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On a normal soccer weekend, it's hard to know where to start. You might have a couple of headliners around which the weekend revolves -- an Arsenal vs. Liverpool here, a Real Madrid vs. Barcelona there -- but on an hour-to-hour basis, you've just got so many choices. How do you know which matches to watch? How do you know where to get the best entertainment bang for your buck? In 2023-24, you start with Tottenham Hotspur. Under new manager Ange Postecoglou, Spurs have played in the most consistently watchable matches in Europe. My eyes can back that up, but most importantly, so does my cold, hard math. Each year, I rank the most watchable teams in Europe's Big Five leagues based on criteria of my liking. (Here are last year's rankings, for reference.) Shots and goals are fun, so I reward teams that produce the most of those (and allow their opponents to do the same). Defensive intensity is entertaining, so you get points for pressing. Pretty passing? Occasional directness? Through balls and switches? Not going into a shell against good teams? I divvy out credit for all the fun things I like ... and in the end Bayern Munich always finishes No. 1. This year I've tweaked the approach a bit. (So has Bayern.) Instead of ranking teams mostly by full-season stats, what would it look like if I gave every match a watchability score? What if I used all the watchability criteria above and threw in some extra flourishes? Metrics include a propensity for closeness (the percentage of time a match is tied or within one goal), late-game franticness, lead changes, draw avoidance (read: bonus points for ending with someone winning) and, perhaps most importantly, an element of pure quality (via Opta's power ratings). Here are this year's most watchable matches and European teams according to cold, hard, forever-infallible math. (All matches from Europe's Big Five leagues, plus Portugal's Primeira Liga, the Netherlands' Eredivisie and all three UEFA competitions were thrown into the pot.)
The most watchable matches in Europe to date1. Galatasaray 3, Manchester United 2 (Oct. 3). This one was a pretty good test of the formula. If this match didn't rank highly, I had done something wrong. It had everything you could possibly want from a match. Manchester United twice took the lead, only for Galatasaray to equalize within five minutes. There were 30 combined shot attempts, United pressed and forced lots of high turnovers and Gala was effectively direct. And a fun match got even zanier with four goals -- and a Casemiro red card, which wasn't on the list of criteria, but certainly added to the ambience -- in the last 23 minutes. The watchability formula didn't care that this match also carried grave consequences for United -- it meant they had zero points after two Champions League group stage matches, and they ended up three points behind Galatasaray and four behind Copenhagen while finishing last. But that would have only resulted in more bonus points. This was an incredible 90 minutes. 2. Liverpool 4, Fulham 3 (Dec. 3). Sometimes you just want a good, turn-your-brain-off popcorn flick. Liverpool is typically good for a few of those each season, and this one was a masterpiece of the genre. It featured 35 total shots, leads for both teams and three goals past the 79th minute -- and both tying and winning goals from Liverpool within 80 seconds of each other. 3. West Ham 2, Tottenham Hotspur 1 (Dec. 7). The first of many high-ranking Spurs matches. An early Cristian Romero goal gave Spurs a 1-0 lead and set up a nice "Team B spends most of the match chasing the match and catches it at the end" vibe with James Ward-Prowse's match-winning alley-oop to himself in the 74th minute. 4. Girona 2, Rayo Vallecano 1 (Nov. 11). LaLiga isn't typically the most exciting league in the world if you enjoy things like "goals" and "shots," but Girona has done its best to be both good and extremely watchable in 2023-24. This match, which featured 41 shots worth a combined 6.4 xG plus loads of defensive pressure, was downright delirious. 5. Real Madrid 4, Napoli 2 (Nov. 29). It was clear early on that Real Madrid and Napoli would both be advancing from their Champions League group with relative ease, so there weren't huge stakes for this late-November affair. Maybe that's why it was so delightfully up-and-down. Napoli scored in the ninth minute, Real Madrid had taken the lead by the 22nd, and it was tied for most of the second half until Nico Paz's unexpected 84th-minute game-winner from 29 yards out. 6. Aston Villa 2, Tottenham Hotspur 1 (Nov. 26). This one had a strangely similar narrative structure as the West Ham match above: Spurs led early (Giovani Lo Celso scored in the 22nd minute) and create loads of further chances but lose their grip on the match later on. The high pressing was constant, and there were 16 total shots in the last 30 minutes -- it's a wonder it didn't end up 3-2 or 3-3. 7. RB Leipzig 3, Borussia Dortmund 2 (Dec. 9). You knew a Bundesliga track meet had to show up on the list at some point. This one could have been a dud thanks to Mats Hummels' early red card -- not to mention the own goal that gave Leipzig the lead in the 32nd minute. But while Leipzig indeed controlled most of the affairs, BVB still managed 18 shot attempts and a pair of set piece goals that kept this one tense until the end. 8. Barcelona 4, Villarreal 3 (Aug. 27). On the same weekend that Atletico unexpectedly destroyed a solid Rayo Vallecano by a 7-0 margin, Barca and Villarreal more properly distributed seven goals in a wave of momentum shifts: Barca led 2-0 after 15 minutes, Villarreal led 3-2 after 50, and late goals from Ferran Torres and Robert Lewandowski saved the day for Barca. Honestly, I expected this one to grade even higher. 9. Tottenham Hotspur 2, Sheffield United 1 (Sept. 16). A 2-1 Spurs win also makes the list! And not just any Spurs win -- a Spurs win that featured three goals after the 70th minute and both an equalizer (from Richarlison) and game-winner (from Dejan Kulusevski) deep into stoppage time. 10. Crvena Zvezda 2, Young Boys 2 (Oct. 4). If I had included small-sample Champions League teams on the overall Watchable Teams list below, Crvena Zvezda would have ranked third overall. The Serbian giants scored at least one goal and allowed at least two in every Champions League group stage match. They went for it. (They didn't get it, finishing last in Group G, but that's neither here nor there. They were a delight to watch.) Nos. 11-20:11. Liverpool 2, Newcastle 1 (Aug. 27)
