If we beat City on Saturday it will be because our defence plays well. If one of them had been injured tonight there would be less chance. If we hadprogressed to the final we would probably be playing on the Sunday after a long trip away in the round of 32 in the Europa and be jaded just like last season when we came back from Italy to play a rested Chav team. I hate losing to Woolwich as much as anybody on this board but to lose this game will not matter so much if we get to finish above them in the league.
Human groups unify to the extent they can agree on a scapegoat. Carroll didn't have a good game, but was IMO about on a par with Trippier and Townsend and a bit better than Son, who for some reason was well off the pace.
It is beyond my comprehension how any spurs fan looking to blame someone can look beyond MP for playing fazio and for not playing our strongest team
Sometimes I wonder if, somewhere on the internet, is an official scapegoat list. It would explain a lot.
Should've played a stronger side and kicked their arses. Ah well, was a pretty even game and a great strike from Flamini, of all people, settled it On to City
Carroll wasn't all that impressive at QPR nor did he stamp any authority on a Swansea team built around the passing game that he should thrive in. People who were calling him the 'new Modric' 3-4 years ago need a reality check because despite looking like he just finished primary school, the lad is 23 years old which by today's standards isn't that young any more. Unless he's going to do a Mason on us and suddenly bloom into life in his mid 20's, I'd repeat what I've been parroting for years: Tom is clearly PL quality, but probably not good enough for a top half side, let alone a side pushing for Europe. I'd agree with posters on here who've pointed to the ease with which he gets knocked off the ball. An interesting thing about playmakers of a slight build is that it seems that they need to be fantastic footballers in order to 'make it'. Pirlo, Xavi, Modric all spring to mind. All shorter than Tom (Pirlo is actually the same size due to his magnificent mane of hair), all thinly built, all utterly superb players. As for losing to the Scum. I'm as disappointed as any but can't figure out why we'll now 'definitely' lose to City. Granted, our recent record against them has been shambolic, but they've struggled badly in their last two games. If we play as well as we did against Palace we'll cause them all sorts of trouble.
Comparing us to Newcastle in an effort to cheer people up just adds insult to injury PNP A mate of mine was at Anfield this evening and said that the atmosphere was (understandably) rather hostile. Apparently they had almost 50 shots on goal but only scored once...and all that was with more or less their strongest available team. They're going backwards so fast under Brenda it's a wonder they haven't lapped themselves at the Deluded Olympic Games in Kirby.
Right. On to City. The second half today as well as most of this year I've seen a fighting spirit I like. I certainly want to see that against City. Lessons I can only hope were learned today are always play the best team in any NLD, and don't loan out youth players who could well be our best backups, by whom I mean Carter-Vickers and Velkjovic. Oh, and it's time for the seventh best player in the PL last year, according to WhoScored's ratings, to move on. Good luck to him. Fazio has been a good player in the past, but he was the wrong player for our team, lost his confidence and became a real liability. Maybe there's another one as well: rotation should be done in a way that gives squad players a good chance of success. Throwing Fazio in at the deep end today, and Carroll and Trippier to some extent, turned out to be bad judgement. On the other hand, I like how Clinton is being brought along. Giving him some time at the end of games makes his speed that much more effective and helps to build his confidence.
On a more positive note, I rate Wimmer and think he looks like a really good signing. If we could get another player like him to replace Fazio then happy days. Looking forward to city on Saturday. We'll cause them problems with a full strength team, IMO. And Kane's luck has to change very soon, hopefully that'll be on Saturday. - And after seeing that outrageous strike that was cleared off the line by Gibbs, his confidence certainly doesn't look shot, as some suggest. Coys!
Well we lost as i expected,but if the goons get to the final we can look forward to them being humiliated by the likes of Birmingham and Swindon
I missed the game last night, and it sounds like it wasn't such a hardship. Reading your comments about playing a weakened team I am driven to comment on the League Cup in general and the criticism leveled at MP. I have to say that the League Cup has always been a mickey mouse cup as far as I am concerned, I know we always want to beat Arsenal, but I wouldn't even think of last nights game as a NLD, for me that's the PL game. The League Cup is a competition springing from the political rivalry between 'The Football League' and the 'The Football Association'. Remember the PL is the child of the FA, before it's existence the Football League ran the whole show from Division One , as it was then, to Division 4. Sorry if I am stating the obvious but some of our younger posters may not know this history. Many complain about our playing in the Europa but personally I think that competition, flawed as it is, is much more important than the League Cup. In the face of all this football the manager has to make decisions on using his squad and I think we all agree that the PL is our most important competition. We would be very quick to complain, as I and others have done, if we arrive at the next PL game with tired players. MP has the job of deciding who to 'preserve' and who to play and if he treats the League Cup as unimportant I wouldn't argue.
Given that the projected highlight of your season seems to revolve around Arsenal rather than Spurs, wouldn't it just be a lot easier if you started supporting Arsenal?
So, not a good performance really by either sides, but the Flamini belter + Fazio period is the executive summary of the 90 mins ??
Correct. The only thing worse than the result was watching a 45ish year old man on the front row of the north stand spit at Gibbs on the touch line. You horrible, horrible man.
I am sure that I hate losing to Arsenal as much as any of you but the Carling Cup is far and away the least important competition for us at the moment. The only way that we are ever going to overtake Arsenal is to get into the CL consistently. We're not favourites to do that but we've got to do everything we can to make it happen. There are only two ways we can qualify this year: being in the top 4 of the PL where there are 5 clubs with more expensive squads than us so outperforming two of them consistently is a very tall order; or winning the EL where we have the third most expensive squad and simply have to get through a qualifying competition and then win 5 rounds of knock-out ties. The chance of doing this is not good either but it should be our highest priority. Whether we win the Carling Cup (and this is less likely than winning the EL) or beat Arsenal is a massively secondary consideration in the long run. And whether we like it or not Fazio is our back-up if we have defensive injuries so of course he should play in the least important matches.
And on another angle we were quite unlucky to lose last night. By which I mean the result basically hinged on two incidents - the Flamini winner and the Kane shot that was cleared off the line. If those two incidents were repeated 100 times I have no doubt that Kane would score far more often than Flamini would.
And note that Wenger has had Arsenal in the CL many seasons running while never winning the Carling Cup. This is not a coincidence - it is good management.
