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... has me feeling that our wait to pick up a tin pot will be a very long one despite how strong our squad is. The whole cup game thing has me sitting here feeling confused and disappointed:

Carling Cup Semi-final - United Home
United were there for the taking in the second half after our second goal. They looked visibly shocked and were in trouble but we stepped off the gas and conservatively saw out a narrow 2-1 win giving the away team that all important away goal and just one goal deficit giving them confidence for the second leg

Carling Cup Semi-final - United Away
Were outclassed in the first half and blown away as we set out very defensive trying to hold what we had - a narrow 1 goal advantage. Came back in the second half but the damage was done before the match started

Stoke City FA Cup Third Round - Home
No Tevez and a poor showing despite taking the lead early on we never went for it after that and everyone saw the equaliser coming, and from a bloody Delap throw-in and some terrible defending. Never really looked like we wanted to win it.

Stoke City FA Cup Third Round Reply - Away
Still couldn't deal with the Delay throw-ins and the mentality was poor from start to finish. We never looked like we were going to win it and were playing for extra time. When we did go behind we equalised straight away through Bellamy in what was one of our few attacks of the match. We then fell apart in extra-time in a torturous 30 min display.

Carling Cup - West Brom - Away
Very, very abject performance from the second string of players who looked like they wanted to be anywhere else other than in a sky blue shirt. We disrespected this game and were rightly punished for it.

Leicester City - FA Cup Third Round - Away
Came out as slow as anything and were punished. Took an age to look interested and get going. Finally got into the lead with a half arsed attitude and then because of this conceded a soft equaliser

Leicester City - FA Cup Third Round Reply - Away
Another half arsed display with the players never getting out of second gear. Scored a few goals and conceded a couple. We just went through the motions really.

Notts County - FA Cup Fourth Round - Away
One of the most pathetic games of the season. At least against other teams listed above they played quite well on occasions. Today both teams played dire so we didn't have an excuse - although the pitch will be mentioned - the real reason is we have a terrible mentality towards these games.

Europa League sidenote
Played 6 games - won 3 - drawn 2 - lost 1 (Looked under prepared in all of them and just went through the motions) :-(

I can fully understand the statement that the cup is a great leveler (especially away from home) but when looking at not 1 game but a total of 14 cup games in the last year and a bit the trend is worrying with our lack of wanting to win and showing some courage in the opening 90 minutes.

I can only count the Salzberg matches as cup games where we dominated the opposition from start to finish.

Why are we so tepid in our cup games and always look ripe for getting beat? We have the team to do it but fail on nearly every occasion to put in a performance.

Are they all bigger bottlers than an Andy Murray in a Grand Slam final??

This list could continue going back 35 years.

Saying all that it could be worse you could be a Spurs fan right now who are going to win the square root of fuck all, despite being the darlings of the media. They wont win the Chumps league, got smashed today at Fulham and have a job on their hands to finish 4th.

We have lost twice in 20 games and are still in two cup comps and have a good chance of a top 4 finish. Glass is half full in my eyes apart from when Jo poors then its empty cause he misses and then trips over it!

I agree we've looked half cocked in all cup competitions but we're still in two of them. I can see us taking it more seriously if we get through the next rounds but I can equally see potential injury problems causing Bob to be ultra cautious & select weakened teams, thus getting us knocked out of both competitions.

I really hope we get a player in tomorrow as it could be the thing that makes the difference.

Would it be fair to say that Patrick Vieira has started in every one of those matches?

SCAPEGOAT!!! HANG HIM HIGH!!

dazby wrote:Would it be fair to say that Patrick Vieira has started in every one of those matches?

SCAPEGOAT!!! HANG HIM HIGH!!

Hmm. I'll get my lynching outfit on & see if I can round up a posse. Lucky escape for Jo there..

Sister of fu wrote:Saying all that it could be worse you could be a Spurs fan right now who are going to win the square root of fuck all, despite being the darlings of the media. They wont win the Chumps league, got smashed today at Fulham and have a job on their hands to finish 4th.

We have lost twice in 20 games and are still in two cup comps and have a good chance of a top 4 finish. Glass is half full in my eyes apart from when Jo poors then its empty cause he misses and then trips over it!

What has Spurs and our league form got anything to do with the mentality shown in Cup competitions? I have no issues with our league form we are doing very well. I do, however, have issues with our Cup form.

Ted Hughes wrote:

dazby wrote:Would it be fair to say that Patrick Vieira has started in every one of those matches?

