Is it style or is it just the fact these players aren’t as good as we think they are? I feel in the days juande Ramos, manolo Jimenez, sampaoli and Emery we had probably more quality in attacking positions. We better in terms of defensive qualities and being well organised but in an attacking sense I feel these players aren’t as good compared to other squads.
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We just lost to a team of kids. A team that’s market value is a quarter of ours and we had 1 shot on target knowing we had to win.
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We got what we deserved I’m afraid. Simply not good enough tonight and we haven’t been all group stage. Salzburg were just better than us.
For the life of me I don’t know how Munir missed that chance and from then on, Salzburg score and you knew it was all over. We didn’t even create a single chance after that.
We were completely toothless. I’m afraid the style of football under Lope isn’t good enough. We’re boring to watch and I don’t ever think we’re going to score when I watch us. We really should be better than this and past Sevilla sides under different managers wouldn’t have struggled in this group. There is nothing upfront, we have no quality. Past Sevilla sides have had Ben Yedder, Gameiro, Bacca, Fabiano and Kanoute. They were exciting to watch and had attacking quality, none of this can be said now.
Things have got to change and fast. I’m losing faith in Lope’s ability to take us forward. I really don’t think he’s the man to take us to the next level and be a serious team I’m afraid.
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Even still I just not surprised. It’s been the same story all champions league so we just simply haven’t had enough when it mattered,
All credit to Fernando for being a beast for us the last two seasons, but he’s fading. I barely see him this season although he plays 90 minutes almost always. His old legs gotta be replaced. Rakitic is also of little value when he’s playing.
We may say we need better attackers, but you see this game we barely reach these attackers because our midfield is slow, inaccurate or invisable. Buy good midfielders. Try buying Renato Sanches, that guy ran a marathon within 90 minutes against us and was dangerous aswell. Monchi, give us a new midfield please, I don’t care about changing up attackers anymore, this midfield needs work.
Lope can only work with what he’s got. Our side has limited options, injuries, small budget and we lack pace. I don’t think we can be to surprised with this. Lope is fine for me as he’s doing well in the league and that’s enough. We had no chance to go far in champions league anyway so either way it just highlights our limitations further.
We need a few more additions to really have a chance to help us through the rest of this season and beyond. Monchi and Castro hopefully will address this.
I take what you’re saying regarding injuries and a small budget and lack of options. We do need to strengthen in a few areas in January, particularly going forward.
However it’s the playing style which really gets to me. We are boring to watch. It’s actually painful at times as we simply don’t look like scoring. Where was the urgency when we were 1-0 down tonight?
Results wise, yes he’s doing okay in the league but we’re out of the CL after probably being in the easiest group on paper. CL should be important and getting knocked out so early isn’t good enough if we’re a serious club. I think Lope’s position should be scrutinised for that alone.
Honestly it was better than done this under Emery and Sampaoli. Far better.
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I didn’t realise that the europa league final was in Sevilla. I sort of have a feeling the club aren’t to disappointed to drop into their favourite competition because of that incentive too. Not saying they set up to go in but it feels they will be quite content and they can focus on that.
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I’d like to see us go for it in that competition, especially with the incentive of a home final. Will make up quite a lot for the disappointment of getting knocked out.
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It’s a difficult one. I guess we should but I just hope it doesn’t derail our copa del Rey and la liga progress. As I feel we have a good chance in them competitions to do better than we did past seasons. It will be better to go for 3 competitions if we get most of our players back fit and strengthen a bit in January.
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League is the priority and trying to at least get top 3 and then I’d like to see us do well in at least one of the Copa and Europa League.
For me though the Europa League is our competition, one we’ve won so many times and I think we absolutely should respect it and go to win it.
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Sorry if my comments have come across a bit knee jerk or rash about Lope, but I’m so disappointed with tonight and the way we’ve performed in the CL.
I just hope things can get better. Lope will probably have the rest of this season and we’ll see where we’re at then I guess.
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The EL will be difficult to win this season given the teams dropping down from the CL.
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I just think we have to remember we have always struggled in this elite competition. I don’t think it’s fair lope gets all the blame. For me of course there a couple of things he could have done better but in general we just aren’t great in our approach play or clinical enough to make the difference.
When we lack the attacking options, missing key players, work on a small budget and lack pace to make the difference it can be no surprise.
Provided we keep doing well in the league and the other competitions I think we can still be happy overall. The only shame is we miss out on the extra funds we’d bank by making the last 16. Still we move on and plenty to fight for.
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I’m certainly not just blaming Lope. He does have a lot of things against him with injuries and a lack of options. It’s not like he could call on YEN or Lamela, probably our two key players.
So he’s not got it easy but my biggest criticism of Lope is the playing style. I really don’t like the dull football and I hope this is something that can be worked on.
Another thing I’d say is that we have done well in this competition in the past. It wasn’t that along ago that we were beating Man United and taking Bayern Munich all the way over two legs. Feels like we have gone backwards since then, both in terms of quality and playing style.
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It’s funny how the 2017-2018 was our best champions league run when we got to last 8 and pushed Bayern in that tie. Yet that season we blew up in la liga and ended up with about a mere 56 points. We were better in champions league then but much worse in la liga. Despite that season though we either exited the group stage or last 16 for champions.
Still we had Ben yedder and sarabia then who made a real difference in those champions league games as were clinical in front of goal. We also had Banega who was the man with the keys who made things happen. We haven’t really replaced Banega to be honest.
We were much worse at the back that season and less organised but in terms of quality attacking players we probably had better back then. It’s funny how you look at things by comparing seasons.
I honestly feel these set of players especially coupled with the key players out being YEN and lamela probably have less attacking quality than previous Sevilla sides.
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Yes it is strange. Back then we certainly weren’t as good defensively but we were better from an attacking point of view with Ben Yedder and then Banega in midfield. That can make the difference in the Champions League.
We’re definitely missing quality players in both these positions and it’s really shown. Attacking wise we’re the weakest we’ve been for as long as I can remember. I reckon we need at least one quality striker and a Banega type player in midfield. We need reinforcements in January as we’re already down to the bare bones.
I think quality wise, this squad isn’t as good as maybe some of us thought. There may have been strength and depth but not quality. I too would question a policy of signing older foreign imports in Delaney and Augustinsson (bit part players) over young talented Spanish players for instance. Letting Gill go shows the direction we were going in and it’s not the right way and certainly not how we’ve done things in the past when you think of some of the younger players who have come good with us through the ranks, Ramos, Navas, Reyes, Puerta etc.
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Yeah good point about the policy change. Yeah it slightly worrying that Monchi and Castro have went down the road of older and more experienced players but we a bit light in terms of youth coming through. That is a slight concern and we need more young blood coming through to get a healthier balance there.
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Agree with almost all the points.
Yes, the team is limited in resources and quality, but still not below Salzburg and Lille and with better tactics and preparations should definitely have done better in that group. It is embarrassing to not make it through from a group like that, having just returned to CL.
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Definitely. We need to build for the future. I don’t see many young players coming through the ranks like we used to. Signing players like Delaney and Augustinsson (not saying they’re bad players) is stagnation for me.
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