Ramos gets tough hand in Uefa draw
Last updated : 07 October 2008 By Gareth Davies
The club were dealt a tough hand during the draw for the Uefa Cup group stages today.
After a shocking start to the season Juande Ramos will have hoped for some respite from the competition he was won twice during his career.
But fate failed to smile on the Spaniard, with the draw pitting his beleaguered side against Udinese (a), Dinamo Zagreb (h), NEC Nijmegen (a) and Spartak Moscow (h).
However, with a wealth of top clubs in this year's tournament - including former European Champions AC Milan, the draw certainly have been worse for Ramos, who will resume his bid to win the trophy for a third time on October 23 in Italy, when his side faces Udinese.
And speaking after the draw, under-fire sporting director Damien Comolli said he was confident the club could turn around their dreadful form and qualify from the group.
"I am sure we will do well," Comolli told BBC Sport. "The players are highly motivated about the UEFA Cup. "We are not getting the results we thought we would get. But it is not time to be pointing fingers at anyone. "Whenever you enter a competition, you are confident you will do well. I am sure we will improve in the Premier League and can use the Uefa Cup to get our confidence back." Comolli's positivity, however, will do little to convince the fans who are growing tired of hearing the same platitudes each week only to have to endure endlessly abhorrent performances and results. As for the players being "highly motivated by the Uefa Cup" why should we believe that is the case? Few fans will agree they saw an adequate, let alone high motivated, performance in the two legs against Krakow. Now what is more likely is that the main problem that has plagued our start to the new season, namely a complete inability to score goals, will continue to hamper us in every competition we play in until the problem can be addressed. The fact is, regardless of having to bed players in, come to terms with new tactics and the growing pressure at the club, the main cause of our titanic sinking start is that we sold our two best strikers and failed to adequately replace them. Its why all other chinks in our armour have been exposed and its why we will not significantly improve until the £30m+ of Manchester United money that is currently gathering interest in the club's bank accounts is invested in two top quality forwards. For that reason, this season is a write off. The fact that we will be feeling the effects of this crisis until the last day of January, and perhaps beyond, means that all realistic hope of a top six finish, even a top half finish, should be forgotten about. No goals = no points. Thanks Damien. |
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