Europa League 2013/14

[dontcallme]

The problem with the Europa is the set-up. There are too many games. The teams in the Europa don't have strong enough squads to compete at full-strength in both their league and the cups.

I still believe the cups are worth winning though. We don't have a squad full of world class players but we do have some very talented players not getting enough of a look in.

Without any signings next season our squad could look like this:

GK: Lloris, Friedel
RB: Walker, Naughton
LB: BAE, Rose
CB: Kaboul, Vertonghen, Caulker, Dawson
CM: Sandro, Parker, Dembele, Holtby, Livermore
AM: Bale, Lennon, Townsend, Sigurddson, Dempsey
ST: Defoe, Adebayor

Playing one upfront we have a problem because 2 isn't enough but 3 is too many. If we play a strong teams in the Europa we can justify a signing like Michu or Remy who can play as a striker or AM.

Caulker needs games but needs to work on areas before getting a run in the Prem. How about we make him captain for EL games. Responsibility and guaranteed games if we progress.

We have enough senior players there to rotate enough to put out a strong team in the EL and not be weakened for the league.

A good EL campaign can justify a bigger squad.

 

[Spurger King]

This whole thread seems a little pointless when it will need to be locked by Sunday evening.

 

[parklane1]

I'm not comparing CL to Europa in terms of the mid-week games. I'm saying that the overall Europa challenge is much bigger than the league or FA cup and has lesser rewards than the CL itself.

A genuine push to win the Europa will take more out of our squad than a run at the domestic cups, and with the way our squad is setup right now I don't think we have enough to do that.

Put another way, I would absolutely have traded our games against Basel for an additional 3 league points for this season. I probably would have thrown the Inter games in there as well. The point being that we need to push much harder to win the Europa than we do to get CL, and I would rather succeed in one and flop in the other than come close to both but still fail in both.

And I did say "potentially" jetting off. Trips to Rome and Paris are lovely but wait until you are on a bus heading to Boomshakalak or whatever it's called out in Russia!

Well i guess we will have to agree to disagree, its all about glory for me and that means winning a trophy and the Europa is better then finishing among the runners up ( top four).

 

[spursfan77]

I'd like us to take it seriously but who can really take seriously a competition that rewards the failure of dropping out the Champions League. Until that is addressed the competition will remain Mickey Mouse.

 

[We'llWinThePrem]

We should not be playing our first XI in the Europa League until at least the QF.

I think a team like this would do fine in the early stages:

Friedel​

Smith Dawson Caulker Fryers​

Bentaleb Livermore Carroll​

Townsend Defoe Falque​

 

[DEFchenkOE]

Was so hoping we would be able to lock this thread.

Nevermind, still say that unless we have amazing squad depth next season (unlikely) then we play our reserves and u21s here. There's a reason that most managers don't even like it and if you ask avb if he preferred that we went out in the El group stage having played the kids and had those 3 points v Fulham I wonder what he'd pick.

Waste of time comp playing our first team when our squad is paper thin in attack and on the wings especially.

 

[shelfboy68]

Was so hoping we would be able to lock this thread.

Nevermind, still say that unless we have amazing squad depth next season (unlikely) then we play our reserves and u21s here. There's a reason that most managers don't even like it and if you ask avb if he preferred that we went out in the El group stage having played the kids and had those 3 points v Fulham I wonder what he'd pick.

Waste of time comp playing our first team when our squad is paper thin in attack and on the wings especially.

We can't and won't win it anyway so what's the point.

 

[Paolo10]

Again, I won't give a fuck about this competition, I'd rather not play our best players in this and concentrate on the league, especially seeing as how we've just missed out today.

Even if we do get through the groups, CL teams drop in, lessening the competiton's integrity yet again and for all the 'glory' and financial reward I don't think it's worth it. If we're going to compete across so many competitions we need to invest heavily in the squad, which is doubtful as usual.