12. Chelsea 4, Manchester City 4 (Nov. 12)
13. Real Madrid 2, Getafe 1 (Sept. 2)
14. Brentford 2, Bournemouth 2 (Sept. 2)
15. Liverpool 3, Bournemouth 1 (Aug. 19)
16. Girona 4, Barcelona 2 (Dec. 10)
17. Borussia Dortmund 4, Borussia Monchengladbach 2 (Nov. 25)
18. PSV Eindhoven 2, Sevilla 2 (Oct. 3)
19. Barcelona 2, Porto 1 (Nov. 28)
20. Aston Villa 3, Crystal Palace 1 (Sept. 16) Honestly, the biggest surprise is that the manic 4-4 Chelsea-City match didn't make the top 10. My favorite match of the season that didn't make the top 20: Atalanta's 3-2 win over Milan from earlier this month. It would have skyrocketed to the top of the list had there been bonus points for extreme cheekiness for game-winning goals. The most watchable teams in Europe to dateOn a scoring scale of 1-100, all the matches above received a score of 98.4 or higher. Using each team's overall match averages for the competitions above, here are Europe's most watchable overall teams. Minimum: 12 matches from the leagues and/or UEFA competitions above. 1. Tottenham Hotspur (88.2 average score). Injuries and late losses may have robbed Spurs of their early-season Premier League lead, but they bring the watchability day in and day out. While only three teams here have averaged a score of 80.0 or higher, Spurs have produced only three matches that didn't hit 80.0. Manager Ange Postecoglou's commitment to open and optimistic soccer is commendable ... even if it potentially also cost Spurs some points here and there. 2. Liverpool (83.4). A Jurgen Klopp team is always going to grade out well on the Watchability scale thanks to their perpetual combination of shot attempts, defensive intensity and long, lovely switches of play. Including Europa League action, they've had 13 matches grade out at 90.0 or higher. 3. Borussia Dortmund (81.7). This one surprised me. BVB have been a spectacularly frustrating team in 2023-24, but I guess that's only if you actually care about the results. They've played in nine matches that featured at least four total goals, they've played in four that featured leads for both teams, and thanks to their presence in the Champions League Group of Death (which they somehow won), they have played in loads of matches featuring high-quality teams. BVB matches have been events, for better or (often) worse. 4. Barcelona (77.8). Instability equals watchability, and Barcelona's packed in plenty of both. Their matches almost never end in draws, they've played in five matches in which both teams led, and thanks to a defense that is far less stable than it was last season, they've played in nine matches that featured at least four goals. Throw in lots of pretty through balls and switches, and you've got an eminently watchable team. 5. Manchester United (77.5). Again, instability equals watchability. United have been maddeningly unreliable, and their quality doesn't come anywhere close to their money spent. But you're pretty much guaranteed late drama in a United match. Case in point: 6. Newcastle (75.0). Another team that has played in loads of high-quality matches, almost never draws and is, shall we say, generous enough in transition defense to create plenty of watchability. 7. Brentford (74.8). Because of both the increase in goals and its overall quality (from a power ratings perspective), the Premier League is well-represented on this list. And Brentford didn't even need Champions League matches to score highly -- the Bees have played in six matches in which both teams led, their matches are almost always within one goal, and they both attempt and allow a solid number of shots. 8. Luton Town (73.8). This one was also a surprise. Despite their poor standing in the table, Luton has produced with a fun combination of directness, match closeness (they've been tied for 52% of their matches and within one goal for 39%) and a solid amount of both high pressing (for both them and their opponents) and eight matches that topped the 30-shot barrier. 9. RB Leipzig (73.1). The Bundesliga has ceded the watchability crown to the Premier League at the moment, but it still boasts four of the top 15 teams on this list. You had to figure the energy drink giants would grade out pretty well with their attack-friendly style and high averages in both defensive intensity and shot attempts. Seventeen of their 22 matches have featured at least three goals. Steady, reliable entertainment. 10. Chelsea (71.8). Again, you don't have to be good to be entertaining. And anyone capable of this nonsense is probably going to make the list. Nos. 11-20:11. Napoli (69.2)
12. Bournemouth (68.9)
13. Bayern Munich (68.9)
14. Real Madrid (68.8)
15. PSV Eindhoven (67.9)
16. Wolves (67.9)
17. Hoffenheim (67.8)
18. Benfica (66.4)
19. Braga (66.2)
20. Sassuolo (65.6) What have you become, Bayern? The annual watchability champions were probably hurt by my changes in the grading scale -- 11 of their 21 matches have been decided by at least two goals -- but adding a healthy dose of Thomas Tuchel's pragmatism hasn't helped either. Sure, the reigning Bundesliga champions on pace for their best Bundesliga point total since the Pep Guardiola days, and they're one of the vice-favorites for the Champions League. But really, what's the point if you're not going to entertain me personally?
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