Too Many Games

RedDevilCanuck

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We aren't good enough or deep enough to play all of these games at a high level.

Perhaps Ten Hag will scrap Europa by starting Mainoo, Elanga, facundo etc.

Top 4 has to be the main priority now.
 
Can’t have it both ways. You either want top 4 and nothing else or you actually want to compete for silverware. Which is it?
 
At the beginning of the season we entered 4 competitions. We knew how many games that could lead to. If the squad is not good or deep enough to handle that then we only have ourselves to blame.
 
maybe this 7-0 vs liverpool thing will make ETH re-evalute things, maybe
 
We got battered repeatedly last season even after exiting via the Champions League Round of 16, FA Cup 4th Round and Carabao Cup Third Round.

Give the feck over.
 
when I said, after the queen died, that the postponements would catch up with us, I was derided and abused. well, this is what happens
 
We should've tanked one of the cups, especially after the game against Reading where we lost Erisken and Casemiro could've easily followed.
 
You can't blame a performance like that on too many games.

You can't really blame it on anything other than having a bunch of completely unprofessional babies as players. There really is nothing to take from it beyond that.

Any other team in the PL could be forced to run a marathon every day for 6 months on top pf their fixtures and would still put on less of a sh*t show than that.
 
The amount of "top 4" muppets on here is painful. We're like Arsenal 10 years ago when the top 4 trophy was like a fecking celebrated thing for them to achieve.
 
Ricardo de la Vega said:
The amount of "top 4" muppets on here is painful. We're like Arsenal 10 years ago when the top 4 trophy was like a fecking celebrated thing for them to achieve.
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Depends on the trophy though.

The league cup win was great and all but I'll always struggle with it as a concept because half the teams can't be arsed and want out. So what is it that you're even "winning" really? A big part of the joy of winning a trophy is knowing that everyone else was going all-out to win it and you were still the best. It's alright if it's just the odd team tanking but when you've got Championship clubs rotating their entire XI then it's hard to pin down how much of an achievement your win really is.

The Europa is just a lesser version of an obviously better trophy, which clubs our size should really be above. What if we finished 7th and then won the Conference League, would we have a bus parade for that?

Getting excited for coming "top 4" is naff but it's the best outcome for the club's short-term future. Would never trade it for actual silverware, so long as that silverware is (a) coveted by everyone, and (b) not just a bootleg version of better silverware
 
We'll be fine.

We're seven points ahead of fifth and four points ahead of fourth, with a game in hand on the latter. Bookies odds give us just under 85% chance of finishing in the top four from here and for good reason.

We also have a relatively easy next few games in the league (Southampton, Newcastle, Brentford, Everton, Forest) and ties in which we're strong favourites in both cups.

Obviously if we get knocked out of either of the cups that will ease our fixture schedule but even if we don't we'll likely look in an even better position for and be even less worried about top four by the end of that run. Not least because the team currently in fifth face all of City, Chelsea and Arsenal in that same period.
 
League is bottom priority because we are 7 clear of 5th and 4 clear of 4th with a game in hand. We also have 7 home games remaining, many games against bottom half sides, no City, Liverpool or Arsenal to play. And can take our eyes off the league and still qualify comfortably pretty much.

The focus is Europa League and FA Cup, and then grind through the league games to stay in 3rd but no big deal if we finish 4th.
 
Ricardo de la Vega said:
The amount of "top 4" muppets on here is painful. We're like Arsenal 10 years ago when the top 4 trophy was like a fecking celebrated thing for them to achieve.
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Call me a muppet all you like but I’d much rather try and keep our best eleven fit for the league and get champions league qualification that will help with the process of ten Haag building a stronger first eleven/ squad and going for actual decent trophies next year than missing out due to fatigue and winning a few tinpot cups.

we can’t keep playing such high level important matches every 3 days and expect the performance levels to stay as intense using just the same 11-13 players.
 
Naa I actually hope we take the cup competitions seriously and try winning it. We are 3rd and no way we should be bottling top 4 from here. We will be fine.

We lost 7-0 and getting asses handed by Betis or Fulham is the last thing we need now.
 
bosnian_red said:
League is bottom priority because we are 7 clear of 5th and 4 clear of 4th with a game in hand. We also have 7 home games remaining, many games against bottom half sides, no City, Liverpool or Arsenal to play. And can take our eyes off the league and still qualify comfortably pretty much.

The focus is Europa League and FA Cup, and then grind through the league games to stay in 3rd but no big deal if we finish 4th.
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Yep.

People have an overly pessimistic view of how tenuous our hold on a top four place is. It would take a massive collapse for us to miss out from here, which just isn't likely to happen.

We can happily try to win the remaining cups as long as we rotate appropriately as we go along. The hardest part of our schedule was the run just gone.
 
sullydnl said:
Yep.

People have an overly pessimistic view of how tenuous our hold on a top four place is. It would take a massive collapse for us to miss out from here, which just isn't likely to happen.

We can happily try to win the remaining cups as long as we rotate appropriately as we go along. The hardest part of our schedule was the run just gone.
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Rotate is the key word, I’d happily try to win them while resting rashford, varane, Bruno, shaw, Casemiro
 
RedDevilCanuck said:
We aren't good enough or deep enough to play all of these games at a high level.

Perhaps Ten Hag will scrap Europa by starting Mainoo, Elanga, facundo etc.

