Football 2025-26

[thetime]

19 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

I don't think we'll get it, but I'd genuinely love to be in the Europa League. I think we're about 70-80% of the way towards having a squad that can compete playing twice a week, and that we'd have a genuine chance of winning the Europa without having a humiliating league season. Not in a "we'd walk the Europa" but it'd help us practice with the bi-weekly games while having the odd time where we actually can manage around an easier one. 

 

It won't have the glamour of Champions League nights, but I think it'd absolutely be a positive for our squad development, Howe's management skills, and the status of the club/team. Also a chance to improve our own Uefa Coeffecient.

 

Conference League I could take or leave, I'm still yet to watch a game of that competition and it's a lot more Eastern European teams with the long journeys. I don't really think the Prem should be allowed a slot there, if you're going to have a 5th CL slot for the "best national leagues" then your league should be considered too strong for ECL representation. 

 

7th should get Europa, 8th for the conference. Newcastle should be around that, especially if you just have the league after next week. I would highly doubt they have enough games to get 6th, 9 points behind with 9 to go. 

[kaosmark2]

2 minutes ago, thetime said:

 

7th should get Europa, 8th for the conference. Newcastle should be around that, especially if you just have the league after next week. I would highly doubt they have enough games to get 6th, 9 points behind with 9 to go. 

Is there an international break in late March/early April? If that's the reason for the fixture gap, then if we can beat the Mackems, then come back in April with Bruno/Tino fit again, no reason we can't go on a run and get 7th. We've still got to play at the Emirates, but I'd say every other game is winnable.

 

What determines whether 7th is Europa or Conference, FA Cup winners/finalists I'm guessing?

[Skip997]

Just wondering if Slot has a clause in his contract whereby he’s expected to get CL qualification as a minimum. If so then perhaps sacking him now would cost too much.

 

[thetime]

3 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

 

What determines whether 7th is Europa or Conference, FA Cup winners/finalists I'm guessing?

 

Yeah I think so. Although realistically it would take West Ham or Leeds to win it, for 7th to be conference. 

[thetime]

3 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Just wondering if Slot has a clause in his contract whereby he’s expected to get CL qualification as a minimum. If so then perhaps sacking him now would cost too much.

 

 

Has he really done that bad? One win from 3rd, still in champions league and still in FA Cup. 

 

If he had this season as last season, no one would of been surprised post Klopp. Perhaps over achieved last season, with Salah and Dijk last one in there prime. 

 

If they nick 3rd and the FA Cup, that would be a good return. Especially with the turmoil selling 2 strikers and the Jota accident. 

 

 

[Skip997]

3 minutes ago, thetime said:

 

Has he really done that bad? One win from 3rd, still in champions league and still in FA Cup. 

 

If he had this season as last season, no one would of been surprised post Klopp. Perhaps over achieved last season, with Salah and Dijk last one in there prime. 

 

If they nick 3rd and the FA Cup, that would be a good return. Especially with the turmoil selling 2 strikers and the Jota accident. 

 

 

Since winning the league last season, I.e literally the game after, the team have been poor. His stats since are comparable to those of Hodgson at Liverpool. His tactical ability and motivational ability remind me of Hodgson. He’s as annoying as Brendan Rodgers in press conferences.

 

Liverpool failed to beat all three promoted teams at home. He has no trust in youth regardless of ability. There’s no meritocracy at the club, hence no competition for places. He’s a safety first manager, which is cowardly, boring and ineffective.

 

The only reason they are still in with a chance of CL is because everyone else is shite

[thetime]

8 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

 

The only reason they are still in with a chance of CL is because everyone else is shite

 

Points total last season to this, between 3rd and 6th is not much different points wise. I don't see that changing next season, as the league gets more competitive. 

 

24/25

 

 

25/26

 

[charlierc]

2 hours ago, thetime said:

 

With Newcastle struggles when in European competition, would you prefer europa/conference or none? As I am sure it will hinder you getting back into the champions league next season, through league position. 

 

Same with United, don't matter which one we qualify for. I expect us to struggle, as the squad is way to thin. Utd even struggle midweek premier league matches. 

I'll worry about it if we qualify for any next season. The Thursday-Sunday rhythm is a different challenge imo as for some reason it feels like you get less rest. But yeah I agree we have a real issue managing our squad depth and that either one of the 3 European competitions would give us management issues. Villa seem to deal with it ok but a lot of clubs (Spurs being one example) find it a challenge. 

Edited March 12 by charlierc

[kaosmark2]

4 hours ago, charlierc said:

I'll worry about it if we qualify for any next season. The Thursday-Sunday rhythm is a different challenge imo as for some reason it feels like you get less rest. But yeah I agree we have a real issue managing our squad depth and that either one of the 3 European competitions would give us management issues. Villa seem to deal with it ok but a lot of clubs (Spurs being one example) find it a challenge. 

