Saturday 7th January 2017 FA Cup 3rd round Deepdale KO: 17:30 Live on BT Sports 1
So it’s a break from the League, and time for domestic cup action. We haven’t played Preston in any competition since 1999, when we came from 2-0 down, to win 4-2, also in the 3rd round of the FA Cup.
Preston are having a solid season in the Championship, currently in 11th position. After the extraordinary night in Bournemouth, we really need to get back down to basics in this one. Defence seriously needs to tightening up for this one.
In terms of who we play is a tricky one. We seem to have occured several injuries in the last few days and not much option in terms of being able to rotate much. Will we see a return for Ozil?
I could see the likes of Perez and Oxlade starting, possiblity Holding as well. We need a mature, professional performance. I’m going for a 2-1 win.
Well it’s been a while since we had a bit of a customise match thread name and the last time we played them, we hadn’t had our Invincibles season yet, so thought it might be a fun one to have on this occasion
I was at this game on a monday night , I loved going to football then ,il be struggling to raise the effort to watch on the box for this one though as we field a weak side that looks disinterested !
With some of the performances we are capable of we shouldn’t underestimate anyone. I remember when league 2 Bradford knocked us out of the League cup in the 12/13 season not long ago.
Let’s face it, Preston haven’t got a single player that would get into our squad because if they did, we would have them.
So even if we rested every first team player, our second string should win easily.
Play first team players against Preston->moan because they run the risk of getting injured
Rest them->moan because we run the risk of getting knocked out
Luca the FA Cup represents our only chance of winning a trophy this season ,I would go for it full strength as along as they are fit !
Our manager will rest players and field an unbalanced team because he harbours delusional aspirations of winning the league,something he will never do again even if he lives and is in charge aged 100 !
I really want us to go full throttle for the FA cup now. The league is done, and even if it isn’t, why not let our hungry squad players try and prove themselves in league games. I think we will have enough to make top 4 regardless of whether we play our strongest team for every single league game, so I would ideally like to see the better players being saved for FA cup and the Bayern tie, when there is a conflict with league fixtures. Maybe we could even have a little Champions League run, who knows. I’d just like to see things getting mixed around a bit instead of the same old patterns.