Brendan Rodgers: authorities must do more to help English clubs in Europe

Juventus’s run to last season’s Champions League final helped ensure that Italy are closing in on third spot in the rankings and if they claim an extra place in UEFA’s marquee competition, it would shatter the Premier League’s claim to be the best domestic competition in the world.

No Premier League team made it beyond the competition’s round of 16 last season, while no English side has reached the final since Chelsea won it in 2012.

The highest spender English premier Club this season is Manchester City as the spent over 160 million euro which is more than the record 150 million Manchester Spent a year ago. The physicality and the intensity of the games.

Arsenal and Chelsea both crashed to surprise defeats in the Champions League on Tuesday night, with Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United also losing on matchday one.

Especially considering English football, more than any other, has an insatiable lust for the underdog; a mentality insisting any team on their day, be they from the bottom half of League Two or the top half of the top flight, is capable of beating anybody else – provided they show conviction, enthusiasm and are prepared to veer towards the uglier side of the handsome game.

“I think the Premier League is all about power, pace and energy and overseas, it’s about owning football”.

And with three of England’s biggest clubs struggling in Europe, Starsport wants to know who YOU think will go furthest in this year’s competition by voting in the poll below.

“I understand that TV pays a lot of money for the games in England, but why do Arsenal and Chelsea play in the Champions League in the midweek and then we play the first match at 12.45 last weekend?”

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers believes there is an agenda against him.

“I think we can do more to support teams in Europe”. It happens with other federations in other countries.

“So if he’s fit enough to warm up and sit on the bench presumably he’d be fit enough if anything had happened to Ospina so it was a unusual decision, particularly with the importance of the game, they got beat and the pressure is right on them now”.

“It all adds up to being hard physically for the Premier League teams and for the teams in European football, but it’s something we have to cope with”. The intensity, how it is played, the demand on players. “In other countries, a few of the big teams in Europe can change five, six, seven players and still win”.

It may seem counter-intuitive to suggest clubs would suffer on the continental scene for domestic competitiveness.

Former Fulham star Jimmy Bullard says that English teams underestimating European sides has been their downfall in recent years. But it is something that we have to cope with and we respect that challenge.