What should this squad be capable of?

[madras]

I'd say, on the current squad strength, our position should in theory be competing with Everton and possibly Southampton for 7th place.

 

Above that, Arsenal have already got their act together, and Chelsea, Man City and Man Utd are too good not to get their act together at some stage. So CL should be beyond us.

 

With Liverpool and Spurs, there's more quality in their squads. On the other hand, there's pressure to succeed but not a recent track record of success to give them real confidence. They could wobble under pressure, so 5th place again isn't out of the question.

 

I don't want the sodding Europa League though, with its midweek trips to Azerbaijan.

 

This attitude really baffles me.... we were in touching distance of the semi finals, we are not in the situation where we can throw the opportunity of a trophy away.

 

We were also in touching distance of getting relegated.

 

It's the slog of those group games against inferior opposition from the far corners of Europe that get me fed up, and which I think are a real drain on a club of our strength. They should make it a straight knockout competition, and dispense with the idea of 8 CL teams joining in half way through.

 

 

can't decide if it was the travel and fatigue (as few players often played in both league and europe, especially early on) as opposed to lack of preperation for games.

[Ryan]

Agree with the battling for 7th between Everton, us and Southampton. Definitely need a couple more additions in January though as we'll more than likely have a bad run of injuries at some point. On paper I'd probably say we've got the eighth best squad in the league.

 

Fwiw I'd absolutely love it if we qualified for the Europa, the trip to Brugge was one of the best experiences of my life.

[Yorkie]

I really think that the Europa League was simply an excuse for poor performances, until he actually made it a problem by constantly whittering about it. Our best league form came sandwiched amongst two trips to far Eastern Europe, for goodness sake.

[madras]

I really think that the Europa League was simply an excuse for poor performances, until he actually made it a problem by constantly whittering about it. Our best league form came sandwiched amongst two trips to far Eastern Europe, for goodness sake.

I disagree, it does have an effect, yes we beat coventry away 5-1 a couple of days after an away euro tie but you can't use that as an example. seems bleeding obvious to me if the players play more and the club have less preperation then they'll not be as cohesive etc. for all laudrup disagrees apparently the likes of ferguson and mourinho say more games and less preperation have adverse effects.

[Yorkie]

Fine, there may have been some effect, but it wasn't the main reason for why we barely survived relegation. Any adverse effect it had was compounded by not signing more players, then constantly whinging about the whole thing.

 

I'd like to know our sequence of results whilst the competition was on hiatus through the winter months.

 

Edit: W3, D1, L8.

[quayside]

What a lot of people seem to ignore or just forget is that the team that season was decidedly weaker than the one that begun this one.

 

Debuchy, Sissoko, Yanga-Mbiwa, Haidara, Remy, Gouffran etc etc all not there till January and in Remy's case this summer.

 

I'd be quite confident that if we qualified for Europe again we would be much better prepared for it this time.

 

For certain our manager has now been there before and played a quarter final plus some of the squad have been there and done it. But, as it stands, its not worth the effort and I'm really sorry to say that. Look at Swansea this season (an extreme example perhaps), they are trying to do it with no real additional money to strengthen the squad. Bony gets a hamstring injury playing in a 0-1 loss against Valencia. Was it worth it?   

[Mole_Toonfan]

Swansea example isn't that great because their squad is smaller than ours was, i stand by it the most tiring part of the EL is the group stage part.

 

We have much better squad than we did last time we started out in EL, we wouldn't be anywhere as effected by it this time.

[madras]

Fine, there may have been some effect, but it wasn't the main reason for why we barely survived relegation. Any adverse effect it had was compounded by not signing more players, then constantly whinging about the whole thing.

 

I'd like to know our sequence of results whilst the competition was on hiatus through the winter months.

 

Edit: W3, D1, L8.

then you bring momentums into it, easy to get into, difficuilt to get out of, all aspects of the club deserve blame for what happened then, hopefully we learned for it.

[NUFC]

Fine, there may have been some effect, but it wasn't the main reason for why we barely survived relegation. Any adverse effect it had was compounded by not signing more players, then constantly whinging about the whole thing.

 

I'd like to know our sequence of results whilst the competition was on hiatus through the winter months.

 

 

P12 W3 D1 L8

 

[Yorkie]

I don't even think tiredness was the big deal, at least to start off with. We rotated plenty. It was our coaching staff's inability to construct two winning gameplans per week. So I suppose, if you look at it like that, it probably was a fair reason for our shit season - but not quite in the way that Pardew swung it.

[Deuce]

Swansea example isn't that great because their squad is smaller than ours was, i stand by it the most tiring part of the EL is the group stage part.

 

We have much better squad than we did last time we started out in EL, we wouldn't be anywhere as effected by it this time.

 

Presumably the players would be better prepared a second time around as well, having already been through it.

[Yorkie]

The players' main problem regarding the EL was that they had a manager convincing them that they were exhausted when, in reality, we barely played more games than any team who had a less-than-embarrassing domestic cup campaign.

 

Like I say, if the EL had an adverse effect on our season, it was cos the manager and his staff wouldn't embrace the opportunity and couldn't plan two games in a week. Something that shouldn't have been an issue if we didn't spend all season pandering to each opposition, as opposed to inflicting our own game on them. (Hence, it wasn't the EL that was the real problem.)

 

The whole campaign was just a total train-wreck.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Swansea example isn't that great because their squad is smaller than ours was, i stand by it the most tiring part of the EL is the group stage part.

 

We have much better squad than we did last time we started out in EL, we wouldn't be anywhere as effected by it this time.

