Obviously, the premier league is the priority so Fergie will probably have a mixture of senior and young players involved in the clash. I think it would be great to have a good run in the Europa League and perhaps even get to the Semis/Finals and it would be great for Fergie to add this trophy to his collection. You're thoughts?
I think its a good chance for those returning from injuries to get some more game time i.e Hernandez, Rafael, Cleverly and anyone else who comes back.
We've got a strong squad going out, its pretty much our normal league squad minus the injuries. I thinkwe have two Europa league games back to back without any league games in between so it's a good idea to play a strong team just to keep their match fitness sharp.
although i would obviously prefer that we hadn't screwed up and ended up in the europa leauge, however, as we are here id like Fergie to show the competition some respect and try to win it, i know the leauge is the priority, but its not like we cant field some pretty decent sides, and it would be nice to add this missing trophy to the cabinet as we hopefully wont be challenging for it again any time soon!
theres a lovely cycle route from the hook of holland as well. They could make it into a nice day out.
I don't know why the Europa League is frowned upon, when the UEFA Cup was seen a good trophy. And we should be here too. SAF farted about with the team sheet early in the group stages of the CL instead of securing qualification first and then farting about. We underestimated Basel. It will prove a good lesson for the coming seasons hopefully. On a personal note, I was glad we drew Ajax. They are the only European team with top pedigree that I haven't seen us play before. I've only lived in Holland a short time and already get to see United play on my doorstep. It should be a good game too and I think Ferguson will put out a strong, pacey side out and attack from the start
If UTD were still in the CL, he would put out a strong team, so I think he will still put out a "quite" strong team, as its away from home, but I would expect a few big names, not play (or be subs)
The UEFA Cup did actually feature a lot of top clubs - until the CL expanded like mad in the early 2000s you'd get the runners up from Germany, Spain, Italy etc in the UEFA. Now it's effectively being degraded by 90% of these top clubs going into the CL - it says a lot that the three favourites to win the trophy are all clubs who failed in the CL group stage. City and Utd can't beat Basel and Napoli, but are still expected to tonk anyone else the EL throws at us...
Swarbs Agreed. If you can win the CL in its modern format, its like winning the old format EC and UC combined. There are still quality teams there to beat and I would hope that we go out to win and register some silverware. A European trophy is still a European trophy. A United v City final might even go some way to improve the image of the competition.
Is it just me but I feel even more regret because I think we would actually do well in the CL. I remember our performances when we got knocked out and many of us doubted that we would have even progressed from the next round of the CL but we are starting to put in better performances and I think if we were carrying on our current form into the CL as of now, I think we would have beaten Bayern. All ifs and buts now of course.
