Is it just me, or is the quality of non-elite level European national teams really low at the minute...

Is it just me, or is the quality of non-elite level European national teams really low at the minute? Like a team like a Czech Republic or an Ireland or a Bulgaria or whoever would still have good quality and one or two really good players up until 5 or 10 years ago, but now look really poor compared to the big European powerhouses. It feels like the quality just drops off a cliff at some point in the rankings.

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Some teams made progress though:

Belgium was irrelevant before 2014. They didn't even qualify for 2010 World Cup or 2012 Euro. Now they are one of the teams in Europe.

Iceland were minnows. Now they are good enough to compete with 2nd tier teams.

Croatia are World Cup finalists, despite the fact they didn't make it to knockout stages since 1998, until the current WC

*one of the top teams in Europe.

Switzerrland has made some progress over the last decade. Not a leapfrog, but they are a tough nut to crack now. Poland and Serbia remain rather underwhelming teams relaitve to their potential, unfortunately.

What are you on about, we absolutely dominated in our first Euro qualifier yesterday.

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Pretty sure the Iceland meme is over now. Guess we'll see...

>1-0 against a port
hmmmm

>last euro you were knocked out by a desolate volcano

they need more niggers

Overall I'd agree but some mid-sized nations are developping quite impressively.

NT defensive ball has been figured out after 4 years of utter crap. Small teams cannot longer hide behind that shit, like Sweden.

Belgium is becoming irrelevant again kek. They had one golden generation raised by Dutch and English clubs. Coincidentally both countries had disappointing talent in those years. Now both countries are on the rise and guess what? No fresh Belgian talent. I'm still amazed they took so many players from that shit league. Then again now with all the controversy its even less appealing to snatch some youngster up from there and put him at the Ajax or Chelsea academies.

Yeah, what's surprising about Switzerland is them actually having depth now. In the past even when they had a couple of good players, if those players got injured they were fucked. Like without Frei or Streller their starting CF was Nkufo or whatever his name was. Now they've got a starting XI of Serie A, Bundesliga and PL players, with a good number of them coming from teams challenging for European spots. And even with injuries they've got some solid replacements. Their goalkeeper situation is strong enough that Bürki's stepped back for the time being. Even at CB they've got Schär, Akanji and Elvedi.

Absolutely stunning England managed to score at all without Rppney.

It depends on what you value in a player. If you value technical and methodical football, then yes, European football is in decline. However if you value pace and indefatigably, then European football is still top tier.

It's just evolution. Tiki taka is dead, and we killed him. Now pacey nigga is my new best friend.

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it's like there was an economic crisis or something that made poor countries spend their money in important shit instead

What's going to kill pacey nigga?

>Top tier
France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, England
>Great tier
Germany, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Croatia
>Good tier
Sweden, Russia, Ukraine, Austria, Serbia, Denmark, Poland, Bosnia, Wales
>Meh tier
Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Czechia, Israel, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Turkey
>Bad tier
Finland, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Albania, Montenegro, Luxembourg, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo
>Shit tier
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova, Slovenia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Montenegro, Cyprus
>Micronations tier
Andorra, San Marino, Malta, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Liechenstein

objectively wrong

iceland has won 2 out of their last 19 games, im not even kidding they're absolutely shit now

Move Germany down to Good Tier and Gibraltar up to Shit Tier and that list is perfect.

It all went downhill after Bosman. Smaller countries get their talents drained by top five who don’t give a shit about their development.

>top tier
Netherlands, England, Portugal, Switzerland
>shit tier
everyone else

This, Gibraltar are genuinely not completely terrible now. Under their new coach they've won 2, lost 3 by less than a 2 goal margin (including the 0-1 against Ireland), and only been given a hiding twice.

>Scotlel
>Meh tier

We'd struggle to beat any of those countries, we should be in bad tier

>Montenegro in both Shit and Bad tiers
>Switzerland before Croatia

yikes...

>spain is the only good team that has players who are actually from the country
Certainly makes you ponder.

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Why are you doing this

Are we talking about the sum of players or the actual team?

Congrats on winning your UEFA Nations League group.

OH WAIT!

Congratulations on playing the Europa League of NT cups.

It seems to be that for a lot of immigrants,especially in France and England the only way to success is selling drugs, football or rapping

>europa league of nts
>all of the top nts actually play
hmmm the mechanisms of cope

Keep believing this
I sure hope we face the Netherlands in the next euro, belgium has the best youth system in the world with France now and theres nothing you can do about it
Brussels alone produce more talents than fucking London with 1/10 of the population, we have young belgians in many top clubs u21's squads

we beat israel comfortably in the game before last you gimp

mcleish oot

Your U19s are doing really well at the moment
Perhaps you'll get a good generation soon

England without Nigerians, France without Malians, Germany without Turks and Belgium without Congolese would look just as shitty as Bulgaria or Ireland.

Agreed. I was surprised at how well the young players did in the game against Russia (even though Hazard was still the MVP that game).

Croatia without Bosnians and Serbs also lmao

Man, I'm sure if you were in this position Dragan you'd trade getting through the group stage of a meaningles tournament (barely too) instead of playing the World Cup final.

But congrats on that u20 World Cup title you won however long ago kek. Worked out well for you so far.

Canadians without Europeans.

New Iceland desu. >We will meme our way to qualification through the Nations League

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never been prouder than being rated meh tier by user

>portugal not top tier

Sweden: Forsberg, Olsen, Lindelöf.
Denmark: Eriksen, Poulsen, Christensen
Norway: ?
Finland: ?
Iceland: Sigurdsson

Sweden and Denmark are doing well. Both countries also have a couple of up and coming players that might become top players.

Norway have no top player but Berge and King might make it to the top imo.

Iceland have Sigurdsson.

Finland is a lost case.

>Germany without Turks

So Germany without Gündogan?
Don't think he has that much influence on our game, lad

>new iceland
The Netherlands have always been good

>would look just as shitty as Bulgaria or Ireland.
Imagine actually believing that. Would any of those teams be as good? No, but they'd still be solid teams above that level.

>before
He didn't imply that, just put them on the same level

Fucking this.

streamja.com/pQJR

You'll never see a better goal in your life!

almost nobody plays soccer here