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Upsetting some, but is it a squad game or are they out of order?
If they do the same next week I think we will struggle to beat them anyway. We look average again in the last couple of games.
Try telling Forest that - I think when there's promotion and/or relegation involved for the opposition teams are under an obligation to put their best teams out and I'd like to see Huddersfield fined to try and make sure it doesn't happen again. It's different next week when they be playing a team who are going to finish somewhere between eleventh and fourteenth, but if Forest go down, they can feel it was all a bit of a carve up.
On 5 highlights they suggested that if Wagner had made 10 changes earlier in the season - the game before Man City FA Cup game for example - there wouldn't be the criticism, and therefore either "the integrity of the league" should have been mentioned then or not now.
Out of order for me. Birmingham got an easier game as a result and that influences the bottom of the table and therefore the integrity of the league. Next weekend's game was the one for wholesale changes because the result won't affect promotion or relegation.
Fine for me, give the regular players a rest and ensure they are injury free for the upcoming play offs
The first teamers will now have presumably next week off too, so won't have played for three weeks by the time their first playoff game comes around. That's a brave strategy. I hope they get stuffed in the playoffs though as resting players this early doesn't sit well with me.
Totally disagree with your view on this. A Squad is a squad. Be it 21 players or 30 players. Each manager has the choice which players he plays each game. The likes of Forest are where they are because they have been shite for most of the season.
If you have to rely on others at the business end of a season, then you have only yourselves to blame.
It is a brave strategy, and they could be ring rusty when the playoffs start. However, they are also not losing key players due to injury or suspension.
Couple of points from me.
First, Huddersfield have, in my opinion, earned the right to rest players by achieving a play off spot early.
Next, if Huddersfield get promoted it will be worth £120m to them. The integrity of the league (as with the cup competitions) is being challenged by the TV money and the huge differences in income following promotion.
If Nottingham Forest go down, it's because they haven't won enough points. Relegation is rarely down to bad luck. The target to stay up is usually a consistent 50 points. Forest didn't lose any points because of this game.
Lastly, so the FL fines Huddersfield. £200,000? £1m? Would you bet a portion of your money on a team winning a 4 way competition at odds of 120-1 or more? That's what Huddersfield have done.
Of the 4 teams in the playoffs, I hope Huddersfield go up. They haven't been there since 1972, and they have had bad years in recent times.
I'm sure that, if Cardiff were in a similar position, we'd be having the same arguments but with more sympathy for our own club. Some may argue we lost more integrity in our strive for promotion than Huddersfield lost on Saturday.
Further, it could make any forthcoming Huddersfield v Blackburn (I note they are barely mentioned as an aggrieved club) or Huddersfield v Forest game tasty next season!
Huddersfield got where they are this season by putting out teams that were completely different to the one they fielded on Saturday - they owe it to the rest of the division to carry the same philosophy as they've shown for forty odd matches into their final few games of the regular season if their opponents are involved in promotion/relegation matters.
They put a virtual reserve team out on Saturday despite the fact that they knew that they were facing a team who are not involved at either end of the table in their final match - rest players in that match, by all means but I bet Birmingham couldn't believe their luck last weekend.
Huddersfield deserve to be fined and I hope Forest get the chance to beat them as convincingly as they did over Easter next season.
Last edited by the other bob wilson; 03-05-17 at 09:02.
The fine will be insignificant compared to the big prize on offer. The risk of losing someone like Mooy or Wells is to be managed. Huddersfield have to make decisions that benefit Huddersfield, they could have fielded a strong team and just gone through the motions and lost 2-0 and some would have argued they weren't trying so hard.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...rs/8521603.stm
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/f...m-2196366.html
Arsenal and Leeds have been fined for fielding weakened teams in the past and if the authorities felt they should fine sides for fielding weakened teams in that competition which featured Premier League Development teams this season, then they surely have to do so when we're talking about one of the most high profile leagues in Europe.
According to soccerbase Huddersfield have a squad of 28 players, this season in league starts the average appearance per player is 17.6, the team against Brums average was 11.6.
Nobody made their league debut. The lowest was J Coleman with 2 previous starts, the highest T Smith 38. Nearly all those featured against Brum played the 4 FA Cup games, including a draw against man city.
Exactly.
Huddersfield team had 78% possession in the game. They had more shots than Birmingham. They had more corners. They committed more fouls. Sounds like they were competitive.
Team
Coleman 4th appearance
Smith 41st game
Hudson 23rd game. Club captain
Cranie 14th game
Holmes-Dennis 9th game
Whitehead 15th game
Billing 24th
Lolley 19th game
Payne 24th game
Bunn 16th game
Quaner 15th game
Subs
Ward 42 games didn't play
Hogg 36 games didn't play
Scannell 14th game
Mooy 44th game
Wells 42nd game
Schindler 42 games didn't play
Booty 0 games
To be fair, it's not Huddersfield's fault that Forest are in a relegation battle.
I can certainly understand why they'd be upset, but equally, if one or more of Huddersfield's key players were to pick up an injury that ended up costing them promotion, then people would be asking why those players were risked in a "nothing" (for huddersfield) game
Remember when some of us suggested we should lose a game so that the second leg would be away? Jones' last season maybe?
where does it say that Huddersfield have to play their strongest team every game? This is a marathon and not a sprint and Forest, Birmingham and Blackburn only have themselves to blame for their current predicament. I am sure that during the season the aforementioned had opponents who fielded less than their very best but because we are at the business end of the season it suddenly becomes far more noticeable. Still, it is always easier to blame someone else for your own misfortune than undertake a period of introspection
It's in the EFL rules, according to their spokesman.
http://www.skysports.com/football/ne...nst-birmingham
How you define strongest team is another matter.
After we bollocked up our automatic promotion attempt 2010/11 when we lost 3-0 at home to Middlesbrough, we drew at Burnley on the final day of the season, while Swansea won to leapfrog us into 3rd place. Dave Jones made a comment after the game, which I can't find on google, hinting they would rather have faced Reading in the playoffs. Forest, who lost narrowly to Swansea, had beaten us twice in the league that season and were likely to have finished in 6th. Whether finishing 4th was planned to avoid Forest, I guess we'll never know. What we do know is that, once Craig Bellamy hobbled off in the playoffs, we looked less likely to score than Sludge on an 18-30 holiday.
I would least like Huddersfield to go up because they're the least likely to be good next season. Selfish but there we go. Sheff Weds, Fulham and Reading are all bigger clubs and are less likely to have players poached. Also, players like Mooy and Palmer are loanees and will go back.
I would rather they played their strongest side. They have all season but they gave Birmingham, a team in wretched form, an easier game. 3 points matters down there, and I don't think it is right. This isn't bad luck, it is the fact that Birmingham have effectively been gifted three points. Also, now Forest and Blackburn could both get 51 points and go down.
Resting players 3 weeks before the playoffs is farcical and shouldn't be done against teams with something to play for. I doubt Wagner would be so chuffed if they went up and Man Utd played a weakened side against a rival a la West Ham when Sheffield United got relegated.