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Serie A underrated?

I was watching the Napoli vs Sampdoria game last night and the standard of play from Napoli was very good despite having several key players out for the AFCON (e.g. Ghoulam, Koulibaly).

Very entertaining game and from watching Napoli play I am convinced that they can beat the best PL teams. The game was also very entertaining to watch from an attacking sense... I think the Italian teams have moved forwards leaps and bounds in that respect.

I think that Juve will inevitably win the title again but the chasing pack seem to have significantly improved.

I am not entertained by the majority of PL games. The standard of play is generally quite poor.

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As long as Totti isn't a retired player, then yes, it is underrated
It's more of a case of the Prem being massively overrated, Serie A, La Liga and Bundesliga have been catching up now.

We seem to think it's the best league in the world for some reason, when clearly it's not.
Quality of football in the Prem is ****ing awful, I find it unwatchable. Only watch United matches these days. Can't even be bothered to tune in for the other 'big' games.
Original post by Kenan and Kel
Quality of football in the Prem is ****ing awful, I find it unwatchable. Only watch United matches these days. Can't even be bothered to tune in for the other 'big' games.


Yes, I find that a good measure for how good the football is, is how far English teams are getting in the CL.

When English teams a few years ago were doing better in the CL, the football was a lot more high quality.
Reply 5
Original post by James.Carnell
I was watching the Napoli vs Sampdoria game last night and the standard of play from Napoli was very good despite having several key players out for the AFCON (e.g. Ghoulam, Koulibaly).

Very entertaining game and from watching Napoli play I am convinced that they can beat the best PL teams. The game was also very entertaining to watch from an attacking sense... I think the Italian teams have moved forwards leaps and bounds in that respect.

I think that Juve will inevitably win the title again but the chasing pack seem to have significantly improved.

I am not entertained by the majority of PL games. The standard of play is generally quite poor.


There was a time in which premier league teams were very dominant. You can see this from their record in the Champions League between 2005 and 2012. Out of 8 Champions League finals, 8 English teams were involved, winning in 2005, 2008, and 2012.
There was a time in which Liverpool beat Real Madrid 4-0 (5-0 on aggregate).

However, there has been an obvious decline from the season Ferguson retired. It just goes round in cycles. You could probably say that
2005-2008: English period of dominance
2012-2013: German dominance (Bayern and Dortmund)
2013- Spanish dominance.
Italian teams have had their years in between really with Milan and Inter. Juventus, bar one appearance in the final in 2015 haven't done much in the Champions League either.

With Serie A and the Premier League, the styles are extremely different. Lower teams in the PL try to grind out victories which probably makes it boring.
Reply 6
We say this narrative but the big teams have got much better this year.

Serie A is underrated, I wish I had enough time in the day to watch it but it's the second most interesting league to watch imo. I just wish that someone actually challenged Juventus for once though.
Original post by bammy jastard 27
We say this narrative but the big teams have got much better this year.

Serie A is underrated, I wish I had enough time in the day to watch it but it's the second most interesting league to watch imo. I just wish that someone actually challenged Juventus for once though.


I think AC Milan will challenge next season.
Original post by James.Carnell
Yes, I find that a good measure for how good the football is, is how far English teams are getting in the CL.


I'm sure I've said this before on here but, no, that's a rubbish guide. A team reaching the final of the Champions League proves nothing other than that team were good enough to get to the final. I don't see how you can extrapolate that to infer anything about the quality of the league they are in.

Secondly, how do you quantify how good a league is? Do you judge it on the best teams in a league, the worst teams in a league or the mediocre teams. Is it all about quality of football regardless of of whether things are one-sided, or does how competitive a league is matter above all even if the quality of football isn't that great.

Not mention the fact that I don't even know what "quality football" is.

