Quote from: len01 on Today at 03:25:59 AM

Quote from: Lidger on Today at 02:51:05 AM

Every team in the European League is almost equal, so competition is always high in the European League. Even if the big team can separate here, it cannot be said that the big team will win the title in the end. Liverpool were probably the biggest team in the Europa League last season and everyone was saying that Liverpool would win the Europa League title last season but Liverpool couldn't do it. Far from winning the title, they exited the tournament before qualifying for the semi-finals.
Like last season, Manchester United is considered as a worthy contender to win the title this season but Manchester United may not be able to win the Europa League title.
Maybe we'll see another team win the Europa League title.

A small number of people only see the results of the group stage but they forget that the most difficult competition is not in the group stage but when entering the round of 16, big teams can lose their performance when they get an equal opponent.
On the one hand, several popular teams in the group stage have their own strategies such as only competing with a performance that is not too strong to save the players' energy and when they have qualified for the round of 16, big teams will improve their performance to be stronger.
So in each round we will continue to see many changes and even teams that look weak at this time will experience a very high increase.

What if the teams that are saving their strength for the round of 16, get knocked out from the group stage, what will be their gain? SoI don't really believe that big teams use to reserve their performance level in the group stage only to improve in the rounds of 16. You have to qualify from the group stage first before you can get to the next round. That's why you hear the managers saying they don't underrate any team when big teams are playing smaller ones.The only time I know teams do reserve their strength in the group stages is when they have already qualified to the next round with few games to spare. But if a team haven't qualified for they next round, they usually give their best performance. Any performance you see any team display at group stage is their best performance at that time and nothing more. Not that they are reserving their best performance.