SCAPEGOAT!!! HANG HIM HIGH!!

Hmm. I'll get my lynching outfit on & see if I can round up a posse. Lucky escape for Jo there..

I love a good posse.

despite what he says ("is important"), I don't think Mancini is interested in the cups. Partly because if he'd won all 3 cups and finished 5th, he'd have been sacked, but also because cups outside England aren't as important as they are here.

Personally, he's really pissing me off, as any one of those cups was a real chance to win something and, although we're still in 2 I just don't see us doing it due to the attitude. Worse, the replays are affecting the league form as well.

MaineRoadMemories wrote:

Sister of fu wrote:Saying all that it could be worse you could be a Spurs fan right now who are going to win the square root of fuck all, despite being the darlings of the media. They wont win the Chumps league, got smashed today at Fulham and have a job on their hands to finish 4th.

We have lost twice in 20 games and are still in two cup comps and have a good chance of a top 4 finish. Glass is half full in my eyes apart from when Jo poors then its empty cause he misses and then trips over it!

What has Spurs and our league form got anything to do with the mentality shown in Cup competitions? I have no issues with our league form we are doing very well. I do, however, have issues with our Cup form.

Didn't say it had anything to do with it just said things could be worse. Were a year in with a new squad and a new manager so I'm willing to cut a bit of slack at the moment. IMO the 4th place in the be all and end all for Mancini and the City chiefs this season and I think you can see that in the cup runs. IMO they are prob wiling to sacrifice a cup run for that spot.

I don't think its just our mentality in the cup comps. I think it goes deeper than that. Whenever we have our usual spine missing, we struggle. Today, no de Jong, Kompany (for most of the time), no Tevez and no Silva ( for most of the time).Our replacements are all highly paid, well travelled, well experienced ppros, yet have difficulty overcoming very poor opposition.

It worries me that we may need to use some of these guys at the sharp end of the season and I am not sure they can hack it.
I expect players, when offered an opportunilty to claim a place, to grab that chance with both hands.

Sister of fu wrote:

MaineRoadMemories wrote:

Sister of fu wrote:Saying all that it could be worse you could be a Spurs fan right now who are going to win the square root of fuck all, despite being the darlings of the media. They wont win the Chumps league, got smashed today at Fulham and have a job on their hands to finish 4th.

We have lost twice in 20 games and are still in two cup comps and have a good chance of a top 4 finish. Glass is half full in my eyes apart from when Jo poors then its empty cause he misses and then trips over it!

What has Spurs and our league form got anything to do with the mentality shown in Cup competitions? I have no issues with our league form we are doing very well. I do, however, have issues with our Cup form.

Didn't say it had anything to do with it just said things could be worse. Were a year in with a new squad and a new manager so I'm willing to cut a bit of slack at the moment. IMO the 4th place in the be all and end all for Mancini and the City chiefs this season and I think you can see that in the cup runs. IMO they are prob wiling to sacrifice a cup run for that spot.

realistically, the revenue from CL qualification and advancement is probably more key to building a longterm dynasty than wimming the Milk Cup last season. We might disagree with that attitude, but from a "business" perspective..i think it's probably accurate.

cheers

john68 wrote:I don't think its just our mentality in the cup comps. I think it goes deeper than that. Whenever we have our usual spine missing, we struggle. Today, no de Jong, Kompany (for most of the time), no Tevez and no Silva ( for most of the time).Our replacements are all highly paid, well travelled, well experienced ppros, yet have difficulty overcoming very poor opposition.

It worries me that we may need to use some of these guys at the sharp end of the season and I am not sure they can hack it.
I expect players, when offered an opportunilty to claim a place, to grab that chance with both hands.

On the money again John lad.

Play without the spine of the team and hey ho you get the type of spineless performance we witnessed today.

The boss will learn from it tho'. This I'm sure of.

john68 wrote:I don't think its just our mentality in the cup comps. I think it goes deeper than that. Whenever we have our usual spine missing, we struggle. Today, no de Jong, Kompany (for most of the time), no Tevez and no Silva ( for most of the time).Our replacements are all highly paid, well travelled, well experienced ppros, yet have difficulty overcoming very poor opposition.

