Premier League clubs fielding weakened teams devalues the FA Cup. Discuss.

[Buffalo Seagull]

It was the FA's fault more than Man U's, from what I remember. They wanted united to play in the world club champs, which was on at the same time as the third round of the FA cup. The only other option united had was to play the third round with a team full of juniors (which according to this thread, devalues the FA cup)

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Or hands the trophy to one of the mega spending Manchester clubs.

Drat - forgot about that. With luck they play each other early and knock themselves out one by one until only Norwich is left standing.... so given Norwich will have bought all our players by then and become effectively BHA reserves, we can't loose

 

[Northstandite]

LFC started with a much weaker side today and got what they deserved.
Pathetic and should have to play the best team available.

Agreed. Then if going well, can take key players off.

As with Arsenal and the others, obsessed with PL planning. £££££££

 

[Mine]

The only thing that will see the top teams change their attitude's towards the Fa Cup, is to give a Champions League place to the winners or to the runners up, if the winners have qualified already. And if that turns out to be someone like Cardiff, then so be it.

That would be the way to get certain clubs to take it seriously. Raise the stakes and you will raise the importance clubs attach to the Cup.

It is probably time for the FA to have a discussion about the logic of granting a Champions League slot to the 4th place finisher of the Premier League whilst the winner of the oldest and most prestigious cup competition in the world only gets a Europa Cup slot. Have you really accomplished something worthy of winning a slot in the Champions League when you've finished (generally) 20 or more points behind the league champions?

 

[Chris_Highwind]

OT was correct. PL clubs obsessed with their next PL game, eg

LFC today didnt start with Gerrard, Agger, Johnson, Henderson, Downing, Lucas ... who started in the thrashing of Norwich.
Arsenal ditto - Sagna, Vermaelen, Wilshire, Walcott, Gibbs ... who started in the thrashing of West Ham.

Wenger fully admitted this in his "this is the gamble you take" in the post match interview.

The PL is now the obsession, and apart from ITV and punters of the other 72 clubs, the FAC and LC now seem to have the status of the Europa Cup, except for the Final itself.

Liverpool were only 3-4 players off their first team (Wisdom, Coates, Jones and Robinson. Wisdom has played quite a bit this season if I remember correctly though, also looking at news Reina has a thigh injury and both Liverpools full backs aren't up to full fitness Liverpool keeper Pepe Reina to miss fourth round FA Cup tie - Football - Sport - London Evening Standard), pretty sure Tottenham and Chelsea played full strength sides (minus Ross Turnbull, but is Cech injured?)

Liverpools Starting 11 today: Bradley Jones, Andre Wisdom (Steven Gerrard, 56), Martin Skrtel, Jack Robinson, Sebastián Coates, Fabio Borini (Stewart Downing, 56), Raheem Sterling (Jonjo Shelvey, 72), Joe Allen, Jordan Henderson, Luis Suárez, Daniel Sturridge

Tottenhams: Brad Friedel, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Steven Caulker, Kyle Naughton (Kyle Walker, 66), Jan Vertonghen, Tom Huddlestone (Jonathan Obika, 58), Gareth Bale, Gylfi Sigurdsson (Mousa Dembélé, 58), Scott Parker, Aaron Lennon, Clint Dempsey

Chelsea: Ross Turnbull, Ashley Cole, Gary Cahill, John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic (César Azpilicueta, 79), Marko Marin (Juan Mata, 45), Frank Lampard, Oscar, Ramires, Ryan Bertrand (Demba Ba, 82), Fernando Torres

Evertons: Tim Howard, Sylvain Distin, Leighton Baines, Philip Neville, Phil Jagielka, Marouane Fellaini, Leon Osman, Steven Pienaar, Nikica Jelavic (Johnny Heitinga, 80), Victor Anichebe, Kevin Mirallas (Magaye Gueye, 17)

All relatively strong minus 1 or 2 changes. Both Manchester United and Fulham played their first team and Arsenal, although having Walcott and Wilshere on the bench still put out a team that on paper is top 4-6 quality. One prem club who didn't put out a first team though was Norwich, went to the game yesterday and the squad they put out left much to be desired. Don;t know too much about Wigan but I don't recognise many of the players they played yesterday as their first team. So it seems to be clubs putting relegation, not the champions league qualifying over the FA Cup.... (Oh and QPR which just stresses my point)

Writing this has made me see that the points are still valid, but people should be looking at teams at the bottom of the premier league, not ones at the top, just goes to show that the TV revenue of staying in the prem is more valuable than an FA Cup run.

Sorry for how badly written this post is haha

EDIT: Unrelated point after going to the Norwich game yesterday I finally see why they seem to be linked with every SPL and championship striker under the sun, they really do need one

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Final this season is back to a week after PL finishes...it's a start

 

[slartibartfast]

Football was better before the Premiership, and the so-called Champions league ... in my opinion. We used to get a cycle of success for clubs... in the 1960s 8 different clubs won the league, including Ipswich Town and Burnley, and in the 70s both Derby County and Nottingham Forest accounted for three of them..... Clubs could dream that with the right crop of players, a good coach and a bit of luck, they could win things. Now, nobody but the two Manchester Clubs plus perhaps Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool stand a chance of winning anything. Its shyte. WHats the point of the premiership? The Champions League is a self serving cartel of the same clubs feeding each other from the gravy train.... the days when even Ajax or St Etienne, or Benfica or anybody outside of The ENglish Big Clubs, The Italian Three, The German One, The SPanish Two could really win it - are long gone.

 

[Chris_Highwind]

Football was better before the Premiership, and the so-called Champions league ... in my opinion. We used to get a cycle of success for clubs... in the 1960s 8 different clubs won the league, including Ipswich Town and Burnley, and in the 70s both Derby County and Nottingham Forest accounted for three of them..... Clubs could dream that with the right crop of players, a good coach and a bit of luck, they could win things. Now, nobody but the two Manchester Clubs plus perhaps Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool stand a chance of winning anything. Its shyte. WHats the point of the premiership? The Champions League is a self serving cartel of the same clubs feeding each other from the gravy train.... the days when even Ajax or St Etienne, or Benfica or anybody outside of The ENglish Big Clubs, The Italian Three, The German One, The SPanish Two could really win it - are long gone.

Only thing I don't agree with there is it should be German 2 (Dortmund and Munich!!)

 

[Super Steve Earle]

May I offer a different view. I think this weekend has shown that lower league teams are seeing weakened Prem teams as an opportunity to go further in the competition and make some money and as a result we have had the best 4th Round for many years.