European teams - new opinion?

[afhald]

i don't think italian teams are easy to beat, especially when you play away, napoli has a few consecutive victories at home in europe, so it was well knewn that we had to play in a hard ground.

 

[bluemoondays]

Re: European teams -new opinion?

Sorry but I don't believe Napoli are a better team than us. Mancini is not a good manager in the Champions League competition, end of! He's never had success in the Champions League with any of the teams he has managed, that's why he was sacked from Inter. Mancini will probably win us the Prem and a couple of tin pot Trophy's but the big prize- no!

Tin pot trophies my arse, I've seen us win one trophy since '76 and that was last year. I remember the 69 team (just) also. I'd be ecstatic to see us win the PL and a few FA cups and league cups over the next few years. Talking about the FA Cap and League cup as tinpot trophies shows an appalling raglike arrogance.

I personally couldn't care less if it takes us 10 years to win the CL. The PL and domestic trophies are what I want to see in the meantime. Yes, the CL would be nice but discounting domestic trophies is stupid.

 

[AlgarveBlu]

Re: European teams -new opinion?

Sorry but I don't believe Napoli are a better team than us. Mancini is not a good manager in the Champions League competition, end of! He's never had success in the Champions League with any of the teams he has managed, that's why he was sacked from Inter. Mancini will probably win us the Prem and a couple of tin pot Trophy's but the big prize- no!

Tin pot trophies my arse, I've seen us win one trophy since '76 and that was last year. I remember the 69 team (just) also. I'd be ecstatic to see us win the PL and a few FA cups and league cups over the next few years. Talking about the FA Cap and League cup as tinpot trophies shows an appalling raglike arrogance.

I personally couldn't care less if it takes us 10 years to win the CL. The PL and domestic trophies are what I want to see in the meantime. Yes, the CL would be nice but discounting domestic trophies is stupid.

I would echo the above...it's been a drought for decades so even the community shield was a bit of a blow to me....

Intheknow does touch on a good point and that is that Mancini is personally haunted by his experiences with Inter in that competition..but hey if he can give us three titles in a row I wouldn't mind...

 

[Skashion]

We failed to beat them not because they were brilliant but because we got it wrong tactically and the team selection was gash considering as well. Nasri and Aguero came on and it looked like we were suddenly getting far more chances. If Johnson had been on earlier/started and tried to dribble rather than cross it into the box we'd also have caused them major hassles. Against a scrappy team with a high workrate who surround men on the ball you need players who can find channels and gaps and work space. Against a team with pace you also need fast fullbacks. If we'd got it right we'd have won both games against Napoli I think.

 

[Deleted member 14625]

I think there have been two reasons why we've struggled in the CL

1) Silva has not been as effective as in the PL. That seems to have been due to a combination of a) him trying too hard to beat too many men and b) the defenders we've faced being more comfortable facing him

2) The teams we've played being much better at raising their game at the right time to take advantage of lulls in our play. In nearly every game this season we've had dodgy spells of 15-20min when we've looked vulnerable. In the PL we've got through those spells unpunished, except at Fulham. In the CL teams have stepped up a gear and punished us.

In the first game against Napoli we dominated for 70 mins but had that 20 min spell when you could see that their goal was coming. In Munich we started well, took our foot off the gas and were suddenly 2 down. Villareal capitalised on our usual slow start. And yesterday Napoli hit back at us after a bright start and also took advantage of our post half time slumber.

Indeed. Newcastle had two clear chances to go one up last week but didn't take them, they had a chance at 2-0 to get a goal back but hit the post - we went and scored a third and the game was over. Napoli were so well drilled that they could sniff out any time we were in a weak moment.

 

[pml79]

We failed to beat them not because they were brilliant but because we got it wrong tactically and the team selection was gash considering as well. Nasri and Aguero came on and it looked like we were suddenly getting far more chances. If Johnson had been on earlier/started and tried to dribble rather than cross it into the box we'd also have caused them major hassles. Against a scrappy team with a high workrate who surround men on the ball you need players who can find channels and gaps and work space. Against a team with pace you also need fast fullbacks. If we'd got it right we'd have won both games against Napoli I think.

well said correct

 

[AlgarveBlu]

We failed to beat them not because they were brilliant but because we got it wrong tactically and the team selection was gash considering as well. Nasri and Aguero came on and it looked like we were suddenly getting far more chances. If Johnson had been on earlier/started and tried to dribble rather than cross it into the box we'd also have caused them major hassles. Against a scrappy team with a high workrate who surround men on the ball you need players who can find channels and gaps and work space. Against a team with pace you also need fast fullbacks. If we'd got it right we'd have won both games against Napoli I think.

I agree they were not brilliant, but again going back to my original point they were better than any team that we have played this season (apart from Bayern) and they are 7th in serie A

 

[Deleted member 14625]

Re: European teams -new opinion?

Sorry but I don't believe Napoli are a better team than us. Mancini is not a good manager in the Champions League competition, end of! He's never had success in the Champions League with any of the teams he has managed, that's why he was sacked from Inter. Mancini will probably win us the Prem and a couple of tin pot Trophy's but the big prize- no!

Tin pot trophies my arse, I've seen us win one trophy since '76 and that was last year. I remember the 69 team (just) also. I'd be ecstatic to see us win the PL and a few FA cups and league cups over the next few years. Talking about the FA Cap and League cup as tinpot trophies shows an appalling raglike arrogance.

I personally couldn't care less if it takes us 10 years to win the CL. The PL and domestic trophies are what I want to see in the meantime. Yes, the CL would be nice but discounting domestic trophies is stupid.

I don't mind waiting neither. We're nowhere near good enough to win it yet. Also Barcelona first played in Europe in the 1950's and it took them until 1992 to win their first ever European Cup and it took them another 14 years to win their next! Look how good Chelsea's teams have been over the last 13 or so years (1998 they got to the quarters - and had a first leg lead over Barca in them quarters - with players like Dessailly, Lebouf, Deschamps, Zola, Gudjonson...) and they have only been in one final, and they didn't win that. A bit if patience might well be needed for it, it's quite feasible that we might never win it!

 

[Ardwick AFC]

Arsenal beat Barcelona in the champions league last season. Spurs knocked the holders out (Inter Milan) And then knocked AC Milan out as well. All with english style, attacking prowess down the wings. They couldn't live with it up them. Players like Lucio and Maicon torn to pieces. We could've done with some of that style of play, last night. Getting behind defenders and making them turn towards their own goal. All of our play is down the middle and quite predictable if you've done your homework and watched us play. We have two strikers over 6ft and hardly give them any crosses from open play.

It might just be that European teams are used to playing against Mancini's style of play. If we changed it up a bit and stuck AJ on one wing and Nasri on the other for 20 mins and tried to get some crosses in, we might have come away with something. Dzeko was unplayable for Wolfsburg in the air, but we're not playing to his strengths.

 

[Balti]

it was called the group of death with good reason