Europa League 2012-13 - QF: Basel (SUI)

[jimmyb]

Want us to win the league title before even dreaming about the CL. Just don't want us to win the CL before that. It will feel incomplete and lack the glory if we are to win the CL without winning the league title since 1961.

I know what you mean but......

.......I think I could just about handle it if we won the CL first.

 

[billyiddo]

Fulham

That enough evidence?

Everton are significantly better than Fulham.

If we play our strongest team against Basel and rotate none of our key midfielders, Everton will turn us over.

but what about when we lost at Home to Wigan earlier in the season (who are far worse than Fulham) when we didn't have a Euro game midweek (he says without even checking the fixture list )

sometimes you just lose football games that you should win.

 

[Rossi22]

Dembele's equaliser against Lyon was the best moment of the season so far.

 

[Jurgen the German]

Fulham

That enough evidence?

Everton are significantly better than Fulham.

If we play our strongest team against Basel and rotate none of our key midfielders, Everton will turn us over.

I don't feel as strongly as you do about this subject, but the CL is and always will be the premier European club competition. Me personally, I'd rather we finish 3rd than win the Europa. As good a competition as it is, it is devalued by putting the rejects from the CL into the knockout rounds, don't care what anyone says.

That said, it's still a trophy I would love to win. We used to win cups regularly, that reputation has taken a serious dent in the last 20 years.

 

[Rossi22]

Fulham

That enough evidence?

Everton are significantly better than Fulham.

If we play our strongest team against Basel and rotate none of our key midfielders, Everton will turn us over.

So I guess if we get CL football next season, we should rest our players in that to give us the best chance of qualifying again the following season?

 

[Jurgen the German]

Dembele's equaliser against Lyon was the best moment of the season so far.

Tbh, mine was probably beating Man United or Bale's last minute winner against West Ham but I can see why you'd pick Dembele's goal.

 

[jimmyb]

The best preparation to try and win the Champions League would be to try and win the Europa League.


Winning trophies breeds a winning mentality. Also the squad would be better prepared for the rigours of playing three games a week.

This.

 

[Bonsaiboy]

but what about when we lost at Home to Wigan earlier in the season (who are far worse than Fulham) when we didn't have a Euro game midweek (he says without even checking the fixture list )

sometimes you just lose football games that you should win.

None of our early home performances were good, new manager, finding our feet under him. etc. Different kettle.

We played like corpses in the first half against Fulham because the players were leggy and fatigued. Everton will come at us like a steam train.

It's got car crash written all over it.

 

[Spursalot]

but what about when we lost at Home to Wigan earlier in the season (who are far worse than Fulham) when we didn't have a Euro game midweek (he says without even checking the fixture list )

sometimes you just lose football games that you should win.

This.

We could throw our Europa cup chance, and then still finish outside the top four.


I think our squad is fine to challenge on both fronts. It would be foolish to stick all of our eggs in one basket, especially after getting this far in the competition.


I would rather fail aiming high, then set our sights low.

 

[Armchair Expert]

None of our early home performances were good, new manager, finding our feet under him. etc. Different kettle.

We played like corpses in the first half against Fulham because the players were leggy and fatigued. Everton will come at us like a steam train.

It's got car crash written all over it.

So by your definition we can only qualify for Europe every second season, because when we do qualify we'll be fudged having to compete on two fronts? Whats the point in qualifying for anything then?

What Redknapp did to us during our Europa campaigns was nothing short of shameful. He tarnished out European history sending out those mickey mouse sides. Anyone advocating the same needs to take a long hard look at our history.

 

[billyiddo]

None of our early home performances were good, new manager, finding our feet under him. etc. Different kettle.

We played like corpses in the first half against Fulham because the players were leggy and fatigued. Everton will come at us like a steam train.

It's got car crash written all over it.

whilst it probably wasn't the fairest of examples neither was yours - Inter was a grueling 120 minutes of football in which we were getting the run around for large parts of the game - not every European fixture will be a repeat of that and certainly not the first leg at home against Basel before we play Everton.

