Here's a replay of our group draw please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
Is this correct , Oct Real home, Liverpool home, Man Utd away, Real away is so massive two weeks that could make or break this season
Both United and Liverpool will have UCL games those weeks too so they have the exact same fixture challenges.
The group is gonna be awesome, regardless of how we get on. Last season, we all looked at that group and thought, "we can win this", but didn't show up. To exit that group in 3rd place was unacceptable. Finish 3rd this season, and we won't be surprised. No shame if we lose out to Real Madrid and Dortmund. However, if we do end up in the Europa, I dont wanna see a fiasco like we witnessed a couple of seasons ago, where we fielded a really strong team in the last 32, making it look like we were gonna take it seriously. - To then play much stronger opposition (Dortmund) in the last 16, and put out a really weak side. Still to this day I have no idea why we did that.
The headlines all say we've been drawn in Los Ladrones' group I just thought of the perfect motivation... please log in to view this image
Would have preferred just the one big name to give us a better chance but yeah, it's the CL, we don't want to play sides that we'd usually face in the EL(not that I'm ungrateful for getting APOEL!). Side note: Can we creat new threads for stuff like this in the future, it's significant news and makes it easier to find. Ta
My name is Mauricio Roberto Pochettino, commander of the Armies of North London, General of the Levy Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Bill Nicholson. Manager to a tapped-up squad, coach to a slagged off team. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.
Having had the bulk of a drive up from the south coast to mull this over, I can safely say that I am nervous but genuinely excited to face this group. Last season's draw had mixed emotions as our group lacked the spectacle that we waited 5 seasons to witness, but at the same time most if not all of us were predicting that we would qualify out of it as group leaders. And no, no-one foresaw just how good Monaco would be but I would say that our 2 games against Leverkusen were what cost us the most. Two terrible performances against a bang-average side and we failed to score against them in 180 minutes of football. I think that there were 4 main factors that conspired against us last season (in no particular order): 1. Wembley 2. Lack of squad depth 3. Complacency 4. Lack of experience Problem 1 is the only problem we don't have a solution for. The stadium situation really is a 'grin and bear it' until next season. Problem 2 has been within our powers to fix since the beginning of June. As usual, however, we apparently only woke up to this fact last week. Gazzanigga, Foyth and Sancho are nice options, but none of them will do anything to help our CL campaign. Nor for that matter will Barkley as by the time he is back to full fitness we could be all but out of the tournament anyway. Which leaves Sanchez and Aurier from our potential transfer targets. Simply not enough as far as I'm concerned. Problem 3 led to a terrible first game against Monaco and 2 more against Leverkusen. We were ****e out in Moscow too. Watching us play, it seemed that the players looked at our group and thought 'piss easy...this'll be just like a Europa League campaign. We can just turn up and win'. We saw this complacency again in the away tie versus Gent and it left us a molehill to climb that Alli quickly made a mountain of. Our group this year will surely ensure zero complacency? Problem 4 remains a problem and will do so for the foreseeable future. We don't have the resources to sign players in their peak with vast CL experience. Which is why, again, Aurier makes more sense on many levels than Pereira or Toljan. The only solution to inexperience is gaining experience, and in that regard I don't think it gets much better than the best team on the planet in your group. As for Dortmund. Yes, they are still a formidable team with more than enough to hurt us. But they are decidedly worse than 2 years ago whilst we are decidedly better. Hummels, Mickey Tarzan, Gundogan were all key players. So is Dembele and he looks certain to leave this summer. We need to be at our absolute best to beat them, but a draw away and home win could be done and should be enough to see us through. Real away is the only tie I can see us being utterly turned over. Both by the ref and by their quality. To dare is to do.
So Alli will miss: Dortmund (H) Apoel (A) Real (A) I can live with that. Madrid away is a no-hoper anyway. Even if we play well, the ref will pick up the ball and carry it over the line for them. We should have enough to get 3 points in Cyprus without him.The Dortmund one is annoying but tbh I think Son will have a delightful time against their defense.
