What gripes me is we have no chance of winning the league so why not at least put a bit of effort into trying to win a cup? Bielsa insists on a small squad, well those ‘reserve’ or ‘fringe’ 11 were shocking tonight. Forget 11 changes, Kiko, Roberts, Alioski, Douglas have all played enough first team games, Rodrigo is a Spanish International. If that’s our depth we need to sell some of them, it’s simply not good enough. Well done to Hull though, despite us being piss poor they still had to put in a performance and they did.
Managers only seem to worry about the Premier League. Hull City got into the Europa League and while the fans enjoyed their trips to Slovakia and Belgium we would have gone further if Steve Bruce hadn't played weakened teams. It's not like we are regulars in Europe.
I’d understand it if we had a serious chance of top 6 but saying that, looking at the team on paper it should have still been good enough to compete. I looked at the starting 11 and thought a 3-0 Leeds win should be comfortable enough, I was very wrong
The league pays £100 + million the Carabou cup a few thousand. That's the be all and end all, sad that it is.winners prize for winning Carabou Cup £100,000,tv money per live prem game £1 million.
But Bielsa either believes we can either qualify for Europe or we have a chance of relegation. If he believes top 6 we need far better depth than that and he is in for a shock, if he fears relegation then something is wrong. We have just heaped pressure on to ourselves for the Fulham game. It’s okay saying we lost to the Champions, it’s okay saying we lost in a minnows cup but lose to Fulham and it becomes no wins in three
Sorry Rich but you're overreacting to this defeat. We now don't have a midweek fixture until the 12th December...which means week after week of coaching from Bilesa and his staff. This can only be good for all the players but especially new ones either already signed or still to come in
I took no notice of this game last night and i checked this morning. Was not surprised we lost and we can't even win a penalty shoot out. No strength in depth means relegation. Fulham may well surprise us as they know us well now.
Would've been nice from a fan point of view to have a go at this cup but I can see it from the clubs point of view and we should be better for being out of it.
Doesn’t deflect how poor those playing were though. 50% of those players might get only one more game this season in the FA cup.
There’s a few things that annoyed me about the game last night. I looked at the team and thought these should be good enough to win this, there was enough first team experience in there that should’ve pushed them through and it’s not that we lost it’s how we lost. We played so badly, were second to every ball and couldn’t pass. Alioski, Roberts and Douglas can hang their heads in shame. These players should have shown Bielsa there worth and that they should be first team starters but all they’ve shown is that they’re nowhere near. I thought Shackleton was someone who was very close to the first team but after last night I though he was very poor, didn’t know where to pass the pass and was very weak in the tackle. I think Poveda can hold his head up high as he was probably the best player on the pitch. I thought Kiko had a good game apart from giving the ball away but I did think who he was passing too (Alioski or Douglas) could and should have got to the ball and the defending once Wilks had the ball was woeful. Rodrigo showed some intelligence with beating players and good balls but the midfield was so poor with passing and delivery he had to start coming into midfield to collect which is poor, must have been a frustrating night for him. I thought Cresswell, Bogusz, Gotts and especially Davis all played quite well and have decent futures ahead of them. Can see these sort of players over taking Roberts, Alioski and Douglas very quickly. I’m not too fussed with going out of the cup however it’s a shame for the young and fringe players as it’d have been nice for them to have more game time and build up experience in competitive matches.
I don't really ever buy the "now we can concentrate on the league" comments. It's a bit like the politician getting sacked but everybody agreeing to release a statement saying "retired because they wanted to spend more time with their family" It just doesn't ever convince me. Having said that I'm not too unhappy about losing but I don't want the team to get into the losing way. When did the first team last wing a match? was it against Charlton last season?
Kind of agree with you Eric... “concentrate on the league” I get it but what does that actually mean, what’s the target? Concentrate on not getting relegated? Concentrate finishing 10th? We have 38 games compared to 46 in the Championship. Nobody remembers who finishes in the unimportant positions.
Depends what the management team take from this. It was obvious to me that we don't have much depth to our squad. I'm hoping for Gvardiol and De Paul to get over the line. Looks like we might need them as none of that lot should be near the PL team.
