2016/17 Soccer/Football Thread

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Next season starts soon and since everybody already talks in the old thread 'bout it, I decided it's time for the new one.

Some questions regarding the new season:
1. Who will win the Champions league in your opinion?
2. What teams will come out at the top of the european leagues?
3. What team had the best transfer period (yet)?
4. What is the most important transfer done (yet)?
5. What teams can surprise in their leagues or in the Cl?
 
Let's do a Viability Rankings of the Champions League as well as the top European Leagues.

(This is just an example and my opinion though. It can be changed)

Champions League 2016/2017 Viability Rankings

S Rank
  • Atletico Madrid
  • Barcelona
  • Bayern Munich
  • Real Madrid

A Rank

  • Bayer Leverkusen
  • Borussia Dortmund
  • Juventus
  • Manchester City
  • Napoli
  • PSG
  • Sevilla

B Rank

  • AS Roma
  • Arsenal
  • Benfica
  • Leicester City
  • Lyon
  • PSV Eindhoven
  • Porto
  • Tottenham Hotspur
  • Villarreal
 
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Champions league favorites viability ranking in my opinion:

S Rank (absolute favorites to win)

FC Barcelona
FC Bayern Munich
Real Madrid

A Rank (probably not as good as the top favorites but can basically beat every team on a good day and have a chance to win it all)

A+
Atletico Madrid
Juventus Turin

A
Manchester City
Paris SG

B Rank (have a small chance to win if they get lucky but definetely not top favorites for the trophy)

B+
Arsenal London
Borussia Dortmund

B
AS Roma
Bayer Leverkusen
FC Sevilla
SSC Napoli
Tottenham Hotspur
 
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destinyunknown

Banned deucer.
Champions League 2016/2017 Viability Rankings

S Rank (Favorites)
  • Barcelona
  • Bayern Munich
A Rank (Contenders)
  • Atletico
  • Borussia Dortmund
  • Juventus
  • Manchester City
  • PSG
  • Real Madrid
B Rank (Underdogs)
  • Arsenal
  • Bayer Leverkusen
  • Tottenham Hotspur
C Rank (Once in a century)
  • AS Roma
  • Benfica
  • Leicester
  • Napoli
  • Sevilla
  • Villarreal (they were awful last season, only chance they have is that somehow Alexandre Pato becomes the world beater we expected 5 years ago...)
The rest: not a chance

Basically:

-Borussia Dortmund are underrated, they have a better team that last season, and they were really close to Bayern, they also have one of the best managers right now.

-Real Madrid are overrated, I think Zidane's lack of experience is going to get exposed this season, and despite their triumph last year, they were lucky with the pairings, that won't happen again.

-Atletico should be about the same as last season

-Juventus can be a huge force, especially if they keep Pogba.

-There's always the feeling that ''this will be the year'' for both PSG and MCity. PSG has had solid performances over the last seasons despite never actually making it to the semifinals. They're still a good team, though it will be interesting to see the effect of losing Ibrahimovic. Manchester City were awful last UCL despite their top4 finish, but their squad is extremely talented and Guardiola's managerial record is hard to bet against.

-There are some decent teams outside of those, but an upset is highly unlikely, Sevilla, Arsenal, Spurs and Leverkusen are definitely a step above other underdogs, and are all capable of getting to quarters or semifinals, but it would take both luck and a historic season to see them win.
 
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How many more times do Atletico have to shut down Barca and make Champions League finals to be considered top tier and not lumped in with the likes of Juventus and PSG.

Sevilla have lost Unai Emery and Krychowiak not expecting anything from them.

Is Cavani finding form and becoming one of the strikers of the season considered a suprise?
 
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How many more times do Atletico have to shut down Barca and make Champions League finals to be considered top tier and not lumped in with the likes of Juventus and PSG.

Sevilla have lost Unai Emery and Krychowiak not expecting anything from them.

Is Cavani finding form and becoming one of the strikers of the season considered a suprise?
I don't know but from the squads I just don't see them on the level of Barca, Bayern, Real yet and I simply don't see their winning chances as good as those of the others. And please don't underrate Juve they almost beat Bayern last season and played better against them than Atletico did in my opinion. I also think that Juve's squad with Pjanic and Higuain for Pogba and Morata is stronger than the squad they had last year.

Sevilla basically always loses very important players before the season and they still end up winning the El. However this time they also lost their mastermind, Unai Emery, but I think Sampaoli is a great coach too so I still expect them to do well. If they get past the group stages, I can also see them winning against any other team somehow. I don't think their odds are smaller than those of Leverkusen or Spurs for example.
 

