He has a point regarding the EL though. The other European leagues, such as Spain and Italy, bend over backwards to assist their clubs with scheduling, letting them reschedule their league games to a Monday or Tuesday after a Thursday night EL game the previous week, where as the PL are too beholden to the TV schedules and as such we gimp our sides in the EL, which I am sure has something to do with the lack of success in the lower tier European competitions in the last 20 years.
I think City (too strong) and Liverpool (no CL will help them massively) will definitely be top 4. The other two spots will be out of Arsenal, Utd or Newcastle but those 3 will struggle with the CL fixtures which they didn’t have last season. I just can’t see Chelsea and Spurs being anywhere near the top 4 unless they make massive signings (Spurs definitely won’t be) before the window closes.
I don't disagree, it's a pain in the arse the EL schedule. We really should make bigger changes to support our teams in it on the whole.
not much better in CL tbh particularly now they have Tuesday fixtures so 4.30 Sun followed by Athletico Madrid at 8pm Tuesday is perfectly possible
Mate we'd played more games than any other club in Europe up until April at least, having to contend with more competitions than any other club.
Did Utd not rest players in Europa last season though? I just think the CL is more demanding on a squad because the stars players will have to play more minutes than if a team plays in Europa where teams tend to play weakened sides.
Most, if not all, CL games are central Europe. Russia probs the worst case scenario, and they won't be in it anyway. You don't get many Azerbaijan teams in the champions league.
I'll give you a few recent experience pointers; The year we won it under Mourinho, we threw the towel in on top 4 and concentrated on the EL. The year we were runner up under Solskjaer, we had no chance of top four so went for the EL (that he ****ed it up isn't relevant) Last year, we were in contention for both. It was stick or twist time, we were clearly going for top four and ran out of gas in the EL. That's the truth of the EL. It's not possible to play weakened sides and progress, that's utter bullshit.
Not beyond the group stage any way. You might get away with it against AZ Alkmaar or whatever the **** they called, but once the knockouts start and the CL teams get knocked into the comp, then no.
True its really early in the window but i deffo expect you to get a striker in before it closes at the bare minimum. Maybe a dm to cover casemiro when hes suspended too ?
