Slaven Bilic: Premier League is one of the best but Arsenal & Co can lose focus in Europe

False start: Eliaquim Mangala and Kevin De Bruyne troop off past celebrating Juventus players after Manchester City’s Champions League hopes suffer an early blow this week
(OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images)
Slaven Bilic18 September 2015

It wasn’t a great week for English clubs in Europe and although it’s very early days, questions are already being asked why they haven’t performed better in recent seasons.

The answer is not simple but clubs here have no divine right to win European trophies.

Take Manchester City, who lost 2-1 at home against Juventus on Tuesday. They joined the elite clubs relatively quickly and it’s not just a case of having the money, buying the players and then winning the Champions League.

Last season they were in a tough group but still went through to the knockout phase. In the end they were beaten by Barcelona and you can’t say they failed in Europe because of that defeat — City are not at the same level as Barcelona.

Chelsea, who have had the status for some time and been building it for years, were knocked out by Paris St Germain. You can’t say that was a big shock.

What I am trying to say is that, for me, Real Madrid and Barcelona are the best teams in Europe and then you have four or five, like PSG, Bayern Munich, Juventus and Chelsea.

Five things we learnt at Chelsea vs Maccabi Tel Aviv

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Why were we expecting City to beat Juventus? They are a massive club and reached the Champions League Final last season.

Take Manchester United. Yes, they were better on the pitch than PSV Eindhoven but if you are a bit unlucky, as they were, you can be beaten.

The Premier League is definitely the most exciting league in the world. It’s probably also the toughest league and among the best in Europe.

The Europa League is different. Some of the clubs here in England seem to take it as a punishment. I can understand that. It’s not easy to play away in Europe on a Thursday and then come back to a tough match at Stoke or wherever on the Sunday.

There are no easy games here. Because of the money here in England, you have the most competitive league. Because of the money, we signed Dimitri Payet. Because of the money West Brom signed Salomon Rondon. Because of the money Norwich signed Dieumerci Mbokani.

Because of the money, these clubs outside the Premier League elite can afford to buy players that perhaps their equivalent in Germany cannot.

Juventus are still buying the players they want but are refusing to sell Paul Pogba. There is no money in the world to convince Barcelona to sell Lionel Messi or anyone else they want to keep.

I bet you if Manchester United and Real Madrid both want Pogba, then Real will pay whatever it takes to get him.

Clubs don’t have any easy games in the Premier League and maybe they are not always so focused on Europe. Take Arsenal’s match against Dinamo Zagreb. I can tell you they were pumping up this game in Zagreb since the draw. It was a massive deal for them. Of course, it was a big game too for Arsenal but they must also have one eye on tomorrow and their match against Chelsea.

Dejected: Arsenal's player react after falling two behind in Zagreb

In the press conference before the Zagreb game, there were a lot of questions, either to Arsene Wenger or Aaron Ramsey, about the match at Stamford Bridge.

When I was manager of Croatia and we played England, it was our third qualifying match for the European Championships. We beat them 2-0 in Zagreb but the English players would not have been thinking about this game until after the previous weekend, when they had been in action for their Premier League clubs.

Our players, like Luka Modric and Vedran Corluka, were thinking about this game one month before.

In the Croatian media they were counting it down — ‘20 days to the big game… 19 days to the big game…’ — and so on.

Let’s see how things pan out for English clubs in Europe this season. Apart from Chelsea, it wasn’t a great start but it’s early days.

We expect to do well at City

OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images

I will be disappointed if we don’t get something from our game at Manchester City tomorrow. I know they are by far the best team in the Premier League at the moment but we have beaten Arsenal and Liverpool away, so why should we be apprehensive?

It wasn’t easy for them against Crystal Palace or Watford and the best thing is we don’t have to go back a year or two and show the players clips of a match and say: “We have to do that again.”

No — we have done it already twice this season, at the Emirates and Anfield. When you play them, you know David Silva is going to float between the lines but despite that knowledge you also know he has the talent to win through, even when he is one against two.

Juventus were content to let City have a lot of possession in their match. That’s a tactic everyone is trying to use against them but the Italians have quality players as well and they can hurt you. There is no way City deserved to lose the game, maybe 1-1 would have been fair.

I have to say that City’s goal should not have been allowed. It was a clear foul on Giorgio Chiellini by Vincent Kompany. What was the official behind the goal doing? If I was Chiellini, I’d have gone mad!

There was a crazy decision in the Real Madrid v Shakhtar Donetsk match, too, when Darijo Srna was hit on the back by the ball and the Croatian referee gave a penalty despite the player pleading with the official over the incident. At least in England players can often talk to the referees. In Europe not so much.

The best ones will allow some discussion but the others — no.

My counter argument

Getty

Some people are now labelling us as a “counter-attacking” team, especially after the win against Newcastle.

It wasn’t our plan to play like that but our early goal changed things a little. We didn’t have to press them in the areas where it is not important.

The only thing I wasn’t totally happy with was the way we were not keeping the ball when we were under no pressure.

In training we play a lot of possession football, we are not training like a counter-attacking team. People have said after the Newcastle match that we have to look after Dimitri Payet.

The reality is that, if you are a good offensive player, you must expect the opposition to mark you.

Steve McClaren is a great analytical coach. Do you think he didn’t try to find a way of keeping Payet quiet?

No — but it is Payet, he is an exceptional player.

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