As a Livingston fan, some of the best games I’ve been to have involved Livi in the cup. Winning the CIS Cup, beating Sturm Graz in the UEFA Cup, a long trip to Aberdeen to dump them out of the Scottish Cup – that’s only to name a few.
Even watching games on TV, cup ties have always had an extra bit of spice to them – take Inverness beating Celtic (twice!) or Liverpool’s famous Champions League final comeback against AC Milan. Another couple of fixtures which wouldn’t have normally been possible or probably not half as exciting had they been a regular occurrence. The lure of the cup has always added an edge to games.
However, it’s becoming more and more of a regular thing to see cup games treated as a break for clubs with senior players being rested in favour of blooding in the kids.
Take this seasons Carling Cup as an example. The three teams newly promoted to the EPL – Norwich, QPR & Swansea, were all knocked out at the first hurdle after playing the games with a ‘weakened’ team. The reasoning behind it, for those three anyway, is that surviving in the top flight is the main priority and as such, the cup doesn’t mean anything.
There may be something in that given that Birmingham, who won last seasons Carling Cup, were relegated from the EPL in doing so. On the flipside however, they got a trophy in their cabinet, a night of massive celebrations in Brum and entry into this seasons Europa League. A fair sacrifice?
What happens if the three newly promoted sides are all relegated this season anyway (which is a good possibility)? Not only do the fans suffer a season of constant defeat domestically, but they didn’t even get any form of cup run to keep their mind of it.
I know from watching Livi struggle in the SPL that when it came to cup matches, there was a sense of playing without any pressure. The players seemed to know that they could relax a bit and play football without fearing slipping further behind the teams infront.
Where will it stop? Even in Europe’s biggest club competition, the Champions League, Manchester United were resting players in order to save them for the weekends big league match against rivals Chelsea. They play all season to win the league and qualify for these tournaments, only to then rest players for group games in order to stay fresh for the league. Spurs, likewise, fielded players that their own fans had never heard of because old ‘Arry doesn’t rate the Europa league and is solely focussed on a 4th place finish to ensure Champions League football next season.
What about the fans who spent their hard earned money on flights and match tickets to travel to Portugal and Greece to back their sides, only to see a weakened team fielded because the game wasn’t deemed important enough by the managers? Likewise the Swansea fans who made near 6 hour round-trip to Shrewsbury, mid-week, to see their team knocked-out because of team selection.
I think, in Europe, the solution is moving back to the old-school style of knockout matches from the word go. Knockout would definitely make teams treat ties more seriously, knowing that they could quite easily be out the competition entirely if they weren’t taking it seriously in early rounds. It will never happen now though because of the money made from group games and the seeded nature which angles towards helping the big teams survive as long as possible.
I’m all for bleeding in the youngsters and giving them a chance but is it really beneficial to them to get chucked into a first round league cup match only to get blootered off the park and knocked out the cup by some low league side?
I’d love to see Livi win a cup again and given that we’ve made it into the Ramsdens Cup semi-final already this season, hopefully it’ll be sooner rather than later.
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