F.A. Cup Thread

[Donald Trump]

Domestic cups are for the likes of West Ham, Wolves etc who have little chance of lifting Pl or cl trophy.
For the big clubs, nice day out but nothing more. This bollix about "silverware" is just that unless of course you are West Ham, etc. Would have been nice for say Mark Noble to have some bit of metal to show for his efforts over the years.
Both Liv and Chelsea may have been better served by early exits from both competitions. Liv will have played 29 games from 1st Feb to CL final. RM will have played 23 with the last two essentially friendlies where they can rotate and give fringe players a run out- granted if Liv drop points tomorrow, their last game will be the same.

You might want to look at the winners of both the trophies since 2000 m8.

For competitions they don't take seriously, big clubs have a habit of winning them and getting to finals.

Carmona nailed it. There's only so many trophies you can win every year. They're still big trophies. Yes there's a hierarchy of which are better to win, but a bronze medal at the Olympics is still pretty damn special, is it not?

 

[Carmona]

Besides the fact that you can't say in Feb, Ah fuck the FA Cup, we want to be fresh for the CL final!!

 

[Philby]

You might want to look at the winners of both the trophies since 2000 m8.

For competitions they don't take seriously, big clubs have a habit of winning them and getting to finals.

Carmona nailed it. There's only so many trophies you can win every year. They're still big trophies. Yes there's a hierarchy of which are better to win, but a bronze medal at the Olympics is still pretty damn special, is it not?

Besides the fact that you can't say in Feb, Ah fuck the FA Cup, we want to be fresh for the CL final!!

Agree with all of the above.

You should try to win every competition you enter, especially if you have a deep enough squad to handle fighting on multiple fronts.

Big clubs are doing increasingly well because the 12th to 21st best players in their squad are of higher quality than has ever been the case.

So it suits them to use his first few rounds to give these guys minutes & keep them ticking over - and if they perform well (or you're lucky with the draw) you can find yourself at the QF stage and can choose to ramp up the quality of the XI dependeing on the opposition.

Minamino is a good example of this. He was getting negligible minutes in the 2 big comps, was arguably Liverpool's star performer across the first few rounds of the domestic cups but has barely been seen at the business end of these comps.

 

[Shabby]

Agree with all of the above.

You should try to win every competition you enter, especially if you have a deep enough squad to handle fighting on multiple fronts.

Big clubs are doing increasingly well because the 12th to 21st best players in their squad are of higher quality than has ever been the case.

So it suits them to use his first few rounds to give these guys minutes & keep them ticking over - and if they perform well (or you're lucky with the draw) you can find yourself at the QF stage and can choose to ramp up the quality of the XI dependeing on the opposition.

Minamino is a good example of this. He was getting negligible minutes in the 2 big comps, was arguably Liverpool's star performer across the first few rounds of the domestic cups but has barely been seen at the business end of these comps.

But Minamino is the perfect example of how clubs, pretty much every club that enters, rotates for the domestic cups in early rounds. Does that scream out teams desperate to win it? Not so much to me anyway.

The reality is that they’re bonus comps. No team wants to lose any game but the rotation risks are taken in domestic cups. Then once they get deeper into them they can bring in the big guns as the chance of winning increases.

The big clubs generally win them as their rotation players are stronger than the rest. City are the best example of that. Chelsea also. They’re third and fourth priority for the big clubs and rightly so. I don’t see how anyone could argue otherwise.

 

[Philby]

But Minamino is the perfect example of how clubs, pretty much every club that enters, rotates for the domestic cups in early rounds. Does that scream out teams desperate to win it? Not so much to me anyway.

The reality is that they’re bonus comps. No team wants to lose any game but the rotation risks are taken in domestic cups. Then once they get deeper into them they can bring in the big guns as the chance of winning increases.

I think, fundamentally, we all agree on this for the most part.

Clearly the FA Cup & League Cup are 3rd and 4th priorities below the PL and CL.

It's

The big clubs generally win them as their rotation players are stronger than the rest. City are the best example of that. Chelsea also. They’re third and fourth priority for the big clubs and rightly so. I don’t see how anyone could argue otherwise.

I don't think anyone truly is tbh.

Domestic cups are for the likes of West Ham, Wolves etc who have little chance of lifting Pl or cl trophy.

Disagree. They're for any club who is capable of winning them. Always have been.

For the big clubs, nice day out but nothing more. This bollix about "silverware" is just that unless of course you are West Ham, etc. Would have been nice for say Mark Noble to have some bit of metal to show for his efforts over the years.

When players look back on their career the piece of metal will be a reminder of the good times, the memories, the achievements.

Just because many will have won bigger comps doesn't mean the domestic cups are of no value.

Both Liv and Chelsea may have been better served by early exits from both competitions. Liv will have played 29 games from 1st Feb to CL final. RM will have played 23 with the last two essentially friendlies where they can rotate and give fringe players a run out- granted if Liv drop points tomorrow, their last game will be the same.

You could end up being right in relation to Liverpool, if they run out of steam in Paris. But as Carmona said, you don't toss the domestic cups in the early Spring on the chance that you might benefit from putting our feet up in April & May.

Chelsea? Less so IMHO. They've had nothing significant to play for in the CL/PL for a while. This would've crowned their season and given them a positive ending at a time when there's a lot of uncertainty & negativity around the club.

But you play the cards you're dealt and if you get to the business end of a comp you do what you can to win it. Saturday was a big deal for plenty of players on the Liverpool side.

- Diaz: MOTM in a winning FA cup final, just a few months after joining
- Tsimikas: Slotted the winnning penalty under major pressure
- Konate: Commanding performance (with & without VVD) against some quality attackers
- Trent: Worked himself into the ground and, at the age of only 23, has a clean sweep of the honours at club level (...lower tier european comps excluded)
- Thiago: His first trophy won at the club where he played in the decisive game. He was in bits at having to pull out of the League Cup final
- Caoimhin: Sure, he didn't make it on to the pitch - but he played his part in the earlier rounds & it's another Irishman with a medal
- Alisson: Another positive penalty shoot-out outcome. Who knows, if the CL final goes to penalties this win might stand to him
- Milner: Wouldn't have been my choice as sub, but he did really well. Will likely be his final, or one of his last, contribution in a Liverpool shirt and he can be proud of how he did

Winning CLs and PLs are a rare occurence. You have to savour the domestic cup wins when they come along too.

 

[Shabby]

Absolutely, winning any trophy is better than not but my point is the same as ever - the domestic cups are furthest down the list.

I think it was Marco had a go off Klopp the night he played a weak team at home to Leicester in the LC. As if Klopp is the first ever guy to play a weakened cup team. Every manager does it. If they can get through then great but you don’t see many crying about being knocked out early on in the cups either.

Funnily enough, it was in January when City looked to be walking away with the league that Klopp decided to put more strength into the cups and look how that turned out.

 

[TheOutdoorThreadmill]

I'm fine ta.

Just referring to the fact that the Scousers booed the sh*t out of "God Save The Queen" and at a time when the little old lady isn't in the best of health too. All the uber-brits were very irate about it.

The Scousers have being booing GSTQ for years now, always the victims, shur

 

[Philby]

 

[TheOutdoorThreadmill]

 

[Donald Trump]