UEFA Champions & Europa League Football Thread ** spoilers ** [7th - 9th December2021]

[Martynt74]

Personally think it was an odd choice. The whole chuck a load of fringe players on together almost never works because they've not played together, so they then play rubbish and you don't actually get any indication as to whether they can hack it or not.

 

[Shamikebab]

Well we had a game 3 days ago and have a game in 3 days, it was a good opportunity to rest people, that is all.

 

[fez]

Personally think it was an odd choice. The whole chuck a load of fringe players on together almost never works because they've not played together, so they then play rubbish and you don't actually get any indication as to whether they can hack it or not.

I agree up to a point and I said this a few days ago. Either he would play a strong side to give them more playing time together or he would rest as many as possible due to fixture congestion. Whichever was the more beneficial in his eyes.

Ultimately I think that the way we tired after about 60 minutes in our last game made up his mind. The players needed a rest more than time on the pitch together. I think he was probably pleasantly surprised how quickly we implemented a few of his tactical tweaks as well.

Theres honestly not much benefit to playing half a full strength side when you are as disjointed as United so it was always likely to be all or nothing.

 

[adam cool dude]

I agree up to a point and I said this a few days ago. Either he would play a strong side to give them more playing time together or he would rest as many as possible due to fixture congestion. Whichever was the more beneficial in his eyes.

Ultimately I think that the way we tired after about 60 minutes in our last game made up his mind. The players needed a rest more than time on the pitch together. I think he was probably pleasantly surprised how quickly we implemented a few of his tactical tweaks as well.

Theres honestly not much benefit to playing half a full strength side when you are as disjointed as United so it was always likely to be all or nothing.

The players were fantastic for the first 40 minutes as well. We could have easily been up. A lot of really good chances that went to waste due to that lack of cutting edge that only comes with game time. We did seem to drop off after 70 minute though but I think all the changes did that and we were pretty much content with the draw at that point.

 

[BaZ87]

UEFA have decided that Spurs have forfeited their game against Rennes (presumably because they failed to find a date to reschedule) and are therefore out of the Europa Conference League

 

[postbox]

UEFA have decided that Spurs have forfeited their game against Rennes (presumably because they failed to find a date to reschedule) and are therefore out of the Europa Conference League

Best news ever for Spurs fans, utterly pointless competition and means less games to worry about.

 

[omnomnom]

Best news ever for Spurs fans, utterly pointless competition and means less games to worry about.

I cant imagine many are losing sleep over it lol. Did Spurs a favour.

 

[BaZ87]

Best news ever for Spurs fans, utterly pointless competition and means less games to worry about.

Surely Spurs fans want to win a trophy eventually? And although not CL levels, the money those extra games, tv & prize money would bring in would surely be missed by a club currently over £700m in debt.

 

[fez]

Give it a few more years and teams getting relegated from the PL will be playing in "the europa sunday league".

All about the money and squeezing every last drop out of football.

 

[postbox]

Surely Spurs fans want to win a trophy eventually? And although not CL levels, the money those extra games, tv & prize money would bring in would surely be missed by a club currently over £700m in debt.

Not really, it's pocket change in comparison to CL. Let's be honest, they wouldn't be "allowed" to enjoy a trophy win of a 3rd tier Euro cup - they'd be less ridiculed by winning something like the League cup.

 

[BaZ87]

Not really, it's pocket change in comparison to CL. Let's be honest, they wouldn't be "allowed" to enjoy a trophy win of a 3rd tier Euro cup - they'd be less ridiculed by winning something like the League cup.

I said it's not CL level money but it's not pocket change either. Swiss Ramble done a break down on what every club has earned from Europe up to this point and he's estimated that Spurs have earned €10m in tv/prize money and this was based on the assumption that Rennes were awarded the victory as they were. Had Spurs gone deep into the competition and won it, as they were very capable of doing, then that figure would have likely doubled. Once you factor in matchday revenue (£2-3m per game?) and commercial revenue which will no doubt be linked to things like European participation, a solid run in that competition could have been worth £30-40m to Spurs.

Yes, £40m is a long way short of the £100m+ CL sides will earn (once matchday & commercial revenue is included) but it's not pocket change and for a club that in may ways has been hit harder than any other in world football in the past few years, it's not to be sniffed at.