United Away - League Cup QF

StillRickyVilla

therecklessone wrote: »

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.

Mouth-watering stuff! A CL play-off game against Lyon, Sporting or Fiorentina would get the heart-pumping - would be one of the biggest games in our history!

Mullo76

Agree that 4th spot is priority but we are already in the qtr finals of the carling cup, 4 more games to win it. If we cant handle 4 extra games between now and March how will we handle CL if we get there. The boost the players/club would get from a trophy win would be immense and I think this would assist rather than detract from the league. Understand what happened last time we won it but think we are a different proposition this time. Anyway looks like Harry will make changes so we shall see.

StillRickyVilla

Yep looks like Harry making plenty of changes tonight as will, ofcourse United.

I'm sorry I just can't get excited about Spurs Reserves v Man Utd Reserves. Clearly both clubs priorities lay elsewhere.

I'm not so sure we would play second-string in the semis or final. Which would mean our first team playing a 2-legged semi in January on the back of the Xmas programme and the whole 'Cup Final thing' in March which, as we have seen in the past, can be hugely distracting.

To get into the Top 4 needs an absolutely monumental effort. It is possible but only by maintaining our focus and form and stearing clear of injuries and tiredness to our key players. Once we get there we can attract top world class players with the money & prestige that CL brings meaning we would be better equipped squad-wise in future seasons.

Ofcourse I want to see Spurs lift a cup, but I want to see, Spurs lift proper cups on a regular basis year on year, and go for titles. Not pretend we've been successful by winning the Carling Cup when no club is taking the competition seriously.

Just my opinion.

yiddo

StillRickyVilla wrote: »

when no club is taking the competition seriously.

Fairly old sprinkling of "big" clubs look to have taken it seriously in the past 10 years....

League Cup winners
2000 Leicester City
2001 Liverpool
2002 Blackburn Rovers
2003 Liverpool
2004 Middlesbrough
2005 Chelsea
2006 Manchester United
2007 Chelsea
2008 Tottenham Hotspur
2009 Manchester United

DOC09UNAM

yiddo wrote: »

Fairly old sprinkling of "big" clubs look to have taken it seriously in the past 10 years....

League Cup winners
2000 Leicester City
2001 Liverpool
2002 Blackburn Rovers
2003 Liverpool
2004 Middlesbrough
2005 Chelsea
2006 Manchester United
2007 Chelsea
2008 Tottenham Hotspur
2009 Manchester United

There's a difference in why they took it seriously though, when Man United took it seriously last year they were trying to win all possible trophies they could, a Quintuplet i think they were going for.

Same reason with chelsea in 2007, and spurs, well they deserved to win it in 2008 after that epic match.

Liverpool will try and get anything they can because they're not winning the league anymore, and they don't usually drop out of the top 4, so they've nothing to lose, don't see them taking it that serious this year, as they are under pressure on all fronts.

StillRickyVilla

yiddo wrote: »

Fairly old sprinkling of "big" clubs look to have taken it seriously in the past 10 years....

League Cup winners
2000 Leicester City
2001 Liverpool
2002 Blackburn Rovers
2003 Liverpool
2004 Middlesbrough
2005 Chelsea
2006 Manchester United
2007 Chelsea
2008 Tottenham Hotspur
2009 Manchester United

But like i've said before. ALL clubs don't take it seriously. The Top 6 or 7 only care about trying to get into the CL. The rest only care about staying in the PL! The ALL play weakened teams for the Carling Cup.

These statistics just tell me that Man U and Chelsea' reserves are better than Bolton and Portsmouth's reserves!

DOC09UNAM

Man Utd: Foster, O’Shea (Vidic 76), Evans, Ferdinand, Evra, Ronaldo, Scholes, Gibson (Giggs 91), Nani, Tevez, Welbeck (Anderson 56).

That was United team for the final last year vs Spurs.

Not exactly a completely weakened team.

Foster Gibson and Welbeck are the only non starters.

StillRickyVilla

DOC09UNAM wrote: »

Man Utd: Foster, O’Shea (Vidic 76), Evans, Ferdinand, Evra, Ronaldo, Scholes, Gibson (Giggs 91), Nani, Tevez, Welbeck (Anderson 56).

That was United team for the final last year vs Spurs.

Not exactly a completely weakened team.

Foster Gibson and Welbeck are the only non starters.

Again like i said, usually come the semis, final stronger teams get put out - which is my fear with Spurs with the Top 4 in mind. And as you say, even in the Final itself, Man U fielded a weakened team!

DOC09UNAM

StillRickyVilla wrote: »

Again like i said, usually come the semis, final stronger teams get put out - which is my fear with Spurs with the Top 4 in mind. And as you say, even in the Final itself, Man U fielded a weakened team!

I think for any team that wants to seriously challenge for 4th or above, they need to be fielding the reserves and subs in matches like the carling cup, and the early Fa cup rounds...

And Aside from United, i'd love to see Spurs win it, because when they are on form, the can play beautiful fúckin football... Wigan were destroyed by two absolute legends!

they need to hold onto Lennon and Defoe to progress higher than where they are.

StillRickyVilla

DOC09UNAM wrote: »

I think for any team that wants to seriously challenge for 4th or above, they need to be fielding the reserves and subs in matches like the carling cup, and the early Fa cup rounds...

And Aside from United, i'd love to see Spurs win it, because when they are on form, the can play beautiful fúckin football... Wigan were destroyed by two absolute legends!

they need to hold onto Lennon and Defoe to progress higher than where they are.

Absolutely mate.

We want to be up there with you - and its possible if we don't get distracted!