Top 4 has to be the main priority now.
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Yeah feck off Europa now
 
DWelbz19 said:
Can’t have it both ways. You either want top 4 and nothing else or you actually want to compete for silverware. Which is it?
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But there must be some logical middle ground.
For example there was absolutely no reason to start Varane, Martinez, Shaw, Case and Bruno in the league cup 2nd leg against bloody Forest after already having won the 1st leg 3-0.
 
united_99 said:
But there must be some logical middle ground.
For example there was absolutely no reason to start Varane, Martinez, Shaw, Case and Bruno in the league cup 2nd leg against bloody Forest after already having won the 1st leg 3-0.
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Yeah will admit that wasn't a smart decision
 
If scrapping the Europa League is the only way there is to keep us fresh enough for the remaining 2 domestic competitions, then so be it.

That Europa League is the big reason why our schedule has been a mess.
 
The reason we lost today has little to do about having played too many games.

Worst thing it happened today was that most of our players stopped playing after 3rd goal, and we lost our control and shape after the 2nd. The timing of both first and second goals were not great for us, and especially the 2nd goal hit us hard, coming right after half time.

We have shown to loose our shape and control when the game doesn't go in our way or unexpected things happen in a particular game, under ETH this season.

I think this happens due to artificial 'pumpin up' and belief that we are better than we actually are mentality, instilled by the manager, to the team, on this short amount of time, while on personal level, most of the players just lack the mentality. Also team seem to believe blindly on ETH tactics, and when they dont work, they are just afraid to take matters into their hands.

Also worth noting is Bruno's influence on the team when we are in positions like today. While his work ethic and never back down mentality work great when we have control even when we are chasing games, it works against the team when we don't, reflecting panic and defeatism to his teammates.
 
The result against Liverpool has nothing to do with too many games.

Is wasn't a performance where we look fatigued or had a bunch of missing players. It was about mentality, as soon as the second goal got in it was like we disconnected the third one arrived fast and by then seemed all the players threw the towel.
 
SAFMUTD said:
The result against Liverpool has nothing to do with too many games.

Is wasn't a performance where we look fatigued or had a bunch of missing players. It was about mentality, as soon as the second goal got in it was like we disconnected the third one arrived fast and by then seemed all the players threw the towel.
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Also, let us not forget this Liverpool side also played this Wednesday just like us. As you said it is more of a mental thing than fatigue. We matched them in the first half very well but jist collapsed in the second.
 
I can't see Ten Hag sacking Europa League or the FA cup off. I can understand why too. If we get 3rd and 2/3 trophies that is a fantastic season and we have no guarantee of winning the FA Cup should we lose the Europa.
 
RedDevilQuebecois said:
If scrapping the Europa League is the only way there is to keep us fresh enough for the remaining 2 domestic competitions, then so be it.

That Europa League is the big reason why our schedule has been a mess.
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croadyman said:
Yeah feck off Europa now
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Scrapping Europa League makes no sense.

In terms of games that truly matter. We only have the cup games now. We are comfortably in 3rd. Of course, that doesn't mean feck the league off, but we can finish comfortably in 3rd despite focusing on the cups. We'll likely finish on 75-80 points this season. 5th place this season will likely have something like 66 points. We don't have much to worry about unless we start losing at home to bottom half sides.
 
I don't think anything has changed other than snuffing out any fantasies of a league run. ETH has already shown post-Brentford that he can adapt to overcome adversity and will do so again. Top 4 isn't a concern, in fact, I would wager we may finish closer to the current top two than the current 4 & 5. I like our chances in both remaining cups as well.
 
Raoul said:
I don't think anything has changed other than snuffing out any fantasies of a league run. ETH has already shown post-Brentford that he can adapt to overcome adversity and will do so again. Top 4 isn't a concern, in fact, I would wager we may finish closer to the current top two than the current 4 & 5. I like our chances in both remaining cups as well.
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City will beat the hell out of us again
 
bosnian_red said:
Scrapping Europa League makes no sense.

In terms of games that truly matter. We only have the cup games now. We are comfortably in 3rd. Of course, that doesn't mean feck the league off, but we can finish comfortably in 3rd despite focusing on the cups. We'll likely finish on 75-80 points this season. 5th place this season will likely have something like 66 points. We don't have much to worry about unless we start losing at home to bottom half sides.
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When they have been suitably punished then we should rest players against Betis
 
We've played the most club games of any team in Europe. We had the 3rd most mins by PL players in the mid-season WC. And we're a smaller-sized squad playing under a new, higher intensity system for a new manager. We should not have given up like we did but the team is clearly gassed too. I expect some adjustments and rotation, have faith that will fix us up for the run-in
 
shabadu84 said:
We've played the most club games of any team in Europe. We had the 3rd most mins by PL players in the mid-season WC. And we're a smaller-sized squad playing under a new, higher intensity system for a new manager. We should not have given up like we did but the team is clearly gassed too. I expect some adjustments and rotation, have faith that will fix us up for the run-in
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Yeah just giving up is unforgivable
 
RedDevilCanuck said:
Top 4 has to be the main priority now.
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You do realise that winning the EL is:
  • another European trophy
  • less games to CL qualification
  • against potentially worse teams than most PL opponents
  • a route into pot 1 for the CL, with the other seeded teams.
Why would you prioritise top 4 over any of that?
 
Redanian said:
You do realise that winning the EL is:
  • another European trophy
  • less games to CL qualification
  • against potentially worse teams than most PL opponents
  • a route into pot 1 for the CL, with the other seeded teams.
Why would you prioritise top 4 over any of that?
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Can't see us beating a few teams left in,therefore let's focus on trying to stay third and focus on FA Cup instead which is winnable if City do a Southampton again
 
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