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For a good many years, right up until recently the early rounds of the EFL Cup would always be accompanied with an article or two detailing how to save the tournament. These suggestions varied from making it a competition involving only British players – to gain them some game-time and experience – to granting Champions League qualification to the winner. Occasionally the tone shifted from benevolence to outright doom and gloom such as this write-up in the Telegraph from 2017 insisting the unloved mongrel should be put out of its misery.
These past couple of seasons however the hand-wringing appears to have stopped and the reasons for this are multifaceted.
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First and foremost – and the most abstract of all the explanations for an apparent resurgence of affection for a tournament often considered the least important to compete for – is the undeniable truth that we just can’t get enough top level football these days. With the introduction of Friday night Premier League fare it is now possible to watch big, consequential games seven days running should you wish while an international break feels like a sprawling abyss that induces separation anxiety. This week Arsenal head to Anfield while Manchester United travel to Stamford Bridge and the plot-lines from the Premier League bleed into these EFL Cup 4th round fixtures and make them unmissable. Without these box-office games it would merely be a drab Wednesday evening spent bickering to each other on Twitter over the warmed-up left-over controversies of the weekend. No thanks.
The FA’s decision to ‘stagger’ entry into the tournament for the bigger clubs has also had a hugely beneficial effect. Where once top flight managers selected what were essentially youth sides to take on League Two underdogs in an early round now they are just a few steps from Wembley and a shot at glory in the spring sunshine. (Incidentally, another major plus for the tournament is that it’s all wrapped up by February clearing the decks for its more meaningful peers).
Does anybody think Jurgen Klopp or Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will play significantly weakened teams this coming week? Yet it’s the fourth round of a supposedly irrelevant competition.
We mastered the trick in the video below in 8 attempts… could you do better?
All of this however would amount to little if the games were poor in quality. It’s a blessing then to see that is anything but the case.
Across the second round this season there was an average of 4.6 goals per game, a huge hike on the norm. In the last round we were treated to a 7-1 and Oxford battering West Ham 4-0, not to mention the comical, social-media-trending sight of Manchester United being taken to penalties by Rochdale. Indeed, assessing the matches across the last two campaigns reveals a cornucopia of open football played with a freedom that comes from viewing progress as singularly an extremely welcome bonus. Lose as it’s no disaster. Win and Wembley still shimmers in the distance.
For years the EFL Cup was talked down because people expected it to be more important than it really was but now – for any number of reasons – we’re seeing it for what it actually is. And it’s all the stronger and better loved for that.