Thomas Frank has called for the elimination of the two-legged Carabao Cup semi-final to prevent “the same boring teams” dominating the competition. Newcastle won the trophy last season, breaking an 11-year record for consecutive wins in the tournament by a Big Six club.
Clubs such as Bournemouth and Sunderland currently feature in the Premier League’s top four, but the FA Cup is Crystal Palace’s first major honor. Ahead of Wednesday’s trip to St James’s Park, Frank insisted the format of the Carabao Cup needed to be amended to give smaller teams a better chance of winning silver.
He declared: “Semi-finals should be just one game. I said it before at Brentford and that’s why I’m so happy to say it again. It’s much, much easier for smaller clubs to play just one game if they want to beat bigger clubs.”
“So if you really want someone to make the leap and it’s not the same boring team that’s winning – with the exception of Spurs, of course – then you have to skip one semi-final.
“For other players who play so many games, it should be just one. So if it’s about money, someone needs to fix it. If the Premier League is giving money to the EFL, as far as I understand, that’s what it’s about, so someone needs to fix it. It should be very simple.”
The last time the Carabao Cup semi-final was contested over a single leg was during the pandemic-affected 2020/21 season, when Tottenham defeated Championship side Brentford 2-0.
Spurs sacked Jose Mourinho just seven days after losing to Manchester City in the final.
Frank’s Bees lost 3-1 to Newcastle in last season’s Carabao Cup quarter-finals after deciding to make five changes.
“That was a long time ago,” said the Dane. “I remember we lost.”
Tottenham, who won last season’s Europa League, moved into third place in the Premier League after going unbeaten in five away games and scoring five goals from set pieces, including two headers from Mickey van de Ven against Everton.
Frank revealed that he has extensive experience developing set-piece routines, starting with the Under-12 team at Frederiksvaag and progressing to the Denmark Under-17 team that defeated England at Euro 2011.
“They were very, very good at football and **** on set pieces,” he laughed. “We worked on it under an old-school, serious coach in Viggo Jensen, and in the Euros we scored the first goal against Serbia, then won 3-2 and then beat England 2-0 in the second game.
“Brentford were a real game-changer, especially because of Matthew[Benham’s]concentration and especially Rasmus Ankersen. If anyone has to give credit for the long throw, it’s Rasmus Ankersen. He loves it. He was very, very happy when he scored the second goal with a long throw on the first day and beat Arsenal.”
