Europa/Conference or outside?

Ludens the Red said:
We’re not finishing in the top four next season so a Europa campaign should not be sniffed at as it’s a passport into the cl. We definitely have more chance of winning Europa then finishing in the top 4 next season. There’s no way Ten Haag will be sending kids out unless we’re through with a few games left. Also there’s less games in Europa now than before.
Of course we’ll probably end up in the Conference anyway when we get smashed by palace which would be complete humiliation.
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Good point about winning Europa, hadn't considered that. Not convinced though, it's ultimately still a knockout competition so a huge element of chance as to who wins. I dont know if United can finish top four, I'll reserve judgement until I see what ETH and the management structure have planned. But United should be aiming for top 4 minimum, and with semi competent management we should be favourites over Arsenal and Spurs.

Think we'll get Europa even if we lose to Palace. West Ham have City home and Brighton away and need 3 points minimum to catch us. Wolves have more games but play both City and Liverpool.
 
We will actually need to get at least a point against Palace to avoid the humiliation that's Conference League. Hilarious to say the best.

Let's hope our giga paid superstars can secure that point.
 
The Europa League is acceptable. Our aspiration has to be a top four finish regardless of which cup competitions we're in.
 
Europa league, more games to bed down a style of play, some experience for some players in playing european ties that require different approaches especially if a knockout round etc. Conference League, id try do a spurs and get disqualified
 
Europa is preferable. Bigger stadiums, therefore bigger allocations for us. In reality I'd take either over nothing though.
 
Objectively Europa league, an alternative route to the UCL and more games to give to squad options.
But the proud united fan in me prefers finishing 8 and starting a fresh, writing off this season.
 
Europa League is a decent competition and would be a good confidence booster if we could have a good run in it.
 
The Conference League itself isn’t the issue, in fact for a single season, I’d be fine with the novelty and the chance to be the first team to win all four major UEFA competitions. However, people seem to be overlooking that we would go straight into the Europa League by finishing sixth, but we would have qualifiers for the Conference League by finishing seventh:



City surely won’t lose to West Ham, but Brighton have nothing but pride to play for on the final day now. We may well need a point against Palace. We need that anyway just to save us from finishing with negative goal difference.
 
I'd rather be in Europa League as it's at least a worthy trophy, if we end up in conference, I'd rather we not play in Europe at all next season
 
Better off out of Europe altogether for a season. Less pointless games and more time on the training pitch. This lot need as much of that as they can get.
 
Imagine West Ham draw v City, allowing Liverpool to win the league and then get the 3 points at Brighton and we are unable to beat Palace that would just be horrific :nervous:

And you know it's gonna happen!!
 
I’d like us to still be in Europa. It’s still a somewhat entertaining competition, some potential good games, a European trophy and a route to CL. I enjoy a good European night.

I’d even chose conference over no Europe, IF we fully commit to youth and fringe players only. More experience for ETH to implement his system into the whole club and not just the first 14-15 who’ll play most games. And a good opportunity for us to see the rest of the players and keep their fitness up if needed and an opportunity for them to fight for a place.
 
I'm ashamed to admit I don't like UCL that much. It just shows up how sh1t we are. Maybe Europa is our level.
 
Oranges038 said:
Better off out of Europe altogether for a season. Less pointless games and more time on the training pitch. This lot need as much of that as they can get.
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That's almost an impossibility now as Wolves would have to win their remaining three games, two are against Liverpool and City and hope we don't win against Palace. Like or not we're in Europe next season..
 
hobbers said:
The key thing is not ending up in the pointless Conference.

Which now means we need to beat Palace and hope City do the job vs West ham.
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If City beat West Ham we just need a point at Palace.

I honestly think our best chance is West Ham lose to City then draw with Brighton because I think we're losing heavily at Palace.
 
hobbers said:
The key thing is not ending up in the pointless Conference.

Which now means we need to beat Palace and hope City do the job vs West ham.
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Surely they’re both as pointless as each other? The Europa is a tin pot trophy. Couldn’t give a shit about winning it. I only want European football so there’s more matches to watch next season. I couldn’t care less which of the two bottom tier tournaments those matches are in.
 
TMDaines said:
The Conference League itself isn’t the issue, in fact for a single season, I’d be fine with the novelty and the chance to be the first team to win all four major UEFA competitions. However, people seem to be overlooking that we would go straight into the Europa League by finishing sixth, but we would have qualifiers for the Conference League by finishing seventh:

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Ah. Bollox.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Surely they’re both as pointless as each other? The Europa is a tin pot trophy. Couldn’t give a shit about winning it. I only want European football so there’s more matches to watch next season. I couldn’t care less which of the two bottom tier tournaments those matches are in.
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There's a world of difference between the Europa and the Conference. The former is loaded with good teams since the reshuffle of competitions. At least Europa gives us an alternative option into the Champions League next season.
 
PoTMS said:
There's a world of difference between the Europa and the Conference. The former is loaded with good teams since the reshuffle of competitions. At least Europa gives us an alternative option into the Champions League next season.
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Only if you win it. That is an upside, to be fair. But a fairly marginal gain difference. I honestly couldn’t care less who we play against if we’re not in the Champions League. It’s all Mickey Mouse.
 
