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It pervades a lot of clubs and competitions now, the PL is everything to most clubs. The idea that every club gives a 100% to win every competition is just idealism and no longer corresponds to reality. Sad but true.

 

And still other clubs manage to get to quarter finals, semi finals, finals and even win cups.

 

Sure, someone has to win the cup. We might win one sometime. I'm sure if we made some decent progress in the FA Cup we would start playing stronger sides.

 

That doesn't mean the point I made isn't correct.

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It pervades a lot of clubs and competitions now, the PL is everything to most clubs. The idea that every club gives a 100% to win every competition is just idealism and no longer corresponds to reality. Sad but true.

 

And still other clubs manage to get to quarter finals, semi finals, finals and even win cups.

 

Sure, someone has to win the cup. We might win one sometime. I'm sure if we made some decent progress in the FA Cup we would start playing stronger sides.

 

That doesn't mean the point I made isn't correct.

 

We wouldn't have even had to have given 100% to get further in the cups the last few seasons, nowhere near.

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I don't really believe any manager, including Pardew of course, is 'OK' with going out of the cups early. They're just forced to operate in this modern football environment where everything is focussed on the PL and everything else has become progressively devalued.

 

Pardew might want to win a cup as bad as anything, but when it comes down to matchday he will still think "I can beat so-and-so team even if I save a few of the big lads for the next league game".

 

didn't seem to martinez or poyet tbh

 

Do you disagree with the wider point though? Or can you just think of a couple of counter examples?

 

i agree with the wider point about the value of the PL yes, however i'm struggling to think of examples of teams in our position this season with no threat of relegation and good team who just don't give a fuck...perhaps you can help me out with that?

 

it's easier to think of examples of teams threatened with relegation who try their hearts out to win cup games tbh

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Ideally, Sunderland reaching a final should put more pressure on the club to do better but I don't suppose they will care.

 

If Sunderland do get relegated then they have the excuse they need as to why cups are a bad idea.  Pardew must be loving Swansea struggling this year as he will see that as vindication of all his excuses last year.

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Pardew must be loving Swansea struggling this year as he will see that as vindication of all his excuses last year.

 

Could mean the point has some truth to it as well.

 

They're actually struggling because of injuries. They're not Europe's #1 long ball team and playing Shola at RW and starting Jonas every game.

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Pardew must be loving Swansea struggling this year as he will see that as vindication of all his excuses last year.

 

Could mean the point has some truth to it as well.

 

They're actually struggling because of injuries. They're not Europe's #1 long ball team and playing Shola at RW and starting Jonas every game.

 

aye, was gonna say the same :lol:

 

still, be very interesting to see some analysis of the EL vs. league position and such (in more countries than just the PL) - i suppose by definition the teams in it are likely to have smaller squads and less quality than their CL counterparts for the most part

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Guest bimpy474

Pardew must be loving Swansea struggling this year as he will see that as vindication of all his excuses last year.

 

Could mean the point has some truth to it as well.

 

They're actually struggling because of injuries. They're not Europe's #1 long ball team and playing Shola at RW and starting Jonas every game.

 

I was about to say that. Of course you will get more tired, but seeing as we had no progress in domestic cups at all. We had just the League and Europa to play. And as you pointed out the Europa League is no excuse for Hoofball, pathetic tactics against teams like Reading. Bizarre team selections. It's been done to death on here tbh but if anyone really does think the reason all that happened was because of fatigue. They're off the fucking rockers.

 

Also where were Swansea expected to finish, i think around 12th with the squad they have, and i bet that's exactly where they end up.

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Guest Haris Vuckic

http://www.sportingintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/PL-injuries-league-12-13.jpg

 

Swansea are top of this years injury table and have the exact amount of points/games played we did at this stage last year.

 

To say injuries didn't affect us is completely retarded.

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Guest bimpy474

http://www.sportingintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/PL-injuries-league-12-13.jpg

 

 

 

Why are we always one of the worst, until this season (or so it seems). Driven me mad over the years the injuries we seem to get.

