Carabao Cup: Jose Mourinho says clubs would be fresher without competition

Last updated on 20 September 2017.From the section Football465

Manchester United gave captain Michael Carrick his first appearance of the season against Burton Albion

English clubs in Europe could benefit by not playing in the Carabao Cup, says Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho.

The Portuguese manager made nine changes but still fielded a strong side as the holders beat Championship side Burton 4-1 on Wednesday night.

Mourinho told BBC Radio 5 live: "If you ask me 'could English football survive or be even be better without this competition?' Maybe.

"Maybe we would be fresher for European competition."

United beat Southampton to win the League Cup last season for the fifth time - Mourinho's fourth success - and the former Chelsea boss wants to win it again this season.

Read the fourth-round draw

'We have to respect the opponents'

Mourinho's much-changed side still contained 11 internationals, as club captain and England midfielder Michael Carrick made his first appearance of the season.

Rivals Manchester City gave first starts of the season to Yaya Toure and Ilkay Gundogan, while Eden Hazard used the competition to make his first start of the campaign for Chelsea.

"If the competition is an official competition then it is important for Manchester United and for me as a manager," Mourinho added.

"I want the players to think the same way. We have this competition, we have to respect the sponsors, we have to respect the opponents and a lot of us are trying to do our best.

"If we can win it, we win it. If we don't win it it's because the opponents are better than us."

'Our fans have wonderful memories'

For Wednesday night's League Cup games, Arsenal made 11 changes against League One Doncaster, Chelsea made nine to face Championship side Nottingham Forest, and Manchester City and Everton both made eight.

Championship side Burton made nine changes, but manager Nigel Clough said that the competition is extremely relevant to the club - financially, and for the travelling fans who saw Lloyd Dyer's late consolation goal.

Burton Albion — Championship side Burton are the first visiting team to score at Old Trafford this season

"Our fans will go home with wonderful memories tonight," he said.

"We have now played at Old Trafford twice in 11 years and nobody would have expected that. Nobody comes here expecting us to pull off a result but we gave a good account of ourselves and we scored a goal.

"It will help us in our bid to stay in the Championship. The chairman is happy, there was a good crowd in. It's a big part of our budget.

"The main thing was to reward the lads who got us here, they were the freshest players available to me. The League Cup is not a nuisance, we have an even squad and every one of those lads who played tonight thinks they should be in the first team."

BBC Sport pundit Danny Mills, who won the League Cup in 2004 with Middlesbrough, does not think that fans are short-changed by teams making sweeping changes to their line-ups.

He told BBC Radio 5 live: "If you buy a ticket for the third round you know all teams are going to make changes. You don't have to buy one, it's not part of your season ticket.

"The pathways for younger players at top clubs are blocked, and this competition is an opportunity. It's competitive, it still means something, it qualifies you for Europe. These cup competitions for the big clubs are opportunities to rotate their squads."

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465 comments

Comment posted by Dave, at 07:19 21 Sep 2017
That quote from Mourinho is quite telling, the first group he mentions that have to be "respected" are the SPONSORS. Nowhere on that list does he mention the SUPPORTERS

Welcome to modern football folks.
Comment posted by Steve, at 06:33 21 Sep 2017
Personally, I like the League Cup.

It gives teams something to win mid-season, and can be a great trophy for smaller clubs to win.

What's killing it is the rapid turnover of managers meaning that even smaller clubs that aren't threatened by relegation put out reserve sides so they can stay fresh for the league.

That and some of the silly things they have to do to appease their sponsors.
Comment posted by MotherBear, at 06:50 21 Sep 2017
Anyone else feel a bit odd when companies like Carabao sponsor sports? I fear that it subconsciously creates a feeling that drinking energy drinks all the time is a healthy thing to do. We banned cigarette and booze advertising in sport for that reason right?

Anyway, as usual the only team who will care about this trophy are the team that win it, whilst everyone else will call it a tinpot.
Comment posted by Vox Populi, at 07:47 21 Sep 2017
@57. The FA just jump to the tune that the media is playing. They're terrified of looking 'non-PC'. And if you're a white male, and someone in a certain demographic makes particular accusations against you, of course you'll automatically be considered guilty and you'll never really be considered proven innocent. That's the new 'equality'. It's an absolute disgrace.
Comment posted by User0126244157, at 06:48 21 Sep 2017
Yet it was a fantastic competition and great silverware when he won it?

