For me the Season Killer Cup is easy to sacrifice every season: use the early rounds to give fringe players some run-outs while blooding some youngsters, and if we reach the semis treat it as a target - but if we don't reach the semis because our scratch side lost to (for the sake of argument) Bournemouth no harm no foul - except to those who moan that it's our best chance of a trophy that season, which is Sugar Era thinking if ever I heard it The problem with the FA Cup is that on paper we should be able to rotate for the first couple of rounds but it never works out that way: either we get drawn against Premier League opposition so can't make as many changes as we'd like, or we have a repeat of last season where we make wholesale changes only to learn our squad isn't capable of having wholesale changes made (because bloody hell, does anyone remember the Newport match?) - and that's a long-term issue because some parts of the team can't be rotated, for example the only way to rotate Kane out and expect things not to go awfully is to put Son up top (which we simply haven't been able to do in the last three games) while central midfield's also been difficult to rotate in past season because we clearly miss a key component be it Dembele in previous seasons or Sissoko this
Not to mention how bloody obvious it became this season that the league cup is completely rigged. Spurs didn’t play a single tie outside of London, which was to create “derbies” and increase viewing figures. The icing on the cake was when Bellamy announced that City had drawn Burton 24 hours before the draw even happened. But despite all that, I still wouldn’t mind winning it!
Is that true Roo? I take little interest in it so I didn't notice any of that. I could not give a **** about winning it, but I am armchair in Scotland so maybe that's why I don't care.
Yeah agreed, I said something similar earlier on, mate and referred to games like that Newport one! That wasn’t the only one, either! It’s a mixture of some parts that can’t be rotated, some who can’t come in and do a job effectively, inexperienced youngsters, and any other variable such as players returning from injury, for example. Start to put more than one of these into the mix, and it’s a recipe for a very frustrating football match. In our case, often we are forced into implementing one of these factors, but another one is thrown into the mix by default.
Yep, all true. Although the bit about viewing figures is just my opinion. But conveniently we were drawn against 3 London teams. All premier league teams as well, with 2 being main rivals. Arsenal, West ham, and Watford. Surely that’s purely for viewing figures? Whilst at the same time, 2 season running, 2 EFL sides get “magic of the cup” ties against United in the semis one year, and city the following. - the former being one of the biggest clubs in world football, the other being arguably the best side in the country.
I'm sure there are some players lower down who will run their butts off for us if our reserves can't.lease start looking! We used to have scouts that knew what was about. Do we still have them,or are they on the other side of the channel? Or are they following geniuses like Janssen?
My daughter's a cappella group is competing tonight in a london wide glee club competition This is the stage pre and during the interval Palace colours FFS...so I am off to spend the rest of the interval hunting the smart arse stage manager down
Just back from the game and very wet and cold. I haven't read back but I doubt that there are too many surprises. Skippy, KWP and Foyth need big game experience (and Winksy, Toby and Danny Rose need rest). I'm not sure how fit Coco or Big Vic are and how much we'll need them on Wednesday or Saturday? We were without HK, Dele and Sonny. Before the game, I thought the line-up had just enough to win that game and we very well could have done. KWP makes a bad error for their penalty and Trippier misses ours. If those incidents go a bit more our way, it could have been 2-1 or even 1-1 at half time. I'd have expected us to win from there, or maybe get a draw (which we don't need). We've got 3 big home PL games against Watford, Newcastle and Leicester coming up and no HK or Dele. If we can win those 3, I'll be confident of CL next season but we're not scoring enough goals to guarantee anything. I'd trade a win in those 3 for a win today, without a second thought. I hope Sonny's fit and raring to go, as Watford are going to be bang up for it on Wednesday. MP's trying to deliver his brief - CL football next season. It's the right priority........Now, had we picked that team with a fit HK, Dele and Sonny, I'd be fuming.
Did you actually think the players didn't try their best today? I thought everyone put in a shift. The problem is that Llorente and Nkoudou are lower half players, Skipp and KWP don't yet have enough experience and Dier isn't yet fully match fit. Our issue is that we've overperformed in the league which means we now can't afford to finish outside the top four. It is simply true that nothing else matters.
Is this true, I had no idea? Unbelievable. Where was this announced, anywhere still viewable as proof online?
I think that, if we scored the penalty, we might have had the momentum to push for an equaliser - but because Trippier decided he was Leighton Baines and nobody thought to rugby tackle him to the ground the second he started walking towards the penalty area, we were more boned than the contents of a KFC Bargain Bucket
The moment he put the ball down sheepishly and it kept blowing off the spot you just knew. He never looked up for it.
As a Utd fan, I see the F.A.Cup as a real chance to win a trophy. Realistically, the CL will be out of reach and finishing in the top 4 would be nice, but I don't see it as such a priority that everything else must be sacrificed for it. I don't see why Spurs fans would view things any differently. If Poch's team selections are based on a view that top 4 is everything, then I'd be disappointed.