All in all, it's another stupid and pointless argument that some football fans seem to ove going round and round in circles on... As I am doing by repaeting some of what I've said before.
Definitely watched a few more foreign games this year, plus we got a dedicated Italian football thread
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2088351
Original post by HopelessMedic
It's more of a case of the Prem being massively overrated

Yes, you have hit the nail on the head. Tbh the calcio hasn't greatly improved in recent years, just look at the european performances this season, with Roma unable to beat Porto, Inter losing to Beer-Sheva, S.Prague and Southampton, Juve struggling to draw with Lyon and Seville (they have improved but Barca, Real and Bayern would have no problems with them) and the list goes on time and again over the last 5 years or so with Italian sides unable to beat routine opponents, at worst being embarrassed. Apart from Juve none of the other teams in Serie A would beat the top 6 of the bpl and la liga.

In terms of watching its a mixed bag as there has been more quality recently but this has been at the cost of defending. James made a point about Napoli being a good watch which they are, but that kind of Spanish type football has come at the cost of being tactically resolute and hard to score against which is why clubs like Napoli, Fiorentina, Lazio have done poorly in europe giving the impression of the calcio being a bad league which its not. On the other hand the tactical games I have seen e.g. Atalanta vs Torino they both cancelled each other out meaning possession was turning over hands very easily and to the person who doesn't watch Serie A regularly it look like both teams are poor technically. Where in fact it two teams who are well drilled and playing top class tactical football which isn't that enjoyable to the average bpl fan but is the type of football which will do well in europe.

What has helped the calcio in being underrated is the recent failures of calcio exports e.g. Zaza, Immobile, Lamela, Darmian and the signing of bpl rejects/ older players such as Dzeko, Szczesny, Evra, Vidic etc giving the impression of a retirement league for a lower standard of player, where clubs in the Bundesliga are signing young players of similar standard making them look initiative. If truth be told it probably isn't underrated and the days of Milan and Inter being competitive domestically and in europe can't come soon enough.
(edited 7 years ago)
I completely disagree. The Italians have greatly improved and while the Spanish and English league have good teams at the top the rest of their league is absolutely horrible and can't even begin to challenge in a competition.The Italians give all those teams a run for their money and can beat them at full strength. The main problem is that in Italy even the lower-rated teams are good. This means that many teams drop the ball in European competitions because your main focus almost always has to be on the domestic competitions because if you lose focus there are middle-ranked teams like Sassuolo, Sampdoria, Udinese, and genoa who are able to take your place. As a result, their performance in European competitions is often poor because unlike the other big leagues the standard is overall higher.They do have a problem with money. It is a lower funded league but they tend to be able to do more with less and the funding has been increasing with the cubs better performance.I think the recent rise can be attributed to two main things. Firstly the success of Juventus has allowed for bigger players to join the Italian league as it is more appealing. This has brought in fans from around the world allowing it to grow. Secondly, they have no longer been overlooked by FIFA. In previous years they only had 3 champions league spots despite being a bigger league than the german league internationally and were underrated in Fifa games with very low salaries while other leagues had ridiculously high ones. However this has slowly been changing with teams like Juventus, Inter, Roma, Napoli, Milan, and Lazio all having their funds increased.n teams players have A lot of problems in the types of players have been fixed as of late. Juventus is world class. Inter, Napoli , Milan and lazio all have teams with world-class players like Icardi,skrinia,naingollan,koullibally,insigne,romangoli and milinkovic-savic and more.While Atalanta and Torino have risen with homemade stars aand players to claim european spotsOverall though it is a cycle the Italian league was huge in the '90s and early 2000s before the English, Spanish and german took over. The French league has never been able to do much and I think if the Italian league continues on its the current path it will reclaim those glory days
Reply 12
Original post by Alessandro.Mazza
I completely disagree. The Italians have greatly improved and while the Spanish and English league have good teams at the top the rest of their league is absolutely horrible and can't even begin to challenge in a competition.The Italians give all those teams a run for their money and can beat them at full strength. The main problem is that in Italy even the lower-rated teams are good. This means that many teams drop the ball in European competitions because your main focus almost always has to be on the domestic competitions because if you lose focus there are middle-ranked teams like Sassuolo, Sampdoria, Udinese, and genoa who are able to take your place. As a result, their performance in European competitions is often poor because unlike the other big leagues the standard is overall higher.They do have a problem with money. It is a lower funded league but they tend to be able to do more with less and the funding has been increasing with the cubs better performance.I think the recent rise can be attributed to two main things. Firstly the success of Juventus has allowed for bigger players to join the Italian league as it is more appealing. This has brought in fans from around the world allowing it to grow. Secondly, they have no longer been overlooked by FIFA. In previous years they only had 3 champions league spots despite being a bigger league than the german league internationally and were underrated in Fifa games with very low salaries while other leagues had ridiculously high ones. However this has slowly been changing with teams like Juventus, Inter, Roma, Napoli, Milan, and Lazio all having their funds increased.n teams players have A lot of problems in the types of players have been fixed as of late. Juventus is world class. Inter, Napoli , Milan and lazio all have teams with world-class players like Icardi,skrinia,naingollan,koullibally,insigne,romangoli and milinkovic-savic and more.While Atalanta and Torino have risen with homemade stars aand players to claim european spotsOverall though it is a cycle the Italian league was huge in the '90s and early 2000s before the English, Spanish and german took over. The French league has never been able to do much and I think if the Italian league continues on its the current path it will reclaim those glory days

