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How much importance should we give the League Cup this year?


Oaks

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Tomorrow we play a fellow Premier League side in the Carling Cup, so how serious do we take it?

Many times in the last few years weve rested quite a few players, but certainly this season, its by far our best chance of winning something. So how far do we take it?

Ive seen some people suggest we should make 9-10 changes im not for that, especially in this game. Its a good game to bed in players and i think i would only make 4-5 changes.

So my team would be;

Guzan

Hutton----Collins---Clark----Warnock

----Petrov--Jenas(if fit Delph is not)---

Albrighton--------Ireland-----N'Zogbia

------------------Gabby-----------------

Albrighton, Ireland and Clark all need to play, and if fit Jenas needs a run out. Given and Bent have had knocks recently so i would rest him with Dunne.

*oh i realise this might be moved to the match topic, but i think its a valid question on the main forum.

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The teams at the top and bottom of the league don't care about the league cup. The teams in mid-table obscurity (probably us) should go all out for it. I hope lessons have been learned from last season.

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I'd play a strong side, rest any carrying knocks like Warnock, Petrov and Bent, after that play as strong as possible, and use it to drop any that are seriously underperforming, ie N.Zog at the moment. Might use it as a chance to use more attacking tactics to try and build on the solidness so far.

Given (seems to have got over initial injuries, if still niggling, rest)

Hutton Dunne Collins Baker (presuming Clark is not fit)

Jenas (if not, Gardner/Johnson) Delph

Albrighton Ireland Bannan

Gabby

Bench N'Zog, Delfounso, Herd (if fit), anybody else who is hanging around before kick off.

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We should be looking to win every competition we enter (well, apart from the PL of course, which is already becoming a two horse race, not that we were ever going to compete anyway).

Houllier's defeatist attitude has no place at this club anymore. I'm sure McLeish will want to win this again.

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We should play our best 11, no doubt. This is the only tournament that we stand a remote chance of winning right now, we should give it everything or we might as well give up because we'll just be making up the numbers.

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As the best we seem to be hoping for is midtable obscurity, cups are the only hope of anything exciting happening this season (and probably several seasons to come).

So take it seriously, keep a fairly strong side but also use it for some fringe players to prove themselves - they should be hungry for games & to try and stake a claim. e.g. Herd, Ireland, Fonz, Albrighton, Gardner - for if we don't use them in the cups, then when? Better to use them pro-actively than wait for when we're forced to play them due to injuries.

I don't think Bolton are going to be much up for the game this week - they've got big problems in the league & they'll not have great hope of winning away at Villa. It's a good draw for us.

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We should be looking to win every competition we enter (well, apart from the PL of course, which is already becoming a two horse race, not that we were ever going to compete anyway).

Houllier's defeatist attitude has no place at this club anymore. I'm sure McLeish will want to win this again.

Your right,the defeatist attitude so proudly started by O'neil,lets hope Mc'cleish is made of stronger stuff.

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We should be looking to win every competition we enter (well, apart from the PL of course, which is already becoming a two horse race, not that we were ever going to compete anyway).

Houllier's defeatist attitude has no place at this club anymore. I'm sure McLeish will want to win this again.

Your right,the defeatist attitude so proudly started by O'neil,lets hope Mc'cleish is made of stronger stuff.

To be fair to O'Neil i understood his reasons even if i didn't agree with them, but the Man City debacle still makes my blood boil, never mind the interview after.

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Any kind of silverware is welcome....if only for the feel good factor. Last season was a bloody nightmare, especially after our tilt at top four. The fans, players and mostly the club needs a big lift.

Go for it.

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Top priority - there's no threat of relegation and no chance of challenging for Champions League qualification. We, as a Club and a fanbase, NEED silverware and this the best chance of winning some. I take exception to any attempt to weaken the side for any match in this competition frankly - we should approach these League Cup games as if they were our biggest of the season.

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Agree with Joker and Alec, our only chance to win anything. The league cup is acyually quite easy to win in comparison to other trophies, the smaller clubs should be beatable as long as we dont play our reserves and the big clubs we stand a chance of beating because they play their reserves.

I'd rather win the league cup and finish 14th, than not win it and finish 8th.

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*oh i realise this might be moved to the match topic, but i think its a valid question on the main forum.

It might have been, but then you went and included the team you'd like to see at the specific match.

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I will be really pissed off and feel lied to yet again if McLeish picks anything other than a strong side tomorrow night. I don't think for a minute that the likes of Bent, Given and Dunne will want to give up the chance of a potential Wembley final. However unlikely it might be that we go on to win the competition, stranger things have happened, nobody expected the scum to beat the arse last season. We were told that we'll take the cups seriously. Let's hope so.

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