 

Presumably the players would be better prepared a second time around as well, having already been through it.

 

Not to mention all the lads have settled now.

[madras]

I don't even think tiredness was the big deal, at least to start off with. We rotated plenty. It was our coaching staff's inability to construct two winning gameplans per week. So I suppose, if you look at it like that, it probably was a fair reason for our s*** season - but not quite in the way that Pardew swung it.

thats the crux of it really, we weren't good enough to go into games without the preperation. if this makes sense, as a squad we didn't have the muscle memory, we aren't strong enough to impose ourselves on others without the preperation (imo not many teams outside the champs league elite have that). swansea (and this will probably bite me on the arse on wednesday) dont look like the team of last season for example, early i know being only a dozen or so games in.

[Cronky]

I'd say, on the current squad strength, our position should in theory be competing with Everton and possibly Southampton for 7th place.

 

Above that, Arsenal have already got their act together, and Chelsea, Man City and Man Utd are too good not to get their act together at some stage. So CL should be beyond us.

 

With Liverpool and Spurs, there's more quality in their squads. On the other hand, there's pressure to succeed but not a recent track record of success to give them real confidence. They could wobble under pressure, so 5th place again isn't out of the question.

 

I don't want the sodding Europa League though, with its midweek trips to Azerbaijan.

 

This attitude really baffles me.... we were in touching distance of the semi finals, we are not in the situation where we can throw the opportunity of a trophy away.

 

I'm pretty sure we all like seeing us playing in this. But the trouble with Europa is it doesn't pay enough to allow the clubs that qualify to strengthen their squads to go at it properly. Plus (and its been mentioned elsewhere) the CL rejects, who do have the squads to do it, arrive in the latter stages and screw the whole  tournament. Its a bollox of a tournament. 

 

I think this is a good point. The CL opens up new possibilities for a club in its development, the EL just stretches your existing resources.

 

There's a range of factors, but in addition to the physical and mental demands on the players, it also means the manager and coaching staff losing a bit of the focus that ought to go on the League. If you achieve 5th place, really all your attention should then go on reaching 4th. Instead, you end up in a competition which makes it less likely that you'll achieve 4th.

[NUFC]

I'm pretty sure we all like seeing us playing in this. But the trouble with Europa is it doesn't pay enough to allow the clubs that qualify to strengthen their squads to go at it properly. Plus (and its been mentioned elsewhere) the CL rejects, who do have the squads to do it, arrive in the latter stages and screw the whole  tournament. Its a bollox of a tournament.

 

This basically, the Europa league is a joke of a competition really which UEFA doesn't care about.

 

Poor Prize Money

 

Champions League teams received a minimum of €8.6m for competing in the group stages plus €1m for each win and €500k for each draw, so if you draw every group game you can earn €11.6m

 

The winners of the Europa League get €5m

 

Letting the Champions League rejects join

 

This shouldn't be allowed, once your out of the Champions League then that's it.

 

Winning the Europa League

 

Gets you entry into the Europa League next season, this should be changed to a place in the Champions League group stages or something.

[Mick]

thats the crux of it really, we weren't good enough to go into games without the preperation. if this makes sense, as a squad we didn't have the muscle memory, we aren't strong enough to impose ourselves on others without the preperation (imo not many teams outside the champs league elite have that). swansea (and this will probably bite me on the arse on wednesday) dont look like the team of last season for example, early i know being only a dozen or so games in.

 

Here's a thought, if we work more on our strengths instead of trying to work on other teams weaknesses we might not need a week to get ready for a game.

 

As for Swansea, they are 2 points worse off than they were at this time last season, hardly the fall from grace we had.  Last season we were down 12 points after 13 games on the season before so I'm not sure what the comparison is.

[Dave]

Poll reset given that the thread's from February.

 

http://i.imgur.com/IbiGjjt.png

[Dave]

Still think the same like.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Initially thought comfortable top half finish, bumping it up to push for Europa League spots.

[Teasy]

Relegation ? soz if if Giggs but can't be ars*d to read the thread.

4 wins and yer getting carried away lads. Get real.. even sunlun is good on paper. Chelski were sh1te, spawny win at Spuds due solely to Krul,

Norwich and the Baggies at home ?  Mid table at best.

 

 

By the way, Sunderland are fucking shit on or off paper.

[madras]

thats the crux of it really, we weren't good enough to go into games without the preperation. if this makes sense, as a squad we didn't have the muscle memory, we aren't strong enough to impose ourselves on others without the preperation (imo not many teams outside the champs league elite have that). swansea (and this will probably bite me on the arse on wednesday) dont look like the team of last season for example, early i know being only a dozen or so games in.

 

Here's a thought, if we work more on our strengths instead of trying to work on other teams weaknesses we might not need a week to get ready for a game.

 

As for Swansea, they are 2 points worse off than they were at this time last season, hardly the fall from grace we had.  Last season we were down 12 points after 13 games on the season before so I'm not sure what the comparison is.

the season whe finsihed 5th we had a great opening, momentum etc like I said earlier.

[Mick]

the season whe finsihed 5th we had a great opening, momentum etc like I said earlier.

 

I didn't read your earlier post, sorry.

[madras]

the season whe finsihed 5th we had a great opening, momentum etc like I said earlier.

 

I didn't read your earlier post, sorry.

even if you didn't would it change its validity...............aha ahahahaha!

[Mick]

even if you didn't would it change its validity...............aha ahahahaha!

 

 

I haven't a clue what you're getting at.