Everyone and their auntie are stating that English football is in a crisis, as that must be the only reason why all their teams have tumbled out of Europe before the quarter-final stage.

I don’t think it’s an English thing to be honest, I tend to think it has a lot to do with the individual clubs rather than the English game as a whole.

Although I would suggest that they were all slightly arrogant and thought they were better than they actually were.

So I’ve decided to look at the teams that were in Europe and consider why they’ve been knocked out…

Chelsea: 

The Premier League leaders were simply out fought in the tie with PSG. They seemed to think all they needed to do was turn up in the second leg and would be handed a safe passage through to the next round.

It’s almost criminal to let ten men out perform them on the night.

I suspect that the Champions League is Jose Mourinho’s objective for next term and that winning the league is the main goal for this season and that hampered the teams preparations for this fixture.

Arsenal:

The Gunners totally underestimated their opponents, Monaco.

At the Emirates they naively flooded forward and let the French side pick them off. To concede three at home and to let the third in after scoring a goal back in injury time is horrendous.

Arsene Wenger seems to think that the ‘Away Goals’ rule is outdated but that isn’t an excuse. The rule is the same for both sides. Yes both Chelsea and Arsenal lost to it but that is just coincidence nothing more. The English sides lost due to silly errors made by their own players.

Manchester City: 

This one is quite simple, Barcelona are the better team and came into this tie in red hot form.

The Catalan club have Neymar, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi to name but three world class stars on their roster.

Man City are not there yet and need to rebuild their current squad if they are going to break into the upper echelons of European football. Needed luck when facing Barca and simply didn’t get the required amount.

Liverpool: 

Have been unlucky enough to be knocked out of both European competitions during this campaign.

I think the step up to the Champions League after a three year hiatus took the whole club by surprise. The ‘Reds’ were in poor form during the early months of the season and the Champions League fixtures came right in the middle of that lull in form. They also missed main striker Daniel Sturridge during that time too.

By the time they had found their form they also found themselves in the Europa League. When taking on Besiktas they were right back in the top four mix in the Premier League. I think they decided that the league would become the priority and they took an eye off the ball and just lost out to the Turkish side.

Tottenham:

Spurs must have thought they were onto a winner getting an Italian team in the Europa League but for the first time in donkey’s years Italian sides are actually trying to win the Europa League! Who would have thought that having the winners receive Champions League qualification would boost Europe’s second cup competition? Oh yeah all of us.

 

It was always going to be a tough one against Fiorentina as both teams are on a similar level. Like Arsenal and Chelsea, Tottenham were undone at home.

Tottenham had the bulk of possession in both ties and more shots on target but were simply not as clinical.

Everton:

The Toffees have had a tough season domestically and that seemed to catch up with them in Kiev last night. Gave a good go in Ukraine but weren’t strong enough at the back.

The defensive side of their game has been criticised a lot this campaign and that was summed up in their 5-2 away defeat.

Think their European run hid a few cracks and those were then totally exposed by Dynamo Kiev.

Hull City: 

Caught out of their depth and didn’t have a squad ready to compete, hence their early exit.

Steve Bruce probably seen the Europa League as an unwanted distraction. A prolonged run could have been detrimental this term and cost the ‘Tigers’ dear!

Posted on March 20th, 2015 by scott
Filed under: Article