Domestic Leagues vs. Champions League: The Difference Between Winning a League and a Cup

Winning a trophy in football has become the epitome of a squad's successful season. World renowned managers like Arsene Wenger have often been criticised not because they are doing a bad job overall, but because their squads haven't done enough to earn silverware. The most obsessive of fans yearn for trophies, which are a tangible way of showing that their team was indeed the best during the course of that season. In reality however, it is often very difficult to say which team was the best for any time period, simply because the definition of best varies greatly.

A famous example would be Rafa Benitez's 2004-2005 Liverpool squad. Remembered for their dramatic comeback final in Istanbul, they would be the first English team to become champions of Europe since Manchester United in 1999.  However, they finished 5th in the Premier League. It wasn't even enough to qualify for next season's Champions League; UEFA had to make an exception to the rule by seeding them in the first qualifying round with lower league teams. So could Liverpool have honestly been called the best team in England, let alone Europe?

Another good example would be the Chelsea squad of today. They seem to be in the course of finishing 6th in the Premier League, however they are also on their way to the CL final in Munich, right after an FA Cup win. Can one honestly say Manchester United who got disqualified in the tournament by a mediocre Swiss team (no offence to Basel fans), are better than Chelsea simply because of the fact that they're 2nd in the league?

This is where the debate gets interesting. One can simply dismiss the argument by saying there is no right answer because Chelsea are better at knock-out tournaments, while Manchester United are better at performing well in the domestic league. This would actually be a valid answer. But what are the implications of this? What does it mean to be better at a cup competition and to be better at gaining results in a domestic league?

Let's push the analysis even further by comparing the attributes of these two English clubs. Chelsea recently did something that Manchester United have not been able to do in the past 3 years, that is defeat Barcelona. Even though this wasn't in the most aesthetically pleasing of ways, they still won nevertheless. However Chelsea's domestic campaign has been a rollercoaster ride. Sometimes they seemed to do well, at other times they would drop points to teams at the bottom end of the table. Manchester United have been far from perfect themselves, however their campaign has been a lot more consistent despite their Champions League/FA Cup performances. And that is the key word/attribute, consistency. The number of games in a domestic season far outnumbers that of the respective cups. National Leagues are quite lengthy and tedious. For a few weeks the team might perform well, for others they may drop form and points. Although it does seem obvious when it's formulated in that manner, it is nevertheless true.

What Chelsea haven't been able do to in the league, they have more than made up for it in their Cup campaigns. It often seems as if though this team was made for knockout tournaments. Although they've never won the Champions League, they have still had moderate success in it, having reached the final once and semi-final twice in the past 4 years. Also, an interesting statistic to think about is that since Mourinho took over in 2004, every team that has disqualified Chelsea, went on to either win the Champions League or make it to the final. They have also won the FA Cup 4 times in the last 6 years.

So what is it that Chelsea brings to the table, that Manchester United doesn't? The answer is performance in big games. Although Chelsea have not displayed the same degree of consistency as Man. United, their superiority against strong opponents hasn't gone unnoticed. A good analysis to use for these two clubs is that Chelsea is the lazy student who slacks off during the entire year and fails all of his quizzes, but when it comes to the tests and finals he uses all his concentration and willpower to get a good result. Manchester United is the type of student who does ok in his quizzes during the year, and also does ok in the tests and finals, however does not receive as high of a mark as the other student in his tests.

Let's take the analysis and apply it to La Liga. If you compare Real Madrid and Barcelona (Who else would one compare in the Spanish League? I'm joking, of course.), individually Barcelona has the better team. However, Madrid has the better squad. If they faced each other in solely one game after all their players had been properly rested, Barcelona would most likely win because they have the most world class players. However, Madrid has a deeper squad with more options. Although, in a one time performance they would not be able to do as well, over the course of a lengthy season, their weapon (depth of squad) is a true asset in gaining a domestic title, and indeed they did so this season.

Why Barcelona "failed" this season is that they simply tried to do too much. Most average football fans expected them to win the treble once more, but their lack of substitution options got to them. One cannot honestly ask a team to face Chelsea twice and Real Madrid all within a course of a week, and expect that team to be victorious, no matter how good they are in reality. Real Madrid put all their effort into beating Barcelona, however they paid for it against Bayern. Bayern and Chelsea instead rested a great number of their players between the two legs, and it paid off. This was simply because domestically they did not have much ambitions unlike their knockout tournament opponents.

To wrap up the main points, winning a domestic league requires a high degree of consistency. If you fail in one or two games, it does not matter as much as in a knockout competition. In contrast, to win a knockout competition is more of a measure of how much one team can bring to the table over the course a single game against very strong opponents. The cases of Chelsea and Manchester United are a good example of this phenomenon.