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Can we win the Europa League?


9 points (with goal difference) got you through to the playoffs last year.

10 points (with goal difference) got you through the year before.

Even with a stinker of a draw where you give us the 2 hardest teams from each pot, we should absolutely be capable of hitting double figure points and getting through to the playoffs.

You're looking at 5 wins from 8 to get through automatically in the top 8. That's probably a stretch too far, but I'd be really disappointed if we couldn't emulate the likes of Forest and Celtic to hit the 3 wins it would take to get to the playoffs.

The two games we play from pot 4 alone should be 6 points straight away.

I'd be reasonably pleased with that and after that, who knows. I know people will bring up the 0-5 but IMO we are a better side than Forest who made it to the SF, but luck plays a much bigger factor in cup football than it does in the league.
 
Balti Man said:
We will lose the final to Bournemouth after being 2-2. Diarra to miss a sitter at 90+7 before O'Nien gives away a penna for wrestling at 90+13. Agonisingly, there is still time but Ballard's thumping header equaliser is ruled out for yanking a Bournemouth player's stubble as he jumped.
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I've put £100 on this mate, cheers, will help ease the pain of defeat.
 
durham.mackem said:
What’s everyone’s opinion on this then?

Had we got into the conference league I’d have given us a great chance of lifting the trophy next year. However the Europa league is clearly a big step above and now I’m just immensely excited to come up against some top European teams with great pedigree.
I think we can beat anyone in the competition on a given day but of course over a season the games quickly add up and quality isn’t always the main decider in the outcome of games.
Maybe a bit of luck in the draw to get us out of the league will do nicely, getting a top, top team at home would be great too.
A great summer window and we could go very strong imo.
My prediction right now is quarter finals.
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I'd say semi final minimum. The likes of bottom quarter man u, spurs and forest have got that far and beyond in recent seasons.
Villa winning also, we're not a million miles from them.
 
Nathan Gunn said:
If you look at the run villa had:

Group stage:

Bologna (H)
Feyenoord (A)
Go Ahead Eagles (A)
Meccabi Tel Aviv (H)
Young Boys (H)
Basel (A)
Fenerbache (A)
RB Salzburg (H)

L16: Lille

QF: Bologna

SF: Nott'm Forest

F: Freiburg

They didn't have to beat anyone who you'd say was a traditional big hitter in european football.

Our biggest challenge will be managing the workload. No reason why we can't get to QF though, and anything can happen once it's knockout football
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I'd say there's already a few 'better' teams in the Europa next season that would get to later stages.

This is who is qualified so far, with possibly Rangers and Red Bull Salzburg to join from playoffs. There's also the losers of the Champions League to drop into the remaining places, along with possibly Crystal Palace if they win tonight.

It's all still a bit random though given there's still loads of games left to fill the remaining 24 teams. We could avoid the better teams all the way to the final or end up getting 2 of the 3 already in Pot 1

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This is last season's 36 teams

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Just depends on the summer.

Last year we wondered if we could survive with our squad. Answer- upgrade the squad...and here we are in Europe.

Our owner and backroom staff showed their credentials then and there's no reason to doubt them now.

So...yes.
 
The forest fans reckon the quality is absolutely crap for the most part

we went to watch Az Alkmaar a couple of years ago, i think they were 2nd in the dutch league at the time and it was terrible
 
There are no top teams in it that I'm afraid of. Juventus and Milan are average now. The premier league teams will win it all the time now, I mean this year it would have been all English final had the draw fell the right way... Freiberg were utter gross and made the final.

Our style is perfect to beat most continental teams, they won't handle our pressing and mid-low block.
 
Frijj said:
Absolutely not. It'll be harder than we expect it to be, whilst we try and manage the league and the cup at the same time, whilst being expected to put in good showings in League and FA Cups.

The Europa League season just gone was relatively weak, IMO. There are bigger dogs in it this year, for example Italy sent Roma and Bologna last year, they're sending AC Milan and Juventus this year. Marseille have qualified, as have Bayer Leverkusen.

My hope is that we at least finish in the top 24 of the league phase of the Europa League and so qualify for the knock-out round play-off. I'd be over the moon with being a seeded team in the knock-out round play-off and it would be beyond my wildest dreams to qualify automatically for the knockouts. I cannot ever imagine we'd make it as far as the quarters.
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Get your point but for me although they are big names in European football they finished in similar positions in lesser leagues.
 
The 7th best team in the Premier League has a massive chance of winning it.

Most years in the last eight or so seasons, often 2 English teams make it deep in the competition. The likes of West Ham, Spurs, Rangers, Fulham have all made it to the semi final or beyond in the not too distant past. As the PL has become stronger and stronger, in the last two season, all of the English entrants have made it to the semi or beyond.

Leverkusen finished 6th in the Bundesliga this season, they're not the side they were when Xhaka was running the show. AC Milan finished 5th in Serie A, sacked their manager and have just had Iraola reject them due to a low transfer budget. Greenwood is leaving Marseille who are in a financial mess as is the rest of Ligue 1.
Realistically, we could buy anyone we want from any of the teams in the competition outside of England given the riches of the PL.

Bournemouth will be instant favourites. We won't be far behind them. I know it's batshit crazy thinking that but this is where we are.
 
We can win it and looking at English teams performance we should aim for it and try our best to do so. It is a lot harder than last year looking at this year's qualifiers sadly but you never know. Have a transfer window before we kick.a ball.
 
Summer Bee said:
My immediate reaction is no, but that's probably what I've been conditioned to think. We have some very, very good players already and with the right recruitment could have an extremely strong squad. Let's see what happens, because realistically we had no expectation of being where we are now, that's take that into Europe and see where we land
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Unbeaten at home this season against Arsenal, City, United, Chelsea, Villa. We can certainly hold our own against clubs who are in the mix at this level and higher. This summer will determine how much of a go we can really give it alongside the Prem. Will be really tough, but wouldn’t be surprised if we do pretty well. We’re not that far off Villa and they’ve just won the thing.
 
The fact that 3 prem team could win all 3 uefa cups this season should give us hope. But frankly I'm just delighted to be in it and if we draw big teams and go out at the league stage then so be it. At least we all get to experience the journey.
 
For me its a case of deja vu last summer as we are not anywhere near ready for it. It will depend on what happens in the summer, but for me the prem has to be the priority no matter what. Look at Forest, West Ham, Spurs all struggled with Europe and have been in the prem a while longer.
The big benefit is the ability to attract players that can help us in the prem.
We will play a minimum of 8 games, if it follows this season it doesn't take that much to get through to knockout phase.
Would like to see us have a good run at it providing we are safely ticking over in the prem.
 
ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK said:
Davey's son was on Total Sport on Monday and they mentioned Davey had predicted 7th and that we'd get into Europe! 😎 Shame they didn't have the recording of that call but it starts about 52 mins in for anyone who missed it.

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Just keep believing mate, never say die!😉
 
durham.mackem said:
getting a top, top team at home would be great too.
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Best draws at home, Juventus and Milan.

Away, I think we've been unlucky in that there aren't many teams in it with big grounds that would give us a big allocation. The two German teams unlucky with. Maybe Milan but how many would they get for a Europa League match at home? 20,000? Is there any point in going there with a half empty ground, same with Benfica.

In terms of how we'll do, all depends on what happens in the summer. Need to keep our best players: keeper, back four, Xhaka, Sadiki and Brobbey and add 2 or 3 players of quality in the first 11. Le Fee to help fund summer business, probably get 20 million, 25 million at a push, for him.
 
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