Mirallas: Blues are “designed” for Europe

Get your head down in pre season with the other players and hit the ground running next year!

I think that says a great deal about the competition - I love watching football, and will watch almost anything thatÂ’s on TV, but the Disney Trophy really is a pile of shit when allÂ’s said & done.

Secondly, in regards to Europa League League, itÂ’s our best chance for Champions League qualification and itÂ’s our we have gone too long without silverware.

I had more problem remembering the FA Cup semi finalists.

ItÂ’s a badly organized tournament in the group stages, once it hits knockout then itÂ’s generally a lot of solid clubs playing for a good trophy. Admittedly, we (and most of England) tends to bow out well before the latter stages.

HeÂ’s a great player on his day. LetÂ’s just hope he has lots more days.

The Europa League was set up by the big boys to keep us and all the 2nd tier teams at bay while they fought it out in the much more lucrative Champions League. It is blindingly obvious our best shot is to spend "big" on 3 top players this summer and focus on qualifying for the Champions League. We donÂ’t need 7 McGeadys, we need 3 㾶M gems.

I agree with those that say go hell for leather in the cups and win something, a place in the top four wonÂ’t guarantee anything and wonÂ’t necessarily change the clubs fortunes long-term. Only qualifying for a few years in succession would it make a significant difference.

If we lose Lennon, who works the wing well with Coleman, weÂ’ll be back to 2 shots per game. Sort it out, Roberto!

Bang on the money mate! Even then they canÂ’t play fair some of the so-called big clubs have to drop into the Europa just to give them another chance to win a trophy.

In my view being with mates celebrating the team you support WINNING a trophy is special. If anything other than Champions league is shite why donÂ’t we all just support Man City and hope that all their spending pays off.

To me, being a supporter is about hope and aspiration. The fact that as a child I chose or indeed was chosen by Everton is just random. We tend to condescend to fans flower league clubs as if we had some part in earning the right to be Evertonians. Describing the Europa League as shite is being patronising without the slightest right to be so.

As far as the EL is concerned, I just cant understand why people think its a competition thats not worth being in. As others have alluded to, the group stages are a bit of a nonsense but when the knock out phase kicks in, there are some quality teams in it. Aside from that, 20 years without a trophy then I donÂ’t think weÂ’re in a position to pick and choose what competition we wish to do well in. Everybody would like us to be competing year in year out in the CL but in our case, then I think we need to acclimatise to the EL on a regular basis before trying to shoot for the stars in CL. Try telling everyone who was at the Fiorentina game a few years ago that it didnÂ’t matter. The atmosphere at that game was electric and I for one would like to see that again on a regular basis.

For me, the priorities in the transfer market would be a couple of decent wingers and a creative midfielder to play in front of McCarthy assuming Mirallas plays just behind Lukaku. If we are going to progress next season then we really need to get away from playing 2 defensive midfielders as it just holds us back as an attacking force

The idea that with a couple of additions to our squad we could be challenging for top 4 is frankly deluded. WeÂ’ve made in once in 20yrs!! Then showed our true colours by getting dumped out the qualifying round. And that was in a season before Man City had their gazillions and the RS had their poorest league season in years!! Last year we challenge a top 4 without the imploding Man Utd as well a spurs side that had blown 𧴜m on duds!!

The Europa league HAS to be our target and then we should embrace it and try and raise the profile of the club. The idea of facing the likes of PSG, Real Madrid, Barcelona, the 2015 version of Bayern etc brings me out in a cold sweat!!
I for one wish I was going to Warsaw to watch the blues lift the "Disney cup"

Brilliant post, well said. Agree with everything you say.

I agree with Sean we are well below CL funding and quality, and the EL is such a long tournament I doubt we have the squad size to last the distance. So I think our best chance is to accept we are a top ten club, not top five, and concentrate on the domestic cups. Who cares if the League cup is Mickey Mouse? IÂ’d trade a EL place or even a CL place (based on past experience) for winning that, or indeed any, trophy.

On the competition itself, I stumbled across the Dnipro-Napoli match on TV3 last week and found myself enjoying it way more than I have enjoyed any more CL match recently. It was gripping. The crowd were completely absorbed in the match, there was an amazing atmosphere and it was a blood and thunder contest with Napoli really going for it, Dnipro defending for dear life and then celebrating wildly at the end! It was great to watch, it was what football should be like and what I imagine it was like for our triumphant 85 Cup winners Cup night as someone mentioned above. ThatÂ’s what football should be about.

I used to watch Chester in my teens (not as a supporter mind you) and the passion was just as real but on a smaller scale and utterly genuine. Europa League, FA Cup, League Cup, Paint Trophy... whatever – it’s all about winning on the day. That’s why I thought the Kiev game was such a shock to the system. I believed Roberto was totally focussed on Europe and prepared to sail close to the wind with the league form.

LetÂ’s give Kevin a break. He wants what is best for himself as do we all, and thatÂ’s OK. I look forward to his skills being used to better effect by Roberto, ie; tucked in behind Lukaku... Barkley? Just love the guy but he has got to earn his place or move on.

Back when you had one into the European Cup, the UEFA Cup had a good claim to be a serious and important competition with top teams. Arguably it was the tougher cup to win as you had more top level teams from the top leagues. Then they took most of the drawcards out of the comp and stuck them in the CL. No format change can fix that and none ever will.

I used to like the Cup Winners Cup. Though a poor relation it still at least celebrated winning something. Not one of the European Comps does that nowadays. Cup Winners are lumped in with 5th placers.

The CL system and the Premier League setup that supports it says that top 4 is the only thing that matters. It says Cup wins are equivalent to upper mid table finishes.

IÂ’d rather see Mirallas and Lennon but if we get Del on loan again happy days. HeÂ’s talented but typical of a young lad with loads of skill but bad attitude and often no end product or defensive cover.

Until UEFA change that rule, it will always be viewed as a second rate competition. As far as our involvement goes, we donÂ’t have much to shout about as fans, so any European football has to be welcomed.

If the competition is approached in the correct manner, it can improve us as a team. I think thatÂ’s where Martinez badly let himself down this season though. As a club, we just were not used to rotating sides after playing in other competitions. The players had a decade of playing in the same positions, with same tactics, and the same 14 or 15 players were always involved.

Playing in Europe, then making 4 or 5 changes, with a different set of tactics completely blew a fuse in the players' heads this season. The bigger clubs, such as Man Utd became used to this approach over two decades. Martinez thought the squad could just pick up where we left off after rotation, but it clearly didnÂ’t work, and did for our whole season. I believe this squad need 6 or 7 games with a settled side to get into their groove, then we can see the best of them. T'was always the way under OFM. Keep it simple, then we will do OK nex tseason.

Like David, I just want to see Everton win a trophy - any trophy - before I die.

But I donÂ’t agree with him at all, weÂ’re designed to be shite at the minute and nothing else. We have 4 good defenders and play 2 defensive mids but yet were incredibly soft centred, and we never seem to play with our best attackers all on the pitch.

If you go off Martinez above side we have 4 positions left to fill. At the minute our best players are lennon right, Mirallas left, Barkley and Rom through centre. Never seems to happen, why?

How many on the list of clubs who have won a trophy other than the top 5 are still in the Premier League? They FAILED to invest in the right way, they went down, some nearly out altogether. Would their fans swap places with us?