At this point there’s no doubt about it, Europa is far, far preferable to the Conference League.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Surely they’re both as pointless as each other? The Europa is a tin pot trophy. Couldn’t give a shit about winning it. I only want European football so there’s more matches to watch next season. I couldn’t care less which of the two bottom tier tournaments those matches are in.
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The Europa league would in theory mean getting to watch better matches though. You had the likes of Dortmund, Barcelona, Porto, Napoli, Sevilla etc. in this year's competition.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Surely they’re both as pointless as each other? The Europa is a tin pot trophy. Couldn’t give a shit about winning it. I only want European football so there’s more matches to watch next season. I couldn’t care less which of the two bottom tier tournaments those matches are in.
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It’s not pointless, it’s arguably the third biggest trophy you can win and brings automatic entry to the CL. What if next season Arsenal and Spurs continue to improve and top 4 proves difficult in the league? Europa League could become the best entry to the CL. Give me 6th and Europa League over 3rd and no trophies. Conference League is a step below Europa and has little to offer.
 
Isn't it a bit of a myth to say that having no Europa could make it easier for a new manager to implement his system on the training ground? Isn't actually playing the games and focusing on the games to implement the system better and can bring more results? It's not like we'll have an 18-man squad + youngsters only next season, so enough to rotate through EL or Conference group stage.
 
kps88 said:
The Europa league would in theory mean getting to watch better matches though. You had the likes of Dortmund, Barcelona, Porto, Napoli, Sevilla etc. in this year's competition.
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I honestly couldn’t care who we play. I happily watch pre-season games against Chinese teams! I just don’t care about any European trophy other than the CL. If we’re playing really crap teams then maybe that gives more of a chance to develop the kids? Which would be nice.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Only if you win it. That is an upside, to be fair. But a fairly marginal gain difference. I honestly couldn’t care less who we play against if we’re not in the Champions League. It’s all Mickey Mouse.
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Don't be Poch Mahone! We should be trying to win every competition we enter. That's the mentality ETH needs to instil again: winning silverware. We've played so many games in recent seasons under Ole and ended up with nothing to show for it, which is a tragedy. I'll be genuinely delighted to win absolutely anything next season, whether that be the Carabao Cup, Europa League and or Conference League.

Once you get to the latter stages, I don't think there is much between the two comps. Obviously you potentially get some big CL teams finishing 3rd and dropping down to the EL, but this season showed that the mix of teams at the latter stages in both competitions is likely to be comparable. The two strongest finalists this season are in the Conference League than Europa League, whether that be looking at FiveThirtyEight's xG+ model or Football Club Elo Ratings.

Hopefully we get the Europa League though, as that should be a real priority next season as a top four league finish will be a tough ask from where we are now. City and Liverpool will be certs, then you are probably looking at two from Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Newcastle and Manchester United. In recent seasons, Wolves, West Ham and Leicester have all gone close, but I don't see them actually making it next season.
 
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I’m normally one who wants us to play in Europe to win titles, but with how small I expect our squad to be next season (there's an awful lot of outgoings but I don't anticipate too many incoming), we'd be better off not competing at all. Though, we'd need to lose our last game and Wolves to win all 3 of their remaining games to do that...

Winning our last game and taking 6th will be for the best. Conference league will start too early.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Only if you win it. That is an upside, to be fair. But a fairly marginal gain difference. I honestly couldn’t care less who we play against if we’re not in the Champions League. It’s all Mickey Mouse.
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The problem is we're only making up the numbers in the Champions League. I'd be surprised if we got past the group stages and at the very best, the round of 16. The Europa League is now shorter than previous editions and has less shite teams from the backend of Europe. We'd also be one of, if not the overwhelming, favourites to win it. It could also help as a stepping stone to bigger things if we could actually win a trophy.
 
PoTMS said:
The problem is we're only making up the numbers in the Champions League. I'd be surprised if we got past the group stages and at the very best, the round of 16. The Europa League is now shorter than previous editions and has less shite teams from the backend of Europe. We'd also be one of, if not the overwhelming, favourites to win it. It could also help as a stepping stone to bigger things if we could actually win a trophy.
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The Europa League and Conference League are only shorter if you win your group and avoid having to play the knockout round play-offs, either against the teams dropping down from the competition above or you dropping down to the competition below.
 
Europa League is preferable to the Conference League but on the evidence of this season we probably don't even deserve that much. Unless there actually are big changes in the summer it's sort of immaterial anyway.

Ending up in the Conference League on final day gives rival fans one last opportunity to laugh at us this season, so I fully expect us to make that happen.
 
The Europa League is our level and at least provides us with an opportunity to play youngers/fringe players against reasonable opposition. We've won the EL, been in the final and SF in recent years and done feck all in the CL. As Jose would say, football heritage.
 
If there's a benefit to the Conference League (where I'm expecting we'll end up), I suppose it means we can work with a less experienced squad next season.

The first XI could almost be completely rested for the midweek games while the fringe players and youth would make up the team. We wouldn't get away with the same in the Europa where more quality is needed.
 
Irwin99 said:
That's almost an impossibility now as Wolves would have to win their remaining three games, two are against Liverpool and City and hope we don't win against Palace. Like or not we're in Europe next season..
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Oh, I know.

Just think that being out of Europe altogether and all that time spent every other midweek travelling to who knows where in a pointless competition, would be better spent at home on the training pitch.
 
Can people stop saying no European football at all, it is not fecking possible anymore. Europa league or Conference league.
 
If City beat West Ham(very likely), we only need a point against palace to avoid the conference league correct?
Not looking good fellas.
 
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