There is no denying that the Europa League has become the graveyard shift of European football; the night watchman, if you will, but don't shirk it's importance too readily.
Until this week, I felt that, should Spurs fail to qualify for the Champions League, I'd prefer we finished 6th, thus not qualifying for the Europa League, such is the draining nature of Europe's second tier but it has become all too evident that it is vital to our continued development as a "big side" that we qualify for the
competition next season.
Arguments suggest that both Man City and Liverpool have been far better this season since being knocked out of the competition and even while they were in it they had to wade through a sea of minnows such as Aris Thessalonika, Red Bull Salzburg and Lech Poznan while we routinely lined up against world football's finest - so are we really better off without the Europa League, after all, we did better in the Premier League in 2009/2010 when we didn't have the distraction of European football?
These may be valid points but not the correct attitude if we're driving towards success. Our main enemy at the back end of this season has been stamina and, in truth, our final big push of the season was the tie against AC Milan; two hard-fought games against a top team.
In future, we must be able to deal with these big occasions mid-season and not save them up for the final exchanges like our terrific run at the end of last season. Milan came at us and came at us for two games and our defences held out, but not without cost; our league campaign trundled over the rumble strips and onto the hard shoulder.
The Europa League may be a lot of games but it builds up our stamina and keeps the side used to long seasons. If we really want to build on our reputation as a promising side then we have to be mentally and physically fit enough to stomach gruelling campaigns of 60+ games, while jetting all over the continent - to not qualify for Europe would be a backwards step.
Our other big problem this season has been failing to bury the smaller teams. Far too often have we dominated a game only to lack the killer instinct when it matters most. William Gallas has lately hinted that complacency has played its part and maybe that's a result of playing your Milans and Madrids so often.
Getting our waders on and slogging through eight or ten games against smaller teams may well get us used to beating teams in regular games, the smaller occasions, then maybe we'll not struggle so much against the West Hams, Wigans and Blackpools of the division next season.
Failure to qualify for the Champions League is not a disaster, but we have to make a final surge for the Europa League as, however you percieve the competition, it could be exactly what we need.
No comments:
Post a Comment