Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Marco Verratti says he doubts Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona would win Ligue 1 matches as easily as they do in La Liga.

In Spain, for example, an average team that faces Real Madrid or Barcelona will forget the opponents and play football. They are used to a more open, less defensive game.

This is the reason why it is easier for Real Madrid or Barcelona to score five or six goals. I'm not sure they could score as much in France -- especially away. It is more difficult to find spaces in France.

Is he even serious?

I don't think his conclusion is necessarily accurate, but his premise certainly is. In France, they play large centerbacks, and usually run a destroyer CDM so it is difficult to have a large degree of build-up. NOTE: I have very little experience with Ligue 1, but based on what I've seen and the players who start it seems logical.

On the other hand, he's 100% right about La Liga. A 5'7 winger is pretty much the norm for nearly every position in La Liga save GK and CB. Try that in France against the man mountains in defense and you'd be killed on a weekly basis.

Spain in general, the national team, and La Liga adopt quick, even cute, passing combinations that are adept at moving around defenses that are - by definition - movable. In Ligue 1, they are far less movable, and therefore less vulnerable to the type of soccer that is played in Spain.

My conclusion from that would be that Spanish giants would win just as easily, but by far fewer goals. A 2-0 win isn't that different from a 7-0 win in terms of effectiveness or doubt of result, just perception.

Well it was something like:

Owner : Say something outragerous that is good for PSG I will give you, your weight in gold.
Verratti: Sure xD

Sorry but I myself witness La Liga this year much more than before and I believe some La Liga teams would stomp PSG in a good day at this current state.

Agree with @sunflash. It really isn't that hard to score against teams like Alaves, Granada, Leganes, Las Palmas etc. The equivalent French teams are pretty much as good too.

Given the fact that PSG have had practically no competition for the past 4 years, this is about the most stupidest statement.

This is not the first time some player from a different league says that if Barca/Real played in their league, they would no be as successful, but Barca/Real and other Spanish teams are clearly dominant in international fixtures. Maybe if these teams from the French/Italian/English leagues would actually win the La Liga teams, then maybe they can talk then, but right now, there's no point in saying that Barca or Real won't succeed in other leagues.

[Edited by Moderator: No use of the 'n-word', please.]

In part it makes sense. the weaker teams of ligue 1 are a degree better than the weaker teams of la liga

With full respect to Ligue 1, I'm not quite sure when the bottom Ligue 1 teams have suddenly become better teams than the bottom La Liga ones. Real Madrid has only won once this season by more than a 3 goal margin, and that was the 6-1 drubbing of Betis. They've only scored 4 or more goals three times as well out of 14 matches. Not sure what Verratti is talking about when PSG, with their poor form, have also breached 4 goals twice this season (compared to Madrid doing it three times). Seems like similar records to me, especially when Real are on much better form than PSG.

Agree with @SunFlash, though.

Maybe if it was for like 2-3 years ago, I may have agreed with this (%20). Because other than PSG, the games were mostly defensive and based on CBs. But now, watching the games and looking at the table, Monaco scoring 49 goals in 16 games with an impressive 3.06 goals per one game. And with Nice and PSG having scored 30 goals, not quite sure if his statement can be considered right by any chance. And by the way teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona can not be compared about anything with any of European Leagues. These teams are special.

Not to start and argument but LaLiga's bottom teams(other than Granada and Osasuna) are better than EPL's in my opinion, so I think it is unnecessary to compare Ligue 1's with LaLiga's.

@SoccerBoss You say that here's no point in saying that Barca or Real won't succeed in other leagues.

When you see Barcelona struggling with Iniestas absence and in general they have a bad run, how on earth would they survive the physicality of BPL ? [BPL VS LA LIGA again yes.] Prolly they would snatch 2 titles and fail to keep up with the rest remaining ones which can be considered success but I highly doubt they can do it year after year with so many teams trying to snatch some of their players or even some of their transfer targets. BPL teams have money to lure players I mean even god damn Stoke has a decent squad with good players. Yes there is point to say Barca or Real would struggle on tougher leagues

BUT

Those Italian/English/French teams would destroy most teams but not as easy Barca/Real would destroy the other La Liga teams. If you put a giant club with money in La Liga like Manchester City they would prolly become Real or Barca since they would just buy every talent there is. Also I wanna add that La Liga is not an easy league but surely with the squads Barca and Real have they make it look easy because no other team besides ATL can snatch a player from them unless he is a bench warmer.[Illaramendi]

In fewer words I realized that comparing leagues is stupid. Each league has its beauty and its fans instead of arguing like idiots as I did, just freaking enjoy the things that each league can give to your eyes for your pleasure. Oh and the Spanish dominance is heavily backed by referee's and I am not even speaking as a Chelsea fan, last years EL final for me was a disgrace, but that does not change the fact that Spanish teams are incredibly strong and better than most teams at this current state.

