Has that loss just won us the title?

[John Wayne]

We can play two different teams this time round so that those who play on a Thursday don't start on the following Sunday.

This is our only option. I'm thinking along the lines of a side similar to the one which featured against Birmingham in the Carling Cup earlier this season.

 

[Dubai Blue]

We can play two different teams this time round so that those who play on a Thursday don't start on the following Sunday.

This is our only option. I'm thinking along the lines of a side similar to the one which featured against Birmingham in the Carling Cup earlier this season.

Wolves. But, yeah, that's what I think we'll do. Some big guns on the bench for Europa in case they're needed for the final 15 mins and then some of the Europa starters on the bench for the following Premier League game. I don't think we'll be seeing much overlap at all.

 

[Ardwick AFC]

No, this has scuppered our carefully laid out plans. Europa league screws up all the fixtures, and add to the mix the Carling and Fa cup games as well. We'll be playing Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays :(

Last night was a disaster, but they will be discussing plan B as we speak. If we win the Europa, we might just claw back some of that 10m in lost revenue.

From a footballing perspective, Napoli played us twice with the same mentality of absorbing pressure for long periods and counter attacking with precision. It worked for them. If I were a premiership manager, I would probably employ the same tactics. I think Liverpool away is now a much harder game than what we had at the swamp or spuds. The dippers tails are up after their Chelsea victory and they will smell blood from our defeat. If we win at Anfield it will show real character and then I will be more than confident of our title winning capabilities.

 

[Manc in London]

No, From a footballing perspective, Napoli played us twice with the same mentality of absorbing pressure for long periods and counter attacking with precision. It worked for them. If I were a premiership manager, I would probably employ the same tactics.

The difference is that Napoli have quality, speed and intelligence in the from three. I doubt any such PL team could attack with such incisiveness and speed. Napoli's football on teh break is devastatingly good.

Teams have been setting up defensively and trying to catch us on the break this season and we have dealt with it effectively.

 

[Big Dave Watson]

It's not just the scum that are title rivals. We need to be looking over or shoulder at Spurs. Since that clouting we gave them they have won every game bar one. Win their game in hand and they are 6 behind with up and coming fixtures of WBA, Bolton, Stoke and Sunderland. Any slip ups by us between now and Christmas could see it being tight at the top.

 

[Hydemcfc]

I would be pretty sure that if we did a poll on here, the majority would prefer us to concentrate on the League. The talk of " well the added experience of the Europa League will stand us in good stead for our next tilt at the CL", personally i think is rubbish. The players who will be playing in the EL will not be 1st choice players anyway,or only a minority.

As was said previously our main priority has to be the League, i would imagine that even the FA/CC trophies are now a side issue. The club,i'm sure, would have had their priorities set out at the start of the season;

1 League

2 CL

3 FA CUP

4 Carling Cup

5 Europa League

Of course it's only my opinion and i've no idea what the clubs preferences were,but i don't think i'm too far out with my guesswork.

 

[DD]

We are big time now. Maybe you need to shake off the old 'small time' attitude.

What would you say if a dropped point at home to West Brom, brought on by fatigue from a Thursday night trip to Ukraine, cost us the title?

The league is right up top in our priorities and the Europa League is bottom.

Big Time?

I don't have a small time attitude, I have a winning attitude. I want to win every trophy we compete for.

We have won one FA Cup so far and I have waited 35 years to fucking see it.

That's it nothing more, we are top at present. Much as it may shock you, we could end up with nothing this season, if we put all our eggs in one basket.

We are big time, publicity and hype wise, by fortune of the results we have achieved so far, but we are not big time until we are consistently winning silverware across the board.

We started somewhere last season and that's all it was a start. Your definition of big time and mine seems very different.

Mine is emulating what United, Chelsea, Barca and Real Madrid have done.

Ask United fans what winning the European Cup winners' Cup against Barca did for them in 91.

You belittle the achievements of the City team that also won it back in 1970, are you saying we and they were small time then, also?

We desperately need more European experience ahead of next season and we get that in the Europa League.

Our squad is also good enough and big enough to rotate between Thursday and Sunday.

I, too, want to win every trophy we enter but realistically this isn't going to happen. The Europa League will represent the biggest threat to any title aspirations. Think back to Fulham at home in February - it was one of our worst home performances of the season and came just days after playing Aris in the Europa League. We backed this up with a very unconvincing performance against Wigan at home.

With hindsight, Balotelli did us a massive favour at home to Kiev by getting sent off because that competition was sapping the life out of the team. Purely hypothetical, but I don't think we'd have won the FA Cup or finished third in the league if we'd carried on much further in that competition.

I really don't think that the Europa League will give us the extra European experience we allegedly require. It's like working extra hours in a primary school when the real aim is to be working in a high school. We also have plenty of European experience on the books.

Summarises the situation perfectly for me.

 

[Hamann Pineapple]

The only problem with rotation is we have to register players for Europa squad so we can't play a Carling Cup team on Thursday nights. Having said that we're not out yet, Villareal could easily get a point and Bayern will rest players no matter what Rummenigge says.

 

[BillCarlisle]

Reality check.

1. We are not out of the CL yet. It is by no means inconceivable that we can beat Bayern at home and Villareal could get something out of the Napoli game at home.
2. If we do qualify we will still have midweek games and journeys abroad to contend with. We will also be putting out a strong team in all games. That could still have an impact on our PL title challenge.
3. If we don't qualify we will have the nuisance of playing on Thursday nights and possible long journeys, but on the other hand we may be able to get away with playing a weakened side on some occasions. Perhaps not such an impact on our title challenge.
4. We were hardly likely to win the CL at the first attempt.
5. We would be strongly fancied to win the Europa League if we end up in it.

The big downside is the lower revenue from the Europa League compared with the CL. Not an important issue for the Sheikh, but an important issue for the Club bearing in mind the FFPR.

Let's see what December 7th brings.

 

[stimo]

the rags will take the piss if we go out for a few months, but deep down they know (and have been saying for a few weeks) that the title is ours