re: Why does Klopp get a pass regarding how he handles domestic cups?

But it’s Shrewsbury...does Klopp need to field all of his starters? I know they got the draw, but I think 9 times out of 10, Liverpool youth squad can beat Shrewsbury. I agree that Klopp should at least be on the sideline, but I don’t see a problem with starting mostly youth players.

They were good enough to beat a near full strength Everton, no?

I’m saying I don’t see a problem with starting guys like Elliot, Curtis, Hoever, Larouci along side a couple of 1st team players that need touches. A roster with those or similar players, on paper, is good enough to beat Shrewsbury. Youth players get good exposure and experience from it at least.

I’ve seen y’all mention other teams having gone through the same scenario - did those teams send out full strength squads against obviously overmatched opponents? Genuinely curious.

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Anything can happen in a one off but saying a youth team wins 9 out of 10 is a bit over the top

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Yeah, sorry - I misspoke. Was meaning a squad along the lines of what Klopp started in the first match vs Shrewsbury. To my knowledge, he has not started a full on youth squad against anyone. There are always a few 1st team guys in there.

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But we are under the impression it will be a full on youth team. Not with first team squad players in it.

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Hope that will not be the case. We have guys coming back from injury that need touches.

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In a replay teams in the higher division usually roll out strong squads Bc they are not going to frick around

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Fair enough.

I did some digging. It’s hard to find any comparisons bc no PL teams have had to play the CWC since Chelsea did in 2012-13 and adding in the CWC to domestic cups and CL seems to be Klopps issue (?). Hardly any downtime for 1st team guys.

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Hope that will not be the case. We have guys coming back from injury that need touches.

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Liverpool did this in the first match and they couldn’t take care of business even after bringing the big guns in late.

Like SCH said, everything Klopp has indicated leans towards the team being ALL non-first team players with the U23 manager taking charge.

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Pep complained about all the extra games and his bench is way deeper than ours

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Pep is still going full throttle in regards to lineups and making an appearance on match days for City in all four competitions.

If Pep personally refused to manage a first team cup match I’d call for his head. It’s unprofessional to the supporters, opposition and the competition as a whole.

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I really don’t understand why everyone else gets so bent out of shape about how Klopp treats the cups. If he doesn’t go for it, then that’s his choice and that affects his team

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it’s just a beta as hell attitude to potentially throw out additional chances at silverware when they are still very attainable.

He can obviously do what he wants, but it’s impossible for him to look good as a manager going about it in this fashion. He’s acting like it’s some kind of personally ploy that the FA are unloading upon him and Liverpool and if they crash out of any competition he is getting his scapegoat ready.

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He also said he was gonna have the U23 manager take over the match because it was gonna be all his players so it wouldn’t make sense since it wasn’t his players

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Imagine being a Liverpool U23 player and thinking your future manager is going to take charge in a match only to hear that he doesn’t consider you a player of his team and so he can’t be bothered to show up and coach you.

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Imagine being a Liverpool U23 player and thinking your future manager is going to take charge in a match only to hear that he doesn’t consider you a player of his team and so he can’t be bothered to show up and coach you.

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I said it in that post and I said it in my first post earlier this thread I agree that’s a bit much

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Pep is still going full throttle in regards to lineups and making an appearance on match days for City in all four competitions.

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Pep also has 60 million pound backup fullbacks. It's a little easier to risk your starters when you have players of that quality on the bench due to an infinite transfer budget

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If Pep personally refused to manage a first team cup match I’d call for his head

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And nobody would answer

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It’s unprofessional to the supporters, opposition and the competition as a whole.

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The number of competitions in England is a farce.

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He’s acting like it’s some kind of personally ploy that the FA are unloading upon him and Liverpool

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No he isn't. He's griped about the fixture congestion since he took over. Now he's taking a stand against it. This is a German man with German football roots that's used to a main cup competition and a two week winter break.

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and if they crash out of any competition he is getting his scapegoat ready.

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Because that's clearly what's happening here. Klopp has the best 11 in the world. If he were worried about the cup competition, then he'd field that 11 and beat Shrewsbury by 10 goals.

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it’s just a beta as hell attitude to potentially throw out additional chances at silverware when they are still very attainable.

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I know this is hard to understand for a city fan with your unlimited transfer budget and 200 million pound bench, but when you don't have world class players backing up your backups, you can't go full throttle in every competition without taking a major risk. Klopp thinks that the risk isn't worth the reward. Risking the league and CL to chase a domestic cup isn't enough of a reward in his eyes. I agree with him. It's going to be much more enjoyable for me as a fan to watch us lift the PL trophy and big ears (again). It will also rub everyone else the wrong way in a much larger fashion. Why risk all of that? Maybe one day we'll have Cancelo and Mahrez on our bench, but until then I'm perfectly fine with playing the youngsters against shrewsbury in a domestic cup.

Oh boy here we go

Andy Carroll TYFYS