After years and years in the CL we will be taking part in the europa next season instead. I was wondering what people think our approach to it should be. Should we play youth and fringe players and focus on the league? Or do you want us to give the europa league priority?
There's a balance that needs to be used. Spurs have shown how not to do it for the last 400 years but United took a practical approach this season. We're already used to the additional stresses European football brings so that shouldn't be too much of an issue. I'd go seriously for it with a strong team. I was actually surprised to learn that if you go all the way it's only a couple of games more than the ECL is. For some reason I thought it far more.
I think in the group stage we can get away with mainly playing fringe players and then should take it seriously in the knockout rounds. Depending on who flops in the CL we should be favourites to win it but will need to play strong starting line ups. It gets a CL spot, it's a trophy and it'd be nice for Wenger to win a European trophy before he retires. Plus we would then get a chance to play the CL winners in the super cup, so I hope we go for it.
Some insights from your friendly neighbours ... 1. Your "approach" will be dictated by the opposition drawn in your group. Spurs 2013-14 : the group was laughable. Spurs 2015-16 : Monaco and Anderlecht were in the group. 2. Good opportunities to keep the overall squad legs stretched. 3. You want to get several wins to maintain your UEFA ranking pts. The 10 ranking pts you get for reaching the CL KOs regardless of the group stage performances, is now gone. 4. You will play two more games to reach the last 16 of the EL than you do the CL. The EL group stages are unlikely to have an effect on your PL campaign, but come the KO stage you may be in the position Spurs have been for the past two seasons + Man Utd last season. Then an "executive decision" will have to be made on whether to ditch.
To be fair even in the ECL we played a few fringe players against the poorer sides and I expect us to do the same here. Just have to be professional I suppose in each game. I certainly want us to win it though. Didn't do any harm to the likes of Athletico.
I don't think we should find adapting to the Europa difficult, Wenger and our current team has bags of experience against Europe's elite, so playing lesser quality shouldn't tax us a great deal, until the later rounds. It all comes down to rotating our squad appropriately and how much effort we expend. Our focus should be the league and nothing should get in the way of that, but our squad should stretch for the Europa. As for the domestic cups, i would only play fringe and youth players.
I know I'm going to get battered here, but... Part of me thinks we should try to be a cup team next season. If we could win the EL and maybe another fa cup or league cup I would consider that a successful season. I really don't give us much hope in the league next year, would be nice to get more silver wear and reach the CL by doing it.
It's a chance at a European Trophy. A quick look at this table is all the incentive Arsenal need to try to win it!!! Club CL/EC CWC UE/EL SC Total Real Madrid 11 0 2 3 16 Milan 7 2 0 5 14 Barcelona 5 4 0 5 14 Liverpool 5 0 3 3 11 Juventus 2 1 3 2 8 Ajax 4 1 1 2 8 Bayern Munich 5 1 1 1 8 Internazionale 3 0 3 0 6 Manchester United 3 1 1 1 6 Sevilla 0 0 5 1 6 Porto 2 0 2 1 5 Atlético Madrid 0 1 2 2 5 Anderlecht 0 2 1 2 5 Chelsea 1 2 1 1 5 Valencia 0 1 1 2 4 Parma 0 1 2 1 4 Feyenoord 1 0 2 0 3 Nottingham Forest 2 0 0 1 3 Tottenham Hotspur 0 1 2 0 3 Dynamo Kyiv 0 2 0 1 3 Hamburg 1 1 0 0 2 Aston Villa 1 0 0 1 2 Borussia Dortmund 1 1 0 0 2 Benfica 2 0 0 0 2 Borussia Mönchengladbach 0 0 2 0 2 Aberdeen 0 1 0 1 2 Steaua Bucure?ti 1 0 0 1 2 IFK Göteborg 0 0 2 0 2 KV Mechelen 0 1 0 1 2 PSV 1 0 1 0 2 Red Star Belgrade 1 0 0 1 2 Lazio 0 1 0 1 2 Galatasaray 0 0 1 1 2 Zenit St. Petersburg 0 0 1 1 2 Schalke 04 0 0 1 0 1 Werder Bremen 0 1 0 0 1 West Ham United 0 1 0 0 1 Paris Saint-Germain 0 1 0 0 1 Marseille 1 0 0 0 1 Fiorentina 0 1 0 0 1 Sporting CP 0 1 0 0 1 Celtic 1 0 0 0 1 Slovan Bratislava 0 1 0 0 1 Slovakia 1 0 0 0 1 Manchester City 0 1 0 0 1 Rangers 0 1 0 0 1 Magdeburg 0 1 0 0 1 Eintracht Frankfurt 0 0 1 0 1 Dinamo Tbilisi 0 1 0 0 1 Ipswich Town 0 0 1 0 1 Everton 0 1 0 0 1 Bayer Leverkusen 0 0 1 0 1 Napoli 0 0 1 0 1 Sampdoria 0 1 0 0 1 Arsenal 0 1 0 0 1 Real Zaragoza 0 1 0 0 1 CSKA Moscow 0 0 1 0 1 Shakhtar Donetsk 0 0 1 0 1
Damn, that is a ****ing depressing read, we have been in European competitions for the past 20 odd years and our record is piss poor and so is Wenger's. The man has not won a single European trophy in his entire career, so damn straight, we need to take the Europa League seriously, because let's face it, we have next to no chance in the league.
