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Clowncrete wrote:

nottsblue wrote:Looking like third is most likely. We can still get second but somehow I just don't see it. Yes Bayern may have already qualified by the time we play them and even if we win that, Roma away is a tough ask. I'd put our chances of second at 25%.

Do we attempt to go all out and win the Europa or do we sack it off in first round and concentrate on domestic treble?

Benefits of both, but for me establishing a domestic superiority in winning more trophies at home outweighs Euro success

If we end up third, then we will play in the knockout in Feb. By that time we will know whether we can win the league. If we do another 2012-13 in the league, then we may as well chase the Europa league and FA cup after that.

We already know we CAN win the league. Whether we do or not may depend on a potential fixture pile up and/or the impact of Thursday football and the disruption that causes. I'd love us to have a good chance of a Euro trophy, but nit to the detriment of the domestic campaign

ross.mcfc wrote:Considering how awful we have been in the Champions League I think it would stink of arrogance to treat the Europa League with disrespect.

Bang on the money. not to mention I'd love to win it

In the past I have always said keep out of Europa but this time I feel we should go for it big style assuming we dont qualify through to the next stage of champs league. The reason is simple, our short term target is champs league qualification every season with long term to win it on a regular basis, so lets win Europa now to ensure once we win champs league we then have the full set of domestic and european trophies all won in the same generation.

So long being shit and now we want to get choosy about which trophies we go for.? Also a big sesh on the lash for a final would be fucking great fun.
If we do end up in it, let's get at em.

nottsblue wrote:

Clowncrete wrote:

nottsblue wrote:Looking like third is most likely. We can still get second but somehow I just don't see it. Yes Bayern may have already qualified by the time we play them and even if we win that, Roma away is a tough ask. I'd put our chances of second at 25%.

Do we attempt to go all out and win the Europa or do we sack it off in first round and concentrate on domestic treble?

Benefits of both, but for me establishing a domestic superiority in winning more trophies at home outweighs Euro success

If we end up third, then we will play in the knockout in Feb. By that time we will know whether we can win the league. If we do another 2012-13 in the league, then we may as well chase the Europa league and FA cup after that.

We already know we CAN win the league. Whether we do or not may depend on a potential fixture pile up and/or the impact of Thursday football and the disruption that causes. I'd love us to have a good chance of a Euro trophy, but nit to the detriment of the domestic campaign

Good call.

The only other thought with regard to the Euro is, in my opinion, that we need to start giving some of our youngsters a chance in the first team. The League, at times, might be too important an area to 'risk' blooding such players, so the Euro does suggest itself as one medium where we could achieve this.

In fact, if it were up to me, I think I'd go the whole hog and play only the youngsters in that competition and leave it entirely to them, to see how they (and Vieira, for that matter) get on.

Mikhail Chigorin wrote:

nottsblue wrote:

Clowncrete wrote:

nottsblue wrote:Looking like third is most likely. We can still get second but somehow I just don't see it. Yes Bayern may have already qualified by the time we play them and even if we win that, Roma away is a tough ask. I'd put our chances of second at 25%.

Do we attempt to go all out and win the Europa or do we sack it off in first round and concentrate on domestic treble?

Benefits of both, but for me establishing a domestic superiority in winning more trophies at home outweighs Euro success

If we end up third, then we will play in the knockout in Feb. By that time we will know whether we can win the league. If we do another 2012-13 in the league, then we may as well chase the Europa league and FA cup after that.

We already know we CAN win the league. Whether we do or not may depend on a potential fixture pile up and/or the impact of Thursday football and the disruption that causes. I'd love us to have a good chance of a Euro trophy, but nit to the detriment of the domestic campaign

Good call.

The only other thought with regard to the Euro is, in my opinion, that we need to start giving some of our youngsters a chance in the first team. The League, at times, might be too important an area to 'risk' blooding such players, so the Euro does suggest itself as one medium where we could achieve this.

In fact, if it were up to me, I think I'd go the whole hog and play only the youngsters in that competition and leave it entirely to them, to see how they (and Vieira, for that matter) get on.

In theory that would work. In practical terms probably not. There is no way UEFA would allow us to effectively put out an EDS team. The disruption is in as much the travelling and the lack of training preparatipn for the weekend game. Say for example we play away on a Thursday. We travel on the Tuesday morning. Train for the game Wedesday. Play Thursday and come home Friday. That leaves only Saturday to prepare for Sundays game. Even if five first teamers played on Thursday, it doesn't leave much scope for them to have played the preceeding and folliwing Prem weekends. Our squad could be stretched thinly. Of course, if we go out early in League and FA cups this isn't as much of a problem, but lets assume we'll progress in both of these competitions.

nottsblue wrote:

Mikhail Chigorin wrote:

nottsblue wrote:

Clowncrete wrote:

nottsblue wrote:Looking like third is most likely. We can still get second but somehow I just don't see it. Yes Bayern may have already qualified by the time we play them and even if we win that, Roma away is a tough ask. I'd put our chances of second at 25%.

Do we attempt to go all out and win the Europa or do we sack it off in first round and concentrate on domestic treble?

Benefits of both, but for me establishing a domestic superiority in winning more trophies at home outweighs Euro success

If we end up third, then we will play in the knockout in Feb. By that time we will know whether we can win the league. If we do another 2012-13 in the league, then we may as well chase the Europa league and FA cup after that.

