Champions League & Europa League 2014-15 Thread - Page 32

TerransHill

Germany572 Posts

September 18 2014 21:12 GMT

#621

Disappointing performance by wolfsburg...
The thing with the german euro league contestants is that they are so inconsistent.
There are different teams on the euro league spots every season and those teams might very well be candidates for relegation the season after.
The latter is not the case for wolfsburg since they have enough money but they still are very inconsistent and dont have alot of experience in international football.

sharkie

Austria18635 Posts

September 18 2014 21:17 GMT

#622

On September 19 2014 06:12 TerransHill wrote:
Disappointing performance by wolfsburg...
The thing with the german euro league contestants is that they are so inconsistent.
There are different teams on the euro league sports every season and those teams might very well be candidates for relegation the season after.
The latter is not the case for wolfsburg since they have enough money but they still are very inconsistent and dont have alot of experience in international football.

Mainz haven't been relegation material for quite some time either.

Pantagruel

United States1427 Posts

September 18 2014 21:24 GMT

#623

It was a poor game by Feyenoord but sadly i've come to expect that. Really created almost nothing of note and it looked like if Sevilla wished to crank it up a notch they could do so at any time. Not looking forward to the weekend either haha...

Ysellian

Netherlands9029 Posts

September 18 2014 22:13 GMT

#624

Agree Panta, things are looking really bad for feyenoord. It's the manner of the defeat which really bothers me, looked lost out there.

Twisted

Netherlands13554 Posts

September 18 2014 22:17 GMT

#625

On September 19 2014 05:09 Mensol wrote:

Show nested quote +

+ Show Spoiler +

Yes! When they were calling the names of the PSG line-up before the game, everyone boo'd but cheered the roof off when they named van der Wiel, Maxwell and Zlatan :D

TerransHill

Germany572 Posts

September 18 2014 22:22 GMT

#626

On September 19 2014 06:17 sharkie wrote:

Show nested quote +

Mainz haven't been relegation material for quite some time either.

Sure but this season it might be their turn again. At least nobody would be particularly shocked if mainz got relegated.
Same with Freiburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart etc.. There is no consistency from rank 5-18 .
And none of those clubs can buy a striker for 35 Mio € of course. Hell even Dortmund never spent that much.

haitike

Spain2727 Posts

September 18 2014 23:18 GMT

#627

On September 19 2014 06:12 TerransHill wrote:
Disappointing performance by wolfsburg...
The thing with the german euro league contestants is that they are so inconsistent.
There are different teams on the euro league spots every season and those teams might very well be candidates for relegation the season after.
The latter is not the case for wolfsburg since they have enough money but they still are very inconsistent and dont have alot of experience in international football.

Spanish Europe league teams are stable. You have teams like Sevilla or Atletico that win the trophy often this last years. And others like Valencia, Villareal, Espanyol or Athletic that play it quite often.

I think that Spain is the best country in the last decade for Europe League level (but I can't stop thinking that that with a better TV rights distribution (PL-style) some teams like Valencia could have continued like a regular Champions League team, like when they reach two Champions finals in a row).

Stratos_speAr

United States6959 Posts

September 18 2014 23:27 GMT

#628

On September 19 2014 06:12 TerransHill wrote:
Disappointing performance by wolfsburg...
The thing with the german euro league contestants is that they are so inconsistent.
There are different teams on the euro league spots every season and those teams might very well be candidates for relegation the season after.
The latter is not the case for wolfsburg since they have enough money but they still are very inconsistent and dont have alot of experience in international football.

I think this is a really big problem for German teams; while their CL teams are the same every year nowadays (Bayern, Dortmund, Leverkusen, Schalke), their Europa League teams change EVERY year. Here are the non-Big 4 teams that saw European action:

2014:
VfL Wolfsburg
Borussia Monchengladbach
FSV Mainz 05

2013:
Eintracht Frankfurt
SC Freiburg
VfL Stuttgart

2012:
VfL Stuttgart
Hannover 96
Borussia Monchengladbach

2011:
Hannover 96
FSV Mainz 05

2010:
Werder Bremen
VfL Stuttgart

2009:
Hertha BSC
Hamburger SV
Werder Bremen
VfL Wolfsburg

I could go farther back, but you get the point. The only repeat performances in the last six years for teams in Europe are Stuttgart (3) and Monchengladbach, Mainz, Wolfsburg, Hannover 96, and Werder Bremen (2) . Wolfsburg hasn't had European competition since 2009, and even then, this is only their 4th(?) year of European competition since the turn of the century. Monchengladbach has only had one other season prior to this one this century that they saw European play, and Mainz has only had one other season in European play since they made it into the Bundesliga. Not only that, but some of these teams got thrown into the meat grinder of the CL for one or two of their European adventures.

In the same time period, La Liga: Athletic Bilbao (4), Sevilla (5), Villarreal (4), or the Premier League, which has Tottenham as a perpetual EL team and five other major financial and European powers fighting for four CL spots, leaving one in the EL. Beyond that, there are a number of teams from the smaller leagues throughout Europe that have cemented a consistent (or even yearly) spot in the EL.

