Exciting Football

Best Players In The World

Hold onto your hats because this edition will be controversial! Today we will be rating the top 5 players in the world based on current form. This sort of discussion, ranking, and comparison is always tricky. However, we will be providing you with solid evidence for each ranking, so take off your bias glasses!

Methodology

We will look at the following factors for determining our rankings:

Current form based on current season
Importance to the team
Difficulty of execution
Strengths and weaknesses

#5 Eden Hazard:

The Belgian magician is one of the finest dribblers in world football. Whether you like Real Madrid or Chelsea is not relevant. This man is an absolute beast of a footballer. His individual footballing prowess has saved his teams time and time again.

Strengths: Dribbling, creating space, and passing.

Weaknesses: Drifts in and out of games, inconsistent form, finishing.

#4 Mohammad Salah:

The Egyptian King is one of the most exciting and explosive footballers on the planet. His pace, acceleration, ball handling, and touch leave nothing to be desired. Guiding his team to European glory last season should not be overlooked. He was a huge factor in that success.

Strengths: Dribbling, speed, and acceleration.

Weaknesses: Drifts in and out of games, bad temper, lack of patience to see through matches.

#3 Cristiano Ronaldo

The Portuguese legend is one of the greatest goalscorers in the world but statistics don’t tell the whole story. He has carried some teams on his back and given 110% every single day in training and in matches. The amount of attention he warrants certainly makes it easier for his teammates to find the open spaces.

Strengths: Goalscoring and finding open spaces.

Weaknesses: Bad at free-kicks and dribbling. Gets injured a lot.

#2 Robert Lewandowski

Without a doubt the most underrated player of all the top players. He scores goals for fun and yet he’s never in the conversation for the best player. After years of sustained success, it’s about time Mr. Lewandowski gets the recognition he deserves. Banging in more than one goal per game on average, his numbers are ludicrous. As is his footballing talent.

Strengths: Goal scoring

Weaknesses: Lacking in technical skills, build up play, and control.

#1 Lionel Messi

This should come as no surprise (sorry Ronaldo fans!). The diminutive Argentine is undisputedly the greatest footballer on the planet, and probably the greatest of all-time. Complete in every footballing department, he passes the eye test and the statistical test. He simply dominates in all the categories you can possibly imagine. Bringing countless accolades to his name, he is simply a phenom, and needs no further description.

Strengths: Goal scoring, dribbling, passing, touch, and ball control.

Weaknesses: None.

The Best Brand of Football – An Analysis

The Analysis

While Barcelona and Manchester City play a highly possession-based system of football, Liverpool do not. They play in a more dynamic style which does not emphasize possession of the ball. They typically adapt to their opponent and can play in various ways. However, the defining identity of Liverpool is that of a high intensity team.

While Barcelona and Manchester City’s pace is quite pedestrian, Liverpool’s is Formula 1 by comparison.

Creating space

There is tons of movement off the ball by Liverpool players, whether in possession or without it. They believe in creating space this way. Barcelona and Manchester City prefer to open up the opposition’s defense by having them chase the ball and force them into errors and exhaustion. Liverpool use their pure athleticism, while Barca and Manchester City use their technical skills.

Possession

Undoubtedly Manchester City and Barcelona are superior to Liverpool in the possession department, but that does not paint the entire picture. Liverpool’s tactical system exploits other mechanics which allow you to thrive without possession of the ball. It would be unfair to judge based purely on this. But go ahead if you must!

This is where things get interested for Barca and Mancity, as both teams play in a similar fashion. They love to control the ball and “razzle dazzle” you with their skills, as seen in the image above. They also share a history together as Manchester City’s coach is familiar with FC Barcelona – having coached them for 4 years.

Final Verdict

Before we tell you our winner, we’d like to give you a breakdown of where each team ranks within each criteria:

Visually and aesthetically pleasing:

Manchester City
Barcelona
Liverpool

Effectiveness and final product:

Liverpool
Manchester City
Barcelona

Difficulty:

Manchester City
Barcelona
Liverpool

The Winner – MANCHESTER CITY

Manchester City combines an explosive and aggressive style of offense with extreme technical prowess. They have arguably the weakest squad of the 3 and the mix of aesthetics, effectiveness, and difficulty of execution puts them over the top.

FC Barcelona

Club History

Otherwise known as the “Blaugrana”, FC Barcelona is one of the giants of Spanish football. Their domestic success is currently unparalleled in world football as they’ve captured 8 out of the last 11 league titles in Spain. They can rightfully be called champions, or “campeones” in Spanish.

The term blaugrana is derived from Catalan as blau means blue and grana translates to deep red.

