by Bashmachkin Fri Dec 07, 2012 10:31 am
I'm not pleased that we're not taking the competition particularly seriously. For me, the league will always be the most important thing, but I'd rather make an effort in the Europa League than in either of the domestic cups; I think, certainly in the abstract, it's a more interesting and exciting competition to play in; it's one thing to consider reaching the final of the FA Cup, say, and beating Manchester United 5-0, but generally the domestic cups offer nervy ties against lower league opponents where you risk relative humiliation or, more usually, boring matches against routine opposition; even with the Champions League losers dropping into the Europa League, it still tends to afford a decent variety of teams even in the later stages; and after all we did do well to qualify in the first place, and not bothering makes a bit of a mockery of that, and of the notion that European qualification is something to strive towards, and constitutes a successful season.
I also think it's worrying how poor our second-string look. None of those who started last night would feature in our first eleven were all of our players fit; but most of them are next in line, with Williamson and Perch almost inevitably playing many games for us owing to Taylor's recurrent injury problems and our general lack of depth, with Marveaux presumably having an important role to play whilst Cabaye is out, with Ferguson and Sammy basically our options when we're looking to change things from the bench, and with Shola and Ranger our striking alternatives. Ranger actually holds the ball up better than anyone else in our squad, so that there's even a case for starting him in the league and allowing a partner to play off him, allowing him to bring the midfield into play. I was, incidentally, thoroughly unimpressed with Cisse's second-half performance against Wigan.
Livaja with a brace.
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