4th nor nothing is fine by me. Look the europa might be fun for some kids but I have said it consistently for years. The europa is a complete and utter killer in the knockout rounds. The last 32/last 16 are squeezed into the same time as a very spread out last 16 of cl. Then the quarters follow straight on after internationals and then the semi finals pile on. Look at all the Europa club results recently, teams with no europa are seriously taking advantage I would rather be out of the demand thing than slogging in the europa later on when we need to rebuild the club from the ground up in terms of fitness and desire.
The Europa winners get instantly into the CL without having to qualify. Certainly more important than the FA cup. And Europe is important for recruiting players too. No doubt in my mind that Klopp would rather finish in the Europa places than outside.
Very unlikely that Man Utd will drop out the top four this season so that doesn't make much difference to them.
No point worrying about top 4. Too many teams to get past and too many points to overcome. Just hope we get Europa at least
I'd rather focus on winning the cl than fighting for 5th or 6th If in the next couple games we cannot make a dent in Chelsea's lead then we have to prioritize the quarters. After than if we are in a semi final v chelsea I would.much rather rest 11 players and give our all than chance nothing. As I said its 4th or bust and any distraction next season from getting back into cl is undesirable. The groups of the europa are fine for a few kids to play but the minute we get to the last 32 it's a squad breaker. We don't have the team to do it, and wont after balancing the books. Cl or bust imo.
We are currently 9th in the UEFA coefficient, which spans the past 5 seasons, meaning we have a season of zero points in that time span. After this season we will be around 3rd in the coefficient and to prevent that dropping off a cliff we need to maintain European football of any kind.
Other than team selection, I don't see how we can "prioritise" one competition over another - and even then the resting versus match fitness debate is inconclusive. I rarely see resting players bring any improvement, and when it's the whole team it seems to be the opposite. The fixture congestion after the internationalbreak might tempt Klopp into tinkering, but it only takes one slip-up to be out of a cup and tbh the prospect of winning the CL seems equally as remote as getting 4th. Sadly, Europey might be the only achievable aim this time round.
i prefer not to bust tbh. It would still represent a big comedown if we got the Europa which seems well within our grasp atm. But to fall out completely out of the European places altogether would create unwanted history. Of course it will be a huge hassle with all the matches but beggars cannot be choosers as they say. I am not sure we would be in a position to drop out from 6th for example to 8th voluntarily. Fingers crossed of course in the CL. We could win it as we are in the weakest half of the comp. And that would make the Europa places irrelevant except for the ranking money.
We prioritize League and Champions league over the cups all the time. I totally agree, when we don't "rest" 2 or 3 players but put in an entriely different side we seem to just implode anyway. rotation should be consistent over a season with 3 or 4 or 5 players that come in and out with no drop in quality. Jota should enable that for any of the front 3 but he can't do it on his own. Origi could help but doesn't enough. (Lw and Cf but is such a drop in quality its pointless). Milner, keita, etc etc. For me in any even we have to go hard at the CL and try our best over 4 games and a final. it only takes 4 0-0s with pens to get to the final! equally it only take 30mins in any one leg to take the game away form the opponent OR hand it to them. Overall in 2016 we slumped to 8th as klopp totally focused on the europa. that team back then wasn't up to much so the question has to be whether the team can do enough in the remaining league games to get 5th or 6th or even 7th. right now it will be city v spurs in the league cup. If spurs win the are currently 5th anyway. If city win the place goes to 6th. Its city or cheslea (cl places) v southampton or leicester (cl place). the FA upc has a fiar chance to be assured to be going to the league slots. If we want to race everton for 7th fine but i coudn't give a crap really.
Just seen a clip of the spurs pen from yesterday. How the hell does a ref and VAR give that as a penalty?! Player slides in to block the cross, Kane ignored the ball, takes 3 steps in the opposite direction and falls into the defender
Baffling decision. I saw it at the time, and when I saw the replay I was certain it would be overturned - but no. And I don't think any of the commentators even questioned it, though I didn't see the MotD verdict. Seems like Saint Harry can do no wrong. I despair sometimes.
Saint harry says it all. Same as the non pen for everton. Any contact without the ball seems ow to be the new handball. Unless of course a keeper jumps into a player
Its been a trend in football for some time to basically ignore the ball and play the opposition man and then get a foul all under the guise normally of "protecting" the ball .
It is clear that Kane outsmarted the defender to get himself a penalty. But the referee and VAR had no alternative. Kane saw the player starting to slide, ignored the ball completely and moved in front of the slide which clattered him from behind, with the ball rolling out of play. Technically a foul all day if outside the penalty area.
If I’m lying on the floor in middle of the pitch and then someone out the blue runs into my while in there, that’s not a foul. The player wasn’t tackling, he was sliding to block the cross. If Kane continue to play the ball then villa player is a yard away from any sort of contact.
Par for the course for Kane. Always manipulating the game for penalties, if it's not the backing into players then it's this