We already know we CAN win the league. Whether we do or not may depend on a potential fixture pile up and/or the impact of Thursday football and the disruption that causes. I'd love us to have a good chance of a Euro trophy, but nit to the detriment of the domestic campaign

Good call.

The only other thought with regard to the Euro is, in my opinion, that we need to start giving some of our youngsters a chance in the first team. The League, at times, might be too important an area to 'risk' blooding such players, so the Euro does suggest itself as one medium where we could achieve this.

In fact, if it were up to me, I think I'd go the whole hog and play only the youngsters in that competition and leave it entirely to them, to see how they (and Vieira, for that matter) get on.

In theory that would work. In practical terms probably not. There is no way UEFA would allow us to effectively put out an EDS team. The disruption is in as much the travelling and the lack of training preparatipn for the weekend game. Say for example we play away on a Thursday. We travel on the Tuesday morning. Train for the game Wedesday. Play Thursday and come home Friday. That leaves only Saturday to prepare for Sundays game. Even if five first teamers played on Thursday, it doesn't leave much scope for them to have played the preceeding and folliwing Prem weekends. Our squad could be stretched thinly. Of course, if we go out early in League and FA cups this isn't as much of a problem, but lets assume we'll progress in both of these competitions.

I fear you're probably correct in what you say but, just in mischievous terms, it would be interesting to see EUFA's reaction if we were to do that.

At the end of the day, I suppose, they'd probably have no compunction in throwing us out of the competition.

Who thinks we would get past the QF stage of the Europa League?

At the moment the Europa is just a pipe dream. Just don't know where it has gone wrong.

nottsblue wrote:At the moment the Europa is just a pipe dream. Just don't know where it has gone wrong.

Pipe dream my arse.

I don't want us near that waste of energy.
we're trying to win the comps we're left in ffs.

Fuck that, get us out of this shit. We won't get the break whether it's a great manager or not.

I'd want to if the refs weren't a pile of shite....

The idea that we could actually nick 3rd in this group seems laffable.

DoomMerchant wrote:The idea that we could actually nick 3rd in this group seems laffable.

Is this the only time I've agreed with you?

Althoguh, Love ya man x

no thank you. we don't need the extra matches.

Not for me, won't go to watch any game. Rather be out then play another load of games and it could fuck us up if we are still with a shout in the prem

We're clearly not good enough to make any sort of progress in the CL, so perhaps the Europa is a way for us to make some sort of impression in Europe.

Furthermore, the Europa is a way for us to boost our UEFA coefficient. Our lack of wins this season in the CL will mean the coefficient we achieve this season will be far lower than our competitors, and lead to us to continue to face tough groups. The Europa provides an opportunity to try and salvage a reasonable coefficient for this season.

Saying all of that, I can't honestly say I have much confidence in us progressing far in the Europa.

Considering the EDS squad have tonight qualified for the next round in their European competition, it would put a lot of pressure on the kids to expect them to compete in that, the Europa League and their domestic competitions.

TBH, I feared something like this was possible. Our game depends on our energy levels. Quick pressing, high up the pitch to regain possession and fast and incisive passing when moving forward. That is just not happening. We are too slow to press, too slow to get back and our passing has a slow, contrived lethargy about it. We lack that change of pace that made us so dangerous in our purple patches of last year..

We have only our own club to blame. A long hard last season was immediately followed by a post season tour for commercial reasons, immediately followed for many players by a World Cup that took up much of the summer. We engaged on a pre-season competition more for commercial than football reasons and our WC returnees only joined us in dribs and drabs.

There were players who weren't even ready for the new season. Our club chose commerce over football and I think it is showing.

john68 wrote:Considering the EDS squad have tonight qualified for the next round in their European competition, it would put a lot of pressure on the kids to expect them to compete in that, the Europa League and their domestic competitions.

TBH, I feared something like this was possible. Our game depends on our energy levels. Quick pressing, high up the pitch to regain possession and fast and incisive passing when moving forward. That is just not happening. We are too slow to press, too slow to get back and our passing has a slow, contrived lethargy about it. We lack that change of pace that made us so dangerous in our purple patches of last year..

We have only our own club to blame. A long hard last season was immediately followed by a post season tour for commercial reasons, immediately followed for many players by a World Cup that took up much of the summer. We engaged on a pre-season competition more for commercial than football reasons and our WC returnees only joined us in dribs and drabs.

There were players who weren't even ready for the new season. Our club chose commerce over football and I think it is showing.

Sad but true. If we are slow and off the pace now, will we be on it in April/May? You have to say probably not

nottsblue wrote:

john68 wrote:Considering the EDS squad have tonight qualified for the next round in their European competition, it would put a lot of pressure on the kids to expect them to compete in that, the Europa League and their domestic competitions.

TBH, I feared something like this was possible. Our game depends on our energy levels. Quick pressing, high up the pitch to regain possession and fast and incisive passing when moving forward. That is just not happening. We are too slow to press, too slow to get back and our passing has a slow, contrived lethargy about it. We lack that change of pace that made us so dangerous in our purple patches of last year..

We have only our own club to blame. A long hard last season was immediately followed by a post season tour for commercial reasons, immediately followed for many players by a World Cup that took up much of the summer. We engaged on a pre-season competition more for commercial than football reasons and our WC returnees only joined us in dribs and drabs.

There were players who weren't even ready for the new season. Our club chose commerce over football and I think it is showing.

Sad but true. If we are slow and off the pace now, will we be on it in April/May? You have to say probably not

fuck that, let the current squad compete in the EDS and promote the EDS to the prem and Europa league.