Harry Kane

  • The Fighting Cock is a forum for fans of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Here you can discuss Spurs latest matches, our squad, tactics and any transfer news surrounding the club. Registration gives you access to all our forums (including 'Off Topic' discussion) and removes most of the adverts (you can remove them all via an account upgrade). You're here now, you might as well...

    Get involved!

Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports

Sort by date Sort by reaction score
It's laughable at anyone thinking the Premier League is the best league. Our teams routinely get turned over by Spanish and German teams and rarely make it far in Europe. Whereas the majority of Spanish teams DO go far. Pretty sure all of their teams in Europe qualified this season as most years.

In terms of competitiveness and entertainment, you could certainly argue Premier League is up there but that doesn't make it the best.

1. Spain.
2. Germany/Premier League.
..
..
..
4. Serie A.
 
Totti said:
It's laughable at anyone thinking the Premier League is the best league. Our teams routinely get turned over by Spanish and German teams and rarely make it far in Europe. Whereas the majority of Spanish teams DO go far. Pretty sure all of their teams in Europe qualified this season as most years.

In terms of competitiveness and entertainment, you could certainly argue Premier League is up there but that doesn't make it the best.

1. Spain.
2. Germany/Premier League.
..
..
..
4. Serie A.
Click to expand...

Depends on your definition of best and the conditions surrounding each league.

In terms of physical input - strength, speed, energy, tackles, tempo - the premier league is the best. I've watched quite a lot of games in other leagues and been bored by how slow everything is.

In terms of technique - passing ability, touches, composure, set piece delivery, long range shots - I think the premier league is quite far behind. When you're expected to play at 100 mph for a full game, it's very difficult to be technically good too.

As for English teams doing poor in the CL I think this is a poor measurement of quality. Outside factors have a big impact, like lack of winter break, fixture congestion, pace of the games, number of pre-season friendlies, pre-season travel time, fatigue and more. All of these make the PL teams go into tournaments in a poor way which doesn't truly represent their ability.

When we played in the CL we were utter shit compared to what we were capable of. In terms of quality, we'd finish top of that group with some ease. Yet we didn't and this represents England in the CL really. We perform well below expectation, not because the quality isn't there but due to outside factors.

If City gave up on the league and focused on the CL, I think they'd get into the last 4. But they won't, and so they don't. Just like us in the Europa League. If we put our all into it, we'd go very far. But we rest players or we sub them off quite quickly for the game in the weekend.

PL teams don't see the CL and EL as precious and valuable as other European clubs do, so they never invest 100%.
 
Jayc1 said:
Depends on your definition of best and the conditions surrounding each league.

In terms of physical input - strength, speed, energy, tackles, tempo - the premier league is the best. I've watched quite a lot of games in other leagues and been bored by how slow everything is.

In terms of technique - passing ability, touches, composure, set piece delivery, long range shots - I think the premier league is quite far behind. When you're expected to play at 100 mph for a full game, it's very difficult to be technically good too.

As for English teams doing poor in the CL I think this is a poor measurement of quality. Outside factors have a big impact, like lack of winter break, fixture congestion, pace of the games, number of pre-season friendlies, pre-season travel time, fatigue and more. All of these make the PL teams go into tournaments in a poor way which doesn't truly represent their ability.

When we played in the CL we were utter shit compared to what we were capable of. In terms of quality, we'd finish top of that group with some ease. Yet we didn't and this represents England in the CL really. We perform well below expectation, not because the quality isn't there but due to outside factors.

If City gave up on the league and focused on the CL, I think they'd get into the last 4. But they won't, and so they don't. Just like us in the Europa League. If we put our all into it, we'd go very far. But we rest players or we sub them off quite quickly for the game in the weekend.

PL teams don't see the CL and EL as precious and valuable as other European clubs do, so they never invest 100%.
Click to expand...

I disagree immensely. Why the sudden change? English teams always used to do well in Europe up until the quality of the league diminished.

The likes of Liverpool, United, Chelsea etc all getting to semi finals or finals frequently. Nowadays lucky to even make it passed the quarter finals.

Spanish teams regularly qualify through to the knockout stages and regularly get through to the semi finals of competitions, mostly winning it. You only have to look and see who's won the competitions the last 10 years to see that.

We were a better team the last time we were in the competition. Who knocked us out? Spanish opposition. This year we couldn't even beat an average German team in Leverkusen.

It's not about making Europe a priority. You really think the likes of City etc don't want to be in the Champions League or win it? Of course they do, City desperately to make it seem like they're a big club. Woolwich too, they are probably sick of just making up the numbers. Leicester feel like they probably have a point to prove. In fact that says it all. Leicester are in the Champions League representing England. That should tell you all you need to know about the quality of football in England.

