Think this came out the wrong way…?
Yup it did
Weakest possible team and hopefully no injuries as far as I’m concerned!
Also DAZN in Germany (20:45 CET).
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Surely Origi will play and put in one of his “cannot be bothered” games to make us forget he did okay last time!
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For a club like City, every trophy is important (it is for every club, but even more so for these projects), as they’re trying to build that winning mentality and create “new history”. If he was not taking the competition seriously, he’d also get criticized, so… Pep can’t win with anything he does/says these days.
It’s major a valid trophy, though of course, the least important of the 4 when you enter a season without the extra two if you’ve won the CL. Trophy importance changes over the years and periods. Priorities can change multiple times over a season, depending how you do in other competitions.
To say “attack all competitions” really isn’t saying anything. We attack every next game, that’s what we can do. Then, with weeks and months into the second half of the season, we can see what remains on the table and what’s possible to achieve.
A club (or better to say team, since we had periods when we were a big club, but not a big team) like us, given the state we’re in last years, should aim at least one trophy per season. One should be the aim. The league is the bread and butter. But there are also other things to accomplish.
I think it’s possible to “attack” normally the domestic cups without putting the league effort in danger. The CL is specific, we’ve seen plenty of big clubs and teams trying/planning and failing to win that for years and decades. You can’t plan that.
You say you can’t plan on the CL but I’d argue we’ve done a pretty good of doing exactly that last few years. Klopp clearly has a hierarchy in how he sees competitions
- Priority - Premier League & Champions League
- Non-Priority - Everything else.
Ultimately I’d rather we made the semi-finals of the CL and had a good run at the PL every year than win the odd League Cup. If we can have runs at the main competitions and pickup these side trophies then great but we’ll only use our “first team” in the League Cup or FA Cup when we are late into the competition. If our backups can get us into the latter stages then cool we would probably try and take the semi-final and final seriously but if we don’t get that far I doubt it raises much more than a shrug of the shoulders by anyone.
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Of course, you can rotate in a certain way, but that is when you build that foundation and if you even get to the point when it’s decision time. Of course that the league and CL are the two big ones. We’ve had tough draws and not great squad depths in certain areas (even City, not in every position, but surely stronger than ours). Yeah, we can say that City took it more seriously than us. I think specifically with the CL, it’s proved to be incredibly difficult to plan to reach the last stages, let alone win it. Even clubs/teams that are/were among the favourites on paper. Desperate teams. Didn’t happen for years and sometimes decades.
Given the huge number of games / injuries etc, we’re better off out of it.
Then on the day of the final when United are playing Everton, I’ll wish we’d had played with a bit more firepower. But given the importance of the league and CL trumps all (££££), this and the FA Cup take a back seat. Football purists hate it and I understand why but ultimately it’s down to money. Given the winner only gets £100,000, it probably doesn’t even pay for the club’s expenses.
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I wouldn’t mind us pushing for the FA cup now and again. In my mind that’s still a prestigious trophy. But League Cup, Pep can have it and melt down five of them to make a replica CL trophy.
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I’m just going to make my annual statement that the League Cup should be limited to teams which have not qualified for European football.
It would improve it no end and would lighten our fixture load.
The likes of eg Palace, Newcastle or Brighton would be glad to have a chance to compete for a trophy they’d have a realistic chance of winning.
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Good call that.
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I call this a shitty cup for several reasons.
It’s lost it’s appeal.
The 2 legged games killed this competition.
Puts significant risk on the squad, tiring players, exposing them to injury, burnout, all this compounded the further you go.
If we win it, it’s a very high probability that we won’t win PL or CL, this is just me intuitively looking at the probability of squad being worn down and injuries (we have had about 5 injuries already, 1 player totally unexpected long term injury, 1 player that we know will be injured during the season (Thiago), Milner (minor), Jones (minor), Bobby, Trent (sickness not injury). We also have 3 players returning from season ending injuries, and not to mention at least 3 that are constantly getting injured (Matip already mentioned, Ox, Naby), and then at least 1 more injured every now and then (Origi). That’s a huge chunk of the squad.
I guarantee you that if we get into the next round vs Man U/City/Everton/Chelsea, the team will be significantly stronger than the team we field today, thus increasing risk even more.
The squad quality and depth determine how you do in 4 competitions, along with a favourable draw. Just ask city for the past 5 years.
The only decent thing this cup delivers is the opportunities and experience it bring to players that will barely have significant game time, if any, in the PL and CL, or promising players in the youth squads.
This is why it’s a shitty cup. The reward is really a punishment, or at best a backhanded compliment.
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Gomez 90 mins
Konate 90 mins
Tsimikas 274 mins
Milner 186 mins
Curtis 33 mins
AOC 75 mins
Minanino 
Origi 65 mins
Was thinking more in a few month’s time.
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If this is the breakdown then fuck me that’s horrendous
I’d play Konate and then everybody including Curtis down
True. But it’s very important for the lower division clubs, not for the prize money but for the gate-receipt and TV revenue it generates during the clashes with the big clubs.
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