In Praise of B Teams

Premier League teams often use these early round FA Cup matches as a chance to give their regulars a rest and we see some of the bench players.  A tipoff that this might be happening is when one of the midfielders wears #67 and is 18 years old.  With many teams dealing with league play and European competitions, this strategy makes sense but it can be risky.  Cursory analysis suggests that six teams tried it for this "weekend's" 4th round matches and though there were close calls, most got away with.

Joe Willock's brace was the difference for Newcastle

Exhibit A is Newcastle, who switched out nine starters for their away match at Birmingham (1st place in League One).  They fell behind in 44 seconds.  Though momentarily stunned, the Magpies did rally for two quick scraggly goals at 21 and 26 minutes.  Alas, a screamer from Iwata (seen here) leveled the match before halftime.  As the teams went back and forth in the second half, I kept telling myself that a loss to Birmingham would be embarrassing but not a bad thing.  Joe Willock rendered the issue moot with his second goal of the day on a shot that went between the keeper's wickets; not a pretty YouTubeableMoment but it did send Newcastle to the next round.  

Several others escaped but just barely.  Man City needed a late goal from substitute Kevin DeBruyne to snatch a 2-1 win over League One Leyton Orient.  Fulham barely edged League One Wigan 2-1 and Crystal Palace worked their butts off to defeat League Two Doncaster 2-0.  Nottingham Forest were nearly turned into a pumpkin by another Cinderella side, Exeter City (League Two).  Their match ended 2-2 in regular time and even up a man, Forest could not score in extra time.  They advanced only after going 4-2 on PKs.

Elliott's handball was Liverpool's undoing
Photo:Getty Images Sport

First place Liverpool were not so lucky against Plymouth (last in the Championship).  Manager Arne
Slot's gamble was bit riskier.  Often the manager will leave key players out of the starting lineup but bring them on as necessary to save the day.  Slot left Salah, Van Dijk, Gakpo, MacAllister and others at home.  Still, realistically, they had the horses to beat Plymouth.  But Elliott got called for handling in the box and the PK was converted.  Meanwhile, Liverpool did not take advantage of their chances (xG was 1.74) and the final was 1-0.

FA Cup By the Numbers

Records by division:

EPL 11-6

Championship 5-4

League One 0-5

League Two 0-1

So the "magical" aspect of the FA Cup is basically over with only teams from the top two divisions left.  Plymouth will be the lowest placed team going into the fifth round.

Biggest mismatches:

Doncaster - Crystal Palace (59 places)

Exeter - Nottingham Forest (59)

Leyton Orient - MCI (48)

Plymouth - Liverpool (43)

Birmingham - Newcastle (42)

Upsets

I count five upsets but four were pretty tame.  Certainly Plymouth over Liverpool was big.  Brighton 2-1 over Chelsea?  They are both top ten in the EPL.  Millwall 2-0 over Leeds?  Two Championship division sides separated by just 13 places.  Burnley's 1-0 win over Southampton?  Even though they are in different divisions, they're only separated by three places - Southampton last in EPL, Burnley third in Championship; in fact there's a high probability the two sides will switch divisions next year.  Lastly, Cardiff City (19th in the Championship) beat Stoke (18th in the Championship) on PKs.

With Liverpool and Chelsea bowing out, Nottingham Forest are the top side remaining.  Other top ten EPL sides still in the competition are Man City, Newcastle, Bournemouth, AstonVilla, Fulham and Brighton.

About That VAR

Because so many matches in the fourth round are at the smaller venues, VAR is not available.  Neither is goal line technology.  It takes some getting used to watching a goal that looks offside and then realizing there will be no wait for review - it's a goal.  Some think this is a good thing but others maybe not so much.

Harry Maguire (in red at the top) is clearly offside

Take Man United's stoppage time goal to lift them past Leicester 2-1.  Real time I was pretty sure Maguire was well offside.  The replay confirmed it (see picture left).  With VAR, the goal certainly would have been ruled out.  Leicester manager Ruud Van Nistelrooy was incensed, though interestingly he didn't moan about the lack of VAR just the poor judgment of the AR.  His quote:

VAR wasn't necessary.  That deals with centimetres and inches; this was half a metre.

I get his drift but apparently VAR was necessary.

The ball looks over the line in this picture

Newcastle may or may not have benefitted as well.  In real time, Joe Willock's shot was maybe stopped by the keeper just before it crossed the line.  The players acted as if it had been saved.  Assistant referee Nigel Lugg immediately waved his flag to indicate the ball had completely crossed the line.  See the picture right.  Two thoughts here.  Many suggest the picture shows the ball did not completely cross the line.  My eyes tell me it shows space between the back of the post and the front of the ball, indicating it's a goal. However, I will concede the picture was not taken right at the goal line and that it's possible that, after correcting for parallax error, the picture might show it had not completely crossed.  BUT... Note that Lugg had not reached the goal line when he had to make his call.  If he signalled goal because he saw space between the post and the ball, parallax error means the ball was even farther across the line than what his eyes told him.

