Hang on a minute, Aren't you being a tad disrespectful to your own side here? We were 1-1 at half time, I didn't hear Linekar and Shearer complaining then? Chelsea were magnificent throughout the game, What if we had a full XI out there today and still got twatted 3-1 or 2-1 and picked up a few niggles instead? I think Pellegrini is bugged that the FA don't help the clubs like La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga do, Juventus got their game moved to Friday and Bayern and Barca both played Saturday early afternoon, They would never make their clubs play on the Sunday.

You have a point, I've always hated the way that the FA do nothing to give British teams a fair chance, correct me if I'm wrong, haven't they fined teams in the past for fielding weakened teams? Typical of them, when they need to be looking at how they conduct themselves, to be honest though six young players is too much, three of four maybe.

Hang on a minute, Aren't you being a tad disrespectful to your own side here? We were 1-1 at half time, I didn't hear Linekar and Shearer complaining then? Chelsea were magnificent throughout the game, What if we had a full XI out there today and still got twatted 3-1 or 2-1 and picked up a few niggles instead? I think Pellegrini is bugged that the FA don't help the clubs like La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga do, Juventus got their game moved to Friday and Bayern and Barca both played Saturday early afternoon, They would never make their clubs play on the Sunday. 

 

I was just perusing the bluemoon forum, and was surprised how much hostility there was there towards Pellegrini. Is there a lot of hostility from your fellow fans?

I was just perusing the bluemoon forum, and was surprised how much hostility there was there towards Pellegrini. Is there a lot of hostility from your fellow fans?

They're a deluded bunch on that forum, If RAWK forum is the Lionel Messi of deluded supporter forums then that place is definitely at least a Neymar or Ronaldo. I stopped posting a while back, You have so many post 2012 spoilt City fans on there who believe we should be winning the league title by 15 points, Winning the CL etc Whilst Pellegrini deserves some stick for getting his tactics wrong against Leicester and some here or there decisions, You cannot blame this seasons mediocrity on him, The Guardiola situation hasn't helped at all.

Hang on a minute, Aren't you being a tad disrespectful to your own side here? We were 1-1 at half time, I didn't hear Linekar and Shearer complaining then? Chelsea were magnificent throughout the game, What if we had a full XI out there today and still got twatted 3-1 or 2-1 and picked up a few niggles instead? I think Pellegrini is bugged that the FA don't help the clubs like La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga do, Juventus got their game moved to Friday and Bayern and Barca both played Saturday early afternoon, They would never make their clubs play on the Sunday.

We played well no doubt, you may have lost with a full strength side, but we will never know. As a cup tie, it shouldve been more of a spectacle though imo.

Maybe Mourinho shouldve made a point and fielded 6 youth team players at Anfield a couple of seasons ago!

Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday, isn't any different than what any English club that has progressed in Europe has had to do at some point.

Will pelligrini throwing an fa cup tie change that? Of course not, the tv companies run the schedules over here.

I'd be pissed off if we put out a team as week as city's was today, because we had a busy schedule.

I don't even get where the complaint is coming from, we played Saturday, went away to Kiev, and played again on the follwing Saturday.

They're a deluded bunch on that forum, If RAWK forum is the Lionel Messi of deluded supporter forums then that place is definitely at least a Neymar or Ronaldo. I stopped posting a while back, You have so many post 2012 spoilt City fans on there who believe we should be winning the league title by 15 points, Winning the CL etc Whilst Pellegrini deserves some stick for getting his tactics wrong against Leicester and some here or there decisions, You cannot blame this seasons mediocrity on him, The Guardiola situation hasn't helped at all.

Don't think that's much of an excuse, Pellegrini would have known Guardiola would take over pretty much from day one. It wasn't exactly a secret. 

We played well no doubt, you may have lost with a full strength side, but we will never know. As a cup tie, it shouldve been more of a spectacle though imo.

Maybe Mourinho shouldve made a point and fielded 6 youth team players at Anfield a couple of seasons ago!

Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday, isn't any different than what any English club that has progressed in Europe has had to do at some point.

Will pelligrini throwing an fa cup tie change that? Of course not, the tv companies run the schedules over here.

I'd be pissed off if we put out a team as week as city's was today, because we had a busy schedule.

I don't even get where the complaint is coming from, we played Saturday, went away to Kiev, and played again on the follwing Saturday.

I wouldn't be pissed if the circumstances where the same, I think it would be silly to risk playing a full strength team (Well, partly full strength as there are still some first team players injured) when you have a very good chance of progressing to the next round of the CL (No disrespect to Kiev but they aren't Barcelona or Bayern like in previous seasons) and a League Cup final match a few days after.

