League Cup 2020/2021

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And it neither begins nor ends there.

Sep 13: Everton (H)
Sep 17: Lokomotiv Plovdiv (A)
Sep 22: Leyton Orient/Plymouth Argyle (A)
Sep 24: Botosani/Shkendija (A)
Sep 27: Newcastle (H)
Sep 29/30: EFL Cup Fourth Round
Oct 1: Europa League Play-off Round
Oct 3: Manchester United (A)

Hopefully the United date is pushed to Sunday 10/4 when the TV spots are picked, but still.

I don't know if anyone has a deep enough squad to survive that but we certainly don't. We have one recognized center forward.

I never get some of the fitness issues people bring up with football players as I find they are always overblown. I realize that playing too much increases injury chances but these are supposedly world class athletes playing an extra game in the week, especially against weak opposition shouldn't be that big of deal, but everyone media/fans seems to be losing their minds over it so I guess there must be something to it.

I don't see why we can't play our 1st team squad against Everton, send our "2nd team" to Bulgaria with subs like Hart, White, CCV, Fernandes, Clarke, Rose, Foyth (if they are still here), and maybe one or two senior players. Then play a mix of senior/youth players with the 2nd team as subs against LO/Plymouth. That shouldn't be too hard on anyone. Especially as we should be able to take care of the League Cup match without over extending ourselves.

This is assuming guys like GLC and Tanganga are back to play and that we sign a striker and probably a CB if we sell Foyth,

Its not ideal but we should be able to handle it with any major issues.
 
I can see this going 1 of two ways. Either we play the kids in the league cup, like all kids not a single senior player in site, and most probably crash out.

Or

We end up doing to much, over playing the senior squad and end up crashing out of the EL in one of these qualifying rounds.

We already have a depleted squad, no sign of Gio or winks, other players getting their first minutes at international level.

Somethings got to give here, and I hate the idea of going out in the either competition so early when we are in desperate need of silver ware.
 
Honestly, until fans are back, I couldn’t give a shit who we’re playing. It’s not the same sport, culture or experience. Accepting this rubbish as normal or acceptable is killing football. No fans = no game.
Tbh I'd rather accept it and 'kill football' for a year than kill people's parents and grandparents by further allowing the pandemic to spread and letting 60,000 people in again.

Just be happy we have football and have entertainment to get us through what's been a pretty shit year for everybody.
 
I never get some of the fitness issues people bring up with football players as I find they are always overblown

Well clearly you haven’t studied sports science. I’ve been lucky enough to work with guys who have gone into work for top pro teams

They are not overblown.

Most footballers will play with some form of injury week by week.

The pace and intensity the premier league is played at is mental as well.
 
Well clearly you haven’t studied sports science. I’ve been lucky enough to work with guys who have gone into work for top pro teams

They are not overblown.

Most footballers will play with some form of injury week by week.

The pace and intensity the premier league is played at is mental as well.

No, thank god for me I have not studied sport science.

I understand if they are doing it all season long but 1 extra game for these guys at the start of the season shouldn't be too much.

Playing 90 minutes at the start of the season shouldn't be considered a herculian task if you haven't played a full pre-season game.

And as mentioned I am not talking about playing extra PL level games I am talking about having some of our top guys play in the LO/Plymouth game which will not be played with close to the intensity or pace of the premier league game.
 
I don't see why we can't play our 1st team squad against Everton, send our "2nd team" to Bulgaria with subs like Hart, White, CCV, Fernandes, Clarke, Rose, Foyth (if they are still here), and maybe one or two senior players. Then play a mix of senior/youth players with the 2nd team as subs against LO/Plymouth. That shouldn't be too hard on anyone.

Oh I think that's what people are proposing.

But there's a very good chance we get knocked out of both competitions within two weeks of the beginning of our season, which would basically mean winning the FA Cup, finishing top four, or the Mourinho era goes up in flames.

A tough situation.
 
Honestly, until fans are back, I couldn’t give a shit who we’re playing. It’s not the same sport, culture or experience. Accepting this rubbish as normal or acceptable is killing football. No fans = no game.

I don't think it's a case of accepting it. It's just about making do with what we have until normality is restored.
Cant do much else.
 
Oh I think that's what people are proposing.

But there's a very good chance we get knocked out of both competitions within two weeks of the beginning of our season, which would basically mean winning the FA Cup, finishing top four, or the Mourinho era goes up in flames.

A tough situation.

I really don't see it.

How are we getting beat by Plodiv unless it is a ridiculous terrible performance by our guys?

