Just An Idea

[Met]

I was wondering, not sure if anyone else has come to the conclusion, that we were running out of steam towards the end of the season. A commentator compared our games played to Aston Villa where we eventually drew 2-2. He said AV played 42 games and we played around 53. Now we both, Everton and AV, looked up for the fight, though we should have won it, I reckon maybe the fatigue of so many games more played nearly cost us 5th place. Prior to this, we were ahead of challenging for 4th place. We played well in Cup but one slip-up ie the shoot out and we did not get anything for our hard work of getting so far. But if this was to happen in the league as in going on a winning run and perhaps losing a game, then the points would really be helpful.

 

Now, I was thinking if we um, 'gave up' this season's UEFA cup, don't get me wrong we did brilliant in it, then maybe we can secure 4th place next time round in the premiership. It would give us a taste at Champions league and inevitably we will head to Uefa cup.( Not sure how Champ teams end up in cup)

 

Maybe it was not that we were tired, maybe it was the injuries of our regular players, maybe we need a 'star' player to break into, and contend with the top four teams i.e. man u got ron, chel drogba, arse fabre, liv torr.

 

Your ideas?

[scouse]

I would prefer we added to our squad to be honest look at Man Utd they had more games than us and won the prem and champs league or even chelski had more games than us.

[Rupert_Fuffeinsmuir III]

Dont agree, and its difficult to 'prioritise' a competition. When you play well, you play well, and it carries through across league and cup. Besides I would dearly love to see us win a cup, any of the, though a European final victory would be particularly nice. Over to Bill to give us the squad depth we need to compete in ALL comps.

[MikeO]

...and how do we "give it up?"

 

Can't pull out of the competition so presumably we lose on purpose.

 

We ran out of steam after we were out of everything this year, while we were playing twice a week the place was buzzing and the run went on and on, no obvious fatigue. I think it was the mental let down that caused the drop in form more than physical problems.

 

Bad idea, even if it was workable, which it's not.

[jamiemaher85]

Got to agree with Mike

 

I think that we did very well in Eufa last year and will have raised our profile alot because of it. We are now having the oppurtunity to attract alot better players this year and this is down in no small part to our performances in europe. We are now in competition with "top four" sides for signatures for players rather than premiership also rans. Whether this is just paper talk or whether we actually get a single player we are linked with at the moment is another thig, but we are now a club that can offer decebt european football, and with good squad numbers we will have alot better chance to spread our talent across the different challenges that lie bofore us.

 

An honest fan should see that challenging for 4th place is NOT our main objective, challenging for silverware is our MAIN objective. We cannot be expected to realistically challange for 4thb when evey team above us cna spend on one player what we will probably spend on our entire squad in a transfer window

[OzDB]

Too much of a gamble for me, what if we dont get fourth by foregoing UEFA Cup due to poor form/injuries? We need experience playing in European matches whatever the competition. Also potential transfer targets who could be lured to Everton due to European matches will be lost.