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How much longer before the PL lose a CL place and only the top 3 qualify? Obviously it'll be done on coefficients over the last few years and so forth but realistically how many years 'til 4 becomes 3? Got to be on the cards soon?

When have any of Italy, Portugal, France, or Russia sent three teams to the CL Knockout stage? The teams are not going deep, but they also generally don't embarrass themselves.

 

That's actually a bad combination, in terms of coefficient you're better off falling into the Europa league and pulling the points up than making the last 16 and going out (most of Portugal's coefficient comes from that competition).

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Fiver says no cunt blames man to man marking for Chelsea's loss tonight despite it being at fault for both goals.

 

Genuinely think Terry is marking Cahill for the second goal. Watching he ball, feels/sees 'his man' making a run in front of him and goes with it (even gives him a little push) whilst his actual man is 3 yards behind him looping in a superb header.

 

Marvellous wasn't it? Even better that it'd just come off the back of them losing him for the corner previously.

 

Courtois must be foaming as the only non-cunt in the squad.

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Thing is, English sides used to do so well in the CL because they played a higher pace than teams of often superior technical quality. That's completely gone, now. The coaches in charge of the top 4 - except Pellegrini with his s*** defence - all promote a slower more patient pragmatic approach.

 

Liverpool and Chelsea both got far in Europe on the back of playing desparately pragmatic stuff. Arsenal got to the final in 2006 by winning 2 legged ties 1-0 on aggregate. Your argument only really works in favour of Man Utd imo, where Fergie really struck the balance well in his latter years.

 

Aye the biggest difference is that all our top sides could really defend at one point. Very well drilled, then had great physicality and technique.q

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I can't see England not sending a single team to the Q/F, so I feel uneasy for our game next week :unsure:

 

The way your lot are going forward recently compounded with the way City have defended all season suggests you should just have a bit of a laugh at the whole thing.

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Fiver says no c*** blames man to man marking for Chelsea's loss tonight despite it being at fault for both goals.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

With MM it's easier to attribute blame and giving people responsibility is a good thing. But does it result in less conceded goals? I wish someone would put the numbers up.

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Thing is, English sides used to do so well in the CL because they played a higher pace than teams of often superior technical quality. That's completely gone, now. The coaches in charge of the top 4 - except Pellegrini with his shit defence - all promote a slower more patient pragmatic approach.

 

Liverpool and Chelsea both got far in Europe on the back of playing desparately pragmatic stuff. Arsenal got to the final in 2006 by winning 2 legged ties 1-0 on aggregate. Your argument only really works in favour of Man Utd imo, where Fergie really struck the balance well in his latter years.

 

Don't kid yourself, Liverpool turned it up when they needed to under Rafa. Same with Arsenal in 2006. Our teams don't have that Premier League 6th gear to shift up into now.

 

They both played very pragmatic stuff on their runs to the final in 05/06/07, man. I'm not doubting they were in a clearly better state then, but it wasn't on the back of playing free flowing football. Chelsea and Liverpool played 6 games against each other in that period with 3 goals in total.

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Nobody said it was, but they played at a higher pace of football when needed. Most notably when Liverpool needed it against Milan.

 

Never mentioned Chelsea, either. But the one time they won it they weren't really playing pragmatic stuff.

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Fiver says no c*** blames man to man marking for Chelsea's loss tonight despite it being at fault for both goals.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

With MM it's easier to attribute blame and giving people responsibility is a good thing. But does it result in less conceded goals? I wish someone would put the numbers up.

Chelsea are the perfect side to man-mark. Terry, Cahill, Matic, Ivanovic, Costa, Zouma, Ramires, and Mikel and Drogba off the bench are all good leapers, strong players, and win the vast majority of their aerial duels. No system was at fault, and no system usually is at fault when conceding from a set-play. It is almost always a great bit of play (first goal) or an individual error (Terry for the second).

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Fiver says no c*** blames man to man marking for Chelsea's loss tonight despite it being at fault for both goals.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

With MM it's easier to attribute blame and giving people responsibility is a good thing. But does it result in less conceded goals? I wish someone would put the numbers up.

Chelsea are the perfect side to man-mark. Terry, Cahill, Matic, Ivanovic, Costa, Zouma, Ramires, and Mikel and Drogba off the bench are all good leapers, strong players, and win the vast majority of their aerial duels. No system was at fault, and no system usually is at fault when conceding from a set-play. It is almost always a great bit of play (first goal) or an individual error (Terry for the second).

 

:thup: I was just playing devils advocate but I totally agree. Both systems have their merits but if the boot was on the other foot it'd have been mentioned straight away.

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From a foreigner perspective there is something reassuring for your PL: you guys are quick to react.

 

I mean it's only the first year English teams have been that disappointing and there are already facing strong criticism.

Serie A leaders waited 5 years before admitting something was going wrong with their league.

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From a foreigner perspective there is something reassuring for your PL: you guys are quick to react.

 

I mean it's only the first year English teams have been that disappointing and there are already facing strong criticism.

Serie A leaders waited 5 years before admitting something was going wrong with their league.

 

It's been 3 or 4 years. We've had a peak where you could expect 4 PL teams in the CL QF's. At least 2 in the semi's. For the past 3 or 4 years we would have one side going deep.

 

We haven't been the same since we lost prime Ferdinand- Carragher - Terry - Lampard/Essien - Scholes - Alonso / Masch

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I can't see England not sending a single team to the Q/F, so I feel uneasy for our game next week :unsure:

 

Don't be daft, Barca will destroy city.

Arsenal could quite easily turn up to Stade Louis II and get a 3-0 or 4-1 if they play their best football. Despite the previous result and ASM's fantastic defensive record, there is a gap in quality, imo.

 

One thing I will say about the recent performances of the English teams is that excluding Manchester City and their early group stage adventures, they have simply been given tough draws early on and just haven't been able to make it through. Arsenal seem to draw Barcelona or Bayern in the second round every season. In isolation, not too many of the results would really worry me. Obviously, the trend is alarming, but all it will take for a  one-time reversal is a change in luck of the draw because the Premiership generally has the most or joint most teams in the second round every single season. That is not a coincidence.

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These days Arsenal have to fight to the last game just to scrape 4th. No wonder they don't succeed at this level of the CL.

 

Arsenal aren't even the best team in London, let alone the entire continent. They'll continue to make up the numbers in the same way we do in the PL -good enough to be in there but nowhere near good enough to challenge for the ultimate prize.

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