Europa League Qualification Thread

[welldaft]

Surprised there is no thread running on this. 

1 month ago it would have been pointless as Aberdeen and Motherwell were shoe in. Spectacular arse collapses in the past month have meant it is now a 4 way sprint to the finish line. 

I say 4 way as I suspect Aberdeen, Celtic and Rangers to make the cup semi finals and therefore likely the extra Europa League place will go to 4th. Although you just never know. 

It is also ironic that this thread has been started by a Well fan as his team clearly have decided that coming back early from the summer holidays to partake in Euro competition does not suit them and have done a great job in ensuring this will not be a problem. 

If I had to bet I would go for Aberdeen 3rd with Hibs 4th and Well and Livi fighting out for 5th and 6th. Clearly hope I am wrong, but I don’t think it is possible for all 3 other teams not to win another game this season like Motherwell seem intent on doing...

[crispy]

We’re still fighting to avoid relegation then we can talk top 6.

[LIVIFOREVER]

It's Livi's to throw away imo.

[Ray Patterson]

8 minutes ago, LIVIFOREVER said:

It's Livi's to throw away imo.

There was some discussion that you guys may be screwed.

Livi were the only Premiership club refused a UEFA Licence, and UEFA are becoming increasingly difficult with giving special dispensation to top flight clubs. So there's a chance that your spot may be given to someone else.

[naegoodinthedark]

Have a feeling I’ll be spending a lot more time on the League Cup Group Stage thread tbh.

[The Marly]

Hearts to come up on the rails with a late run.

[deej]

15 minutes ago, The Marly said:

Hearts to come up on the rails with a late run.

Keep reading that they are due a run of wins to be fair.. Not sure where they're coming though

[boozyBJ]

Don't think we'll be in the running unless our form/results pick up. 3 points against County next week a must.

[Munoz]

10 hours ago, welldaft said:

Surprised there is no thread running on this. 

1 month ago it would have been pointless as Aberdeen and Motherwell were shoe in. Spectacular arse collapses in the past month have meant it is now a 4 way sprint to the finish line. 

I say 4 way as I suspect Aberdeen, Celtic and Rangers to make the cup semi finals and therefore likely the extra Europa League place will go to 4th. Although you just never know. 

It is also ironic that this thread has been started by a Well fan as his team clearly have decided that coming back early from the summer holidays to partake in Euro competition does not suit them and have done a great job in ensuring this will not be a problem. 

If I had to bet I would go for Aberdeen 3rd with Hibs 4th and Well and Livi fighting out for 5th and 6th. Clearly hope I am wrong, but I don’t think it is possible for all 3 other teams not to win another game this season like Motherwell seem intent on doing...

St Mirren will be in the cup semi finals.

Edited February 27, 2020 by Munoz

[craigkillie]

There was some discussion that you guys may be screwed.
Livi were the only Premiership club refused a UEFA Licence, and UEFA are becoming increasingly difficult with giving special dispensation to top flight clubs. So there's a chance that your spot may be given to someone else.

It depends why they were refused the licence in the past - there are various box-ticking type criteria which they might just have not bothered to meet in the past and which they might easily be able to meet if there's a reason to do so.

[LIVIFOREVER]

Think it was us and Accies that didn't have a UEFA license, doubt either of us thought we'd have to seriously be getting one, but John Ward tweeted about it a wee while ago and was working on it.

Dunno what the problem would be for us not to get one, i'll worry about that if it happens, just enjoying the fact we are now within touching distance of 4th, and 3rd isn't that far away either. Both Aberdeen and Motherwell have given up about 13 points to us and Hibs since the Winter break, and seem  to not be wanting 3rd place, i'd be happy for Livi to take it off their hands.

[coprolite]

9 minutes ago, LIVIFOREVER said:

Think it was us and Accies that didn't have a UEFA license, doubt either of us thought we'd have to seriously be getting one, but John Ward tweeted about it a wee while ago and was working on it.

