Manchester United were swept aside at Old Trafford by a team 30 points off the top in La Liga last night. So much for a lack of strength in depth…
We have all heard the arguments, usually from people with a particular agenda to adhere to.
It goes something like this;
“Messi and Ronaldo’s goalscoring feats are only so good because the rest of La Liga is so rubbish.
“They would never score like that in the Premier League.
“La Liga is just like Scotland’s SPL, only two good teams, the rest are dross.”
There may be a few people reconsidering their views this morning, after Athletic Bilbao’s 3-2 win at Old Trafford, which could easily have been 4-1 or 5-1.
The reason Real Madrid and Barcelona waltz the league every year is not simply because the rest of the teams are rubbish. It is because they are simply so much better than everyone else.
Put them in the Premier League and they too would likely open a 10 point gap on their nearest challengers.
Bilbao, fifth in the table, proved a point for the whole of Spain last night, the teams in La Liga are no mugs.
Sure Manchester United were poor last night, but the skill, movement, and control that Bilbao showed last night was a harsh lesson for the Red Devils.
Players like Iker Muniain, Javi Martinez and Fernando Llorente only upped their burgeoning reputations, and added to their prospective price tags. They were crushed 4-1 by Real Madrid in January, but did hold Barcelona to a 2-2 draw at the end of last year.
Lionel Messi upped his goal tally for the season to 48 on Wednesday night, scoring five goals in a 7-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen. Leverkusen sit fifth in the Bundesliga, and like Bilbao play a high standard of football.
But Real Madrid and Barcelona are simply on a different playing field to everybody else in world football right now. It does not mean everybody else is rubbish, it just means they have a lot of catching up to do to compete with two of the best club sides Europe has ever seen.
image: © amg lincuden
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