The9

Expectations? Top half and Last 16 of Europa League. Acceptable? Top half and Last 32 of Europa League. I'd take 13th and winning a Cup though (preferably not the kids winning the Checkatrade Trophy).

Been done.

That's because they're getting their photos done to be used in media worldwide for the entire season and it's probably a bit of a pain in the backside if he's on the bench coming back from injury but the graphic has a captain's armband on. Not to mention someone would have had to have remembered to bring one.

You are correct, I'd already edited though.

Funnily enough I was editing it as you posted it. We only need 1 upset in the EL POR as long as there aren't any upsets from the 3 lowest seeds in the CL POR.

You probably know this, but Zorya Luhansk are currently playing here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavutych-Arena though it only has a capacity of 12,000 so they might choose to play somewhere else for the Europa League games. Awesome stuff with the map (plus Lublin are out so I've been robbed of a pedant point cos the marker was in the wrong place - according to my pilot friend. ).

Decided not to repeat myself...

Here are the teams in the Europa League Play Off Round SEEDED TEAMS Ukraine Shakhtar Donetsk CC: 81.976 Greece Olympiacos CC: 70.940 Belgium Anderlecht CC: 54.000 Netherlands AZ CC: 43.612 Turkey Fenerbahçe CC: 40.920 Czech Republic Sparta Prague CC: 40.585 Greece PAOK CC: 37.440 Belgium Genk CC: 36.000 Belarus BATE Borisov CC: 34.000 Belgium Gent CC: 25.000 France Saint-Étienne CC: 26.049 Russia Krasnodar CC: 24.216 Austria Rapid Vienna 23.520 Czech Republic Slovan Liberec CC: 22.085 Slovenia Maribor CC: 21.625 Israel Maccabi Tel Aviv CC: 20.225 Austria Austria Wien CC: 19.020 ********SAINTS' COEFFICIENT 16.756********** There are 12 teams in each pot, so 12 teams in Pot 4. For Saints to be seeded in Pot 3 there therefore need to be 12 teams in the Group Stages with a lower coefficient than Saints: There are 3 teams directly qualifying into the EL Group Stages alongside Saints which have lower coefficients than Saints already: OGC Nice, Zorya Luhansk and Konyaspor. Assuming the 3 teams in the CL qualifiers with lower coefficients also lose in the CL Play Off Round - (Hapoel Be'er Sheva, Rostov and Dundalk), we need 6 teams below this line to win their EL qualifiers to confirm Saints are in Pot 3 for the Group Stages - However as 5 of these teams are seeded there are already another 5 teams definitely in the Group stages with a worse coefficient than Saints). This means we only need one upset with an unseeded team beating a seed who is ranked above us for Saints to be in Pot 3 (provided none of the 3 CL teams also manages an upset) England West Ham United CC: 16.256 Greece Panathinaikos CC: 14.940 Denmark Midtjylland CC: 14.720 Italy Sassuolo CC: 14.087 Azerbaijan Qarabağ CC: 13.475 -------UNSEEDED TEAMS Norway Rosenborg CC: 12.850 Kazakhstan Astana CC: 12.575 Romania Astra Giurgiu CC: 11.076 Croatia Hajduk Split CC: 10.755 Portugal Arouca CC: 10.616 Switzerland Grasshopper CC: 9.755 Cyprus AEK Larnaca CC: 9.435 Serbia Vojvodina CC: 7.925 Turkey İstanbul Başakşehir CC: 7.920 Denmark Brøndby CC: 7.220 Serbia Red Star Belgrade CC: 7.175 Turkey Osmanlıspor CC: 6.920 Czech Rep Slavia Prague 6.585 Sweden IFK Göteborg CC: 6.475 Georgia (country) Dinamo Tbilisi CC: 5.875 Croatia Lokomotiva CC: 5.775 Slovakia Trenčín CC: 5.400 Azerbaijan Gabala CC: 5.225 Israel Beitar Jerusalem CC: 4.225 Denmark SønderjyskE CC: 3.720 Republic of Macedonia Shkëndija CC: 2.950 Albania Partizani Tirana CC: 1.575

As inevitably West Ham get a 3rd.

All Domzale at the (other) Olympic Stadium at the moment...

Incidentally, further to the rambling about betting sponsors from last week, good to see West Ham with a sponsor on the front of their shirt this week. Up yours, second rate Essex newspaper.

They'd have been out on away goals even if they hadn't conceded it though. I'm sitting here listening to Domzale lose in (probably) Slovenian with the West Ham game minimised, the BBC videprinter tab, Facebook and the Europa League Wikipedia page open.

We need Hapoel Be'er Sheva, Rostov and Dundalk to lose in the CL Play Off matches, nothing else makes any difference to us as every other team in the competition outranks us anyway. Any of those three get into the CL Group Stages and we'll need one more EL Play Off Round qualifying upset to offset it.

