truetalk wrote:
YUJAM wrote:
Unbelievable!
But that's typical. Not to take anything away from LC but they haven't proved anything other than win a title in a rather mediocre league this season
I won't call it mediocre, and I don't care about this Laliga vs EPL nonsense.
Man City and Liverpool are still in the mix in Europe.
The Leicester side has 5-6 world class players. Players who just failed to make the grade 6-10 years ago in top clubs (e.g. Huth) and players like Schmiechel, Kante and Mahrez who were still growing and maturing when Leicester got them.
I'm not saying they are as good as Athleti, but they are similar. Like Athleti, The whole is greater than the sum of the parts (synergy), and in the second half of the season, thy have become very difficult to score against.
I won;t bet against Leicester and Spurs making it out of the group stages of the Champions league, if the teams are not broken up, and key additions can be made to account for the increased number of games.
Who are these world class players?
As for the comparisons, Leicester and Atletico are not similar. The problem people have is that they watch Atletico a couple of times in the Champions League and a couple of times against Barca and Real Madrid and start drawing conclusions. The style of play is different. Atletico don't play a lot of long balls - they prefer to pass their way out of defense, preferably along the touch-line. Their counter-attacks are swift and speedy, but the ball is mostly on the ground and it involves a lot of quick passes (that is not the same as Leicester launching the ball to Vardy). Their level of intensity is also insane.
Another difference is that Atletico, unlike Leicester, did not just come out of nowhere. They are traditionally the third biggest team in Spain after Barca and Real Madrid, although they struggled for about 10 years before they started winning the Europa League about 5 years ago and raised the bar when Simeone arrived. This is their second Champions League final in three years. They won La Liga two years ago.
In short, Leicester is an underdog that came from nowhere to win the EPL while Atletico is a Spanish giant that recently woke from its slumber (as I said, they traditionally the third biggest team in Spain after Barca and Real Madrid). There is very little comparison with Leicester in terms of status and style of play.