It worries me that we may need to use some of these guys at the sharp end of the season and I am not sure they can hack it.
I expect players, when offered an opportunilty to claim a place, to grab that chance with both hands.

we had some decent passing today given the dodgy pitch, but i kept thinking to myself. "Strangers...these cunts play like a bunch of strangers."

i think that's the difference. Not enough matches for some, and defo not enough together for most. i think yr onto something old man.

cheers

MaineRoadMemories wrote:Why are we so tepid in our cup games and always look ripe for getting beat? We have the team to do it but fail on nearly every occasion to put in a performance.

Are they all bigger bottlers than an Andy Murray in a Grand Slam final??

We are not arsed, simple as that. Last season it was Mancini who set us too conservatively maybe, this year we ar enot arsed until we reach the semifinal, only then the players will really start to care as the final glory is close.

Over-critical I would say. It's the FA Cup, which top team set the world alight?

Scum - completely outclassed first half by League 1 side, lucky to scrape through (AGAIN). Performance piss poor.

Arsenal - Outplayed for large parts of the match, ball skimming past their post several times, plus a fantastic save. Scraped through by bringing on Fabregas. Performance piss poor.

Chelsea - outplayed at Everton, saved a replay by a goal right out of the blue. Performance piss poor.

Spuds - nuff side. Absolutely fucking dire from the media's favourite team. Totally outclassed by a poor Fulham side.

City - not outplayed and though let in a leaky goal, came away with a deserved draw.

Isn't part of it the actual essence of cup games? Look how few prem teams are left, and few of them have breezed it!

We can't treat notts county away as our most important fixture of the year, neither can we play our first choice xi 65 times a season.

At our stage of development, prem league has to be the focus and cups mere baubles. Like it or not, we need champs league revenue or the wheels fall off

It's frustrating from our point of view because we desperately want a bragging prize, but we just haven't had enough time yet to build something that can win doubles and trebles.

Patrick wrote:Isn't part of it the actual essence of cup games? Look how few prem teams are left, and few of them have breezed it!

We can't treat notts county away as our most important fixture of the year, neither can we play our first choice xi 65 times a season.

At our stage of development, prem league has to be the focus and cups mere baubles. Like it or not, we need champs league revenue or the wheels fall off

It's frustrating from our point of view because we desperately want a bragging prize, but we just haven't had enough time yet to build something that can win doubles and trebles.

"we need champs league revenue or the wheels fall off"

Is that right? We are the richest club in the world and we NEED CL revenue or we die!

Our owners need the CL as part of their world domination,spread the name plan but surely the revenue part isnt the be all and end all.

DoomMerchant wrote:

john68 wrote:I don't think its just our mentality in the cup comps. I think it goes deeper than that. Whenever we have our usual spine missing, we struggle. Today, no de Jong, Kompany (for most of the time), no Tevez and no Silva ( for most of the time).Our replacements are all highly paid, well travelled, well experienced ppros, yet have difficulty overcoming very poor opposition.

It worries me that we may need to use some of these guys at the sharp end of the season and I am not sure they can hack it.
I expect players, when offered an opportunilty to claim a place, to grab that chance with both hands.

we had some decent passing today given the dodgy pitch, but i kept thinking to myself. "Strangers...these cunts play like a bunch of strangers."

i think that's the difference. Not enough matches for some, and defo not enough together for most. i think yr onto something old man.

cheers

Oops replied to wrong quote for a moment there.

We had a team full of central, not especially creative midfielders & a centre forward, plus a Jo. We played like you would expect a team full of not especially creative central midfielders & a centre forward plus a Jo to play, on a bumpy pitch. As soon as Silva came on, he seemed to have no problem passing normally & Kolarov seemed to have no problem crossing, nor Micah.

It was a disrespectful, uninspired selection & played exactly as you would expect it to. Keegan's 1st division side would have scored four on the same pitch because it had better attacking players in it as well as pace.

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:

Patrick wrote:Isn't part of it the actual essence of cup games? Look how few prem teams are left, and few of them have breezed it!

We can't treat notts county away as our most important fixture of the year, neither can we play our first choice xi 65 times a season.

At our stage of development, prem league has to be the focus and cups mere baubles. Like it or not, we need champs league revenue or the wheels fall off

It's frustrating from our point of view because we desperately want a bragging prize, but we just haven't had enough time yet to build something that can win doubles and trebles.

"we need champs league revenue or the wheels fall off"

Is that right? We are the richest club in the world and we NEED CL revenue or we die!

Our owners need the CL as part of their world domination,spread the name plan but surely the revenue part isnt the be all and end all.

I'm talking about the new financial regulations, revenue is critical