La Liga is Tough-But is it the best?
By: Jeremy | April 6th, 2008After watching this weekends game between Mallorca and Real Madrid, if you dont know much about most of the teams, you would have to think Mallorca is one of the better sides in La Liga. The fact is Mallorca lies in 9th place, and is essentially a mid table club. I know I continue to spout on about how disappointed I am in them this year, but if you take a step back and look at things objectively, for as close as they are to Europe, until recent weeks, they were a real relegation candidate. Clearly there is parity in La Liga this year on a scale higher then we are used to seeing, but does that mean the overall performance of the teams has dropped or improved?
Before I discuss that further, lets look back at Saturdays 1-1 draw in Palma. Madrid probably had the better start to the game but the flow slowly went Mallorcas way and Navarros goal should have been allowed. Instead Schneider scored just before halftime giving Madrid the lead. Madrid seemed to have more of the posession, but when Mallorca did have the ball they created some good chances including a couple of missed shots by Guiza that he wished he could have again. Madrid got another break when Cannavarros hand ball was ignored by the ref. Going in 1-0 down at the break was not where Mallorca should have been but for all the bad refereeing, they didn’t finish some chances so it is much on them.
The second half brought better luck. Madrid played much better defense in the second half, but Ramos got sent off for second yellow card and Valero soon equalized. I am not big on analyzing a game when one of the teams is down to 10 men as Madrid did. What happens from there is not really indicative of what the game should have been like. Mallorca should have scored again, but Madrid held pretty well. For the blame we want to give the refs or bad luck in the first half, we only have ourselves to blame for not creating more chances when we had the extra guy in the second half. All and all a 1-1 draw was pretty fair. One thing this game did show is that Mallorca can play well against the best team in La Liga on a regular basis. It is not always the case that a mid level team in say Serie A or the EPL can regularly give the top teams good matches.
This leads me to my question, out of the top three leagues in the world (EPL, La Liga, and Serie A), which one is the best top to bottom? If you look at which league has the best teams at the top, it would be hard to argue against the EPL as their top four is slightly better then Serie A, followed by LaLiga. However, if you look at overall top to bottom, I think this is where LaLiga is arguably the best. I dont say this backed up by any statistics, but it seems week in and week out, that the top teams in LaLiga have a difficult time with the mid table and bottom level teams. Is this because the top teams arent as good as in the other leagues? The difference between the top teams in these leagues is not so great to make that the easy explanation, but it seems week in and week out the top teams in Serie A and the EPL dont have that much of a problem with the lower level clubs in their league.
With Derby and Fulham, the two worse teams in any of the big three leagues, I think that shows the EPL top to bottom is not the best. Serie A is a close second, but it seems that the top half of the league is much better then the bottom half so overall it is lacking. The fact that Juve can return to Serie A and be near the top and Genoa and Napoli can be mid table teams shows that the bottom half of Serie A just is not quite as strong. As for LaLiga, the fact that Depor and Valencia, two perennial Champions League teams, are really struggling and that the from 9th to 18th, there is less then a ten point gap, shows the overall quality of the league. In the EPL and Serie A, it is the same teams at the top pretty much every year. In LaLiga, once you get past Barca and Madrid, the other European spots are wide open and a fairly good team is going to get relegated this year.
What is my point? It just shows that a game like Mallorca v. Madrid is going to be tough and if you look at the fact Madrid from its players to its team President, all feels like they were lucky to get a point this week against the 9th place club, albeit a club that plays it tough no matter where it is in the standings, then this truly is a balanced league where a team can compete for Europe on year, and end up looking at relegation the next year.
Speaking of Europe, we picked up a point on Almeria and Espanyol this week so we are a little closer to Europe. There are certainly a lot of good teams close together, but hopefully the players feel like they are safe from relegation now and can continue to push toward a European place. After this weekends gutsy effort against the best team in LaLiga, we have to believe Europe is possible.
Category: Mallorca Team News
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Comments
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I’m all for La Liga, simply because of its parity (especially this season).
But then, I could be a bit biased.
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United States
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1. Serie A…no doubt
2. la Liga
3. PremiershipPosted from
United States -
Nice article, I think your right on with the parity and the issue of who is the best in the world.
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United States -
IMO, none of the top three leagues have a lot of parity, though of the three, Spain has the most of it. England and Italy are pretty much predetermined, but at least in Spain, besides Barca and RM, you don’t know who the other teams will be. And the midtable and lower level clubs really give the top ones a hard time.
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United States -
Actually Serie A has plenty of parity. If you look especially over the past few weeks, you’d notice the results in A show that parity quite nicely.
I think La Liga and Serie A are on the same level. EPL, however, has next to none. People like to build that league up as being great, but I don’t agree. If anything, it’s only popular because of the “english” aspect of things. Especially when talking from an American aspect, you’d notice that more Americans feel more familiar with players in the EPL than those with “the weird names that talk in different languages” in La Liga and Serie A.
