The line-up that Steve Bruce had selected for this game left me bemused and almost despondent when I saw it.
I don’t know why, as we all expected it.
Was it ten or eleven changes?
Not that it mattered much.
I then saw that Boro had also selected a severely weakened side and it gave me a glimmer of hope, so I mooched around for a stream, as there was no hope of me getting to the game on time, if indeed I actually wanted to go, which I didn’t.
And viewing the crowd, it seems I wasn’t alone.
Less than 11,200 bothered to turn up and frankly I don’t blame those that also couldn’t be bothered.
Who wants to pay to watch something that blatantly isn’t anywhere near our best team?
Anyway, the stream failed after a few minutes, so I just did what the club and Steve Bruce did (as much as he said he thought we could win it) and gave up on the game.
You already know my thoughts on this, so I won’t repeat them, but I have to ask what we’ve learned from this game and the answer as regards our best eleven or so is absolutely nothing.
Yes, players have got a run-out, but how many will feature much anyway?
And ok, the kids got a game, but it was against a severely weakened team. Do they really gain much from that?
It’s not quite the same as playing against a proper Championship team is it?
I’m almost minded to say that the whole competition should be disbanded, if clubs of our current status can deem it as not worth winning or trying for.
But then I recall that (contrary to a view I saw on here), the winners do actually qualify for the Europa cup.
If that alone doesn’t make it worth giving it a go, I don’t know what does.
Oh well 🙁
Could’ve sworn they did away with the Europa League path through the cups, could be wrong though.
I completely get playing a lesser side. And I agree with it. However, this only proved that we may have depth, but the depth, especially at the back, is shit. Chester or Terry go down, we’re completely screwed. Taylor goes down, we’re completely screwed. Not that I rate him a whole lot. De Laet at least has Bree to back him up. But we definitely need an overhaul at the back. Although you can argue we need too add players everywhere, or just about. Weird how that’s one of the complaints people don’t want a new manager for, is because he’d want his own players. We still need an overhaul anyways. I do like the fact we can fill a couple spots with youth, given the chance, however.
Disagree about your claim that if teams like us or Boro don’t try to win it, it needs to be scrapped. A fair few teams try to win it, other than a couple recent finals, have we really ever tried to win it though? We’ve been a disappointment in terms of attempting to win silverware for a long time now.
when you struggle to win a match of any kind ,trying to win silverware is impossible
its only cup winners get into europe now loser dont get the spot anymore
Ah that’s right. They took out the runners up, not the winners. We were never going to win it but the 2nd team/youth side should be good enough to beat a mediocre Boro side that was also weakened.
Getting to the Europa Cup means Thursday night football, so not many Saturday games. I can only ever remember Man U who won it last year ever benefiting from the shit schedule. All cup competitions are taken lightly until you get to the quarters or semis then the whole ethos changes and it is taken more seriously.
I don’t know if I’d consider them beneficial of the schedule. They came 6th after all. European football would do wonders for most teams financially, however. Though I definitely don’t think we’d have won the cup, we should’ve done better than losing to a mediocre Boro side.
Pat Murphy on radio 5 said that Villa were absolutely dreadful, apart from O’Hare who he really rated.
Andrew I totally agree we should have done better and I think that is down to the fact that most of the team knew it is fruitless as they would not get a chance in the first team however well they played. The cup was just a chance for him to rest the majority of what he perceives to be his first team squad and he used this to blood some of the kids and the ones returning from injury, purely to get game time. I am personally not too bothered we went out as it is a distraction from our main aim in the league. If Bruce had put out a full squad and he had a couple pick up injuries then we would all be saying he should have put some of the kids in instead to avoid this. He is in a no win situation, as the majority are on his back for the slightest thing. I am not defending Bruce but it is a fine line trying to balance everything and try and keep everybody happy including the fans.
Depending on who we draw in the FA Cup it may well be the same unless we get one of the big teams and then it will be of no advantage to play some of the kids to get a hammering.
O’hare and Doyle-Hayes look like real prospects. Hope they start to see more time in the first team squad.