24 Sep 2023 06:47:43
We should not play our first team in the league cup.
Our squad is barely there for PL and champions league.
Extra games in league cup will make it worse, and i'd rather we play better in the bigger competitions than win another league cup.

1.) 24 Sep 2023
24 Sep 2023 08:29:00
Disagree here backpass, we should try to win every competition we enter. It’s a little obnoxious to say we can write off a smaller competition to focus on bigger prizes, when at the same time people are saying we’re a mess and rubbish. It can’t be both.

It’s more realistic that we can write off the Prem because we aren’t ready to catch City, and let’s be honest, the CL is highly unlikely.

The two domestic cups are our best hopes of a trophy. I’m looking forward to being back at OT on Tuesday and hope to see Garnacho and Pellistri on the flanks, with a full debut for Amrabat.

A scrappy win last night and it may not be pretty for a while, but we have some favourable fixtures in front of us which is an opportunity to breed some confidence. The cup runs are very important for that, as proved last season.

2.) 24 Sep 2023
24 Sep 2023 08:49:53
It's always great to win trophies but considering we won it last season and the injury situation, I agree we need to rest key players, the problem is we hardly have any defenders available to rotate so do we throw in a couple of kids who have never played 1st team football, why not, but again I'm wondering who could step up, the only 2 that stand out are kambwala and Bennett from the little I've seen and both are centre backs, we really need full backs, it's all hindsight but it's a shame alvaro fernandez is on loan.

3.) 24 Sep 2023
24 Sep 2023 10:50:47
I disagree, we should play the best side we have available. These players need games to get up to speed and to start building understanding of playing together. Too many strangers who don't know eachothers game.

4.) 24 Sep 2023
24 Sep 2023 11:26:12
Try to win everything we enter and to be fair ETH rarely makes big changes.

5.) 24 Sep 2023
24 Sep 2023 12:18:47
We need to rotate. bigger games coming, cannot play the same 11 when 11 players are out.

I say this without a doubt. Take the back 4 out plus second choice out of Arsenal, Liverpool, City or any team and injuries to midfielders and unviability of key front line players they will suck on straws in terms of winning games.

If we get knocked out of caraboa because we made necessary changes and that specific 11 was not good enough, so be it.

6.) 24 Sep 2023
24 Sep 2023 12:32:04
I'm with Shappy on this.

The only way of ensuring our best players can develop a properly intuitive understanding with the other best players is to play them together as often as you can - at least for the first half of the season, and try to rotate only between sets of players who already have that rapport and understanding.
This is the only way of allowing the dynamics associated with the playing style of each player to bed in with the system and approach without any untoward problems.

Playing football in a team, like anything that requires a team effort for the task at hand, is not like riding a bike.
Training and playing in matches would be like our attendance at work, alongside our training and development.
Imagine coming back to work after a couple of weeks to find a new face or process relevant to your job - the dynamics will have changed, however slight.

Ten Hag will learn something new from every game, the players themselves will learn these new things better when influenced by them on a tangible basis.

I've probably waffled on a little, but I believe 100% that it's always best to play your strongest available 11 as often as you can.

7.) 24 Sep 2023
24 Sep 2023 13:29:11
We used to give youngsters a chance in the league cup, but especially at home, surely that is something we should consider? The other thing is that supporters have paid good hard earned money to watch, we need to be fair to them. Most supporters would accept seeing young players given a chance, that doesn’t mean 11 of them. The new goalkeeper needs time because it is no good if he has to play in emergency and never seen time on the pitch. We are a club proud of youth traditions, let’s give them time in that competition.

8.) 24 Sep 2023
24 Sep 2023 14:28:28
Do we even know what our first team is bar Onana, Varane, Bruno and Rashford.

The midfield pivot is certainly up for grabs, amarabat/ mount/ casemiro/ eriksen/ mainoo etc.

I assume we will rest the above 4 and see the likes of Garnacho, pellistri, martial.

9.) 24 Sep 2023
24 Sep 2023 15:33:14
Nonsense. The league is our bread and butter and a lack of fit first team options for me means using them in the league primarily. The lower we finish the poorer it's going to reflect on ten hag and put him under more pressure.

10.) 24 Sep 2023
24 Sep 2023 16:42:16
We're in a trophy winning business. If we're been honest we don't have a hope in hell of winning the league or the champions league. Binning one of the two cups we have a chance of winning is stupid.

We have enough quality players that we can make chances whilst staying competitive.

11.) 24 Sep 2023
24 Sep 2023 18:16:26
Rashford and bruno need a rest, bring them off the bench if needed. Give eriksen a chance at 10, garnacho and pellestri a start.

Have to be better at trusting and rotating some of these players.

12.) 24 Sep 2023
24 Sep 2023 20:30:42
It needs to be on a player by player basis, some need the rest, others need games to get up to speed.

13.) 24 Sep 2023
24 Sep 2023 22:07:41
Times have changed . Always play our best side available imo.

14.) 24 Sep 2023
24 Sep 2023 23:20:47
We rotated cole york Ole and sheringham. Butt, park, phil Neville. Fergy was a master at rotating his squad and still getting results so that we could be fresher in europe. Not sure why we suddenly think we can play these players twice a week for 45 weeks a year and not expect a drop off or injury.

15.) 25 Sep 2023
25 Sep 2023 07:43:02
Guardiola said yesterday he did not care if they got knocked out and was going to rest players and play a bunch of second string including academy players. He mentioned guys like walker having played two internationals, cl and now league.

We can't be playing cas who played 2 full games thousands of miles away. Barely back and has played every game and every minute.

I know we are trying to win games but its sort of short term thinking playing these guys like this and my only critism of eth even las year and it was evident as we ran out of steam coming in and just made it.

This juncture of the season and carabao cup is meaningless and League and CL should be the focus. We can get right back in the mix if we can string a few league wins and win the CL games coming up and steady the ship and look forward to the rest of the season and hopefully getting a lot of players back.

Winning a carabao game and suffering more injuries, which results in dropping more points in the league and CL makes zero sense to me. I Personally don't get excited about the year based on Carabao cup results.