Is the Premier League being strong a benefit or hindrance for its teams in Europe?

[SambaStyle]

In previous years everyone would say, PSG playing in a weak league has stopped them from winning the CL as they aren't tested as much week by week. Now, it's seen as a positive for them as they can rest players and still walk the league.

What do you think though? I think it's a positive for the English teams.

You've seen teams like Newcastle United walk over Benfica 3-0, Forest beat Porto 2-0. These giant Portuguese teams are not bringing anything to the table Newcastle and Forest don't see every 3-4 days. Whereas, Benfica and Porto only get stress tested a handful times a year.

I actually think Liverpool despite being shit recently, are more likely to fix their problems and have a chance of winning the CL by being tested week in week out, than someone like Bayern who are just completely dominant and not really learning from any possible mistakes they may be making.

 

[Chris-NCL]

Newcastle fan here.

Ahead of the match the other day I was chatting to Benfica fans in town, Absolute great bunch, possibly the friendliest away fans I’ve came across, certainly in Europe they are.
Anyway they were saying how they are in a period of transition. Their squad has aged out, and the good players have left, ironically to go to other teams in Europe not the Premier League.
Indeed if you look at their results in the league in the last few years you can see this trend, the same also applies to Porto who are busy assembling a young squad who will be ready in the next few years. We were linked with Samu one of Porto’s forwards, and honestly he looks the real deal and was the one player many of us wanted when we knew Isak was off.

Anyway, further to this point ai also went to the Youth League match earlier in the day and Benfica’s side smacked ours 5-1. The difference in quality is just too clear, and their is a couple of players in their team who I think shouldn’t have left Newcastle without a contract offer.


Anyway I honestly don’t think it is a hindrance, if it wasn’t the Premier League it would just be another league, and indeed in the 80’s and 90’s it was Serie A, and the early 2000’s there was a big focus on Real Madrid and Barcelona.
In saying this, I don’t think England and the other top 5 UEFA nations should have representative in the Conference League and we should maybe swap them for Europa League qualifying rounds.
However I do believe that sooner or later UEFA will tweak the amount of team qualifying for Europe, especially from the top 5 leagues, and it will be a base of if you are in one of those top 5 leagues, then short of being relegated, you’ll qualify for some format of European competition, much like Rugby Union.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Other leagues move domestic fixtures to allow teams more rest for big European ties, whereas the PL doesn’t.

Not sure the quality of the league is a hindrance, but the more physically demanding style of play probably does towards the end of the season.

 

[East Level 2]

However I do believe that sooner or later UEFA will tweak the amount of team qualifying for Europe, especially from the top 5 leagues, and it will be a base of if you are in one of those top 5 leagues, then short of being relegated, you’ll qualify for some format of European competition, much like Rugby Union.

Taking your last paragraph in isolation:
UEFA would happily changed their qualification criteria to include more popular, but lower quality teams, if it meant more broadcast revenue. However they have to balance their inbuilt greed against the wishes of smaller nations who have equal votes on UEFA bodies and want a share of the financial pie. The threat of a "Super League" will never go away, nor will the threat of smaller nations banding together and demanding more international games against the top five or six nations and competitive clubs games against the usual suspects in the CL rather than their clubs going out in the qualifiers.

 

[.db.]

A bit of both.

It helps drive standards high because there are few easy games in the PL, teams in the bottom half even buy players from CL teams in other countries. The league is the best in the world for this reason. It stands PL teams in good-stead for doing well in Europe as they play at that high level most weeks.

We’ve seen it a lot where we’ve had tougher tests from Championship teams in the early rounds of the domestic Cups than some of the teams we play in the CL. Villarreal last week looked no better than Wolves or West Ham. Bratislava last season were woeful, Leyton Orient was a tougher game. Brugge a few years ago were very poor n’all.

But teams will be more fatigued off the back of having tough games most weeks in the PL. Having to work harder for wins than teams who are just as good at the top of other leagues but have far weaker opposition most weeks in their leagues from outside the CL places. They’re often more rested before CL games and less tested after them, and the accumulation of fatigue (chronic versus acute; mental as well as physical) from hard games most weeks in the PL will put teams at a disadvantage when they come up against teams who’ve accumulated much less.