I would say there were times in the past few years when we got out classed in the Europa League but we had that mentality of wanting to compete even against " better opposition.
The braga home game 3-2 result also the benfica draws.
Two teams who are familiar with champions League football, Porto when we beat them were also in the latter stages of champions League football the previous season and competing with the likes of Liverpool.
I know it's semantics and theres a variety reasons we aren't competing now as it's a bigger step up but the mentality, drive passion and sheer willingness to compete with teams with much bigger budgets than ours was very evident.
What's evident now is that passion, drive and desire to compete seems to be all but gone now.
The tactical flexibility/changes gio utilised to great effect last season are non existent.
What's your thoughts and ideas on why we seem so tentative and unable to compete and I don't want to hear the gulf in budgets rhetoric as we know that, something has definitely changed this season.
I would say there were times in the past few years when we got out classed in the Europa League but we had that mentality of wanting to compete even against " better opposition.
The braga home game 3-2 result also the benfica draws.
Two teams who are familiar with champions League football, Porto when we beat them were also in the latter stages of champions League football the previous season and competing with the likes of Liverpool.
I know it's semantics and theres a variety reasons we aren't competing now as it's a bigger step up but the mentality, drive passion and sheer willingness to compete with teams with much bigger budgets than ours was very evident.
What's evident now is that passion, drive and desire to compete seems to be all but gone now.
The tactical flexibility/changes gio utilised to great effect last season are non existent.
What's your thoughts and ideas on why we seem so tentative and unable to compete and I don't want to hear the gulf in budgets rhetoric as we know that, something has definitely changed this season.
I would say there were times in the past few years when we got out classed in the Europa League but we had that mentality of wanting to compete even against " better opposition.
The braga home game 3-2 result also the benfica draws.
Two teams who are familiar with champions League football, Porto when we beat them were also in the latter stages of champions League football the previous season and competing with the likes of Liverpool.
I know it's semantics and theres a variety reasons we aren't competing now as it's a bigger step up but the mentality, drive passion and sheer willingness to compete with teams with much bigger budgets than ours was very evident.
What's evident now is that passion, drive and desire to compete seems to be all but gone now.
The tactical flexibility/changes gio utilised to great effect last season are non existent.
What's your thoughts and ideas on why we seem so tentative and unable to compete and I don't want to hear the gulf in budgets rhetoric as we know that, something has definitely changed this season.
I agree to an extent. The issue with last night is that we were doomed to failure with what was effectively a two man midfield. We neither parked the bus or made any meaningful attempt to a get a foothold in the game. They were always going to dominate us - so they should - but we watched it happening far too much rather than competing physically and working harder.So far for me it’s only been the Ajax game that was really bad.
Against Napoli, who’ve proved themselves to be a seriously good team, we were giving as good as we got until the sending off and penalty. The two late strikes at the end gave the scoreline a look that didn’t really do us justice I felt.
Last night we were up against one of the best sides in world football. They have players worth more than our entire squad. I thought their speed of passing and movement was on a different level to anything we’ve faced in the past few years so as much as we could barely string more than two passes together the speed of their closing down and pressing forced a lot of those mistakes.
Simply put we look like what we are: a Europa League level team with a comparatively minuscule budget a bit out of their depth at the higher level.
I don’t think anyone sensible thinks we are not trying. It is more a case of looking lost. With the perfect game plan and the players playing full throttle we could still very well be sitting on zero points. The problem I have is that in two off the games we have looked like we have no idea how to go about playing these teams. Thats not OK. Gio doesn’t seem to have any real game plan.I don't know so much about regressing rather than peaking last season.
As a result of that and the huge increase in the quality of opposition we are facing this season folk have lost a grip on our position in football.
Folk cannot see the difference in not trying as opposed to beni made to look like you are not.
As a result it is sack Gio from them.
As posted already, many on here had us finishing second. Second ffs!
Maybe as the slow realisation finally sinks in for the majority now this place will calm down a bit.
I will still not include the matchday thread in that though.
Don't think anyone ever deluded themselves into thinking it wasn't a drastic step up.I would say there were times in the past few years when we got out classed in the Europa League but we had that mentality of wanting to compete even against " better opposition.
The braga home game 3-2 result also the benfica draws.
