Another trophy in store for Man City? Carabao Cup 2019-20

[ingoldale]

Good stuff.

PM me if you want any advice about getting to the ground, local pubs and eateries, etc.

Thanks.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

It would be amusing if Southampton bounced back from a 9-0 defeat to be the first team to knock Man City out of a domestic Cup in about three years. Come on, it would.

[Snake Plissken]

It would. But it's not happening.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Football's shit without VAR.

[hobbes]

This is great fun

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

This has been like watching an under 11s five a side game.

[Janik]

For the pure incongruity of it, I hope the penalty shoot-out finishes 1-0.

[Janik]

Bah!

[hobbes]

What a hilarious game.

[Third rate Leszno]

I was seconds away from posting "If you can't score more than four against a central defence consisting of Houlding and Mustafi then you don't deserve to win the game".

[Satchmo Distel]

Klopp says Liverpool may withdraw if there is no suitable date for the QF. How about making the semis one leg instead of two?

[ad hoc]

Klopp says Liverpool may withdraw if there is no suitable date for the QF. How about making the semis one leg instead of two?

Clearly that is something that should have happened a long time ago. But i don't think you can/should change the format of the competition after it's already underway

[Satchmo Distel]

I'm surprised this issue has not cropped up before. How did Man U and Chelsea manage in their winning seasons? Did they always get knocked out by this stage?

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

The man utd chelsea game was a lot less fun than the liverpool arsenal game, but it was very interesting to watch. Man utd fielded a team closer to their first XI than Chelsea, but it's what they were doing that was more interesting. They were playing 3-5-2, and every time the ball went out to the wing, the man utd wingback would push right up on the winger, while behind him, the defence switched to a back four, with the centre half on his side pushing out to give him support. After a while Christian Pulisic was actively running away from Aaron Wan Bissaka, because he didn't like having to deal with this. AWB wasn't kicking him all that much, but he was hounding him whenever the ball came near them. The problem was that Marcos Rojo isn't Lindelof, and Rojo can't follow basic instructions, so instead of automatically pushing out when the ball came down the man utd left, he left Brandon Williams on his own against callum Hudson odoi and reece james, and he performed manfully, but man utd only got away with it because it took Chelsea a while to twig this, and after that the ball eventually had to go into the middle.

In the first half Chelsea had 360 passes, and man utd had 204, and I think the second half must have been very similar because the possession share remained the same. The ball was moving really fast. It's not that long ago that there would only be 570 odd passes in a full game. Chelsea did very well to hold onto the ball for so long, because Man utd were pressing them very high up the pitch at times, and very hard in midfield throughout the game. I was quite impressed with Marc Guehi for Chelsea. He didn't have to do a whole heap, but he held his position very well relative to zouma, always made himself available to receive the ball, and always knew where it was going before he got it. It was harder to know what to make of Gilmour, other than he can pass the ball quickly and smoothly.

Chelsea were also well organized defensively for the most part and were able to switch to their defensive shape very quickly when man utd got the ball. The first goal came from man utd springing the functional right hand side of their defensive trap, with mc Tominay snaffling up a loose pass from an under pressure alonso, who was trying to avoid giving it directly to Wan-Bissaka. the ball went to James, who charged through the gap, past a guy in the edge of the box, and then swerving right across the path of Alonso who was desperately getting back into position, and he ploughed into the back of him kneeing him in the thigh, in the line of sight of the ref.

In the second half someone on the chelsea bench noticed that Rojo wasn't doing the same thing as lindelof, and chelsea switched to going down their right much more often and they started to get more into the game, the chelsea goal came from batshuayi bamboozling Maguire with a header, and by the time maguire had figured out where the ball had gone, batshuayi was away. See this is the sort of thing that worries me about Maguire, and makes me marvel at just how he has acquired such a high reputation and cost so much. He never played in a high defensive line until he was at man utd, and he doesn't always know what to do. and he couldn't even get close enough to chop him down and get a yellow card. I wasn't impressed by Rojo's positioning, but the shot was amazing. Man utd brought on Martial and perreira for lindelof, and lingard, and switched to 4-2-3-1, and suddenly chelsea were on the back foot, but the winning goal had nothing to do with Tactics, and a lot to do with the bizarre beachball that seems to be used in the football league, and the knowledge that sooner or later, that free kick was going to work out for Rashford. Either way, he stuck it in the top corner from nearly 40 yards. Chelsea did a lot of pressing after that, but the closest anyone came to scoring was Martial, who was inches wide with a beautiful curling shot, after a sharp counter attack.

