Stoke game - play a full strength side?

[The Ringleader Returns!]

We are 4 (four) wins away from an away trip to Azerbaijan to play a UEFA cup game against Baki.

Full strength squad please.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

We are 4 (four) wins away from an away trip to Azerbaijan to play a UEFA cup game against Baki.

Full strength squad please.

If we play a team that's qualified for the champs league in the final we'd only need three more wins. Europe's in the bag...

 

[Falmer Forever]

No, because its already a great acheivment getting to the 5th round but then as we tried so hard against
Watford we were virtually crap on Tuesday night .Leyton Orient are the teams we should be beating and as
we had no energy we could only manage a point .This let other teams a round us catch up to were we are .
Plus, we all want to be in the Championship next year with the new stadium .So we dont want waste are
energy because we still have alot of midweek games because of the snow and the FA cup

 

[HP Seagull]

As much as the league is our priority, I would like to see us play a full-strength side. It's not every day you get the chance to progress to the quarter finals of the FA Cup.

As long as we recover properly I see no reason why we shouldn't have enough to beat Plymouth on the Tuesday.

 

[fork me]

Bollocks, voted the wrong way! Why is the question the opposite way round to the thread title?

 

[Smythe]

strongest possible team out for both games, we want to win every game we play. Picking up injuries is part of the game Gus has to deal with and can happen any time in training....Stoke may be a strong physical team but there a prem team not some non league cloggers. Im pretty sure we can manage 2 games in 4 days.......lets beat Stoke then go on to beat Plymouth on the Tuesday......sorted.

 

[drew]

Play to win. I've seen both of the Albion's previous quarter finals and roll on the next one.

 

[drew]

strongest possible team out for both games, we want to win every game we play. Picking up injuries is part of the game Gus has to deal with and can happen any time in training....Stoke may be a strong physical team but there a prem team not some non league cloggers. Im pretty sure we can manage 2 games in 4 days.......lets beat Stoke then go on to beat Plymouth on the Tuesday......sorted.

What happens if Plymouth turn up on Monday 21st?

 

[Smythe]

What happens if Plymouth turn up on Monday 21st?

They can turn up when they like and wait till we play them Tuesday.

 

[El Presidente]

Tsk, unless the FA can guarantee us a draw at Old Trafford, Emirates, Anfield, White Hart Lane or Stamford Bridge I don't even think we should enter the competition.

I hated it in 1983 when we put out a full strength team at Anfield in the 5th round.

 

[Mackenzie]

Play our first team.

 

[Brovion]

No, because its already a great acheivment getting to the 5th round but then as we tried so hard against
Watford we were virtually crap on Tuesday night .Leyton Orient are the teams we should be beating and as
we had no energy we could only manage a point .This let other teams a round us catch up to were we are .
Plus, we all want to be in the Championship next year with the new stadium .So we dont want waste are
energy because we still have alot of midweek games because of the snow and the FA cup

Orient also played away, and won, against a team (Swansea) at exactly the same level as Watford. Surely that should have made them as tired as us?

 

[armchairclubber]

Can't see selection being too much of a problem for Gus. We currently have 16/17 players who are good enough to be rotated in 1st team, the fact they can't all get in every week probably helps solve the problem.

Don't think a 45 min run out will do anyone too much harm even if playing on Tues, assess how its going at half time and use the subs.....simple.

Whilst I'm sure he & we would all love to win, I don't think, and would hope it wouldn't be, at any cost (just a good day out for those going).

 

[Turkey]

We are 4 (four) wins away from an away trip to Azerbaijan to play a UEFA cup game against Baki.

Full strength squad please.

We're all going on a european tour

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

A place in the quarter finals of the FA Cup up for grabs and an alarmingly high percentage of dumb fucks want to throw the match? Sake!

 

[silky1]

We should always field our strongest side. We have a squad more than capable of playing twice a week for the next 3 months and still win the league.
As mentioned previously, we need to build momentum, and the experience of playing in the 5th round of the FA cup at a Premier League club must inspire the players.

 

[Icy Gull]

Tsk, unless the FA can guarantee us a draw at Old Trafford, Emirates, Anfield, White Hart Lane or Stamford Bridge I don't even think we should enter the competition.

I hated it in 1983 when we put out a full strength team at Anfield in the 5th round.

Did you never wonder if that Cup run cost us our place in the top division and how different our subsequent history might have been but for that very enjoyable few games and two trips to Wembley?

I really do believe that with our small squad a win against Stoke could cost us promotion, especially if we then drew one of the big boys and cup fever could affect the way players approach league matches on the run up to the game..

 

[Brovion]

Did you never wonder if that Cup run cost us our place in the top division and how different our subsequent history might have been but for that very enjoyable few games and two trips to Wembley?

....

Ok, if we hadn't got to Wembley let's assume we wouldn't have got relegated that year. In which case we'd have limped on for a few more seasons in the top division getting deeper and deeper into debt with sparser and sparser crowds before finally succumbing to the inevitable relegation. We'd have then gone bust and with a bit of luck we'd be where Luton are now. No doubt you would disagree with that scenario but it's as valid as any that you or anybody else could come up with - and I would argue a lot more realistic than any rose-tinted one which sees us as currently knocking on the door of the Champions' League.

I wouldn't have swapped that Cup run for first division survival, same as I wouldn't have swapped our League cup run in 76-77 for the chance of pipping Mansfield for the 3rd Division championship. That's assuming I subscribe to the theory (which I don't) that the cup is a 'distraction'. I see it as a galvanising force.

 

[Icy Gull]

. No doubt you would disagree with that scenario but it's as valid as any that you or anybody else could come up with - and .

I can't disagree as I'm not a clairvoyant. Any other season since I started watching the Albion, I'd have been salivating at our current cup run, but I have never wanted a promotion as badly as I want this one. Not even when we went up to the 1st, promotion this year could see amazing things happening. I accept I could be wrong, in fact I hope I am,but I can see this cup running coming back to bite us. I'd rather we weren't still in it..there I've said it, bad fan

 

[El Presidente]

Did you never wonder if that Cup run cost us our place in the top division and how different our subsequent history might have been but for that very enjoyable few games and two trips to Wembley?

Not particularly, we won ONE away game in 1982/83 (against Swansea on March 1st) , and it was the first away fixture match after winning at Anfield.