GOAO

Banned deucer.
uh why we ranking city as A to win ucl? like I know they have guardiola now but last year they just got semis by beating non traditional teams, and they lost to juventus twice on groups phase..
anyway, juventus is a lot better than other serie A teams so I can't see them losing this year.
Dunk talking abt pato: dude this guy was MUCH hated in his team here because of a penalty he lost in 2013ish. corinthians almost GAVE (G-A-V-E) him to sevilla because no one liked him LOL. atletico is gonna win la liga this year.
premier league is, as always, pretty good. I think united is gonna win even if ibra is overrated.
bayern wins german league as always.
palmeiras wins brazilian league (ik no one cares but w/e)
nice thread.
 
Well, im actually really sad because of higuain's betrayal. Napoli gave him all when he was needing.... It's time to thank who is and will be always here. thank you Hamsik....

Juventus is making a great team, i am sure they will, at least finish on the Champions top 4.

I feel anxious to watch Premier League this year... Mourinho is doing a great window, Guardiola is always a differential, Conte trying to recover Chelsea's soccer, Leicester, Kloop,, Uh exciting...

Champions League 2016/2017 Viability Rankings

S Rank (Favorites)
  • Barcelona
  • Bayern Munich
  • Juventus
  • Real Madrid
A Rank (Contenders)
  • Atletico
  • Manchester City
  • PSG
B Rank (Underdogs)
  • Arsenal
  • Bayer Leverkusen
  • Sevilla
  • Tottenham Hotspur
  • Mônaco( if win vs Fener)
C Rank (Once in a century)
  • AS Roma
  • Benfica
  • Leicester
  • Napoli
  • Villarreal (they were awful last season, only chance they have is that somehow Alexandre Pato becomes the world beater we expected 5 years ago...)
  • Sporting
  • Zenit
 

destinyunknown

Banned deucer.
How many more times do Atletico have to shut down Barca and make Champions League finals to be considered top tier and not lumped in with the likes of Juventus and PSG.

Sevilla have lost Unai Emery and Krychowiak not expecting anything from them.

Is Cavani finding form and becoming one of the strikers of the season considered a suprise?
While they did beat Barsa handily, they were lucky not to lose to Bayern in Semifinals, despite their great performance.

Furthermore, from the top teams, Atletico is the one that has improved the least in this transfer window, so I expect other teams to catch up to them, as the competition seems better than last year. Juventus was already one of the best teams the last 2 seasons, now that they have Higuain, and if they manage to keep Pogba, they are definitely as threatening as Atletico, and probably even more. If anything, you could argue that PSG being considered contenders is overrating them, but Atletico aren't that much better than Dortmund, Juventus or Real Madrid. And I think it is widely regarded than Barcelona and Bayern are the two biggest favorites.

It's also important to keep in mind that the Group Stage seeding changed this year, so league champions like PSG, Benfica and Leicester will have an advantage over teams of a similar level because their pairings should be easier.

And agreed about Sevilla, I don't expect much from them, but they'll still be competitive to a degree... Guess it'll depend on whether they are able to replace Krychowiak and to the difficulty of the pairings.
 
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Is there a luckier guy than Simon Mignolet? Rewarded with a new 5-year-contract after a poor / average season and now his rival for the starting GK spot broke his hand.
 
Champions League 2016/2017 Viability Rankings

S Rank
  • Atletico Madrid
  • Barcelona
  • Bayern Munich
  • Real Madrid

A Rank

  • Arsenal
  • Borussia Dortmund
  • Juventus
  • Manchester City
  • Napoli
  • PSG
  • Sevilla

B Rank

  • AS Roma
  • Bayer Leverkusen
  • Benfica
  • Leicester City
  • Lyon
  • PSV Eindhoven
  • Porto
  • Tottenham Hotspur
  • Villarreal
 
Zlatan scoring this goal for his Debut.... has to do it in style
and Zlatans face after Rashford earned that pen
 
Let's try this with the domestic leagues too. I'll try to do the Premiership VR.

Premiership 2016/2017 Viability Rankings

S Rank
  • Manchester City (Guardiola, great attacking options in Aguero, Silva, Sane(imminent), De Bruyne, Nolito and Sterling)
  • Manchester United (Mourinho, great squad which also includes De Gea, Pogba (imminent), Mkhitaryan, Ibrahimovic, Martial)

A Rank

  • Arsenal (Relatively unchanged from last season (except Xhaka and Asano) so will be up there challenging)
  • Chelsea (Conte's defensive tactics isn't easy to beat, plus Hazard has returned to form. Batshuayi is also highly rated and will join a talented squad)

B Rank

  • Liverpool (Lost new keeper Karius to injury, but now has lots of options in attack with a healthy Sturridge and Origi)
  • Leicester City (Lost Kante and Mahrez looking unsettled)
  • Tottenham Hotspur (relatively unchanged besides adding Wanyama and Janssen. Core of the squad is still young)

