Excellent. A chance for us to give King his first minutes of the season. The last 5, obviously, so we can give Troy a rest, having started every other game we’ve played.
Great, we could do with getting knocked out the cups asap. We'll need to save the team for the far more important matter of league survival.
I fully agree with this. Survival should be our main aim this season, getting further in Cups is pointless if we end up going down. Besides it seems even the fixture balls have a way of always wanting us to have egg and chips for breakfast.
It's not like we'll be putting out the first team. As far as I'm concerned the more games the better - feels like in the Premier League teams not in Europe are hardly ever playing! Especially compared to the Championship. Plus the more cup games the more minutes the fringe players get under their belts.
Given that our squad lacks adequate depth in multiple positions; at centre forward, for example, so badly that the fact that one single player is not fit to play means we are (as far as we can tell) seriously going to start Troy Deeney in our first game back in the Premier League on Saturday, I'm not sure we can really afford to be playing a single extra game or taking the risk to any of our players, starting XI or fringe, that that entails.
I presume King and Pedro might be fit by then ..? Other than that it’s a just another game really neither team will be fused about . Not sure I’d want to play the Under 23s given their form in Pre season !
When we are 10 points adrift of safety by the end of Nov, we’ll regret not taking this prestigious cup more seriously.
Am able to go to this (I don’t get to go to many so league cup or not I’m looking forward to it). Guessing the team will be something like - Foster - Ngakia Cathcart Pollock Rose - Gosling Chalobah Louza - Fletcher Deeney Baah. Dependant on injuries, returning from injuries or new signings. Not too bad as a cup team?
Team for Palace: Foster Kiko Pollock Sierralta Rose Louza Gosling (if available, if not, Etebo) Sema Cucho Baah King We have a 5 day break between the Palace game and Sunday's game against Spurs, so a good chance to get certain players up to speed for the weekend. I don't think I could name 3 midfielders who I think would be available for Tuesday lol, so I've gone for Sema in the advanced role with Louza further back, although I suspect Louza may be best suited to playing further forward
Well I think we'll play a team much closer to what will be our first XI than the equivalent early round Carabao fixtures last season, simply because most of our youngsters who are worth a carrot are either on loan or linked with some sort of move away. I'd love to win the game, but it's not essential, and I think above all, it's important to play some of the lads who haven't been available (yeah, I know, minutes in the legs klaxon, but still, having not started the first two games, Sierralta, Kiko, Rose and King need to get up to speed for the big ones coming up)
I want to see what Baah is all about! OK, this isn't against a lower league opponent, but early round Carabao Cup games are the kind of games you want and expect to see players like him
Albeit our midfield seems to be in a big state of flux, with players unavailable for various reasons, but I don't think Wise will play, he certainly doesn't even seem to be one of our better U23 players, I think it would spell danger against a Prem team (even if it is the reserves of Palace who will play). Fletch would be an interesting one out wide, I put Cucho, who hasn't started a game yet, although I suppose with about 70 mins played he might be match-sharp enough
