chelsea v bolton arsenal v southampton Wba v Hull Palace v Newcastle Leyton Orient v Sheff Utd Cardiff v Bournemouth Sunderland v Stoke Derby v Reading Liverpool v Boro Mk Dons v Bradford Man City v Sheff Wed Burton v Brighton Swansea v Everton Shrewsbury v Norwich Fulham v Doncaster Spurs v Notts Forest
Could be but the sort of game we are quite good at losing. Would like us to at least have a go at a cup.
What is this, Football Manager? Why is it whenever you play football manager, and it does a cup draw, you always end up playing a team you either are about to play just after the draw, or will play days later in the league after the cup fixture?! Decent draw. Have to start scoring some goals if we want to progress though
That's a pretty dreadful draw tbh. Long way from home, no big deal if we win or lose. Like to see us win, but I would have loved a home draw.
Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal and Spurs all at home, all bar one against lower league opposition. So this is their method for making this cup worthwhile? Embarrassing.
Even if we made a effort look at the other fixtures and see who's at home ie so do all hard work away then get one of those teams,sorry may sound defeatist but can't remember a good cup win bar Chelsea away I think ps I remember a cup game in the '90's at Selhurst Park,we got murdered 4-2 I think,we left the ground when Beardsley scored a peno but remember the amount of coaches parked around the ground and Toon had travelled in their thousands
It would have been nice to have a home draw. Still a winnable game if we were interested. Lets face it though, there will be at least 5 or 6 changes so there is little point in having much expectation. That may be depressing but if you're told as manager/set of players that the clubs are not of interest and not to bother with them, its a pretty bad starting point.
Will that not be the case for Palace as well? After the turmoil down there recently surely they'll solely be focussing on staying in the league, whereas teams such as yourselves can afford the distraction of a cup.
I agree with this. Every team of note will be making changes for the League Cup, we get too wrapped up in the general vitriol surrounding the clubs (mis-placed) honesty.
I don't think that is the point though. Palace and other clubs would never go down the route of saying in open forum that the cups don't interest them. Every club makes changes to the side, not every club has an openly negative stance towards the cup. Psychology plays a huge part in modern sport. Of course I'm not suggesting that players or staff enter the game thinking "I want to lose". They patently would not. However at some point in this competition the difference between winning and losing will come down to a battle of will. That is the nature of cup competition. The whole psyche of your club is important with regard to cup competition. Look at clubs like Sheff U or Bradford. Not big clubs by any stretch but they attack cup competitions with vigour year on year with some remarkable results. Look at your own club Indy under Poyet. He made a point of not dismissing them despite a potnentially negative effect on league form. He looked and said "no, this can help us". Its all about the mentality you adopt. Ours is quite frankly pathetic, timid. We think we are being business saavy. There is an argument on both sides of that argument. What is undeniable for me is that it is against the spirit of what football and football clubs are all about. Its just not for me. I fully understand the need to make changes and have actually argued on the other side of that on these forums. What I don't agree with is openly adopting a negative and pussy like stance to competitive sport. It is difficult to envisage a cup run of any length while the club takes the stance it does.
