Pep’s Barcelona was great but I’d say 2008-2009 was their best season. This decade, MSN’s Barca seemed unstoppable in 2014-15 and probably one of the most exciting teams I’ve ever seen.
I’ve gone with Barcelona 2010-2012 just for a combination of how good they were and the football they played, you could be critical of that selection due to the fact they fell short in CL 2010 & 2012 though.
Real Madrid were unbelievable winning those CL titles they did and one could make a case for them, but domestically they didn’t do as well and that’s the true test of consistency.
All good candidates, any reason City 17-19 wasn’t one ? I assume it was due to poor European form.
Yeah Peps City and Allegris Juve didn’t make it because of they didn’t win the big one.
But then I guess why did Mous RM make it? Imo they didn’t just win la Liga, they dethroned that Barcelona team, winning it with 100 points and 100 goals.
And they did only lose the CL semi on pens.
Plus that CL season was stupid and should be erased from the history books tbf.
Absolutely Barca 2011. Arguably the best team ever. The only team, and I literally mean, the ONLY team that I can say it’s MAYBE better than the invincibles. Ok, I am obviously subjective when talking about the invincibles but that barca team is probably the only team I can openly admit is better. That barca generation (from 2008 onwards) is absolutely the most infulential team I had the opportunity to watch… They simply changed the course of the sport.
Second place: MSN barca. My God what a team again. Just to make it clear I’m far from a barca fan, I love to see them fall (lose an important game or so, not to go down as a club)… but I just love good football, and barca was insane. Far more direct than 2011 barca, not so utterly strong in possession but they were simply unstoppable up front with probably THREE best players in the world at that time forming the trident. Iniesta lost consistency that season, but he was still absolutely unplayable and untouchable when it mattered.
Third place: Bayern 2013. Pace, power, stamina, skill, tactics… Probably the most complete team I ever watched. An absolute fortress.
Now thinking about those teams…I literally feel absolutely privileged and lucky to have had the opportunity to watch them. I can only regret I haven’t watched more of them. Those are the teams that move the sport forward.
Barca 2014 - 16 had the most destructive and mouth-watering front 3 that I can ever remember. For me, it tops the Messi, Eto’o and Henry / Ronaldinho ones as Messi hadn’t hit his peak at the time (and Henry had already peaked at that stage).
Even though the Messi, Pedro and Villa front three was part of the more revolutionary Barca side, and played the best football as a team, it just doesn’t have the same wow factor. Probably doesn’t make sense but romanticism and sentimentality comes in here so fuck logic.
In 15/16 Messi, Suarez and Neymar combined for a total of 131 goals in all competitions. 90 of those goals came in the league. Those kind of stats just blow my mind. And it was Suarez who was the runaway top scorer, with Messi showing throughout that he was also the best creative player in the world. The league in Spain was so tight that year in 2016 too, Simeone’s Atleti were still in their defensive pomp (18 league goals conceded that year!) and Madrid smashed in almost the same number of goals as Barca (competing against Ronaldo, Bale and Benzema).
Barca winning the league that year, coupled with them winning absolutely everything the season before makes them my personal favourite.
Absolutely. I think this side tends to be underrated by (non Bayern) football fans, maybe because people can’t get their heads around the idea that the club got worse under Pep.
Their level of domination in the second half of that season was just ridiculous. After the Bundesliga winter break they went 16-1-0 and outscored opponents 54-11. After slipping past us in the R16, they won their next five CL matches by an aggregate of 13-1 against Juventus, Barcelona, and BvB. Across all competitions that spring they went 25-1-1 (only losing to ) and outscored opponents 80-18.
Yeah that Bayern side was brilliant, I remember when I was at the Emirates watching them live when they beat us 3-1, that was when I realised just how good they were.
) and outscored opponents 80-18.