United Away - League Cup QF

Hatch99

I personally would love to see us play a full strength side, and go there and give it a real go. Assuming they play a weakened team, this is a great chance to get to the semis again.

ohnoigotsick

i'd go with a decent team for us , resting defoe and lennon perhaps

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gomes

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--hutton dawson bassong bale--
bentley jenas wilson kranjcar/rose

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pav/crouch keane

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yiddo

Hatch99 wrote: »

I personally would love to see us play a full strength side, and go there and give it a real go. Assuming they play a weakened team, this is a great chance to get to the semis again.

agree. sky saying they are playing a weakened team so we should go for it. shuffle the starting 11 but keep the same squad of18 we had at Villa.

mickman

pav wont get a look in at this same i would say

gomes
hutton dawson bassong ekotto

bentley jenas pal kranjcar

defoe keane

DOC09UNAM

I'm a United fan, and i'd almost like to see Spurs go through and Rally for the Cup, I can see another fielding of the team that lost to besiktas for United..

mickman

pav wasnt even on the bench on sat.

RichMc70

As far as silverware goes, this competition is probably our best chance and therefore we should play our strongest team for this one.

The likes of Man U, Chelsea etc might feel that they can afford to play weakened teams but we're not yet at that stage.

COYS

mickman

guys we have played a weakened team in every round so far. not once has our best 11 been picked

Hatch99

Yes but its been poor opposition bar Everton, and that was at home !

everdead.ie

ohnoigotsick wrote: »

i'd go with a decent team for us , resting defoe and lennon perhaps

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gomes

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--hutton dawson bassong bale--
bentley jenas wilson kranjcar/rose

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pav/crouch keane

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Kranjcar is cup-tied actually isnt he?

mickman

he is actually

ohnoigotsick

everdead.ie wrote: »

Kranjcar is cup-tied actually isnt he?

thats right.

dos santos is still injured i'm assuming

mickman

Provisional squad: Gomes, Dawson, Assou-Ekotto, Corluka, Bassong, Huddlestone, Lennon, Keane, Palacios, Jenas, Crouch, Defoe, Alnwick, Hutton, Bentley, Bale, Rose, Pavlyuchenko, Naughton.

mickman

better news about modric

"Meanwhile, Luka continues on his road to recovery. "He trained with the youngsters this morning (Monday)," reported Harry. "He played in an eight-a-side game, I watched some of it and he looked to be moving much, much better, so hopefully he's on his way back, but we want to make sure he's right.""

everdead.ie

mickman wrote: »

Provisional squad: Gomes, Dawson, Assou-Ekotto, Corluka, Bassong, Huddlestone, Lennon, Keane, Palacios, Jenas, Crouch, Defoe, Alnwick, Hutton, Bentley, Bale, Rose, Pavlyuchenko, Naughton.

I'd love to see Naughton in there at right back or even right wing
Agree with redknapp don't rush modric back let him recover instead of breaking him for another few months by rushing him back early

mickman

to be honest 4th in the league is ten times more important than the league cup but united are the only team that we havent been in years (league, cup etc) so a victory would increase the confidence even more i would imagine.

RichMc70

From the official club site.........

Team News 30 November 2009

Jonathan Woodgate and Ledley King remain out for Tuesday night's Carling Cup tie at Manchester United.
'Woody' missed Saturday's 1-1 draw at Villa with a groin problem while Ledley is recovering from a hamstring injury sustained against Sunderland.

Harry Redknapp confirmed Saturday's central defensive pairing at Villa - Michael Dawson and Sebastien Bassong - will start again at Old Trafford.

Luka Modric (fractured fibula) and Carlo Cudicini (wrist, pelvis) remain out while Niko Kranjcar is cup-tied having played in the second round of the competition for Portsmouth.

Harry also confirmed that Robbie Keane will start and eluded to making a few changes - as has been the case in the Carling Cup so far this season.

"We've players who need matches - the likes of Alan Hutton, Gareth Bale, Jermaine Jenas and Robbie Keane - so we'll change a few around and freshen things up a bit," said Harry. "The good thing is we've plenty of options."

