Hull strong favourites to win it now at least we have the Europa cup if we can

[Dorset Gooner]

Hang on to 5th

[Alexism - Atheoist]

[bostonbrian]

Before, and half of which we won't be able to pronounce properly :-(

[barrybueno]

[Ashberto]

[Nicosia Gooner]

[Ashberto]

Or at least, the sort of team we used to play in it when we could afford to completely sack it off.

[Dorset Gooner]

[Nicosia Gooner]

[barrybueno]

lower down who'd appreciate it. Man Utd for example :hehe:

[Billy Goat Sverige]

4th place trophy, but with an actual trophy to show for it.

[CrossGun]

[arse-nick (avid-analogue-addict)]

[Bergkamp's Brain]

[Peter]

Is not having to play in it next year :hehe:

[Ashberto]

Surely you realise that Liverpool have benefited in the league from not playing tiring midweek games and travelling in Europe at all.

Or do only morons notice such things?

[Ashberto]

[redgunamo]

[CrossGun]

The UEFA cup was tougher to win. The old UEFA cup became the Champions league. Fact.

[Nicosia Gooner]

[Ashberto]

I was merely considering priorities should we not lift it this year. Given our propensity for injury, a lighter load would help us bounce back.

[Bergkamp's Brain]

[CrossGun]

[Ashberto]

us playing in it are wrong. The old knockout European cup for league winners only meant that you could win it playing against only one decent team.

I like the idea of replacing the Europa with a massive single-leg knockout tournament for teams all the way down the top divisions who don't make the CL.

[redgunamo]

[Ashberto]

If you want to discuss it, how about addressing the arguments about fixture volume and injuries rather than chucking ad-hom insults and distortions?

[Nicosia Gooner]

[redgunamo]

Not for the team obviously. More to take our minds off not winning the league because of all the cup matches clogging up our season and depleting our already thin squad.

[Bergkamp's Brain]

[Bergkamp's Brain]

[Ashberto]

playing in.

Even worse, it means league games on Sundays, which can inhibit the boozing somewhat. :-(

[Ashberto]

[CrossGun]

Why is the UEFA cup beneath us?

[CrossGun]

[Ashberto]

If we could solve our injury-proneness I probably wouldn't see the prospect of that tournament as such a drain on resources.

Maybe if a squad team got us out of the group it might be worth going for and taking seriously later on. A good chance for the Sanogos and the Zelalems to develop.

[redgunamo]

[Bergkamp's Brain]

far more a result than a cause. They were destined to happen given the set up of the squad, the numbers, the playing style. Who know what goes on, on the training pitch, that contribute further to this...

[Bergkamp's Brain]

[redgunamo]

Rather than the whole truth, I mean.

[redgunamo]

one that is struggling.

That is if we can at least agree that *all* teams miss key players through injury from time to time.

[Bergkamp's Brain]

We seem to miss many more, more often and for much longer. It is what is causing those injuries to happen is more of a worry. The lack of depth, the overall quality, the psychology, the type of football, the method of preparation. The time taken to recover is a headache

[Bergkamp's Brain]

[redgunamo]

training ground, it would be impossible to tell which one was home to the best team in the division and which was home to the worst.

[Ashberto]

We're not imagining it.

[redgunamo]

and that we are imagining it. They'd crunched the numbers from the Premier League and around Europe and found that we were no worse than average.

Although, I suppose he would say that, wouldn't he http://www.awimb.com/images/smiley_icons/ohwell.gif

[Ashberto]

There is a terrifyingly long series of articles on Untold Arsenal using a database of 6,325 injuries where they compare Arsenal with 9 other top teams since 2002.

It starts here:
http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/archives/34602

and ends here:
http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/archives/34734

The last one has the links to all the series. Their angle is to blame the refs, but whatever one thinks of that, the data they present does show that we have more injuries.

Team Total Injuries
Arsenal 838
Aston Villa 532
Chelsea 588
Everton 631
Fulham 463
Liverpool 520
Man City 563
Man United 720
Newcastle 732
Tottenham 738
Total 6325

[redgunamo]

Any serious challenge to these findings would basically require me to go and do my own similarly extensive research; number crunchers know this just isn't going to happen and that's how they make a living. NTTAWWT.

The impression I got from the video (on Arsenal.com) was that we were essentially happy with our procedures and record, whilst always looking to do better, of course.

[Ashberto]

[redgunamo]

[redgunamo]

we'd be so devastated by our failure to qualify for The Big One.

Even just taking part in the European Cup is so much more important for our sense of self-worth than it is for Liverpool's, as, of course, we have never actually won it.