'Thanks for that Brian' - yeah we get coefficient points, and had we won the cup, there was a chance we could go above ManU, and would also improve our seedings if we were to qualify for Champions League. These are all reasons in my mind to treat this more serioulsy than FA and League cups, which if you don't win have zero significance.
http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/data/method4/trank2017.html UEFA rankings (at the moment) for the 2016-17 season.
What no-one is mentioning is assessing as you go along. At the beginning of the season, we did not know how tired we would be at this stage. After the last two games , maybe Poch has changed his mind and decided it's too much. we certainly looked more tired after WH and Woolwich.
M.Pochettino's teams have a history of end of season burn out. He's not competed in UEFA competitions before. This has added 10 games (from 25% downwards) to the fixture list of his previous sides. It was always going to be 6 games, very likely to 8 and quite likely to be 10. We have 1 centre forward; 3 centre halves and 1 defensive midfielder. To my view, it was always going to be a drain on resources. Our cup performances have been a bit of a shambles. We surrendered against the Gooners in the COC. Unacceptable. We fought long and hard against Leicester only to play a weakened side at home to Palace (FFS Bentaleb played!). Now we battle to the top of the group stages and when we get a plum draw we shoulder arms. It's not good.
If we sixth or seventh in the PL and looking unlikely to get into the top four I think Pochetino might have played the strongest team as he would have seen winning the Europa as our main chance of getting Champions league next year. As we are second th most likely way is via top 4 or Top 3 should the unlikely happen and City win the CL and Pool or United win the Europa
"What no-one is mentioning is assessing as you go along. At the beginning of the season, we did not know how tired we would be at this stage. After the last two games , maybe Poch has changed his mind and decided it's too much. we certainly looked more tired after WH and Woolwich." Fair enough. Heads down for the on-pitch personnel til May focusing on getting a PL 1-3 slot, Levy and the manager to focus in the summer on strengthening the squad to overcome this annual problem (for it will reappear in exactly 12 months time) .
Well.Another Europa league season and another disappointment.We get all this way then play a weak team against a goalscoring team so we can beat up (?) dear old Aston Villa.Bill Nick must be turning in his grave.I can understand fielding weak teams in the early stages....but we weren't too far from the final. It will be ironic if Villa knock the crap out of us just like the Germans did. I just feel sorry for the fans who made the journey.All that way and all that money to watch us take 3 shots! and give up the ghost..... My question is what is this German team doing in the Europa.They should be in the CL. My second question is :- if we go into the Europa again,would it not be sensible to play the academy team so our players won't wear themselves out.....
Too far from the final? 6 games away. We are 6 wins away from CL football next season via our league position. 1) They had a bad season last year. Similar to quite a few teams in the PL who are strong compared to some EL teams. 2) Often we do, but yes you might be right-maybe play a few more. Last year Harry was playing EL at the start of the season before he forced his way into the team on the back of his performances.
I think the club should be nice to the travelling supporters and tell them "don't bother to travel,we're not bothering,why should you? We're taking on the mighty Villa this weekend anyway."
This Borussia Dortmund Gladback game exhibited precisely why Spurs should be concentrating on winning the EPL.The result speaks volumes. My conclusion on it., is that we should stop chasing our own tales, serving only to knacker ourselves out in this ill conceived composition. Also we need to win something soon and most of us on here know its not going to be the Europa League (not in its current form). Got more chance of winning a used pair of 'Margo Simpsons knickers', in my humble opinion. Furthermore we're in smelling distance of the winning the English Premier League (the big one) and lets be honest., Spurs might not have this opportunity again for years to come., I'm happy to give it full attention. Pochettino has got a lot right this season:- we are thankfully, all but out of this competition. Now we can all stand firmly united behind him, his team and club to be winners again.
Based on the quality of Dortmund, Woy should start waving the white flag now. Better still don't even bother to turn up. Germany are going to put 10 goals past someone and if Woy takes all of his hangers-on has-beens, it will probably be us.
The return leg we need to play Walker at full back with Trippier in front of him so we can double up on Reus to keep him quiet. He's what makes Dortmund tick. Too often he was in space down their left (our right).
So many times in the past there's been teams who have gotten undeserved results. For example SAF ManU teams often got something out of a game while playing badly, and when this happened no "expert" said things like "they didn't deserve it", they instead said "the best teams grind out results" (or similar cliches). Worse still was when they did so by getting a dodgy ref decision, which happened far too often. There was nothing dodgy about the penalty that we should have got when Son was wrestled to the ground, it would have been completely legitimate, and then who knows. Sure we were outplayed and "deserved" our defeat, but it is not up to the referee to give decisions based on who should win the game. The point is that maybe we would still lose, but maybe it would also have changed the game, stranger things have happened (otherwise we could predict the result of all games). It could also have been an away goal, and we know how important they are in European competition. Therefore we could have still been in this tie, regardless of how the match played out, how it could have played out or regardless of how much BD appear to be better than us.
I'm disappointed in our showing last night and I think most can agree, Poch got his team selection wrong this time but for the most part this season, he's got it right and has done a fantastic job. We simply got well beat by a very good Dortmund team and we move on and focus now solely on the EPL. A great way to put everything into perspective is to watch Van Gaal's post match press conference from last night. This guy is a total clown and I am so glad we didn't get that arrogant idiot in charge of our club. I was one of those wishing we got him two seasons ago and boy was I wrong about him. We'd be a total mess right now. Everything that spews from his mouth defeat after defeat is just petty, childish vitriol when he clearly knows he's out of his depth. Poch on the other hand (who is vastly less experienced than the Dutchman) carries himself far better and is a professional, who wants us to succeed. I swear LVG just wants the boot so he can take a huge payoff. Classless clown should get on the first KLM flight home. He's a discredit to the Premier League. I'm sure United fans would pay the air fare if they had the chance.
My reading of that is City and either Pool/Utd need to go as far as Lazio for us to keep the 4th team for 2017/18. It seems you get 1 ranking point per round whether CL or EL. If Lazio go out to Prague (1-1 in Prague) then we are safe - given one of Utd/Pool have to go through. I assume Juve will go out to Munich. http://www.uefa.com/memberassociati... current seasons club coefficients calculated
Maybe this time we had the kiss of death effect of the award before getting it so it's onwards and upwards from here on in. ..maybe!
You weren't negative enough RCL. You neglected to mention that Klopp is no longer their manager so they must have improved since last year, that they play in yellow so it had banana skin written all over it and not so many decades ago Manure tried to take off from a German airport and it all ended in disaster. Come on RCL, we blame you.
Do you know how knackered I get being as negative as I am in the match day threads? I am a happy go lucky, glass half full man a sunny disposition in real life! I just neededa day off cos the matches have been coming thick n fast recently
Has everyone really given up on this two-legged match? If a strong team is put out on Thursday, there is still a chance Spurs could win by a clear 3 goal margin! Let's not give up yet!
