Why the best teams in the world dominate between 2-7 years
In almost every football season, there is a different best team in the world. For a certain team to be that is required almost perfection. There is certainly no specific formula for this, but in this article we will comment on the reasons for a team to reach the level of being named the best team in the world, as well as recall some of the more important events and stories of some of big clubs.
How long does the top form of a football team last?
This is a complex question that has dozens of answers. It depends a lot on which championship team plays in and what its capabilities are – financially and in terms of players potential. When it comes to getting into good shape early in the season, especially with the newcomers in the league, it will usually take about 11-12 average rounds to get the others to adapt to the playing style of the team. Examples in this regard are many as one of the most striking ones was Cagliari’s story from Serie A this season.
Speaking of long term top form, this is already a much more complicated task and is usually about the biggest teams. Those who are powerful financially, have extremely high quality coaches and make serious investments.
With them, peak form can last all season, but there will certainly be some small downturns and moments in which they will lose points. Exactly they show “what the dough is made of” and whether they are actually as prepared and psychic as they show with their game.
What are the most striking examples in recent history
There are many examples, but we have selected a few that have made a more serious impression here.
Lyon won the French Ligue 1 seven times before the money of PSG appeared
It takes something very special to win the local league seven times in a row. Even more amazing is that if the team that made it had never had a single title in their history. That’s exactly how it happened with Olympique Lyon, who were nothing special before their first title. Why, however, come to such dominance, topped with numerous domestic cups and fairly decent performances in the Champions League?
The main reason was the great management of the club, the scout unit, the incredible coaches who made it, and the politics of the club itself. During this period of dominance, some of the biggest football stars went through Lyon, some people don’t even know they played in the french side. Abidal, Malouda, Thiago, Lloris, Pjanic, Benzema. These are just some of the names. Gerard Houllier was the head coach of the club in 2005 and 2007.
Interestingly, Lyon won 6 of those 7 titles without a clear central forward. In fact, in only one of these seasons has there been a player who has scored more than 16 goals in the league. In those years, Lyon relied on completely different weapons, rooted in the distribution of responsibility among all, as well as the element of surprise.
There is one Brazilian who will forever remain in history with his phenomenal and extraterrestrial direct free-kick performances – Juninho Pernambukano.
This player could score a goal from just about anywhere. After 2008 too many stars were sold, important names left the club overall and the team level dropped a lot.
At that time, the Arab sheiks came to Paris somewhere, and began pouring billions into the PSG squad to make them a machine for a decade.
Barcelona and the Messi Era
For Barcelona and Messi can be written books. However, it is important to start with the fact that everything comes from Cruyff, who made Barcelona what they are now, though much earlier than their most successful days in history, which came after 2005, when Messi was just getting into big football. The great Dutchman has changed the culture of the club, so he is one of the biggest legends in Barcelona, if not the biggest.
With Cruyff Barca took quite a few titles in Spain, but only one European Cup. When the real dominance for Barcelona in Europe began, the team was still with Frank Rijkaard, and this happened in the new century. The truth is that Barcelona has developed a lot as a club and gained a huge fan base. La Masia academy has been instrumental in bringing some of the world’s football legends such as Busquets,avi, Iniesta, Puyol, Pique, Alba and, of course, Messi, who has been in Barcelona for 14 years.
At one point, it was time for Pep Guardiola, who is a Catalan and also played for the team. The insights of this great coach are completely imbued with the ideas of Barcelona, making one of the greatest teams in history, which dominated for about 10 years until the 2014/2015 season and in almost all seasons was the best team in the world, after that there was some decline at Barca, but that’s normal. Messi was at the heart of it all.
The whole success of Barcelona during this time is the result of a lot of hard work, common work, professionalism, quality and big ideas. Messi is a major part of this, but he alone is not the cause. The Catalans relied on a lot of passes, a lot of technique, an extremely dynamic playing of the ball.
Tiki-taka style remains something like total football – historical and legendary, thanks to which the Spanish national team itself congratulated two European Cups and one World Cup, all within 6 years.
Barcelona and La Masia have literally created Messi since he also had serious physical problems from a young age. That is why Messi will most likely never leave Barcelona, since he is simply completely involved with this club from head to toe.
One of the main qualities that makes Messi a great player is that he may be a striker, but he sees the game as a midfielder. However, he scores the most goals and makes the most assists. He can play anywhere in the front positions and is always given maximum freedom to develop his talent. Messi will soon make 500 appearances for Barcelona and will probably score 500 goals for the club and has broken hundreds of records so far.
Juventus and their rebirth after the return of Serie B
Juventus were relegated to Serie B after the 2005-2006 season, where they were first in the league, but then there was a huge scandal because once again the Turin club was accused of misconduct.
Over the years, there have been many stories about the Old Lady, but specifically this season there are specific conversations and serious accusations with evidence of match-fixing.
At one point, after all is revealed, Juventus must be dropped in Italy’s last professional division, but sent to Serie B.
