The teams have warned that they may have to deploy younger players in the Carabao Cup due to the predicted congestion of fixtures in the 2024–2025 season.
According to The Telegraph, the EFL was compelled to alter the Carabao Cup beginning in the 2024–2025 season in order to reduce the number of matches available.
To alleviate the fixture overload caused by the Champions League’s extended format—which sees 36 teams participating in a league phase rather than a group stage—the league organization plans to introduce a new “seeding mechanism” for the Carabao Cup.
In order to prevent teams competing in the Champions League from facing teams in the Europa League, rankings are apparently being imposed. Additionally, in an effort to ease congestion, Carabao Cup third-round matches will now take place over a two-week period.
Dan Critchlow tweets (@afcDW): According to the article itself, the main purpose of seeding in the third round will be to separate the CL clubs from the EL teams. It makes sense. For example, if Arsenal drew Spurs, they would not be able to fit in the game in any week. Spurs play EL week two, and Arsenal play CL week one. However, there’s no reason Arsenal couldn’t play City, Liverpool, or Villa in the third round, and as things are, there’s no need to seed the remaining rounds.
“Arsenal and City can still play each other, they just can’t play Chelsea or United,” argues Phil Blundell (@PhilBlundell). who are able to play off one another. The fourth round of the League Cup would be the earliest time that a Chelsea or United team might play a CL team because the Champions League and Europa League initial match days fall on different weeks.
For the Carabao Cup fifth round, the EFL is leaving its options open, although this will depend on if there are any conflicts with European competition.
The Europa Conference League’s group stages will start later, therefore it will be a problem for the third round of the domestic competition.
The teams have warned that they may have to deploy younger players in the Carabao Cup due to the predicted congestion of fixtures in the 2024–2025 season.
Match-weeks scheduled for the EFL Cup’s third round clashed with the growth of European club tournaments and the Club World Cup, which led to the elimination of cup replays.
Replays of the FA Cup from the first round onward have already been contentiously discarded.
The EFL’s refusal to abandon two-leg semifinals in its own cup tournament is due to Premier League clubs’ inability to provide the much-needed new £900 million football support system. This puts further strain on the schedule, particularly for those participating in Europe.
Many supporters will remember Liverpool’s performance in the Club World Cup a few years ago. The Reds fielded their youngest starting lineup ever in a 5-0 loss to Villa, who was led by under-23 manager Neil Critchley, who is currently manager at Blackpool, because they wanted to send a first team for their semi-final matchup with Monterrey, which coincided with their Carabao Cup quarterfinal at Aston Villa.
“Try telling those players it was a bad evening for them,” he stated at the time. I was overcome with a sense of great pride. The club determined that this was the best course of action. We were not able to accomplish much more, but we are the first team’s beneficiaries of their achievement.
The EFL has not yet released the criteria for the new seeding system, but Pep Guardiola is among the managers who have voiced concerns in recent months about the demands of their schedules, especially during the week of September 16–23.
“Hopefully, we will qualify for the Champions League next season, which takes place the same week as the Carabao Cup,” he stated. “What kind of game will we play? Will we compete in the Carabao Cup against EDS [developing squad]?
“We’re heading to the Club World Cup after next season.” We have a great deal of wealth and status, and we are really pleased. However, how many days do I give the players off? It cannot continue.
If schedule conflicts persist, more teams might be obliged to deploy reserve or youth players in cup competitions, like Liverpool did five seasons ago.
