The battle for 3rd place

Can't believe anyone on this forum would see our potential participation in the Europa league as anything but a total disaster.
Just to clarify for anyone who doesn't know it's a disadvantage:
Every time we play after a Europa league tie - our opponents will always have had more rest between games than us, unless they're also in the competition
PL teams not in Europe, a week off, teams in CL always 1 or 2 days more.
It's an utterly pointless competition and the whole format should be changed to just one European competition. If we don't get top 4 we will get EL and it would be a disaster.
 
Full summary
Table
-------------------G------Pts---GD
3 Liverpool-35-----69----29
4 City---------34-----66----28
5 United-----34-----65----26
6 Arsenal---33-----60----22

Liverpool Fixtures
07/05 Southampton (H)
14/05 West Ham (A)
21/05 Middlesbrough (H)

City Fixtures
06/05 Crystal Palace (H)
13/05 Leicester (H)
16/05 West Brom (H)
21/05 Watford (A)

United Fixtures
07/05 Arsenal (A)
14/05 Spurs (A)
17/05 Southampton (A)
21/05 Crystal Palace (H)

Arsenal Fixtures
07/05 United (H)
10/05 Southampton (A)
13/05 Stoke (A)
16/05 Sunderland (H)
21/05 Everton (H)
 
blue62 said:
Can't believe anyone on this forum would see our potential participation in the Europa league as anything but a total disaster.
Just to clarify for anyone who doesn't know it's a disadvantage:
Every time we play after a Europa league tie - our opponents will always have had more rest between games than us, unless they're also in the competition
PL teams not in Europe, a week off, teams in CL always 1 or 2 days more.
It's an utterly pointless competition and the whole format should be changed to just one European competition. If we don't get top 4 we will get EL and it would be a disaster.
Click to expand...

one of the other posters hit the nail on the head,,the proof is Man U the side has simply run out of steam and taken its toll on injuries, the players are all fatigued and for what 'nothing' because thats what they will end up with, its very unlikely they will be lifting that cup even at these late stages they simply cant produce the form to do so now, so what happens is they have not fully concentrated on top 4 because of the EL carrot 'the CL' and because of that they will have to play EL again next year and the wheel goes round, city to are running out of steam but i think we have enough in us for that 4th place
 
aguerrrroooooooooooo said:
Full summary
Table
-------------------G------Pts---GD
3 Liverpool-35-----69----29
4 City---------34-----66----28
5 United-----34-----65----26
6 Arsenal---33-----60----22

Liverpool Fixtures
07/05 Southampton (H)
14/05 West Ham (A)
21/05 Middlesbrough (H)

City Fixtures
06/05 Crystal Palace (H)
13/05 Leicester (H)
16/05 West Brom (H)
21/05 Watford (A)

United Fixtures
07/05 Arsenal (A)
14/05 Spurs (A)
17/05 Southampton (A)
21/05 Crystal Palace (H)

Arsenal Fixtures
07/05 United (H)
10/05 Southampton (A)
13/05 Stoke (A)
16/05 Sunderland (H)
21/05 Everton (H)
Click to expand...

TBH i have been looking at united being the main threat and was thinking of an arse win over them at the weekend but now looking at arsenals fixtures the draw in that game may be best for us providing of course we win, ive not written 3rd off but i do see us cocking up along the run in and at worse droping 4 points from the 12
 
Kazzydeyna said:
Sorry to keep banging the drum but failure to make top 4 in this, as weak a premier league as I've seen in years, would be nothing short of abject failure.

No excuses. It would mean the club had taken the biggest backwards step since the takeover. That's not an opinion, it's a straight up fact.

I remember the heady days of only a couple of years ago when city used to fight for titles and cups. We used to laugh at arsenal and other teams scrapping like crazy for "the 4th placed cup".

Now it's being spun as 'progress' over a season where we finished top 4 (easily), won a cup, and got to the first CL semi in our history.

The excuses for next year are already being written. "Struggling to attract 'Peps sort of players' ", "transition".

This season is already a huge disappointment and failure. Dropping out of top four with this squad, in this league, would be nothing short of a grotesque joke.

