[Albion] Thank you TB, PB and CH. I think I'm going insane!

[Icy Gull]

Long since given up expectation of a cup run in the league cup, we clearly have no real interest in progressing and haven’t done since the Poyet days. The FA Cup seems to inspire a tad more ambition in our manager.

No complaints from me on this, building a squad for survival in the Premier League is certainly more worthwhile. I wouldn’t swap a cup final appearance for our Premier League status and I do believe a real effort in the cup would result in a good chance of injuries to our first team players. The reserves are not yet good enough to compete with most Premier League reserves or even decent Championship clubs playing a strong team.

Risk aversion from our leader seems sensible to me. Now back to the real task at hand on Saturday.

 

[Justice]

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. Well, I keep buying tickets for these games and each time I expect the club to put some sort of effort into winning the game and each time the same thing happens. Ok, sometimes we scrape through against mediocre lower league opposition or we come up against a team that is more successful at avoiding victory than we are.

I understand that we are playing our effective reserve team players but once you get into the second half and it's 0-0, at least try and pretend, for the sake of the paying public, that you care. The notion that the be all and end all of football is 'just' staying in the Premier League seems to me to be the antithesis of what sport is all about. I get that the PL is where the money is but is it really where the fun is? We've had one season and we went along for the ride but how long before the novelty of 'just staying up' wears off?

Today we played Gross in a completely ineffectual position. Maybe it was an experiment to see what he could do there if Bissouma, who was the best player today, takes his role further up the field. The only sub was Propper for Gross and that was probably not tactical, just that both are likely to play on Saturday. A pointless substitution of Connolly for Kayay was meaningless in the 90th minute. Zero imagination, zero ambition.

Am I grateful for the Amex, well it's nice to sit on padded seat. It's nice to have easy access from the station or piglet panty pies etc etc but if we were still at Withdean, I'd probably still be watching the football there. The pitch is the cake and everything else is just icing. Nice but not as important.

I'll be slated for this but if you are one of those that think we need to stay in the PL at all costs and sacrifice everything else then that's fine. However, in my opinion you are just another dullard.

Its gets more like the Johnstones Paint trophy each season.

 

[Chicken Run]

I was more concerned at the circa 30m we may have spent on Locardio and the Persian!

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

I was more concerned at the circa 30m we may have spent on Locardio and the Persian!

With a name like that you can't expect too much running can you?

 

[drew]

Deary me you are not very good at this football thingy. We went 1 nil down very late. We took off a midfielder and threw on another striker. It was really a case of one last throw of the dice. That is why Hughton put him on. Would you rather he didn't throw on another attacker ?

Oh dear! Are you saying that before they scored we were happy to take the game to penalties as we weren't really threatening their goal at all, especially after they had brought on Redmond and Austin. That was a move by Hughes to win the game.

You describe putting Connolly as one 'last' throw of the dice. When were we rolling the dice before that then? We all know we aren't going to see the first team play but if you are using these games to give fringe players a chance then give them a chance that is more than 2 or 3 minutes of injury time just because you go one down. If you're not bothered about winning then maybe give him 20 minutes up front. It's not rocket science.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. Well, I keep buying tickets for these games and each time I expect the club to put some sort of effort into winning the game and each time the same thing happens. Ok, sometimes we scrape through against mediocre lower league opposition or we come up against a team that is more successful at avoiding victory than we are.

I understand that we are playing our effective reserve team players but once you get into the second half and it's 0-0, at least try and pretend, for the sake of the paying public, that you care. The notion that the be all and end all of football is 'just' staying in the Premier League seems to me to be the antithesis of what sport is all about. I get that the PL is where the money is but is it really where the fun is? We've had one season and we went along for the ride but how long before the novelty of 'just staying up' wears off?

Today we played Gross in a completely ineffectual position. Maybe it was an experiment to see what he could do there if Bissouma, who was the best player today, takes his role further up the field. The only sub was Propper for Gross and that was probably not tactical, just that both are likely to play on Saturday. A pointless substitution of Connolly for Kayay was meaningless in the 90th minute. Zero imagination, zero ambition.

Am I grateful for the Amex, well it's nice to sit on padded seat. It's nice to have easy access from the station or piglet panty pies etc etc but if we were still at Withdean, I'd probably still be watching the football there. The pitch is the cake and everything else is just icing. Nice but not as important.

I'll be slated for this but if you are one of those that think we need to stay in the PL at all costs and sacrifice everything else then that's fine. However, in my opinion you are just another dullard.

Am I? OK then.

 

[Simster]

I'm amazed the gate was as high as 13,000. Everybody knows these games are pointless. So with that said, clubs should be charging a far smaller admission fee in the early rounds. I'm talking £10 and half that for kids.

For what it's worth, I think the only reason they don't just bin the competition now is that if they did so then it wouldn't be long before the top half of the league ended up treating the FA Cup in exactly the same way as the league cup is currently treated, and I don't think anyone wants that.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

The League Cup has been sh1te for years now. Get rid of it asap as it's a waste of time. Disappointment hardly registered when their goal went in and I walked away from the match feeling fine, an experience that won't be repeated if the outcome is repeated on Saturday.

And that makes me a dullard.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

I'm amazed the gate was as high as 13,000. Everybody knows these games are pointless. So with that said, clubs should be charging a far smaller admission fee in the early rounds. I'm talking £10 and half that for kids.

For what it's worth, I think the only reason they don't just bin the competition now is that if they did so then it wouldn't be long before the top half of the league ended up treating the FA Cup in exactly the same way as the league cup is currently treated, and I don't think anyone wants that.