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Guest bimpy474

http://www.sportingintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/PL-injuries-league-12-13.jpg

 

Swansea are top of this years injury table and have the exact amount of points/games played we did at this stage last year.

 

To say injuries didn't affect us is completely retarded.

 

Do injuries mean you have to blooter the ball forward like we did for a fair chunk of last season ?

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Guest bimpy474

 

No but I never said they did.

 

Is that not the implication, we were shit because of injuries. Injuries were a factor in us falling away from 5th, and indeed playing in the Europa would have had an effect.

 

But the main reason we finished 16th was the awful football Pardew had us playing. Cant be said this season as we are playing much better stuff, 2nd half nonsense on too many occasions aside.

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Guest Haris Vuckic

That table seems to suggest we had the fourth worst injuries in 2011/12 too. The season we finished 5th.

 

So if you add an extra 14 games, travel away & less preparation into the equation...

 

Here's that table by the way,

 

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/league.jpg

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I thought the biggest point about the Europa League is the preparation time it takes away.  Instead of training all week for a Premier League match, you have to prepare for a Europa League match.  So you fly on a Wednesday, play on a Thursday, fly back after the game or on a Friday, and play a PL game on a Sunday. 

 

Your 5 day match preparation for a PL match is reduced to perhaps 2 days.  That surely makes a difference.

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Of course injuries affected us at times, but no matter who we put out, our football was fucking dreadful, mostly because of Pardew. Even after signing five players in January, it looked the same all along. Some of it was evident during parts of 11/12 as well.

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Guest bimpy474

That table seems to suggest we had the fourth worst injuries in 2011/12 too. The season we finished 5th.

 

So if you add an extra 14 games, travel away & less preparation into the equation...

 

Here's that table by the way,

 

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/league.jpg

 

Again you imply we struggled because of the extra Europa games....

 

Please explain why that would mean playing awful football ?

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I thought the biggest point about the Europa League is the preparation time it takes away.  Instead of training all week for a Premier League match, you have to prepare for a Europa League match.  So you fly on a Wednesday, play on a Thursday, fly back after the game or on a Friday, and play a PL game on a Sunday. 

 

Your 5 day match preparation for a PL match is reduced to perhaps 2 days.  That surely makes a difference.

 

It never did for a positive manager like Sir Bobby.

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Guest Haris Vuckic

 

No but I never said they did.

 

Is that not the implication, we were s*** because of injuries. Injuries were a factor in us falling away from 5th, and indeed playing in the Europa would have had an effect.

 

But the main reason we finished 16th was the awful football Pardew had us playing. Cant be said this season as we are playing much better stuff, 2nd half nonsense on too many occasions aside.

 

So Swansea play nicer football but they are in literally the exact same position we were in?

 

I'm not saying we were shit because of injuries alone but it would be churlish to deny our squad fitness was an issue just as it would be to deny there were a myriad of factors involved in our struggle - the managers ability obviously one of them.

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I thought the biggest point about the Europa League is the preparation time it takes away.  Instead of training all week for a Premier League match, you have to prepare for a Europa League match.  So you fly on a Wednesday, play on a Thursday, fly back after the game or on a Friday, and play a PL game on a Sunday. 

 

Your 5 day match preparation for a PL match is reduced to perhaps 2 days.  That surely makes a difference.

 

It never did for a positive manager like Sir Bobby.

 

Aye. Didn't loose a single game after returning from Europe in all of 2002/03.

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Guest bimpy474

I thought the biggest point about the Europa League is the preparation time it takes away.  Instead of training all week for a Premier League match, you have to prepare for a Europa League match.  So you fly on a Wednesday, play on a Thursday, fly back after the game or on a Friday, and play a PL game on a Sunday. 

 

Your 5 day match preparation for a PL match is reduced to perhaps 2 days.  That surely makes a difference.

 

And home game where you dont travel at all, and when you change 9 starting line up players.

 

So Pardew and his staff couldn't prepare for two games in a week, something virtually every team in the leagues below us do year in year out.

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