I think people just dismiss La Liga teams bevause Barcelona and Madrid turn the little teams over regularly. You know what? They'd do it here as well as some of the big teams too. The likes of Sevilla would tear everyone in the Premier League apart from 6th and down. Probably turn over some in the top 6 too.
 
Jayc1 said:
Depends on your definition of best and the conditions surrounding each league.

In terms of physical input - strength, speed, energy, tackles, tempo - the premier league is the best. I've watched quite a lot of games in other leagues and been bored by how slow everything is.

In terms of technique - passing ability, touches, composure, set piece delivery, long range shots - I think the premier league is quite far behind. When you're expected to play at 100 mph for a full game, it's very difficult to be technically good too.

As for English teams doing poor in the CL I think this is a poor measurement of quality. Outside factors have a big impact, like lack of winter break, fixture congestion, pace of the games, number of pre-season friendlies, pre-season travel time, fatigue and more. All of these make the PL teams go into tournaments in a poor way which doesn't truly represent their ability.

When we played in the CL we were utter shit compared to what we were capable of. In terms of quality, we'd finish top of that group with some ease. Yet we didn't and this represents England in the CL really. We perform well below expectation, not because the quality isn't there but due to outside factors.

If City gave up on the league and focused on the CL, I think they'd get into the last 4. But they won't, and so they don't. Just like us in the Europa League. If we put our all into it, we'd go very far. But we rest players or we sub them off quite quickly for the game in the weekend.

PL teams don't see the CL and EL as precious and valuable as other European clubs do, so they never invest 100%.
Click to expand...

You must be joking, that just sounds like a poor excuse? Every english team in the Champions League consistently put their best team out for every match apart from when they were qualified or knocked out. We obviously didn't play even close to our best in our CL matches but it wasn't down to prioritising the league. All you have to do is listen to our players and manager reaction to see how badly we wanted to progress.

Other excuses:

Winter break - (Hadn't happened yet)
Preseason tours? Clubs like Bayern, Real etc..do much more travelling than us!
Fixture congestion. Where? Aside from league cup which we hardly took seriously there was the normal 1-2 matches a week. Same as other leagues who also play in domestic cups..

Bottom line is the quality of teams in the EPL has dropped from say 5-10 years ago. As pointed above all you have to do is point to an average Leicester side winning the fucking league! I admit as open as the league is has made it very entertaining and unpredictable but it certainly isn't better standard than it was years ago.
 
Is it not very possible that the best tactics in the premier league don't necessarily translate well in Europe?

Case in point: I feel Leicester might do very well with Ranieri and his Italian-nous setting them up for a more continental style.
Likewise, I'd bet that Conte's Chelsea would excel.

Fuck it anyway, no-one actually knows how teams in Spain and Germany would perform if dropped into the Premier League because it'll never happen, so there's little point arguing about it.

For what it's worth, I do believe that the top European sides have the freedom to completely rotate their squads ahead of CL matches in a manner that Premier League teams do not.
 
Totti said:
Why the sudden change?
Click to expand...

Because even winning the CL is peanuts compared to the PL.

Totti said:
ou really think the likes of City etc don't want to be in the Champions League or win it?
Click to expand...

City want to win several things at once. Gambling everything on the CL, giving up on the PL, then losing in the semi finals would not be good enough for the owners.

They don't just want a CL win. They want a PL and CL win and possibly a cup too, all in one season.

clevelandspur said:
but it wasn't down to prioritising the league
Click to expand...

We played half strength teams throughout the CL, resting Walker and Rose. We rested these players so they could play at the weekend....i.e. prioritising the league.

PL teams are tactically poor, physically excellent and technically average. The best in the world? Probably not, no, but the brand isn't built around being the best, it's built around being the most exciting and competitive league, the one with the fastest tempo.

If the PL tried to be the best league in the world (Improving tactically, having a slower tempo, being more technical) I think this would damage the brand and that many fans would complain. Even Spurs fans roll out the "Tottenham Way of Football" when things aren't going well - silky, quick attacks, goals with style, which coincides with the PL brand.

However, Leverkusen finished third last year in Germany and looked utter shit when we played them. In a cup final I have confidence we'd beat them. If the third team in Germany was that average I have reservations over gushing over how amazing the German league is etc.
 
Totti said:
I disagree immensely. Why the sudden change? English teams always used to do well in Europe up until the quality of the league diminished.

The likes of Liverpool, United, Chelsea etc all getting to semi finals or finals frequently. Nowadays lucky to even make it passed the quarter finals.

Spanish teams regularly qualify through to the knockout stages and regularly get through to the semi finals of competitions, mostly winning it. You only have to look and see who's won the competitions the last 10 years to see that.

