Europa, Conference or bust?

RoyH1 said:
I’d rather have us not qualify for Conference or Europa League. Let’s focus exclusively on improving in the Premiership
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Usually I would agree with this however I think we're now I'm a situation whereby it actually benefits us to have these games.

It gives Ten Hag a real opportunity to work on his system with existing/new players & youngsters in a competitive environment that has little consequences if we lose the odd game. Training cannot replicate a team match.

The Europa is also another route into the champions league as top 4 next season will be very competitive.

This season we got knocked out of both domestic trophies very early, this meant a lot of young players and fringe players didn't get game time. There's every chance this could happen next season then we're playing 1 game a week.

At the end of the day what we want is irrelevant as the results will dictate it.
 
Honestly couldn't care less. If we qualify for one of the lesser European tournaments it's a chance to blood young players or give fringe players opportunities. Later on there's a potential for a trophy which we've sorely lacked in recent years.

I'd only be upset about this if we're regularly playing first team players in these competitions and it detracts from our league form.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Yeah, this.

I also can’t fathom football fans preferring a scenario where their team plays a lot fewer games. Literally the only point of being a football fan is watching your team play football. Are people really got so consumed by bragging rights that they’ve completely forgotten why they support a football team?!
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For sure. These people are more worried about "oh no I'll be memed by rival for playing on Thursdays, therefore best to finish as low as possible" than seeing the benefits of playing on Thursdays.

Firstly, there is a CL format change in 2024. The competition is getting expanded and two of the extra spots will go to non-qualified teams with 'historic performances'. That basically means the coefficients over the last 5 years. Currently we're the 9th best team in Europe in that period. How? It certainly isn't based on our splendid performances in the CL. We're up there because we go deep in the Thursday night competition.

All the 8 teams ahead of us are qualifying through the league route. So if the format change happened at the end of this season, we would get a CL place if we finished 5th in the league. That's a massive incentive for us. But it's a worthless incentive if we have a season without European football. If we go 'bust' as a lot of United fans seemingly want, we get 0 points on the coefficients next season. That blank would not only send us down to around 15th place next year but it will also haunt us for the following 4 years. We could kiss goodbye to any chance of grabbing one of the extra spots because we would be overtaken by a lot of clubs competing for those exact spots.

Secondly, we haven't won anything for 5 years (effectively 6 years as we can't win anything until next year). Whether it's the Europa or Conference League, winning it will end the drought. We are neck and neck with Liverpool in terms of trophies won. If people are concerned about 'bragging rights', that's where the focus should be. Win more trophies than them. We can't win things if we're not even participating in competitions. Our best shot at that at the moment is winning the smaller trophies. Instill a winning mentality and build on that.

Lastly, if ETH is the new manager there will be a big emphasis on youth. Europa would provide him with excellent first-hand information on who is ready to make the step up. Especially in his first season this will be important as his reference points towards our youth setup initially won't be the strongest. The likes of Mejbri, Garner, Fernandez, Laird, Diallo, Shoretire, Pellistri, McNeil, Garnacho etc. will be given a chance to prove themselves in a low-pressure but competitive environment. Pathway to the first team becomes so much harder if we don't have Europa.
 
It’s going to be a special season having the world cup crammed in between. A low point tally might be enough to win the title. Why not us without the distraction of Europe? Conte would have us challenging right away but not good for the long run which is why I prefer Ten Hag. Not sure if he’d hit the ground running though neither Pochettino. Either way it’s bust for me.
 
Again, if we don't have Europe, what exactly are we doing next season? We're not gonna win the league, and a whole season simply fighting for 4th sounds awful.

Let's try and win something ffs
 
MancunianAngels said:
Again, if we don't have Europe, what exactly are we doing next season? We're not gonna win the league, and a whole season simply fighting for 4th sounds awful.

Let's try and win something ffs
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Exactly my thinking, why settle for not playing in Europe at all ? Are we too good for EL ? I don't think so.
We can give our youth a chance, we can give our fans more games, our manager can try different things, we can try and win it there are many reason we should want to play in Europe next season.
 
1. Europa League
2. No European competition
3. Conference League

With the Conference League being a very distant 3rd.
 