Incidentally anyone managed to find a decent score tracker which has both on the night AND aggregate score showing on the multi-match screen? There's a decided dearth of easy-access info out there, too many only with today's score or needing to click into the document to see who won on aggregate.

Aberdeen are down to 10 men against Maribor, so they're probably out as they need to score. West Ham are comfortable against Domzale, but it only takes one goal...

Yeah, basically. There was a bit of mucking around with 7 at Man United and Liverpool with Robson and Dalglish, and I seem to recall Everton's centre backs featuring Kevin Ratcliffe wearing 4, but even then players had numbers they liked (and Brazilian CBs always wear 4 due to the different way the half-back position was resolved over there). Mark Hughes was the classic striker number 10 of the era when they were always on the box. The 4 was more likely to be a defensive-minded midfielder than the 8 in normal 4-4-2s as well.

McQueen put a load of decent pacy crosses in late on and now I can see why they're trying him at LB, the problem being that with our current squad only Austin has the remotest possibility of winning a header in the box from open play. Thought Hjobjerg (well done me for spelling it right, albeit without the line through the o) looked pretty good, always wanted the ball and moved it on well. Ward-Prowse was less skilled at picking the through ball today but still looks more accomplished than before, he's still improving. Clasie... was there... Harry Reed hasn't learned anything about not chopping people in half with late tackles, Redmond looked amazing early on and if we can work out how to get the ball to him will score loads cutting in from wide, Long was industrious, Van Dijk must be fed up with awful penalty decisions against him, Austin seemed fairly comfortable running with the ball but it's not his strength, Rodriguez looked a bit out of it, McCarthy made a couple of good saves but I have NO idea what the hell the defence was doing in the first minute of the second half with a bunch of head tennis faffery that nearly cost us a goal. Tadic had a decent free kick and one terrible corner. Everyone else was basically just there, very impressed with the pace of the passing and breaking, just need to get the through balls played before Redmond and Long run offside.

Shirt numbers is definitely an age thing, I always relate the two up top to 9 and 10 from my late 70s-early 80s childhood. Creative number 10s were a thing for funny foreign types and Glenn Hoddle when I was a kid. As it happens my antipathy for 10 is nearly as strong as my affinity for 9.

Outside.

I've been to Monaco before, not for football though - problem would be the ground being a bit poky considering they won't be in Pot 4.

Just for a quick heads up, last year coefficients above 52 were Pot 1, 32-51 Pot 2, 15-31 Pot 3 and below 15 Pot 4. Ours is 16.756 this year. I'm still fairly sure we'll be in Pot 3. There are always loads of CL sides with higher coefficients, but there are also loads of EL qualifiers who can't be ranked above us and we only need 12 of them to get through to fill up Pot 4. Thursday night will be interesting but the draw for the EL and CL Playoff Rounds will tell us how many upsets we actually need for Pot 3.

I can see us going full on with the first team tonight (maybe with Fonte and Cedric sitting out though), it's midweek against European opposition and they'll probably be trying to manage the situation to get a routine for the group games. Also, because there's a reasonable possibility of us playing Athletic Bilbao in the Group Stages (they're definitely in the group stages and a seed in Pot 1, whilst we can't be in that Pot), I think we'll play a weaker side on Sunday. That does fly a little in the face of conventional wisdom, so maybe we bring Bertrand back tonight and give Pied his debut but but stick with Van Dijk and Yoshida in the middle, then bring Fonte and Cedric back on Sunday, with Hjobjerg in front in one game and Romeu in front in the other. We have enough midfielders and strikers to make up two separate sides for tonight and Sunday without overly relying on the kids anyway.

Just for a second there I thought someone had commissioned a fly-on-the-wall documentary-style black comedy based on actual footage. God that would be amazing.

Yeah, it's alright... Milan as a whole is pretty dull actually. Trams are good though. I'd prefer Schalke, Bilbao, or Florence (or Roma or Alkmaar if they drop in). Not sure about Zenit, not so keen on us maybe playing Anderlecht or Fenerbahce, and I've been to Braga - but it was decent and a mad ground, if a relatively long way from the town. Every possibility Sparta Prague or Monaco could pop up in Pot 1 (or failing that Pot 2) as well, and I quite fancy those. Steaua again would just be annoying.

Celtic can definitely end up in our group. If they lose their CL 3rd Qualifier they go into the EL Play Off Round and will need to win to get to the EL Group Stages, OR if they win in this round of the CL and then lose their CL Play Off game they drop directly into the EL Group Stages, and their coefficient of 35.335 will almost certainly put them in Pot 2 - ours is 16.756, likely to be Pot 3 (it was last year). Plus the restriction on playing teams from the same nation doesn't apply because it refers to UEFA nations, so England/Scotland/N Ireland/Wales are treated as independent nations for the purposes of football.