C Rank

  • Everton (Lukaku and Stones look unsettled. Actively courting Sigurdsson)
  • Southampton (Lost key players in Wanyama, Pelle, Mane and Davies. Also, new manager.)
  • Stoke City (Relatively unchanged except adding depth in midfield with Allen)
  • West Ham United (Lost Carroll to injury and Payet needs to replicate last season's form to maintain their standards)

D Rank

  • Bournemouth (Signs a few players with pace but might get found out this season with an average defence)
  • Crystal Palace (Almost got dragged into the relegation fight after a horrible run of form last season)
  • Watford (Depends too much on Deeney and Ighalo)
  • West Brom (Relatively unchanged from last season)

E Rank

  • Burnley (One Gray injury away from a disaster. All Championship-level players)
  • Hull City (No manager, only has 12 or 13 fit players in the squad)
  • Middlesbrough (Weird signings in Valdes and Negredo. )
  • Sunderland (Pulled off a miracle by surviving last season. Lost key players in M'Vila and Yedlin while having no major signings. Only pro is having Moyes)
  • Swansea City (Key players Ayew and Sigurdsson are unsettled, Williams left, Gomis going out on loan)
 
Premier League:

S Rank

Chelsea
Manchester City

A Rank

Arsenal

B Rank

Manchester United
Tottenham Hotspur

C Rank

Liverpool


La Liga:

S Rank

Barcelona

A Rank

Atletico Madrid
Real Madrid

B Rank

Sevilla
Valencia

C Rank
Athletic Bilbao
Villarreal


Bundesliga:

S Rank

Bayern

A Rank

Bayer Leverkusen
Borussia Dortmund

B Rank

Borussia Mönchengladbach
Schalke 04

C Rank

VFL Wolfsburg
 
can we actually count Nolito and Sterling as great attacking options.. given Nolito is new and Sterling is... well...
oh and you missed Rashford off United's list
 
I thought Nolito did decently in the Euros. Rashford, I didn't miss him . I didn't include him because Mourinho says he didn't see Rooney as a midfielder so Rashford's chances will be limited.

Last season seems to be a one-off. Leicester are losing their players despite keeping Vardy.
 
I thought Nolito did decently in the Euros. Rashford, I didn't miss him . I didn't include him because Mourinho says he didn't see Rooney as a midfielder so Rashford's chances will be limited.

Last season seems to be a one-off. Leicester are losing their players despite keeping Vardy.
Vardy stayed which I personally don't agree with. Leicester are going to be much worse off and Vardy could have remained the cult hero as long as his leaving wasn't like a terrible break up. Instead he will be on a much worse off team and his flaws might get exposed. If Leicester don't do well next season, he might not get many call ups
 
Vardy stayed which I personally don't agree with. Leicester are going to be much worse off and Vardy could have remained the cult hero as long as his leaving wasn't like a terrible break up. Instead he will be on a much worse off team and his flaws might get exposed. If Leicester don't do well next season, he might not get many call ups
He probably wanted to repay Leicester who gave him the platform to show his worth? That, and Leicester offered 100k a week, which is hard to turn down.
 
Lol only a United fan could rate a one season, unproven Rashford over Nolito who was one of the best attacking players in La Liga for the last 3 seasons and forced his way into a stacked spain team.

Sterling was also better at Rashfords age.

Sunderland are Z rank until it hits around April.
 
Lol only a United fan could rate a one season, unproven Rashford over Nolito who was one of the best attacking players in La Liga for the last 3 seasons and forced his way into a stacked spain team.

Sterling was also better at Rashfords age.

Sunderland are Z rank until it hits around April.
Tbf, Sunderland only lost 4 games in 2016
 

destinyunknown

Banned deucer.
I don't have anything about 'viability rankings' and all those sorts of lists as long as it doesn't become an excuse for lazy posts...

At least explain why you're rating something as B instead of A, or what each tier means to you. Otherwise the S/A/B ratings are just a lazier and low variability version of the classical 'full standing predictions' that people have been doing for years... at least those can be fun to compare both at the start and the end of the season, especially when United fans predict their team to be first every year.
 
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I don't have anything about 'viability rankings' and all those sorts of lists as long as it doesn't become an excuse for lazy posts...

At least explain why you're rating something as B instead of A, or what each tier means to you. Otherwise the S/A/B ratings are just a lazier and low variability version of the classical 'full standing predictions' that people have been doing for years... at least those can be fun to compare both at the start and the end of the season, especially when United fans predict their team to be first every year.
Pretty sure I did give my reasons in parenthesis lol.
On a different topic, the Pogba deal seems to be taking an awfully long time considering it has been "done deal" since the start of the transfer window. On a different note, which players do you people think will have a breakthrough season this time?
 
Pretty sure I did give my reasons in parenthesis lol.
On a different topic, the Pogba deal seems to be taking an awfully long time considering it has been "done deal" since the start of the transfer window. On a different note, which players do you people think will have a breakthrough season this time?
Juventus are just making more and more add ons to the insanely high price they are putting on pogba
 
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