But why? We have a great chance, with the way we are playing currently, for cup success. Why risk that for a league game when we are as good as safe? If anything rotation should now be made in league games. In the 1st half against Coventry we were awful, if we play like that against WH we could be out of the cup by half time.
Bugger. Well I would go with; Big Willy KWP ………. Stephens perraud JWP Diallo Armstrong Redmond Armstrong Djenepo scratching my head. I don’t think he’ll start Adams and Broja
I think he will rotate a bit in the league as well. This is nowhere near as weak as the team against Coventry. All of them have performed very well at first team level, so nowhere near the same risk. I think we both realise that the cup run is our best chance of silverware and I've already said I get more excited about cup games. But the real reason the cup has sadly lost some of it's magic is that the prize money has simply not kept pace with the EPL. We get roughly £1,000,000 more for every place we finish higher in the league. The prize money for the FA Cup winners is only £1.8m. As a business, we simply can't afford to prioritise the cup over the league. The best we can do is take it equally seriously. Edit: We made 9 changes for Coventry. I'm suggesting just 3.
Now we are safe, we should play our strongest 11 tomorrow. Obviously if anyone is not 100% due to the quick turnaround then rotate. I would like to see if Adam Armstrong given a start in this run, tomorrow could be a good chance for him if either broja or adams arent 100%.
Maybe Ralph is simply highlighting that he hasn't decided whether JWP should play Attacking Midfield, or Defensive Midfield. That should be the limit of any tinkering
Go full strength and rotate from the bench. I hate the thought of us going with a weakened team, especially up front, not just because of the goals but because of how they help make the team work with their pressing and hold up play, which allows us to go forward as a team. Long, Armstrong and Walcott don’t hold the ball up as well as Che, Broja and Stuart/Lucy and given the pace WHU have up front, we don’t want the space behind the full backs being exploited by poor control.
Yes, agreed with this. Full strength, bench if we're winning comfortably (as unlikely as that may sound!)
Normally I view support from Lawro as the kiss of death, but he called Saints v Norwich correctly, so maybe I'll believe that Lawro does have some idea about Saints' ability. I may change my mind, if he predicts that: 'Villa still have something to play for, so I'm going for a Villa win', or similar, in his next crystal ball gazing spot on Friday.
Assuming that we go pretty strong, I'm going for a home win after extra time. I'm expecting WH to rest more players than we do.
Didn’t like the messaging from Ralph about team selection, looks like he might throw the game by playing too many fringe players. If the team is anything like the dreadful Coventry game we will be out of the tie by half time
Cheers Chilcs …. I was worried I was going to be doomed to watching Moscow United or Liverhampton …..
Yes I think it’s all about who rests who & I hope you’re right WH rest more than us. Head for head I think we’re quite evenly matched & they’ll be smarting from the points dropped in PL. If we play a weakened side & they less so, we’re gone.
WH's second string didn't exactly excel themselves against Kidderminster. As Gary alludes to, there are two sides of this coin. It's not just about how strong/weak we go. (Although, naturally, I would prefer we went as strong as possible.)
