Champions League - Europa League - Conference League

[The reds]

Just got to try and get as many points as possible from the next three games and see where it puts us.
Need a minimum of 4pts.

[Paplane]

It's all the more disappointing because it appeared football was beginning to heal itself from the dominace of 6 clubs. These last few weeks that notion has been dispelled with City getting to the cup final, us Bournemouth and Fulham dropping off and now either Spurs or Man Utd getting into the champions league via the back door. Chelsea have been poor at times and yet look likely to qualify. So basically, it's back to the football normal again. It's utterly depressing.

[Sausage Roll]

I wouldn't say Chelsea are likely to qualify at all. They've got Liverpool and Newcastle next up. It's quite possible they get zero points from that.

I thought you weren't going to party poop the forum???

:Funny:

[Paplane]

I wouldn't say Chelsea are likely to qualify at all. They've got Liverpool and Newcastle next up. It's quite possible they get zero points from that.

I thought you weren't going to party poop the forum???

:Funny:

I'm not but you keep dangling a worm Sausage. I'll say no more, promise!

[Sausage Roll]

I wouldn't say Chelsea are likely to qualify at all. They've got Liverpool and Newcastle next up. It's quite possible they get zero points from that.

I thought you weren't going to party poop the forum???

:Funny:

I'm not but you keep dangling a worm Sausage. I'll say no more, promise!

I'm not dangling any worms anywhere.  :Funny:

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

Still think the Europa wouldn't be a bad outcome. The squad ain't ready for CL

That is because we are not in it.

It would be ready if we were.

CL or not I think we would have a real chance of winning the Europa League next season if that is where we end up and that is tremendously exciting.

[JollyLollyAussie]

Until we address the elephant in the room being that we seem incapable of getting back into a game when we fall behind with only FOUR points gained all season when in that position, until this starts to change we shall never move forward. CL dreams are just that dreams, unfortunately the players and manager have reached their peak and are unable to recover, I noted Nuno's press conference before the match when he sounded flat which was not a good omen going into the game. Where are our BIG players, stand up and be countered or miss the boat this opportunity may not come around very often again for most of our squad or the manager, regroup and for f**k sake get on the front foot from the start in the remaining games, stop being passive, Nuno change the tactics and stop bring on a defensive midfielder at HT to replace a injured forward. Finally like most I suspect, not going into the market in January to bolster the squad has come back to hurt us, I said this on the forum at the time, Nuno wanted a small squad to work with but now look knackered, rant over!!!!!

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

You make it sound like we are failing.

What is so failing about getting into Europe?

The season has been immense and the club has made massive progress and taken massive strides.

That applies no matter how this season ends.

[Shawoddyred]

Until we address the elephant in the room being that we seem incapable of getting back into a game when we fall behind with only FOUR points gained all season when in that position, until this starts to change we shall never move forward. CL dreams are just that dreams, unfortunately the players and manager have reached their peak and are unable to recover, I noted Nuno's press conference before the match when he sounded flat which was not a good omen going into the game. Where are our BIG players, stand up and be countered or miss the boat this opportunity may not come around very often again for most of our squad  or the manager, regroup and for f**k sake get on the front foot from the start in the remaining games, stop being passive, Nuno change the tactics and stop bring on a defensive midfielder at HT to replace a injured forward. Finally like most I suspect, not going into the market in January to bolster the squad has come back to hurt us, I said this on the forum at the time, Nuno wanted a small squad to work with but now look knackered, rant over!!!!!

I think there are some elements of truth in what you're saying but nowhere near as drastic. I'm in the would be pretty disappointed to 'only' get Europa League group of people, but I do fully understand the argument about looking at it as a whole season. 

I have been thinking about having 'winners' in the squad who would grab a game by the scruff of the neck. I hoped that MGW is that player but he seems to have hit a bit of a less good patch. Similarly, I think Elanga has the ability to really go after a game, but to be honest, the only player I consistently see really stepping up in those situations is Neco. I guess those types of players are only available to buy rather than develop if you are bidding to win things regularly....perhaps this is what we would be trying to address if we do reach the CL. 

It's also unfortunate that Woody has gone a bit off the boil since he got injured playing for his country. He's also just become a dad too I suppose...surely would make a big difference to anyone! I think this is where hindsight will be employed about January. I think everyone with any interest in the club acknowledged the risk in not having adequate goal scoring backup - it was definitely a risk and it could be what is spoken about in the summer if we fail to qualify for CL. 

It is very obvious that our tactics work best when we go ahead in a game. I do think we need to work on how we start games, recently we seem to have been under the cosh for the first 10, 15, 20 minutes. Perhaps this is as much other teams understanding how to play against us or maybe we need to get the smelling salts our or something!? 

Something I would definitely want to look at in the summer (or get MGW and Anderson to practise over and over and over again) is someone able to shoot from outside the box. Think that would help cause an additional problem for opposition teams as we are a bit one-dimensional.

[Reds73]

Still think the Europa wouldn't be a bad outcome. The squad ain't ready for CL

That is because we are not in it.

It would be ready if we were.

CL or not I think we would have a real chance of winning the Europa League next season if that is where we end up and that is tremendously exciting.

We weren’t ready for the Premier League 3 yrs ago.
You are never ready if you haven’t been in before. However we will be ready if we qualify given the investment we will be able to make into the team and squad.

[wassy04]

Until we address the elephant in the room being that we seem incapable of getting back into a game when we fall behind with only FOUR points gained all season when in that position, until this starts to change we shall never move forward. CL dreams are just that dreams, unfortunately the players and manager have reached their peak and are unable to recover, I noted Nuno's press conference before the match when he sounded flat which was not a good omen going into the game. Where are our BIG players, stand up and be countered or miss the boat this opportunity may not come around very often again for most of our squad  or the manager, regroup and for f**k sake get on the front foot from the start in the remaining games, stop being passive, Nuno change the tactics and stop bring on a defensive midfielder at HT to replace a injured forward. Finally like most I suspect, not going into the market in January to bolster the squad has come back to hurt us, I said this on the forum at the time, Nuno wanted a small squad to work with but now look knackered, rant over!!!!!

Those stats are very misleading.

The games where we conceded first were Fulham (x2), Away to Arsenal, Man City, Bournemouth, Villa plus the two recent home games.

It's only 9 games out of 34, we scored first in 24 out of 34 games, pretty incredible really. (There is a 0-0 in there too vs Arsenal)

You're going to struggle to get tons of points from conceding first when you score first every game. 

The games we did concede first aside from the two recent games were away against teams in the top 8 or so. Basically another stupid Sky Sports stat which completely ignores context.

[Tricky]

I wouldn't say Chelsea are likely to qualify at all. They've got Liverpool and Newcastle next up. It's quite possible they get zero points from that.

I thought you weren't going to party poop the forum???

:Funny:

I'm not but you keep dangling a worm Sausage. I'll say no more, promise!

I'm not dangling any worms anywhere.  :Funny:

As long as you aint dangling your sausage at him er Sausage!!  :No: