The College Dropout

Who had a low seed because they finished low in the group stage. The eventual winners won the R16 on penalties. When has that happened? It was an unlucky draw for Liverpool. But it was a suitably tough draw for PSG who finished low in the league. PSG had to win the CL going away from home second legs from R16 - again due to poor performance in the league. Theres going to be exceptions. But generally finishing higher is going to give you the easiest path. Finishing lower will give you a tougher path.

Not really. It benefits doing well throughout the competition (on paper).

Madrid got to the last 8 beating Man City and Atletico. Villa got there by finishing top 8 and beating Brugges.

We aren’t beating any of the current top 8 over 2 legs imo. If we get through the play offs we’ll be away second leg and lose imo. play offs was my minimum expectation. Success in that has high variance due to the uneven seeding. R16 we’ll face a top 8 side and lose. Qualifying top 8 gives you a better chance of going the QFs. More likely to get A favourable draw and have less fatigue. Only Madrid and PSG made QFs from the play offs iirc.

what do you consider deep? We don't get a home second leg draw in the play-offs if you finish 17th-24th and you don't get a second-leg draw in R16 if you were in the play-offs. Always thought getting to the R16 proper would be good for us. I don't think we beat any of the current top 9 over 2 legs with the second leg away from home. Top 8 - straight into the R16 - second leg at home against a play-off winner is our greatest bet for going deep imo.

We were only linked to him in late July/August for a reason.

It's a league wide phenom btw. Teams are also playing it out from the back a little less and when they do they are better at it. A lot more teams are respecting us as a big team. Giving us the ball, being fairly direct and asking us to break them down home and away. I don't think we planned to become a possession side. You don't make our summer signings if you do. A lot of us said we needed a player or two to put their foot on the ball.

Also we weren’t in Europe so everyone was closer to their physical peak and had an advantage over clubs in Europe. When we get back to 1 game a week some of our physicality advantage will come back.

"Already through".. to the play-offs.

There's also no need for the cope. He's developed into a fine midfielder and we should be happy for him. He's a true genuine fan and left under instruction when he wanted to stay for the betterment of the club. We could do with a similar profile but it won't be him. He'll get a move to a top 6 team if he goes this summer. I just hope he goes somewhere where his career will be better than if he joined us. Forest will price him out of a move here.

This is such a poor take on what a midfielder should do.

I only watch Newcastle, PL and CL and Real Madrid regularly. I’m not sure he’s top 25 itw. He’s not a lock at least. Theres good arguments he’s not the best CM at club or international football and neither of those are top 5 in the world Or even their country/continent.

I think he’s better than his current showing but he’s always misplaced first time passes and was never elite on the ball. He’s not playing well and I expect him to improve. but he’s not as bad as some are making out. And I was never of the belief he was better than Bruno, he’s never been good enough on the ball. Even last season Bruno was measurably better on the ball. I think Tonali’s main strengths are his physicality and mentality. Playing so many games he’s lost the big edge he had on others last season having not played for a year. And the pace of the PL is unforgiving. And it’s impacting his weaker aspects such as his passing.

For some he’s Gone from the best CM we’ve ever had to ‘sell’ in 3 months.

They were brilliant when they reinforced in January. 66 points

Brahim winning his golden boot. Daft sod.

This would be epic

Cope with what

Who is that lad?

I had my ‘you won, Morocco. I hope you enjoy the trophy. My word what a sad little life’ post raring to go

How can you go for a panenka at such a moment?

WTF.

I hope this starts a trend.

Sadio Mane telling them to come out. Good lad. It’s a screw job and they’ve made their point. Let’s finish the game.