Burn is on 4 like and although he’s a bit of a donkey I think he would be a miss for them with how dangerous we are from set pieces. And Tonali went off injured. I’ve seen their fans saying Burnley and Sunderland are must win games so they should rest everyone against Leverkusen then they’ll beat PSV.. PSV have just stuffed Liverpool so that’s not a given and also if they beat Leverkusen and PSV they’ll likely go through in the top 8. If they don’t beat Leverkusen it’ll be knockouts unless they beat PSG away which I can’t see happening.
Actually that may be correct as his 4th was against Brentford but then he got a second and got sent off
This is exactly the point, for me. The fact is we just don't know what will happen... Sadiki and Xhaka could play both Liverpool and City, avoid cards, and there's no issue. They could play against city and be instrumental getting us a point, but Xhaka gets a ban, and we beat the Mags without him anyway. We could get Xhaka an intentional yellow against Liverpool, he misses the City match and we draw 1-1 in a game which Xhaka's presence may very well have earned us the win. Then he plays against the Mags and we lose anyway, so we've chucked away 2 points for nothing. There are so many ways it can play out in which taking an intentional ban for the City game would end up being silly... I'm not sure I like it. But let's see what happens this evening. There's a decent chance GX / NS / both get yellow cards just through their normal play, so this whole thing might end up being pointless
Sorry but I'm still ploughing on with this argument IMO, there's no chance Xhaka and Sadiki will get through the 19 game barrier without a booking so they're virtually guaranteed to miss a game. It's twice as beneficial turning a draw into a win and we have a much bigger chance of 3 points against Newcastle and Leeds than Liverpool and City. Two draws, at Liverpool and City might look impressive but that's only two points from two games ... ... beating Newcastle and Leeds would mean three times that amount so, in my mind, they're much more important. And, as we'll finish mid-table imo, the difference between 12th and 13th would mean very little at the end. Winning the derby would last until the following season ... ... unless we're now seriously expecting Europe in which case I'd have to think again.
Ah, I think you've explained our different thinking . I'm not "expecting" Europe by any means, but I genuinely think we have a real shot at it! Why not dream big? We are 6th on merit after almost half the season! The only teams I think we 100% won't finish above are Arsenal, Man City, and Chelsea. Obviously teams like Man Utd, Villa, Liverpool, etc are more likely to finish above us than not, but I honestly wouldn't be shocked if we're above any of them at the end of the year... They probably have slightly stronger squads than us, but I don't see a complete gulf in quality which guarantees them a better finish than us, tbh. Isn't it likely that finishing as low as 8th would qualify for Europe this year? I really don't see that as an impossible target!
Yep, that’s a good argument and I believe you could be right. Given the choice I’d take Europe ahead of a derby win, if only for all our supporters who’d travel and represent us decently. We’d also have a manager and squad that could actually win a low level European cup … … something the Mags have never achieved.
Regis Le Bris about Granit Xhaka and Noah Sadiki, both received four bookings this season. "Yes, we have Noah and Granit in this situation. So we spoke with them, it's not a new situation, and they try to manage the situation properly. We'll see how it goes. For the derby, which is probably one of the most important fixtures of the whole season, they have this idea in their mind, but at the same time, if we can win points before and we have a strong squad, we'll manage the situation. So it's not a big, big topic at the minute.” If that isn't 'code' I'll be absolutely amazed
