yep and I'm convinced we're going to see lots of transfer requests going in. - Part of me isn't bothered, as some players havent been fit to wear the shirt, but at the same time, we can't have a load more personnel changes.
Yeah i agree. I don't really care about any of them currently. Even a guy playing well (Eriksen) doesn't come across as enjoying himself. Amazingly the only player that seems to be playing with enjoyment is Ade
One thing I'm finding about our current squad, is that there's not many players who are particularly "likeable". - And there's certainly not many who are likeable and performing well, that's for sure! Dawson and Sandro are about the only two, for me. - And the former is going downhill fast.
i quite like Walker, at least he puts in the effort and doesn't appear to be courting a move to a bigger club
Positives... hmm + Eriksen looks like a very good signing. + Lloris has stepped his game up another gear. Player of the season imo, not that there's much competition. + Kane and Bentaleb. No they're not World beaters but they've shown they're talented and useful squad members. We'll need more young players like these coming through the ranks in the coming years so this is a good start. Hopefully Winks and Veljkovic aren't just there to make up numbers on the bench and can get some games next season. That's probably about it.
Yes. They'd take the FA Cup spot, the League cup spot goes to 6th because City won it and the league spot would go to the 7th place side. Definitely. Having players recover, make the bench, not play and then disappear is extremely indicative of this.
Not 100% sure but I think only Daniel Sturridge has scored more in the PL since Ade started playing again.
So that means if we finish 7th then we would have to play 2 rounds of qualifying for the Europa instead of just the playoff round like usual.
I'm fine with that, I think we'll need all the practice we can get before the PL starts. It's a good chance to get the likes of Kane, Carroll and anyother youngsters playing games under the charge of our manager. I prefer we take it seriously but if we can't get past the qualifiers by using a lot of our fringe players then we don't have a strong enough squad to compete in it anyway.
I cannot understand why we wouldn't want to qualify for Europa, and I, for one will be absoluetly gutted if we miss out. We need it to help a new manager get to know fringe players, to keep our coefficeint up (in case we ever qualify for Champs League again - look at what lack of Europa will do to Liverpool next season..), to help attract good managers, and so that I get a chance to go to a game without breaking the bank! This point isn't pureley selfish though as it also helps other kids etc to go to the Lane to keep the support coming, which is essential to sell shirts and when we hopefully get a bigger stadium one day. I totally agree that we need to go about it differently and treat early rounds as more of a 'getting to know you' exercise for our squad under a new manager. However in the latter rounds we are only 8 games or so away from a champions league place, and against so called second-rate European teams. We English seem to think the Premier League is so great, so therefore qualifying through winning Europa should be far easier than coming 4th in Premier League... It would also mean winning something which would be nice! Like others have said what chance or right would we have in the Champions League if we can't do well in Europa. All good Europa teams generally go on to do ok in champions League (a la Chelsea) and when watching the highlights on Friday I felt sad that we weren't there. Valencia are and they were humbled by Swansea earlier in the season.. It would also be funny if United miss out and lose a few points of their co-efficient (although there's is probably so high it would take ages out to do them any real harm). If we fail to qualify for Europa then I will struggle to see any positives in this season execpt our pretty decent away form.
As YV suggests, I think we could do with the extra games, assuming that our squad's balanced properly. Assuming that we get a number of our players back from injury, don't lose too many in the summer and approach the competition sensibly, then it could be very useful.
Good Christ this season really has been dire. trying to scrape around for positives and all we can come up with is that Eriksen looks pretty good (but still improving and nowhere near as good as some of the midfielders who we had at the club only three years ago and never mind the likes of Silva, Hazard etc), Lloris has made a few good saves whilst we've been letting in 4, 5 goals at a time and a couple of youngsters look alright. The fact that, half way through the season, we had to change manager to remember that we had a single top PL striker at the club says it all. (And of course according to some on here he should definitely be sold due to either our abundance of top PL strikers at the club or our clear ability to buy top strikers whenever we need to magic one up out of thin air, not sure which. We need only look to the superb acquisitions Soldado, Pav, Dempsey etc, etc - buying top strikers is easy). Eriksen aside no-one here would mind too much if ANY of our signings over the last 18 months were to leave tomorrow and the huge turmoil and lack of focus/solidity at the club means that some of our best players now look like they don't give a **** and will want off in the summer. Danny, my boy - you have played an absolute, club-destroying stinker with your decisions over the last two years and it was not even much of a surprise. Management is in a mess and I have no idea where the optimism for our great squad comes from. I mean - they surely must all be better than they look but that ain't saying much. I will be hugely surprised if we are challenging for top 4 next season. What would that take? Either a managerial miracle-worker (unlikely) or a wholesale squad change that actually has a positive effect (far less likely). Oh and a few other teams who are currently much better than us AND have ****-loads more money messing up hugely. Sorry - I was meant to be positive, wasn't I? Um - Wenger might leave Arsenal? There's still a chance we can finish 8th and not qualify for the poxy Europa League thus freeing my Thursdays from the unique tedium of watching Spurs thrash some crappy team and yet still feeling like we look quite crap? There was a photo of Dawson and Lennon in some wellies and hi-vis jackets which somehow says something about the stadium being built? AVB definitely won't be our next manager?
That's a lot of assuming PNP. We never seem to have an injury free and balanced squad. Under Harry we rested a lot of key players in Europa and it definitely helped us in the league, before him and after him we have played strong sides in it and it has cost us a lot of points in the league. Yeah it would be nice to win it but realistically that isn't going to happen so imo if in it next season we should write it off and concentrate on the league. Also football is completely about money and there is such little money in EL compared to the CL and PL.
And look what a lack of Europa this season did for Liverpool's league form! It's a poxy cup competition and all this talk of winning it to get in the CL is nonsense. If it was so easy, we should have won it this year. If we do finish 7th and have to start our season practically when it's ended, get the youth players and fringe squad out there and see what they can do. As others have said, if we can't even win our qualifying round match in the summer then our squad is clearly not good enough to compete in it, making the whole "if we win it" argument completely irrelevant.
There's a CL place for the winner of the EL from next season and if we don't have the squad to compete in both the EL and league next season then how are we going to put together a squad for the CL if ever we qualify? It'll just be the same as it was under 'Arry where we fight bravely in the CL and struggle in the league leaving us short again. Arsenal look a good example of a small squad tiring at the end of the season. It's easy to forget with how they play now but some where saying they played the best football in the league earlier in the season and now they can't even out-score Wigan. Despite all our troubles this season, the burden of playing in the Europa League this season, changing poor managers with worse, losing the best player in the league and "wasting" £100mill, we're still only behind Arsenal because of the results in our 2 games. Arsenal lost no players and spent £42mill on the best number 10 in the world, remember. The difference between us and Liverpool hasn't been created by us playing in the Europa League, it's been created by continuity with a good manager, key players staying fit and having the best player in the league. If Liverpool really couldn't have done anything like this with Europa League football then they'll struggle badly next season in the CL.
I think i was reading that Liverpool had to balance the books for 3 years time with regards to FFFP. So i think its spend what you sell in the summer for them too. If they walk off with the EPL trophy i doubt many will mind if they don't retain it next year or don't win the CL though
Agree with your main point, they are simply better than us. However they lack squad depth, so playing in Europa with the current squad would almost certainly have had an effect on their league form. It is unquantifiable of course, may even mean no less points, but they'd have struggled for fitness.
