Presumably Jurgen Klopp will be sat somewhere in Salzburg sipping an espresso this weekend.
Former Liverpool boss Klopp’s got a new gig these days, cashing big cheques from the energy drink giant Red Bull as their so-called “head of global football”. But for years he was one of the lead voices demanding drastic changes to the FA Cup, including the scrapping of replays.
Long gone he may be, but Klopp was part of the FA Cup’s death by a thousand cuts, an ongoing disgrace that will be front and centre this weekend with one of the most low-key third round weekends in the competition’s history.
Packed into two days and played after the Christmas period, it used to really matter. But this time it’s been hastily shuffled onto the scene with zero hype and a sense that it represents the leftovers from another Premier League feast of football.
Less than 24 hours after the final whistle of Arsenal’s draw with Liverpool, the cup kicked off with four Friday night games (including inexplicably sending Fleetwood fans on a 180-mile round trip to Port Vale).
The result of that? Virtually zero build-up for a weekend that used to offer EFL and non-league clubs a rare chance at the national spotlight. Wrexham vs Nottingham Forest felt like a proper cup tussle, but most neutrals probably didn’t even know it was happening.
With replays a thing of the past, it will all end on Monday with Liverpool playing Barnsley (with a decent chance of an upset), but 24 hours later the Carabao Cup will resume with a semi-final tie at St James’ Park between Newcastle and Manchester City. This used to be *the* football weekend of the New Year, now it feels like just another set of games.
All these matches mean Premier League managers must rotate their squads but we all know which games are going to suffer. One top-flight executive admitted to me this week there are going to be a whole host of changes for their Saturday cup game. Yet the same club played a full strength side on Wednesday.
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You can’t blame them really. When English football acquiesced to the inexplicable expansion of the Champions League, the writing was on the wall. The new format for that competition means two more games in January and that, in turn, means priorities are shifting.
Even the Champions League managers who want to do well in this competition (Eddie Howe at Newcastle is desperate to make an impact) have to pick their battles these days. If you don’t make changes, you’re asking for trouble.
Fans hate all of this. Crystal Palace’s triumph in the final in May was widely celebrated, the scenes of celebration cherished almost universally (sorry Brighton), because it illustrated that the magic of the competition still flickers. But the muted arrival of this year’s third round suggests that too may be at risk.
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