Champions League seeding

[DCSPUR]

I'd like Bayern, Barca and Celtic.
It's about the glory!!!

and the atmosphere against Celtic would be brilliant (plus easy travel)

 

[Riandor]

Really? CSKA were dogshit and Leverkusen finished relatively near the relegation spots.

League form and European form do not always go hand in hand. Leicester and Leverkusen proved that they couldn't handle both and both teams did quite well in the CL but crap in the league. Vice versa we were poor in Europe vs motivated teams playing at Wembley, but awesome in the league.

Monaco were the 4th seed (iirc) and blew lots of teams away, in Europe and domestically. CSK apart, we had a tough group, compared the traditional 1 top team, 1 medium, 2 rubbish you often got in a group.

 

[DCSPUR]

All I know is that if we put out that side against West Ham, Leicester, Bournemouth etc at WHL we'd recognise a loss as a very disappointing result. If we eventually missed out on Top 4 or the title by a couple of points, it's the result everyone would look back to and say "that's where we fucked up". Heck, we've been without Lamela most of the year and Rose half of it and haven't had another result that bad. Of course we missed the likes of Kane and Lamela, but we spent £50m in the summer buying backups to them - if they aren't good enough that's nobody's fault but ours.

surprising that more folks don't realize how tough it was without those key players....particularly at that time of the year. Remember Dier, Walker and Alli were a bit jaded after England duty and Davies has been much better the second half of the season.

 

[Saoirse]

surprising that more folks don't realize how tough it was without those key players....particularly at that time of the year. Remember Dier, Walker and Alli were a bit jaded after England duty and Davies has been much better the second half of the season.

It's not like Leverkusen wouldn't have had players on international duty too. It was a bad result, simple as, I don't get how that's particularly controversial.

 

[coys200]

Might get shot down for this .But if we are honest chances of us winning CL are very slim 1/4 final possibly our best chance .Part of me thinks I wouldn't might some glamour games bayern Barca etc come 3rd bank the group stage money and have a real go at winning europa .

 

[worcestersauce]

Look at it the other way round, If you are in pot 1 or 2 you are not going to want Spurs put in pot 3.
Who the hell is going want Spurs as the pot 3 team in their group?

 

[Saoirse]

Look at it the other way round, If you are in pot 1 or 2 you are not going to want Spurs put in pot 3.
Who the hell is going want Spurs as the pot 3 team in their group?

Only ones I could think of are pot 4 teams with a snowball's chance in hell of qualifying who just want a glamour/money tie. For instance if, say, Dundalk or someone managed to make it.

 

[mpickard2087]

Given our track record in Europe the last few years, whoever we face will be a tough test.

 

[staker]

Progress out of the group, that's all I'm looking for next season. Improvement on the year before

 

[Tucker]

The game is about Glory.

I don't care how we are seeded, we wanted to play with the big boys didn't we? Let's not get squeamish when we actually have to play them.

 

[LukaMotion]

Worst case for me would be getting a super-club from both pot 1 and 2, giving us a very slim chance of progressing from the group. We all looked at the group we got this season with high expectations for not only progressing from the group but also going 1 or 2 rounds further and look how that turned out...

Don't get me wrong, I want the glamour of playing a Barca, Bayern, Real Madrid or PSG, but I mainly just want to get out of the group this time. I'd be more confident of beating the big teams in a knockout format than a group stage match, no idea why but that's just my gut feeling.

 

[Tucker]

Worst case for me would be getting a super-club from both pot 1 and 2, giving us a very slim chance of progressing from the group. We all looked at the group we got this season with high expectations for not only progressing from the group but also going 1 or 2 rounds further and look how that turned out...

Don't get me wrong, I want the glamour of playing a Barca, Bayern, Real Madrid or PSG, but I mainly just want to get out of the group this time. I'd be more confident of beating the big teams in a knockout format than a group stage match, no idea why but that's just my gut feeling.

We beat every top four team aside from Liverpool this season, I know the likes of Real, Bayern etc come with a certain intimidation, but at the end of the day, we are capable of going toe to toe with top sides. And they'd have to play each other too, I think we'd stand as much chance in the group as in the knockout.

We have to have faith in ourselves that we can take the big clubs on. Imagine the confidence boost if we were to get out of a hard group. We had Inter, who were champions when we first got in the CL, that didn't do us any harm.

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

Not to fussed, I'd love two giants in the group. It's not like the club takes European footie seriously anyway, might as well fail against top teams.

On the other hand, purely out of vanity, it looks better to be seeded in group 2. That's where we "belong" anyway.
And naturally I back Ajax for the EL final.

 

[LukaMotion]

We beat every top four team aside from Liverpool this season, I know the likes of Real, Bayern etc come with a certain intimidation, but at the end of the day, we are capable of going toe to toe with top sides. And they'd have to play each other too, I think we'd stand as much chance in the group as in the knockout.

We have to have faith in ourselves that we can take the big clubs on. Imagine the confidence boost if we were to get out of a hard group. We had Inter, who were champions when we first got in the CL, that didn't do us any harm.

I fully agree that, on our day, we could beat any team in the world. I truly believe that.

I think it's more to do with the fact that Spurs are, historically at least, a fantastic cup side. We have excelled through the years at knockout format competitions, and I always have a more innate feeling of confidence in our chances over a 2 leg knockout than I do playing a team in a group stage match. Maybe it's because we're not relying on other teams results to know whether we should be playing for a win or a draw, or because the group stages always feel like awkward mid week games, usually sandwiched between important PL games (knowing our luck); I just always fancy us over 2 legs to do the business.

I'd be very happy with a group like Benfica, Barca and any whipping boy in the final spot, just give us a fair chance of progressing rather than a Juve, Barca, RB Leipzig group of death.

The other thing is that the best way to get our coefficient points up is to repeatedly reach the last 16 stage as minimum, that way we'll move up the coefficient rankings and hopefully find ourselves getting easier draws in the future.

 

[lukespurs7]

The game is about Glory.

I don't care how we are seeded, we wanted to play with the big boys didn't we? Let's not get squeamish when we actually have to play them.

Lol agreed.

 

[Lighty64]

Monaco were a surprise package, but conversely Bayer Leverkusen were surprisingly awful - they only finished 4 points clear of the relegation playoffs in the Bundesliga this season, 21 points behind the Champions League places. We really should have done better against them.

when we played Bayer in both games we never had Toby, or Harry, and as a team we were off form over that period, where Bayer's was just up and down

 

[ardiles]

I hope we get Bayern and beat them 6-1 in both legs.

 

[Saoirse]

when we played Bayer in both games we never had Toby, or Harry, and as a team we were off form over that period, where Bayer's was just up and down

Up and down? They'd won 1 match in 6 and have been down in the bottom half pretty much all season.

 

[Lighty64]

Up and down? They'd won 1 match in 6 and have been down in the bottom half pretty much all season.

their form in October was W2 L2, one of those wins was a 2-0 win v Dortmund, they won either side of our 2nd match. your 1 in 6 stat is their season end which in one of those they drew with Bayern

 

[JimmyG2]

Some good teams in Champions' League shock,
including Tottenham Hotspur.