You could see that both teams were a work in progress. If man utd can just find a third centre half who isn't marcos Rojo, they are very close to having their defensive game for big opponents sorted out. Chelsea may have had a lot of the ball, but they didn't seem to be enjoying it and were being pushed backwards with it a lot. It is tricky for a team that hasn't ever played together before, to play against a team that has been working on a particular plan for a bit, and I think that accounted for a lot of what you could see last night. It makes the "Solksjaer out thought frank lampard" a bit annoying. It misses the point that both teams are working towards their own goals and plans, and that man utd had given this system a run-out before, while Chelsea were playing with debutants, and some rusty players.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I'm surprised this issue has not cropped up before. How did Man U and Chelsea manage in their winning seasons? Did they always get knocked out by this stage?

Man utd won the league cup in 2008-9. I think the world club cup was on later in the season

[RobW]

[URL]https://twitter.com/Matt_Law_DT/status/1189830405337292801[/URL]

The Daily Telegraph's Matt Law has suggested via his twitter some shenanigans regarding Man City's recent cup draws. Seemingly he forgets that as title winner they get a easier CL draw

[Sporting]

but the winning goal had nothing to do with Tactics, and a lot to do with the bizarre beachball that seems to be used in the football leagues.

Is it very different to the ball used in other leagues?

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

It's different to the one used in the Premier league anyway. It's sufficiently different that the players have to practice with it. You can see the ball repeatedly change trajectory for no real reason. There's one angle not shown there where you can see brandon williams with his two hands on his head in disbelief.

[Nocturnal Submission]

The man utd chelsea game was a lot less fun than the liverpool arsenal game, but it was very interesting to watch. Man utd fielded a team closer to their first XI than Chelsea, but it's what they were doing that was more interesting. They were playing 3-5-2, and every time the ball went out to the wing, the man utd wingback would push right up on the winger, while behind him, the defence switched to a back four, with the centre half on his side pushing out to give him support. After a while Christian Pulisic was actively running away from Aaron Wan Bissaka, because he didn't like having to deal with this. AWB wasn't kicking him all that much, but he was hounding him whenever the ball came near them. The problem was that Marcos Rojo isn't Lindelof, and Rojo can't follow basic instructions, so instead of automatically pushing out when the ball came down the man utd left, he left Brandon Williams on his own against callum Hudson odoi and reece james, and he performed manfully, but man utd only got away with it because it took Chelsea a while to twig this, and after that the ball eventually had to go into the middle.

In the first half Chelsea had 360 passes, and man utd had 204, and I think the second half must have been very similar because the possession share remained the same. The ball was moving really fast. It's not that long ago that there would only be 570 odd passes in a full game. Chelsea did very well to hold onto the ball for so long, because Man utd were pressing them very high up the pitch at times, and very hard in midfield throughout the game. I was quite impressed with Marc Guehi for Chelsea. He didn't have to do a whole heap, but he held his position very well relative to zouma, always made himself available to receive the ball, and always knew where it was going before he got it. It was harder to know what to make of Gilmour, other than he can pass the ball quickly and smoothly.

Chelsea were also well organized defensively for the most part and were able to switch to their defensive shape very quickly when man utd got the ball. The first goal came from man utd springing the functional right hand side of their defensive trap, with mc Tominay snaffling up a loose pass from an under pressure alonso, who was trying to avoid giving it directly to Wan-Bissaka. the ball went to James, who charged through the gap, past a guy in the edge of the box, and then swerving right across the path of Alonso who was desperately getting back into position, and he ploughed into the back of him kneeing him in the thigh, in the line of sight of the ref.