DOC09UNAM

StillRickyVilla wrote: »

Absolutely mate.

We want to be up there with you - and its possible if we don't get distracted!

The way they are playing at the moment?? Definitely, unlucky not to beat villa aswell at the weekend, and if ye could finish 4th at liverpools expense, that'd be even more sweet :P

golfball37

Newcastle and Everton both fell at the qualifying round after they believed they had the hard work done in finishing 4th. I certainly wouldn’t fancy us against a seasoned European team especially at WHL where we just allow good teams to play it seems without any pressure.
I’m not sure it’s fair to say the Carling Cup has diminished that much, if anything it’s the FA Cup that has. CL is so important now that the FA cup really is a joke. The carling Cup never had the profile to begin with so it hasn’t really suffered imo. What other club can say they beat Chelsea in a club final since Abramovich has been there? Us and Man u. I don't care what ye say but that is something to be proud of. Finishing 4th then getting a hiding off Lyon would be even more painful with an empty trophy cabinet, what then would we have gained?

As for tonight- Spurs at 10/3 is well worth a flutter. Besiktas beat the same team last week and they were 8/1.

curraghyid

i dont see any point in not trying to win the cc,i am not being pessimistic but august and top4 is along way off and we havnt exactly been awash with silverware for the last ten years.
im sure harry and the majority of the squad want to win every game win tonight, two more games and your at wembley i fail to see any negative side to that.

mickman

yeah thats true but it would be a disaster if palacious got a serious injury 2nite

everdead.ie

Kuszczhek
Nev Brown Vidic De Laet
Obertan Ando Gibson Park
Berba Welbeck


bench: Owen Giggs Tosic Carrick Fletch Kiko Amos

Can't find our's yet

everdead.ie

STARTING XI -
Gomes;
Hutton,
Bassong,
Dawson,
Bale;
Bentley,
Palacios,
Jenas,
Lennon;
Keane,
Defoe.


SUBSTITUTES - Walker, Corluka, Naughton, Huddlestone, Rose, Crouch, Pavlyuchenko.

Hoping to see Naughton & Rose play they look great prospects

everdead.ie

http://www.vshare.tv/live/13/Skysports_2/1

yiddo

everdead.ie wrote: »

STARTING XI -
Gomes;
Hutton,
Bassong,
Dawson,
Bale;
Bentley,
Palacios,
Jenas,
Lennon;
Keane,
Defoe.


SUBSTITUTES - Walker, Corluka, Naughton, Huddlestone, Rose, Crouch, Pavlyuchenko.

Hoping to see Naughton & Rose play they look great prospects

Harrys "weakened" team don;t look too bad

mickman

goal was against the run of play

hutton playing well. defoe missed a sitter

mickman

game over at old trafford

scudzilla

Hey guys, will you take Berbatov back from us?

He's yours for a Mars bar and half a packet of Tayto

Pacing Mule

mickman wrote: »

game over at old trafford

Game of two halves - scored 8 recently etc

mickman

look very bad at centre half tonight. what has changed since saturday? ekotto and corluka , do they make that much of a difference?

mickman

hutton,bentley,jenas,keane all very poor tonight

no killer pass at all. all a bit dis interested or something. keane cant even last 70 mins now in a carling cup game, will he be moved on in january?

yiddo

yiddo wrote: »

Harrys "weakened" team don;t look too bad

I was wrong :(



threw the towel in with half an hour to go. Keane shocking as were Bentley and especially Hutton. How Hutton passes himself off as a professional footballer I'll never know! Jaysus give me Edman or Atouba instead anyday

We need at least one more midfielder and a striker. Levy should go all out and pay the big wages and get Ruud Van Nistelroy in January.

el diablo

very poor result and can't believe someone like Gibson scored two against us which is slightly embarrassing. Alll he's good at is long distance shooting and will probably be moved on the the next year or two by Fergie.

Time to concentrate on the league now and hopefully get a good result on Sunday v Everton.

I-Bleed-White

Take everything with a pinch of salt as it was ONLY a league cup game. No way you would have heard me say that last season. We now have bigger fish to fry. Feels good to say. It was a mistake playing both Hutton and Bentley on the same wing. They were both SHOCKING.

Bentley doesn't even have his killer ball anymore. No doubt with a good run of games he has the ability to come good but how can he expect a run of games when he made that reserve LB look like Cashley Cole. He is now a championship player in my eyes, if hes lucky.

Hutton was a joke playing two stupid poor passes across the front of goal in quick succession and none of his crosses beat the first man. Surely a pro footballer can get the ball off the ground.

Lennon should have been on the right at least from the start of the second half.Palacios should never have been brought off as we immediatly gave up midfield.

No big deal we lost but would have been nice to keep momentum going.

COYS

I-Bleed-White

forgot to give Bale props. Thought the attacking side of his game was very good tonight. One positive to take from the game.

RichMc70

Well, congratulations Harry, you frigged around with the team tonight and we were beaten by Man U's reserves/bench warmers.

Come 9th May 2010, IF we have not finished in the top four, then I would like him to justify his reason for blowing our only realistic chance of silverware this season.

Even though we dominated the game for long periods tonight, we looked completely sterile. WTF was Lennon doing on the left. Hutton, Bentley, Keane and Jenas were all very poor.

As I said in a previous post, we can not afford the luxury of resting players for games like this and expect to compete. Tonight's result proves the point.

KingdomYid

Totally agree Rich, Jenas Bentley Keane and Hutton not at the races. No matter what is said about our squad once we bring these guys in we never will be good enough. There was something missing tonight no passion or fight. Defoe even looked disinterested. Very frustrating to watch.