Hanshithispantz

I'd say it's a bit more than 'pretty likely' that one of them will be in the final. I hadn't seen the draw tbh

He'll be listening to Mick Lowes' commentary ordering Carver to send HBA and Cisse on to win the game unaware of the fact we've scored 4 goals.

An hour before and after I think. Not 100% mind.

We now have a manager who's probably praying that we lose our next 7 games, and certainly the next 3.

Forum horse bets are deadly mind, I remember when Wormy killed the favourite at the Grand National.

Tin pot club.

Meh, it's a sensible ban imo. I think his touchline ban maybe should have been a little longer like to prevent him from nutting people.

The parity between our total passes per game and the next best above us is pretty galling. 62 passes per game between us and Tottenham. The rest off the league is pretty much dross both in style and productivity anyway.

Your mate said so: Your other mate keeps on saying we treat the cups exactly the same as every other club, despite recent results suggesting the contrary. You haven't read my post properly, I've made it clear that I realise it's not as straightforward as team selection. Our top 4 or 5 players do seem to repeatedly miss cup ties though, which can't help. I must have dreamt 2 FA Cup finals, an FA Cup semi final, a UEFA cup semi final, and a few other quarter finals in the 10 years before Ashley bought the club. 19 Premier League teams that have done better than us in the cups, and various Football League clubs. Why? Many on here are arguing that it's because we in fact do not treat the cups the same as every other club, we treat them with less respect (in terms of team selection, tactics, mentality, effort, etc) than any other club and this is reflected in our results. The only alternative reason I've seen from any of you is "the pressure that comes our way through being by far the biggest club not to have won any trophies for such a long period" which, although a novel one, is laughable. As if any of our players give a f*** about that when they're getting smashed by Brighton or Stevenage. So, on my point about the pressure that comes from not having won anything in such a long time - which the media harp on about all the time - are you saying that doesn't exist? Tell me your not saying that has a legitimate effect on our cup performance? at a final perhaps. In the 3rd round literally not at all. It's the worst thing I've heard on here since last night.

Ofcourse it doesn't exist Wigan won the FA Cup last year, Sunderland got to a final this year, it's pretty likely that at least one of Hull or Sheffield Utd will be in a final this year etc...

Since this post we beat Leeds at home, so it's gone up to 12 wins in 7 seasons, 10 of those against lower league sides. Our record against premier league sides (who are all resting players to the same level as we are of course) is: P12 W2 D1 L9 Translated to league form over a season = 22 pts Yeah. We try just as hard as everyone else. Also I'm not sure how people can say we rest exactly the same amount of key players as every other club. There's no actual proof for this, it's simply finger-in-the-air stuff. Well it’s all ‘finger in the wind’ in that case, isn’t it? Unless someone has got a formula which compares exactly how different teams are weakened by the omission of particular players, then it’s all going to be vague. And I haven't read anyone claiming that we field 'exactly' the same number of key players. That's not the point though isn't it? We rest players in the cups that we are heavily reliant on to win games, and then we lose. Seemingly not every club in the league suffers from this same problem. Whether it be that they just aren't as reliant on the players they choose to rest, they don't rest their key players at all, or some other reason, we appear to be the only club who consistently gets twatted from inferior opposition. We should probably stop resting our best players.

I'd be tempted to throw both games for the sake of not starting on -6 points next season. EDIT: Don't actually think that makes sense, sooo.

We can pass the ball about like (look at the Nowrich game even without Cabaye) we're just so muddled in our play that the next game we can come out and start aimlessly hoofing the ball forward to the point where one of their players is pointing it out. As much as a few will laugh (for some reason) at the fact a team like Southampton are below us they clearly have a game plan that they stick to for the most part, and it's evident when you watch them. I'd far rather our group of players had the same luxury.

We play at least 53 less short passes per game than 9 other sides in the league, I find it canny hilarious that people keep smugly marching in with this long ball stat like it proves anything other than we just don't pass it around all that much in general Not that I think we're an Allardyce-lite or anything, nowhere near.

They can just record two: Winning - 'Sit deep and pump it long' Drawing / Losing - 'Pump it long' Myth Only Arsenal play less long balls than us, we are second bottom of the long ball stats/per game, joint with Man City. http://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/Seasons/3853/Stages/7794/TeamStatistics/England-Premier-League-2013-2014 Aston Villa 71 Southampton 70 Fulham 68 Everton 67 Norwich 67 Hull 66 Cardiff 66 West Ham 66 Swansea 65 Sunderland 65 Tottenham 64 Chelsea 63 Man United 62 WBA 62 Crystal Palace 62 Stoke 60 Liverpool 56 Man City 55 NUFC 55 Arsenal 54 :lol:

I'd love to see the cunt poached in a vat of acid.

Ian, you essentially said that we're happy to just muddle through the opening stages of the cups if possible and then take them seriously when the final is in sight, and that many clubs are the same. Fuck knows what trollmache is going on about like. I think it's pretty clear that, even though most clubs will rest (or rotate) players when playing inferior opposition, few go in with the clear ambivalence that we do. We dropped Remy and Cabaye against Man City at home for god's sake.

Sunderland are your shot at the big time, otherwise you're doing ok working somewhere near the bottom of the football leagues. Good question Speaking from now I think I'd be over the moon working the bottom leagues, probably change my mind when they came in for me mind, take the lavish lifestyle and constant stream of fanny.

Do you honestly believe that the opposing view in this entire debate has been about other sides not resting players in the cups?

Anyway I'm not wasting my time anymore trying to persuade someone that we're rubbish in the cups. Goodbye.

You seem to have just made up the contents of the last few pages for some reason trollemache Fair play like.

Instead of just going to another club, or is this like a Sunderland or nothing deal?

I think outright stating that every club treats the cups the same way we do is defending it like. Clearly every club doesn't mind, hence how they all do better than us in the fuckers.

I'd have no problem with us resting players if we were making sensible changes. Not benching the only 2 players in the side who can score goals, or sticking our League 1 keeper in goal. That's fucking moronic.

Ahhhh now it makes perfect sense, cheers. I've changed my mind then, we're exactly the same as every other club, I just hope we get a good roll of the dice next year and muddle our way to Wembo!