Wasn’t that exactly the same reason they changed it to the old CL format as well? To help more teams go through? No denying that’s the case now. But you can also argue it’s helping the smaller teams play against more teams of their standard, play more games, get more money so they can compete for longer. Do we think Feyenord villa Brest Celtic psv bruge stuttgart all would have gone through in the old format? How many times did big clubs actually go out at group stages in the past? Very little as they only really had 2 tricky games home and away v 2nd seed unless they got unlucky. in my opinion I like the Cl as you play teams you don’t normally get to play. That’s why the super league was crap as was closed off and end up playing same teams. In this format you get to play 8 diff foreign teams every year which is much more exciting to me.
I think it's alright but there are clear differences in the draws some clubs got. City for example has imo a far easier draw than us. We are top having won 7 and they are 25th. They fact their draw was actually easy has been lost in their craziness. We don't comment the same teams play every year in the prem with 3 coming up so why would we comment on a super league having mostly the same teams (not a closed shop) Lfc have no more of a rivalry with Brentford than they do with say Atlanta or atletico. We would say we have something of a wish we could best then about real Madrid having played many finals etc. Same for man utd. In actuality we only have one derby with everton so all other rivalries like Chelsea or utd or arsenal or city are all rooted in history. We have a history with real, barca, juve, Bayern. A super league would only make the games more common. But without promotion and relegation a super league is nonsense
Everyone plays 2 teams from every seed (1-4). Whether some teams are harder or not is exactly the same odds as you’d have in the old system. In fact it’s even more fair this year as previous years top seed were the winners of the league Cl and EL. This year they are the topped ranked teams so you can’t get lucky as a seed 2 and draw the EL winners who may have actually been seed 2 or 3 in the old ways. remember last year Newcastle played psg Dortmund and ac Milan. Was that more or less fair than this year? Not sure on your point about playing same teams? The prem is bread and butter you always play same teams but there are 19 of them so you play 2/38 games against same opposition. In the Cl you used to play 2/6 games against same teams. Thats a lot less variety.
Put aside the mega-rich owners and the suspicions of corruption for a moment, and the football league structure is the ideal model, imo - and has stood the test of time for over a century with little change. Bring back the corruption and owners and it's not so pretty, but that would be the same - if not worse - in any of the proposed alternatives.
Well if anything it has been an almost closed shop for a long time. 1 club allowed into league 2 at times no? It is now 2 teams and the difference between league 2 and the national league can actually be slightly tbh. In the end the football league largely represents the size of club with a few stand outs for good or bad. Some giant clubs with big attendances have been in league 1 with really poor manamagement and some minnows have risen to the very top of the pile.and stuck there by being well managed. I can remember Brighton nearly being relegated and being quite poor. They have risen to the point of having a 32k stadium and are seen as premier league regulars and it is starting to get to the point where some might be shocked if they do go down. (Not their fans though) Big teams rise cos they have more resources. Small teams (determined by fan base) always struggle. Most teams find their level.
Here is the travelling squad: Endo, Nunez, Chiesa, Gakpo, Elliott, Tsimikas, Robertson, Kone-Doherty, Mabaya, McConnell, Jaros, Kelleher, Nallo, Morrison, Danns, Norris, Quansah, Morton, Bradley, Davies, Nyoni Flipping flipperty flip flip flipper. Anyone like to try and guess the starting X1 from that?
Glad Slot has prioritised. 1st or 2nd doesn’t really matter when you don’t know what rest of the tables look like. Bournemouth have full week to prepare and rest so most of our 1st team will have same now
Gakpo is there because it’s his old club and said he wanted to go so I’d imagine he’ll play some part
Yeah fair play to him. Others have stolen the show this season for various reasons, but what an important player this guy is becoming for us
Well i can tell you who won't start i guess Rb. Mayaba. Hasn't played hardly. Lb. Norris. Two senior lbs travelling. Lw kone Doherty. Seemingly did ok this year but never got a shot at Accrington. 10. morrison. Cb. Nallo. Well tho8ght of but couldn't see it. Gk. Davies. Hasn't even played.much u21. Needs another loan badly. So imo we could do something odd and go with Robertson at cb maybe. It really depends on who is at cb with quansah. That will line up the midfield options. Chiesa Elliott and gakpo could support nunez in attack. Who knows.
