Iām believer of not focusing on one or the other where the CL and the league are concerned. I can happily let go the domestic cups if it really will benefit our season but not one of the other two. The level of teams you play against in Europe can really give you a big boost going into your next league game if you get the win. Vice versa too.
Take Napoli in December for example, that was a make or break game for our CL campaign, lose it and we spend Thursday nights being god knows where playing in terrible pitch conditions and having it impact our league games just a few days later. Yet, we won that game in the middle of a very hectic schedule, where we had 4 more games in a short space of time, against some tough teams; United, Wolves and Arsenal along with Newcastle. If we hadnāt beaten Napoli then I think it would have smashed our confidence and I really donāt think weād have gone the whole Xmas period winning every game and the chances are, weād be more than 1 point behind now.
Beat Bayern and providing we can avoid injury, it will give us more confidence and momentum. Last season we were winning in Europe but struggling in the league towards the end because we didnāt have the squad to manage the situation properly, where as now we are better equipped and we can use both competitions to bounce off of each other and hopefully go the rest of the season winning every game.
The 2 biggest competitions in club football, I really canāt condone the likes of Neville saying you have to throw one of them to concentrate on the other. If we donāt win the league then Iād at least like to be able to soften that blow by becoming kings of Europe again.
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