Do we want to qualify for Champions? Are we likely to earn more in CL or EL, obviously I’d prefer us to be playing Champions but we need money, it’s a tough call without a crystal ball.
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En-Nesyri’s injury is a clear case of worldcupitis.
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We’re going out of the Champions League unless City can score in the next 5 minutes or so. They’ve missed a pen as well.
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Nevermind all that. Dortmund and Man City surely agreed in the locker room that a tie was easiest for both parties
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ManCity completed like 850 passes in tonight’s game. Just wild to imagine a team making close to 1,000 passes in a game. No wonder the English announcers are used to only commenting once every 10-15 passes…saving their voices…
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its not even close Tim. CL is WAY more money.
here are the EL prizes:
And the prizes for CL:
reaching the round of 16 in CL (requiring another group stage win) would give us 12.4M euros. we’d need to reach the EL finals to even get close, 10.9M (0.5 + 1.2 + 1.8 + 2.8 +4.6), and could only surpass that if we won the whole thing (19.5M).
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The EL money could still add up and soften the blow of the CL failure but… we left a lot of money on the table, even just in failing to beat copenhagen in the first match and putting up such a feable fight against Dortmund at home.
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Final thought is this shows why CL v EL qualification is so critical.
group stage in CL where you win 2 draw 1 lose 3 = 23.3M (15.6+.9+2.8+2.8)
group stage in EL where you win 4 draw 1 lose 1 = 6.3M (3.6+.6 + .6 + .6 + .6 + .2)
In both cases you likely land in EL knock out stage anyway.
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all moot because the Man City - Dortmund draw eliminates us from CL (right?)
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Yes some regrettable results as this group wasn’t impossible to get through.
Lope to blame. Sampaoli tried to undo the damage but it was too late.
Got to move forward now and try and win the Europa!
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To be fair, we did draw one of the hardest or possibly the hardest group for a team starting from Pot 2 in the group stage draw. Dortmund for a Pot 3 team was quite a killer draw, And obviously Pot 1 was tough teams no matter what, but ManCity was the hardest among them.
Anyhow, water under the bridge, but I feel like no matter what form we were in, taking 2nd place in this group was always a coin flip at best, even in the best of times. A big disappointment, but I think far less disappointing than last year’s UCL campaign where we really should have won that group and could barely manage to make Europa League in the end.
Last year we should have been calling for Lopetegui’s firing, but obviously hindsight is 20/20. And I, of course, was among the folks who would have thought the idea of firing him last winter was crazy.
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Before we move on from this match, in rewatching the highlights, two things stuck out.
First, Suso took nearly the same exact shot three times in the first half. It’s that typical Suso shot from slightly too far out with slightly too many defenders in front of him… Unsurprisingly 0/3.
Second, this kid Haraldsson… Is 19 years old and really gave us some trouble. He could really be an exciting European signing in coming years. Iceland is a country of <400k people, so I don’t suspect they’ll be able to build too much around him for their national team, but I always love their Thunderclap and just love seeing the underdogs perform well in international football.
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That’s the thing with him. If his shot isn’t working, nothing else does. He can’t fake it to create an opening & he won’t have the confidence to create something else. So he stays stuck at level 1 looking worse than the average La Liga winger. Januzaj anyone?
They should find chances if the team’s balance is right. I’m not sure if Suso - Isco - Papu provides enough variety for that. Things were different w/ Lamela & YEN on the pitch. As for the Moroccan, he can be active and keep the defenders busy, which is why it works in certain matches. I’m still not convinced he got the touch for the goal, but at least he made the run. As for ya boy Rafa Mir, he’s still my preferred striker, but needs to learn to keep it simple in the buildup. He’s trying to get rid of old habits, but he’ll still only look for his shot, or pass only for it to become a 1-2 for his own shot once more. 
Also, Jordan & Rakitic didn’t look too bad did they? 
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We were very lucky in this match, because the score remained at 1:0 and they did not score at the time. The static of the players in our team and the lack of speed showed. In the end, it was extremely nice to see the score 3:0, I don’t remember the last time we won witht this kind of result.
What I noticed is that Papu in particular is below par this year, he takes way too many touches and slows down the game. The combination of Papu&Isco on the field does not work best for me, because their styles of play are too similar. Lamela should statrt every game, because he is only fast player in offense and really makes difference on the wing.
For the striker position isn’t much hope anymore. Sampaoli gave chance to all three strikers none of then showed up. Let’s wait for winter transfer market.
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Rafa Mir
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YEN
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Dolberg
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Very lucky to get away with the win, they hit both the post and crossbar, Dimi made a great save with his legs to prevent another sure goal.
Observations
What is the point of playing Suso on the wing when he spends most of the game in loads of space waiting for the pass that never comes? I really felt sorry for him at times.
Never thought I would say this but we have a striker in Dolberg who is worse than Yen.
Did anyone see what the banner the Biris unfurled at the start say? I couldn’t read it from my seat. They announced that there would not be any support from them for the 1st 5 minutes and all sat down.
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The amount of times pundits and pros have said Suso’s best position is a 10. Yet he literally never ever gets played there so we might as well fucking sell him.
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Suso is so predictibale. The scouting says will always shoot with his left and defenders play him to protect against it. He offers nothing else. I don’t know if any team in the league will want him. He’s also contracted until 2025 so unloading him will not be easy. Hard to believe he’s only 28, he looks and plays like a 38 year old.
As for Kasper, he might as well be the ghost, because you don’t notice him on the pitch. He’s had three shots in 297 minutes of play. Worse at 6’1" he’s only won 33% of his aerial duels. That stuck out to me yesterday. Anytime something in the air, he failed.
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Just been watching that Isco goal over and over today.
Pure class from a top quality player.
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Exactly. For Jordan, it’s just a question of whether you notice him for playing badly or don’t notice him at all. This match was thankfully a “don’t notice him at all” match.
And re: previous comments about Dolberg, I am afraid to say you’re all right. He just isn’t showing up. I’m always a patient fan, so I hope to see him figure something out, but so far, not going to cut it. Was surprised to see him subbed out at half, but I get it…
Last, anyone know what’s up with YEN injury? 
Hoping the comment about World-Cup-itis is right. Imagine this team with Rafa Mir and Dolberg as our only strikers.