Did CL Group D (of death) hurt our league chances?

[Oystercatcher28]

the bigger picture is look forwards not backwards, best thing is give each and every next game our full attention and battle and battle.

CL was a blessing, and a blister on our season. We needed midfield and defensive depth. We lacked that.

 

[Gordyola]

European competition does have a baring upon the domestic competitions, the seeding system that gives rival league clubs easier fixtures to the scheduling of fixtures e.g home games after a european game. Also include international fixtures, is a conincidence that we are normally playing after the rags yet on the week of a mid week fixture we play before meaning less preparation time and also its the furthest of our away fixtures and we loose?

 

[chestervegasblue]

In the CL itself Group D is the only group to still have both its teams still in the competition. That speaks volumes to how difficult are group was. When you're up against the likes of Dortmund and Madrid in big CL nights, it's little wonder that we struggled against Ajax who play in a significantly weaker domestic league.

I don't think it hurt our league chances, but I do think the fixture list in the CL seriously hurt our chances of progressing. By the time we played in Amsterdam, our confidence was on the floor, had we Ajax at home after the Madrid game I think we'd have been in with a shout of the last 16 because of the pressure we'd have put on one of Real or Dortmund.

 

[gaudino4]

I just hope Mancini and the players took in what happened in the CL this season and learn from it. It wasn't good watching us get the runaround off Dortmund and Madrid. Dortmund were frighteningly good. We're gonna get a tough group again next year. As soon as we learn who we're up against in the group next year, Mancini should have those teams watched like hawks. We need to be better prepared.

 

[Marvin]

We did OK against Real Madrid.

Cut out the stupid errors that were a constant feature of our European campaign and we'll be fine

 

[City_Sean]

yes but our problems this season for me has been tempo, lack of width, and poor finishing from our strikers, I read today that Messi this season has scored more than our entire team.

 

[NipHolmes]

Real Madrid
Borussia Dortmund
Man City
(Ajax)

Three teams, were all winners in their respective leagues season prior. Interestingly, all three are now behind with quite a bit of point deficit.

No...

We are so far behind because of 3 main reasons.

1, Nasri is a pussy and a coward.
2, Piss poor performance away to Southampton.
3. The strikers have not been scoring enough to pick up the points in all the draws we have had.

Simple...

Point 2 is only one very small part to the whole season, 3 points of a total 114. It's really fuck all. Teams lose to teams down the bottom in many leagues, United lost at Norwich Barça have lost at Socienad, last season Madrid lost at Getafe and we lost at Sunderland (this and last season. These things happen and aren't main reasons why teams are behind in a title race.

These things happen, as dn says, in a Summer transfer window and through every game from 1-38.

Sociedad and Getafe aren't at the bottom of the table, they are mid table - europe challengers.

 

[Ray78]

We have to start making in our mark in Europe from next season and there are no excuses if we do poorly.

 

[Tricky Dickys Right Foot Shot]

No shit performances did!

 

[Anonymous]

Mourinho said when the Group was announced that the Group would drain his team and affect his teams League chances

Of course it affects your league form - they are extremely draining games, the like of which our rivals did not play. As soon as they played Madrid you saw what happened, they gave their worst performance of the season at home to Chelsea.

We'll have the same issue again next season.

Apart from it being pointed out we were only 3 points behind rags after CL exit

Oops. I can understand why Marvin ignored this totally. :)<br /><br />-- Fri Mar 15, 2013 10:21 am --<br /><br />

Better get some good players in then.

Doesn't matter who you have - the best players will be drained by games such as these

Dortmund are 20 points behind Bayern.

Dortmund only lost 3 points between end of September and end of November. They lost 9 before the CL even started - and the other points after they already had booked rank 1 in the group.

And this one.