New CL Format Thoughts | After GW2 (pg13) | GW3 (pg33)

sir baconface said:
Too complicated. Too many fixtures.
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Feels semi-pointless for teams like Bratislava if there's no Europa to fight for.

Just adding games to players that are already tired. Doesn't help with the league cup too, that other leagues don't have. As well as the stupid nations league. They're already knackered enough.
 
Casey69 said:
If only the champions league was for the actual champions of each league no second,third or fourth place teams they could go in the conference champions league or something, the players would be happier, presumably fewer better quality games.
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Better quality games? You have to be joking.

If the Champions League was restricted to the League Chamions that would leave us with City, Internationale, Bayer, PSG, Sporting Club, Real Madrid, PSV, Club Brugge, Midtjylland, Sparta Prague, Slovan Bratislava, and Jagiellonia Bialystok. That is before we get around to to the likes of Lincoln Red Imps, UE Santa Columba, TNS, Larne, Shamrock Rovers, etc. etc.

So no Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Juventus, Atalanta, Milan, Atletico, Barcelona, Porto, Benfica, Arsenal, Liverpool, Villa, Monaco. etc.

It is not going to happen. Harking back to the crap situations of the late 1970s to the 1980s, Forest won the European Cup in 1979 by beating Liverpool (holders), AEK, Grasshoppers, Koln, and Malmo. Forest retained the title in 1980 by beating Oster, Arges Pitesti, BFC Dynamo, Ajax, and Hamburg.

It would be a tough sell to sponsors and I suspect to many supporters. It is not going to happen.
 
Casey69 said:
If only the champions league was for the actual champions of each league no second,third or fourth place teams they could go in the conference champions league or something, the players would be happier, presumably fewer better quality games.
Spread the butter too thinly and you lose the taste of the bread !
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Better quality games? You got 6 decent teams and everyone else was useless. I think you might be misremembering it in terms of quality.
 
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the new format is pretty unwieldy, but i don't get some of the rosey memories for the previous format?

Previously, as a Pot 1 team, you generally got one decent-ish team home and away (Pot 2 - or not so decent if you were 'lucky') and 4 fixtures against a couple of teams you should probably get min 7 points from.

In the new format you have exactly the same amount of qualifiers (32), so theoretically exactly the same talent pool are qualifying, but at least you get a Pot 1 game and a mixture of teams for the rest of the games. Look at it this way, we dont play Bratislava twice! we would have last year (or someone would have).

the extra fixtures are the stand-out issue for me, but in terms of quality, i'd say overall it's gone up a bit per game, hasn't it?
 
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I wonder when the first player will break cover and take UEFA or FIFA to court for tacking on games to the calendar?
 
shemnel said:
the new format is pretty unwieldy, but i don't get some of the rosey memories for the previous format?

Previously, as a Pot 1 team, you generally got one decent-ish team home and away (Pot 2 - or not so decent if you were 'lucky') and 4 fixtures against a couple of teams you should probably get min 7 points from.

In the new format you have exactly the same amount of qualifiers (32), so theoretically exactly the same talent pool are qualifying, but at least you get a Pot 1 game and a mixture of teams for the rest of the games. Look at it this way, we dont play Bratislava twice! we would have last year (or someone would have).

the extra fixtures are the stand-out issue for me, but in terms of quality, i'd say overall it's gone up a bit per game, hasn't it?
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Remember the previous format that had English champions, City from Pot 2, in a group with Real Madrid (Spanish champions) from Pot 1, Ajax (Nederlands champions) from Pot 3, and Borussia Dortmund (German champions) from Pot 4.

This was improved by the revised format that put the champions from the top countries automatically into Pot 1. But it remained imperfect.

The current system would have been an improvement but for adding two additional matches and spreading the group stages into January.
 
I think the empty seats at virtually every stadium tells it's own story. The reward for the top teams seems to be that, if you finish in the top 8, you play two games less which is useful but hardly heart breaking drama. The bottom sides will mostly be the poorest so at least they will get a bit more cash for basically taking part. The problem seems to be that the moneyed sides cannot afford to get knocked out in the first round (by playing each other).
 
Starting to get interesting now.

Villa given themselves a great chance of finishing top 8. PSG’s top 8 hopes are looking slim.

A loss for Bayern/Barca tomorrow would be a nightmare too.

I think there’s quite a bit of pressure on us to get the job done tomorrow. Can’t lose pace on the top eight - especially given that this is probably our easiest remaining game.
 
Manchester33 said:
Starting to get interesting now.

Villa given themselves a great chance of finishing top 8. PSG’s top 8 hopes are looking slim.

A loss for Bayern/Barca tomorrow would be a nightmare too.

I think there’s quite a bit of pressure on us to get the job done tomorrow. Can’t lose pace on the top eight - especially given that this is probably our easiest remaining game.
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I’m really struggling to get into it.
 
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