Team v Grimsby

Kilip
McCarthy McCart Gevigney
Lofthouse Chapman Benson Dodgson
Nejman
Cosgrove Marsh

 

Not allowed. There are limits to the amount you can play who didn't start your last league match, to stop clubs taking the complete piss out of the tournament.

 

Best team we have. Winning is a good habit to get into.

 

I'd keep as much as first team in as possible but make a few changes for fitness etc.

Rest Cole and let Marsh have a start
Start cosgrove to give him a chance to get off the mark.
Start McCarthy for fitness
Give McAtee a try in the attacking mid role

 

McCarthy, Mccart, gevigney and Benson would be the 4 qualifying players with over 40 first team starts in their career

 

Put the minimum team out to meet the requirements and tell them to treat it like a friendly. There's enough fixtures in the calendar without Mickey Mouse competitions and I don't think we have the squad depth to take it seriously.

 

Without checking whether or not it meets the rules, I’d play:

Killip
Gevigney McCarthy McCart
Cotter Dodgeson
Bland
Chapman Connell
Marsh Cosgrove

 

Cosgrove in for Cole, maybe. Possibly try out a new midfield.

I think we'd be better off giving our first choice defence another slightly lower-pressure game together to get to know one another a bit more, to be honest. Joke of a tournament, but may as well make the most of it.

 

That last category takes the piss doesn’t it?? So we could play 7 under 18s, who have never even been in the U21s, but if we play 4 Premiership loanees, all of whom also have never played a first team game, then it’s okay?? I think that shows you what this competition has become.

 

Couldn’t agree more.

 

Would still like to win it.

 

I love it when we think we're too Wednesday to bother with competitions we actually have a chance of winning.
How many trophies have we won in 136 years?
Plus winning it a few years back didn't exactly do us any harm. We went back to Wembley two months later and played like we owned the place.
I damn well wish we'd been in the final last season. We might not have played the first half of the play off final devoid of any spark if we had.

 

Killip
Cotter Mccarthy Mccart Shepherd Winfield
Russell Benson
Chapman
Marsh Watters/ Cosgrove

Marsh deserves a start. Maybe Jalo too

 

I think its been tarnished with the introduction of u21s mate. I think that's why people frown upon it now. So glad we won it before they got involved. Just catering to big clubs again.

 

Its a pathetic competition now though, after they brought in the group stages and the Prem u21 teams.
Weren't we the last to win it in its original format, back in '16 ?.
I do still wish though that we'd take the League cup more seriously.

 

So what we're effectively doing Tyke is saying, you can buy the top division out of the reach of the ordinary club, now here you go, come and take our competition and have that too.
I dislike the current format as much as anyone but if we don't like Prem U21 teams in it then pick a strong side and knock the b******rds out. We still have to beat the league clubs anyway. The competition hasn't been weakened by having U21s in it. It's been weakened by the league clubs now treating the games as friendlies. I've noticed that U21 teams seem to be doing a lot better now. That's not because they're getting better, it's because league teams have stopped playing any semblance of a strong team against them.
If we really want to get them out either beat them or, rather than doing a half assed boycott by not trying actually group together and refuse to enter.
Back to my point about wishing we'd got to the final last year. The year we won it we were already a magnificent side by the time we played Oxford in the final yet we were really poor first half against a team a league below us. Totally flat. We found a way to win second half then went back against Millwall, a strong team from our own division, and had them on the canvas within 20 minutes. There's no way the first game didn't influence the second.
Finally, Plymouth. It didn't do them any harm getting to the final. In fact as the pressure from ourselves, Wednesday and Ipswich piled on them later in the season, far from buckling from being overstretched by their EFL run they responded and comfortably held us off.
Success breeds success. Winning what some see as the European equivalent of the EFL Cup hasn't done West Ham any harm.

 

Does that apply still or to all competitions? The Tranmere game only had 4 from the game before including on the bench

 

Remember years ago to get round the rules Bradford started their 1st choice keeper and subbed him.off after 1 min claiming a mysterious injury. Shows how daft it is.........

 

No game next Saturday so play as most of yesterday's starters.