Yorkie

Get the sentiment but that would undermine the whole thing. Having all nations involved legitimises it as a major tournament; the trouble is just that the Premier League is always going to contribute one team that is immediately the favourite. Olympiacos did amazing to overcome that last season but it'll take a miracle this year, or even Chelsea's reserves phoning it in.

How's that?

Yeah Europa looks like it's anyone's. Shameful for Europe if it goes to either of those two appalling Premier League sides. Surely the likes of Bilbao, Lazio, Frankfurt have enough about them to make sure neither of those two sets of wankers get their hands on it? Are Olympiacos good enough to go the distance again? It's a shame Galatasaray totally shit the bed in that tie with AZ, they'd have beaten Spurs imo.

I'm going. Looking forward to it.

seems like a total waste of time. They've probably got one of the best other teams remaining there, too.

Another thumb down for the new format is how it increases the chance of teams playing each other so soon in the knockouts after the group stage.

Watched Shamrock vs Molde. For all there was zero quality and very few chances, I found it weirdly gripping. Really wanted Shamrock to make it but it wasn't to be. Just catching up on the CL highlights. That Madrid goal music must be the most pretentious, self-satisfied guff I've ever heard in football.

On that note it's a fucking outrage that Southgate hasn't called Bruno, Botman, Wood, Isak and Tonali up yet. Maybe not so much Vlachodimos cos he's rubbish but still.

Agree. If he wasn't so erratic in front of the goal then he'd be the striker I thought we were getting with Haaland. Chaos and physicality, rather than just a (very effective) poacher.

brutal. But KI, honestly, it's a lot better to have the real thing. Firstly, just because and secondly, because who knows where your money is going with those snides.

How's that? Absolute worst case scenario we're still level on points with Villa. (Losing would obviously be shit)

Forest are good and the league is tight, so a draw wouldn't be the end of the world. However, it feels like we really need a win here to rejuvenate the league form and arrest what could become a slide. That winning streak was always going to end at some point and the big test was going to be about how we reacted. I don't think there's any sugarcoating that it's been a bit of a shitshow so far, satisfying cup wins notwithstanding. It would be unbearably depressing if we totally replicate 2023's pre-final slump. Everyone needs to turn up; coach, players, fans.

I expected to lose because we always do here but can't deny the disappointment at the way we went down. This region of the league continues to be extremely congested so we'll have to pick our arses up basically immediately if we're gonna avoid ending up at the no-Europe end of the pack.

Wonder why we've been so abject. We're not perfect but it's rarely this shit.