Should we sacrifice the PL for Europa League?

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Should we sacrifice the PL for Europa League?

  • Yes

    Votes: 37 55.2%

  • No

    Votes: 30 44.8%
  • Total voters
    67
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sammyspurs said:
Top 4 is an impossible task, the first team are atrocious
I hope Jose rewards the EL team in the latter rounds, but fear he’ll rotate heavily and then it’s over

We need to continue to play with smiles, and freedom
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Or alternative view is we need to continue to play teams about 4 to 5 levels below us.
That is most likely reason so far they have looked comfortable in the competition and been able to play with freedom.

Next round open draw, and unless we get extremely lucky again with draw will be big step up, whatever happens will be step up from tonight, as we played the lowest ranked team in tournament.
At least half of the potential opponents we can draw would probably expect to beat us based on recent form.
 
Fattynomates said:
I honestly think if Bale stays fit and Kane and Son can find some of the early season form
Then we are winning the EL!
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Have you seen the pair of spazs that he picked at centre back vs West Ham? Chuck in the gormless paddy, and I will be staggered if we make the last 8
 
To Dare Is To Do. said:
Because our players would then be rusty and not match fit for that tie?
If you look at OP, I have suggested resting players in the PL tie a few days before the EFL final.
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I looked at your OP, my Carabao comment was sarcastic based on your post.
Sorry, ridiculous idea.


Could accept resting players 3 days before Final, if we have no chance of getting any European Place for next season through league position at that stage, or if we have already sealed a place. But that's about it.
 
Last edited:
Think we have a decent chance at Europa either way. We"ll need to keep fielding a strong team in PL to compete for Europa places, you can't chance everything on winning a final.

United, Leicester, Milan all good sides but not exactly unbeatable. Now, we've been horrendous against any half decent side (except for Leeds) since the beginning of December, so something is going to have to change.
 
KEDS said:
Still got to go for a European spot in the league. There are still some decent sides we may have to face to win the Europa, don’t let us having what likely was the easiest draw fool you.

In Europa, there’s the two English teams, Man United and Leciester, I wouldn't be too confident drawing with them.

Milan have been in great form for most of the season, currently 2nd in Série A. I haven’t seen much of Roma this season but I’m certain no Italian team will be easy.

Villarreal have Unai Emery who has won the competition 3-4 times already.

Then there’s Woolwich (if they get past Benfica) who are unpredictable, plus it’s a derby so anything can happen.
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AC Milan
Napoli
Leverkusen
Man Utd
Leicester
Rangers
Ajax


7 teams which are strong, but I'd still fancy us against.
 
Grocer said:
We are second favourites behind Utd and just ahead of Arseanal.
www.oddschecker.com

Europa League Winner Betting Odds | Football

Europa League - Winner Betting Odds. Get the best available Europa League odds from all online bookmakers with Oddschecker, the home of betting value.
www.oddschecker.com www.oddschecker.com
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Even as 2nd favorite, there are 16+ teams left so Our odds are 7-1 (roughly 14% chance). I’d guess that’s close to our top 4 odds. That’s purely just considering CL qualification. We will need 7th or possibly 6th in the league to get Europe next year. I wouldn’t rely on the league cup final.

Also, those 7/1 odds surely have some bias towards big clubs (as odds are created to target gamblers tendencies and not actual probability). So in reality the bookies must think our probability of winning is slightly lower.
 
Grocer said:
We are second favourites behind Utd and just ahead of Arseanal.
www.oddschecker.com

Europa League Winner Betting Odds | Football

Europa League - Winner Betting Odds. Get the best available Europa League odds from all online bookmakers with Oddschecker, the home of betting value.
www.oddschecker.com www.oddschecker.com
Click to expand...
Does that really mean anything though?

I can name 3 clubs straight off the bat that are clearly better than us
 
bonaspur23 said:
Even as 2nd favorite, there are 16+ teams left so Our odds are 7-1 (roughly 14% chance). I’d guess that’s close to our top 4 odds. That’s purely just considering CL qualification. We will need 7th or possibly 6th in the league to get Europe next year. I wouldn’t rely on the league cup final.

Also, those 7/1 odds surely have some bias towards big clubs (as odds are created to target gamblers tendencies and not actual probability). So in reality the bookies must think our probability of winning is slightly lower.
Click to expand...

The odds currently reflect that Woolwich, Milan, Leicester, Leverkusen, Ajax, Napoli still have quite a bit of work to do to get through current round (Only us and Man U are basically though with Villarreal and Roma highly likely through)

Assuming majority of the clubs listed get through to Last 16 our odds will lengthen tomorrow evening, and then could go anywhere based on Last 16 draw.
Friday afternoon we would be favourites if say ManU get Milan, and we get someone like Molde. Alternatively we could be 5th or 6th favourites if we get tough draw.
 
We have a maximum of 22 games left so far this season, with a couple of international breaks too.

It's clear if we go deep in Europa League we can't play the same XI every time. We will have to rotate.

In some positions it's easy to rotate, as the gap between our first choice and back up aren't that big. For this I'd include: RW, RB, CBs.

So far we have also got away with rotating our star players out for Europa. I don't think in this K/O format, we should do that anymore.

So out of 22 games, let's say Kane/Son start all but 4-5 games; in which competition should those 4-5 games be in? I think it should be in the PL.
 
Look at the fixture list in OP.
There's 3 options when it comes to Kane/ Son/ Ndombele:

1/ Never rest them for rest of season (would probably lead to fatigue and injury unless we exited EL early)

2/ Rest them for a Europa League Knock-out tie (given all remaining teams are of decent standard, this would increase chance of early exit in any round)

3/ Rest them in some PL games, so they can play all Europa League K/O ties.
 
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