There is one positive though. We on here have finally got a forum where it is a banning offence to criticise the manager. Shame we didn't have one when we had managers who actually achieved their aims and made us champions. I wonder how many thread bans were handed out for calling a title winning manager a 'fucking senile old corpse'?
Click to expand...
top top post.
 
marco said:
TBH i have been looking at united being the main threat and was thinking of an arse win over them at the weekend but now looking at arsenals fixtures the draw in that game may be best for us providing of course we win, ive not written 3rd off but i do see us cocking up along the run in and at worse droping 4 points from the 12
Click to expand...
I also thought this, my summary doesn't show united have 2 Europa league games sandwiched between now and the spurs game as well; I'm almost certain with there injury crisis they basically have to prioritise the Europa league at this point because there is no way on earth they'll pick up 6 points from both of there next two games.

Liverpool have such an easy last 3 games that it would take an absolutely monumental screw up to allow 2 teams to leap frog them. Southampton are in terrible form with nothing left to play for, West Ham have been a shambles at home and borough will almost certainly be relegated by the last day of the season, I'll be amazed if they don't take at max points from their run of games.

Which in my opinion leaves a straight shootout for fourth between ourselves and Arsenal; they have 5 games and for me need to take at least thirteen points from those games to apply any sort of pressure on us
 
marco said:
one of the other posters hit the nail on the head,,the proof is Man U the side has simply run out of steam and taken its toll on injuries, the players are all fatigued and for what 'nothing' because thats what they will end up with, its very unlikely they will be lifting that cup even at these late stages they simply cant produce the form to do so now, so what happens is they have not fully concentrated on top 4 because of the EL carrot 'the CL' and because of that they will have to play EL again next year and the wheel goes round, city to are running out of steam but i think we have enough in us for that 4th place
Click to expand...
Agree with everything and my point is this 'European reserve league' - for what it's worth - shouldn't even exist. It's appalling that anyone has to play Thursday night then compete at weekend. One expanded competition played Tues/Weds probably still not the answer but anything is better than this. Obviously, tv money is behind everything, so won't happen.
 
aguerrrroooooooooooo said:
I also thought this, my summary doesn't show united have 2 Europa league games sandwiched between now and the spurs game as well; I'm almost certain with there injury crisis they basically have to prioritise the Europa league at this point because there is no way on earth they'll pick up 6 points from both of there next two games.

Liverpool have such an easy last 3 games that it would take an absolutely monumental screw up to allow 2 teams to leap frog them. Southampton are in terrible form with nothing left to play for, West Ham have been a shambles at home and borough will almost certainly be relegated by the last day of the season, I'll be amazed if they don't take at max points from their run of games.

Which in my opinion leaves a straight shootout for fourth between ourselves and Arsenal; they have 5 games and for me need to take at least thirteen points from those games to apply any sort of pressure on us
Click to expand...

looking at it your way with reg to arsenal i certainly agree,the rags to some degree have given up on 4th place,the call over on the cafe is to play the remaining games with week sides and resting whoever they can for their semi's. i would say thats JM next move but think their to far gone for that and CV will spank them
 
Finishing in 4th should still be seen as a disappointment,if we manage to scrape it.
A Europa league place would be a kick in the teeth.
However in that case I'd be quite happy for the manager to do his experimenting with younger players Garcia,etc to give them some much needed experience.
There are plenty of viable reasons we haven't done as expected this season.
Ageing squad with not much done to rectify it last summer.
Poor refereeing decisions in critical matches.
A change in playing style,which the players haven't come totally to grips with.
Deeper premier league,where despite there are no outstanding sides,there are plenty of tough games to negotiate,very few easy games.
Injuries,ie to Jesus,just when he'd really started to look the real deal.

Obviously, these are all excuses and won't wash if trotted out next season.
 
Bill said:
the fact this thread exists is a fucking embarrassment.
Click to expand...
A 3rd placed finish, CL last 16 and FA Cup semi-finalists is not an embarrassment. It depends on whether you think this squad is capable of lifting a trophy or not.

At the start of the season I thought it was. I think if we had kept Kompany fit and Jesus had stayed fit, we'd have gone very close, but there are some huge holes in the squad which make it very difficult:

1) Goalkeeper - unfortunate. A risk we perhaps didn't need to take, although I can understand why Guardiola did it. Joe hart's distribution has always been slow
2) No full-backs of note. The best is Navas - a converted winger
3) Kompany out
4) Still relying a lot on Toure
5) Only 1 experienced striker for almost all of the season

We have some outstanding individual players: Silva, KDB, Aguero, Jesus, Sane, Sterling, Stones, Kompany and some very ordinary players. If we had been lucky with injuries - namely Kompany and Jesus we might still be in the FA Cup, CL and much closer to Chelsea.
 
