We shouldn't have played our first team in the FA / League cups.

[Teja]

20/20 hindsight and all that, but given our threadbare squad, we should've simply played the younger players like Pool and not have taken the league / FA cups seriously at all. Would've saved us two replays (against Wolves and City no less) during an already congested fixture period.

We would've been fresher for the PL top four push and the EL knock outs. Here's a look at our fixture list until now, continues the same way the rest of Jan as well.

Sheffield - 11/24
Astana - 11/28 (+4d)
Villa - 12/1 (+3d)
Spurs - 12/4 (+3d)
City - 12/7 (+3d)
AZ - 12/12 (+5d)
Everton - 12/15 (+3d)
Colchester - 12/18 (+3d)
Watford - 12/22 (+4d)
Newcastle - 12/26 (+4d)
Burnley - 12/28 (+2d)
Arsenal - 1/1 (+3d)
Wolves - 1/4 (+3d)
City - 1/7 (+3d)
Norwich - 1/11 (+3d)
Wolves - 1/15 (+4d)
Pool - 1/19 (+4d)

On an average we've had ~3.5 days between games for the last two months. Most of these games we've been forced into selecting two midfielders from Fred, Pereira and Matic and 3 forwards from James, Greenwood, Rashford and Martial. It's hardly a surprise that we have so many injuries.

I also want to appreciate how much work Fred and Pereira have put in during this run. They sometimes lack quality, but you can't really question the effort from them.

Thoughts?

 

[The Don]

I'm on the fence on this one. Getting 4th place should be, by some distance, our primary target. It's imperative. I could perfectly understand concentrating solely on that target. However, winning a cup, winning any piece of silverware could be a massive boon for the squad. It's a confidence booster for the lads and the manager and could spark that winning mentality and hunger for success, right the way through the squad.

 

[Sky1981]

Weak club mentality, unbecoming of Manchester United.

Let's just scrape EL, FA, League, and focus on EPL.

We're United, not Watford, even watford don't resort to this.

 

[JPB]

Let's just scrape EL, FA, League, and focus on EPL.

We're United, not Watford, even watford don't resort to this.
[/QUOTE]

This doesn't make any sense.

It's even weaker to get beat and knocked out of a cup, by a club the size of Wolves. We should win every game and every cup.

 

[JPB]

Weak club mentality, unbecoming of Manchester United.

Let's just scrape EL, FA, League, and focus on EPL.

We're United, not Watford, even watford don't resort to this.

This doesn't make any sense.

It's even weaker to get beat and knocked out of a cup, by a club the size of Wolves. We should win every game and every cup.

 

[zenith]

I would argue that we need not bother with our first team even for the man city semi final. Our priority with this wafer thin squad and injuries has got to be on the league and europa. What do we have to gain from fielding a full strength team in cups at this point.

By all means we should do that after we have recruited well and have a healthy squad size but certainly not now.