We are all on a high and buzzing from Sunday’s magnificent win at the Etihad, and talk now has definitely moved from the top-4 to winning the title. Of course, an opportunity to win the league for the first time in 55 years, and only the third time in our 134-year history should indeed be our priority. We move now onto a week of the much-maligned Europa League with many supporters already talking about giving up on the competition, so we can be fully focused on the title.
Article by Jason @e_spursthailand
I strongly disagree, and feel we should be in the Europa League for as long as we possibly can, and I prefer to look at all the benefits of the League rather than concentrating on the negatives.
People often talk about the distractions it causes. In the 4 years of Europa League since our Champions League campaign the facts of the exit impact is:
2011/12 - Whilst in Europa League - P14, Pts per game 2.21, Lge position 3rd
2011/12 - After KO Europa League - P24, Pts per game 1.58, Lge Position 4th
2012/13 - Whilst in Europa League - P32, Pts per game 1.87, Lge position 5th
2012/13 - After KO Europa League - P6, Pts per game 2.00, Lge Position 5th
2013/14 - Whilst in Europa League - P30, Pts per game 1.76, Lge position 5th
2013/14 - After KO Europa League - P8, Pts per game 2.00, Lge Position 6th
2014/15 - Whilst in Europa League - P26, Pts per game 1.69, Lge position 7th
2014/15 - After KO Europa League - P12, Pts per game 1.55, Lge Position 5th
In 3 of the 4 seasons, our league position has not improved following exit from The Europa League, and interestingly, the one time it did improve, we actually picked up fewer points per game after knockout. So there is hardly glowing evidence that exit from it will make a massive difference to our league form.
Another argument against it is the number of games you play. This year, if we reached the final, it would be our 15th game in the competition. If we had finished 4th last year and entered the Champions League, the final would be the 15th game!!. Exactly the same number of games. Therefore, the number of games excuse is again invalid if we want to be competing in the Champions League. And of course the Europa group games are usually far less intense than the Champions League group games. If we can’t handle the demand of games this year, then how would we handle the demands of Champions League next year?
To keep a squad happy, players want to be playing games, not sitting months out watching. The competition offers us the chance to keep the whole squad involved, and importantly at this stage of the season, match fit. Davies, Trippier, Bentaleb, Mason, Carroll, Chadli, Lamela all failed to start Sunday, and therefore would all be desperate to play and impress. Therefore, we do not need to weaken the side considerably. 1st Leg you could pair Dier & Mason, 2nd leg Bentley & Dembele. Still strong and still offers PL players a rest. At the later stages, when Jan returns, you can even rotate Jan, Toby & Wimmer. I would not hesitate to play Kane on Thursday with no PL game for a further 10 days. Hopefully, we’d get a result from the first leg that would enable us to play just 30/45mins of the 2nd leg if necessary.
If we get past Fiorentina, the next round would see us play on Thurs 10 March, followed by 13th Aston Villa a/FACQF, 17th EL2L, 20th Bournemouth H. Again, league games that we should have a big enough squad to be able to handle on the back of a Europa game. The Europa QF & SF both in April where we do have a tougher month, and at this stage if we are in the title race then for sure we would want to keep our key players fully fit, but also, if we reach April with Top-4 assured but with title hopes over, it would be nice to still have a trophy to aim for rather than just a season petering out.
Many of us older fans have known the glory glory nights at WHL. The vast majority of these have never been in the Champions League. Our name is on the Europa League trophy twice. Still in the competition are Dortmund, Porto, Schalke, Sporting Lisbon, Napoli, Lazio, Seville, Valencia. Marseille, Shakhtar, Galatasaray, Man U, Liverpool. Who would turn down European nights under the lights of WHL against those sides. Are we really saying the competition is so poor that we don’t want a QF v Porto, SF v Napoli and a F v Dortmund?
I accept the Europa is very much the secondary European competition, but so is the Capital One Cup secondary to the FA Cup. But did that matter when we made the final last year, and won that in 2008. I don’t remember anybody complaining we were in that final, not the FA Cup final.
Winning breeds confidence, winning becomes a habit, and you want as many members of the squad being involved in winning big games.
I hope we go strong Thursday, I hope we go through, and go strong again in the next round, and get to the QFs, and then and only then start to worry about the league providing we are still in with a great chance of winning it.
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Not sure you ment Bentley when listing players that will need games!
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