blue62 said:
Agree with everything and my point is this 'European reserve league' - for what it's worth - shouldn't even exist. It's appalling that anyone has to play Thursday night then compete at weekend. One expanded competition played Tues/Weds probably still not the answer but anything is better than this. Obviously, tv money is behind everything, so won't happen.
Click to expand...

it was a decent cup when it was the uefa cup all matches tue/wed and dont forget the old division one had i think 42 fixtures plus two legged league cup fixtures and replays etc,so to some degree it still worked with our domestic games but i feel its just lost its value along with the CL,the fun went out of both cups when they introduced the table's the games were far better just plucked from the bag like the FA cup, then of course we have the corruption and we all know it goes on, give me the TEXACO cup anytime ;-)
 
marco said:
looking at it your way with reg to arsenal i certainly agree,the rags to some degree have given up on 4th place,the call over on the cafe is to play the remaining games with week sides and resting whoever they can for their semi's. i would say thats JM next move but think their to far gone for that and CV will spank them
Click to expand...

Agree with everything aside Celta Vigo, they are 11th in la liga and just got spanked 3-0 by Bilbao at home; probably resting players for Thursday I imagine though
 
blue62 said:
Agree with everything and my point is this 'European reserve league' - for what it's worth - shouldn't even exist. It's appalling that anyone has to play Thursday night then compete at weekend. One expanded competition played Tues/Weds probably still not the answer but anything is better than this. Obviously, tv money is behind everything, so won't happen.
Click to expand...

Just because you're in it doesn't mean you have to progress in it , you can always play the stiffs in it and bow out gracefully and reduce your workload- much like we did gifting United progress in the milk cup.

Sick of fucking hearing about the CL being the be all and end all - it's not done Chelsea any harm not being in it.
 
flb said:
Just because you're in it doesn't mean you have to progress in it , you can always play the stiffs in it and bow out gracefully and reduce your workload- much like we did gifting United progress in the milk cup.

Sick of fucking hearing about the CL being the be all and end all - it's not done Chelsea any harm not being in it.
Click to expand...
And neither am I a big CL fan. Unfortunately for us though no Europe - from where we are now in the table - doesn't look possible.
And why would we want to be in the EL and not try? That's minimum 6 games of no effort rather than 1.
I agree though this constant top 4 at all costs talk is tedious. But in today's money driven game we need it.
 
flb said:
Just because you're in it doesn't mean you have to progress in it , you can always play the stiffs in it and bow out gracefully and reduce your workload- much like we did gifting United progress in the milk cup.

Sick of fucking hearing about the CL being the be all and end all - it's not done Chelsea any harm not being in it.
Click to expand...

Club wants it, manager wants it, players want it. To succeed in it is an highlight of a players career. I have been present at the winning of three titles and just want to see us win the CL while I am still around. Also, missing it would stop some players wanting to come to us.
 
Complete disaster if we don't make it.
But if we fail noone else is to blame apart from the board, the players and the Manager and may be it will give them all a kick up the arse that they need.

The Manager must take big responsibility for picking a clown in goal and leaving poor Joe Hart in Italy without having the decency to give him a try. That along with some bizarre tactics like Sunday have left us stumbling over the line. Pellegrini must be laughing his backside off.
 
BLUEMATT23 said:
Complete disaster if we don't make it.
But if we fail noone else is to blame apart from the board, the players and the Manager and may be it will give them all a kick up the arse that they need.

The Manager must take big responsibility for picking a clown in goal and leaving poor Joe Hart in Italy without having the decency to give him a try. That along with some bizarre tactics like Sunday have left us stumbling over the line. Pellegrini must be laughing his backside off.
Click to expand...

He's too decent to laugh at us. He's a gentleman is old Pellers.

He would be fully entitled to laugh though. He's spanked the arse of Guardiola as a manager in the hardest league in the world.

But he was old, and he wasn't cool and down with the kids so he had to go. He's a far better manager but that doesn't matter these days.
 
Kazzydeyna said:
He's too decent to laugh at us. He's a gentleman is old Pellers.

He would be fully entitled to laugh though. He's spanked the arse of Guardiola as a manager in the hardest league in the world.

But he was old, and he wasn't cool and down with the kids so he had to go. He's a far better manager but that doesn't matter these days.
Click to expand...
Any credibility you had on this board has just gone right out of the window with that last sentence.
 
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