How strong should Fulham go against Crystal Palace?

Are you up for the cup?

I see Crystal Palace in my nightmares. Rain or shine, run or hide, they will find me and they will defeat my beloved Fulham at the Cottage. Wednesday’s Carabao Cup Round of 16 tie is, on paper, one of the more favourable fixtures despite our torrid record against the Eagles. While I don’t think Fulham are quite strong enough to win the Carabao Cup, there’s no denying how fun a cup run is and a win here would see us into the Quarter Finals. So, how strong do we go?

An Arbeloa statement

Pressure seems to be slowly alleviating for Alvaro Arbeloa following back-to-back 1-0 wins against both Hull and Coventry, but the jury remains out for a portion of the fanbase (myself included) and this feels like a huge opportunity to continue to win fans back following our disappointing start. The trophy curse haunts both me and endless Fulham fans and any opportunity for us to get closer to breaking that hoodoo should be taken seriously.

I appreciate we’re hardly leaps and bounds away from the bottom three with the Premier League incredibly tight in the early stages of the season, but to just forego a Carabao Cup quarter final opportunity to rest players ahead of a tricky trip to Villa Park in October feels incredibly silly. Arbeloa has a chance to show the fans he’s learning and understanding what they want: a trophy.

Some rotation required

I appreciate we can’t play the same XI three times in the space of seven days and some rotation will be required, but I don’t want to see the level of change we saw in the last round at West Ham United. Arbeloa has already confirmed Muniz will start, which I think is fair enough, the jury is out on Garcia, and Muniz has performed well in the previous rounds. You’d also imagine we’ll see Iwobi rested but other than that I don’t want to see much changed.

Joachim Andersen, Benjamin Lecomte, Harrison Reed, Emile Smith Rowe. Good players but I don’t want to see any of you in the starting XI. Crystal Palace are absolutely there for the taking and I don’t want this to be seen as an opportunity to give minutes to those on the fringes of the squad.

Nobody is going to walk out of the Cottage on Wednesday if we lose and go “well at least Andersen got some minutes!”

“I’d rather focus on the league anyway”

The sentiment of that statement grinds my gears and I’m sorry if you’re in that boat. Fulham have never won a trophy and I’d rather give us the chance of getting deeper in the cup than rotating for Villa Park in a game that more than likely won’t really dictate our season. People will remember a cup run and opportunities to get to Wembley more than a potential result at Villa Park.

I appreciate this will come across to some as naivety. I’m not saying if we rotate we won’t win, nor am I saying if we don’t rotate will we not get anything at Villa on the weekend. I’m also aware that this season looks like it will be incredibly tight and every point feels quite crucial, I just think that we’re not at the business stage of the campaign so can afford to put our eggs further into the Crystal Palace basket than the Aston Villa one.

Not the end of the world?

Some won’t agree with me and I totally get it. It’s not do or die if we don’t progress from the round of 16 of the Carabao Cup but I think we’d be incredibly naive not to take this seriously. I’m not interested in rotating to focus on the league nine games into the season. The table is and will be incredibly tight whether we rotate for Aston Villa on Saturday or not, so why would we?

We have never won a major domestic trophy and putting an opportunity to go deep into a cup in jeopardy to give Benjamin Lecomte minutes? No thanks, I am up for the cup and hope you are too (no offence, Benjamin).