Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 37,804
- Location
- block 16, cell 12
Just good enough was.my initial thought.
looking at the last 15 years or so we have won countless trophies . more sucess domestically than in European terms. Why is this?
If i isolate our performances in Europe first - 2x cl cup wins. 2x final losses.
yet neither of the finals we won did we win in style. if you look at 1999 we were quite lucky. out played in the final. bayern winning until the last few mins, hit the post /bar. we hung in there and were ultimately quite lucky in out victory. You couldn't begrudge a bayern player or fan for thinking they should have won.
infact over that seasons actual cl campaign we won only 5 matches out of 11 games and 2 of those wins were the whipping boys of the group. brondby. There were of course some thrilling performances but we never convincingly beat a top side. juve were already on a downward turn and where in the previous years they had been dominating domestically and un European terms.
of course we have a lot of failure in between then get to the cl final vs chelsea and this again was not a dominant win. We drew and then won due to a bad mistake from terry.
We would then be shown how to dominate an opponent in the next final by barca. and then again by barca.
of course that doesn't make us a bad team. on the contrary. we got to the finals so we were good. good but never the best or dominant best in European terms. This isn't an insult to utds achievements or other fans but it is a reality check. we have beaten a lot of poorer domestic opposition (financially until Mr abramovic came to chelsea no other team had the funds to cherry pick the leagues best players like cole or yorke). this led to an over achievement domestically but showed our true ability compared to other rich European teams who had access to wealth and players like we did.
over the course of a season that cash will see you right through strength in depth that other teams could only envy - propped up by the best homegrown team who all came though at a similar time.
but over 2 or 1 game when it is your best vs their best you can appreciate the real quality on the continent when people like ronaldo scores a hattrick at OT or kaka rips us to shreds for milan or when we crash out to leverkusen or porto or monaco because while we were good, great even we were never the absolute force of dominance that barca have become or that Milan showed or that ajax gave us.
sorry im bored and off work due to injury and this just popped into my head as i thought about tonight's fixture and our European success and failures.
looking at the last 15 years or so we have won countless trophies . more sucess domestically than in European terms. Why is this?
If i isolate our performances in Europe first - 2x cl cup wins. 2x final losses.
yet neither of the finals we won did we win in style. if you look at 1999 we were quite lucky. out played in the final. bayern winning until the last few mins, hit the post /bar. we hung in there and were ultimately quite lucky in out victory. You couldn't begrudge a bayern player or fan for thinking they should have won.
infact over that seasons actual cl campaign we won only 5 matches out of 11 games and 2 of those wins were the whipping boys of the group. brondby. There were of course some thrilling performances but we never convincingly beat a top side. juve were already on a downward turn and where in the previous years they had been dominating domestically and un European terms.
of course we have a lot of failure in between then get to the cl final vs chelsea and this again was not a dominant win. We drew and then won due to a bad mistake from terry.
We would then be shown how to dominate an opponent in the next final by barca. and then again by barca.
of course that doesn't make us a bad team. on the contrary. we got to the finals so we were good. good but never the best or dominant best in European terms. This isn't an insult to utds achievements or other fans but it is a reality check. we have beaten a lot of poorer domestic opposition (financially until Mr abramovic came to chelsea no other team had the funds to cherry pick the leagues best players like cole or yorke). this led to an over achievement domestically but showed our true ability compared to other rich European teams who had access to wealth and players like we did.
over the course of a season that cash will see you right through strength in depth that other teams could only envy - propped up by the best homegrown team who all came though at a similar time.
but over 2 or 1 game when it is your best vs their best you can appreciate the real quality on the continent when people like ronaldo scores a hattrick at OT or kaka rips us to shreds for milan or when we crash out to leverkusen or porto or monaco because while we were good, great even we were never the absolute force of dominance that barca have become or that Milan showed or that ajax gave us.
sorry im bored and off work due to injury and this just popped into my head as i thought about tonight's fixture and our European success and failures.
Besides what great victories have we had in recent years? We've managed to avoid the likes of Madrid and have been beaten by Barca/Bayern. We've beaten UK opposition, but then considering our league form we should be expecting to. I suppose Milan was a good victory but it was hardly a good Milan side.