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United States -
I agree, Serie A and La Liga are much more competitive overall.
For me La Liga is the best for a few reasons, parity being one of them. Unfortunately it’s also the most inconsistent of the 3, with every team (even the big 2) capable of a dramatic collapse at any moment, but that’s part of the fun.
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I don’t know about Serie A and La Liga having the same level of competitiveness (though Serie A has more parity than the EPL for sure). If you look at the number of results bottom clubs have had over top clubs, La Liga has more of them, not just this season but all the time. This year for example, Inter and Roma’s losses have mostly been to other top sides.
One way I like to look at league parity is by looking at the bottom clubs about to be relegated. So the bigger the gap between the teams means a greater variation in the quality of play. A competitive and healthy league is one in which all teams are genuine threats to each other.
If you take the first place team out of consideration (Real Madrid, Inter, ManU) and the last place team (to remove the factor of a truly horrendous season for a certain team), and examine positions 2-19 by looking at the variation in points, it is one way to look at the general strength of the league.
EPL: Between Chelsea and Fulham, there is a 50 point difference.
La Liga: Between Barca and Murcia, there is a difference of 30 points.
Serie A: Between Roma and Cagliari, 39 points.But if you want real parity, Germany and France are always the best because they only have one team that really dominates, and the difference in quality between relegation teams and top teams isn’t as great as in the big three leagues.
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I like your analysis Inara. Very interesting. In the EPL, the big four are the only real talking points, and they seem to be able to be arranged in any permutation possible. Also, in England, a Championship team promoted is straight off a candidate for relegation (Sunderland, Watford, Derby).
In Serie A, although there has been an Inter hegemony in 2 years, you can still say that from teams 1-5, there is competition strong enough to upset the balance. Look at AC Milan, faltering to teams like Atalanta, Napoli etc.
In La Liga, you’re right, it is the most inconsistent league, but in a way, the most exciting one when the season comes to a close. There is a perennial duopoly, but teams 3-7 (UEFA places) are WIDE OPEN. And we viewers expect that to happen.
Parity: La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Serie A, EPL
Excitement: EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1
League strength: La Liga, EPL, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1Posted from
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Inara, nice post. Look at the relegation zone in La Liga. Getting 40 points this year, may not be enough to stay up. It looks like 45. The competition and balance is so tight. I get frustrated with fans who are used to super teams at the top and crap teams in mid table and the bottom. La Liga is not like that. Any team can beat any other team on their day. There is no easy match unless it’s Murcia or Levante. Yes two formerly strong teams have dropped this year - Zara and Valencia, but that’s what makes it so interesting. I love the mental melt down and drama too. Never a dull moment. It’s a shame that all the money in the league is held by a few teams. But it is quite impressive to see how far some teams can go with limited resources. Great article Jeremy.
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United States -
Don’t confuse parity and league strength with widespread mediocrity. People often confuse or are willing to use the two interchangeably. I’m not pointing any fingers and saying that everyone in any particular league is just mediocre, I’m simply saying that a tight race does not a great league make. You can have a tight championship race/relegation battle among a lot of “crap” teams simply because they can’t get out of each others way.
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United States -
I just did a quick write up on the Madrid page about my thoughts on La Liga. I love this league, and think it completely eclipses the EPL and Serie A in terms of internal competition. It’s impossible to guage which league is the “strongest” but the EPL’s big four seem to be fairly dominant in Europe, at the moment. However, that can change rather quickly, and next years CL could see a host of Spanish teams dominate, or Italian or even German, for that matter.
Whatever, I spend my time in front of the tube enjoying Spanish football, where the results are never pre-supposed. And another aspect that’s almost always brought up when discussing the difference between the EPL and La Liga has been mercifully avoided up to this point. I’ll do the dirty work: the technical skill of La Liga far outweighs the EPL. There, I said it. And the EPL can be more exciting because of the wreckless, all out attacking style of play. Granted.
And Greg, though you avoided pointing fingers, I really hope you’re not making the claim that Spain is filled with “crap” teams. Because you’d be flat out wrong.
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No, John, that’s why I made sure to say that my comments were broad and not accusatory. I’ve seen plenty of times where in sport (not even necessarily football) that people regard a tightly contested league as being higher quality when in fact the reality is that they all just suck equally.
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United States -
So a tight contest is usually the work of a group of mediocre teams but a runaway pack of two of three teams for the league is the mark of true parity? It seems that if the league has no clear favorites for each game, then does that not mean parity. If Real and Barca are although considered favorites, routinely troubled by lower table teams like Mallorca with Real or Barca with Betis recently, does that not show parity? Sure the same can be said of any league, but when you look at who is at the bottom of La Liga and who finishes at the bottom of Serie A or the EPL, theres no way that the bottom feeder La Liga teams would loose an encounter to either leagues lowly teams. At the finish of a campaign, you compare positions of teams in the leagues, and you figure out who would logically win a game between two teams that finished in the same position in two leagues, and the EPL would be flat out losers except for their top 5 teams. La Liga would probably win atleast 12 games if such a competition took place, I have no doubts about that. That shows not only is the league evenly balanced, it is not a collection of ‘mediocre’ teams.