Boasting the greatest soccer player in the world in Lionel Messi, the Blaugrana have also conquered many European titles in addition to their domestic ones, with Messi being the catalyst of these successes.

Here is a summary of their recent success, broken down by competition:

Domestic:

European:

Rivalries

The Catalan club has a heated rivalry with their arch nemesis Real Madrid CF. While Madrid dominated the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, FC Barcelona has gotten the upper hand on their rivals ever since then. Ever since the days of Zidane, Ronaldo, and Beckham, FC Barcelona has taken over the reigns of Spain’s elite team.

Espanyol CF is FC Barcelona’s second biggest rival. They are also a Barcelona-based club but unlike FC Barcelona, they are the Spanish based team of Barcelona.

Playing Style

Known as tiki-taka, the brand of football which FC Barcelona plays is absolutely mesmerizing. Focused on short, concise passing at rapid speeds, their style of football is dazzling to the eye. There’s a reason why they’ve become the club of choice for football purists.

Strengths

An abundance of technical players
A plethora of strikers
A multitude of home-grown players

Weaknesses

Lack of defensive cohesion
Lack of trust in the youth players
An inability to adapt to the opponent during matches
A suspect training regimen

Who Is Playing The Best Brand of Football?

In today’s hotly debated topic, we’re going to be evaluating which team is currently playing the best brand of football. We realize that the term “best” can be quite subjective, especially when evaluating entertainment-based products. However, we believe there is an intricate debate to be had with respect to differing styles of football.

WARNING! If you enjoy defensively oriented football (i.e You’re the guy who claps at a good clearance), you will probably rage at our list of teams!

The Criteria

For our evaluation, we will be using several metrics to determine which team currently takes the reign of “Best Brand of Football”. We will be using a combination of the following:

Visually and aesthetically pleasing . i.e. How the ball moves around the pitch.
Effectiveness and final product i.e. The end result of the playing style.
Difficulty i.e. The difficulty of execution – based on the playing style itself and the players in question.

We will analyse each major facet of playing style with the above criteria and compare. The winner will be picked based on an overall representation of what we believe to be the best brand of football.

The Teams

We don’t believe there is any debate to be had with respect to the 3 contenders. Below is the list (Sorry anti-football fans!):

FC Barcelona
Liverpool FC
Manchester City FC.

Continue to the analysis here.

The World Cup

The FIFA World Cup is the penultimate prize for any footballer. Played once every 4 years, it is the sporting event of the globe. 2 billion people tune in to watch 32 countries battle it out for a chance to be crowned champions of world football. France is currently the reigning champion, having defeated Croatia in the finals in 2018.

The tournament has had an illustrious history and has immortalized many teams, players, and nations in its lore – the most recent being France.

Important Facts

Year Founded: 1939

Number of Teams: 32

Most Sucessful Team: Brazil (5x Champions)

Current Champion: France

Website: Fifa World Cup

The World Cup is a tournament that makes dreams, but also breaks hearts. The fact that it is played once every 4 years makes it that much more special. Moreso when you win on your home soil in front of the entire world. Six of the eight champions have won one of their titles while playing in their homeland. They are the following:

England (1966)
Uruguay (1930)
Argentina (1978)
Italy (1934)
France (1998)
Germany (1974)

The Trophy

The original World Cup trophy was named after FIFA president Jules Rimet. He set up the first official tournament and so the trophy was named the Jules Rimet trophy until 1970.

In 1970, after winning their 3rd world cup, Brazil was entitled to keep the trophy permanently. However, the story ends badly as thieves eventually stole the trophy, never to be returned or found. They suspected it was melted down.

Welcome to the Home of Exciting Football

Introduction

Hello and welcome to the home of Exciting Football. Here you can follow all of the most exciting football teams on the planet!

We’re going to be upfront and tell you that we are football purists. We will be covering teams who are playing exciting football, not just winning football. As of today, these teams are:

FC Barcelona
Real Madrid
Liverpool
Manchester City
Inter Milan
Juventus
Paris Saint-Germain

However, the above list can change at any time. As the 2019-20 season progresses, different teams will be in contention and we will adjust our coverage accordingly. If your team is not on the list, don’t fret! The season is long and a lot can change within the year.

About Us

Here at Exciting Football we are a team of football enthusiasts who are somewhat snobby about their enthusiasm. You see, we appreciate good football and cannot stand bad football.

Our Philosophy

We don’t buy into the hype of “rugged fighter” teams. We want our football to be pleasing to the eye first and foremost. Winning comes second. After all, we are fans, not professional players.

So let’s drop the tribalism aspect of sports watching, and tune into the excitement! We hope you enjoy your stay at Exciting Football!