European Football Thread

[Baddar]

La Liga TV is free for all Sky customers who sign up via the Premier Sports website with the code BACKTOWIN throughout the month of June.

[Lineker]

14 minutes ago, Baddar said:

La Liga TV is free for all Sky customers who sign up via the Premier Sports website with the code BACKTOWIN throughout the month of June.

Can you @ me on the 1st?

[Baddar]

You can subscribe to it any time now and it will remain free until the 1st July.

[TCO]

Been thinking about the upcoming schedule. The top internaitonal players are going to get basically no break right up until summer 2023

19/20 Part 2, condensed and late finish

20/21, late start and condensed. Has to be finished in May

Euro 2021

21/22

22/23 Part 1, likely early start to accommodate WC break

2022 World Cup

22/23 Part 2

[gunnar hendershow]

A lot of younger players are going to flame out as a result. No opportunity to really get better after an injury with those things just piling up. Not to mention the burnout.

[Colly]

Odds on clubs will still pack in some international friendly tours anyway.

[Naitch]

You have to imagine that rotated cup teams will become even more prominent now. I still think sacking off the League Cup, as well as the Coupe de la Ligue in France, for at least a few years is the best way to avoid fixture congestion. At the very least, make participation optional.

Totally fine with the Nations League being scrapped as well, if I'm being honest.

Not much point in international friendly tours when you can't have fans in the stadium. They'll pop back up once that can happen, however, as the ticket income will look even more appealing. I suspect that the likes of Man Utd and Barcelona will be (more?) vocal about a European superleague due to their financial issues too.

[Baddar]

It wouldn't surprise me if the 5 subs rule carries over to next season as well.

[gunnar hendershow]

3 hours ago, Naitch said:

You have to imagine that rotated cup teams will become even more prominent now. I still think sacking off the League Cup, as well as the Coupe de la Ligue in France, for at least a few years is the best way to avoid fixture congestion. At the very least, make participation optional.

Totally fine with the Nations League being scrapped as well, if I'm being honest.

Not much point in international friendly tours when you can't have fans in the stadium. They'll pop back up once that can happen, however, as the ticket income will look even more appealing. I suspect that the likes of Man Utd and Barcelona will be (more?) vocal about a European superleague due to their financial issues too.

Yeah I think you'll definitely see an argument for the superleague to pick up steam, in large part because you can use this crisis for that end. In baseball there has been talk about trimming down the minor league structure and just this week the 30 baseball franchises have been slashing the number of players they have on their minor league teams. Highly doubt they'll just add players back once this ends when they could instead cut relationships with teams off completely.

I don't think the League Cup needs to be scrapped, but I don't know how larger clubs (especially those in Europe) can realistically field competitive teams for it. Teams in the lower tiers won't be adding too much to their schedules, but the bigger clubs with a number of internationals will be fielding squads of U-21s and/or players out of rotation on the main squad.

FIFA is probably going to push for some level of Nations League since they have decided to use it as a way to ensure bigger nations don't miss out on tournaments. Plus, money.

[Adam]

21 minutes ago, damsher hatfield said:

Yeah I think you'll definitely see an argument for the superleague to pick up steam, in large part because you can use this crisis for that end. In baseball there has been talk about trimming down the minor league structure and just this week the 30 baseball franchises have been slashing the number of players they have on their minor league teams. Highly doubt they'll just add players back once this ends when they could instead cut relationships with teams off completely.

I don't think the League Cup needs to be scrapped, but I don't know how larger clubs (especially those in Europe) can realistically field competitive teams for it. Teams in the lower tiers won't be adding too much to their schedules, but the bigger clubs with a number of internationals will be fielding squads of U-21s and/or players out of rotation on the main squad.

FIFA is probably going to push for some level of Nations League since they have decided to use it as a way to ensure bigger nations don't miss out on tournaments. Plus, money.

To be fair, if an EFL team gets to the Third Round of the League Cup the way it's scheduled at the moment, that adds extra midweek games to an already busy first two months of the season. I think we could all do without it personally.

If it were down to me - and this goes even when the pandemic is long gone - I'd leave the FA Cup as it is but maybe without replays and instead of having either the League Cup or EFL Trophy, just have one EFL Cup for the 72 clubs below the Premier League.

[Colly]

I will never not boo the idea of scrapping the League Cup.

[Lineker]

La Liga is back on June 11th.

 

 

[Baddar]

Icardi is joining PSG permanently for roughly €50m.

[Cymbols]

Not sure which game to go for this afternoon. Stuck Wolfsburg vs Frankfurt on, but open to suggestions.

[Baddar]

Probably as good a shout as any.

Victory for Bremen would lead to the sacking of David Wagner in one of the other live games though, you'd think.

[Szumi]

I've wondered about that with Wagner. With how messed up everything is, and Schalke not in any relegation trouble - just potentially missing out on Europa - I wonder if he just stays until the end of the season where it's maybe not as crazy. No matter what though, he's not lasting. Schalke are terrible

[Cymbols]

Definitely made the right choice, pretty entertaining game really 

[Baddar]

2 hours ago, It's Pronounced Zoom-E said:

I've wondered about that with Wagner. With how messed up everything is, and Schalke not in any relegation trouble - just potentially missing out on Europa - I wonder if he just stays until the end of the season where it's maybe not as crazy. No matter what though, he's not lasting. Schalke are terrible

At the restart though, they were either in the Europa spot or right thereabouts.

Now they're very unlikely to get a place in Europe and playing terribly too.

[Cymbols]

He hasn’t been at his best, but Timo Werner just scored the most Timo Werner goal possible. 
 

Leipzig look tired though, especially at the back. More goals in this one.

[gunnar hendershow]

1 hour ago, Cymbols said:

He hasn’t been at his best, but Timo Werner just scored the most Timo Werner goal possible. 
 

Leipzig look tired though, especially at the back. More goals in this one.

They're so wildly inconsistent. Some days they look like Germany's best side and then others they look like a team that has a lot of talent but no cohesion.

And I guess now we can add looking fatigued to the list of their inconsistencies.