You would still see teams fielding a make-shift team (the attitude of "we're not going to win it anyway so may as well go out straight away) but I think the bigger sides (at least top half of Premier League) would take it much more seriously.
The FA Cup certainly needs spicing up and other that making it a big prize fund, a CL place is the only other way.
I don't think so, for a competition with 64 teams still in it, the third round has been decent so far and the best team is still to play
So you agree with managers playing massively weakened sides? Or managers such as Lambert basically saying he doesn't care? How is that fair on the fans that have already bought tickets before comments or line-ups are made public?
as a fan you would think what's the point in me going if you arent going to make an effort why should i.
If a CL position is up for grabs no one lower than the top 10 of the PL would field a proper team since they know at some point a big club with their entire season relying on it will turn up and knock them out anyway.
So they may as well pack up and go home then? Maybe we should have done the same in the CL in 2004-05? Same for Port the season before. It's a one-off game. Did Man City play a weakened side in the final against Wigan last season?
Exactly. Whilst the discussion around Lambert's comments this week I've only really thought of one thing; what about the fans?
Without weakened teams you'd get 95% less cupsets. The prize right now is massive for small teams but not so great for big teams. Drama. With a CL position up for grabs only a very lucky draw would make the FA Cup anything other than a playoff competition for the biggest PL teams.
they only matter Gerrez when it effects the profit i shouldn't laugh as its ****ing sad actually but its a reality we face now days.
Don't take this the wrong way but I take it you're not too old? Under 25 for a guess. Reason I asked that is if you go back to before the Premier League the top sides didn't have these massive squads you see nowadays. they played their strongest eleven in every game and there was regular upsets in this competition. I just think it is a complete and utter shambles that a team that's won seven FA Cups don't even try! Only Man Utd (11), Arsenal (10) and Spurs (8) have won more. Liverpool and Chelsea both have seven too.
It seems that a lot of people think that the only thing that matters now is league position- to the extent that they're prepared to throw away our involvement in a cup competition because there's a chance that we might get injuries which will affect our attempt at a top four place. Whilst I agree that the league is the most important thing, it might as well be the only thing if we're not even going to give it a go in the cups. It doesn't matter that it's "only" Oldham (famous last words if ever I've heard them), no matter who we play we run the risk of injury so if we adopt that policy now, then we have to carry it on throughout this and any other cup competition. In which case we might as well give up on the ****er now and go home because at some point we're going to run into someone who'll just stuff our weakened side. Rafa came unstuck with this policy, and in truth he didn't care about the domestic cups at all. We have to decide if we do or not.
I don't disagree about the past or the squads but don't see offering the CL as helping. What if a Lambert-style manager decides that the chance of them winning the payoff of the CL is so slim that it isn't worth risking their relegation battle? Are you then going to offer safety from relegation or promotion based on how far you progress in the FA Cup? If a manger decides to sack off the FA Cup he only needs to answer to his club - his chairman and fans, not to some nebulous idea of "respecting the FA Cup".
if lfc are playing the asians and arabs will want to see it therefore there will be a link someone above wanted to see everton? everyone knows the "people's club" is only viewed by 1/5th of one city and nowhere else..
I want to like this question because you repeated the question but dislike it because of the "good looking athletic" bit. I went for thanks instead
