New CL Format Thoughts

Last night was hard work, but I'm not sure if that was to do with the new format or the Group Stage in general

I can remember every game from the 1980s where we scored 5 or more goals (including the Leeds and Plymouth FMC victories) but whilst I can still recall Dennis Tueart's 4th goal v Notts County with remarkable clarity, my CL memories are all morphing into one image of being surrounded by foreign speaking strangers as City remain in 2nd gear and gradually overcome weak and overwhelmed opponents with limited ambition
 
yup I still think of it as a diluted version of what we had previously but now with multiple chances for the failing giants (Barca, Utd, Bayer, etc) to stay in the competition even if they cant win the thing and brings in more revenue for those clubs.

Their promises though have amounted to fuck all, we still get meaningless matches, it isnt fairer. I am struggling to see why they changed it when it clearly wasnt for the reasons they said. Either they are warming us up for a Euro league format, or like I said its a revenue generator for the failing history clubs. An awful of of work has gone into coming up with that new format though, so someone cares a lot.
 
love to know media opinion of centre back stood with ball waiting and waiting then passing 2 yard only to get it back they defended quiet well and in firt half atleast looked threat on break
 
Shirley said:
The Etihad was pretty much full last night though
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I know, I find that interesting.Aside from Real Madrid we are probably the glamour side worldwide now. Therefore we are attracting lots of tourist fans who probably pad out the attendance figures at these games as they will probably be easier to attain. 50,000 is a great attendance midweek for one of the groups less glamorous opposition. Maybe I should rephrase it. I don't really give a fuck until it gets to the quarter final stages.
 
get two more wins then play the kids. It's a stupid format, it needs to be top 8 get through only. Then things would really spice up
 
paulchapo said:
I know, I find that interesting.Aside from Real Madrid we are probably the glamour side worldwide now. Therefore we are attracting lots of tourist fans who probably pad out the attendance figures at these games as they will probably be easier to attain. 50,000 is a great attendance midweek for one of the groups less glamorous opposition. Maybe I should rephrase it. I don't really give a fuck until it gets to the quarter final stages.
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I thought there were very few touristy types last night.
 
Didsbury Dave said:
I thought there were very few touristy types last night.
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Really? I don't get to many champions league games these days but when I do it's usually full of them. This wasn't a glamour tie so maybe it would probably attract less. Was it priced a lot cheaper so therefore gave local fans a chance to get tickets to watch us live?
 
SkyBlueFlux said:
It just all has a feeling of just not really mattering though. If somebody good misses out on top 8 and they come say, 10th... oh well... they get seeded against 22nd or something and have to beat somebody like Club Brugge over two legs. Which they probably win. There's just no jeopardy in it.

Even in the old format it wasn't interesting until the last 16 when we might come across a half decent team, and that's still true - except now we have to put up with 10 rounds of fixtures against the likes Bratislava. It's a drag.

Sure, we will play PSG and Inter Milan, but as demonstrated already, winning those games has never really been less important. In the old groups of 4, losing home and away to a team like that could be terminal.
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I think that's a fair assessment. My counter-argument is that we are in unchartered territory here, so it might feel like these games don't matter right now. But come match day 7/8, there might be a few clubs who are kicking themselves (Bayern/PSG especially).

As things currently stand (I know it's only been three games), the knockout would include ties like Barca vs. Bayern and PSG vs. Juventus. In an already congested season, Arsenal would have to play two extra games against Girona, a decent Spanish side. That's a nightmare for five of the biggest clubs.

Real Madrid,the biggest club, wouldn't make the top eight.

Also, Leipzig, Milan, and Atleti will be eliminated!!

If we see drama like that this year, clubs (and fans) will feel a higher sense of jeopardy in these early games next season. So I do think this format has legs and definitely has potential to be better than the previous group stages.
 
paulchapo said:
Really? I don't get to many champions league games these days but when I do it's usually full of them. This wasn't a glamour tie so maybe it would probably attract less. Was it priced a lot cheaper so therefore gave local fans a chance to get tickets to watch us live?
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I don't know. It was only my take from Colin Bell Upper Tier. Most of the regulars were there but I didn't notice many of the usual Asian half and half scarfers waving their cameras around.
 
Reality is, when you’re as good as City are at the minute, any group format you can think of is going to be a boring, no jeopardy, stroll to the knock out stages.

If this was the Mancini days, when getting out of the group was considered a major achievement, we would have been in a better position to judge if it’s an improvement or not.

But hard to say when both formats are almost certainly going to produce the same predictable outcome.
 
Still think it's better than the old groups less predictable.Not sure how anyone can say less jeopardy,i for instance you take the table as it is there are a lot of good teams between 8 and 24 that would be looking at 2 legs with plenty of jeopardy,reckon Milan, Lepzig Atletico and can see their fair share of jeopardy too.
 
With us being top of UEFA's coefficients we're not getting any benefit from the success we've had under the previous format. However Villa who are way down the rankings have benefited a lot. They probably have a set of easier fixtures than we do.

When we first won the League we didn't get in Pot 1 for the following season's CL, that was changed to Pot 1 teams being the CL winners and the league winners from the highest ranked European Leagues.

Now we've got the highest ranking it's been changed again. I think teams shouldn't play others from the same pot, there has to be some reward for winning a domestic league.
 
BerkshireBlue said:
get two more wins then play the kids. It's a stupid format, it needs to be top 8 get through only. Then things would really spice up
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No way will 13 points get top 8 to automatically qualify for the knock out stage. Play kids and we'll end up playing a two legged qualifier with senior players required. Also, we're down to the kids at the moment, we'd used all our senior players last night, not that we could have used them but our only unused subs were Carson and Ederson.
 
hammocity said:
No way will 13 points get top 8 to automatically qualify for the knock out stage. Play kids and we'll end up playing a two legged qualifier with senior players required. Also, we're down to the kids at the moment, we'd used all our senior players last night, not that we could have used them but our only unused subs were Carson and Ederson.
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against some other dross team though. You only need to get to 24th in the league and then start to play after that. I'd rather not bother with the first 8 games for fatigue reasons and then go all out for the knockouts
 
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