http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...come-midweek-competition-with-no-replays.html Doesn't make much difference to me as we win about one cup tie a decade but this still smacks of doing something which worsens virtually the whole football pyramid to pander to half a dozen top clubs. Would be a shame, imo.
Scrap the league cup, it's a waste of space. Keep FA cup games on weekend, but I agree about scraping replays, ET and Pens is fine.
I don't think it should be scrapped I just think the format should be changed so that it's over the entire season and straight knockout no replays. Also no 2 leg semi final.
I've never understood the point of the league cup. There is a knockout competition already, it's called the FA Cup, why have another one? There aren't two league competitions that everyone has to enter. If it's a chance for "smaller" teams to win a trophy then it's not fit for purpose as most of the time it's won by one of the bigger teams as their squads get them through the early rounds and their first team wins it. Over the last 12 seasons it's been won 9 times by United, City, Chelsea and Spurs. There was a spell between 2011-2013 when the minnows had their day in the sun as Swansea, Birmingham and Liverpool won it but that was just a temporary blip.
It already is straight knockout. LVG was celebrating a 0-0 draw against Boro only to be told that it was going to penalties. As penalties aren't yet part of the philosophy we lost the shoot out but the moral victory was ours as it was another fine clean sheet.
On a serious note, I think the League Cup is good for teams that have larger squads, as it provides an outlet for managers of those sides to field, effectively, their reserve side. To make it fairer on sides from the lower leagues, perhaps there should be a rule for Prem clubs that they not field any player who has played more than a specified percentage of league games during the previous season - or who is likely to play as many during the current season? Okay, I do appreciate that for certain clubs, like the Spanners, for example, that could mean that they'd be fielding the bloke who scrubs out the toilets, but it would make the competition interesting.
I'd disagree on the basis that holding one of the top teams like Cambridge did to Man United last season and Spurs did with Leicester City this (albeit it with another scandalous handball penalty) is often the lifeblood of such smaller teams ...
Totally agree. It takes away a bit of the magic of the cup. Little clubs taking big clubs to a replay etc.
To me having the replays is what makes the FA Cup special and a bit different to other tournaments. Also as Fosse says above what about the smaller sides who earn so much off replays? Just another set of changes decided to benefit the top clubs & top clubs only imo. If anything it's the League Cup where changes are needed. Maybe teams in Europe don't compete?
Agreed, JWP. If a so-called top team isn't good enough to see off a minnow side at the first ask, then they should be punished by having to do a replay. Tough if that causes a fixture congestion! Let's face it, slackening the rules on FA Cup and/or League Cup fixtures isn't going to save Arsenal (to take one random example) from getting a good hard spanking in the final 16 of the CL, so why change the rules?
I wouldn't scrap the League Cup, but would make it a Cup for those clubs not in Europe and therefore play it at the same time as CL/EL games. Edit: What JWP says.
Why not? Money? EDIT: Remember reading before that top flight/cup games can't be played on same dates. Think a Prem postponement couldn't go in one of their weeks? I'm not sure...
What a **** idea. If there are too many games, then why do they want a 39th one? Tossers. If they're trying to improve the performances of English clubs in Europe, then stop picking **** times for weekend games. I've lost count of the number of times that Premier League sides have faced tough European games with little preparation. Barca and Bayern normally play early in the weekend, while our teams play late on the Sunday. Then they wonder why they've got more energy. Bloody idiots.
Bayern have even had games on Friday evenings before Euro games. That's why this co efficient thing does not bother me, if England suffers then so be it. The FA asks for it.
