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As i said, I can also see it from their perspective, the teams who go furthest in the various competitions they enter, especially the ones in Europe, there are too many games. Particualrly those with many international regulars. These guys are still human remember. Thats why I didnt think scrapping them from 5th round and the business end of the season onwards was such a bad idea.
But to take away the opportunity for a lower league team to earn a replay against a premier league club in rounds 3 and 4, I think thats shit.
It should have been left as it was at least, or if wanting to do something about the number of games maybe they could make replyas optional in the earlier roudns. ie if both clubs in the tie agree that they are both happy to proceed without a replay before a ball is kicked then that option is there for them.
Make the European game straight two legged knock out from the start rather than the ridiculous, sometimes boring, league system which swamps domestic football for 75% of the season. The European Cup was much better in the past. Teams had to be on their mettle all the time rather than having many other chances to get to the latter stages.
Well thats never going to happen in a million years. UEFA have a lot more clout than the Football League!
I cant believe the big leagues and clubs havent got together and told international football to sling its hook. 100 million pounbd assets, being paid hundreds of thousands of pounds per week, being loaned to their countries for around 10-15 games a season. Could save players playing many games there.
And millions don’t bother watching the group games, many of them dead rubbers. A bit contradictory managers & coaches complaining about too many games yet condone the present system. It’s all geared to the television fan. With our 24 team division we’re very often in action anyway on Champions League nights, so we’re either down the City or, if we’re away, watching us in our houses rather than a European match.
I rarely watch a Champions League group game and as for the other Euro competitions, never.
Not really, (Close your eyes Sludge) I know quite a few lads from Merthyr who follow Liverpool everywhere and the group stages gives them at least 3 european trips most seasons. Judging by the amount of fans English clubs take abroad I imagine they are happy with the group stages too.
Then theres the clubs who dont get into Europe every season, the group stages are great for those clubs and the fans who follow them.
They might be a bjt boring for the teams that always reach the quarter finals onwards but in the main I think the group stages cater well for the rest.
As a TV fan of the Champions League though I dont really bother until rounds 5 or 6 of the group stages.
Yes, I agree that fans of clubs may enjoy the group stages and I’d love us to be involved. But I’d find it annoying if our manager, if it ever happened, then complained that we were playing too many games and the players were tired.
It would be more exciting for fans of the not so glamorous clubs having a chance of progressing through the old two legged system. Unfortunately the days of Malmo, Hamburg, Forest, Bruges etc are long gone. Cup games and competition should be all about ‘on the day’ not a long drawn out execution.
Neil Warnock has tweeted about the magic of the FA cup.
It's a shame that when he was here he didn't seem to give two hoots about it
I don't make a habit of listening to talksport but I had it on in the car last night to listen to the Liverpool game, afterwards they mentioned the teams in Europe not playing in the league cup, it made sense. You could keep the replays as they had them in the FA Cup then, they're pretty rare if you looked at it percentage wise so the likelihood of the teams in Europe being faced with a replay would be small, and they'd also not have the games from the league cup, makes sense to me.