Carabao Cup SF draw (Bristol City)

lionheart said:
No way should our big guns play in the FA Cup 3rd Rd when there is a Semi-Final only a few days away. The FA Cup should now be our lowest priority, at least until the 6th Rd or if we get knocked out of the League Cup.
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Why not we should be at a stage where we can rest players in the league.
 
lionheart said:
No way should our big guns play in the FA Cup 3rd Rd when there is a Semi-Final only a few days away. The FA Cup should now be our lowest priority, at least until the 6th Rd or if we get knocked out of the League Cup. I agree that we should go strong against Bristol City but maybe ease off in the return leg if we are 3+ goals ahead.
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We play Burnley in the FA Cup, no big guns then we may not make the 4th round.
 
Play two different XIs vs Bristol and Burnley of about the same strength.

Vs Burnley:

Bravo
Walker
Kompany
Mangala
Delph
Fernandinho
De Bruyne
Foden
Sterling
Aguero
Sané

Vs Bristol City

Bravo
Danilo
Stones
Otamendi
Zinchenko
Touré
Silva
Gundogan
Bernardo
Jesus
Díaz

Assuming Silva's back and everyone bar Mendy is fit by then.
 
Bristol may have come off the boil by the time we play them (they've won their last 4 league games having previously been beaten at home to Preston), look at Sheffield Utd;- no-one would have wanted them earlier in the season when they were flying, now they're sliding down the league and can't buy a win.
 
For me, I'd put the strongest team possible out and try and get a good cushion going into the second leg, first 11 with foden taking the place of silva.

Finish our chances, few goals up, subs on, fully rotated for the second leg.

This competition is now at a point where we need to consider winning it, the kids have got us so far, but now it's time to make an effort for some silverware.
 
Didsbury Dave said:
It's a real funny one for Pep, this, with it being such a winnable tie. It's after the FA Cup tie and before Liverpool away. I've a feeling he will stick with the youth/fringe players but go full strength in the FA Cup. Psycologicly he's going to want those players to have got us to a cup final, and he has a second leg to readdress any problems.
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He could mix and match the more fringe players across the two legs rather than attempting to play them in both.

I suspect Pep won't finally make us his mind until after Burnley and he knows how we sit in the league and whether we are in the fourth round of the FAC and what sort of draw we have if we are.
 
If pep plays 'the kids' for both legs as he has done in all the other rounds, does he play them in the final?
I wouldn't want him to but could see him being of the mindset of they got us here so it is fair they play in the final.
 
Best team available 2 games away from Wembley and a possibility of another trophy. Hopefully our 11 point cushion will still be in place to enable us to prioritise these games.
 
117 M34 said:
If pep plays 'the kids' for both legs as he has done in all the other rounds, does he play them in the final?
I wouldn't want him to but could see him being of the mindset of they got us here so it is fair they play in the final.
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I agree it would be fair enough if he decided to play the youngsters but I would want full strength. Getting greedy and want all the trophies!
 
Bristol's fixture list is interesting. They play Wolves on December 20 at home at 5.30 followed by Villa away on NYD at 5.30. Then away at Watford in FA Cup then us. They must surely play their strongest side in the two league games, then will they rotate for the FA Cup and pick a strong side against us. Before the second leg they have Derby away on the 19th so again they have to go with their best side then.
 
i think we put the best team available injury permitting first leg, and try and build a lead, If we take this tie with complacency and just presume we only have to turn up, we will go the same way as Maureens mob Finally based on the last Wembley experience, against the Arse, if we do go through it will be against a london club, i sincerly hope we are not shown up with poor ticket sales , and having to hand over thousands of tickets to our opponents shameful really
 
Glauber Berti said:
For me, I'd put the strongest team possible out and try and get a good cushion going into the second leg, first 11 with foden taking the place of silva.

Finish our chances, few goals up, subs on, fully rotated for the second leg.

This competition is now at a point where we need to consider winning it, the kids have got us so far, but now it's time to make an effort for some silverware.
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Dont think i will ever tire of watching the captain of our team lift a trophy so im with you
 
Bristol City played great stuff v the rags, but they didn't look particularly lethal up front & they let the rags in several times with basic football.

It would be tough for them at our place, if we played our proper team, they would never have faced something like that before & it would be a shock how much above Utd etc we are. If we could get a few goals, then I'm not sure they would have the firepower in the 2nd leg to pull that back, as well as keeping a clean sheet, even if we played our Cup team & kids again.

It makes sense to go strong in the first leg, otherwise if we rested players in the first & it went wrong, we would be leaving ourselves open to having to either throw the competition, or put out a very strong team in the 2nd leg, with them pulling their tripes out & running all over us, even risking extra time.

We have landed on our feet with this competition, this season, for the precise reason that it avoids us having to do that at the swamp or Stamford Bridge & get the shit kicked out of us.

Go all out to win it in the first leg.
 
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