 

I would actually enjoy the rare occasion we would get to see plenty of youth players, as I'm sure most City fans did today. 

 

Also Pellegrini has always fielded strong teams in the cups, even against teams they would have no trouble beating with youth so for people to forget that and criticize him now when he was pretty much forced into playing youth is a bit silly. 

Edited February 22, 201610 yr by Remodez

Entertaining story about Adebayor from Harry Redknapp:

 

I wouldn't be pissed if the circumstances where the same, I think it would be silly to risk playing a full strength team (Well, partly full strength as there are still some first team players injured) when you have a very good chance of progressing to the next round of the CL (No disrespect to Kiev but they aren't Barcelona or Bayern like in previous seasons) and a League Cup final match a few days after.

I would actually enjoy the rare occasion we would get to see plenty of youth players, as I'm sure most City fans did today.

Also Pellegrini has always fielded strong teams in the cups, even against teams they would have no trouble beating with youth so for people to forget that and criticize him now when he was pretty much forced into playing youth is a bit silly.

There's prioritising, and then there is throwing the towel in, that team selection was throwing the towel in. I know your a big pelligrini fan, si I'm not suprized to see you defend him, but why couldn't he have risked a couple of the star players to give himself a fighting chance of progressing?

Sure they Kiev away in 3 days time, but like you said, they are no Barcelona, city don't even need a win there in all honesty, score draw or narrow loss would still see them in the driving seat.

We have been in worse fixture congestion, and never thrown the towel in.

Everyone likes to see the youth players given a chance, but i wouldn't be excited to see them thrown in and given a pasting, out of some sort of protest.

I value the fa cup highly, and I think that clubs should be putting a decent effort in to try and win it.

There's prioritising, and then there is throwing the towel in, that team selection was throwing the towel in. I know your a big pelligrini fan, si I'm not suprized to see you defend him, but why couldn't he have risked a couple of the star players to give himself a fighting chance of progressing?

Sure they Kiev away in 3 days time, but like you said, they are no Barcelona, city don't even need a win there in all honesty, score draw or narrow loss would still see them in the driving seat.

We have been in worse fixture congestion, and never thrown the towel in.

Everyone likes to see the youth players given a chance, but i wouldn't be excited to see them thrown in and given a pasting, out of some sort of protest.

I value the fa cup highly, and I think that clubs should be putting a decent effort in to try and win it.

His only fit star players are Silva who is still playing through an ankle problem and Kompany who has barely played in about 4 months due to injury. 

 

Getting any sort of result in Ukraine is always hard, going there with your best team gives you the best chance possible of finishing off the tie early on away goals.

 

We most definitely have been in worse fixture congestions but I don't recall us ever having only 13 first team players fit (that's including Silva and Kompany) with two more important games coming up. I could be wrong though.

 

The youth held their own and impressed their fans and manager, it was the senior players who let them down and got the pasting.

 

So does Pellegrini, like I said he fields strong teams in cups whenever possible. Much to the annoyance of some City fans. He's the last manager that should be criticized for not taking cups seriously.  

Could it be that our modern football system is the biggest FA Cup problem, dear forum members?

 

(And not only for the FA Cup?)

I value the fa cup highly, and I think that clubs should be putting a decent effort in to try and win it.

 

The problem is that it's not valued that highly by stakeholders in the game. 

 

Firstly, I think a coach should be allowed to play whatever team he wants. If a coach wants to rest his starting XI on Saturday because they've got a crunch-game on Wednesday and he thinks that gives him a better chance of winning then that's fine. It's about resource management and he's the one with his job on the line.

 

But whilst the FA Cup does have a huge amount of history attached to it, it simply doesn't have the financial value of other competitions and unfortunately that is the reality of modern football.

 

You get about £3 million for winning the whole thing.

 

You get about €3 million for being eliminated from the Champions League....at the play-off stage!

You get €12 million just for getting to the group stages, and City would get double what they would get for winning the FA Cup if they progress past Kiev.

 

Financially it's no contest but even culturally the FA Cup isn't what it was when I was growing up. FA Cup Final day was an all day thing and was a live football match on TV - that in itself was special. Now I couldn't even tell you what channel it would be on, yet 14th May is a date that I never forget.

 

It's a little bit sad but times really have changed.

They're on about scrapping replays and moving the FA Cup to midweek. If they're gonna do that then they should just scrap it cause I could see that been the nail on the coffin.

