Pre-Match EFL Cup v Sunderland (A) (1 Viewer)
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Jay Bee
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EFL Cup v Sunderland (A)
From reading social media after the draw, Sunderland fans will be grateful to be out of this competition. I imagine that feeling has only grown this month.
Tonight they are playing their third Europa league game. They also skipped one round of the league cup - so not THAT much more football than us.
But being bottom of the PL and with five more EL games to come by the end of January, this will be bottom of their list of priorities. Imagine the worrying on here if we were in this position!
If we play a pretty strong team we should be favourites to progress to the fifth round - for the fifth time in seven years.
Tonight they are playing their third Europa league game. They also skipped one round of the league cup - so not THAT much more football than us.
But being bottom of the PL and with five more EL games to come by the end of January, this will be bottom of their list of priorities. Imagine the worrying on here if we were in this position!
If we play a pretty strong team we should be favourites to progress to the fifth round - for the fifth time in seven years.
Untouchable
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EFL Cup v Sunderland (A)
Sunderland are playing Leeds on Sunday and I don’t see them getting much from that. All good signs for them going weak against us.
Untouchable
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EFL Cup v Sunderland (A)
It gets better. Sunderland play Coventry 3 days after they play us. They’ve got to be targeting 3 points from that.
At this rate we might be playing their academy kids!
Greybeard
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EFL Cup v Sunderland (A)
Bo
Both teams will rotate to protect PL starters. Our reserves are probably pretty equal. But they are at home and will therefore possibly be slight favourites.
badgerbee
Mafeking Avenue........gets you there!!!!
Jay Bee
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EFL Cup v Sunderland (A)
I expect them to rotate more for the reasons outlined above - they will be worried about league form rightly or wrongly - and have a string of european games to make a priority.
I think we will make some changes too.... but if we played 6 first XI players away to Reading I'd expect the same or more here.
Gazza Bee
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EFL Cup v Sunderland (A)
If we go relatively strong (and given our squad we can field a strong team even with 6 or 7 changes) I feel this is there to be won with Sunderlands schedule.
ruislip bee
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EFL Cup v Sunderland (A)
Yep. Brings home the rigours of European football! Very good job we didn't qualify the season before last given the injuries we incurred durring last season. I reckon we'd all have been in line for getting a game!
Edmundo
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EFL Cup v Sunderland (A)
Are there reserves really as good as ours? Convince me, as I’m sceptical.
Bee(h)Iver
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EFL Cup v Sunderland (A)
I imagine we’ll go stronger in this game than Sunderland, especially as they play Sunday like us but because of their current league position, there is an strong argument that home to Leeds and away to Coventry are games they really need to get points from if they don’t want to be languishing in the bottom three.
We’ll see after the weekend who is available but I imagine starts for Carvalho, Wilson and maybe Collins if he’s only on the bench on Sunday. Is Yarmo available for this, or is this the second game he misses?
We’ll see after the weekend who is available but I imagine starts for Carvalho, Wilson and maybe Collins if he’s only on the bench on Sunday. Is Yarmo available for this, or is this the second game he misses?
Greybeard
Member
EFL Cup v Sunderland (A)
Depends exactly which ones each side picks. And how many first teamers are in the mix. Pretty unpredictable. I'm just guessing that there won't be much between the selected sides in terms of quality and experience.
That said they do have a big fixture list and may elect to play a very inexperienced side thereby virtually sacrificing the competition. In which case we might have a big edge.
But I'm expecting a close gane. Anyhow we will find out shortly!
Windmill Rd Bee
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EFL Cup v Sunderland (A)
Yarmo not available, but would expect Janelt to come back in
nick logan
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jlove
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EFL Cup v Sunderland (A)
I'd say that's guaranteed! All this nonsense about "reserves"... our bench against Liverpool was: Valdimarsson; Collins; Diouf; Hickey; Carvalho; Damsgaard; Sangaré; Schade; Wilson. Those that started and were substituted in our reorganisations were: van den Berg; Lewis-Potter; Anthony; Jensen; Ouattara. Whatever the selection for Hull, that's not a bad lot of reserves to pick from.
EFL Cup v Sunderland (A)
I don't usually advocate playing our strongest 11 for cup games but I think it's worth it here because I'd say it's our best ever chance to win a cup. Think Valdimarsson will play and there's an argument for starting Wilson but apart from that, I'd simply pick our best team
jlove
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EFL Cup v Sunderland (A)
Personally – and on the assumption that the plan is Thiago starts against Hull and Forest – I'd start Wilson and Anthony as they will have a greater appreciation of playing together. That leaves one other attacking selection which may be left or right.
Let's get Hull out of the way first.