Dunno what the problem would be for us not to get one, i'll worry about that if it happens, just enjoying the fact we are now within touching distance of 4th, and 3rd isn't that far away either. Both Aberdeen and Motherwell have given up about 13 points to us and Hibs since the Winter break, and seem  to not be wanting 3rd place, i'd be happy for Livi to take it off their hands.

Criteria here.

I'd imagine it's things like appointing a media officer that most clubs can't be arsed with. Probably costs about a thousand pounds a year to get a new graduate reporter to update the website and fire out tweets for a few hours a month. 

 

https://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/uefaorg/Clublicensing/02/60/83/59/2608359_DOWNLOAD.pdf

[ropy]

3rd place is a trap 

[Ron Aldo]

On one hand, I'll be gutted if we don't achieve at least 4th after a very decent first half of the season.

On the other (and from a selfish point of view) I have a lot on this year so I highly doubt I'd been in a position to make any European away trips which would be disappointing.

As much as European football sounds good, the early rounds are inevitably against a team of farmers from some diddy league and the potential of us suffering the same level of embarrassment that Killie suffered last year doesn't sound too appealing.

[Sortmeout]

48 minutes ago, Ron Aldo said:

On one hand, I'll be gutted if we don't achieve at least 4th after a very decent first half of the season.

On the other (and from a selfish point of view) I have a lot on this year so I highly doubt I'd been in a position to make any European away trips which would be disappointing.

As much as European football sounds good, the early rounds are inevitably against a team of farmers from some diddy league and the potential of us suffering the same level of embarrassment that Killie suffered last year doesn't sound too appealing.

We won 50% of our European games last season which is not an embarrassing record at all.

[coprolite]

46 minutes ago, Sortmeout said:

We won 50% of our European games last season which is not an embarrassing record at all.

Excellent stat abuse, well played. 

[Estragon]

2 hours ago, Ron Aldo said:

As much as European football sounds good, the early rounds are inevitably against a team of farmers from some diddy league and the potential of us suffering the same level of embarrassment that Killie suffered last year doesn't sound too appealing.

I still absolutely cannot believe that his happened.  Between this and the laughable way we exited the SC this year it's been some year. 

 

[LIVIFOREVER]

Been a strange season all round this season, Killie seemed to have a top 6 place in the bag too and suddenly plummeted down the table. Aberdeen & Motherwell have now given the likes of Livi & Hibs a chance at 3rd or 4th place, both of us have chucked away far too many points from winning positions to have thought we'd still be so close to European place. And recently after a terrible first half of the season St Johnstone have gone on a decent run of form to have moved right away from the relegation scrap and maybe even a chance at a top 6 spot.

The points tally from this time last season must be well down for the 3rd and 4th placed teams too, giving the 5th & 6th placed teams some hope.

[Phillips455]

If you look at the table, there is a clear drop in points from the top 2nand the rest of the league. The points difference between 2nd and 3rd (Rangers and Motherwell) is 22 points. Meanwhile, the difference between 3rd and 12th (Motherwell and Hearts) is 23 points.

Basically the Old Firm are miles ahead of everyone and everyone else is taking points off each other. I still believe Motherwell will finish 4th after getting back into gear in March, but if we dont then I would guarantee that Livingston and Hibs will manage to finish above us this season.

It's the first time that I could actually afford to go to an away european game, so I will be very sad to miss out on something special. Even if that something special is watch us lose to a bunch of Farmers from a Hartley OG.

[craigkillie]

Given that we still have potentially six more matches against Aberdeen, Motherwell, Livi and Hibs, I haven't completely ruled out this possibility for us yet.

We'd need to put together a winning run similar to last year though, and I'm not convinced we're capable of it. On an individual level we can clearly win any of our remaining games, but unlike last year I don't have the confidence that we can win all (or even most) of them.

Still, given that we play Livi in the final game before the split, all we have to do is try to make up three points on them over the next four games (and hope St Johnstone's form drops a wee bit), then win that last game. If we can squeeze into the top six then you always give yourself a chance.