@Emre

That's actually pretty fair. In general, I think that La Liga still scores far more goals, but if the gulf in class between Monaco and the rest of the league defenses is that high, the Spanish giants probably wouldn't have an issue.

Not to start an argument but LaLiga's bottom teams are worse than EPL's in my opinion and according to these stats, so I think it is unnecessary, but just to compare Ligue 1 with LaLiga.

The revenue in EPL for 2014-15 is 4070m euros in comparison to La Ligas 2053m euros. The average club income is £155m for EPL in comparison to £77.5m for La Liga. And we all know which teams generate and receive most of that money. Luckily enough at least the tv rights will change with a new legislation that was passed at the end of April which will come into play start from 2016 season where La Liga will sell its TV rights collectively for all clubs and the income will be shared equally between clubs. Unlike the current system where clubs sell their rights independently causing massive difference income of top 2 and the rest of the clubs in spanish top flight.

However, In comparison EPL are miles ahead in this game with over £5 billion just from domestic rights sale and premier league are expecting another £3 billion from oversees rights which means starting from 2016-17 season bottom premier league club will earn around £100 million in tv rights money and thats way more than champions of the top leagues around europe.

So, that's the money part. But we all know that EPL clubs pay way more than most other clubs for similar talents right? Okay. Let's check the VALUE of the clubs i.e. the collected perceived value of the clubs and not the transfer sums. Beginning from the bottom up (according to transfermarkt - the most reliable source for this measure).

See a pattern? Obviously excluding the odd ones. Because money does not explain everything (Chelsea last season - Valencia this..), but the pattern is clear as day. The richer the clubs are the better players they can attract. In fact EPL pays higher wages than La Liga and Serie A combined with a weekly average of £43,717 to La Liga's £23,327 a week.

That's only money you say? Nopp. It's value, incentives AND money.

Now, to an older thread I created (and didn't finish before the transfer deadline) about the netto transfers. Is EPL a team that buys players or sells players? And the same for La Liga etc. You be the judge.

EPL

Arsenal In: 37.5 Out: 0 Net: -37.5
Bournemouth: In: 27.5 Out: 17.9 Net: -9.6
Burnely: In: 2.5 Out: 0 Net: -2.5
Chelsea: In: 65 Out: 12 net: -53
Crystal Palace: In: 23 Out: 9 net: -14
Everton: In 7.2 Out: 48 Net: + 40.8
Hull: In 4.5 Out: 0 Net: -4.5
Leicester: In: 35.1 Out: 39.5 Net: +4.4
Liverpool: In: 63.9 Out: 36 Net: -27.9
United: In: 123.2 Out: 0 Net; -123.2
City: In: 118 Out: 4.1 Net: -113.9
Middlesbrough: In: 18.8 Out: 0 Net: -18.8
Southampton: In: 22.8 Out: 56.7 Net: +33.9
Stoke: In: 18 Out: 0 Net -18
Sunderland: In: 8 Out: 0.7 Net -7.3
Swansea: In 2 Out: 27.9 Net: + 25.9
Spurs: In 29.5 Out: 8 Net: -21.5
Watford: In: 16.2 Out: 8.5 Net: -7.7
West B: In: 6 Out: 0 Net: -6
West Ham: In: 22.4 Out: 10 Net: -12.4

Total Net:-372.8m pounds Total revenue: 929,4m pounds

*1.17 conversion rate to euros. Total Net: -436.2m€ Total revenue: 1087,4m€
La Liga

Alaves: In 0.55 Out: 0 Net: -0.55
Atletico: In: 79.5 Out: 9 Net: -70.5
Bilbao In: 0 Out: 0 Net: 0
Barcelona: In: 83.3 Out: 13.6 Net: -69.7
Celta: In: 7 Out: 13.5 Net: +6.5
Deportivo: In: 5.6 Out: 0 Net: -5.6
Eibar: In: 3.1 Out: 5 Net: +1.9
Espanyol: In: 9 Out: 0 Net: -9
Granada: In: 0 Out: 25.2 Net: +25.2
Las Palmas: In: 1.8 Out: 0 Net: +1.8
Leganes: In: 1 Out: 0 Net: -1
Malaga: In: 10.3 Out: 0 Net: -10.3
Osasuna: In: 0 Out: 3.8 Net: -3.8
Real Madrid: In: 27 Out: 37.5 Net: +10.5
Real Sociedad: In: 10.7 Out: 9.6 Net: -1.1
Real Betis: In: 15 Out: 8 Net: -7
Sevilla: In: 47.5 Out: 71 Net: +22.5
Sporting: In: 0.6 Out: 0 Net: -0.6
Valencia: In: 10 Out: 41.5 Net: +31.5
Villareal: In: 42 Out: 12.3 Net: -29.7

Total net: -108.95m€ Total revenue: 603,95m€

Now please compare the transfers for teams at the bottom side of the table in EPL and La Liga.

