Fulham disrespected the FA Cup

[nose]

Playing our youth and reserves was a complete disrespect of the FA Cup and has given us another fixture.  Had Meulensteen played a stronger team, Fulham could have taken advantage of playing against a League One (Division 3) side, with 10 men, missing their main striker and centre-back after half-time.

The "logic" for doing this is because we had a game two days later at Swansea.  Therefore, Fulham MUST win to justify such a sophoromic selection against Laudrup's team of Taffys!

One fears the negative influence of Curbishley & Wilkins responsible for this dilemma.  fp.gif

On this occasion I really cannot agree with you. Ithink the fact the cup was sunday and swanseatonight left rene no choice but to prioritise (sorry for the jargon) in favour of the premier league. If we would have been 10 points better off then I would have said play the first team in the cup match, but one point away from last place seems to me to much of a gamble. I think rene got it right and taking the positives, so to speak, it was great chance for the youngsters to get a chance to show what they are capable of.

[Big Martin Jol]

I can see the middle ground.
Maybe Rene went just a touch too far?
Had we played some new faces AND some regulars we'd have avoided the replay?

That is succinctly what I am intimating.

Stockdale, Riise, Karagounis, Senderos, Hughes, Duff, Rodallega, Kasami, Bent and Taarabt all played. I'm surprised I didn't see more accusations of us failing to use a match against an ailing League One side to blood in more young players.

We can't put out any more of our senior squad because they are just that - senior - and have a relegation six-pointer on the other side of the country forty-eight hours later.

If we were comfortably in mid-table then the FA Cup is a fantastic competition that we should be making every effort to cruise through. As it is, it's very much a luxury.

[beijing ben]

****Please note the Darren Bent miss would not have counted as Kasami was given offside****

really? Sorry I actually really missed that. Thanks for pointing out... don't think they mentioned it on the TV commentary or maybe my wife was  barking at me to hurry up with breakfast.

Breakfast?!!.. One o'clock kick off!.. And that incident was in the second half!!.

some of us live in America mate... 8am kick off Sunday morning...

Fair play mate!.. It was late evening for me..

[RidgeRider]

****Please note the Darren Bent miss would not have counted as Kasami was given offside****

really? Sorry I actually really missed that. Thanks for pointing out... don't think they mentioned it on the TV commentary or maybe my wife was  barking at me to hurry up with breakfast.

Breakfast?!!.. One o'clock kick off!.. And that incident was in the second half!!.

some of us live in America mate... 8am kick off Sunday morning...

Fair play mate!.. It was late evening for me..

8AM? Try 7AM on most Saturdays and 4AM for the early games!

[Nero]

to end all this waffle about disrespecting the FA cup the FA disrecpted it themselves when they allowed Man Utd not to enter when they were in the World Club Championship,

[Jem]

I don't quite understand what you're saying - by your logic would we have been DISRESPECTING the premier league if we hadn't rested our first XI in preparation for tonight's game?

Priorities.

I was just about to write something very similar, so spot on old chap!

[mccscratch]

****Please note the Darren Bent miss would not have counted as Kasami was given offside****

really? Sorry I actually really missed that. Thanks for pointing out... don't think they mentioned it on the TV commentary or maybe my wife was  barking at me to hurry up with breakfast.

Breakfast?!!.. One o'clock kick off!.. And that incident was in the second half!!.

some of us live in America mate... 8am kick off Sunday morning...

Fair play mate!.. It was late evening for me..

8AM? Try 7AM on most Saturdays and 4AM for the early games!

not my fault you chose to live out in the wild wild west...  :008:

[Cravenawin]

Do you honestly think the likes of Berbatov would have had the appetite for Sundays game in those conditions. He'd have taken one look at the mudheap and thought ' Nope, this ain't for me'. He'd have been even more ineffective than Bent and that's saying something. Expect at least seven first team regulars to start the replay, and if you need someone to blame, drop a line to BT Sport and ask why the game was chosen for Sunday when they obviously knew we were playing Tuesday.

[beijing ben]

I can see the middle ground.
Maybe Rene went just a touch too far?
Had we played some new faces AND some regulars we'd have avoided the replay?

That is succinctly what I am intimating.

Stockdale, Riise, Karagounis, Senderos, Hughes, Duff, Rodallega, Kasami, Bent and Taarabt all played.

We can't put out any more of our senior squad because they are just that - senior - and have a relegation six-pointer on the other side of the country forty-eight hours later.

If we were comfortably in mid-table then the FA Cup is a fantastic competition that we should be making every effort to cruise through. As it is, it's very much a luxury.

Completely agree. If we were doing ok in the league then we could have had one or two more regulars in the cup. It's not us disrespecting the cup. More like the cup disrespecting us by making us play on the sunday knowing that we had a Tuesday fixture. If any club should be mad at the schedule right now, it is us. We were one of 12 clubs in the same scenario in December (playing 26th and 28th) and both those games were away. Seems unfair to be in that situation again, and only us this time. However, it is what it is and i think Rene was right with playing the reserves in the cup..

