The FA Cup was once the showpiece of English football. However, in recent years it has become the trophy every top-flight club craves, yet none seems to want to fight for.
This paradox has been exposed in recent days following the poor performances of Premier League teams in the fourth round.
Liverpool, Aston Villa, Norwich City, Queens Park Rangers and Tottenham Hotspur were all dumped out.
European Champions Chelsea could only manage a draw against third-tier Brentford, after Fernando Torres scored a late equaliser to earn the Blues a replay.
It’s not surprising Premier League clubs are frequently under-performing in domestic cups. Their ambitions lie elsewhere.
For Chelsea, Spurs and Liverpool, Champions League qualification is the top target. At the other end of the league, Rangers, Aston Villa and Norwich are all fighting to stay up.
Chelsea manager Rafael Benitez summed up his team’s priorities:
“The top four is the priority, but we want to progress in the other competitions. The FA Cup is massive. Chelsea won it last season and we will try to do it again.”
Benitez explains that the FA Cup provides a crucial chance to rest tired players in a bid to challenge in the league.
“We are a strong team but we have problems because certain players are playing 90 minutes all the time. It’s not easy”, he said.
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers gave starts to a number of fringe players in his side’s embarrassing loss to third-tier Oldham Athletic. Australian goalkeeper Brad Jones was among the players given a rare opportunity.
Rodgers blamed his players’ performance rather than his selection choice.
“The FA Cup was a competition we wanted to have a go at and there is no excuse. We put out a strong team capable of winning the game, but we didn’t”, Rodgers said.
It can be can difficult for top clubs to travel to small grounds with intensely vocal fans, but if managers, including Rodgers, were truly focused on winning the FA Cup they would use more first team players.
However, in doing so they risk fatigue and injury to players who are needed to challenge in the league or in Europe.
As such, the FA Cup is judged more as a cause of fixture pile-up than a valuable trophy.
Despite top clubs undervaluing the FA Cup, few football fans would bemoan the upsets of the past week.
Nothing epitomises the magic of FA Cup more than watching lower-league minnows torment some of world football’s biggest clubs.
So as the managers of big clubs despair over how they can win the cup without trying, football fans can rejoice in the unpredictability of football.
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