In the second half someone on the chelsea bench noticed that Rojo wasn't doing the same thing as lindelof, and chelsea switched to going down their right much more often and they started to get more into the game, the chelsea goal came from batshuayi bamboozling Maguire with a header, and by the time maguire had figured out where the ball had gone, batshuayi was away. See this is the sort of thing that worries me about Maguire, and makes me marvel at just how he has acquired such a high reputation and cost so much. He never played in a high defensive line until he was at man utd, and he doesn't always know what to do. and he couldn't even get close enough to chop him down and get a yellow card. I wasn't impressed by Rojo's positioning, but the shot was amazing. Man utd brought on Martial and perreira for lindelof, and lingard, and switched to 4-2-3-1, and suddenly chelsea were on the back foot, but the winning goal had nothing to do with Tactics, and a lot to do with the bizarre beachball that seems to be used in the football league, and the knowledge that sooner or later, that free kick was going to work out for Rashford. Either way, he stuck it in the top corner from nearly 40 yards. Chelsea did a lot of pressing after that, but the closest anyone came to scoring was Martial, who was inches wide with a beautiful curling shot, after a sharp counter attack.

You could see that both teams were a work in progress. If man utd can just find a third centre half who isn't marcos Rojo, they are very close to having their defensive game for big opponents sorted out. Chelsea may have had a lot of the ball, but they didn't seem to be enjoying it and were being pushed backwards with it a lot. It is tricky for a team that hasn't ever played together before, to play against a team that has been working on a particular plan for a bit, and I think that accounted for a lot of what you could see last night. It makes the "Solksjaer out thought frank lampard" a bit annoying. It misses the point that both teams are working towards their own goals and plans, and that man utd had given this system a run-out before, while Chelsea were playing with debutants, and some rusty players.

Excellent analysis, TAB.

Jinks. That Rashford free-kick. I'm honestly not sure that I've seen a ball wobble and move in the air like that before. It was a bit like one of those CR7 ones when he'd toe-punt it on the valve.

[Sporting]

"CR7" my arse!

[Nocturnal Submission]

"CR7" my arse!

Heh! I couldn't be bothered to type out his full name and thought I'd give his ridiculous nom de marketing a run-out.

Obviously I won't do that again!

[EIM]

I'm not sure how, but Scott McTominay has suddenly turned into Bryan Robson. It seems a long time since he got in the team under Mourinho for being tall. Brandon Williams looks like he could be the fullback Luke Shaw should be, him smashing Hudson-Odoi over the hoardings shows that there's a streak there that a first team player needs. I remember a time when beating Chelsea was impossible, but now we've not lost in 5 against them and won three of those. I'm not sure how, really. Still, no goals from open play, but there's a momentum building which, if carried on into the league, could see us avoid relegation.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Man utd won the league cup in 2008-9. I think the world club cup was on later in the season

No, the world club cup was the same dates, but the league cup quarter final was in the first week of December. I think it might be the international break in November that's bunched everything up this year. The annoying thing is that the EFL knew as far back as May that either Liverpool or Spurs were going to be in Qatar when they set these dates.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I'm not sure how, but Scott McTominay has suddenly turned into Bryan Robson. It seems a long time since he got in the team under Mourinho for being tall. Brandon Williams looks like he could be the fullback Luke Shaw should be, him smashing Hudson-Odoi over the hoardings shows that there's a streak there that a first team player needs. I remember a time when beating Chelsea was impossible, but now we've not lost in 5 against them and won three of those. I'm not sure how, really. Still, no goals from open play, but there's a momentum building which, if carried on into the league, could see us avoid relegation.

But he's always been more than just tall. i must admit that I was surprised to see him do this but apparently this is the impact of growing up watching Lionel Messi. but He was very good against Barcelona last season Watching him barging around the midfield in this game, left me suspecting that barcelona were going to get milled over by liverpool like a corncrake cowering from a combine harvester.

And please, for the sack of accuracy, Williams threw him over the hoarding like a discus. I've genuinely never seen anything quite like it before. I mean that's pretty impressive technique.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

You'll win nothing with kids. Especially when you've taken some of them to Qatar.

Liverpool's expected starting XI tonight has a grand total of 17 previous first team games between them (many sub appearances in this competition) and an average age of 19.

If they win it will be probably be remembered as both a triumph for them and a massive defeat for Aston Villa. If not, everyone shrugs their shoulders. Either way, it's a shambolic embarrassment, really, for a quarter-final match between two of the most successful clubs in the competition's history.

In other news today, the French clubs have voted to abolish their League Cup, which led Rick Parry to say "we are unique among the major leagues in having a League Cup". Ah, Scotland. I'm sure Rick will still send a card.