This article at skysports identifies a couple other possible calls for which VAR might have yielded a different decision.

Ange's Bad Awful Week

Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou has probably had better days.  Recall that Spurs were unceremoniously bounced from the Carabao Cup after a 4-0 loss at Anfield.  Sunday in an FA Cup tie with Aston Villa, Spurs were absolutely awful in the first half and were lucky to only be down 1-0 at the break.  They were marginally better in the second half but gave up another goal.  Only a stoppage time tally from new guy Mathys Tel made the score look a little better.  Eliminated from two cups in five days.  Not a good look.

Conversation That Could Never Have Taken Place

Dennis: Why do you keep comparing Villa Park to a cheap motel?

Steve: Because clean sheets are in short supply at both.

Heard at Halftime

I don't know who said it but Dennis reported when they cut to the studio after the turgid 0-0 first half between Plymouth and Liverpool somebody on the ESPN team led with:

This is where we normally bring you the highlights of the first half but there aren't any.  Literally nothing happened.

That'll leave a mark.

Boys Behaving Badly

Remember the reported dustup at halftime of the Newcastle - Aston Villa Boxing Day fixture?  That was the one where Duran got a red card and both sides were hot  - Newcastle because they thought Duran could have hurt Schar and Aston Villa because they thought Schar had "bought" the red card with his histrionics.  Also there was bad blood between Emery and Newcastle assistant Jason Tindall.  There was enough substance to the halftime mess that the FA had to investigate the particulars.  Their report is discussed here and here  Mostly the FA seems to be upset the both clubs saw at least some of their officials lose control and fined each of them.  Villa's fine was slightly higher and one of their personnel got a two match ban.

More Boys Behaving Badly

He started it. No, he started it first

Wednesday was the final Merseyside Derby to be held at Goodison Park.  It had everything, good and bad.  Back and forth action, lead changes, a lot of snarl.  In the end, it was a stoppage time goal from James Tarkowski that brought the match to a 2-2 "conclusion."  Except that wasn't quite the end.  Abdoulaye Doucoure decided to head over to the traveling Liverpool fan section and taunt the visitors.  Curtis Jones took exception.  Things deteriorated and it was a while before order was restored.  Doucoure and Jones both got yellows, the second for each that day, so they got red cards as well.  A Liverpool assistant got  red carded, as did head coach Arne Slot.

There were some complaints about Michael Oliver's refereeing from Liverpool, including how much extra time was played.  I watched and would say Oliver was maybe too quick with the whistle at times but was consistently so.  As for the added time to the added time, there was one goal kick over which Liverpool keeper Alisson took his sweet time and you could clearly see Oliver point to his watch indicating he would be adding more time.  Tough day for Oliver in his first match back after the Wolves - Arsenal match which saw him get death threats for issuing a red card.  I include the full highlights package of the match here and suggest it's worth the 12 minutes.

A statistical note - all-time, Everton and Liverpool conclude their time at Goodison Park completely even.  Each has won 41 times and there have been 38 draws.  Given that this is Everton's home park, that may not be entirely satsifying to Toffee fans, though snatching this draw will take some of the sting away. 

A Break in Sight

Well, for one day anyway.  Four Matchweek 25 fixtures catch our eye.  Of course there's the Man City - Newcastle match on Saturday at 10 (Peacock). Historically not a good fixture for the Magpies though City's recent form (including twice coughing up leads on Tuesday against Real Madrid before losing 2-3) does offer some hope.  I'd be thrilled with a point.

Second most intriguing is a "Managerial Sack Special" featuring Spurs and Man United Sunday at 11:30 on Peacock.  Both Postecoglou and Amiron are under the microscope, seemingly one or two more bad results away from a sacking.  Opta has this bascially dead even.  Do you suppose that a wretched 0-0 draw would be enough to get both fired?

Seeing if Nottingman Forest's fairy tale continues is the story for their 10 am match on Saturday (USA) away to Fulham. This looks like a tough but not impossible fixture for Forest.

We'll put Friday's 3 pm clash between Brighton and Chelsea on the list because 1) it's Friday! 2) both are in the top 10 and 3) Chelsea were dumped out of the FA Cup last weekend by the Seagulls.

Saturday's early 7:30 match with Leicester hosting Arsenal doesn't promise much reward for getting up early.  Competing for attention in the Saturday 10 am slot are Aston Villa - Ipswich, Southampton - Bournemouth and West Ham - Brentford.  I'd say go with one of my earlier recommendations.

The Saturday feature 12:30 on NBC is Crystal Palace - Everton.  Sunday at 9 you can check in on Liverpool - Wolves on USA.  

Monday you can take the day off - the first in almost two weeks.

But then we're right back at it with the second leg of both Champions League (Tuesday and Wednesday) and Europa Cup (Thursday) playoff action.

Also, there's a random EPL fixture thrown in the mix with Aston Villa hosting Liverpool at 2:30 on Wednesday on USA.  Villa are certainly underdogs here but they have a knack for making matches like this fun.  

I'm sure I forgot something but it's not my fault.