I find the whole European thing a bit of a conundrum. I always look at it as a bit of an adventure and what we do domestically is all important. Part of me thinks we're a young club (in Champs League terms) that needs time to grow at the top table of European football. We've had tough draws and it's only to be expected that we may take time to negotiate our way through such tough groups.
On the negative side I think Mancini never did well in Europe at Inter , we have experienced players like Yaya , Silva , Tevez etc that should be able to cope with that level of competition. I also don't like the way quick teams like Dortmund and Madrid managed to play through us at times. I'm not so sure we're mobile or intelligent enough in the middle. Teams that dominate possesion (even Ajax) we find tough to play against , look at Arsenal domestically having given us some of our toughest games domestically over the Mancini years.
Having said all that I'm still coming to terms with domestic success so will carry on looking at Europe as a big adventure for now. Softly softly catchy monkey !