The problem is it all comes down to money, in the modern age finishing in a CL spot is more important than winning a trophy. Which is something I will never agree on, give me the trophy any day of the week. Footballs about winning things and big occasions not simply getting a CL slot cause it increases the takings.

I hate some of the ideas that pundits have come up with on Sky Sports, one was about seeded draws, ensuring a tiny team always goes AWAY to a big club always. This sort of this kills the magic of the whole thing.

Keep it the way it is, a draw is a draw

They're on about scrapping replays and moving the FA Cup to midweek. If they're gonna do that then they should just scrap it cause I could see that been the nail on the coffin.

The problem is it all comes down to money, in the modern age finishing in a CL spot is more important than winning a trophy. Which is something I will never agree on, give me the trophy any day of the week. Footballs about winning things and big occasions not simply getting a CL slot cause it increases the takings.

 

But if you increase your income and get CL exposure then you can acquire better players who will help you win more things. That's what you've got to weigh up in these things and ultimately it's the coach's neck on the line.

 

I saw a tweet that they'd given up on a competition they could win to try and advance in one they probably couldn't and on the face of it, that makes sense. But I think the issue is that the prize of winning the Champions League is so great in terms of both finances and glory that some see it as worth risking the more achievable target of the Emirates FA Cup (to use it's full title).

FA cup on main TV at the weekend, works for me.

But if you increase your income and get CL exposure then you can acquire better players who will help you win more things. That's what you've got to weigh up in these things and ultimately it's the coach's neck on the line.

I saw a tweet that they'd given up on a competition they could win to try and advance in one they probably couldn't and on the face of it, that makes sense. But I think the issue is that the prize of winning the Champions League is so great in terms of both finances and glory that some see it as worth risking the more achievable target of the Emirates FA Cup (to use it's full title).

I do understand that but at the same time you could get that CL money and still win F all. So for me I would always take the trophy.

I do understand that but at the same time you could get that CL money and still win F all. So for me I would always take the trophy.

 

Yeah I can understand that. Truth is the only way the FA Cup remains relevant is if the prize money is drastically increased or they give the winner a Champions League spot. I think that's unlikely though and yesterday is probably an indication of which way it's heading, especially if we see expansions in European competitions in the future. 

Do other leagues have the equivalent of the carling / capital one / whatever cup ?

Do other leagues have the equivalent of the carling / capital one / whatever cup ?

 

Hmm, I think the French league has a second domestic cup.

 

Edit: I just checked and they do have another domestic cup (Coupe de la Ligue) other than their main one (Coupe de France).

 

It's no surprise that PSG won the treble last season.

Edited February 22, 201610 yr by Zinc

City are the club with the most money and by far the strongest squad in the league.

They have some injuries and had to field a weakened side, that’s life deal with it. Pelligrini moaning about the fixture list just comes across as a bitter old moaning fool. He knew the fixture list at the start of the season, he knew if they got through the CL groups and cup competitions there would be games coming quick and fast…it’s not like it’s just a new thing all of a sudden.

Injuries happen we have all had to face games with depleted squads but you deal with it and don’t moan about it.

If he doesn’t care about the F.A Cup then fair enough, we will batter whatever team he puts out.

Do other leagues have the equivalent of the carling / capital one / whatever cup ?

Just France and Portugal it seems.

Just France and Portugal it seems.

Thought Italy do

Yeah I can understand that. Truth is the only way the FA Cup remains relevant is if the prize money is drastically increased or they give the winner a Champions League spot. I think that's unlikely though and yesterday is probably an indication of which way it's heading, especially if we see expansions in European competitions in the future.

Yeah agree there mate, I am very concerned for the FA Cup

It's a little unfair to say that City have insulted the cup too. We all grew up with the FA Cup being the curtain-closer of the season, with the whole day building up to the 3pm kick-off.

 

Now the Emirates FA Cup is likely to be sandwiched between the closing fixtures of the Premier League, on TV sometime around 5pm with the domestic season probably finishing a week or two later before the Champions League Final dominates proceedings.

 

The Premier League and Champions League have simply grown so large that it's hard for other competitions to compete for our attention. I'm not sure having two domestic cup competitions is a realistic proposition in the future although you could change the League Cup into a 'development squad' cup or an extension of the Under-21 league. For some that's what it is already. That relieves a bit of congestion, but I'm not sure what else you can do to elevate the FA Cup.

 

That's why I don't think Pellegrini deserves much stick. He isn't devaluing the FA Cup on his own, we all are. You can't have a massively richer Premier League and a hugely successful Champions League without taking attention, lustre and money from somewhere else unfortunately.

Oh is it during the season this final?