Aston Villa and the 2021 FA Cup

Much debate has there been on social media over the past week or so, as to whether Villa should field a strong team vs Liverpool in the upcoming FA Cup Third Round tie.

There seems to be two opposing views:

1. Field a weakened team and concentrate on building upon our strong start to the season with the view of finishing as high as we can.
2. Field a strong team with a view to progressing as far as possible in the cup but possibly being at the detriment of our league form.

(There is the third route of course, which is that a good cup run and keeping a consistent team can lead to a good league finish and cup run. Not everything has to be one extreme or the other. A good cup run doesn’t have to be at the expense of a strong league finish.)

Where do I land? Option 2. I think the way we are playing and the confidence the team has currently that we can give Liverpool a game and potentially progress, especially considering it’s likely that Liverpool will rotate their squad. Having said that, no-one will forget the tonking we dished out to Liverpool the last time they visited Villa Park and I’m sure they will be looking to exact some kind of revenge.

I do have a bias to confess though… I LOVE the FA Cup. I want Villa to win it more than almost anything in the world. There’s a few reasons for this.

• The FA Cup is something I grew up with.
• I love the pageantry around the Final. Some of this has been lost in recent years but there’s still all the ceremony of the National Anthem, Abide with Me and usually a member of the Royal Family in attendance.
• I’ve been to two Finals, loved both but ended up on the losing side.
• I love FA Cup Third Round weekend. Marine vs Tottenham is the reason why. I like nothing more than a team of international stars rocking up at a tiny ground with a burger van in one corner and portable floodlights brought in especially for the occasion. The potential for a shock is lower these days than perhaps previously but the potential remains. It’s just really sad that no fans will be there to see it.

In addition to my love for the FA Cup, I just don’t see what the risk is to going all-out to win the thing. I could understand the viewpoint last season where we were fighting for our Premier League survival and did not need the distraction and potential to rack up injuries of a cup run and the extra fixtures that entails, but where is the risk this season?

True, we may have an outside chance of a Top 6 finish with the way we have started the season, but let’s not kid ourselves, it’s a very outside chance. Also, will be get a better chance to go and win the FA Cup than with this current crop of players playing the way we are at the moment?

I have no issue with a bit of tinkering with the team. May be give Heaton a start in place of Martinez, swap Cash for Guilbert, give Ramsey some more minutes perhaps. I’d love to be able to say let’s give Grealish a rest but I bet he’d be the first to disagree with me and want to play. Perhaps if Barkley is (finally) back fit he could replace Grealish in the middle.

In short, no. Don’t play a weakened team. Play a lightly-rotated team perhaps. But let’s be in it to win it.

So, I guess it comes down to which would we prefer; finishing 8th and going out of the Cup in January or finishing 10th with an FA Cup run, potentially to the semi-final or beyond?