Europe

[Craig_H]

FLMAO @ you telling people to "wind their neck in"

Seriously have a word with yourself

The above is just a list of excuses for someone picking apart your theory

Suarez was fresh for the West Ham game

Just look at the fixtures and note the Europa games and the subsequent results in the league the results are all over the shop and the only way you could find some correlation with what you claim would be if you applied Chaos Theory

I wasnt telling 'people' to wind their neck in, i was telling you.

Of course Suarez was fresh for the West Ham game but he wasnt able to influence it enough to help us win - unlike the Sunderland game. As i said, it's not black and white, sometimes there are exceptions and other times not.

All in all, generally speaking (note that part ), playing the Europa games is more likely to have a negative impact in terms of freshness for the players than not. Yes, the CL can do the same but as i said before, the CL has more of a 'feel good' factor, winning in the CL garners more momentum and the adrenalin has an impact, whereas the Europa is, subconsciously perhaps, seen as more of a chore and as such, it seems to have had a more mentally draining impact than the CL games have had in the past for us.

At the end of the day, i honestly couldnt care less if you agree with me or not. I'm perfectly happy that you have a different opinion, neither of us will lose sleep over it. But try keeping it slightly civil either way, as i always try to do with yourself.

[Lecter]

All in all, generally speaking (note that part ), playing the Europa games is more likely to have a negative impact in terms of freshness for the players than not. :

Generally speaking this statement is absolute rubbish

As you clearly have not bothered to look at the fixtures I'll do it for you

Here follows the Europa games that were immediately followed by Premier League games

Played Rabotniiki (home) drew against Arsenal (home)
Played Trabson (home) got beat by City (away)
Played Trabson (away) won V West Brom (home)
Played Steaua (home) lost V Man U (away)
Played Utrecht (away) lost v Blackpool (home)
Played Napoli (away) beat Blackburn (home)
Played Napoli (home) beat Chelsea (home)
Played Steaua (away) beat Villa (home)
Played Utrecht (home) lost V Wolves (home)
Played Sparta (home) lost V West Ham (away)
Played Braga (home) beat Sunderland (away)


5 wins, 5 losses, 1 draw

As I said results are all over the shop and there is no way you could use them to back up your theory in any way shape or form not even "generally speaking"

[Rudo]

If we quality for the Europa, our big players - Reina, Carra, Lucas, Kuyt and Suarez shouldn't be involved in any of the games before Xmas.

[Craig_H]

Generally speaking this statement is absolute rubbish

As I said results are all over the shop and there is no way you could use them to back up your theory in any way shape or form not even "generally speaking"

So a team who plays midweek ISNT likely to be more drained or have its squad stretched than a team who doesnt...course. Whatever.

[Lecter]

So a team who plays midweek ISNT likely to be more drained or have its squad stretched than a team who doesnt...course. Whatever.

All teams suffer tiredness at one time or another

The trick is to win even when you are tired/stretched

As my post has clearly showed I dont think you can blame the Europa league for poor performances because we've won as many games as we have lost after playing in Europe and equally we have had some shocking results and performances when we havent played the previous game in Europe

Your post on page 2 suggested that playing in the Europa Cup has a definite negative affect on our Premier League form which as I have proved is not at all accurate

[Craig_H]

All teams suffer tiredness at one time or another

The trick is to win even when you are tired/stretched

As my post has clearly showed I dont think you can blame the Europa league for poor performances because we've won as many games as we have lost after playing in Europe and equally we have had some shocking results and performances when we havent played the previous game in Europe

Your post on page 2 suggested that playing in the Europa Cup has a definite negative affect on our Premier League form which as I have proved is not at all accurate

You havent proved it at all really, you showed we've won as many as we've lost post europa games - whose to say without the midweek games beforehand, we wouldnt have won more of those games? Cant be proved one way or the other really. I still maintain that a fresher batch of players both physically and mentally is likely to be more helpful and that without the Europa Cup games, they would be fresher - how that can be disputed, i dont know

[Daniel 7]

On the other hand, what were the performances like in those games? I can't remember us looking anywhere near amazing in any of the games immediately after the Europa games. That might be down to the Hodgson Effect, but regardless of the result - the performances were generally woeful.

[Exiled_red]

I'd prefer to be in Europe than out of it. Europa League gives us extra money and is important with the financial fair play rules coming in. The first half of the season we probably won't need to play a full strength team, we managed to get through a group stage with our current squad and Hodgson in charge, a few improvements to the squad means we should be able to put a stronger team out next year.

[Norbs]

I

I'd prefer to be in Europe than out of it. Europa League gives us extra money and is important with the financial fair play rules coming in. The first half of the season we probably won't need to play a full strength team, we managed to get through a group stage with our current squad and Hodgson in charge, a few improvements to the squad means we should be able to put a stronger team out next year.

The King has shown that our kids can perform in the Prem and that's a mile above most of the Europa league in terms of quality. I think they'll do just fine next season. Were the next utd dontchaknow ;-)

[Lecter]

You havent proved it at all really, you showed we've won as many as we've lost post europa games - whose to say without the midweek games beforehand, we wouldnt have won more of those games? Cant be proved one way or the other really. I still maintain that a fresher batch of players both physically and mentally is likely to be more helpful and that without the Europa Cup games, they would be fresher - how that can be disputed, i dont know

Roy was in charge for most of the losses so I think the likelihood of winning more games (if we werent involved in the UEFA Cup) was highly doubtful

As Kenny has proved in the last few weeks even a threadbare squad can be motivated to improve and get results against the odds

[Exiled_red]

I

The King has shown that our kids can perform in the Prem and that's a mile above most of the Europa league in terms of quality. I think they'll do just fine next season. Were the next utd dontchaknow ;-)

But as someone once said "You win nothing with kids"

[Lecter]

On the other hand, what were the performances like in those games? I can't remember us looking anywhere near amazing in any of the games immediately after the Europa games. That might be down to the Hodgson Effect, but regardless of the result - the performances were generally woeful.

Agreed for me Hodgson was more of a problem / influence on results than tiredness due to participation in the Europa League

[Mattshark]

It does make a difference

Over £10 million if we go all the way in the Europa

With the UEFA FFPR it is almost a must to be involved in Europe in one form or another

My comment was over an obsession over playing at 3pm Saturdays.

[Rich]

Amazingly it's solely up to us now if we want 5th. Our turnaround in fortunes is staggering since January.

[banditos]

Yep, in our own hands now. If we win all our remaining games, we finish 5th (at least), barring an increadible turn-around in goal diff.