What does the Club World Cup tell us? European football is not as strong as we thought

Club World Cup has been held until now, what have we understood? ESPN author Ryan O 'Hanlon talked about this topic

The Bundesliga is much better than the Northern New Zealand League. The Portuguese Super League is also stronger than the New Zealand League, but it is not that strong - of course, the New Zealand League is still worse than the MLS. But MLS is worse than the Tunisian League. The Tunisian League is worse than the Brazilian League, but there is nothing to say about this. After all, the Brazilian League team is even better than the Premier League and Champions League champions! As for the Saudi League, La Liga, Serie A and Mexican Super League? They are basically the same level.

Even if you know nothing about football, just look at the results of the first week of the game, you can convince yourself to believe the above information: Botafogo won Paris Saint-Germain, Flamengo won Chelsea, Riyadh Crescent tied Real Madrid, Miami International won Porto, Inter Milan drew with Monterrey. By the way, Bayern also crushed Auckland City, a group of part-time players in New Zealand, 10-0.

But these conclusions are not completely correct. If it were true, we probably would have seen changes in the odds. Moreover, according to ESPN BET data, the five popular teams that reached the finals are from the five largest leagues in the world: Germany, Spain, England, Italy and France.

But the author also thinks that we have learned nothing.

The circle of professional football is played in their own way. It is too difficult to really figure out which league is better than which one.

The Premier League is probably indeed the world's number one league, because the team makes much more money than other leagues. But we don’t know just about these five major European leagues, such as what would happen if Atletico Madrid ranked in the Premier League, or what would happen if Brentford arrived in the Bundesliga.

If you look far and look beyond Western Europe, you will be even more confused.

MLS? It may rank between 9th and 35th in the world, it all depends on how you define "good". Also, can those giants in South America (teams like Flamenco and River Plate) really achieve good results in the five major leagues? Also, when you piece together a "monster" team - half of the lineup is second-rate European players, and the other half is players from the 58th-ranked country (Saudi) in the world - what will happen?

I really want to answer these questions, the only way is to play more games.

Although there are many problems with the Club World Cup, lack of top teams, lack of fans, low ratings, and the FIFA president's perception of the world is a bit out of reality, it does provide one thing and can be recognized by everyone: the game, and there are 64 games!

So, by mid-July, this Club World Cup may really help us understand some of the tricks of football.

League strength vs Player adaptability

Even if I have a knee injury and am older, if I go to Bangor, Maine to play a random ball game, you may still think that my football skills are good after watching it. After all, the author was a university team player in the past, and his level was better than most Americans. If you suddenly throw a star player from the League One into an ordinary college league this fall, you will think he plays awesome. On the other hand, if you put a reliable Premier League starter in the League One, you must also think he plays too well.

The problem is that in every situation above, it is difficult for you to judge how powerful these people are, because you see that the environment in which they play football is too special. Although the example is a bit extreme, the truth is applicable everywhere: this problem exists in comparison with any two leagues or football environments in the world.

If you are examining players, it is particularly important to understand these environmental differences. It can help you avoid those "parallel": they look strong in a particular league, but may not work if they change places.

The Eredivisie is the best example, with many "typical characters". When the US striker Artidore was in Alkmaar, he scored 38 goals and 6 assists in two years when he was 21 and 22 years old. Then he transferred to Sunderland, and as a result, he scored 1 goal in two full Premier League seasons. Artidore's speed and body are very popular in the Eredivisie league, which is a big opening and closing against a slightly weaker league, but in the Premier League, his space is smaller and his opponents are faster and stronger, and his power disappears in an instant.

The counterexamples are also: some leagues are underrated, and the players in it are buried. When MiddleJetland and Brentford were the same boss Matthew Benham, they signed the tall and thin Finnish midfielder Tim Spaf from Greutfelt of the Bundesliga. Spav was 27 years old at the time and Greutfelt won third in the Bundesliga. Except for a few Danish journalists, almost no one paid attention to the deal.

But this contract is actually very interesting, for two reasons. First, the signing of Spav by China-Jetland is not because the coaching staff likes to watch him play football, but because the data model they created says "it should be signed". "This is quite new and strange to me," Spaf told me. "I was bought because of the data model." The second point is more interesting, what did that data model say.

By analyzing the data of confrontation between teams in various domestic cups and intercontinental matches, China and Jedland believe that the value of the Bundesliga is seriously underestimated. They also felt that Greutfelt's game result was a bit unlucky, and the actual performance was better than the points showed. The most important thing is that the model shows that the team plays worse when Spav is not playing.

"In their opinion, compared with other leagues, the Bundesliga is underrated, so they think, 'Okay, we can find treasures in this league,'" Spav said. "I played well at that time, and I played well. They could tell, 'Well, we like this guy,' and when I was on the court, the team won more than when I was out of the game. When the giant teams send the strongest lineup and want to win seriously, the situation will be clearer. But the first week of the game opened at least one possibility, which few people had really thought about before the game: the gap between Europe and the rest of the world may not be as big as we thought before.

(Armour)