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United States -
Very cool post/comparison. La Liga definitely has the most parity, if we’re defining it as strong teams not only through the first but also the second division. Almeria, newly promoted, sits 9th in the standings. Pretty stout, I’d say.
The fundamental problem with the EPL is that it’s an arms race. The top four have so much money and so much television presence that it’s difficult for lesser teams to get players of any real quality. That isn’t going to change. We’ve seen the top four over there cock up this season, but not with the reliability of the top two in La Liga.
I also think the style of football has a lot to do with it. It’s more open in La Liga, which can contribute to the crazy counterattack that suddenly makes a game (and subsequent season) seem topsy-turvy. The talent with the ball in La Liga is astounding, something that also isn’t true in the other leagues.
I would finally point to the fact that a side will need around 40 points to stay up. Using points-only comparisons, that’s pretty much mid-table in England and Italy.
munichsoul’s ratings are spot on.
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United States -
Corey, I agree with your assessment. The interesting thing here is that we actually are comparing the leagues and their “strength” by saying which leagues’ “lower level” teams would beat the other. Therefore aren’t we saying, in essence, our lowest common denominator is better than yours? If so, why judge an entity based on its weakest parts? I’m not saying I’m talking myself out of agreeing with you, but how can we rectify the fact that we’re judging a league’s “prestige” or “overall strength” by comparing its worst teams?
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United States -
Oh and please no “only as strong as the weakest link” throw away junk line cliches. They aren’t going to justify or further anything…
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United States -
What makes a strong league is what a person considers the most important. Parity, amount of talent, financial resources, the production and spread of talent, etc, are all different factors, and each of these make a league strong in different ways.
I would say that the EPL is the most top heavy league, where there is a huge amount of talent amassed at the top. Which is why they do so well in Europe, always reaching the later stages of the Champions League. So the strength of their top teams is pretty clear. But their midtable and bottom sides are pretty poor compared to Italy and especially to Spain.
So for me, the EPL is the most successful league despite it not being a balanced one. Despite having very little parity, poor youth development, and the fact that their bottom table teams are crap, the EPL has lots of money and huge fan bases, even the teams that are going down. Their methods are suspect, and no one would ever call the EPL fair or exciting, but it works both in a financial and in a sporting sense in that they have more than their fair share of very strong teams (counterbalanced by very weak ones, but there you go).
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United States -
Greg, how the bottom clubs do is just as important as how the top clubs do. A league is made up of 20 teams (in most cases), not just the top four. If a league has stronger relegation candidates, it shows that there is a spread of talent/inspired coaching throughout the league despite a lack of money that keeps the ones floating at the top.
For example, France has the most parity of the big five leagues and very strong bottom clubs, though in terms of prestige, it has the least considering that there is only one “big” team. So they are two different standards in which to judge a league. For an exciting championship, you need a bit of both, parity and lots of quality. Spain simpky seems to have the best of both worlds.
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United States -
Its fairly simple Greg, if my weakest teams are as good as your mid-table teams, then my league is obviously better then yours. Its pointless to compare top teams, because they can all beat one another on any given day, its called the Champions League.
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United States -
If teams like Madrid or Barca can lose or draw with bottom teams, then that clearly shows parity in the competition. La Liga often has the “big teams” lose to those who are considered to be poor. How many times does Man U or Chelsea lose to Derby or Fulham?
The fact that teams like Valencia and Zaragoza can be great one season, then struggling against relegation the next, really shows how even the league is (Zaragoza is actually in the relegation zone, but finished 6th last season). Real Sociedad came runners up in the 02-03 season, but then got relegated at the end of last season. This is yet another example as to why the Spanish league is the best in the world due to it’s parity.
Also, as Corey said, I think la liga’s bottom teams can give the mid teams a run for their money. Tell me Getafe, currently in 12th in Spain, couldn’t get a result from a team like Everton, Portsmouth or Aston Villa.
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Australia -
Well, in fact, little Geta beat Tottenham in the Uefa cup, so it’d be pretty hard for anyone to tell you that. And if the stars prove unlucky for Bayern Munich on Thursday…
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United States -
Well I think Getafe have anough about them to get the result agaisnt Bayern. Their midfield was impressive enough and they rarely looked troubled with Toni. Does that mean that our 12th position team is as good as Germany’s best (or one of the best)? I think it does.
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United States -
Corey and Inara great posts, I couldn’t say it better myself. La Liga hands down best league in the world, with balance parity, skill, technic, intelligence and jogo bonito . Look no further.
Posted from
United States
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