Raphael Honigstein: Why are English teams bad in Europe

One factor is that English players are currently very bad. Having great players from your country is a big advantage because you don't have to pay transfer fees for them and can normally pay them lower wages. People knock England's golden generation but their sides performed far better in Europe than current ones do.

I've simply never bought the winter break argument. Two weeks off makes that much difference?

There's no question it's due to the over competitive nature of the league. One team hasn't been able to dominate since Fergie's 07/08/09 seasons. Since then, we've seen the arrival of city as a power-house and the gradual emergence of Tottenham. You now have six genuine title contenders slugging it out and taking points off each other (Leicester never win the title without that competitiveness).

What the league needs is for City to become the dominant force (and I'm saying that as a united fan). Once that one top team excels and pulls away, only one (at best two) teams will be able to go with them.

Frankly, it is the emergence of City as a force that has thrown the league out of whack.

The sooner they become the dominate force they frankly ought to be, the sooner another couple of teams can start chasing them and the league can settle. As long as it's a fee for all, we will suffer in Europe. That being said, English football has never been so good to watch.

Yes we play too much and the england first 11 especially does - we have talent though. But we had top world class players back in the 90's - mid - since then we have been on a lower level.

Kane and co are brilliant players. Its a shame they get ran rigid though. They just cannot keep it up when international time comes around and the pressure is just too much to heap on them

Kane maybe an exception(injuries withstanding) - as he does seem to have a head on his shoulders where by the media may not l=make him worse come international time.

The managers are not wrong.

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Chelsea are dominating because they got a shot in the arm from a new manager, new system and the addition of better players.

And what trend? United competed to a high level in Europe every single season under Fergie and they still dominated the league. It's got nothing to do with fixtures, its entirely to do with quality.

These German teams that play fewer games, how many Champions Leagues are they winning again? The only German team that has a realistic chance of winning the CL is Bayern because they posses better quality and less domestic competition -- end of.

Fergie switched to a squad rotation system though.  in the mid 90s when he saw he was getting whooped every time in the Champions League he was playing the same XI every week when possible.  Then in the late 90s he brought in squad rotation, he had Cole, Yorke, Sheringham and Solksjaer for instance rotating for the strikers position.  And hey presto, they won everything.  The problem though with this is it dilutes your team, and you need massive resources to fund it. 

Funnily enough, I was reading a few months ago that his squad would know well in advance who was going to be playing in a league cup match or FA Cup game that was weeks away.  Everything was meticulously planned to get everything out of the squad.  But no one is really rotating at the moment, not even Jose, and we're seeing how diabolical it is proving to be in Europe.

Why?  Because they simply can not afford to playing less than their best XI in any given game, every point is crucial.  You were right when you said the top 6 slogging it out is a problem.  But you didn't quite tell the whole story.

We have to start playing less games, and we have to have a break, there comes a time when you have to admit that all the expertise, all the top managers, all the sport's science, just might be, just might be right.  If nothing else, it is surely worth a try?