The meaning of the Domestic Cups for Man Utd in 2022/23
Back in the golden era of Sir Alex, the domestic cups were always the least important competitions in the season. Winning the Premier League and the UEFA Champions League naturally were more important. However, more silverware was always welcome. Young players and bench warmers used those fixtures to fight hard for a place in the starting XI, in an era when we didn’t have that many substitutions.
But fast forward to 2023, and the Cups could be the big symbol of how The Red Devils felt reborn after the League title victory against Newcastle United.
Now the FA Cup could also be an important step towards the consolidation of ten Hag’s team as a respectable, hard-to-beat Man Utd.
Let’s have a look at their next challenge as the red side of Manchester tries to reach yet another magic fixture in Wembley.
Man Utd v Fulham: Match Preview
Tomorrow, at 16:30, Man Utd will face Fulham at home. Let’s have a look at how the betting markets are interpreting the fixture. Also, to follow live the other games including the EPL ones that can happen simultaneously when you follow cup games, using a Premier League API with live scores can be very useful. The last League Cup final, for example, happened during an EPL round.
Man Utd is naturally the favourite team with odds for their victory in the house of 1.48 in the European decimal system, which is equivalent to ½ in the fractional system which is also very popular in the UK.
The odds for a match draw are 4.8 on average in the decimal system, and the odds for Fulham to win are 7.50 on average.
This means that bets on the home team could become profits of 48%, which is not that bad considering how likely to win the Red Devils are. However, professional bettors usually prefer the Asian Handicap market, where we have higher odds for markets like Man Utd -0.75 and -1, although if the hosts don’t score early, or if the Londoner side scores before them, this means Manchester United could be more profitable than considering the match odds before kick-off.
In summary, Man Utd is more than expected to reach the semi-finals, and potentially face bitter rivals Man City that will play against Burnley and should also progress to the next stage of the FA Cup.
English Domestic Cups and the History of Man Utd: Stats and Records
It’s also interesting to note how the domestic cups aren’t dominated historically by The Red Devils. A good explanation for that is how the club had to focus on the big games of the UCL and the EPL and didn’t have enough energy to focus on The FA Cup or The League Cup.
The most successful teams in terms of domestic cups are Arsenal, with 14 FA Cup titles, and Liverpool, which won the League Cup 9 times. Man Utd won their 6th League Cup trophy against Newcastle United, and wants to lift their 13th FA Cup trophy, and as the distance to beat Arsenal in that list isn’t big, that would be an extra piece of motivation for Erik ten Hag’s team.