So, for your statements to be true, La Liga must have endlessly better scouts, youth systems and academies given that their resources are not nearly as big as EPL's. And I don't think they are. However, I do believe that Spain produce much better domestically products because of a better football climate and because of the corrupt FA. EPL has 66.4% foreign players while La Liga has 41.6%. I hold it for true that EPL buy a lot of good Spanish players. That's not what this is about though.

Do you need any other proof that EPL bottom teams are better than La Ligas? Just look at a game between them and a top team in the league. Look how they week in and out beat the top teams. Look how none of the matches in EPL are certain in advance. Where you surprised that Pool got beat the other day? I certainly wasn't. And before you watch the game have a look on the odds given from the pundits. Any 1.06 odds in EPL? Nopp.

Sources:
(removed)
http://www.totalsportek.com/money/tottenham-player-salaries/
https://www.rt.com/sport/345182-premier-league-wages-report/
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/european-big-four-leagues-goals-3513388
https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/study-reveals-premier-league-highest-155522255.html

Also, EPL in average score more goals than La Liga.

All of the EPL's money spent have given those clubs such great success domestically and intentionally, am I right?

Also, when did this become about the EPL? Last time I checked, La Liga + Ligue 1 = Not EPL

@KTBFFHSWE Nice work there mate. I actually agree about all you've said, especially

That's only money you say? Nopp. It's value, incentives AND money.

Only one thing:

Just look at a game between them and a top team in the league.

I don't think that would say something about the teams' superiority when they win against a big team from it's own league.
EPL has the entertainment. That's actually the main reason why they are financially too strong. When financially too strong, they also will make it entertaining and amusing with more goals withing 38 games league run for the TV companies. We are considering most of this finance are coming from the TV revenue, I suppose.
But the thing is, I was only considering the domestical wins of the bottom teams of each league. There is actually no chance of comparing both leagues' bottom teams unless they play against each other. I actually really want to see Southampton and Celta Vigo play against each other if they make it out of Europa League.

@SunFlash
That's actually my mistake. Sorry about that :D

@sun It was in response to emre. You're most welcome to do the same comparison for the French teams. But I'll make a new thread about it to keep you from getting unhappy, okay? You're most welcome to come in to that thread instead and cry. Also, how often do bottom teams participate in international cups you reckon? And I really hope you know by know the reason of EPL clubs failing in the EL? CL last few years is another question though. A question involving the top spanish teams being better than EPL's.

There is actually no chance of comparing both leagues' bottom teams unless they play against each other.

True. We can only make estimated guesses, which I tried to do. Subjectively thinking I believe most English bottom teams would be on square with or better than La Liga's, not only because what I wrote above, but judging from the numerous games I've seen. Again, this might not be so objective, since I obviously have a preference for EPL, so I thought I'd give it a try to back it up with other stats.

@KTB

.....fine.

I still disagree about the bottom EPL clubs doing better than the bottom clubs of other leagues though. If the top teams in the league (CL) and the upper table teams (EL) don't fare better that their European opposites in the same part of the table, why would I have any justification to assume that the bottom clubs would be different?

Sure, in terms of money it seems likely, but as I outlined here: http://footyroom.com/forum/discussions/transfer-prices-are-rising-why-and-is-that-a-problem-80646 - that isn't always the case, my sumamry for that post included this:

There are a couple things to take from this.
-Prices for elite players will only continue to rise as more clubs acquire big time spending power (ex; China)
-Prices for British players will become obnoxious to the point where clubs outside of England will literally not be able to afford them...some would argue that we are at that point already.
-The BPL will become much more competitive. Squad strength across the entire league has strengthened significantly since there is no competition for players from teams outside the BPL (aside for elite players).
-If no BPL team is interested in a player, that player will be sold for what amounts to potentially half of what that BPL club would've spent.

That final point is the relevant one for this discussion btw.

Which is why I compared value and not price. Created a new thread for the purpose.

I guess nobody here have ever seen a Las Palmas game aside Barca Madrid game, proove me wrong.

When a team that relies on Cavani-Lucas in the attack fails to score chances, hope Verrati moves to a team outside top 2 in Spain, hope he goes to Atletico to see if it's as easy as MSN/BBC make it look.

As a résume of this sad world, people have opinions on things they completely ignore and aren't able to change it or to dig deeper... what can you do ? Post a video nobody would care watching ?

https://youtu.be/Xo4JO1YNcrI

https://youtu.be/02zykuQHYn8