by Snowflake Royal »
28 Jan 2020 18:55
Elm Park Kid Snowflake Royal Elm Park Kid IMO, just as a fan.
FA Cup Final > Play Off Place
and
Winning FA CUP > Promotion
Obviously from a business side you have to take promotion opportunity every time, but I believe that there should be room for us to think about what is actually important in football. What are your good memories as a Reading fan? What are your favourite games? What really matters?
Oh yes. Agree with that.
But no point going all out for it until the latter stages as the chances are so slim no matter what you do.
Finishing 8th is far more likely than an FA Cup Semi, so that's got to be the priority as it's the greater reward (IMO) and more likely outcome.
Is there a concrete benefit from finishing 8th that i'm not aware off - if the league place money that much?
Or are we really talking about the importance of building up confidence and winning mentality at the club ready for next season? Which I do completely agree with - but I think that winning FA cup games would add more to that then winning league games.
Obviously it's a balancing act - and if the fixtures are crazy (which, tbf, they are at the moment) we do have to consider resting players. But I also believe that playing a regular team is extremely important, especially when you're in the earlish stages of team development like we are.
Definitely balancing act. I feel a good league finish (and there's nothing distinct about 8th, just felt the highest realistic finish) has a greater chance of leading to a bigger improvement in fortunes than a good cup run. Short of a Final... maybe. But a Final brings it's own benefits entirely separately. "Merely" equalling another semi or doing another QF holds much less attraction as one off events.
At the end of the day, it's all about effective resource management, risk-reward analysis and probabilities.
And I think Bowen's on the right lines and better at this than any of us right now. Even though I think he veered a little far with his bench.