Fielding a weakened team and/or wanting Everton to go out of the cup early.

[John from Bootle]

I think he'll rest at least 4 starters. We should be resting more given our predicament.

Wish we had the players to rotate properly myself. We don't though.

Suppose there's scope for Beto, Danjuma, Godfrey, Keane, Chermiti and Coleman to be involved. None of whom could argue they'd been asked to play too many games.

There is a flip side to it though Dave. Lose, and it's four straight defeats, and I'd much rather avoid that becoming 5, 6, 7 + games lost or win-less. The sooner we halt the run of not getting results, the better, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[COYBL25]

I think he'll rest at least 4 starters. We should be resting more given our predicament.

Four defeats on the bounce, would do wonders for team morale, just like going out of the last cup you wanted us to play a weakens team did.

Have you ever thought of applying your footballing wisdom to managing an amateur team ?

 

[davek]

Wish we had the players to rotate properly myself. We don't though.

Suppose there's scope for Beto, Danjuma, Godfrey, Keane, Chermiti and Coleman to be involved. None of whom could argue they'd been asked to play too many games.

There is a flip side to it though Dave. Lose, and it's four straight defeats, and I'd much rather avoid that becoming 5, 6, 7 + games lost or win-less. The sooner we halt the run of not getting results, the better, as far as I'm concerned.

Cup runs means nothing. You don't draw a line in the sand by winning in the 3rd round of the cup. We do that by beating Villa.

I'd hand the last 15-20 minutes against Palace to Coleman to get another bit of first team action before we play Villa.

 

[John from Bootle]

Cup runs means nothing. You don't draw a line in the sand by winning in the 3rd round of the cup. We do that by beating Villa.

I'd hand the last 15-20 minutes against Palace to Coleman to get another bit of first team action before we play Villa.

I get your point, but I'm not convinced we're in a position to be picking and choosing when we might get out of this run. It needs to be ASAP, imo of course.

 

[Aberblue]

Cup runs means nothing. You don't draw a line in the sand by winning in the 3rd round of the cup. We do that by beating Villa.

I'd hand the last 15-20 minutes against Palace to Coleman to get another bit of first team action before we play Villa.

This from the man who hero worships Martinez for reaching semi finals by beating crap opposition.

 

[Alan Whittle]

I’ve thought about this very carefully; you need to field your weakest possible team.
The same debate is happening on our forum.

 

[davek]

I get your point, but I'm not convinced we're in a position to be picking and choosing when we might get out of this run. It needs to be ASAP, imo of course.

Any extra non-PL holds the possibility of injury to keep player...and we cant win now with most of our key players on the pitch.

We have to be sensible.

In any case these domestic cups are mickey mouse competitions now.

 

[LouReedwalkonthewildside]

I bet Hodgson has the academy players out.

He knows its a poison chalice. Let's hope Dyche does.

I bet the Palace fans would want him strung up if he did that mate, I would if Dyche put out a weakened side against them.

 

[davek]

This from the man who hero worships Martinez for reaching semi finals by beating crap opposition.

No, I admired him for the football we got back to playing. He achieved our best PL points tally with it and a couple extended cup runs...which we were right to go on at the time as we were safe in the PL.

 

[davek]

I bet the Palace fans would want him strung up if he did that mate, I would if Dyche put out a weakened side against them.

I hope Palace play their best team and rattle in 4 by HT and Dyche starts making the changes needed to preserve our paper thin squad.

By 10pm on Thursday night I want us out of that cup and the decks cleared for an almighty relegation battle.

 

[chippy1722]

A win in the cup gives momentum and a lift, fielding a weakened team and getting spanked can only be a negative around the club. It’s exactly the same as when Everton ‘fans’ wanted us to miss out on the Europa to concentrate on the season after. We’ve been in a relegation battle ever since then.

 

[Timbucktoo]

I don`t get this about players needing to be rested. Professional athletes, only able to play one game a week, give us a break. Rather than giving them a week off they could do with the match practice.

 

[Big Neville Southall]

When did this become a thing for some Evertonians? I get a points deduction has put us in the mire again, but wanting to sacrifice our one slight chance of a pot? Here's the league table mid January 1984.


View attachment 240200

Sack him, he's clearly tactically naive. Get that Taylor in from Watford.

 

[Mrbluenose]

The league matters, the cup doesn't.

An easy decision for me.

 

[UltraVires]

There is enough time between games in January to be able to field a strong 11 and not jeopardise our PL games.

That being said, we are not going to win the cup so going out to early avoids the headaches of selection in later rounds when there will be less time off.