Juventus suffer a quake, and some of the non-local stars who are not directly connected to the squad leave in the direction of the big enemies – Inter. It’s about Ibrahimovic and Vieira.
The club’s legends, Nedved, del Piero and Buffon, remain. In Serie B Valeri Bozhinov played for Juve and even scored more than 10 goals in the championship.
In just one season, the Bianconeri return to Serie A, but there is a transition period of several years.
The first two seasons after their return, Juventus finishes 3rd and 2nd, and then two consecutive seasons are 7th before becoming champions again in the 11/12 season.
However, after returning to Serie A, the weaker players and less successful coaches pass through the Juventus transition. At the beginning of the first season, Didier Deschamps led the team and sent him to third place, but then he left. Later, Juve had a period in which their coach was Alberto Zaccheroni.
Then they finish 7th and the Italian does not finish the season. Luigi Delneri comes after him and he also accomplishes nothing. Some forgotten players like Zebina, Giovinco or Grygera went through the team with nothing different. Bianconeri also relied on quite a few adolescents in those years.
Then they finish 7th and the Italian does not finish the season. Luigi Delneri comes after him and he also accomplishes nothing. Some forgotten players like Zebina, Giovinco or Grygera went through the team with nothing different. Bianconeri also relied on quite a few adolescents in those years.
Back then, there wasn’t that much money at the club because of the events of 2006. In addition, at this time, the construction of the new stadium began. Juventus Stadium opened its doors in 2011 and Juve became the first club in Italy to build a stadium by itself. Subsequently, better transfers began to be made.
Nedved becomes part of the club’s management after retiring from his football career, and Marotta’s politics are working. He came in 2010 and became CEO of the club after spending six years as such in Sampdoria before.
After some time when Juventus had already begun to reap the rewards of all these positive changes that had taken place since 2010, the team began to attract better players and bigger stars. Antonio Conte arrives in 2011 and is the coach of the team for 3 seasons in which he won the title in all of them. For him, Juve are on top for the first time since season 02/03. Then everything goes up. The Juventus brand is again interesting and the club is signing with more and more serious sponsors.
The club is owned by the Agnelli family, which is a very old and influential family in Italy. They own a number of car brands and are mainly the owners of Fiat. Andrea Agnelli, who is the son of “the lawyer”, is the president of the club. From the first Conte title every season Old Lady becomes champion and has 8 consecutive titles, so now they are chasing the ninth.
Liverpool, who may be the next lord of Europe and England
The Liverpool progress dates back to 2010. The Fenway Sports Group is buying the club, which is under administration because it has a lot of debt and is in bad financial condition after its previous owners, George Gillette and Tom Hicks, who are also Americans like Fenway. Although relatively good years in the Rafael Benitez era, in which the team was a regular in the top 4, there was a battle for the title in the 2008/2009 season and a pretty good performance in the Champions League, at one point everything collapsed.
He brings the team to 6th place, and the next season they bought a very expensive player, but it doesn’t work out as Liverpool take the Carling Cup but finish 8th. Dalglish has not been in the coaching career for a very long period of time, and this seems to affect him.
For season 12/13 comes young and promising North Irishman Brendon Rodgers. He has been a coach for only three seasons and in his last two of them he first got Swansea into the Premier League and then finished first half of the table in his first season with the Swans in the elite of England. When he arrived in Liverpool, a transfer committee was formed at the beginning, to which Rodgers is a member. Most of the transfers are made by this committee and some of them are at the personal request of Rodgers.
His first season is transitional. After him, the big star of the team, Luis Suarez, is eager to leave. He came to the club when Kenny Dalglish replaced Hodgson and was part of the Chelsea-Liverpool deal for Torres and he and Andy Carroll were actually bought with the Spaniard’s money. Suarez is just a step down from his transfer to Arsenal just two seasons and a half after coming to Liverpool, but he finally stays and has made one of his best seasons of his career.
At the time, Rodgers also bought Coutinho and Sturridge in the winter of 2013 for rather low price as these two were reserves in their former teams. Sterling was already becoming a star, and with Gerrard as deep lying playmaker at the back, Liverpool have a killer attack, and Rodgers makes the best of it because his football philosophy is very attacking.
In this campaign, Liverpool are in the top 4 of January with some chances for the title, but no one thinks about it then. At one point, however, the Reds start winning so much and make 11 straight wins. This, topped by the failure of other teams, sends the team to 1st place, needing at least 7 points 3 rounds before the end of the season to become champion, which is like the Holy Grail for LFC.
In the end, Liverpool lost an emblematic match against Chelsea 0-2 at home in the 36th round, after which Manchester City claimed the title. This was followed by the sale of Suarez and a very weak season for the Reds.
In the fourth campaign, 15/16, Liverpool started again badly and in October after a game with Everton before a break for national teams Brendon Rodgers was sacked to be replaced by Jurgen Klopp. The German left Borussia Dortmund the season before and has been resting as a free agent for several months.