I think travel is part of why it feels like less rest. Although with there being Dutch/Nordic clubs maybe we'd have easier journeys than many. I still think Europa League would be both good fun and good practice. If we want to try and develop into a top club you have to think of that as a chance to keep our squad players happy and integrated into the team.

 

Also, I do think we have the 6th best depth in the league. Obviously nowhere near comparable to City/Arsenal/Chelsea, and I think we're clearly behind Liverpool and Villa, but our 2nd string defence and midfield (who have played a lot this season) is kinda comparable to the first team of several mid-table Prem clubs. Trippier/Burn/Schar/Miley/Ramsey is actual depth, and the struggles this season have largely been that all of them had stints out at the exact time as players like Livramento/Hall/Botman/Joelinton/Bruno have been out. Yes there's question marks on the longevity of Trippier/Burn/Schar, but they've mostly been very good when on the pitch except for occasionally getting beaten for pace. 

 

Sure, I think we have more chance of qualifying for the CL or winning a domestic cup if we're not in a European competition, but I'd love to have a good Europa run and attempt at winning that. And I stand by the idea that it's better to build a squad to compete on multiple fronts.

[charlierc]

20 hours ago, thetime said:

 

Points total last season to this, between 3rd and 6th is not much different points wise. I don't see that changing next season, as the league gets more competitive. 

 

24/25

 

 

25/26

 

I forgot how poor Man City were in the middle of last season for there to have been a very real prospect of them missing out on the Champions League. 

 

It definitely feels like a recurring thing for the European places to be quite the battle though. In the two seasons before this one, we were just able to squeeze ahead of Liverpool for 4th and then missed out on 6th by a small margin, in a season where 7th meant no European football. 

[charlierc]

21 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

Is there an international break in late March/early April? If that's the reason for the fixture gap, then if we can beat the Mackems, then come back in April with Bruno/Tino fit again, no reason we can't go on a run and get 7th. We've still got to play at the Emirates, but I'd say every other game is winnable.

 

What determines whether 7th is Europa or Conference, FA Cup winners/finalists I'm guessing?

Yeah that's an international break after the Derby and then it's an FA Cup weekend. Unusual timing in a way but given how relentless our schedule has been it could be a good thing. I think Eddie said that Bruno is aiming to return fit for our first game after. Livramento is back - he had a sub role against both Man City and Barcelona in the last two outings. 

 

I think 7th will be Conference League if the FA Cup winners are outside the top 6 and 8th if said winners finish in the top 6, with 7th going into the Europa League. 

[kaosmark2]

49 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Yeah that's an international break after the Derby and then it's an FA Cup weekend. Unusual timing in a way but given how relentless our schedule has been it could be a good thing. I think Eddie said that Bruno is aiming to return fit for our first game after. Livramento is back - he had a sub role against both Man City and Barcelona in the last two outings. 

 

I think 7th will be Conference League if the FA Cup winners are outside the top 6 and 8th if said winners finish in the top 6, with 7th going into the Europa League. 

Ah that makes sense, didn't think an international break would be quite so long but FA cup added would make it that big a gap for us.

 

I saw Livramento get a run out as a sub, but there's a difference between being fit for 20 minutes and being fit to play nearly 180/week. Maybe he'll start one of the next 2 games but while I think Trippier has done a much better job than I expected in the past 2 months after some awful games in December, I think he'll add a lot to our attacking dimensions and give us a little less chance to get caught out by pace.

[charlierc]

Donald Trump: US president says Iran 'welcome' at 2026 World Cup but not 'appropriate' - BBC Sport

 

I knew this would be a mess but woof. What a f**king mess.

[charlierc]

14 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

Ah that makes sense, didn't think an international break would be quite so long but FA cup added would make it that big a gap for us.

 

I saw Livramento get a run out as a sub, but there's a difference between being fit for 20 minutes and being fit to play nearly 180/week. Maybe he'll start one of the next 2 games but while I think Trippier has done a much better job than I expected in the past 2 months after some awful games in December, I think he'll add a lot to our attacking dimensions and give us a little less chance to get caught out by pace.

Yeah its fair that there's a difference between being fit enough for Tino to be on the bench and be playing 90 regularly. I guess with no FA Cup and likely being out the CL that we do have less of a pile-on of a fixture list, plus tbf having an extra week after the internationals might help us with extra training time to see if we can finally re-figure out a way to get Woltemade and Wissa firing.

[charlierc]

Think I should be a pessimist more often. No Tonali to go with the continued absence of Bruno, the strange Woltemade CM experiment carrying on, and yet we were able to manage the game brilliantly after going ahead to get the points at Chelsea. Outstanding stuff.

[thetime]

52 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Think I should be a pessimist more often. No Tonali to go with the continued absence of Bruno, the strange Woltemade CM experiment carrying on, and yet we were able to manage the game brilliantly after going ahead to get the points at Chelsea. Outstanding stuff.

 

Late surge to 5th? Just had a look, Newcastle only got to play one of the current top 9. 6 points behind Chelsea and Liverpool. Liverpool got to play 6 of the top 9 and Chelsea 4 teams in the top 9. 