Meanwhile, Luka continues on his road to recovery. "He trained with the youngsters this morning (Monday)," reported Harry. "He played in an eight-a-side game, I watched some of it and he looked to be moving much, much better, so hopefully he's on his way back, but we want to make sure he's right."

http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/articles/teamnews301109.html


Looks like Harry will be making changes then.

everdead.ie

Heard there that Gio is back in training i'd love to see him get a run out he's only shown glimpses of his talent so far but I still think he could be unreal

Hatch99

So most likely Gomes Hutton BAE Daws Bassong Lennon Palacios Jenas Bale Keane and Defoe ?

mickman

bentley instead of lennon i would imagine

mickman

dos santos now in squad, not back from injury yet

Hatch99

mickman wrote: »

bentley instead of lennon i would imagine

Even though Harry reckons Bentley needs a game,Id play Lennon, his pace on such a big pitch could murder Utd.

mickman

yeah but he wants to give bentley a game so it will be bently id sa

Hatch99

We'll see Mick. My god, your sharp with the aul replies

mickman

sitting at my desk at work so forum access all day :-)

StillRickyVilla

mickman wrote: »

to be honest 4th in the league is ten times more important than the league cup but united are the only team that we havent been in years (league, cup etc) so a victory would increase the confidence even more i would imagine.

+1.
Finishing 4th is HUNDRED times more important than the league cup. Finishing 4th would transform us as a club & would be a pivotal moment in our history.

The league cup would be nice to get, but it doesn't really mean anything anymore, unfortunately.

I hope Harry plays the reserves/youth team and we lose.Lets concentrate on what really matters these days.

Look at the bigger picture people.

p.s don't get me wrong, i'm fond of the competition & have great memories like Nielssons winner - i just feel football has moved on making this cup pretty much meaningless now.

yiddo

StillRickyVilla wrote: »

+1.
Finishing 4th is HUNDRED times more important than the league cup. Finishing 4th would transform us as a club & would be a pivotal moment in our history.

The league cup would be nice to get, but it doesn't really mean anything anymore, unfortunately.

I hope Harry plays the reserves/youth team and we lose.Lets concentrate on what really matters these days.

Look at the bigger picture people.

p.s don't get me wrong, i'm fond of the competition & have great memories like Nielssons winner - i just feel football has moved on making this cup pretty much meaningless now.

looking at the big picture would mean winning as many games as we can in all competitions.

Btw are they giving cups out for coming 4th now?;)

StillRickyVilla

yiddo wrote: »

looking at the big picture would mean winning as many games as we can in all competitions.

Btw are they giving cups out for coming 4th now?;)

4th means Champions League qualification along with the money, the ability to attract Top Top players - and yes, with that comes cups, proper cups like the PL title, CL and FA Cup.

IMO i would rather put all our resources into the above - instead of getting tired and injured playing meaningless fixtures.

None of the top clubs care about the Carling Cup and infact its a source of great amusement to our rivals' fans when we celebrate success in it.

RichMc70

StillRickyVilla wrote: »

+1.
Finishing 4th is HUNDRED times more important than the league cup. Finishing 4th would transform us as a club & would be a pivotal moment in our history.

The team finishing 4th would also have to play qualifiers to reach the league stage. Not sure if I'm correct but I believe the draw would be seeded. Taking into account our lack of european competition, I suspect we would probably be drawn against a potentially big european side with champions league pedigree and therefore a very tricky hurdle to overcome.

Of course, this is all theory and therefore maybe we should discuss it in more detail IF we finish 4th.

Whether we do or not finish top four is a long way off, so in the meantime I'd happily take success in the League Cup.

therecklessone

StillRickyVilla wrote: »

4th means Champions League qualification along with the money, the ability to attract Top Top players - and yes, with that comes cups, proper cups like the PL title, CL and FA Cup.

Or 4th means qualifying for the CL play-off qualifying round, where we'd come up against other non-champion sides. This seasons included:

Lyon
Anderlecht
Celtic
Timisoara
Stuttgart
Sporting
Fiorentina
Panathinaikos
Atletico Madrid

Of those clubs Lyon are definitely ahead of us on coefficients, and both Sporting and Fiorentina should overtake us by the end of this season. There is no guarantee we would be seeded in that qualifying round, and could conceivably come up against a decent side. I'd love us to qualify for the CL, but as Pat pointed out, there's no trophy for 4th place.

Ironically one of the benefits of qualifying and winning games in the Europa League would be to help us achieve a higher seeding in the CL should we ever qualify.

StillRickyVilla

When the clubs themselves take this cup seriously then I might!