Please note that the fixture with Birmingham falls on the weekend of the Emirates FA Cup fifth round and will be postponed if either side progresses to this stage of the competition
Selfishly I'd prefer a midweek game. Can't see them beating Newcastle but think we've got a good chance at Preston, saying that it all depends on what teams we both put out.
There's no match in midweek either side of the FA Cup tie. If you cannot recover from Saturday to Saturday, then the whole sport has screwed itself. No need for a weakened side - or whatever word they use (rotated, squad, etc)... That's not to say he won't 'freshen it up' and use the excuse that it's an opportunity outside the pressure of the promotion battle to see what some of the new signings can do... However, there's no obvious energy-saving reason for it.
I would leave @LX1 to explain the importance of the FA Cup to you - but I recall that debate's been had before, and so I understand your 'modern generation' answer. But I still completely disagree. Imagine if we had 'fully rotated' against Wimbledon, and then Leicester... because we wanted to ensure against the threat of relegation. To take your argument to the limit, there is zero risk of ALL eleven of the rotated players to be injured, if they hadn't been rotated. We have a squad in the first place so that we can be covered in the event of injuries, not so we can be completely represented by a different side in cup competitions.
Hoping one of us wins in the FA Cup as I'm away for that weekend. Was originally hoping it'd be put back to Thursday, Sky were always going to have their mucky paws over it.
The Burton clash is less of an obvious pull, however.
Before Xmas I would have seen your point a little more strongly. However, we literally don't know about the new signings at the moment - my guess is that they are not all going to perform like superstars in their first outing (although I hope they will all justify themselves eventually). Secondly, I think bar a couple of 'debate positions', i think our strongest side, when all are fit, is reasonably set in stone. We rotate from the bench as it is. No need to change this when we might need a really strong performance to get past whatever side Preston put out.
It's a shame we haven't got one more EFL Trophy fixture - it would have been nice to see the newbies play in a low risk scenario so that everyone could see the cut of their respective jibs.
Anyway, this is next week's debate, come a week early!! 😃
Comments
Until one of us goes through in the cup and they look like mugs again
Wycombe have described it as ‘locked’, so I’d imagine this means the FA Cup 5th round games will move to a Tuesday night instead?
Ah, that's good
From the club website:
Please note that the fixture with Birmingham falls on the weekend of the Emirates FA Cup fifth round and will be postponed if either side progresses to this stage of the competition
Oh ffs
We better get proper coverage still if it does get moved. Same with the Rotherham game that Sky in their infinite wisdom picked for TV.
Be an 8 o'clock mid-week kick-off on Sky+ especially if we've signed Rooney or Gerrard as head coach by then.
We might be able to trick them into believing we're Wrexham - I assume we'll be playing in red anyway
Balls. I finish work at 12:00 on Saturday and was going to go straight up.
Selfishly I'd prefer a midweek game. Can't see them beating Newcastle but think we've got a good chance at Preston, saying that it all depends on what teams we both put out.
Ie: Please don't arrange anything just yet when the travel options are at their cheapest
If Sam Grace is in charge he'll probably put out a pretty strong team...as he might not have to pick up the pieces in the League for much longer! 😉
There's no match in midweek either side of the FA Cup tie. If you cannot recover from Saturday to Saturday, then the whole sport has screwed itself. No need for a weakened side - or whatever word they use (rotated, squad, etc)... That's not to say he won't 'freshen it up' and use the excuse that it's an opportunity outside the pressure of the promotion battle to see what some of the new signings can do... However, there's no obvious energy-saving reason for it.
I'd fully rotate. An extra game is an injury risk, however small. Promotion >
I’d like a day out at Wembley for the cup semis as well as promotion please.
We've got a decent enough squad to put out a strong team and progress.
I would leave @LX1 to explain the importance of the FA Cup to you - but I recall that debate's been had before, and so I understand your 'modern generation' answer. But I still completely disagree. Imagine if we had 'fully rotated' against Wimbledon, and then Leicester... because we wanted to ensure against the threat of relegation. To take your argument to the limit, there is zero risk of ALL eleven of the rotated players to be injured, if they hadn't been rotated. We have a squad in the first place so that we can be covered in the event of injuries, not so we can be completely represented by a different side in cup competitions.
Thing is, we've got the luxury of being able to rotate without massively weakening the team now
Hoping one of us wins in the FA Cup as I'm away for that weekend. Was originally hoping it'd be put back to Thursday, Sky were always going to have their mucky paws over it.
The Burton clash is less of an obvious pull, however.
Before Xmas I would have seen your point a little more strongly. However, we literally don't know about the new signings at the moment - my guess is that they are not all going to perform like superstars in their first outing (although I hope they will all justify themselves eventually). Secondly, I think bar a couple of 'debate positions', i think our strongest side, when all are fit, is reasonably set in stone. We rotate from the bench as it is. No need to change this when we might need a really strong performance to get past whatever side Preston put out.
It's a shame we haven't got one more EFL Trophy fixture - it would have been nice to see the newbies play in a low risk scenario so that everyone could see the cut of their respective jibs.
Anyway, this is next week's debate, come a week early!! 😃