02 Nov 2016 13:42:50
A question for the eds`

About the Champions League.
What do you guys think will take for english clubs to regain the dominance it enjoyed between 2005-2009 in this competition?

{Ed002's Note - Improvement in the rankings gives significant benefits in the early stages of the competition. There is nothing the clubs can magically do except perform well - which they have not been terribly good at recently.}


1.) 02 Nov 2016
02 Nov 2016 13:58:36
Do rankings even matter anymore in Europe? didn't the format change?

Winners of the leagues in pot 1, runners up pot 2 etc?

Hence Leicester getting a real easy group.

{Ed002's Note - That is not how they changed for anything but Pot 1 and the rankings count a great deal.}


2.) 02 Nov 2016
02 Nov 2016 16:23:19
Maybe a winterbreak will do it.


3.) 02 Nov 2016
02 Nov 2016 17:39:41
Like the winter break between 05-09?


4.) 02 Nov 2016
02 Nov 2016 18:07:26
I was thinking that with the premier league now bringing in the money and the managers, it would only be a matter of time until the very best players wanted to play here, and that european success would return.

However, one thing that we did have back in that period was a stable top 4. Those teams had CL money, could attract the best players, and keep onto them if they wanted. Right now its hard to imagine the same top 4 two years in a row, at least one hopeful title challenger will miss out on CL this season, and that makes it harder.

You need a consistent run in the cup to have any chance of lifting it.


5.) 02 Nov 2016
02 Nov 2016 20:04:59
If the winter break was so helpful, why do teams seem to struggle in the group stages as well as the later ones?

Fact is that we need to concentrate more and perform better in the groups. Too many English teams come second in their groups and struggle because they face too many top class opponents. I don't care if you're in the group with a European champion - any of the teams expected to be in our top 4 have the ability to beat anyone but the Spanish and Germany champions, and they need to cut the excuses and do it.

I might also look at giving teams still in Europe an extra round off in the FA to lighten the load slightly, and prioritize the fixture list to maximise the rest time they get. Those are small gains though.


6.) 02 Nov 2016
02 Nov 2016 22:07:05
Personally I think we, potentially, could become a force in Europe in the coming 3 seasons. Not saying we will win anything but will be latter stage regulars.


7.) 02 Nov 2016
02 Nov 2016 23:19:53
Personally, and I am likely wrong about this, there are probably a few issues that lead to English clubs doing poorly in Europe. The first is, as Ed002 said, the poor ranking of English clubs, meaning that we tend to get drawn against bigger teams in the group stages and finish second a get one of the huge teams in the first round.
The second is that the Premier League is incredibly tough. The money available means that even lesser teams have players that can hurt the big teams and that smaller teams are less likely to just submit against bid teams. This makes every game harder than in other leagues, especially Spain and Italy, and giving teams less opportunity to rest.
We also have 6 big teams that reasonably challenge for the Champions League. This means all of those teams have to take all their games seriously otherwise they could lose out on the moneypot that is Europe, which leads into the above problem.
Finally English teams have a habit of not spending their money very well. Historically, they tended to not spend the money on managers/ coaches/ scouts but on waste it on players who didn't fit a system or team. Hopefully, with all the top managers now in England, we should see this problem come to an end.


8.) 03 Nov 2016
03 Nov 2016 10:41:15
Personally think the defences are the problem, not one of the back four of the teams in the Champions League right now would get into the back four of the teams from back then.