 

[Bonsaiboy]

Tbh, mine was probably beating Man United or Bale's last minute winner against West Ham but I can see why you'd pick Dembele's goal.

I'm with Jurgen again, I raised my hand and gave a clap when Dembele scored. I lost the plot when Bale's winner against West Ham went in and did a very strange kind of Harlem Shake thing.

 

[Jurgen the German]

This.

We could throw our Europa cup chance, and then still finish outside the top four.


I think our squad is fine to challenge on both fronts. It would be foolish to stick all of our eggs in one basket, especially after getting this far in the competition.


I would rather fail aiming high, then set our sights low.

Very true.

I would have been very happy with 5th and the Europa league at the start of the season, but as the season goes on your objectives/expectations change. If we had been below Arsenal all season, then I wouldn't have been disappointed with finishing 5th, but considering we've been above them for most of the way, I would be truly gutted if we finish 5th now.

 

[Spursalot]

'It is better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low. And we of Spurs have set our sights very high, so high in fact that even failure will have in it an echo of glory.'


Need this thread continue?

 

[billyiddo]

I'm with Jurgen again, I raised my hand and gave a clap when Dembele scored. I lost the plot when Bale's winner against West Ham went in and did a very strange kind of Harlem Shake thing.

i genuinely feel sympathy for supporters who can't take extreme pleasure in watching us advance in European football

 

[Jurgen the German]

i genuinely feel sympathy for supporters who can't take extreme pleasure in watching us advance in European football

Don't put me in that bracket

I simply said I got more excited from the other games I mentioned.

 

[jimmyb]

Fulham

That enough evidence?

Everton are significantly better than Fulham.

If we play our strongest team against Basel and rotate none of our key midfielders, Everton will turn us over.

You don't appear to have a keen understanding of the nature of evidence.

Merely writing "Fulham" in big, bold letters doesn't cut the mustard, I'm afraid.

I could just as easily give "Aston Villa", "Southampton" and "West Ham" the same treatment. But that would no more qualify as evidence that the EL is good for our Premier League prospects than your ham fisted "Fulham" qualifies as evidence that the EL is bad for our PL prospects.

 

[Armchair Expert]

You don't appear to have a keen understanding of the nature of evidence.

Merely writing "Fulham" in big, bold letters doesn't cut the mustard, I'm afraid.

I could just as easily give "Aston Villa", "Southampton" and "West Ham" the same treatment. But that would no more qualify as evidence that the EL is good for our Premier League prospects than your ham fisted "Fulham" qualifies as evidence that the EL is bad for our PL prospects.

:ross:

Quite

 

[Bonsaiboy]

i genuinely feel sympathy for supporters who can't take extreme pleasure in watching us advance in European football

Listen, as soon as we made it through to the knockout stages I looked at the corresponding fixtures we'd be playing the same weeks. The quarter finals stood out a mile as the most difficult - Everton and Chelsea. I thought we'd be fine the previous round, and the semi-final isn't too bad. Never did I imagine we'd lose to Fulham. That changed my thinking. The prospect of blowing another big lead became very real. The prospect of Bale leaving became very real. I honestly don't think some on this board truly understand what a player Bale is. We'll never see his like again at Spurs. Never. I'd just love to get at least one more season out him before he does his Madrid thing - This guy could help us win the friggin league! He's that good. We must keep him. To keep him we must be in the CL next season.

I'm tried and I rest my case. I've made my point.

 

[jimmyb]

I think you summed it perfectly. If Sandro hadn't got injured and we'd got Damiao. And if we hadn't of loaned out Townsend and had recalled Rose, and maybe bought in one or two more players, my attitude would be unequivocal in my desire to see us try and win the Europa League. But we've left ourselves too short in key areas to be able to rotate like we would need to do.

And my nightmare scenario is failing on both fronts, which would be a disaster.

There is every bit as much danger that failing to take the EL seriously from this point on would infect the squad with a loser mentality - and so ensure that your nightmare scenario comes to fruition.

Best to keep the players firing on all cylinders. The legs might tire a little but the mind will be far more positive and less confused if the the manager continues to stress the importance of succeeding on multiple fronts.