It came across as you thought it was harder to win the domestic cups as you weren't given the option of losing any game. Liverpool lost 4 games and still won the cup which makes it a much lesser accomplishment. Liverpool did what needed to be done. Didn't feature in the domestic cups and it didn't look like they were taken seriously as we don't have the squad to compete on 4 fronts.
Klopp obviously valued the CL over domestic competitions.
The FA cup and league cup are (basically) knockout comps whereas the Champions League is a league where a team can afford to lose here and there - but for teams who did not win any of their domestic competitions to wind themselves into a 'champions' final shows how meaningless the whole league is - in reality.
Winning the premier league, and then defending that by winning it again is far, far superior to winning any other completion across the board. i really don't think the CL can even come close to that. i think that Pep values the champions league enough to want to win it, and i'd guess that Sheikh Monsour would love for City to win it too, as well as many of the players and fans - but given the choice of winning the premier league or the cl, given where City have come from, i think many of the fans would say f*** the cl - they'd take the league any season - not just because of what it means, but because of the slog of winning week in and week out.
Having said that, it was disappointing to be knocked out so cruelly these last two seasons. The Spurs game was one of the best games of football i've seen in a long time, and i can say that even though City were cheated: firstly by a handball and then by a disallowed goal - it was a fantastic game of football.
It is what it is.
And what it is for me, as well as many other fans, i'm sure, is a series of games that eat into a teams schedule to such a degree that adds to a seasons fatigue, and forces a team to play too many games over too short a time, enhances the chances of player injury, adds to an already excessive workload - not only 'on the day' but also within the regular schedule of games, training etc.
It is too much, too big a schedule of games that crowd an already over-crowded calendar of football - and tbf, if City sacked the CL off and focused entirely on the domestic championships we'd simply dominate English football. Perhaps striving for ever more accolades is the thing that puts it into perspective... i don't know. But the CL to me means less than the Charity Shield - if only because to qualify for the Shield you have to have won something in the last season.....
Unless you get an invite.... Like Liverpool did ;)
And tbf, playing, and beating, Diverpool in the CS was a big deal.
But the reality of the CL is that it cuts into a team, it's fitness, it's mentality. It creates fatigue and jams more games into a crowded schedule and i think most teams could do without it unless that is their main focus.