I think this is really good for the Bundesliga's competitiveness and level of interest (aside from Bayern being so lopsidedly dominant), but it's bad for these second-level teams when they get to Europe once every 3 or 4 years.

TerransHill

Germany572 Posts

September 18 2014 23:43 GMT

#629

On September 19 2014 08:27 Stratos_speAr wrote:
I think this is a really big problem for German teams; while their CL teams are the same every year nowadays (Bayern, Dortmund, Leverkusen, Schalke), their Europa League teams change EVERY year.

2013:
Eintracht Frankfurt
SC Freiburg
VfL Stuttgart

2012:
Leverkusen
VfL Stuttgart
Hannover 96

2011:
Hannover 96
FC Schalke
FSV Mainz 05

2010:
Leverkusen
BVB Dortmund
VfL Stuttgart

2009:
Hertha BSC
Hamburger SV
werder Bremen

I could go on, but you get the point. The only team that got some consistent European experience (outside of the big 4) was VfL Stuttgart.

yea and the thing with Stuttgart is that they always suck the season after getting into the Euro League.
Bundesliga positions:
10/11: 12/18
12/13: 12/18
13/14: 15/18

Euro League is more of a burden for most german teams

PhilGood2DaY

Germany7424 Posts

September 19 2014 01:41 GMT

#630

On September 19 2014 05:16 Mensol wrote:
Everton giving the taste of PL to Wolfsburg.

As did Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund to City and Arsenal. I like CL victories even more

But Im indeed a bit surprised Wolfsburg played so bad.

Ferrose

United States11378 Posts

September 19 2014 02:47 GMT

#631

On September 19 2014 07:22 TerransHill wrote:

Show nested quote +

The results should be better this year. Freiburg are a small club who massively overachieved to finish 5th, and they got picked clean worse than Southampton that summer; they lost something like 6 of their first 11.

Frankfurt had finished 6th after just being promoted from the 2.Bundesliga so of course they would have a thinner squad.

Mainz are another smaller club who overachieved, and they lost a few key players plus their manager. However, Wolfsburg and Gladbach's squads are good enough that they should be aiming to get to the latter stages of the tournament.

PhilGood2DaY

Germany7424 Posts

September 19 2014 07:26 GMT

#632

thats true.

and if u think about it: Gladbach beat Schalke 4:1 in the last league game. And then Schalke plays 1:1 vs Chelsea while Gladbach only draws 1:1 with Villareal.

But exactly that's what's so good about football (among other things). Outcomes are unpredictable and a team gets crushed by a much weaker team (Gladbach in this case) while holding against a Champions League and Premierleague title contender.

Im still pretty positive (looking at CL&Europa League and the national leagues). That Spain,Germany and England clearly have the best leagues. With Spain being very very good at the top (Rm,FcB,AtleticoM) but mediocre at the bottm and decent in the mid spots. England being pretty good throughout the whole table and Germany being an amazing league with 2 top notch teams followed by teams that can beat many good clubs on a good day.

However Im still dissapointed in Wolfsburg and wonder how bad they can do with such a good squad. 2 Teams winning against Premierleague top clubs and one draw is a nice start, though.

Maenander

Germany4926 Posts

September 19 2014 13:48 GMT

#633

Wolfsburg and Gladbach aren't bad teams, Wolfsburg in particular should come back from this and qualify for the next round.

TerransHill

Germany572 Posts

September 19 2014 14:48 GMT

#634

On September 19 2014 22:48 Maenander wrote:
Wolfsburg and Gladbach aren't bad teams, Wolfsburg in particular should come back from this and qualify for the next round.

I also think that Gladbach is a good team and will manage to qualify for the next round. Wolfsburg have a talented squad for sure but they dont play as a team at the moment.

KobraKay

Portugal4290 Posts

September 19 2014 19:35 GMT

#635

On September 19 2014 08:18 haitike wrote:

Show nested quote +

If you are only looking at the winners history and not, for example, to the teams in the finals, yes sure. But that you can achieve with one good Spanish performance per season. But regarding winners you are correct, 6 wins in the last 10/11 years. We had 2 wins and 6 teams in the finals....while you guys have 6 wins and 8 teams in the finals in that time span (the difference between finalists is really small, but a Spanish team that reaches the finals usually wins it and the Portuguese team fails

).

Nonetheless, the UEFA CUP/ Europa League was dominated by our peninsula in the last decade :D

Pantagruel

United States1427 Posts

September 19 2014 22:29 GMT

#636

On September 19 2014 07:13 Ysellian wrote:
Agree Panta, things are looking really bad for feyenoord. It's the manner of the defeat which really bothers me, looked lost out there.

Yes. It's no shame to lose to Sevilla 2-0 away, but the nature of the defeat is not good. As I said, Sevilla was playing at 50% all game but still played harder then Feyenoord seemingly. How can you play so seemingly disinterested when you haven't been in Europe for ages? I worry that Rutten has already lost the group. I had some hope after the Twente game which was actually quite decent but it fell apart after that. I think the Ajax game will be a major game to determine the future of Rutten in particular. If we go down meekly in that game I can't envision Rutten being able to recover the team from that. If that happens then I don't know what's in store for Feyenoord.