Let’s not make Europe next season

With how I feel right now I’m hoping we don’t qualify for the premier league and have a year off
 
Surely Maguire can handle playing against Astana in the Europa? Might be good to give the young players a chance and ten Hag will probably go all out to win the europa.
I’m all for sending Maguire out by himself against the mighty Corfu Athletic.
 
Not really our choice is it? Even if we try, we will probably not win a single remaining game this season.
 
I wish there was a option for the club to take a year sabbatical from football and just tidy up this sh*te.
 
No, the Europa League is winnable. The team cannot avoid competing for tournaments just so they can get a chance at top four, which is something we might not even get. What happens then?

Top four is not enough of a motivation. Arsenal are struggling despite Manutd being terrible and Tottenham being useless under Nuno.
 
Think @Samid made a good argument re. Getting Europe in any way possible this year due to the bigger CL tournament that's around the corner. The more coefficient points we earn, the better.

Apologies if it wasn't you @Samid.

Yeah coefficients will be our back door CL entry under the new format from 2024 if we finish 5th. But we won't be getting that back door entry if we aren't in Europe and picking up coefficients.
 
Champions League or Europa League if not id rather we finished 8th to avoid the Conference League
 
We had this narrative a few seasons ago about how it would be great to be out of Europe completely, lots of time to rest between games and all that.

Then we went out of the League Cup early and there were zero opportunities for the fringe and young players to play.

I don't like the Europa much but in a season where we'll be learning a new style, games like this are ideal for both that and for giving gametime to youngsters. Also we have a realistic chance of winning something.
 
Always aim for the best possible place you can finish. But ideally avoid the Conference League, Europa League could be a way to get into the CL the following season for all we know.

Don't we need to finish 5th for Europa? No chance we finish above whoever out of spurs and Arsenal bottles 4th.

Or am I wrong?
 
Playing european football would benefit us more than hinder our top 4 chances.
Football is all about playing games, all big clubs do that and they do it a high level why should we aim to play less ?
It would be a good chance for ETH to rotate and test things if we end up in the Conference League. Also it would be a good chance to win something, why not ? League Cup or the third european trophy, let's be honest we are not winning a major trophy any time soon.
 
Don't we need to finish 5th for Europa? No chance we finish above whoever out of spurs and Arsenal bottles 4th.

Or am I wrong?

Just from Wikipedia: "Since the finalists of the 2021–22 FA Cup, Liverpool and Chelsea, qualify for European competition based on their league positions, the Europa League berth awarded to the FA Cup winners will be transferred to the highest-placed Premier League team not already qualified for European competition, currently the sixth-placed team."
 
I’d prefer to be in the Europa League than nothing, but if we keep conceding goals like we have been it won’t be up to us.
 
We should always aim for europe, we will need every bit of money we can get to fund a rebuild.

If we get the conference league then its a great opportunity to blood youngsters etc. Europa league then its an opportunity to get champs league. Either way we should not be giving up on any european spots.
 
As a club, You’re not attracting any players if you’re not in any European competition next year.

Course you are. We're Man Utd with Ten Hag as coach and Ronaldo up front. That's an opportunity for any young player.
 
No distractions and a chance for the team to gel.

What say you?

My preference is for the team to be massively changed with as many of the current players as possible shown the door. Not getting top 4 may help with that.
 
I don’t get this argument. The european coefficients are bloody important which decides the seedings of the group stage in the CL. Winning Europa would put us in the 1st pot, while not playing in europe alltogether might mean ending up in the third pot. Also you get money for playing and winning the Europa / Conference. Also the conference thing would be a good runout for the youngsters or those players who are nowhere near the first team but on long term contracts anyway. Hope we finish 6th and end up in europa instead of the conference.
 
Think @Samid made a good argument re. Getting Europe in any way possible this year due to the bigger CL tournament that's around the corner. The more coefficient points we earn, the better.

Apologies if it wasn't you @Samid.
It wouldn’t be in effect until 2025 I think, and if by that time we don’t qualify for the CL the normal way then might as well abandon all hope.

No Europe, massively trim down the squad, give ten Hag the time to work the players into his system, and when we make it back we might actually do well instead of just making up the numbers.
 
I think EL or Conf. League are much more suited for this club at current condition. There's actually chance to win them while still rotating the squad. We'll get battered at CL by decent teams as usual.

Even in such easy group this year we struggle to qualify.
 
No distractions and a chance for the team to gel.

What say you?

I'll also be open to ditching cup games or at least only play fringe players and youngesters only, the starting 13/14 players should not take part in these games too..


That way ETH can drill this team for longer hours and more days and whip them into shape
 
In such extraordinary times the squad is in, i’d actually agree. All focus and attention on a major rebuild whilst finishing top 4.
And then this time next season when we are failing to finish top 4 and out of the domestic cups early, we can all revisit this discussion.

It’s a complete fallacy that avoiding Europe makes your team perform better. We finished 3rd then 2nd with Ole as manager, whilst reaching the EL semis and final in those seasons respectively, because being better at football will generally apply on multiple fronts.
 
I disagree. We have to remember that there will still be players who are not good enough remaining after this summer. I don’t like that but I’ve accepted it. These players can train well as much as they like but competitive matches are where they will get found out and so we need as many games as possible. It will be painful but will hopefully lead to more departures in 2023.

Then there‘s the more obvious reason – we need to win something to build on and either the Europa or Conference League will increase our chances of winning a trophy.
 
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I dont think we will get more than 1-2 points from the last 4 games.

All depends on Wolves now.

That's the problem isn't it, we could not win another game this season but Wolves could do even worse. Looking at the remaining games I could see

Chelsea D
Brentford W/D
Brighton D/L
Palace W/D

So best case 8 points which would probably guarantee EL football, worst case 3 points but we do already have a 5 point advantage over Wolves albeit having played 2 more games

I don't want EL and I certainly don't want Conference League but I feel we're made to suffer so we'll qualify for one of them
 
I’m all over this - where do I sign. Feck the europa cup off and concentrate on getting back in the CL.
 
It's an interesting one. We should always be trying to win what we can but if we're going to see the volume of player exits we expect to then I think having a smaller squad and relying on youngsters to fill gaps might not be the worst thing and allow a more orderly transition of the squad. That said it might make it harder to recruit players and we need to make sure we avoid the trap we've fallen into for a while now- brining in players because they want the wages rather then those who want to fight to get to the next level.
 
Any cup win is good. Conference or Europa . But I would start the youngsters for remaining matches. If they get us Europe, play Europe.
 
Just from Wikipedia: "Since the finalists of the 2021–22 FA Cup, Liverpool and Chelsea, qualify for European competition based on their league positions, the Europa League berth awarded to the FA Cup winners will be transferred to the highest-placed Premier League team not already qualified for European competition, currently the sixth-placed team."

Thanks pal :)

Was getting a touch confused by it all
 
Why people think that us not being in Europe comp is the only way for us to not take part in it. You can ignore any comp and play youngsters, heavy reserves etc. Just seperate first team players from it completely like it doesnt exist.
 
Where do we have to come to
1)miss out on the Europa?
2)miss out entirely?
 
Once top 4 is mathematically impossible we can allow Erik to see what youth players are capable
 
To compete in the CHampions League we need a big squad. To keep all the players in a big squad capable of filling in or being useful in rotation means meaningful games. Being in the Europa League gives us that mechanism. Its mental that some of you want to stay out of Europe.