So apart from the complacency, what to say ?? Foyth got a 'welcome to the PL' with the Spanners crossing game, and won't be replacing any of the established backs for a while. The service to Llorente was a joke. This was the game to establish the MF rapport with him, and play to his strengths. Nothing doing.
Im in 2 minds on this one. I do really want to write it off and act like it’s not that important in the grand scheme of things, but we haven’t won anything for so long and this was a cup where we actually had a very good chance of winning the thing. Of course we have bigger and better things to play for coming up but it still hurts to go out of a cup at home to one of your biggest rivals. Especially from 2-0 up.
Sigh, again true but we're playing a different Utd on Saturday, one much better than the one to which we have just lost.
I don't think Poch deserves much blame for that tbh. First half showed that we were more than strong enough to win this tie. Complacency and an arrrogance that a number of our players appear to be falling under the spell of (they need to be sat in a room with Kane for an hour to learn the meaning of a hard graft) was our undoing. Bitter pill to swallow but this was always going to be a low priority this season. Traditionally under Poch we've reacted to defeats with furious indignation so a big result at OT and this game will already be a distant memory.
All teams have to prioritise and make changes. But it's hard for fringe players to come into games like this. Much smaller crowd, less intensity, key players missing etc. Kane, Lloris, the back three, Winks were all important players on Sunday. Only Alderweireld played tonight. All the top teams gamble on squad players getting them through. Sometimes it works, often it doesn't.
Try a different perspective. This game was important for reasons such as players who may not be considered part of the preferred starting XI to show why they should be, especially for the upcoming two games. Similarly to demonstrate the leadership/rallying traits akin to Kane.
The players on the pitch should not have pounced around in the second half...it had nothing to do with priorities and everything to do with complacency...and as I am stuck on a tube with bloody happy hammers I will be bloody annoyed no matter what any of you mo fos say ...
We seem to say this every season. The reality is that we can’t cope being in 4 competitions with our squad and other factors such as changes to the team. Not many clubs can. Even Chelsea just scraped through tonight. Its a lot of football and something has to give. We all want to win a cup, but I think it would take a season with no European football in order for us to take both domestic cup competitions seriously. It just hurts more tonight because it was West Ham. But look on the bright side, Bilic will probably still be in a job as a result. They get to laugh at us tonight. We get to laugh at them for the foreseeable future.
