I was thinking about the England match, and how many of the fans might have felt cheated, having watched our second string players turn out. This has happened in the past many times. Wolves were fined for doing it, yet Man U get away with "resting" it's entire defence and had to send in Giggs and Nani to rescue them at St Marys. So I thought of a possible change that might help. What if the team guilty of fielding a weakened team had to reimburse half the cost of the tickets to the fans, home and away, as well as pay a fine? (SAF excluded, obviously) In the end, I am undecided whether or not it would be fair. I think there would be a natural justice in the scheme, but the managers take the responsibility for their results, and frequently pay with their jobs. They have to do what is right for their team. What do you think?
This is some-thing that all too many teams are guilty of in the early round of the Carling Cup. I think a rule should be brought in that at least 7 of the starting line-up for a cup game should be made up from the starting XI of a team's previous league fixture.
I actually thought that the match was a cracker and probably the best friendly game I have watched involving England!
I feel managers should be able to field what ever starting 11 they want. They are the manager and it is the decision of theirs that is up for scrutiny if goes wrong. I do however feel ticket prices should reflect the 'improtance' of a game to the club in the event of such occurances IE- Early carling cup games and friendlies should be cheaper and generally they are tbh
Its hard to define what a weakened team is, surely a managers job is to rotate his players and ensure that he wins as many games as he can. So i don't think that they should be fined at all.
To be fair , we have rested quite a few players in Cup games this season , Man United included. Although Holloway calling our fans disrespectful.....Oh the irony - rested about 9/10 players for our 2-0 win against them.
Enjoyed the Ghana game. No points to worry about and plenty of action. Very hard to enforce any rule about who a manager can play. You have to leave it to the manager to rotate his squad as he sees fit.
The England game was a friendly, so there should be more chances for up`n`coming and fringe players. The stars should still turn out tho, thats what people pay for, even if its only for 15/20 mins Leauge matches, i think the managers would always want the strongest squad out, youd only rest star players if it was really needed. cup matches, well i guess the same as friendlies, but maybe up the subs to 7 we all fear injurys in cups when the league is much more important, and it would give more youngsters a chance. Also it could lead to more cup upsets as managers underestimate teams and trying out new players
I think, Like when Holloway got fined for fielding a weaker team is a joke, The FA tells the managers to choose 23 players or whatever it is, So therefore how can the FA tell a manager that they have fielded a weaker team as to the manager they may believe all the players are at the same standard. So managers getting fined for this is a joke people.
Well, the consensus seems to be no fines, let the manager manage the team. But coming to the end of the season, a team playing in Europe, resting many players against a bottom 6 team might influence who gets relegated. Is that fair? My inclination is to agree with the consensus, but I am uneasy when things like this have implications.
Yeah, But I think the team fields should be up to the manager, they should never be fined for there choice. It is stupid I think.
Since the 22 (or 23?) player squad system was introduced, the FA has no right to fine managers who pick from within that squad - in theory everyone in that squad should be good enough to play in whatever league the club is in. If they aren't good enough, it's detrimental to that club. The 'implications' of teams in relegation battles playing supposedly weakened sides are part of the nature of sport - you have to beat what is in front of you. It's not as if the weakened teams are some kind of Catering Staff and Ball-boys XI, they're still fully professional sportsmen!
I agree. The England game though gave a few fringe players a glorious chance to show their worth and a couple managed to do just that. It was also a great game to watch.
