Europa Legua

[tttcowan]

I can't remember who or when it was but does someone have a link to the paper written by a club coach somewhere which analysed the average number of points dropped following a game 3 days or less prior to the league game?

... The sooner people realise at least part of the reason we under performed and then lost is the Europa league. Wish i'd kept a link to it, it says on average you lose 0.5 points the following Sunday for every Thursday Europa league game... Frankly I think we lose more.

I understand why people want to us to go for the Europa league, it's a cup after all and fingers crossed we could be good enough to get both a cup and champions league football. Wouldn't that be grand. What I dont understand is people who don't accept the Europa league will impact our premier league matches, like it did yesterday... Christ, Kyle Walker was in russia but 4 days ago, through god knows how many timezones and at least one of the goals was his fault.

Edit:
Found the paper,
backs everything up with stats for those who still, unbelievably don't understand the EL campaign costs us points in the league.
http://worldfootballacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/WFA_Study-on-recovery-days.pdf

 

[Sp3akerboxxx]

Fuck the europa league. Doesnt even give you cl qualification until after next year. Being the best 3rd-7th placed team in europe has no glory for me

 

[Jimmypearce7]

I know we have polasrised opinions about this on here but it can't help to travel to Moscow and back before playing a match- whether you play there or not.
Travel over that distance is tiring and disrupts routines and sleep patterns.

Our rivals i think would be very happy to have seen the photos of the squad in Moscow.

For a business to invest £100 million to reach an objective and then to damage its only chances of doing so by failing to prioritise is it is crazy.

AVB likes the Europa? So what? The board should say at a minimum that no players who he intends to pick in the first 11 for the next game can travel to Europa league away games. Sure if we get to the semi or something and its near we could relax that but we have to take that approach now, otherwise we are fighting our rivals with one arm tied behind our back.

 

[TaoistMonkey]

If Spurs lift that cup at the end of the Comp and the players are going mental, you can all go fuck yourself you miserable gits.

 

[mattyspurs]

Bollocks. Why the fuck can't we do both!! Some of the players who played yesterday didn;t even play in Moscow. Some of the players who didn't play in Moscow were on the fucking bench yesterday!!

These guys are physically very fit, they can play these games.

 

[C-oops]

Exactly. These are athletes of the highest standards with fitness levels most people can only dream of. A 1st class trip where you can basically relax does not take it out of you. If they were cramped up in economy there may be a point to be had here but long distance travel is just a part of the game. Would we be complaining if we had to travel to Anji, Moscow, Shakter or Kiev if it was the CL? No. We wouldn't. There is no reason to say Thurs was the reason we were so poor yesterday. Apart from Townsend no one played with any urgency or pace. We had two right footed players on the left and the wrong player up front.

 

[Jimmypearce7]

We can play both- if our target is to be in the Europa again next year. Perhaps it can become our competition?

 

[DEFchenkOE]

We can play both- if our target is to be in the Europa again next year. Perhaps it can become our competition?

Well it's the way we're heading and AVB loves to give the competition respect, yet Uefa don't seem to respect those that have to participate in it from the start by giving CL flops a 2nd chance at glory after they've already had the benefit of the riches on offer from the group stages.

 

[Sp3akerboxxx]

I know we have polasrised opinions about this on here but it can't help to travel to Moscow and back before playing a match- whether you play there or not.
Travel over that distance is tiring and disrupts routines and sleep patterns.

Our rivals i think would be very happy to have seen the photos of the squad in Moscow.

For a business to invest £100 million to reach an objective and then to damage its only chances of doing so by failing to prioritise is it is crazy.

AVB likes the Europa? So what? The board should say at a minimum that no players who he intends to pick in the first 11 for the next game can travel to Europa league away games. Sure if we get to the semi or something and its near we could relax that but we have to take that approach now, otherwise we are fighting our rivals with one arm tied behind our back.

You cannot under any circumstances allow your chairman to make lineup decisions. Who plays on what day is at the discretion of the head coach and no one else.

 

[Sp3akerboxxx]

Bollocks. Why the fuck can't we do both!! Some of the players who played yesterday didn;t even play in Moscow. Some of the players who didn't play in Moscow were on the fucking bench yesterday!!

