Opinion: Will Zola Prioritise The League Over The FA Cup?

Having moved to Birmingham recently, I have noticed that the atmosphere on matchdays are like no other place in the UK. There is a buzz on a Saturday when Birmingham City are at home and I’ve never known that many people to be so caught up with football; it is absolutely brilliant. People are chanting all the way from the city centre right through the St Andrews and it can be classed as a footballing city for sure. But this buzz has been declining in recent weeks. Less people are talking about the Blues’.

Due to our league form not being the best so far under Zola, the FA Cup could be a welcomed break from the lack of high quality performances that have seen us lose ground in the league’s play-off race. If we were to beat Newcastle and get a cup run going then it could restore confidence in the side and be a turning point for the Zola era. With this at stake, should we go out all guns blazing or rest key players to try and get the league results back on track?

In my opinion, the fans want to see results. It’s all well and good playing better attacking football but when 3 points are not achieved against the likes of Brentford, then fans will get on the managers back especially given the circumstances of the appointment at Birmingham City. So what I would do, is make the FA Cup a priority. For years the FA cup has been magical in terms of allowing clubs who are experiencing poor form, to boost them and gain confidence in the league. However it may back fire because this could make players fatigued and lose focus in the league and therefore getting through a couple of rounds in the FA Cup won’t mask over cracks that will start to appear in the league.

What I am saying is that the league is there for us if we buck our ideas up. We can get into the play-offs if we have a good run of form. Other teams will drop points and if we can try and pick up as many as possible ourselves in order to close the gap, then that is ideal. The only way to do this is to get out of the rut that we find ourselves in and what better way to boost team spirit than to beat Newcastle in the FA Cup. Therefore, I would put my strongest side out and really give them a good go. Zola needs to show the fans that he is willing to dig deep for the team in order to try and grind out results rather than just trying to change the teams style all of the time.

I would be very disappointed if we rotated the squad too much. Yes I would like to see Viv play more and fringe players getting game time but I wouldn’t want there to be too many changes. Partially because the starting 11 need to gel in the new style so it is the perfect opportunity to try Zola’s style out a bit more but also because a win today would kick start our season.