Hypocrite!
Comment posted by NipponBlue, at 07:04 21 Sep 2017
If playing matches is such a hassle for you, you could always opt out of playing in Europe like Chelsea did last year.
Comment posted by User0142208200, at 07:15 21 Sep 2017
Lower league clubs win games to earn themselves fixtures with big EPL clubs, which, through a share of gate receipts and broadcasting money, will move vital cash to where it is needed at the smaller clubs.

So, if we are to allow the EPL clubs to opt out of the league cup then they should have to pay a large forfeit which is distributed in the lower divisions.
Comment posted by User0706664498, at 09:19 21 Sep 2017
Breaking news-FA hire one legged, black, transgender, vegan, single parent as new England coach. BBC are now investigating why we have never had a Prime Minister from the same background.
Comment posted by User0524227257, at 06:42 21 Sep 2017
It's not the league cup that hurts our club's chances in Europe. It's our competitive league compared to the one or two horse race in other European leagues.

So not our fault really. If Real, Barca, Bayern etc had lumps kicked out of them every week then things may be a lot different.
Comment posted by User0324013669, at 08:56 21 Sep 2017
Unfortunate to see Mark Sampson sacked as women's national coach, due to a sense of humour failure by some.

The team need to get their priorities right. Results don't matter. Get a transgender coach who has an inside out knowledge and proven track record in political correctness.
Comment posted by User0966099113, at 08:13 21 Sep 2017
Mourinho actually says maybe they would be fresher not that they would be fresher. Misleading nothing news item BBC please stop existing
Comment posted by BK, at 07:10 21 Sep 2017
Come on now Jose, be fair, the League Cup actually gives Liverpool a chance to win something else this century.............
Comment posted by CaptainSlow81, at 06:27 21 Sep 2017
Well if a cup competition that's drawn in China and sponsored by a Thai energy drink that I've never seen in the shops is anything to go by... Then yes get rid of it.
Comment posted by Jaffabhoy , at 08:24 21 Sep 2017
Jose dismisses League Cup as irrelevant...HYS immediately opened. Sampson sacked & FA hiding in shame behind some pitiful Bristol excuse...BBC attempt to dodge the subject. Yeah, get your priorities straight...
Comment posted by Hedley Lamarr , at 10:04 21 Sep 2017
re#209. chesspurr

"Women should run their sports top to bottom !"

Fine, but women's football shouldn't keep relying on men's football to financially support it & promote it. And the bbc shouldn't keep trying to push it on everyone on the basis that they can't afford the mens game any more but enforce men to still keep paying the licence fee despite having to watch the mens game elsewhere.
Comment posted by King_Cantonas_KungFu_Kick, at 08:00 21 Sep 2017
Somewhat misleading headline then. He's basically saying we'll take the competetion seriously as long as it exists. I'm a Utd fan and like the cup, have never dissed it even when Liverpool won it (not all of us are hypocrites). Then again Utd have a very good "B team" which kinda helps the enjoyment. Any competetion that gives a chance to smaller/less wealthy teams has to be a good thing anyway
Comment posted by nikki7luc, at 08:49 21 Sep 2017
To be fair to Jose he's always shown respect to the League Cup (i'm old school so only call it by it's original name). Whilst at Chelsea he always tried to field a strong side in the LC so this is a non-starter as an argument IMO. As far as fans go we still love it as it was always the one "we" could go to as tickets were divided evenly between the 2 sides to reach Wembley unlike the FA Cup
Comment posted by PGB Addick, at 06:31 21 Sep 2017
Well no. It may be inconvenient to some PL teams but it can be a lifeline for small clubs.
The big clubs make multiple changes anyway so it's gives their fringe players are run out. By the time the comp gets serious it's a just a few games and can see the winner in Europe.
Comment posted by Ted, at 09:34 21 Sep 2017
Interesting that there's no HYS on Mark Sampson's dismissal. He was obviously getting too successful, which doesn't fit in with the program of destroying everything that might build a sense of pride or national identity. Very much not on the EU's Kalergi Plan agenda, so I can see where the BBC and the FA are coming from in doing what they're told.
Comment posted by Pitchforksout, at 10:12 21 Sep 2017
Womens football seems to be a non genuine pursuit , mearly a manufactured response to hoover up money from the mens game. Rammed down our throats for some time with coverage few actually want, purely to pursue an equality agenda some editor at the BBC and Westminster Luvvies

They don't need us to kill their game they will do it by themselves, if it was genuine the interest would also be genuine