Will RM play the best XI in the cup?

[Bilbo]

Looking back to the League Cup defeat to Fulham, and with many managers "holding back" their best XI when drawn against lower league opposition in the early stages of the cup, will RM draw on his Cup Final winning experience and field our strongest players in each cup match, starting with QPR?

We know DM always tinkered unless it was against Prem teams in cup matches. Hopefully RM will not... Surely he won't????

 

[BlueLlama]

Wouldnt suprise me to see most of the main X1 play. Maybe we will see Joel and 1 oe 2 others max. If is taking the cup seriously we dont really have the squad depth to change more

 

[Bruce Wayne]

What's the situation with the loan players? Can they all play in the cup? Wouldn't be surprised to see the likes of Robles, Alcaraz, Stones, Jelavic and Naismith given a run out.

 

[Billy Dean]

What's the situation with the loan players? Can they all play in the cup? Wouldn't be surprised to see the likes of Robles, Alcaraz, Stones, Jelavic and Naismith given a run out.

It would serve us well to give them some game time.

 

[West]

I would go five changes max
Joel
Coleman stones Alcatraz baines
McCarthy Barry
Kneesmith Barkley mirallas
Jelavic
Should still be the qpr

 

[AaronTheBlue]

He'll play a mixture of our subs and kids. And it'll be fine, he'll have them playing the same football which can win matches no matter who is in the team.

 

[Wizard]

What's the situation with the loan players? Can they all play in the cup? Wouldn't be surprised to see the likes of Robles, Alcaraz, Stones, Jelavic and Naismith given a run out.

I think given they are all on full season loans with no call-back option they can play as long as it is not against their parent club. We'll probably play Chelsea in the final haha.

As for the team he'll play, I reckon it will be quite close to the full team. It's on a weekend (not midweek like League Cup) and we haven't played anywhere near the number of games most of the other top teams have. Would say Heitinga would have a chance but he may not even still be here. Jelavic maybe will get a start, Naismith too.

 

[Billy Dean]

I would def like Stones to get a go. He needs some games under his belt otherwise we might as well loan him out.

 

[riddick]

stones had a funny moment when he came on, he looked a bit nervous but when the announcer at Goodison started reading off his name you could see he got this goofy smile come over his face.

 

[Big Fat Sam]

If he doesn't it will come back to bite him on the arse when some ****e team like West Ham get to the final against a top four side and thus get into Europe next year when we ultimately fall short and win the seventh place trophy once more.

 

[Eggs]

...has to play a full side, surely. We're not in Europe and the games fall Saturday to Saturday.

 

[ArtetaMagic]

RM didnt play his strongest 11 in the cup when he was at Wigan. He'll def make a couple of changes and rightly so

 

[Garrick]

I would hope he wouldn't, honestly. The Cup is a good time to give some of the subs and younger players some valuable minutes, especially with a favorable draw like QPR at home.

 

[Eggs]

RM didnt play his strongest 11 in the cup when he was at Wigan. He'll def make a couple of changes and rightly so

...I have to say I'm not a fan of rotation, especially when we are only playing on one other front. I appreciate its a chance to give others a go, but you don't get many opportunities to win these trophies and we should give it our best shot. I can't remember us doing this type of thing in the mid-80s and we tend not to be too clever at doing it anyway. Appreciate the argument but its not for me.

 

[ArtetaMagic]

...I have to say I'm not a fan of rotation, especially when we are only playing on one other front. I appreciate its a chance to give others a go, but you don't get many opportunities to win these trophies and we should give it our best shot. I can't remember us doing this type of thing in the mid-80s and we tend not to be too clever at doing it anyway. Appreciate the argument but its not for me.

I agree we are terrible at the rotation part but I'd hope RM will sort that out and Im not talking about the whole cup competition just this match after a pretty hectic xmas schedule.