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3 Cup fixtures in 7days!

Started by Hesperus, February 01, 2020, 08:14:48

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Hesperus

26th Feb CL away to Real
1st March League cup final vs Villa
5th March FA cup vs Wednesday

3 big games in 7 days.  Not ideal!

Looking at those on paper i dread to think what teams Pep will field.

I’d guess, full strength for the CL. 2nd string for the league cup final and a mixture of 1st and 2nd string for the fa cup.

Stephen Paul

no doubt Pep is eyeing the CL , mixed teams for the other two cup matches 

gavin

Pep always sticks to picking his teams a game at a time and with the most important game coming first I reckon he will pick his best XI for the Chumps game and see how the lads react in training after that to select the best team for the League Cup final and then see how the players are for the FA Cup. To be honest I'm not always sure it has been the best approach as it led to some unbalanced teams over Xmas. Nevertheless, I prefer it to the Pellegrini approach of practically abandoning some cup runs which has now been taken to its extreme by Klopp.

KunDB

#3
Quote from: Hesperus on February 01, 2020, 08:14:48
26th Feb CL away to Real
1st March League cup final vs Villa
5th March FA cup vs Wednesday

3 big games in 7 days.  Not ideal!

Looking at those on paper i dread to think what teams Pep will field.

I’d guess, full strength for the CL. 2nd string for the league cup final and a mixture of 1st and 2nd string for the fa cup.

26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 1st, 2nd, 3rd.  Correction to above FA Cup game Tuesday 3rd March v Sheffield Wednesday? 7 Days otherwise is correct.

An FA Cup game two days after a cup final. Am I wrong to think Liverpool were allowed to play a weakened team and rearrange a fixture because they wanted to play in a mickey mouse cup in pursuit of even more money creating fixture congestion for themselves and plan to play a severely weakened kids team in their 4th round FA Cup replay because of ‘player welfare concerns’ that being the players and manager would have to shorten their pre-planned holiday break. A holiday planned knowing a replay may be needed.

Compare this to City being required to play a Cup Final (maybe even with extra time and a penalty shootout) and an FA Cup 5th round game with just a single day in between and coming on the back of a round of 16 CL knockout game, away from home against the most prolific winners of the CL, just 4 days earlier and with a derby game 5 days later. Just ridiculous no matter how strong our squad and if ever anything endangered player welfare this is it, not having a three day reduction to a two week break (are you listening Jurgen?). I presume TV has set the date for the FA Cup game full well knowing City's schedule in an attempt to set up a 'shock' result.

We should out our foot down and give the media what they deserve, contempt, and send out either our EDS team or our very good Women's team to play the FA Cup fifth round tie. Just imagine the howls of outrage and indignation from the media and press amid claims of City ruining football and the FA Cup.

(I know it won’t happen but there is still a tiny part of me wishes it actually did happen).

gavin

Not sure that fixture is confirmed at that date. We also have a big fixture at Leicester on 22nd February. Plenty big games coming up.

Stephen Paul

Quote from: gavin on February 01, 2020, 13:41:46
Pep always sticks to picking his teams a game at a time and with the most important game coming first I reckon he will pick his best XI for the Chumps game and see how the lads react in training after that to select the best team for the League Cup final and then see how the players are for the FA Cup. To be honest I'm not always sure it has been the best approach as it led to some unbalanced teams over Xmas. Nevertheless, I prefer it to the Pellegrini approach of practically abandoning some cup runs which has now been taken to its extreme by Klopp.
Bravo in nets for the LC final

Gareth

Quote from: stephenmcfc on February 02, 2020, 10:18:16
Bravo in nets for the LC final

Quite likely, but that’s not out of concern for the physical welfare of our gks.

gavin

The FA Cup sixth-round draw will follow the match between Sheffield Wednesday and Premier League champions City on 4 March (19:45)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51404327

Hesperus

As Gav says. Leicester before RM and also away to Utd on the Sunday after the FA cup!

5 huge games in 16 days!

gavin

5 away games on the trot too after Wednesday!

Stephen Paul

Quote from: Hesperus on February 07, 2020, 08:10:20
As Gav says. Leicester before RM and also away to Utd on the Sunday after the FA cup!

5 huge games in 16 days!

all big games coming up , Madrid should be interesting