[Bassey the warrior]

There's always a few that, because they have no cognizant reply, revert to the language of the gutter.

The Wilkins-Curbs defensive strategy was to rest our first team for the Swansea game.  But I contend that playing a slightly stronger side in the Cup, would have seen out the Yorkshiremen by half-time, and we could have strolled through the remainder of the match with a 3-goal (or so) cushion, taking no risks, and respecting a tradition that we should uphold.

You're the one disrespectful, disrespecting the opposition by saying we'd have walked all over them. Another game isn't all that bad, gives the kids more experience. Furthermore if we'd played the first team they'd be shattered for tomights game. What more important?

[beijing ben]

****Please note the Darren Bent miss would not have counted as Kasami was given offside****

really? Sorry I actually really missed that. Thanks for pointing out... don't think they mentioned it on the TV commentary or maybe my wife was  barking at me to hurry up with breakfast.

Breakfast?!!.. One o'clock kick off!.. And that incident was in the second half!!.

some of us live in America mate... 8am kick off Sunday morning...

Fair play mate!.. It was late evening for me..

8AM? Try 7AM on most Saturdays and 4AM for the early games!

not my fault you chose to live out in the wild wild west...  :008:

It would be 3.45am for me tonight/tomorrow morning, but, i think like you mccscratch, the missus is not impressed with such antics.. Or maybe you are just a very good cook..

[E.I.Adio]

It's the TV companies who are disrespecting The FA cup by dictating when the games are played by moving them to Friday, Saturday  evening, Sunday and Monday. As for the comment that the premier league has only been in existence for 20 years and is less of a prestigious competition than the FA cup ,may i remind you that it is in fact now The FA cup with Budweiser and has been called that for about 2 years, so it has less tradition than the premier league

[beijing ben]

It's the TV companies who are disrespecting The FA cup by dictating when the games are played by moving them to Friday, Saturday  evening, Sunday and Monday. As for the comment that the premier league has only been in existence for 20 years and is less of a prestigious competition than the FA cup may i remind you that is in fact The FA cup with Budweiser and has only called that for about 2 years, so it has less tradition than the premier league

Ok the Cup is dictated to by tv companies, true. However, it made no sense to move our game to Sunday. They could have moved Man City vs Watford, which surely would have been of more interest, and Man City play on Wednesday..

[jarv]

Correct decision. Could not afford any injuries to key  players with our threadbare squad. In fact, the FA and the league are totally at fault for the schedule and I wish our manager had said so in no uncertain terms. (but then he would be fined I suppose, for being honest).

[Arthur]

They could have moved Man City vs Watford, which surely would have been of more interest, and Man City play on Wednesday..

Not to me it wouldn't have been.

Moreover, even were tonight's fixture being played tomorrow, I don't think this would have affected the team RM chose on Sunday at all.

[K33NY]

Playing our youth and reserves was a complete disrespect of the FA Cup and has given us another fixture.  Had Meulensteen played a stronger team, Fulham could have taken advantage of playing against a League One (Division 3) side, with 10 men, missing their main striker and centre-back after half-time.

The "logic" for doing this is because we had a game two days later at Swansea.  Therefore, Fulham MUST win to justify such a sophoromic selection against Laudrup's team of Taffys!

One fears the negative influence of Curbishley & Wilkins responsible for this dilemma.  fp.gif

Go suck on a lemon and get realised about whats actually going on, while sucking on that lemon maybe get your white shirt of and stroll down to the blueshirted trolls with no sense in theire mind!

Thanks

[simplyfulham]

Nick Bateman, nearly all of your judgements on this situation remain erroneous.

Making first team members travel to Sheffield, back to south west London, and then to Swansea in that they *might* win. Cup game against a fighting team on a poor, boggy pitch with enough energy left for Premier League opposition only 48 hours later is a large risk.

Premier League safety > FA cup 4th round.

End of.

[Burt]

Less of the personal abuse please...

I get that people may disagree with certain points of view or get wound up by certain posters, but the preferred method of dealing with this is to either:
a. Ignore, or
b. Reply, but with your own point of view, or
c. Escalate to the mods, if you feel that the posting guidelines have been breached.

Name calling etc. is not the FOF way.

Cheers

Burt

[beijing ben]

They could have moved Man City vs Watford, which surely would have been of more interest, and Man City play on Wednesday..

Not to me it wouldn't have been.

Moreover, even were tonight's fixture being played tomorrow, I don't think this would have affected the team RM chose on Sunday at all.

I meant that the Man City game would have been of more interest to the general public.

Players can recover in three days but not two seems to be the general feeling. Yes, there would have been the use of the squad but not as dramatically as was done against Sheff Utd.

I think we will do well not to get hammered against Swansea. Partly because i think they are a good side with players coming back from injury, and because of the schedule. Laudrup said himself that he thinks this game should be on Wednesday, implying that the schedule was unfair for us. The preparation time is very short. With the travelling (both are away games), is there a chance to train properly?.. It does lend itself to a decent pre match team talk though: "They are all against us!"..

[btings]

This thread makes me hungry. 

Who wants to go get sandwiches?