We were a better team the last time we were in the competition. Who knocked us out? Spanish opposition. This year we couldn't even beat an average German team in Leverkusen.

It's not about making Europe a priority. You really think the likes of City etc don't want to be in the Champions League or win it? Of course they do, City desperately to make it seem like they're a big club. Woolwich too, they are probably sick of just making up the numbers. Leicester feel like they probably have a point to prove. In fact that says it all. Leicester are in the Champions League representing England. That should tell you all you need to know about the quality of football in England.

I think people just dismiss La Liga teams bevause Barcelona and Madrid turn the little teams over regularly. You know what? They'd do it here as well as some of the big teams too. The likes of Sevilla would tear everyone in the Premier League apart from 6th and down. Probably turn over some in the top 6 too.
Click to expand...
Football moves in cycles, you see a lot of quality coming to the Premier League now with many top, top managers. The likes of Barcelona, Bayern and Real also have aging squads
 
The Dane said:
Football moves in cycles, you see a lot of quality coming to the Premier League now with many top, top managers. The likes of Barcelona, Bayern and Real also have aging squads
Click to expand...

I agree.

Give it a year or so and the top teams on England will be competing in Europe again now that the league finally has a host to great managers.
 
I like these facts. Currently the bundesliga teams in positions 2-5 have played 16 games each and have scored a total +105 goal difference. These are not super teams. I'm not an idiot but I could not tell you what cities most of them even come from. The teams in epl positions 2-5 have played 17 games each and scored combined 73 GD. In la liga the teams in 3-6 (to skip barca and real) have played 16 and scored 114 GD.

One way or another, god knows how, it's apparently much easier to score goals in Germany and Spain and the top teams do out score opponents by a bigger margin than in epl.

So overall Harry's goal total is great, and he would probably have a shitload more if he played in the same countries as most of the guys above him.
 
Last edited:
NC4spurs said:
I like these facts. Currently the bundesliga teams in positions 2-5 have played 16 games each and have scored a total 105 goals. These are not super teams. I'm not an idiot but I could not tell you what cities most of them even come from. The teams in epl positions 2-5 have played 17 games each and scored combined 73 goals. In la liga the teams in 3-6 (to skip barca and real) have played 16 and scored 114.

One way or another, god knows how, it's apparently much easier to score goals in Germany and Spain

So overall Harry's goal total is great, and he would probably have a shitload more if he played in the same countries as most of the guys above him.
Click to expand...
Don't forget that he's only had 12 league appearances so far (meaning that his 7 goals puts him at just better than one-in-two), and looked like he had some burnout at the start of the season from last year and the Euros.

The players behind him are still coming into form (I'm looking at you, Dele), and our sweet Argentinian prince is only just about to return. I'm hoping for big things in the second half of the season.
 
NC4spurs said:
I like these facts. Currently the bundesliga teams in positions 2-5 have played 16 games each and have scored a total +105 goal difference. These are not super teams. I'm not an idiot but I could not tell you what cities most of them even come from. The teams in epl positions 2-5 have played 17 games each and scored combined 73 GD. In la liga the teams in 3-6 (to skip barca and real) have played 16 and scored 114 GD.

One way or another, god knows how, it's apparently much easier to score goals in Germany and Spain and the top teams do out score opponents by a bigger margin than in epl.

So .
Click to expand...
Ignore this. Math screwed up by a combination of gf and GD. I'll look at it again later
 
NC4spurs said:
Ignore this. Math screwed up by a combination of gf and GD. I'll look at it again later
Click to expand...
Ok here's the deal and sorry again for the mangled version above.
If you look at the top 3 to top 6 teams in la liga or bundesliga, the Spanish teams score a bit higher per game and have a bit better goal diff than epl, whereas for German teams the opposite is true
So it's not obvious that European leagues are less competitive than Epl. Probably they're about the same, surprisingly, although the top 3 clubs (Barca, real and Bayern) may still be a bit above the rest if you look at long periods.
 
NC4spurs said:
Ok here's the deal and sorry again for the mangled version above.
If you look at the top 3 to top 6 teams in la liga or bundesliga, the Spanish teams score a bit higher per game and have a bit better goal diff than epl, whereas for German teams the opposite is true
So it's not obvious that European leagues are less competitive than Epl. Probably they're about the same, surprisingly, although the top 3 clubs (Barca, real and Bayern) may still be a bit above the rest if you look at long periods.
Click to expand...

Agree with you though about Kane. It is highly impressive how consistent a goal scorer he is. I wish we had another top scorer to rely on, which is probably the only thing keeping us from being amongst the elite in Europe.
 
Screenshot_304.png


Let's be honest, he's in some bloody good company.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom