FA Cup 2023-24: Fifth Round Picks and Rant

 If there are two aspects I absolutely hate about the slow-motion destruction and devaluation of the FA Cup, the loss of replays in the later, more prestigious rounds is one, and the scheduling of fifth-round fixtures during the week that the UEFA Champions League is off at midweek is the other. Fixture congestion is a copout used by the bigwig clubs to justify expanding European competitions to a breaking point, as Phil Annets' well-written blog post illustrates. I won't get into the details of what he has to say, but I chuckled at how he compared this expansion to Japanese knotweed.

Starting with this round--the fifth of the proper stage--there won't be any replays. In fact, because of the aforementioned desecration of the Cup, last month's third-round replays and this month's fourth-round replays will, for now, be the last ever played in their respective rounds--all to accommodate a new Swiss-system league phase with eight (up from six) fixtures per qualified club in each of the European club competitions. Coupled with the increase of qualified teams from 32 to 36 per competition, per year (108 total!) and the fact that two-thirds get to play at least two more matches in Europe on top of the league phase, and it's easy to explain why so many big-club managers--Guardiola, Klopp, Arteta, et al.--falsely blame the Cup for congestion. What they ignore or don't know is the need of smaller clubs for the revenue that comes from participation and gaining replays against bigger-name teams. They don't understand the beauty of David placing the stone on the correct spot of Goliath's forehead, as Maidstone United did to Ipswich Town last round--at Portman Road, no less. All they care about is money first, football nowhere (to use another phrase utilized extensively by the FA Cup Factfile in all its manifestations).

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, you still want me to give fifth-round picks. Sigh...

Monday, 26 February

Coventry City 2-1 Maidstone United (actual 5-0; 100pt)

Tuesday, 27 February

AFC Bournemouth 1-2 Leicester City (actual 0-1, AET; 100pt)

Blackburn Rovers 1-2 Newcastle United (actual 1-1, Newcastle United on pens 3-4; 120pt)

Luton Town 1-3 Manchester City (actual 2-6; 100pt)

Wednesday, 28 February

Chelsea 1-2 Leeds United (actual 3-2; 30pt)

Nottingham Forest 1-2 Manchester United (actual 0-1, 100pt)

Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-2 Brighton and Hove Albion (actual 1-0; 100pt)

Liverpool 3-2 Southampton (actual 3-0; 140pt)

Edward the Scop