Klopp has repeatedly said that when his agent called him and told him that Liverpool wanted him to be the next manager of the club, he told himself “Oh my God!”. He describes that he felt the same as, when he first met his wife. At the very beginning, Klopp’s ideas fit perfectly with those of FSG. There is no longer a transfer committee. There is a sports director who is considered as a guru of transfers and his name is Michael Edwards and he comes in November 2016.
From now on, every season, Klopp is left to work the way he wishes, as the owners of his club have full confidence, and Klopp himself feels extremely calm and confident that he can develop his full potential as a manager and come to the right place. A lot of it is played by the fans of the club, who love Klopp from its first day. In general, Anfield is in delirium and a huge euphoria upon its arrival.
Klopp doesn’t get much results at first. In his first season, he finished 8th, but reached the Europa League final with Liverpool lost to Sevilla. He previously lost the final to Man City for the League Cup in February.
In the next season he reached the top 4 without playing in Europe, and in the 17/18 season Liverpool started weakly, but after one loss to Tottenham with 1-4 the Reds change some things in their game and start winning and by the end of the season they succeed to fully maintain the pace of Man City.
The Citizens then became champions with a record number of points, with Liverpool finishing 4th only because he lost a lot of points early in the campaign. During that time, the team reached the Champions League final, which was lost to Real Madrid.
In the 18/19 season, Liverpool reached their peak and made the club’s record 97 points, but did not win the Premier League title as Man City got 98 points. Those 97 points are the third best achievement ever since City of the 17/18 season with 100 points and those 98 in a particular 18/19 campaign. Liverpool, meanwhile, have won the Champions League.
This is how we get to this season, 19/20, in which Liverpool have completely dominated England after the fall in the form of City, and the Reds achieve records never achieved by any team in the top 5 of the elite leagues in Europe.
However, not all of these successes are due solely to Klopp. The overall development of the club is at absolutely every level. We have already mentioned the transfer guru, Edwards, who has made dozens of incredible deals in buying and selling players at the club.
John Henry, the owner of FSG, as well as holding a huge stake in the company, Tom Werner, is bringing Liverpool back to the heights its fans watched 30 years ago. Including the FSG President, Michael Gordon, who may have the greatest credit for the Reds development, is very important.
Liverpool are currently signing contracts with major sponsors, gaining thousands more fans, popularity is growing, Anfield is constantly improving and capacity will increase for the second time after the first increase. Anfield is expected to have more than 60,000 seats in 2 years, and a new super-modern base will be built in which the first team will train with the young squad from the academy this summer.
All previous Liverpool managers since 2010 contribute to this project. FSG have a clear strategy for their period at the club since then, and have been following it closely.
Not many people, perhaps, know that FSG bought the Boston Red Sox, which is a baseball team from America and, like Liverpool, that team has not been a champion for decades, but for several years with FSG the team won the title and has been so successful. Now Boston is back on top as all of this is no accident.
Liverpool is the best team in the world in the last two seasons and will probably continue to dominate because everything in the club works perfectly. The academy gives start to talents, Klopp thinks about the future and shows clear signs that he knows how to achieve lasting success in Liverpool over the coming years and leave a good legacy to the possible next team manager, but it won’t be soon. The German has a contract until 2024, which was signed just recently.
It can certainly be argued that without Klopp Liverpool would not be what it is, but also Klopp would not be what he is without Liverpool. As soon as he arrived, it was as if it was stated that Klopp was born for this team and would bring it back to the top.
How to find the best teams at the beginning and to bet on high odds for them
This is not such an easy task, but it is not impossible if you take the time. You have to decide first which championships are most interesting to you or just which ones you like for your bets. Keep track of the strongest teams from last season. The most important thing is what transfers they make – which players they buy and which they sell. Who is their coach, who is their coach and what is their playing style. You also need to find out more about the owners’ policies and how much progress they have made since being in the club.
Keep in mind that teams may become champions but have a difficult start. There are always plenty of surprises at the beginning of the seasons. This is very often because the transfer window has not closed, some of the top players are still recovering or resetting after the summer break, others have not fully trained with the team, etc. The first rounds have a bunch of weird results. When you go 15-20 rounds and look back, you will wonder how things like this might have happened.
The strongest teams are usually in the top 4 or 1st in most seasons after the 10th round. These include names like Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Barcelona, Juventus, Liverpool, PSG, etc.
At Betinum, we make the analysis of most matches of these teams, as they are one of the most watched teams in the world as they have the most fans and are the most popular.
More tips from Betinum
We will give you an interesting tip for a factor that is not always taken into account. Very often the strongest teams in the championship show their best in the toughest matches when the odds are high enough for them. For example, Juventus won their game with Inter this season as a guest, though Old Lady does not make its strongest season by the standards it has in recent years. It is often the case that top teams underestimate an opponent and sometimes they do not win with odds of 1.20, but win in the derbies.
Another tip we can give you is to consider which are the top priority tournaments for the teams. Everyone wants to win everything, but it happens or at least it’s pretty difficult. That’s why there’s always a priority tournament. Therefore, when matches are played every 3 days and a top team rotates, it is not always appropriate to bet on it.