Two teams who are familiar with champions League football, Porto when we beat them were also in the latter stages of champions League football the previous season and competing with the likes of Liverpool.
I know it's semantics and theres a variety reasons we aren't competing now as it's a bigger step up but the mentality, drive passion and sheer willingness to compete with teams with much bigger budgets than ours was very evident.
What's evident now is that passion, drive and desire to compete seems to be all but gone now.
The tactical flexibility/changes gio utilised to great effect last season are non existent.
What's your thoughts and ideas on why we seem so tentative and unable to compete and I don't want to hear the gulf in budgets rhetoric as we know that, something has definitely changed this season.
Bang on the money.The team as everyone knows is mostly the same since Gerrard re-started our Euro journey, some real quality needed to be added, we now find ourselves on the decline due to a combination of average squad investment and a massive step up in competition. The players dont look confident against Euro Elite, hopefully the final 2 home games vs Liverpool and Ajax will see us raise our levels and maybe even get some points.
Lets not forget that qualification to the group stages was outstanding.
That's me told then!!Who let their 4 year old play on FF...back to the crayons kid!!!
The mauling and same neagative, cowardly, unorganised crapshow at Parkhead suggests you are correct.That makes the attitude from players and management alright then...
Right now we wouldn't be doing much better in the Europa League. Some of those groups would see our current performances struggle.
The mauling and same neagative, cowardly, unorganised crapshow at Parkhead suggests you are correct.
THIS IN FUCKING CAPITALS!!!!!!I wouldn't question the effort tbh. I see this a lot and not just with our support. I think there's a bit of a misconception after games like tonight. I think when your playing a vastly superior side sometimes it looks like there's a lack of commitment but in reality it is a symptom of being outclassed technically and tactically.
Ajax, Napoli & Liverpool are much better than us. Everything is fine we got to the europa final last year. Utter drubbings from Celtic? Och these things happen, remember we got to the europa final last year
Personally it's got absolutely nothing to do with the champions league form in deciding that Gio needs to go. It's the league form last season, and the shocking style of football on show domestically that has carried on into this season which is the problem. We are an accident waiting to happen almost every game. If you seriously watch us and think it's fine then I don't know what else to say.I don't know so much about regressing rather than peaking last season.
As a result of that and the huge increase in the quality of opposition we are facing this season folk have lost a grip on our position in football.
Folk cannot see the difference in not trying as opposed to beni made to look like you are not.
As a result it is sack Gio from them.
As posted already, many on here had us finishing second. Second ffs!
Maybe as the slow realisation finally sinks in for the majority now this place will calm down a bit.
I will still not include the matchday thread in that though.
Our current form would see us struggle in the Europa League.
We've hardly been great domestically either; Livingston, Kilmarnock, Hibs (before red cards), QotS, Celtic, Dundee United. Even Union Saint Gilloise in Europe was a shocker.
Nothing in our performances suggests we are away to hit a winning run.
It sounds similar to the start of last season with the exception of the Parkhead debacle.
I agree. I am not really buying this team would be ok in the Europa League, I find our domestic level right now not to be consistent enough in level of performance or in energy. And I don’t think we will see if we are good enough for the Europa either.I don't feel particularly confident that we would look any better against Europa league opposition at the moment.
We matched Eintracht Frankfurt for 120 minutes earlier this year, they currently sit still in contention of qualifying from their group and took a point from Spurs last night.
Yes we have a tougher group but you'd expect Europa League finalists to at least have scored a goal by now and have had more than 6 shots on target across three games.
Last season Gio used what happened in the first game against an opponent to help us in the second game.I would say there were times in the past few years when we got out classed in the Europa League but we had that mentality of wanting to compete even against " better opposition.
The braga home game 3-2 result also the benfica draws.
Two teams who are familiar with champions League football, Porto when we beat them were also in the latter stages of champions League football the previous season and competing with the likes of Liverpool.
I know it's semantics and theres a variety reasons we aren't competing now as it's a bigger step up but the mentality, drive passion and sheer willingness to compete with teams with much bigger budgets than ours was very evident.
What's evident now is that passion, drive and desire to compete seems to be all but gone now.
The tactical flexibility/changes gio utilised to great effect last season are non existent.
What's your thoughts and ideas on why we seem so tentative and unable to compete and I don't want to hear the gulf in budgets rhetoric as we know that, something has definitely changed this season.