantly, plays the ref, complains and surrounds the ref, fakes injuries when they need a break, dives to get soft fouls when defending set pieces and whatever other nonsense they can go to for an edge. It sucks watching a sport where a lot of the success is not based around being good at the actual game.

I mean look at Arsenal today. That first goal, yes awesome amazing strike but that opportunity comes because Saka falls over after very minor contact. He got held a little and maybe that's a foul, but he's dived, and he knows he should dive because that's better than actually competing and playing the game. It just gets old.

 

[allen]

Someone’s been raiding this forum for podcast ideas…

 

[Curtis]

I think unless it's the sky six other than a couple of outliers it's been a slog but otherwise I feel the overall quality of the league has improved with several teams outside of the usual suspects are in contention for European spots. They all seem to play watchable football too like Fulham, Bournemouth, Brighton, and Aston Villa along with Forrest who seem to be a lock for the top four even with them just typically winning by a goal their games are entertaining and since Moyes came in despite the perpetual draws the games are much more engrossing. More teams seem willing to attack instead of being pragmatic all game or they implement a counter attacking approach that's entertaining as well

 

[Lob]

Been bored of it for a few years now. Mostly the same teams winning things and the same teams losing. They have even managed to use VAR to suck out any of the remaining enjoyment by their misuse of it, Was only ever meant to be used as a back up tool for tough to call decisions. Now they scrutinise every single thing that happens trying their best to go against on field decisions and their mates on the pitch don't like going against their mates in VAR. One of the most boring, corrupt and predictable leagues in the world now.

 

[Groucho]

97/98 was a great season

Well, I would say this – I’ve been working here for 18 years, and in 1975 no one died. In 1976, no one died. In 1977, no one died. In 1978, no one died. In 1979, no-one died. In 1980… someone died. In 1981, no one died. In 1982 there was the incident with the pigeon. In 1983, no one died. In 1984, no one died. In 1985, no one died. In 1986… I mean, I could go on.”

Ok ok points taken