Really feel the EL would be great for the likes of Hannibal. That's if we go there and blow out teams in the first legs.

It's such a shame that every game seems like an almighty struggle to win right now, and consequently our youngsters bar Elanga aren't having a look in.
 
I actually really like the Europa League. Great chance to play some of the youth, wider squad, or players to get themselves back into form. It’s also a decent level of competition in the latter stages, and it’s probably the only trophy we can realistically win next season. So I’m all for it.

Main thing with ETH is we give him enough time to instil his ideas and ethos, so if playing Europe hampers that, it might be better to miss it altogether.
 
feck me, how is this even a debate.

Thursday nights are absolutely awful, I’d rather we had a break during the season than that shit.

I can already suspect us holding on to those useless fringe players because “the calendar is congested with the World Cup and the conference league.”
 
Giant Midget said:
feck me, how is this even a debate.

Thursday nights are absolutely awful, I’d rather we had a break during the season than that shit.

I can already suspect us holding on to those useless fringe players because “the calendar is congested with the World Cup and the conference league.”
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And then we hardly play any of our promising youth players. Instead first XI or deadwood
 
Red Royal said:
And then we hardly play any of our promising youth players. Instead first XI or deadwood
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We say that every time we participate in this competition then end playing either our first XI or past it players like Juan Mata. When was the last time we actually used EL to play promising youngsters?
 
el3mel said:
We say that every time we participate in this competition then end playing either our first XI or past it players like Juan Mata. When was the last time we actually used EL to play promising youngsters?
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Garner played a fair bit in the 19/20 Europa League group stages but other than that it was mostly the second string. Might be more of an opportunity for youth to play next season though with the world cup and a number of the second string leaving due to contracts expiring and whatnot.
 
CM10 said:
Honestly couldn't care less. If we qualify for one of the lesser European tournaments it's a chance to blood young players or give fringe players opportunities. Later on there's a potential for a trophy which we've sorely lacked in recent years.

I'd only be upset about this if we're regularly playing first team players in these competitions and it detracts from our league form.
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Club co-efficient system counts 5 years of European result, if you miss 1 season in the wilderness, your total scores would be typically 20 pts less, pushing you down by 10 places. As much as you despise Europa etc., they contribute to your total points.

Starting from next season (?), there will be 2 wild card places for the top co-efficient clubs that fail to qualify for CL....
 
If we get the Europa conference then that really would be perfect to introduce the young players.
 
I love watching united play. So I would prefer a cup. It could even mean a cool trip to places like Prague or some close by Scandinavian city. Also it could be very good for our youngsters
 
Would rather miss out on not just this Conference League but the Europa League too.

Just focus next season on the league & winning one of or both domestic trophies.
 
Samid said:
For sure. These people are more worried about "oh no I'll be memed by rival for playing on Thursdays, therefore best to finish as low as possible" than seeing the benefits of playing on Thursdays.

Firstly, there is a CL format change in 2024. The competition is getting expanded and two of the extra spots will go to non-qualified teams with 'historic performances'. That basically means the coefficients over the last 5 years. Currently we're the 9th best team in Europe in that period. How? It certainly isn't based on our splendid performances in the CL. We're up there because we go deep in the Thursday night competition.

All the 8 teams ahead of us are qualifying through the league route. So if the format change happened at the end of this season, we would get a CL place if we finished 5th in the league. That's a massive incentive for us. But it's a worthless incentive if we have a season without European football. If we go 'bust' as a lot of United fans seemingly want, we get 0 points on the coefficients next season. That blank would not only send us down to around 15th place next year but it will also haunt us for the following 4 years. We could kiss goodbye to any chance of grabbing one of the extra spots because we would be overtaken by a lot of clubs competing for those exact spots.

Secondly, we haven't won anything for 5 years (effectively 6 years as we can't win anything until next year). Whether it's the Europa or Conference League, winning it will end the drought. We are neck and neck with Liverpool in terms of trophies won. If people are concerned about 'bragging rights', that's where the focus should be. Win more trophies than them. We can't win things if we're not even participating in competitions. Our best shot at that at the moment is winning the smaller trophies. Instill a winning mentality and build on that.

