I think it’s just more the fact we won it 6 times already. If it wasn’t in our stadium it wouldn’t feel any different to a previous season. However, this will potentially be the best chance in our lifetime to ever win la liga. I mean when will be this close to top spot after 22 game again!
There is probably an argument we may have won la liga in 2007 if it wasn’t for going all the way in europa/UEFA cup. I’m not saying it wouldn’t be great to win again of course it would be, I just think to fight for la liga is more exciting and should be the main focus. Real Madrid are great but they are showing vulnerability. They are favourites but with some focus anything is possible with it being this close. This is a once in a lifetime kind of thing for the club. Whereas europa is like been there done that countless times. Just my opinion though.
Maybe but we will have probably plenty of chances to win europa again. When will we ever get another chance at being close to la liga title? This might be our only opportunity in our lifetime or for at least 20 years. Maybe, it won’t but you feel it possible as no doubt the big 3 will get stronger in the future and we might weaken. It feels like now or never type chance. Especially with our aging squad and lope won’t be around forever either.
I guess if we were further away from Real it would make more sense to go for europa completely. However, in this situation lope has to play his A team in la liga and play more his B team in europa. When playing Dynamo Zagreb we don’t need to go full strength when we play in la liga 3 days later.
I agree with, Mark. The Europa League is something we could win every year if we wanted. La Liga is going to be tougher. What with Real and you’d expect Atletico and Barca to get stronger again, it’s not going to be easy. This season feels like our best chance ever and might be our last for a while.
If we want other teams to sit up and take us seriously, that’s another reason why winning La Liga would mean a lot more than the Europa League. All of the priority should be going towards winning the league in my mind.
I totally agree mate. We could banish being the pretenders if we did somehow win the league. The celebrations in the city if we did win it would be wild. It would be like reaching the holy grail and like nothing we ever seen.
Whereas winning the europa league we just get called europa league merchants again. It wouldn’t be anything new or a step up on anything we did before. If we win la liga though we become massive and the whole football world would take notice. It would finally feel like our place in the sun and on top of the football podium. There is nothing bigger and it would be just the 2nd time in our history and first of this modern era. It would be the greatest achievement ever for the club.
That’s fair, but its still doesn’t change much. Zero guarentee you play better after a two week break or a 4 day break. Only thing we need is some of our main players to return and we can easily do it. After all it’s Dynamo Zagreb for the first stop, after that we will see and measure again.
In terms of rhythm it doesn’t affect much. It’s more I worry about fatigue or getting a few key injuries. We have been already hit hard on that front. Just think though if we get everyone fit and we only had la liga to focus. Whereas Real Madrid stayed in 3 competitions and got mounting injuries. Our title chances would increase significantly.
Absolutely mate. To win La Liga would be an incredible achievement, the greatest in our history. If we were to win it just once in my lifetime, I’d be happy.
I’m not even dreaming we can win the league, I’ll take it as it comes. Finishing 2nd would be fantastic, 3rd great & 4th… well that would have been our objective met.
I don’t want to look per se on this side, but it’s just like the CL money. The price money from LaLiga is directly such an influx to grow with If we end second, The prize money might be 40-30m higher compared to 3rd, and maybe 20m higher than 4th, if some of the numbers i’ve seen are correct indications. Besides 2nd being an amazing accomplishment on sportsman level, it would financially be a big step to grow as well. Definitely worth to fight for, while we are at it. More so than EL on this aspect.
I remember when I couldn’t dream of qualifying for Champions league !
I think we can handle two competitions from here forward but the sad thing is that if we win another uefa we are in danger of devaluing our precious history and making the uefa seem something that can be gamed. Imagine winning 7 uefas and the all time greats of European football have not exceeded 3.
We won la liga just once in 1946, times up, 75 years waiting is long enough.
We should crash out of EL voluntarily, but I’m afraid that will still not mean we’ll reach more than the second place. It’s worth trying and going all in though - with a switch on tactics that allows us to attack and risk a bit more, especially after we saw what happened vs. Celta. Play the rest of the season just like we played in the second half vs. Celta and we can still dream. Otherwise, no chance in hell.
Barca won tonight and they’re slowly trying to crawl towards getting into a serious fight for the second place with us, same as Atletico. Betiss already there. Sociedad just there in the horizon.
I’m encouraged by real Madrid’s dodgy home form. Even though they the best team in the league they seem to miss lots of chances and make life difficult for themselves. They have had some pretty poor home results allowing us to stay in the race. Now they lost benzema to hamstring and vini is suspended for next league game. They will struggle in the Granada game I feel too.
We still an outsider but provided they keep throwing in these types of results then the dream can stay alive for us. I hope they advance far in champions league and copa del rey.
It’s good news for us that Barca play atleti next. A draw would be great for that one. :poop: also got Villarreal which is a tough one. Hopefully we can take advantage of these tough fixtures for our rivals when we face osasuna with hopefully a much stronger squad and lopetegui back in dugout.
Another 5 players not getting much rest before we play Osasuna on the 5th of Feb.
Ocampos Acuña, Papu and Montiel called up for Argentina who play Friday, January 28 v Chile & Wednesday, February 2 v Columbia.
Tecatito called up for Mexico who play Friday, January 28 v Jamaica, Monday, January 31 v Costa Rica & Thursday, February 3 v Panama.
The only ones almost guaranteed to start are Acuna and Tecatito, but Papu and Ocampos might get minutes too. Montiel is not the preferred one for the RB spot, but let’s see if Scaloni surprises us.
I’m really frustrated with all these issues we have with worrying about players been away on international duty. It’s the type of players we have signed so it just unfortunate but it’s really biting us a lot.
We need a calm period where we lose no one or don’t have to worry about anyone being on international duty or suffering from jet lag. We have to put up with loads already and we now deserve a spell with our full squad fit and raring to go.