 

Yeah I am a nerd. 😂

Edited March 14 by thetime

[kaosmark2]

13 hours ago, charlierc said:

Think I should be a pessimist more often. No Tonali to go with the continued absence of Bruno, the strange Woltemade CM experiment carrying on, and yet we were able to manage the game brilliantly after going ahead to get the points at Chelsea. Outstanding stuff.

 

I didn't watch it, how was Woltemade and the team in general?

 

12 hours ago, thetime said:

Late surge to 5th? Just had a look, Newcastle only got to play one of the current top 9. 6 points behind Chelsea and Liverpool. Liverpool got to play 6 of the top 9 and Chelsea 4 teams in the top 9. 

 

Yeah I am a nerd. 😂

Not completely implausible. I'd written off yesterday and the Arsenal away game, I'd kinda assumed after the Everton loss our chances of climbing into a European spot were pretty unlikely. Brighton and Bournemouth are both generally bogey teams for us, but they're a lot worse away, and Bournemouth's tormentor of us Semenyo is now scoring against us for a different team so maybe they won't be as bad as I'm expecting.

 

Anything can happen in the derby, but it's at SJP and Sunderland's form is getting worse now. I'm pretty hesitant to have too much optimism for any of those 4 games, but I do think we're favoured in the other 4.

[thetime]

Top weekend for utd fans that. 

[charlierc]

On 11/03/2026 at 19:06, Skip997 said:

😂

 

You’ll get at least one point 

Great prediction. Didn't think Spurs would get a point at Anfield thanks to their recent catalogue of farces and yet here we are. 

[charlierc]

21 hours ago, thetime said:

 

Late surge to 5th? Just had a look, Newcastle only got to play one of the current top 9. 6 points behind Chelsea and Liverpool. Liverpool got to play 6 of the top 9 and Chelsea 4 teams in the top 9. 

 

Yeah I am a nerd. 😂

Hey it's good to have somebody doing the research. 

 

I'm not getting carried away in thinking we could charge into the Champions League but I think getting to the top of that cluster of teams behind the top 6 is achievable. If we can gatecrash it, that's a bonus. But really it's just a case of winning as often as possible between now and the end of the season. 

 

We are a team that has dropped a lot of points in winnable games but yesterday did feel like proof of concept that we're very good on our day. 

[Skip997]

2 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Great prediction. Didn't think Spurs would get a point at Anfield thanks to their recent catalogue of farces and yet here we are. 

Not that great a prediction. It was fairly likely under Slot. 

[charlierc]

9 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

 

I didn't watch it, how was Woltemade and the team in general?

 

Not completely implausible. I'd written off yesterday and the Arsenal away game, I'd kinda assumed after the Everton loss our chances of climbing into a European spot were pretty unlikely. Brighton and Bournemouth are both generally bogey teams for us, but they're a lot worse away, and Bournemouth's tormentor of us Semenyo is now scoring against us for a different team so maybe they won't be as bad as I'm expecting.

 

Anything can happen in the derby, but it's at SJP and Sunderland's form is getting worse now. I'm pretty hesitant to have too much optimism for any of those 4 games, but I do think we're favoured in the other 4.

Team were solid. A few hairy moments here and there but generally dealt with Chelsea very well. 

 

I'm still not convinced by Woltemade CM and we did look more solid when he was replaced by Joelinton but after being second best before the goal, we were decent at standing up to what Chelsea were doing. 

 

I'm not getting carried away that we're about to do a comeback from deep to steal a Champions League spot but I believe 7/8th is very much achievable. Hopefully Bruno's return can be a galvanising effect. 

[charlierc]

13 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Not that great a prediction. It was fairly likely under Slot. 

Well I'm not sure the rotation that saw Ekiteke benched and a lot of square pegs in round holes helped but you can see why a lot of people had this is a home banker, no? Some of the goals Spurs gave Atletico Madrid the other day were appalling. Even accounting for the old maxim that football matches aren't played in theory, the expectation was still there and not met. 

 

Makes for a curious scenario in any case. It's definitely the case none of Villa, Chelsea or Liverpool are looking terribly convincing in this fight for a Champions League place. 

[pink_triangle]

1 hour ago, Skip997 said:

Not that great a prediction. It was fairly likely under Slot. 

I’m not sure you can put all the blame on Slot. From my perspective too many Liverpool players were poor today, Salah for example useless when he came on.

[Skip997]

12 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

I’m not sure you can put all the blame on Slot. From my perspective too many Liverpool players were poor today, Salah for example useless when he came on.

They’ve been “trained” to be poor with negative and cowardly tactics. Stopping and passing back when there’s clear chances to attack. It’s down to Slot.

 

The players get multiple breaks of days at a time during the season. Slot takes holidays during the season.

 

For him it’s just another job. This doesn’t work at Liverpool, you need to properly connect with the club, the players and the fans.

 

Increasingly empty seats and ticket returns, this doesn’t happen at Anfield