[Albion] Did Chris Hughton do the right thing with his Walsall team selection?

[North Stand Polls]

For Walsall, Chris Hughton made ten changes from what was, presumably, a first choice eleven that beat Blackburn at the weekend, keeping Albion's unbeaten start to the season going.

With an international break approaching, players were facing only 1 fixture in the 16 days following the Walsall match.

Did so many need resting?

Sheffield United made it to the semi-final of the competition last season, whilst Bradford reached Wembley in 2012-14. Can Albion really afford to not bother with the League Cup?

 

[Stat Brother]

Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing.

 

[studio150]

The answer to this question will be provided on Saturday, if we come away with 3 points then the resting of players would have been a success.

No doubt most people are however disappointed given the draw that Walsall have for the next round, but the assumption must be that the club is geared to a more successful league season

 

[Davemania]

No he didn't and it infuriates me to be honest. Should have made every effort to keep a winning run going. I think it was ducking moronic to be frank

 

[Kuipers Supporters Club]

Imagine if we had played our first XI, Kayal gets injured and KLL gets sent off - granted its a worst case scenario. Then the same people moaning now would be saying 'it's a tinpot cup we should have played our second team'

 

[glasfryn]

I voted YES as I think he needed to put on show some of the players we need to offload and some we might be keeping who need game time ....................it did not work, but I can understand why he did it

 

[Icy Gull]

Probably not but I really couldn't care less about the League Cup. Most teams play their B team, what is interesting to me, is that we now have proof that ours still happens to be a bit shit. Let's hope we can get a bit more quality in before the window closes as most of the guys playing last night are not going to keep us up near the top when we get injuries, suspensions and loss of form.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

The team selection was fine. The players that failed to perform are to blame for defeat, nobody else.

 

[Davemania]

Probably not but I really couldn't care less about the League Cup. Most teams play their B team, what is interesting to me, is that we now have proof that ours still happens to be a bit shit. Let's hope we can get a bit more quality in before the window closes as most of the guys playing last night are not going to keep us up near the top when we get injuries, suspensions and loss of form.

Problem is it's blatantly obvious that the B team wasn't going to be good enough. Maybe make one or two changes at most. Losing an unbeaten run far outweighs a few players being tired. Would they even be tired anyway, it's so early in the season.

 

[NooBHA]

Chris has a history of playing weaker teams and concentrating on the League matches. The squad at the moment seems to have a competitive nucleus of about 15 players. After that the players in the squad don't seem to be able to compete at the top of this league.

Wit so many games coming up he knows he doesn't want to get any key players injured because if they pick up a long term injury in a match like that then it could impact on the whole season. So even in hindsight and going out of the cup I think the correct team played.

Chelsea in the next round would have been brilliant though, so I am disappointed about that aspect of it

 

[Bwian]

Problem is it's blatantly obvious that the B team wasn't going to be good enough. Maybe make one or two changes at most. Losing an unbeaten run far outweighs a few players being tired. Would they even be tired anyway, it's so early in the season.

Any professional footballer will tell you that they much prefer 2 games a week rather than a week of training and 1 game a week.

If players can't play 180 minutes of football a week then they're in the wrong job. They only train a couple of hours a day for crying out loud and that's not every day if they've been involved in a match.

 

[Easy 10]

So we're at a stage now where players are needing to be rested after....5 games.

Mmmkay. Well if anyone mentions early season results while players still looking for "sharpness" half a dozen games into the season, I guess we'll know why. Because the first team are sat around picking peanuts out of poo while the stiffs make sure we don't have the "MASSIVE DISTRACTION" of being in a cup.

Win, lose or draw at Ipswich, binning the team last night will have had absolutely no impact on Saturdays result. It was a match at Walsall for christs sake, they're not on a plane coming back from Azerbaijan.

 

[Easy 10]

The team selection was fine. The players that failed to perform are to blame for defeat, nobody else.

Most of those players selected have failed to perform again.
And again.
And again.

That's why they're not allowed to play most weeks.

 

[nwgull]

It was the right thing to do. We have a far more important 6 pointer on Saturday, and who knows who may have picked up a knock last night. And the players that haven't featured much in the league games (yet) will likely be needed over the season and need to keep match fitness.

The unbeaten run thing means nothing when 10 changes were made. In the two seasons that we reached the play offs, we lost in the first round of this competition.

 

[Notters]

Yes. That team was good enough to win. It was the players' attitude combined with bad luck that saw us defeated. As so often happens in cup matches between teams in different divisions.

I'm pleasantly surprised that most people agree with me based on the early poll results.

 

[Lifelong Supporter]

I have no problem with the side selected. It was good enough to win the game and we might well have got through if we did not miss that penalty. Further there is no guarantee that a first 11 would win although there would be more chance of it.

Of course had he known we would play Chelsea, the team selected might have been a little different. He did not though and could not anticipate it.

Further the players selected needed game time and one would hope it helps their fitness and well being to at least feature in competitive football.

He had some strength on the bench but unfortunately we were undone by a late goal. It happens. We move on.

 

[Gazwag]

Any professional footballer will tell you that they much prefer 2 games a week rather than a week of training and 1 game a week.

If players can't play 180 minutes of football a week then they're in the wrong job. They only train a couple of hours a day for crying out loud and that's not every day if they've been involved in a match.

The team needs to get fitter, it was blatantly obvious that the players where dead on their feet after 65 minutes at Fulham, which means they either put in the extra hours after training or play more matches

 

[Notters]

So we're at a stage now where players are needing to be rested after....5 games.

Mmmkay. Well if anyone mentions early season results while players still looking for "sharpness" half a dozen games into the season, I guess we'll know why. Because the first team are sat around picking peanuts out of poo while the stiffs make sure we don't have the "MASSIVE DISTRACTION" of being in a cup.

Win, lose or draw at Ipswich, binning the team last night will have had absolutely no impact on Saturdays result. It was a match at Walsall for christs sake, they're not on a plane coming back from Azerbaijan.

Possibly not, but a lot of yellow cards are being picked up (Lua already on three) so delaying any potential suspensions could have an impact further down the line.

 

[Terry Butcher Tribute Act]

Pretty sure we had similar conversations about the greasy man from uraguay after draws with Woking and FCUM plus defeat at Swindon.

 

[Creaky]

This idea that players shouldn't be risked in case of injury is just so much 'flannel'. If it were a valid argument then exactly the same argument could be made and players wouldn't be 'risked' against weaker opposition in the League.

I can appreciate it when players are 'rested' and squad rotation is used but when there is a break coming then this excuse hardly applies and in any case doesn't justify resting the whole team.

Fans paying for tickets and especially those travelling away to support the team are short-changed in matches like this!