Beating LO/Plymouth is very easy to do without overtaxing our squad as well. I know we have been burned by lesser teams in the past but going out in either competition early would be by far more embarrassing and surprising than any of our more recent losses.
 
How are we getting beat by Plodiv unless it is a ridiculous terrible performance by our guys?

It's going to be a makeshift lineup of reserves and kids three days after the season starts playing in Bulgaria on an awful pitch in the dead silence of an empty stadium against a fired up opponent (in mid-season form btw) for whom this is the biggest game of their lives.

It WILL be a ridiculous terrible performance. That is a guarantee. That's priced in. The question is can we still win the game leveraging our overwhelming talent advantage?
 
Our B team cannot play four away matches, two of them in Eastern Europe, in two weeks and win all four. That's an unreasonable expectation and it will be a damn miracle if they can pull it off.

What 4 away matches?

Play the B team in the EL matches and a mix of 1st team, youth team and B team in the League Cup games. We aren't going to burn out guys like Son, Moura, Lamela, Winks, GLC, Sanchez, Davies by having them play one extra game against Leyton Orient.

And if our B team can't handle Plodiv or Romania FC whether away or at home then we have major issues beyond Cup competitions.
 
It's going to be a makeshift lineup of reserves and kids three days after the season starts playing in Bulgaria on an awful pitch in the dead silence of an empty stadium against a fired up opponent (in mid-season form btw) for whom this is the biggest game of their lives.

It WILL be a ridiculous terrible performance. That is a guarantee. That's priced in. The question is can we still win the game leveraging our overwhelming talent advantage?

Mid-season form? They have played like 3 games.

They could be in peak form and our makeshift squad should beat them by 3-4 goals 9 times out of 10.

i know the EL Eastern European boogey man has become legendary to some fans minds but these are the same teams that were struggling to beat the 3rd and 4th teams of Azerbaijan and Macedonia.
 
Well all I can say it’s going to be a big year for our fringe players. They will get the chance to impress so hopefully Mourinho is drilling that into the squad this preseason and hopefully those players are going to step up to the mark. It’s imperative though we get a second striker. I do not want Kane or Son anywhere near some of these games
 
I can see this going 1 of two ways. Either we play the kids in the league cup, like all kids not a single senior player in site, and most probably crash out.

Or

We end up doing to much, over playing the senior squad and end up crashing out of the EL in one of these qualifying rounds.

We already have a depleted squad, no sign of Gio or winks, other players getting their first minutes at international level.

Somethings got to give here, and I hate the idea of going out in the either competition so early when we are in desperate need of silver ware.
Throw the kids at the league cup and focus on Europa and the League. If they make it to the quarters in December then you can go all in.
 
What 4 away matches?

Lemme re-up the schedule, I realize I forgot a game:

Week One
Sunday: Everton (H)
Thursday: Lokomotiv Plovdiv (A)

Week Two
Sunday: Southampton (A)
Tuesday: Leyton Orient/Plymouth Argyle (A)
Thursday: Botosani/Shkendija (A)

Week Three
Sunday: Newcastle (H)
Tuesday: EFL Cup Fourth Round
Thursday: Europa League Play-off Round

Week Four
Sunday: Manchester United (A)


I think the rules would be that nobody can start three games in the span of seven days, and something resembling the first XI has to play all of the league games (it's a lot easier if you sacrifice one of those middle league games, but we won't).

You can just about put out recognized first team players in their normal positions for every game under those circumstances, but that's making the very unsafe assumption of full fitness, it's all makeshift lineups of lesser out of form guys in all of the cup games, and everyone is increasingly fatigued as it goes on.

We are going to look like absolute dogshit in at least a couple of these games. Can we survive anyway? We shall see.
 
--------------------------------------Gazzaniga---------------------------------
-----Tanganga------Carter-Vickers-----------Foyth----------Rose ?------
--------------------------White----------------Marsh---------------------
--------------Fernandez---------------------------------------Clarke------
-------------------------New Forward?---------Sessegnon------------------
 
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Honestly, until fans are back, I couldn’t give a shit who we’re playing. It’s not the same sport, culture or experience. Accepting this rubbish as normal or acceptable is killing football. No fans = no game.
So the parasite non posters of
I don't think it's a case of accepting it. It's just about making do with what we have until normality is restored.
Cant do much else.

You’re right but... for a regular match-going fan... who we play, where and when is a sad irrelevance right now when we’re normally happily forgoing all sanity and other pressures to go and represent the club all over the country. This is shit. Agreeing otherwise insane from a supporter’s perspective. Surely.
 
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