This is a 2-year-old thread. A lot has changed in this time.
Juventus are great but not particularly challenged. Napoli have done well in recent years. But other traditional sides like AC Milan and Inter Milan have been struggling so it feels like the league isn't particularly great.

Other than Juventus getting into a couple of CL finals recently and losing, I don't think we've had many Italian finalist in either CL or EL in the last decade or so?
Reply 14
Original post by Zerforax
Juventus are great but not particularly challenged. Napoli have done well in recent years. But other traditional sides like AC Milan and Inter Milan have been struggling so it feels like the league isn't particularly great.

Other than Juventus getting into a couple of CL finals recently and losing, I don't think we've had many Italian finalist in either CL or EL in the last decade or so?


Inter won in 2010. But yes that's a time ago.
Original post by Whatzup
This is a 2-year-old thread. A lot has changed in this time.

Oh yeah, didn't look at that but either way, it hasn't changed that much almost all of the points I made are still valid.
Original post by Zerforax
Juventus are great but not particularly challenged. Napoli have done well in recent years. But other traditional sides like AC Milan and Inter Milan have been struggling so it feels like the league isn't particularly great.

Other than Juventus getting into a couple of CL finals recently and losing, I don't think we've had many Italian finalist in either CL or EL in the last decade or so?

The EL is arguably a bigger thing for Italy. 80s/90s hardly a year went by without a finalist but in the past 15 years we've had literally zero. Teams like Napoli/AC Milan/Roma should be all over it like a rash and it says something about Serie A that they arent.

Even in CL youve had Jose 2010 and Juve competing(but not winning) and it just suggests that teams dont fear Serie A. Arsenal played Napoli off the park this season and we were awful FFS. I think tactics have moved on and left Italy behind.
Reply 17
literally it's England and Spain atm. Italy will get its shine soon. Liverpool, City, Barcelona, Real, Juventus are the teams to beat. Other than that everyone is a darkhorse.
Original post by bj27
literally it's England and Spain atm. Italy will get its shine soon. Liverpool, City, Barcelona, Real, Juventus are the teams to beat. Other than that everyone is a darkhorse.

Let's be honest, it's mainly been Spain dominating Europe for this most of this decade. Or at least the 5 year period between 2014-2018.

CL - 7 finalists (5 winners)
EL - 4 finalists (4 winners)

This year was great for English clubs but it needs to carry on for a few years yet.
Reply 19
Original post by Zerforax
Let's be honest, it's mainly been Spain dominating Europe for this most of this decade. Or at least the 5 year period between 2014-2018.

CL - 7 finalists (5 winners)
EL - 4 finalists (4 winners)

This year was great for English clubs but it needs to carry on for a few years yet.

We had Chelsea win EL twice in 2013 and 2019.

In the CL everyone came short, which was why I was particularly happy with Liverpool coming top 4 again. Liverpool and Chelsea are the two teams you can count on doing things in the champions league/europe. United too. Rest in general are bozos hence why none of them have won a European trophy this millenium.

Chelsea have a 100% record in Europa League e.g.

If we go by last 20 years Liverpool, Chelsea and United have done the best in Europe in that order. Leagues its obviously united, Chelsea then City.
(edited 4 years ago)

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