These guys are physically very fit, they can play these games.

Sure mate, why dont you go on a 14 hour flight and then try and run 18km. That is just a glaring lack of knowledge on physiology.

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

2 questions for the OP

1.So if we qualify for the Champions League should we just put out a reserve/u21 side so it doesn't damage our chances of making top 4 in the Prem?

2.We now have a big squad full of quality. How do you propose keeping those not currently in the starting 11 fit, sharp, motivated and happy if we don't play them in Europe or the league?

 

[lillywhites61]

It is a fair statement, except other teams have been there and done it, I fact most teams who have win the bloody thing have pretty much qualified for Europe the following year.

I think at times you may be right but quite honestly yesterday we just looked poor, no bite and West Ham looked like they wanted it more! I hope AVB has learnt from this

 

[dagraham]

I do think AVB plays far too strong a team in the group stages of the EL. We should be able to field more youngsters in these games. Let's be honest, some of these teams would struggle in the championship and are cloggers to boot, not to mention dodgy pitches etc.

Its still no excuse for yesterday. After all, 7 of the starting line up yesterday didn't start in Russia and 2 of them didn't even travel.

 

[0-Tibsy-0]

I find this difficult, although I find many of the Europa league matches dull and my main concern is what effect it has on our league form, for me personally I also know that if we were to win it then that night would be unrivalled in terms of glory compared to anything that I've seen in my Spurs supporting life (I'm a reasonably young one...).

Sometimes we forget about the glory becasue everything has been overshadowed by the commercialism of the Champions League and that 'glorious' 4th place.

 

[dagraham]

I find this difficult, although I find many of the Europa league matches dull and my main concern is what effect it has on our league form, for me personally I also know that if we were to win it then that night would be unrivalled in terms of glory compared to anything that I've seen in my Spurs supporting life (I'm a reasonably young one...).

Sometimes we forget about the glory becasue everything has been overshadowed by the commercialism of the Champions League and that 'glorious' 4th place.

But surely we only need to take it seriously when we reach the knock out stages?

 

[Veuve Clicquot]

The europa league will have a negative effect on our league games. It already has effected our last 3 league matches because Rose has been unable to play in them after AVB decided to risk him in the home match against Tromso, a game I'm sure we would have won with Fryers at left back. The lack of a proper left back has left us completely unbalanced and easy to defend against, especially so with AVB's selection of right footed siggurdson in front.
Also, why play Dembele for 90 min on thursday when he was going start yesterday? Why play Walker for 90 min in both matches? Both of these players had poor matches yesterday. Was it necessary to bring Eriksen on thursday when we were 2-0 up? couldn't he have put Kane on instead?? Why play Defoe for 90 mins when you were planning on playing him on sunday? Why take Soldado at all if you are going to keep him on the bench?
As well as the above concerns, AVB stated in the week that the players would have Friday and Saturday off and they would prepare for the West Ham match on Sunday morning, this smacks of complacency, thinking 'it's only west ham' and we only have to turn up to beat them. Meanwhile, fat Sam has had all week to prepare his players and plan how to beat us.
AVB loves this competition because he won it with Porto, but they had a lot of easy games due to the relative weakness of the Portugese league, there are no easy games in this league as AVB should have discovered by now.

 

[Grapo2001]

In my opinion there is little point in leaving the first team at home whilst the manager and staff are away in Europe. Sure they will rest, but hey will not gain any preparation for the next PL game.

 

[eViL]

I want honours.

 

[nightgoat]

Zzzzzzzzzzz...

 

[Vulcan10]

Could have left some staff at home also to prepare the players. To me west ham was the priority and if 1 of the 2 games required less preparation it was the one in Russia. I want to win the EL but with the group we are in, we can take it easy and prioritise league games at this stage. Completely agree fryers would have been fine for the game rose was injured in, kane also in rusdia. You learn more from losses than wins and yesterday was embarrasing for avb, As long as he's not stubborn at least that should be the last time so many first team players are taken to daft away el games and the last time jd starts upfront alone.