Lastly, if ETH is the new manager there will be a big emphasis on youth. Europa would provide him with excellent first-hand information on who is ready to make the step up. Especially in his first season this will be important as his reference points towards our youth setup initially won't be the strongest. The likes of Mejbri, Garner, Fernandez, Laird, Diallo, Shoretire, Pellistri, McNeil, Garnacho etc. will be given a chance to prove themselves in a low-pressure but competitive environment. Pathway to the first team becomes so much harder if we don't have Europa.
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Excellent post. Totally agree fans need to be a bit more humble at the moment. Im sure Villareal are happy that they won the europa last season and went into pot one draw this season in champions league and are now in a QF. Its imperative that if we go into Europa League next season that we try and win this competition.
 
Europa League or bust, Id not want the Conference League. Winning the Europa gets you Champions League football.
 
I’d rather us miss out on Europe all together if we ain’t getting in the champions league. Will give us Extra free weeks to prepare and we can just focus on the premier league and it will benefit us by not having 2 games a week. On the other hand though the Europa gives us a chance at a trophy and to build on it and also gives us another route into the champions league the following season. The league will be harder next season, if Newcastle improve there squad then they’ll be somewhere in the top 10 I think. Spurs will be good if conte stays, arsenal should be better. so having another route into the champions league just incase our league campaign isn’t going as planned won’t be such a bad thing.
 
Would rather qualify for Europa because it helps the UEFA club coefficient much more than Conference and it's a European trophy that guarantees CL qualification if you win it (plus Super Cup).

Missing out on Europe entirely just places so much more importance on winning FA Cup, League Cup and finishing in the Top 4 while building up under a new manager and new football ops structure.
 
Whether you like it or not Europa is a good level for us now. A chance to get momentum, to blood new and youth players or for some of the off form players to be given chances.

We need all the games we can get. Fewer games isn't going to make us less shite!

Conference is a chance for youth players to get more 'mens' level football. The quality might be low, but the physicality is likely still a solid step up.
 
What on earth is a coefficient?

At this rate everyone bit the relegated teams will be in the CL.

The CL will be more games than the PL and there you have your European Super League.
 
Europa League is a very good competition; don't understand the snobbery about it. I would much prefer us to be in that than nothing.

Trying to win the Europa League and FA Cup should be the focus next season. I would much prefer that to just top four.

Conference league - not so sure.
 
The Europa League is class, isn't it? Especially with the shite teams being relegated to the Conference League. It's actually our level too so we may actually win it instead of just make up the numbers in the Champions League.
 
Wow. West Ham might be in a semifinal, avoiding Barcelona. Good for them, and good luck to them.
 
I honestly don't understand how anyone can not want to see us competiting in European competitions, now matter which one it turns out to be.

Europe, under the flood lights at Old Trafford is ALWAYS special.

If it is the Conference, then bring it on, I always like playing sides that we haven't either played before, or not for a while, it would be really exciting.

This snobbery of we are too good, or we are above such tournaments, really winds me up to be fair and honest.

Any tournament that we find ourselves in, we should do our best to try to win, none of this, "play the kids, who cares about this cup", why not aim to win as many trophies as possible??

Such negative mindsets is crazy, when you think we haven't won anything since the Women's Championship in 2019 as a club, or even longer than that if we are merely talking on the men's side of things.
 
I wouldnt mind seeing us in the conference if i see a team made of shoretire, elanga, mejbri, amad, mengi, garner, levitt and co getting european minutes and trying to play in a way set by ETH and learn their craft.

if its to see matic, bailly etc struggle to prove that they can put 2 passes together absolutley fecking no way
 
Conference League.

Maybe that way we will get Rotor Voglorad the revenge whooping they have been cowarding out of for the last 27 years.

Bastards.
 
The Europa League is beneath us, but it is our level now. One must try to make the most of the situation one is in, but it would be nice if we could use the Europa League to start fringe players rather than running our regular starters into the ground.
 
PoTMS said:
The Europa League is class, isn't it? Especially with the shite teams being relegated to the Conference League. It's actually our level too so we may actually win it instead of just make up the numbers in the Champions League.
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We aren't a top European team at the moment so Europa League will atleast be exciting and possible to win as you say. Also need to get some confidence back as well. In the CL we are just filling up the numbers, nothing more.
 
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