I agree with everything you say, particularly the number of people who keep paying to watch these games. However I still think they are important to the club. The abolition of reserve team football and its replacement with the U23 games has left a void for the fringe players that can be filled by the League Cup. It may have been invaluable to CH for instance to give Locadia and Ali J game time. Perhaps the 13k crowd is (by and large) simply composed of the fans who live locally and the many who live out of county (such as myself) give it a miss ?

 

[AmexRuislip]

but if you are one of those that think we need to stay in the PL at all costs and sacrifice everything else then that's fine

Surely that's the point, stay in the PL, if by chance, we end up in a cup run, then great.
Establish ourselves as PL team, then worry about winning the planetary milky way interstellar cup

 

[n1 gull]

Well I actually enjoyed seeing some new faces and different formation, it was interesting. I thought shutting the North Stand was a stupid idea. Of course staying in the PL is more important than a League cup run and I'm sure most won't even remember this game if we beat Fulham on Saturday

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Count me in as a dullard. It was a useful game for some of our youngsters & newcomers to get experience. . We had our chances so didn't throw the game away.
Some fans seem hung up on price tags to use as weapons for criticism. Inflation has caused higher price tags, especially for British players, so we will be buying from Europe with lack of Prem experience.
I knew what to expect. I also knew that if Austin got on he would score against us. I had hoped we would score before that, and nearly did.

 

[DFL JCL]

I think the OP got it right in the thread title. Due thanks given to CH, TB and PB..... and the second part looks about right too.

 

[Hamilton]

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. Well, I keep buying tickets for these games and each time I expect the club to put some sort of effort into winning the game and each time the same thing happens. Ok, sometimes we scrape through against mediocre lower league opposition or we come up against a team that is more successful at avoiding victory than we are.

I understand that we are playing our effective reserve team players but once you get into the second half and it's 0-0, at least try and pretend, for the sake of the paying public, that you care. The notion that the be all and end all of football is 'just' staying in the Premier League seems to me to be the antithesis of what sport is all about. I get that the PL is where the money is but is it really where the fun is? We've had one season and we went along for the ride but how long before the novelty of 'just staying up' wears off?

Today we played Gross in a completely ineffectual position. Maybe it was an experiment to see what he could do there if Bissouma, who was the best player today, takes his role further up the field. The only sub was Propper for Gross and that was probably not tactical, just that both are likely to play on Saturday. A pointless substitution of Connolly for Kayay was meaningless in the 90th minute. Zero imagination, zero ambition.

Am I grateful for the Amex, well it's nice to sit on padded seat. It's nice to have easy access from the station or piglet panty pies etc etc but if we were still at Withdean, I'd probably still be watching the football there. The pitch is the cake and everything else is just icing. Nice but not as important.

I'll be slated for this but if you are one of those that think we need to stay in the PL at all costs and sacrifice everything else then that's fine. However, in my opinion you are just another dullard.

Like others, I was with you until "The pitch is the cake..." onwards. Perhaps you were just over-emotional.

I agree it was rubbish entertainment. If CH is going to use these games as training exercises, then tickets should be a fiver. And the beer free

 

[dejavuatbtn]

Apart from the thrill of seeing some of our fringe players have a run around in a match that the club clearly are not bothered about, there would have been little point in going to the match last night. That explains why approx 17000 fans couldn’t be arsed to go to the game. If they wanted a full house for these games they would have had to give us some expectation of them putting a decent team out and wanting to win. Personally I am a traditionalist who used to enjoy cup competitions but all these have been devalued by Wembley just becoming a random football stadium and the destruction of first division football by Sky, betting firms and the Premier League.

 

[dazzer6666]

Count me in as a dullard. It was a useful game for some of our youngsters & newcomers to get experience. . We had our chances so didn't throw the game away.
Some fans seem hung up on price tags to use as weapons for criticism. Inflation has caused higher price tags, especially for British players, so we will be buying from Europe with lack of Prem experience.
I knew what to expect. I also knew that if Austin got on he would score against us. I had hoped we would score before that, and nearly did.

Same as this for me. As for the ticket prices mentioned by others, I think I paid £12 for me and £10 for junior - it costs us £11 each to watch Burgess Hill Town with about 300 others basically stood in a field, so it's hardly extortionate. Good to get a chance to see some of the benchwarmers and yoof get a run out, and overall couldn't give a toss about the League Cup - no more meaningful than a friendly for me so I went with the same attitude. It was obviously Stains cup final though

 

[Lush]

It was like watching a team of triallists, with people either playing to dislodge the person currently holding their place (Ali J, Locadia), or to persuade CH of the value of a certain system with them in it (Gross, Bissouma).

From that point of view, it was quite interesting.

 

[Machiavelli]

I'm amazed the gate was as high as 13,000. Everybody knows these games are pointless. So with that said, clubs should be charging a far smaller admission fee in the early rounds. I'm talking £10 and half that for kids.

For what it's worth, I think the only reason they don't just bin the competition now is that if they did so then it wouldn't be long before the top half of the league ended up treating the FA Cup in exactly the same way as the league cup is currently treated, and I don't think anyone wants that.

Tickets were £12, and £6 for u-18s.

 

[nwgull]

Tickets were £12, and £6 for u-18s.

Don't be letting your pesky facts get in the way of a good moan.

 

[Wozza]

The League Cup has been sh1te for years now.

It's as good as your team make it. We'd all be VERY excited if we were in the final.