The Opposition View: How do Crystal Palace see the Carabao Cup contest with Fulham?

The Carabao Cup has got that much more interesting now that Arsenal have been knocked out and Fulham are in action against Crystal Palace to book their spot in the quarter-finals.

Arsenal’s defeat has thrown the competition wide open, with Fleetwood Town and Bradford currently the only two teams guaranteed to be in the quarter-finals.

And that suggests that for Premier League sides like Fulham and Palace, this competition represents a huge opportunity at success.

Ahead of such a massive game for the Cottagers, we spoke with Henry Swain of Crystal Palace Roundtable about what we can expect from the Eagles.

Ironically, the main issue at Palace at the minute, at least from a fan perspective, isn’t necessarily what’s happening on the pitch. 

The general discontent towards the hierarchy with how the summer was handled, and how insufficiently Pierre Sage was backed has got the fans backs up the most. 

In terms of on the pitch, it’s individual mistakes and the consistent spells in games where the side seemingly forget how to play football. 

We had it for a disastrous ten minutes at Brighton, a half vs Forest (despite winning), a half vs Lyon and then another fifteen-minute spell where we collapsed and it saw us lose the game. 

If we can find a way to sustain a strong level of performance throughout an entire ninety minutes, that would go some way to improving the general mood around the club. 

No. There are rumours that defeat at the weekend, however would indeed see him sacked. 

It’s a tricky one. Yes, the results haven’t been good enough, but that’s largely down to the disruption we faced in the summer - we had the 5th most players at the world cup - along with failing to adequately replace the likes of Maxence Lacroix. 

A lot of Palace fans feel like Sage was set up to fail, and therefore the majority of the fanbase are very much on his side. 

I don’t think Palace go and get a better manager if they sack him. Instead, they’ll likely return to pragmatism and find a manager they believe can simply keep them up. 

Under Oliver Glasner, we prioritised all cup competitions. You’d like to think, given he won the Coupe De France with RC Lens last year, that Sage would do the same. 

We’ve seen what glory can do to a club of our size over the last two years or so, and I’d be lying if I said those trophies hadn’t left us craving more. 

Some big fitness updates were issued in Sage’s pre-match presser. Club captain Dean Henderson looks set to return to the starting lineup for the first time in ten games, which will be a huge boost. 

Jorgen Strand Larsen looked to have done some real damage when he was on the end of a horror tackle in Istanbul last week, but it sounds like he could be in contention to make the squad. 

Ismaïla Sarr will miss out as he continues to nurse the groin injury that’s kept him out, and Mateta is unable to play a full ninety. 

We also know that Sage isn’t a huge fan of heavy rotation for midweek games, mentioning in his presser that it ‘disrupts the rhythm’ of the starting players. 

Predicted Lineup: 

D.Henderson; Ó.Mingueza, H.Ahanor, J.Lerma, A.Disasi, T.Mitchell; A.Wharton, D.Kamada; D.Osorio, JP.Mateta, Y.Pino