Our Poor European Form

[WiganSpur]

It's true - too legged knock out football is a very different beast to the PL. You look at managers who've been standout in Europe - people like Mourinho and Benitez - they know how to set up a team to grind out a result away from home.

Poch is still evolving as a manager, This was his first year as a coach in the CL, he'll have learned a lot hopefully.

Absolutely correct. He's slowly getting better but there is still some way to go.

He's brought in some tactical variety this season which has often worked quite well, but he still needs to learn some pragmatism and when to apply it.

I actually think these negative experiences at Wembley will really benefit us in the long-run. It gets us used to playing under the weight of expectation and also dealing with the demands of larger pitches and getting caught on the counter. It's just a shame we couldn't have a longer run for more practice if anything.

 

[Hazelton]

None of them teams rest key players tho?

Rest/rotate. For example, Barcelona will often rest Iniesta and play Rafinha or Denis Suarez, they'll rest Alba and play Digne, they'll rest Pique/Mascherano and play Mathieu/Umtiti etc. We can't rotate on the same level and get away with it.

 

[SUIYHA]

I read/heard that same BS line last season after getting dicked by BVB, how did that one work out again....?

Highest league finish in 26 years.

 

[sunnydelight786]

Highest league finish in 26 years.

So we were 5 points behind the leaders after getting knocked out by BVB with 8 games to go and finished off being 11 points behind them. Getting knocked out really helped us even though every Tom Dick and Harry was saying it would....

 

[SUIYHA]

• Won the "Group of Death" with the easiest game still to spare.
  
  
• The same points or more from that group than nine teams have won in the Premier League so far this season.
  
  
• Absolutely smashed the back to back champions.
  
  
• Six points off a team that has reached the final of this competition and thrashed us off the park in the last couple of years.

Take a minute to read through the early part of this thread and remind yourselves just how bad we'd been in Europe for a very long time. And then I'd be keen to hear your answers to the question - what changed? Because there sure as hell weren't any calls in this thread to play Winks more or sign a new centre-back...